Part 1 of 3
Any recent graduate knows that this is not a fun time to be on the job-hunt. After applying and applying all summer and fall, moving to Chicago for a few weeks, and going to conferences to network, I finally experienced a little bit of forward motion in my otherwise stagnant life. After I went to the Geological Society of America's annual conference in Minneapolis in October, my former advisor from Vermont emailed me to inform me of a very unique opportunity to get my Ph.D. Dylan, one of our colleagues who went with us to Greenland, mentioned a project he was going to be a co-supervisor on when he completed his move to a job at a lab facility near Glasgow, in Scotland. Working with colleagues at the University of Glasgow, they were all looking for Ph.D candidates to work on a project, jointly funded by Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia - where I gave a talk earlier this year while on my Australian adventures.
Anyway, after much consideration, I decided to apply to the Ph.D position and opened lines off communication to those involved. And with luck (and a good application package), I was invited to Glasgow to learn more about the project, meet my potential supervisors, tour the University, the town, and other facilities, give a presentation on my research, and meet students in the Geology program there. Not being one to pass up an opportunity like that, I quickly agreed and shortly after Thanksgiving, was gearing to go.
Now, when I was looking for flights, the cheapest I could find were out of Chicago O'Hare, and so I planned on doing my usual hop, skip, and jump to get to the airport which involves driving to Michigan City, taking the commuter train into Millennium Station, and then taking the Blue Line all the way out to O'Hare. It's complicated and you have to get the timing just right, but with free parking at the train station in Michigan City, what better way to get in and out of the city! Well, since I packed last minute, I woke up on Monday morning and was late getting on the road because I had to pick up my power adapter from my brother's house, which took me an extra twenty minutes, and by that time I was running late for the train - like half an hour late! Speeding down the highway, trying to keep a sharp eye out for police, I barely parked my car and bought my ticket when the train pulled up. I was safe!
The flight to Amsterdam from Chicago was uneventful. I was reading a good book (Room by Emma Donoghue) and watched a few movies - like I said, it was uneventful. We landed at 6-something in the morning on Tuesday and I had a three-hour layover in Amsterdam. I got to my departure gate and once again dove into my book. All of a sudden, a Dutch accent came over the PA system saying, "Passenger, Eric Portenga, traveling to Glasgow, you are delaying the flight. Please report immediately to gate D41 or we will remove your luggage." Well, that caught me off guard (and I was slightly appalled since the Dutch person totally butchered the pronunciation of my Dutch last name) and I bolted from my current gate to D41. I apparently missed the announcement that our flight had a gate change... Once at gate D41, I quickly stripped down to get through the metal detector, chugged the water that was in my Nalgene, splattering it all over myself, gave my passport and boarding pass to the gate agent, and got on the plane. Phew! I made it!
When we landed in Glasgow, it was rainy, and cloudy, and cold, but I got through customs just fine and met with Paul, my potential advisor, who drove me into the city to my hotel where I left my luggage, and then up to the University.
The University of Glasgow is the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world (behind the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and St. Andrew's), founded in 1451. It has since maintained a reputation of producing high-end research in many scientific fields. In fact, the chemist and Nobel Laureate Frederick Soddy, who "discovered" the isotope, was a lecturer at the University. It was at a dinner party at a house across the street from campus where he put forth his ideas of isotopes and a woman at the party (Margaret Todd) suggested he called them isotopes - Latin for "same place." Credit has been given to Margaret Todd for her nomenclative skills, but the Nobel Prize went to Soddy for his recognition of these particles.
The campus was beautiful, though completely drenched, and after chatting with Paul in his office for a little while, I took a stroll around campus until my socks got soaked, went back to my hotel to change, before meeting with him once more in the afternoon. During the afternoon visit, the rain cleared up a bit and I heard a familiar drone which clarified that I was truly in Scotland: Bagpipes! That Tuesday and Wednesday, there would be a number of small graduation ceremonies and graduates in their gowns taking photos in the Quad, all led, of course, by that ever-haunting instrument. I loved it!! Dylan and his wife Daisy, flew in that afternoon as well for one last visit before their final move to Glasgow, and we met up for dinner that evening in the West End at a fantastic Indian restaurant (because Glasgow is known for their curries for some odd reason). After one last drink at a pub inside a refurbished church - complete with theater and club upstairs, we headed back to our hotel and I fell asleep immediately! Jetlag was not nice to me today.
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| The tower of the Main Building of the University of Glasgow lit up at night |
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