Helloooo readers! Here we are, in the beginning of a new semester, full of different people, classes, and expectations! I’m having flashbacks this all of this week when I see students holding maps in their hands, and I always feel butterflies in my stomach when I look at them. Anyway, I hope you all had a lovely summer!
As for me, I enjoyed the weather to discover new trails, and to go to some new adventures with our “ruivo” friend Luke in the free time. After almost freezing their friends in two not successful attempts of fly-fishing in the winter (as it is reported in the picture below), Luke decided that it was time to leave the fishes behind and take their friends to swim.
We went to a waterfall at La Manche Provincial Park and saw beautiful landscapes! I’ve never been in a waterfall before, which it might be the reason why I fell and hurt my knee on the rocks, but I had a wonderful time! Thanks, Luke 🙂
I also spent most of these months enjoying the calm moments at MUN to advance in my research – always respecting mother nature in case she decided to cook the 5th floor of the Chemistry building. I also did my first English oral presentation in a conference called SOCCER (Summer Organic Conference on Everybody’s Research) promoted by Dr. Bodwell here at MUN. Before the presentation, I was shaking more than the trees of St. John’s when there’s a wind alert, but I didn’t die, which is great! Besides making some new friends, eating lots of pizza, and losing badly at mini-golf, I also opened my mind, and learned different things that are not direct related to my research.
With that being said, I really wanted to highlight the difference that Group Meetings are making in my glossophobia (?). I didn’t know this word existed two minutes ago, and although it appears to be the name of some kind of weird and contagious disease, glossophobia is defined as the fear of speaking in public. I always loved to do slides, choose templates and change the colours of PowerPoint, but doing presentations was not my favourite thing by far. I always get anxious and nauseous before speaking in public. In Group Meetings however, you have to control yourself (or at least show some control), and get used to the fact of being in front of people, talking about your research. Although that was painful for me in the beginning, I noticed things got comfortable after some time.
Another important thing: my mother and my mother-in-law are arriving in the city in October, so if you see two ladies taking pictures with taxis, bus stations, and God knows what else in the middle of St. John’s next month, please do not be scared. All kidding aside, I’m really excited for them to come and hopefully I’ll have some crazy and funny stories to tell you in our next blog post!
I hope you all have a wonderful semester! Thank you for reading,
Ju