January has been one of those busy months when I haven’t been able to put anything substantial on the blog. I’ve been meaning to — and yes, I do have several posts in preparation for whenever I get a chance — but I’ve just had so much going on, the time kind of flew by.

Most of the month has been occupied with preparing for, going on, and recovering from my trip to Jyväskylä (Finland). Although it’s pretty cold there by the typical standards of the continental US — the unusual cold that we’ve been experiencing in the States is normal winter weather for Jyväskylä — I actually rather like it there. The scenery is pretty, the city is small but not so small that it doesn’t exist, plus the physics department has a strong record of the kind of research I do. And oh yeah, everyone speaks English. Seriously, even though the primary language of Finland is (of course) Finnish, I didn’t interact with a single person who didn’t speak very good English, so I had no trouble getting around.

Depending on how things go, I might wind up as a postdoc there for the …

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 …