So, this week has been full of events, busy and hectic, and ultimately good.
Of note, on Thursday, I gave my speech to the group of high school counselors and organizers the Fulbright Center had brought together - the group was very small, not more than ten people in total - but the speech went very well, and when it was done, everyone had good questions, and we had an excellent discussion about what I had talked about. One of the people in attendance told me it was an "inspiring, excellent presentation." So I take that as a sign that it went well! I love giving talks like that. Here are the promised photos of the day! Alas, I could not ask someone to film the whole thing - if only I had a tripod, I could have stood the camera on it! But, as it was, I will leave how I spoke to your imagination, and give you these photos as consolation.
My face is really funny in this photo if you look close. I don't remember what I was talking about!
Thursday afternoon, I headed back to Utrecht to exchange some emails (about a Skype chat) with a potential adviser for graduate school, which is very exciting. The adviser is from The University of Colorado, Boulder. If you've never looked at pictures of the school or the area before, I encourage you to do that. My goodness, is it a beautiful place. All brick and stone buildings, nestled right beneath the Rocky Mountains. Breath-taking. And when I think about all the Farmer's Markets, and hiking, and kayaking, and bike-riding, man. I just think it would be the greatest adventure. So, we'll see what happens with that. I'm just so excited that there is even a possibility!
Thursday night, I went to dinner-meeting with my lab. We hosted another lab from Germany on Thursday and Friday, and I missed most of Thursday because of the speech, but I'm glad I got to go to the dinner and meet the German lab group.
At dinner, they had these odd little pipettes with olive oil. Very "modern gustatory"
The tasty bread for the pipette-olive-oil
Sara, the other international student in my lab. She is from Italy.
The German lab side of the table
The NICHE lab side of the table.
I love getting free food, especially good, delicious free food, but the dinner was almost three and a half hours long! It was quite a wait (mostly because we had so many people). I went home and was very happy to just get back and be able to read my book.
Friday I spent with my lab and the German lab, doing neat "group-science-activities" like having round-table discussions about relevant issues in psychology and neuroscience research. It was really great. At the end of the day, we put up the sheets where we had put our ideas about a variety of topics (including things like, "If I had unlimited funding, I would:") and talked about the topics with the most "likes," indicated by little post-it notes.
Then, on Friday afternoon, and pretty much all day on Saturday, I went ice-skating on the canals! I am so glad I bought a pair of ice skates (for a delicious 8 euro) a week or two ago. They proved very useful, and very, very fun! Here are some of my favorite videos and pictures.
The Canal, and the paths cleared for skaters.
The view from the end of the canal, and if you turn around on this spot:
That's the line of houses that my house is in! See how close it was!?
Boats frozen into the canal. So bizarre. Like a skating rink grew up around boats, and houses on the water...
Clement, looking at a suspicious crack in a side-canal.
So excited to skate!
I brought some hot chocolate to share! So tasty, and we had a thermos, so it was boiling hot when we finally brought it out - exactly what you want when it's chiller outside!
And here are some videos! Enjoy!
Sunday has been a good day - trying to get back into my running routine, eating leftovers from the dinner I made with Clement and Mary after skating yesterday (Potato and Carmelized Onion Tart and Little, Hand Pumpkin Pies), and introducing a new potential housemate to the house. Tomorrow, it's back to work, and a school visit on Tuesday, and hopefully recruiting ten and a half million participants and scanning them before May...
This past weekend was a hearty blaze of excitement, as I made my way from Utrecht to Maastricht, a city right at the border of Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany. I think at one point in the weekend the people holding the meeting told us it would take around 5-6 minutes to bike to Belgium from Maastricht. Yeah, well, I could...bike...to the end of my road in Chardon in 5-6 minutes! So there!
The proximity of other countries in Europe - where they speak a different language, have a different culture, and way of doing things, government, history, policies, etc. - still blows my mind.
Maastricht, being at the hub of these three countries, is very international. We spent most of Friday in the very beautiful building where they signed the agreement that brought the EU into being. There were comfy chairs. I felt like a powerful ambassador, about to go, like, change history. Kind of.
Mary looking appropriately serious, because she is about to discuss matters of state. Or not. Actually, I just asked her to look serious. Really we were all quite giggly.
The greatest photo of Mary, I, and Bethany (another Fulbrighter), looking beautiful and diplomatic.
The thing is, to get to this beautiful building, we had to walk. So here's what my day looked like:
"Oh, good HEAVENS. It is about -5 degrees Fahrenheit - I'm taking the bus to meet Mary at the train station."
Bus-bum-dum-dee-dum-dum
Mary! Train station!
Train
Two hours later....
Train mix-up. Take bus to another train station. Take quick train. Get to Maastricht, finally.
"Oh, good HEAVENS. It is about -5 degrees - part II! We're taking a cab to the hostel."
Cab. Dutch - not the man's first language. Communicate directions. Good to go.
Arrive at hostel.
"Oh, good HEAVENS. It is about -5 in this room! Let's go back downstairs."
Downstairs, meet Fulbright people
"Alright, so, let's all go outside and walk 15 minutes to the government building!"
My face:
This is a meme, folks, and it is quite funny. For instance, the picture below:
In any case, we went outside, and walked to the government building.
This bridge...was windy. Windy plus -5 = lots and lots of pain.
Look at us! How bundled, how brave...
Mary is actually quite beautiful. Unfortunately, here she slightly resembles a long marshmallow.
Brisk.
Pretty, but brisk.
That little tower and adjoining wall are part of the old city wall that used to go all the way around Maastricht - in the 1200's. How cool is that!?
Well, as aforementioned, we made it to the government building without any significant mishaps. And then we got to sit in those nifty chairs, and learn about the Treaty of Maastricht, which was signed to establish the EU, and we got to talk a bit about Limburg's politics (Wilders, the Dutch politician who is adamantly anti-immigration/anti-Islam, is most powerful in Limburg, for instance). We also had a lovely lunch, after which we got on a bus and were taken to an American Cemetery (from WWII). It was really, really wonderful to be able to go and see this cemetery. It was very moving, to learn about the men (and women) who were buried there. But more than anything, it was so touching to learn that each of the more than 6,000 graves were taken care of by a Dutch person or family. The graves were all "sponsored," for lack of a better word, and the waiting list to be able to take care of a grave, has more than a three year-long wait! The grounds keeper told us about how the Dutch families all plant flowers over the graves, and come spring, it's just a breath-taking landscape.
We took a really nice, rock-star tour-type bus to the cemetery.
A reflecting pool. A woman stands under the tower, with a tree growing next to her (rebirth after war), holding a branch with three doves (peace), but the woman herself is crying.
Found a Diederich. Enlisted in Michigan.
I appreciated the Jewish stars.
We were given flowers to put at a grave of our choice, so I gave mine to a Munn, for my friend Rachel.
So, the trip to the cemetery was sobering, yet beautiful, even though it was still freezing. We went back to the hostel, prayed that our room would get warmer, had a drink, and walked to dinner in the city. The dinner was wonderful - fresh salad with pesto olive oil and grilled chicken, roasted fish, vegetables, and a creme brulee for dessert. Mmm. Came back to the hostel, and, sadly, our room was still freezing. However, we managed to survive, and woke up the next day, and went and had a long discussion about our progress over the last five months, which was really interesting, to hear what people had to say. I loved learning about all the different research projects the Fulbright people had going on. All of them were interesting. Even if they aren't all practical...the study of art and music is still fascinating, and interesting to listen to. And necessary! For a well-balanced, healthy society, right? Right.
Then, on Saturday, it started snowing. And I almost, almost, got stuck in the south of Holland. When it snows around here...It gets messy. The whole train system/public transport system shuts down. As it was, I managed to squeeze my way north by the skin of my teeth, and ended up spending Saturday night with Siri and her family, going out to eat dinner (Schnitzel!) and then sleeping over at Siri's. The next morning, the trains were on schedule, and I was eternally grateful to have a nice warm bed at Siri's house, where I could wait out the public transport nightmare.
Here is the train ride home. Everything was covered in snow and a thick layer of ice - the trees looked like coral - white, glistening coral. Very beautiful in a slightly bizarre way. I'm just glad I managed to get back to Utrecht. Now I'm all safe and warm at home, and kind of contemplating finding somewhere to go ice skating...
