PhDs!!!

So last week I applied for two PhDs, one in plant pathology and one on parasitoid wasps. Parasitoid wasps are really cool. They lay their eggs in aphids, while the aphid is ALIVE and then the egg hatches and the larva EATS THE APHID ALIVE and turns it into a mummy. Cool huh?
And the plant pathology one is looking at the genes in Arabidopsis (the coolest plant ever) which confer resistance against fungal diseases of wheat.
So anyway in the last day I've had a phone interview for the plant pathology studentship AND a nomination as candidate for the other one, and they've both invited me to visit so it looks like, provided I win the funding competition, I might be able to do either one. Which is very very exciting given I've always wanted to be a research scientist!!

Downside? They're both at Rothamsted, in Hertfordshire, which is really close to the M25 and my big cousin Sarah, and really far away from Jack. When I graduated, I promised Jack that within a year I would be living in Bristol and we could start our life together properly. I was hoping to get a studentship at the agricultural station in Bristol and start a PhD Oct 2010, and if that failed do a PGCE and become a teacher.

Then the studentship disappeared, and I realised I wasn't ready to be a teacher. It's something I want to do one day, but I really want to do a PhD first, or I probably never will. So I had to reduce my promise to "we'll work something out" which makes me feel SHIT, because Jack is REALLY important to me, and having been with him 4 years, our relationship is just as much of an investment as my degree.

But I think if I stay in the Bristol area just to be near Jack and end up doing a job which has nothing to do with my degree I will end up resenting him, and that will be sad, and detrimental to our relationship in the long run, so in a wierd way by going away to do a PhD I will still be putting our relationship first. In a very wierd way.

I feel this post has taken a downward turn, having started with the amazingness of parasitoid wasps. And this is what I must remember, if I do go to Rothamsted it will be to do something amazing, which I love, and which may just save the WORLD. peace out.