Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland

This will be my last post from Germany as we are just about to leave the country…

My ESO fellowship is finishing early next year and given the unused leave I have, we decided to end my fellowship with a holiday in Australia. Why not, since it means I can get out of the European winter and enjoy the Australian summer with my family and friends!! 🙂

This is my last day at ESO, even though I would still be employed during the vacation. I am leaving here with lots of fond memories, both personally and professionally. The experience I gained in ESO-Chile is unforgetable, working at the Paranal Observatory. I will never forget the crispy clear skies at Paranal, both the pitch black dark nights with a glowing Milkyway as well as those nights brightly lit by the full moon.

And Munich will always be special to me since my second son was born here. We have made several good friends during the last year or so and I am sorry to have to say good-bye to them. Professionally the past year has been my most productive since my thesis days. Working at the USD gave me insight into ESO as a whole organization and I will surely miss the highly active science life in and around the Garching campus with the all the neighboring institutes. I highly recommend working here.

So only 3 more days to go, which will be busy with the usual chaos of relocating (I should be used to this by now). The office is cleared now. Data backed up. Now I am off to say good-bye to colleagues and then the farewell party at my son’s school. The furniture packers are coming tomorrow, then the painters, then to settle the house bills, sign off the car sale and we are off to the hotel for the last nights.

Then comes the long-haul flight from Munich to Melbourne, with two little ones. Wish me luck!