It was bittersweet to return to Canberra after two years away. There are so many wonderful people there, and it is such a unique city – the bush capital. Small and delightful, yet with excellent institutions. Walking through the Australian National University, where I spent seven years of my life, made it all come flooding back. I was able to catch up with so many friends, and eat and laugh and drink with them and hear about how their lives have changed. It was so easy to be back – instantly I had a strong support network and knew the ins and outs of the city. My final weekend culuminated with a party at the Cookie Jar II – such a familiar and welcoming atmosphere. It broke my heart to leave them all behind again. I had one last dinner at the Pancake Parlour – home of my Pink and Purple Pancake Parlour Party for my birthday a few years back – and then turned my back on my hometown, and started by journey to Belgium.

Pancake Parlour

We drove up to Newcastle for several days so that I would have a chance to see my extended family before we escaped overseas again. It was lovely to see Nana, still sprightly and vivacious and so happy to have everyone home for the holidays. I was saddened by Pop’s absence – his memory is still very much alive in our thoughts and stories, and his mischievous smile still peeked out from the photos on the mantelpiece, but he was no longer at his proper place at the head of the table.

We exchanged gifts, and food was also major theme for the day. We started the day with egg and salmon filled croissants, made mini pizzas for lunch, and capped it off with roast turkey and tofurkey. Adrian and I decorated gingerbread people in festive and delicious costumes, but I am afraid to say, they didn’t even make it 24 hours before being devoured.

Adrian and I were so pleased with our decorative abilities that we proceeded to decorated my cousin’s hair in a manner fitting the occasion, which promptly fell out after several energetic games of Tag.

My Nana mentioned to Adrian that she had always dreamt of having dinner out on the lawn in the backyard, underneath the trees. I sympathised with her that such an impossible dream would never be realised, as we had always had dinner on the verandah. Adrian, however, told her that if her dream was that easy, he would make it happen. He simply rummaged through the garage for a spare table, picked it up, washed it off, and brought everything down to the lawn. In no time at all, a festive table was decked out under the afternoon sky, and we all sat around it, listening to the clinks of wine glasses and laughs of kookaburras as the day wound to a close.

We welcomed in 2008 on a flight back to Seattle, unaware that it would be our last year in the USA. We both worked very hard during out post-docs in medical science, and we both made novel discoveries and uncovered some of the mysteries of the development and function of white blood cells. Adrian had his work published in some excellent journals, and I learned that the paper from my post-doc “may be suitable for publication, pending revisions” in a great journal. Adrian has been offered a professorship, and I am investigating some interesting jobs in clinical trials. We experienced the freezing winters of the North that will never make me consider Canberra to be a cold city ever again.

I attended MacWorld and witnessed Steve Jobs give his last keynote and unveil the Macbook Air to the world. We explored more of the USA in dribs and drabs – Arizona, Nevada, California, and Hawaii – as well as exploring the Ukraine and Moldova.

The biggest issue that we faced in 2008 was the decision about where we would live in 2009. At first, it was between Maynooth (Ireland), London (UK), Montreal (Canada), and Brussels (Belgium). We visited all four places, and it came down to a battle between the two bilingual cities, Montreal and Brussels, and then Brussels won due to employment and travel opportunities. We celebrated our one-year wedding anniversary in the country that was to become our new home, and Adrian will starting his own lab at the University of Leuven from February 2009.

We finished up our post-docs in Seattle in November, made huge progress towards completing our Masters of Public Health degrees, and finished up the year visiting extended family in Australia that ranged from Brisbane to Adelaide. After nearly two years outside of Australia, we are able to see our birth country with new eyes, and appreciate its charms as well as its challenges. It is a country of relative compassion and opportunity, but is also isolated and monolingual. The weather is nearly always warm with blue skies and extraordinary wild-life, but the water crisis is hitting hard and many of the main rivers no longer reach the sea.

In a few weeks we fly off to Brussels, to begin our new home in Belgium. My goals for 2009 are:
- To find a short-term furnished apartment
- To get a residency permit
- To find a job
- To start learning Flemish
- To get a work permit
- To start my job
- To start learning French
- To buy a house

I think that’s enough to keep me busy for twelve months or so. It is a bit overwhelming to be faced with so many changes, but I realise how lucky that we are to have this opportunity, so the main emotion I feel is excitement. We had a great time in North America over the past two years, and while I think we are better suited to Europe, I am very thankful for all the happy memories that we have of the United States of America.

My first day of my PhD was February, 2004. I had a long hard road ahead of me. I spent many days and long nights attempting FACS, PCR, bleeding, hybridising, giving seminars, going to lab meetings, and writing many many words about science. In January, 2007 I submitted my thesis, and left for Seattle. My thesis was then sent out to review by two anonymous reviewers. Four months later, I got their comments and responded to the issues that they had raised, and sent this back to Australia for final approval. It wasn’t until November, 2007 that I got the letter confirming that I had been awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. I deferred graduation for one year, and then in December 2008, I was able to walk across stage and officially claim my diploma.

It was the first time for a while that I heard the national anthem, Advance Australia Fair. What a strange song. These days, our soil seems more brown than golden. As the university is only sixty-two years old, it has to import a lot of its pomp and ceremony from Oxford. The robes we wear, even in the heat of summer, are thick black wool, as worn hundreds of years ago in England.The silver mace, carried during the academic procession, is a twentieth-century replica of the eighteenth-century Oxford mace. The conferring process for PhD graduates is very neat, but I was nervous that I would stuff it up in front of everyone. When my name was called, I walked across the stage and kneeled in front of the Chancellor. I removed my black velvet bonnet, and inclined my head and he placed a blue silk hood over my shoulders. I replaced my bonnet, and stood up. He handed me my testamur, shook my hand, and I walked down the stairs, degree in hand.

Afterwards Fleur and I celebrated with champagne, our many years as molecular biology graduate students officially coming to an end. Adrian and I then had lunch with my parents, where they presented me with a beautiful watch to mark the occasion of my graduation. Now, when we find a home in Belgium, I can now hang a diploma on my wall that proudly proclaims that I have earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the Australian National University.