And now, England

From the last warm days in Berlin to a ghostly empty airport hotel in East Anglia.


Abrupt and (even for me) unexpected scene shifts as the international postdoc hunt continues. Yesterday I got into Oxford around 8 p.m., just in time to join the celebrations of a political theorist who had survived her PhD defence earlier in the day and who was now moving on to Graz, Austria. Sitting at a highly archetypal pub with some new and old friends; conversations that make you realize how much we are all in that same boat, that even in Oxford we are all fakin’ until we (hopefully) make it, all trying to come to terms with the unrealistic demands we for some reason like putting on ourselves.

And today, after visiting the Institute for the Future of Humanity at Oxford University, I must say that even if a job there remains a genuine long shot, just the experience of coming over here and talking to all this people has been immensely inspiring. Sorry for sounding this uber-enthusiastic, especially at this late hour, but whenever I do these kind of trips it becomes sort of a “reality check” for me and it certainly helps easing some of the dissertation angst.