One of the perks of grad school is that I occasionally get to travel to some amazing destination that I couldn’t otherwise afford. It’s enabled me to travel to Alaska, Portland (back when Oregon was exotic to me), Dublin and by proxy Paris, and Moscow. …Okay, it was Moscow, Idaho, but close enough.

If you’d have told me at the beginning of grad school that I would have the opportunity to travel to some amazing destinations from all corners of the world, I’d never have believed you. I definitely think that something of that magnitude would be hard to believe. Even though I’ve traveled to some great places already, one destination remains on my list – Jamaica. I know that this is a stretch, but wouldn’t it be great? All of those beautiful beaches and accommodations, like these villas in jamaica are out of this world, and just being able to relax and unwind in this country is exciting to me. My friend went not so long ago and said that if my grad school ever gave me the opportunity to go, that I shouldn’t even hesitate in agreeing. But this hasn’t happened yet. I’m just trying to look forward though, as I have a brilliant destination to visit next.

My next grad school adventure is taking me to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in June. I’m giving a talk about my research for the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, which was a great conference when I attended in Dublin. I’ll be able to vacation in Puerto Rico for three days after the conference since my department doesn’t mind if you take personal days, as long as it doesn’t make the flight more expensive. I have read that Puerto Rico is the perfect destination for cheap solo travel (click here to see my source) so I am very excited to be able to explore and relax.

Considering they allow us to enjoy some vacation time while away on these trips, it’s making me want to give a talk at a conference in Costa Rica with these Guanacaste excursions catching my eye! I feel like I’ll want somewhere exotic again after I’ve spent some days in Puerto Rico.

So the big question is…what the heck do I do while I’m there? Other than sit on a beach sipping rum, of course, which is how I plan to spend at least half of my vacation time. I’ll already be hiking in the El Yunque rainforest, which is a trip organized by the conference. I’m excited because not only have I never visited a tropical rainforest before, but I get to do it with other nerdy evolutionary biologists. I’m also considering visiting the Arecibo observatory. Contact is my favorite movie of all time, so I feel like I kind of have to visit the gigantic telescope.

Do any of you have suggestions on what I should check out? I’m still debating if I’ll stick around San Juan, or if I’ll rent a car and be more adventurous. I will be traveling alone, so I don’t know how brave I’ll be about heading to the opposite side of the island or a totally different all together. But if you’ve been to Puerto Rico, I’d love to hear what you think!

After over 24 hour of traveling, I arrived back in Seattle last night. But I’m not posting until now because I promptly passed out at 9pm. Missed all of the 4th of July fireworks and was too tired to care. Maybe spending two weeks in Europe is what made me so unpatriotic.

As fun Paris was, I’m glad to be back home. I missed Mexican and Asian food, being able to communicate with people in a language I spoke, not getting run over by mopeds on sidewalks, and Pixel. Pixel, however, has greeted me by biting me and puking on the floor. I think she may be mad at me.

Expect Parisian photo dumps throughout the day. And then tomorrow, like the insane person I am, I get back on a plane to fly over to the Secular Student Alliance conference! Which should be awesome, despite my jet lag.

Until then, how’s it going? What the hell happened in the rest of the world for the past two weeks? I hear the blogosphere was perfectly calm in my absence (I seriously still have no idea what’s going on…for once I was not the cause of drama, hooray!).

Tonight’s my last night in Dublin. I’m getting ready to fly to Paris tomorrow (woooo!) but I wanted to give a brief update before I disappeared into vacation again.

We stayed near the grand canal, which was a cute area:

There are loads of buses in dublin so it’s pretty easy to get around and see all the sights. Overall one of my favorite things about Dublin was the architecture:

The other thing I loved about Dublin was the food. I forgot to take photos of some of the stuff I ate (mmmm, giant pot of mussels) and other stuff was delicious but not photogenic (a giant hunk of lamb on top of a giant pile of mashed potatoes that was supposed to be a “stew”). But here’s the awesome breakfast I had at Queen of Tarts:

Some fancy fish and chips:

And Baileys cheesecake. Om nom nom

We checked out the Natural History Museum, aka “Dead Zoo.”

Of course we went to the Guinness Storehouse:

And this made me giggle because I’m immature:

Overall I couldn’t help but notice Dublin bore a remarkable resemblance to Seattle: overcast, raining, not particularly fashionable, and filled with 90’s music. I guess that’s why I liked it so much.

In two weeks (holy crap) I’ll be traveling to Europe! I’ll be in Dublin, Ireland (June 21 – 26) and then Paris, France (June 27 – July 4). During the French leg of our trip, we’re going to take a day trip by train to Brussels, Belgium.

I can’t even explain how freaking excited I am. I’m going because I had funding through my department to attend the annual conference for the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution, which is in Dublin this year. I’ll be giving a poster there about my recent research. Luckily for me, my boyfriend also secured funding through the department, except he’s more awesome than me and was one of the few selected to give a talk! Since we’ll be there together, we’re taking a week vacation in Paris afterward.

I. Am. So. Lucky.

I’ve never been to Dublin or Paris or Brussels, so I’m turning to you, fair readers. What should we definitely check out while we’re there? What’s the food or restaurants we definitely need to try, cheap or expensive? Are there any quirky fun things to see that most tourists miss? Best nightclub in Paris to go dancing? Cool things in the 4th arrondissement (where we’re staying)? Any general cultural tips on things that two dumb American tourists shouldn’t say or do? Best chocolate I should buy in Brussels to hoard for the trip home? Certain French phrases I should memorize but will probably accidentally say in Spanish instead? Any suggestions are welcome!

Oh, and my English readers…yes, I’m very sorry for hopping over you. The Olympics craziness scared us away. But I’m definitely coming eventually (especially if you invite me to speak, wink nudge), so spare me the “Ewwww Paris” comments. One day!

It’s official: I’ll be heading to Dublin this summer! Woooo! I’ll be giving a poster presentation at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2012 conference, which is in Dublin from Saturday, June 23 to Tuesday, June 26. I’m really looking forward to it. A lot of people from my department are going, including my boyfriend Sean (who was selected to give a talk!).

Sean and I arrive in Dublin around noon on Thursday the 21st, so we’ll have a couple of day to explore the city. Any suggestions? Do I have any readers in Dublin who would want to do a meetup on this rare occasion that I’m across the pond? Do you have local skeptics or atheist groups that would want to have me talk for an evening?

We’re also taking an extra week off after the conference for a vacation. I think our eyes are set on Paris, but nothing is set in stone yet. Now’s your time to throw suggestions my way.

This Sunday (Nov 13) I’ll be giving my talk about my trip to the Creation Museum to the Victoria Secular Humanist Association. It starts at 10:30am at the Cedar Hill Recreation Centre (3220 Cedar Hill Rd, Saanich, BC). Do I have any blog readers in Victoria? Who knows. If I do, I hope I’ll see you there!

And if any of you have suggestions of things to do or places to eat in Victoria, let me know. It’s a three-day weekend for me, so I’m turning the talk into an excuse for a mini vacation with the boyfriend, who’s excited to be a blogger’s groupie. All he insists we do is visit the Bug Zoo. As long as it’s taxonomically correct and doesn’t feature any spiders…