As our time in Finland draws down to an end I’ve been focused almost exclusively on wrapping things up here, which included getting my manuscript prepared for submission. I know this goes without saying, but writing is HARD. It has taken a lot of my mental energy and concentration to get this manuscript written. I am extremely proud of it as well.
Update on the project, but feel free to skip down a few sections if you aren’t in the mood to geek out with me! 🙂
Here is a snapshot of two figures that summarize the work that I have done – they might seem simple, but they took a lot of hours of coding on the computing and patient persistence.
This plot took several hours to make – AND captures 300 different model runs in one figure. 
This is my other obsession: sparkline tables. Made using ggplot + the gt package. So fun!
A little more on these figures: my time here has really developed my skills in R and the tidyverse – learning how to iterate using the purrr functions, creating and customizing ggplots, and learning how to make nice tables with gt and sparkline plots (with ggplots).
Here is the good news: I * think * the hard part is done, so I can breathe a sigh of relief and open my creativity to other pursuits.
How is life right now? Well there is SO MUCH LIGHT. Sunrise: 4 AM, sunset: 10:30 PM (and increasing). It really has made my internal clock out of sync. Sleep masks have helped thankfully. Just like I found it odd to have 3 hours of daylight when we arrived, it is equally odd to have the amount of darkness in the single digit hours.
This is, in my mind, the best time of year here. We finally became convinced that the snow was gone for good by Mid May. And just like that – it was spring. We eagerly awaited leaf out on the trees (hence to updated banner image), and now it seems like the trees went full on. (I guess because growing season is so short – time is a wasting!).
So as time winds down (2 weeks more of school for the kiddos, one week of soccer camp, off to Helsinki for a few days, and return on June 16th), I’ll be soaking in this daylight, as well as sharing some final recollections.
There is still plenty of time to see and experience the bounty of Finland.
Finland has given me plenty of gifts and several lessons learned for both my personal and professional life.
Stay tuned.
