I only partly knew what I was getting into as I was getting ready to fly to Birmingham for my 12-week research visit with the Out of Our Minds project group. I knew Petar Milin since my first undergraduate courses in Psychology and had him as a supervisor for my Master’s thesis, but nothing else. At least I was confident that his project group would probably include some very competent scholars that are also nice people that I would like to meet.

I wasn’t wrong. I was met with warm hospitality and I felt welcome to the group from the moment I arrived. Most of the crew were new to me, as I was acquainted with some from my previous visit to Tübingen, but that didn’t stop them from being friends. I also had the pleasure of learning about some of their research projects and that was certainly a lot of fun. If you’re reading this, thank you all!
My research visit to the University of Birmingham allowed me to meet an old lab co-worker, Ivana Jakovljev, as she was stopping by to give a lecture. Besides that, I had the opportunity to listen to lectures by Adele Goldberg and Nigel Fabb, both of which were thought-provoking.

It was also good to talk to Petar in person again. Our weekly meetings served well to push forward the research projects we collaborate on – both the old ones that we somehow never finished up until my visit, and the new one related to my thesis. There were meetings when Dagmar Divjak would also join the conversation and her insights and help were very useful. In short, the projects were benefiting from our work together and I was learning, which is all one could want from a research visit.

Working alongside the team of the Out of Our Minds project was a great experience. I hope that there were some positives that my relatively brief stay brought them as well. I am looking forward to seeing any and all of them again, be it informally, as friends, or as colleagues on a conference or workshop somewhere.