Well, I’m sure it’s beautiful in the daytime....

Anyway, I’m kicking off a new year of blog posts from a new country! I’ve been invited to the University of Jyväskylä in central Finland to give a presentation on my latest research project (for which blog posts are upcoming, when I get time). This is also good for the prospects of me getting a postdoc. Here. In Finland. (!!!) Apparently, this is the way the process often works: if the money is available, the top candidates for a postdoc position get invited out to give talks, as an interview of sorts. (It’s not universal, though.)

But the physics stuff is all tomorrow. For now, the first thing I noticed about Jyväskylä is that it’s very very cold, compared to almost anywhere in the US. Even though most of the country (America) is deeply frozen right now, it’s even colder here: -24 C on my way from the train station to the hotel.

I’ve also noticed that everybody seems to speak English very well, or at least anyone in any sort of service position, who I might have to interact with. The dominant language is still Finnish, of course, but so far it has been quite easy to get around without knowing it. It’s a good thing, too, because I’m becoming increasingly convinced that Finnish is logically impossible. (“Difficult” just doesn’t seem to cut it, judging by some of what I’ve seen.)

Anyway, I’ll leave those random observations as a teaser for now, because I have to get some sleep. Traveling from State College to Jyväskylä takes about 24 hours (fly to Helsinki then take a train), and I was already sleep-deprived for days before that. So stay tuned, more updates to come!