This already will be our last night in the Netherlands, before we return to our home in Bavaria after a week spent with family and friends. I’m excited to go back, but sad to leave at the same time.
Excited, as my team has taken great care of our running light pollution experiment, and I’m very excited to see how it’s going. Next week we start our herbivory treatments, and I will meet with a light expert, who will measure various aspects of our light treatments with me, which will provide vital background data for our paper. It will be a very exciting and fun week!
I’m sad, too, as I have only met up with a few people, but had to miss so many others. We will have to say goodbye to the people we love again. This hurts. Leaving is always hard. Picking things up at home, in my experience, is also tough after having been back.
When you live abroad, your relationships almost inevitably suffer. I hope one day we can pick them up again where we left them. Or will moving back mean starting over again? I hope not.
Robin Heinen 