Never a dull day

As many of you know, since August I have been having a fairly positive email correspondence with a project team at the University of Postdam about doing a Phd. At the end of last week, the head researcher emailed to say that he wanted to speak one on one with me. We set up a time of 6 am Calgary time (2 pm Potsdam time) for yesterday (Wednesday). Sadly, the news he wanted to pass on to me was that he really liked my application/background and that I was one of the short-listed candidates on his end (good), but that the funder of this particular position had picked their own candidate without going through the University department. They had also shortened their portion of the Phd program from 36 to 30 months, which, as the Dr. said, is a 'sporty' approach to the process. He sounded very frustrated with the situation and I can sympathize with how hard it must be for him to get this project organized with 5 students and a multi-stakeholder funding group who still hold so much power over the project. So, as much I would have loved to work on the project, I am staying put in Calgary for a bit longer. It's a strange feeling at the moment; I have lost something I didn't have to begin with, through no fault of my own. All in all, things are going well for me out here, so the consolation prize is terrific! Never a dull day around here :)