$810.55 poorer, but so excited!

So I got the ok from by boss to leave for a little bit in May. YES! I am planning a trip to Finland and then on the way back I’ll spend 1 night in London. I’m excited about that too. I’m leaving Doha on the red eye on the 14th of May and coming back on the 24th of May. I know it is only 9 days but it will be fun. No, no one is going with me and I’ll be ok. One problem is that I’ll only get one checked bag which really sucks. I don’t really need a second one but I like to have the option. I’ve ordered my backpack from REI and that should be here someday. Things are taking a long time to get here from the support office. I even have the money already saved for the trip. I am still trying to plan out the highlights of the trip but I know I want to visit the town of Sarvela in southern Finland. That part of the trip will be expensive just for the cost of gas there.

I also asked for a trip to do some lab training in July. Boss said he would check and see if there is money available but he liked the idea. I should find out eventually if I get to go to that. I hope so, the school would just have to pay to get me there.

The only problem with trying to travel a lot is to save the money to do it. The money for Finland is already put away but the money for the trip in October to Prague and saving for Christmas trip and possibly a summer trip needs to start, well, yesterday. I know I can do it, it will just take strength not to spend on the “now” things. Come to think of it, with only one checked bag to Finland it isn’t like I’m going to be able to buy a lot of stuff. Although, I might need to put aside money for ham and cheese sandwiches, bacon and other pork products. (You only want what you can’t have.)

The other exciting thing is that I am trying the procedure for a new experiment for one of the teaching labs. I am finally making some headway with it because it needs to be ready for students in less than 6 weeks. And it will still need to undergo some revisions before it is ready for the students. I have a bit of work ahead of me, but that is ok. It will be interesting.

Oh, another project for this weekend. So I have ruined a shirt and a pair of pants since I have been here. So, this weekend I am going to take a lab coat and make it into an apron for lab. I think it will be easy and work very well. If it doesn’t work then I’ll be emailing and talking to Mom to try and get it to work.