Ina on the road

Work goes on. Statistical analyses. Manuscripts. My supervisor Tarmo said that a scientific article is only finished when you want to throw up when you see it. I’m not quite there yet – months of feedback and discussions are still ahead. Finally it is time for my sheep project again. This year, I’m much more prepared than last, I know what to do. My friend Seidi, the veterinary technician, took three weeks off her regular work to be here. Liilia and Ants, the owners of the farm, help me where they can. In return, I help them with feeding the sheep, heating the sauna, assisting the kids with their schoolwork, cooking, and by taking over some night shifts. When a sheep starts giving birth, we have to watch it and see that everything goes well, and if not, we have to give birthing aid. Ants and Liilia patiently teach us how. Once the new mother has cleaned the lambs, we bring them into a separate box, so they can get used to each other’s sounds and smells and are easier to monitor, befor...

While spring still can't decide whether to come all the way to Estonia, we are packing our bags and leave. Three days of education are awaiting us on the shore of the lake Pühajärv: it's a winter school for PhD students of immunology and virology, and while most participants are from Tartu, some arrive from as far as Northern Sweden. A bus is picking us up from the parking lot of the Vanemuine Theater, and we look around. We will spend almost an hour in this bus, and three days in the same conference room, in the same dining hall, we will share hotel rooms. A decision is quietly made, as we all take off our protective face masks. If one of us has Covid, we will all get it anyway. There is no PhD student who doesn't know the PhD comics by Jorge Cham ( www.phdcomics.com ), which depict our life so accurately. There is one comic strip in particular that matches this trip: Career stages at a seminar - the first year graduate student will take notes, thinking she will ever loo...

How the lamb’s childhood sets the path for its future „Breeding sheep must be your passion if you do that“, says Ants. He must know, he has been in the business for almost twenty years. „The first years it cost us more than it brought in. And still a large portion of our income is from the state supplements that we get as organic farmers.“ After years of learning and trial, this breeder eventually chose the Dorper breed. They have good mothering qualities, do not require much birthing aid and, for a breeder of meat sheep very importantly, they have mostly fur instead of wool. This means that they don’t need to be sheared, as they lose their winter coat by themselves – a lot less work. So I learn that the breed has a huge impact on the financial stability of the sheep breeder. A sheep sold for slaughtering will bring in approximately 80€, as they are usually slaughtered when they reach 40kg and over the last couple of years, the price was at around 2€ per kg of live weight. Sellin...

  It’s a Finnish student again. I realize that there is actually no reason why anybody should knock on this door to see me – the only two people who need to communicate with me at work are Tarmo with whom I use an instant messenger app and Toomas, who sits next to me most of the time. After stating the obvious (“Toomas ei ole” – “He’s not here”) she asks in English: “Do you know when he’ll be back?” “He usually comes in at twelve.” Of course she is back five past twelve. Only after she has closed the door again do I realize that I didn’t actually have to apologize for my boss not being here. He tends to show up in the office by the time I’m halfway through my day already. Then I get to listen to his online lectures and the students who have technical problems while he’s out getting more coffee, and we chat while the students are doing group works and he has muted himself. I should actually be working, but what can you do? Every once in a while he turns around to me and asks a...

  How do you recognize a German doctoral student at an Estonian university? Well, fortunately, in my case, it is not the accent. 1.        She wants to do a PhD (academic career) but considers going back into practice afterwards (How? Why?) 2.        Whatever the weather, her footwear will be inappropriate 3.        Smiles at strangers (obviously from Southern Germany, too!) 4.        Has difficulties addressing professors by their first names from the beginning 5.        If you ask a computer-related question, there are three possible answers: “No”, “Yes, but never used it” and “What is that?” “So you think you might work as a farm veterinarian once you have that PhD title? That is very unlikely” says Tarmo, my supervisor. “In Germany, that is actually how most people do it”, I reply, “but we’ll see, maybe I like being a...