join academia, see the world

While many others, apparently, are at Experimental Biology this week, I'm off to a small meeting in Europe. And while there are many reasons I am now a scientist, the amount of travel required by the job is absolutely one of them.

My family didn't travel much when I was growing up, and my traveling for science also started slowly and unglamorously... my first conference was in scenic Detroit. But since then, I've gone to meetings on four continents and have gathered a couple of truly unique passport stamps along the way. Most international places I've visited have been far off the tourist track, and I love the mix of work and vacation that foreign visits entail.

I even appreciate the domestic travel. One of the downsides of academia is how frequently we have to move, but one of the upsides is that we tend to move among a relatively small number of cities/regions. I almost always reconnect with a friend or a former labmate when I'm visiting someplace to give a seminar. And you can exploit this further -- I'm cultivating a collaboration that will require me to travel at least once a year to a part of the country where a good friend of mine is doing her PhD.

I know many scientists, including those without kids, who dislike the traveling science involves. But I'm enjoying getting my carry-on packed for the first conference of the "summer," and I've got my phrasebook ready...