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*~*~*Spotlight on murrelet!!*~*~*

733 views 14 replies 6 participants last post by  murrelet 
#1 ·
#2 ·
How did you meet your DP?

What is your ideal family size?

You are in the science field, no? What do you do? :)
 
#3 ·
I met DH in grad school. I was about a year and a half into a PhD program and he joined the lab as a postdoc. I had just gotten out of a long-term relationship with someone I'd started seeing when I was 15. we grew up together and then grew apart, so that I guess I was pretty receptive to meeting someone new by the time he finally moved out (it was amicable).

Anyway, we knew in our lab that a new postdoc was coming from Scotland and the other women and I joked about how swoon-worthy Scottish accents are. DH arrived and he wasn't Scottish (had done his undergrad and PhD there), but he did have a fantastic posh English accent. He was exactly my type: ginger, a bit nerdy, dark-rimmed glasses, and bit absent-minded professorish. For me, it was attraction at first sight. There followed lots of blatant flirting (on both sides). On Valentines, he mentioned a card he had gotten from a girl he'd started seeing casually before leaving Scotland. Apparently, my face said it all, and he says that it was at this point that he knew how I felt for sure. At any rate, I ended up at his place that night after an angry singles Valentine's pub night :)

The rest is history. He moved into my place not long after and the following winter I proposed. we were married a year and a half after that and just celebrated 9 years married (11 together).
 
#6 ·
OOOO! An ENGLISH accent? Ahh... Those are sexy.

You proposed!? :) Tell me about that!
 
#4 ·
I'm not sure about my ideal family size to be honest. I thought it was two! But then I started getting overwhelming baby urges last year and DH finally agreed that it wouldn't be a terrible idea. Probably 3 will be it though.
 
#5 ·
I am in science. I have an undergrad in Biology and a PhD in evolutionary genetics. Currently I work as a Biostatistician for a women's health research institute. That means that I get to analyze data from projects ranging to surveys about women's feelings on prenatal care, all the way to clinical trials on the efficacy of vaccines. It's a great job and keeps me on my toes for sure. I get to combine my loves of math, statistics and scientific philosophy with my interest in women's health. I'm pretty happy with how my career has turned out so far, especially as there were some bumps after grad school.
 
#7 ·
I had serious thought about going into Biology or Biochemistry when I first started college. Do you feel that your education lines up with your career or was it a complete change? I'm interested to know more about what you do if you're willing to share.
 
#10 ·
Yes. I've been to the UK a fair few times: England and Scotland mainly. I lived in the south of France for a year and travelled around France, Italy and Spain. I spent a couple of weeks in Egypt on the Red Sea for a holiday (my only resort style holiday to date). I've been to California, and washington state many times, as well as Idaho, Montana, Colorado and Alaska. I've hit all the Canadian provinces except the maritimes (e.g. Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland). I've not managed to make it to South America yet, and I've always wanted to go to New Zealand.

My favourite place is hard to pin down. I love where I live for so many reasons, but if I had to move I'd probably choose Edinburgh. For holidays, the south of France is pretty killer though.
 
#12 ·
You're saying all the right things to get me jealous (in a good way): married to a man with an accent, LIVED IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE!! I did mean to shout that because that is just awesome.

You've posted a few recipes in this DDC. Do you enjoy baking as a hobby? What do you like to do in your down time?
 
#14 ·
You're saying all the right things to get me jealous (in a good way): married to a man with an accent, LIVED IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE!! I did mean to shout that because that is just awesome.

You've posted a few recipes in this DDC. Do you enjoy baking as a hobby? What do you like to do in your down time?
Ha! I'm glad it's in a good way...

The funny thing is that I can't really hear his accent anymore. He just sounds like himself to me now. Every once in a while I'll notice, and he definitely pronounces some things differently. He recently got his Canadian citizenship and when he went off to the ceremony DD1 (6) asked me: "Now that Daddy is Canadian, will he say apricot right?" So I guess they notice too, lol :)

I do like to bake a lot, and it means a lot to me to prepare good healthy food for my family as much as possible. we try to limit the takeout to every two weeks or so, and then it's usually sushi so pretty healthy anyway. I try not to use anything too processed either. It's a challenge with both of us working and not home until 30min before dinner time, but we manage.

Otherwise in my downtime I love knitting and reading. I knit to relax in the evenings, and I more or less can't get to sleep without reading at least a chapter of something. Um, I also like outdoorsy stuff, camping, hiking, kayaking, etc but that's been more limited since kids. we still go, but the trips aren't as epic :)
 
#13 ·
Oh, my, southern France!! What was it like to do a postdoc in a non-English-speaking country? For all I know, you and your husband speak brilliant French, but if not--how did you navigate that? Are there major differences in the academic cultures of such different countries as France and Canada (and, for good measure, your husband's experiences of UK academia)?

A lot of my curiosity is fairly specifically geographically based, so I'll try not to ask you to narrow it down too much for anonymity's sake. :) You live in Western Canada these days, yes? What's unique about it? What has been your husband's experience of being an expat there?
 
#15 ·
Oh, my, southern France!! What was it like to do a postdoc in a non-English-speaking country? For all I know, you and your husband speak brilliant French, but if not--how did you navigate that? Are there major differences in the academic cultures of such different countries as France and Canada (and, for good measure, your husband's experiences of UK academia)?

A lot of my curiosity is fairly specifically geographically based, so I'll try not to ask you to narrow it down too much for anonymity's sake. :) You live in Western Canada these days, yes? What's unique about it? What has been your husband's experience of being an expat there?
My french is passable. I went to French Immersion as a child and that helped immensely, however living there really brought home how little I knew. It improved loads over our time there, but I never would have called myself fluent. Maybe another year would have done it. DH's french is fairly basic, but he's more outgoing so would often be the one to attempt communication with shopkeepers, etc. Luckily most science is done in English these days and our colleagues all spoke English well enough that we could all communicate. It was isolating though, and we spent most of our time socially with other expats.

Academia is very different there. we were part of a research institute that was only vaguely associated with one of the local universities, of which there appeared to be 3? It was never really clear to me how it all worked. There was definitely a lot less money, and the work ethic was very different. It took some getting used to but we were expected to all eat lunch together in the canteen which produced very yummy food. Lunch often took 1.5 hours, and then everyone would clear out at 4:30 to pick up children and head home to prepare dinner. Food is very important as a social activity. A different, work-life balance for sure, and I miss that sometimes...

The academic culture of the UK is very similar to Canada (and the US for that matter) so that was a little less of a stretch.

Haha, I do live in western Canada. I've tried to be vague, but there are only so many large cities on the ocean here, lol! If your curiosity is killing you, you can pm me! I really love this city. It's surrounded by mountains and wilderness and has some beautiful old neighbourhoods. There is a lot of diversity culturally, and everyone is generally very tolerant of each other. It's a forward thinking place and we fit right in here. It helps that my family is not too far (about 5 hours with a ferry trip). Also, I may be strange, but I love the rain and we're firmly in the rainy season now. Everything is green and smells fresh all the time.

I think DH has fit right in as an expat. Honestly, there are lots of Brits here, but he doesn't feel the need to seek out an expat community. In fact, he says he prefers Canadians because we're not hung up on class issues and are more tolerant in general here. I've also noticed that sexism is still a lot more rampant in the UK, which is something I struggle with whenever we go there, or when his dad comes to visit here.
 
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