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The Life Update No One Asked For, But You're Getting Anyway

The past month and a half has been a lot of staring at a computer screen, stowed away in a basement, occasionally getting some fresh air if the weather decided to cooperate. My thesis is progressing slowly, but surely. I have one week left of testing, and then it's a sprint to the finish by the end of June.

As I've been editing the same 20 page document for the past 5 weeks, I've also had some visitors! A friend from high school who I hadn't seen in 4+ years was doing a bit of a Euro-tour, and stopped by Utrecht for a day, and a week later my Canadian friend who I met in Nepal, but currently works in London came for the weekend. It was lovely to see both of these ladies, and pull out all of the stops when it came to giving them a truly Dutch experience - any excuse to eat a pancake, right?


But the excitement of having visitors couldn't completely distract me from a larger life development. Several weeks ago I received a job offer for a lab manager position at Penn State. Cue a swirling array of conflicting emotions. On one hand, I was excited by the prospect of not being unemployed after finishing a degree in linguistics, and by the position itself and the research I'd be involved in. On the other hand, I really, really love living in the Netherlands, and State College, PA does not seem like the most happening place.

It's been weeks of back and forth, talking to basically anyone who would listen to me, writing down pro's and con's, and just generally trying to figure out how adult things like insurance work. I've heard a lot of opinions from friends, family, classmates, supervisors, myself, and I've really been torn between the two options in front of me. I knew the job would be a great opportunity, and that I could learn a lot from it, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I would be letting down 12 year-old Lena who decided her life goal was to live in Europe.

It was not an easy decision to reach, but I have decided to take the job, so come July, I'm back stateside! It's going to be incredibly hard to leave this country (again). But hey, I got myself here twice - I can do it again. In the meantime, everyone had better start planning their visits to PA, since you will no longer have the excuse of it being too far/expensive!
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