A scientist or a tourist in 2018?

It seems that I just wrote a "Yearly News" note at the end of the year 2017 and now it is already 29 December 2018. Time has passed so quickly. I hope that some personal goals have been achieved, but surely my yearly targets generally aim to learn new stuffs, develop scientific skills and contribute the knowledge to the society.

Anyway, there were so many fantastic things happened in 2018. The most usual ones were some business and work related trips. But they were not too entertained since the family was not joining.

Perhaps, the most extraordinary episodes in this year were in returning home in Aceh to visit my family and in visiting Istanbul, Turkey (for seeing Islamic heritages there). I really feel more a tourist than a scientist in this year :)

As usual, I summarise my life stories through some pictures below.

The most common yearly activity is business trips, but it is usually not too memorable since I travel mostly alone without two my beautiful kids.

I went to United States of America again (for the third time in five years). This time was in Saint Louis, Missouri, to participate in a conference. I had a chance to visit the Saint Louis Boeing factory (just its exhibition room in the factory to be precise!) and went to the largest arc building in the world!

OK, now it is time to see my life as a tourist!

After living in Finland for almost 3 years, finally we made our journey home again. The main purposes were to gather with family on Eid Fitr, participate my sister wedding ceremony and enjoy HOLIDAY in the MOTHERLAND with BEAUTIFUL SCENERY.

While we were heading back to Finland, we stopped over in Istanbul, Turkey, where we had an opportunity to see the Ottoman Islamic heritages.

In this year, we also visited two Finnish zoos, Korkeasaari Zoo (Helsinki) in the Spring and Ähtäri Zoo (Ähtäri Zoo) in the Autumn.

Another memorable event was when our campus organised an event in November called "Bring your Child to Work Day". The program aimed to encourage children loving science and technology.

In this year, after returning from Indonesia, we moved to a larger apartment in Viikki, Helsinki. The area is just like Espoo where it is also surrounding by beautiful nature! This place is close to the shore, forest and farm. Our favourite things to do a sightseeing on the farms and cows there.

Finally, this year ends by enjoying white snow which does not happen every year.

I thank Allah Al Mighty that ease our life in everything, especially in providing us a new comfortable home and a new school for my daughter in Viikki, a very nice place in Helsinki. It is also accessible to a mosque that is not very far away from our new home, so I can perform congregational prayer, almost daily at least for an Isha prayer.

I pray to Allah Almighty to accept our deed in this year and ease our life and goals for the next coming years.