April Action Hero Figures

This April 2008 was chock full of events which usually would fill at least... several months of an only moderately boring life.

• 23: The number of months that the processing of my Canadian Permanent Residency application took. Applied in May 2006, based on my comparatively easy biography I had expected it to be finalized even below the median duration of 18 months. Now, finally, I have a visa which allows me to "land as PR immigrant" in Canada to get a stamp, a PR card, and lots of rights and obligations as befitting a Canadian PR. Like, well, living and working there. Now I need to show up at a Canadian port of entry before Feb 2009.


• 11: Number of semesters I have been immatriculated at a German university, including this. Yes, I have become a student again, in our terms a "Promotionsstudent". This entitles me to get cheap food in the mensa.
  Besides, I can maybe register as a student for attending a conference now, if any paper of mine should get accepted in one during this summer.


• 6: The number of "serious" conferences I have attended personally so far. Currently, one publication of mine is under review for a conference in August.


• 1: The number of weeks I had to frantically prepare that submission. Incidentally, also the number of rejections I got from (other) conferences so far.


• 385: Dollars to pay for a student registration at that conference, in contrast to 750 for a full (non-student) registration. I hope these savings will convince my boss to be generous.


• 4: Number of months I have before leaving UBT, and also before finishing my doctoral thesis. Suddenly the remaining time became very definitely limited. As I kept sending out applications for positions last month, I tried one which seemed very ambitious to me.


• 12: Number of applications sent out.


• 1: Number of telephone interviews (last week) and, 15 min later, offers for employment as postdoc. The whole process is not yet at a stage where I want to disclose the identity of the hiring institution openly here, but I can safely state that it is a very prestigious university, and a very well-known supervisor who is eager to hire me. The ambitious application didn't misfire. More details when the offer is made and signed.