It has been just over a year since I started writing here. One year ago,  I was frantically packing what remained of my belongings and saying good-bye to very dear friends. They tell you, when you start, that graduate school is temporary (I expect that is something they say to help you keep going). While that may be true, my time in North Carolina was the most stable/permanent time of my adult life.

So one year ago I was saying good-bye and trying to convince myself I had made the right decision…. Now, with president-elect Trump transforming the EPA and with little hope for basic science funding in the US (at least for a while) I am pretty confident I made the only choice.

Because there is no arbitrary November holiday holding Danes back, Christmas decorations have been up for a while. This morning, the street where I buy coffee in the mornings had been lined with pine trees. Not plastic trees, real trees! There are more and more lights going up every day (which is excellent because the sun now rises at 8:20am and sets at 3:55pm). Below is a picture from 8am this morning.

Holidays now seem more full of memories than anything else. I am thankful for those. I am thankful for having the ability to work in another country with people who are genuinely curious. I am thankful for the time I have and the people I have met. I am even thankful for hygge (although I hear it as an export it has become weirdly materialistic and annoying).

So now the adventure continues! 13 more months to figure out what is next. Where to live, what to do, who to be…