A few weeks back, Adrian was invited to speak at Cambridge, and I tagged along for the weekend. I left our house in Brussels at 5:15pm on Friday, and I was walking down the streets of Cambridge by 8:35pm.

Our hosts for this trip were Grant and Michelle, Kiwis that we met in Australia who are now post-docing in Cambridge. They fed us, entertained us, and even put us up for two nights. They gave us a tour of the old and mysterious colleges, took us to a bakery that sold cupcakes, and showed us the Mathematical Bridge. I hope this won’t be the last trip that we make to visit this charming and picturesque town.

Being in England is so strange. In Brussels, when eavesdropping on fellow travellers I struggle to pick out a few common words – manger (to eat), travailler (to work), mes amis (my friends) – and see if I can piece together a vague understanding of the context. Over there, it is almost like I can read minds – as I can understand everything that people say to each other, even if spoken quickly or quietly. The announcements, the fine print, the instructions, all of these communications are instantly comprehensible to me. In Belgium, it takes me ten minutes to translate a text message, but over there, I can absorb a page of text in a moment. I can express myself quickly and easily. My linguistic burden dissolves whenever I travel north through the chunnel.

We were even able to pop down to London to go see a broadway play, because over there, most of the theatre is conducted in English. We went to see Avenue Q, a play about muppets on the wrong side of the tracks. I laughed, I gasped, and I cried as I watched the little monster puppets struggle with the challenges of life. Afterwards we had dinner at one of the many delicious curry houses on Brick Lane. We haven’t found any good Indian restaurants in Brussels yet, so it was a great chance to fill up on some cheap and delicious naan and palak paneer.

We ventured into the supermarket to pick up the little things that we can’t find easily in Brussels – crumpets, hot cross buns, korma and tikka masala and tandoori sauces, crème eggs and other Cadbury’s chocolate, and gravy granules.

Grant and Michelle have found that one delight of living in Cambridge is walking to the next town for a pub lunch, and then walking back. They took us for a picturesque walk past Midsummer Common and Jesus Green to The Plough in Coton. The food there was amazing – for dessert I had a toffee bread and butter pudding that just melted in my mouth. Not only that, our hosts cooked us a hot breakfast of pancakes or waffles every morning. Another reason to return soon.

Last weekend our home was ready to be formally introduced to our new friends. Into our small apartment we gathered some of people who we have met through the web, French class, expat meetups, and at work. We filled our fridge full of Belgian beer and served it in the collection of specialised glasses that we have collected over the months. We ordered in sushi and Adrian baked pizza. It seemed to be a good recipe for a fun night. So many people, like ourselves, arrive in this country with limited social networks. We were glad that we were able to provide a forum for expats and locals to meet and exchange stories. We had people born in thirteen different countries, many of whom speak English as a second (or fifth) language. Hopefully this will just be the first of many shindigs that we can host in our new Belgian nest.

Wednesday, November 5 was my last day as a senior post-doctoral fellow at the University of Washington. We went out to Lydia’s Last Lunch at Serafina with current and past lab members. I had some delcious trout, and they gave me a lovely card:

“thank-you for all your help and for answering all my questions… thank you for teaching me awesome Australian words: arvo! I will miss you! You’ve always had a smile and a kind word to share. You know how to distract me when I’m nervous (i.e. you let me rattle on about my cats)… we’ll miss you.. We are sad to see you go!… I have enjoyed and learned a lot from our many conversations… Thanks for all your support to me, especially when things have not been going the best. Your positive attitude and kindness have been very helpful so many times.”

I may never again walk through the university library, watch the squirrels hide and recover acorns, see the mountain behind the fountain, celebrate a birthday with cake, or a paper with sparkling apple juice. We have made so many wonderful friends here in Seattle. Now I am leaving my career at the bench behind, and looking forward to a rewarding future in clinical trials.

Today is October 15, the National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day in the USA. I have watched family and friends try to piece themselves together after these tragedies, which are made all the more difficult as often an answer cannot be found to the question “why?”

As a scientist, I know that thorough analysis of health issues begins with a quality data set. The S.3142 and H.R. 5979 Stillbirth Awareness and Research Act sets out clear requirements for each state to record pregnancy and infant loss in a systematic way, which will help researchers establish a national database to look for patterns and common threads between cases. This is the first step in identifying associations, which can lead to causes, then treatments, and then cures. I hope that the US government will find time to pass this Act amongst all the election and financial chaos.