This year went by in a heartbeat. A lot of things happened and some nice research was performed. I especially enjoyed the summer in Hungary and working at Pecsi Tudomanyegyetem. Now the year is coming to an end and so is my contract as a scientific researcher at the Babes-Bolyai University, unfortunately the lack of further funding prevents me from extending my stay here for another year (damn crisis!), so now I’m in search of a new job whether it is in academia or in the industry, the important thing for it is to be challenging and interesting, also well payed, of course. I’m keeping my options open and I already have some which I will look into very carefully. I’m not going to jinx them by posting them here 🙂

Even though the year and my contract are almost finished I’m far from being free of work. I’m currently working on the final details of a couple of papers concerning this year’s work; next week (1st December) I travel to Skopje, Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, to lead a workshop for undergrads on computational chemistry; finally, on the last day of my stay in Romania I will give a small lecture for masters students on Molecular Dynamics. Aside from all that we have to count the numerous good-bye visits to friends and colleagues.

Romania is a beautiful country with a rich cultural heritage. Unfortunately there are still a lot of struggles within the ruling forces hindering the progress of the country as a whole. Romania has been a constant presence in my life for a few years now since I came here as an graduate student for a research stay in 2005. I encourage everybody to put this country in your future tourism list and take the Transylvanian tour as I call it (Bucharest-Sinaia-Brasov-Sibiu-Sighisoara-Cluj Napoca); for those interested in skiing there are marvelous stations in Poiana Brasov and in Straja near Petrosani. Here’s to my second home, my heart remains in Transylvania, multumesc Ardeal!

Changes are always thrilling, lets see what the future has for us in the short term. In the mean time I want to wish everybody to have happy winter holidays and enjoy them with your loved ones.

Peace

Advertisement