2008 - The Year of Commitment

*Note: If you don't want to read my long drawn out recollection of 2008. Simply go to this post and check out the video slideshow "Logan's 2008 in Pictures"

2009! Wow...

I've had some time on my hands the last week (since I am back in France but my job still hasn't started - February 2nd is THE date)

So I was wasting time on Facebook and thought I'd browse through, Ardrossan Grad 2001 to see if any new people had signed on to Facebook that I didn't have. It was a very reflective experience. That was 8 years ago!! I look at the people on that page, I browse through their profiles....exotic travels, jobs, colleges, marriages, babies, business managers, engineers, firefighters, cops.....it's amazing how far we have come since then. And I look at myself, from what I was back then to where I am now. I'll be honest...I'm proud of myself.

So 2008. Well first off, I spent 2008 living in only one country which is a change from the last couple of years. Actually it feels good to be 'somewhat' settled. To be here in Toulouse with a great group of friends, to really 'know' the city, to have a favorite bar, a favorite restaurant, to actually collect some personal belongings (instead of living with the least amount of 'stuff' possible in case of another move). I'm really happy to be here.

The year started of in Hungary where I got to visit my Hungarian friends I met in Denmark. When I left Denmark, I had no idea if/when I'd get to see a lot of those people again. So to see Baly and Melinda and Bea again, and in their home towns, was really special for me.

The next couple months passed by rather quickly as we were swamped with homework as the Masters classes came to an end in March. Luckily Vladimir, Manuel and later Bruno all had internships here in Toulouse. Vladimir, Monica and I, after numerous visits, eventually found an incredible apartment. Near to the centre of Toulouse, furnished, spacious, bright, two balconies, I love it!

April also brought the start of my internship at Airbus. My subject:

The Loads department of Airbus designed a new method that determined the flexibility and hence change of shape of the airplane wings due to the flight loads. My job was to take this new calculation method and integrat it into the Flight Simulator program that Airbus uses. I then compared flight simulations against real flight test data to determine the level of improvement that this new "flexibility method" made.

It was a great experience. Not only in the work, but to get a glimpse of how the largest airplane manufacturer in the world operates. It's amazing to coordinate 10's of thousands of people to research/design/build/maintain/test these amazingly complicated machines. To see that the flight dynamic equations for the A380 is contained in a 200 page document. 200 pages of equations to describe ever detail of how the airplane pitches and rolls and yaws. Incredible!

2008 also brought the landing of a little piece of Logan on the planet Mars. The Phoenix Mars Lander, a project I got to work on with Dr. Carlos Lange at the University of Alberta, made a successfull descent into the northern plains of Mars. Over the next months it proceeded to astonish the science world with it's images, soil analysis and the detection of water on Mars. Truly amazing! (A little piece of Logan on Mars)

Of course we took advantage of living in Europe to continue traveling. In May, Manuel, Arturo and I took a 5 day weekend to see Finland and Estonia. I won't recount it other then to say it was AWESOME! More info here: Spring Turns to Summer in the South of France

You might be wondering why I called it 2008 - The Year of Commitment. Well it's because a lot of commitments were made this year and not just by me.

July brought some of the biggest commitments you can make, weddings! Namely my best friend Damien and Lisa and my little sister Kendra and Marc. I was really lucky in that Kendra and Marc planned the date of their wedding to be close to D&L so that I only had to make one expensive flight back to Canada :) Both weddings were amazing. I had the honor of being in the bridal party for both: as best man for Damien and as a groomsmen for Marc. Damien and Lisa's reception was so much fun; to be back in Canada and party the night away with all my friends i've grown up with. And Kendra and Marc's wedding brought the majority of the family together. Seeing as our family is spread through the United States and Canada...it isn't often we can get everyone in one place :)

July and August had my pondering my future. Soon I was to be done school. Done done! Which meant it was time to make a decision and find a job. And it had me pondering whether to return to work in North America or continue my stay here in Europe. Both sides made compelling arguements within my psychie (see - Europe or North America)

At the same time I had been applying for the open recruitement of the Canadian Space Agency for Canada's next astronauts. I knew at this point in my career, my young age and general lack of experience made it a long shot. And September 19th confirmed this as I was rejected during Phase II of the campaign. But however much it sucked to be rejected it really helped confirm the biggest commitment I would go on to make.

And that commitment was to take a permanent job here in France. The job is actually an 'Industrial PhD' meaning that I will be working at Airbus as a normal employee, but my work is on a special research project. It comes with a three year commitment and at the end of three years I can make a thesis defence and receive a PhD for my work. I won't go in to all the details, suffice to say it is an incredible opportunity to gain fantastic work experience on a subject I'm really excited about. The subject being:

Takeoff and Landing Performance on Contaminated Runways (ice, rain, snow, standing water)

Once again more info here: I'm staying in France a bit longer

September started with my year in France coming full circle. When I arrived in France the previous years Masters treated us to the 'Integration Weekend' where we partied, surfed and got to know everyone in Mimizan, France. Well now we had come full circle as it was our job to integrate the new students. 28 of us partied in the rain in the beautiful basque country at Bidart, France.

September brought graduation and my family to Toulouse. Graduation was fairly low key, but a great accomplishment nonetheless. This was it, 6 years of school and now done forever!! (yes i'm technically doing a PhD, but in reality it's just work).

Upon visting Toulouse, my family took of on our tour of Europe and the Mediterranean Cruise. I won't recap all other then to say it was amazing. We viewed the history of civiliazation with stops in Rome, Greece, Turkey and Egypt. To see all these places that I've read about in history books since grade school. I'll never forget it! (All the best pictures posted on Logan's Picasa)

It was also on this trip I met a very special lady named Darcie. When you talk about random meetings, this was it. Darcie loved meeting new people and as such would try and sit with new random people at meal times. Well she happened to sit down with my parents one lunch time. It turns out she lives out on Vancouver Island but was born in Edmonton and her mom and some family still live there. How about that...to meet a beautiful Edmonton born girl in the middle of the Mediterranean. It was also lucky that we were both staying on the same side of the ship, so we often ran into each other in the stairwell over the next couple days. Eventually (the second last day of the cruise) we met up in the "Skywalker Nightclub" and danced the night away and then proceeded to spend the entire last day of the cruise together before we had to say our goodbyes (it was not the end of Darice though, she'll reappear at the end of the story :P)

I'll skip the rest of October and November as it had me doing literally nothing. The 'PhD' requires extensive French administrative paperwork and an 'approval' of the research. I was told this process would take two months or more. Needless to say I played a lot of online poker haha

With the paperwork done but the approval still waiting. I decided I might as well return to Canada for a long Christmas Holiday. Thus I spent the last half of November and all of December back in Canada. It was really great just to be at home in Canada. Get out and meet not only my close friends I see everytime i'm home, but a lot of college friends that I often don't get to see on my short visits home.

Christmas came and so did Darcie. Since her mom and mom's side of the family is from Edmonton she booked time off to come to Edmonton from Dec 24th - January 9th. It was 'purely coincidence' that I was going to be home in Edmonton at that time too ;) We spent a lot of time together and had an amazing Christmas and New Years. I know many people and relatives are wondering where this is going with Darcie and that is a good question. One we've asked each other many times. Obviously the current situation isn't the most desirable with me just starting a 3 yr term in France and her settled on Vancouver Island with her own dog training business to run. But we're just taking things as they come and following where the roads lead us :) I'll leave it at that for now.

It was wonderful to be home with family for Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa flew up on Dec 26th to spend Christmas with us. The weather was a balmy -25'C or colder the entire Christmas holiday.

And before you know it, 2008 came to an end. We had a New Years party at Megan's new apartment. I said goodbye to 2008 with my closest friends at hand, what more can one ask for.

So goodbye 2008.

Hello 2009

Logan