many greetings from alicante!
xoxo.-
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
in alicante
many greetings from alicante!
xoxo.-
Saturday, June 15, 2013
the two-body problem
associated with my early post about moving, i am going to talk a bit about work. i am sure some of you are familiar with the term "two-body problem", not in mechanics, but in career. we will constantly face this problem if we are to choose to stay in academe. when one found a (single) interesting position, the dilemma would be for the other to: take a less satisfying position to stay together (risking his/her career) or live separately to pursue a more satisfying career (risking their relationship). it is a little bit easier for couples with one academic and the other taking up administrative positions (and most couples i know are like that), but not for us. even worse, although we have different backgrounds, he has a degree in business administration, i in information science (technology), we both have been working in the same applied context, which makes our portfolio overlap by a lot (not to mention we worked on many research projects together).
we consider ourselves lucky when we secured two positions in denmark. the department had two openings, each matched our portfolio rather perfectly. we did not have the two-body problem then. however, it's a different story now. he got the job he likes in the US (and very promising for his career) and i was left with options that unfortunately were not my favorites: (1) staying longer in denmark by myself until i find a better position close to where he is (which may take years), or (2) joining him by taking the spousal hire that unfortunately will put a halt to my career path. we discussed this a lot (some tears and screams included). the US university initially offered me a part time one-year position, which i definitely would not take (i have a full time tenured/permanent position, as in my-contract-does-not-expire, in denmark). but after a deliberate negotiation process that involves my current employer (for them to allow me not to stay in denmark full time through blended teaching and independent research) and the US university (to consider more of my qualification rather than just being someone's wife), the US university secured support from their provost to offer me a full time, multi-year position. i finally felt comfortable enough to take the 2nd option.
this book was published recently with a comprehensive data about gender and family life in academe. sadly, with the two-body problem, it is almost always the woman who suffers from mobility due to the partner's promotion (e.g., career stop/halt, reduced salary & retirement contribution, etc.). i guess i am another fact to support their statistics now that i have to restart my career path and forgo at least 4 years of my career investment.
nevertheless, i still consider ourselves lucky. i am grateful that both of us will be, again, working at the same university :)
happy weekend!
xoxo.-
we consider ourselves lucky when we secured two positions in denmark. the department had two openings, each matched our portfolio rather perfectly. we did not have the two-body problem then. however, it's a different story now. he got the job he likes in the US (and very promising for his career) and i was left with options that unfortunately were not my favorites: (1) staying longer in denmark by myself until i find a better position close to where he is (which may take years), or (2) joining him by taking the spousal hire that unfortunately will put a halt to my career path. we discussed this a lot (some tears and screams included). the US university initially offered me a part time one-year position, which i definitely would not take (i have a full time tenured/permanent position, as in my-contract-does-not-expire, in denmark). but after a deliberate negotiation process that involves my current employer (for them to allow me not to stay in denmark full time through blended teaching and independent research) and the US university (to consider more of my qualification rather than just being someone's wife), the US university secured support from their provost to offer me a full time, multi-year position. i finally felt comfortable enough to take the 2nd option.
this book was published recently with a comprehensive data about gender and family life in academe. sadly, with the two-body problem, it is almost always the woman who suffers from mobility due to the partner's promotion (e.g., career stop/halt, reduced salary & retirement contribution, etc.). i guess i am another fact to support their statistics now that i have to restart my career path and forgo at least 4 years of my career investment.
nevertheless, i still consider ourselves lucky. i am grateful that both of us will be, again, working at the same university :)
happy weekend!
xoxo.-
Monday, June 10, 2013
rainy paris in may
it was a birthday gift, wait... was it an anniversary gift? anyway, we went to paris the weekend of our anniversary. instead of a romantic trip, it was rather a "reunion" trip. three of our friends from philly flew in. a friend of flo, a native parisian who was in philly for a few years together with flo, with his girlfriend arranged dinner and drinks for us nearly every day. two other friends from philly moved to paris for work, one two years ago, another last year, and it was about time to see them again.
it was unfortunately raining the whole time we were there. we did not even get to go up the eiffel tower together (we didn't want to wait under the rain). but we ate (and drank, and talked) a lot.
flo and i managed to go to versailles on the day when we decided we should have time for ourselves, and we also went to the cafe from my favorite french movie amelie.
on the day before last one of our friends lost her wallet (with her green card in it!), so they had to make a detour to the police station and US embassy :( before they continued their journey to lisbon (they could not make it to the wedding of our friends in lisbon last year). we went home to continue our journey to hamburg for a conference.
happy monday!
xoxo.-
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