PhD thesis submitted, next destination: Puerto Rico!

One last conference before I started my first postdoc position

It was all a bit crazy and stressful: I have just spent 6 months living with my grandparents in Croatia and writing up my PhD thesis. At the same, I was applying for jobs and finally got a job offer as Data Analyst / R Programmer at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. That meant that I reeeeally had to finish that PhD thesis :) In the first week of February, I first flew to Cologne, to submit my forms for the submission of my thesis, and then to Belfast, to meet my new boss and to do some viewings. Back in Croatia, I was working hard on my final chapter and was already packing my stuff for Belfast, as the plan was to fly to Cologne, submit my thesis, attend the conference in Puerto Rico, visit my parents in Munich and fly to Belfast, without coming back to Croatia. And so it happend: after in total 4.5 years of hard work, I submitted my PhD thesis by the end of February and was flying to Puerto Rico 2 days later with 4 other PhD students and my supervisior. It was great to have this one last chance to be on a conference with my “old team” from Cologne and it was also the first time I got a travel grant (almost 2000 €!) from DAAD. Whenever possible, we used the time to explore San Juan and have seen loads and loads of beautiful iguanas! It was again a great conference, with some old and some new faces, and as always a great opportunity to do networking. And San Juan itself? Beautiful!