a 'car park', 'dead dog' and oil soaking hair
Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Today was pretty entertaining to say the least! It started out like normal, I got up and ready, and I'm telling you, this concept of time in Europe is just so relaxed I don't worry if I may be a few minutes early or behind; it's a coffee break!
I felt so cool biking to the University today. I say this because I have refused to wear my tennis shoes or 'lounge' clothes per say, because I am (hopefully) looking like a "European"! Just a small accomplishment of mine!
So the whole joke here at the lunch cafe that is in our building is the simple repetitiveness. It's actually quite good food but it never, ever, changes. There aren't many hot options, as there is typically only one 'hot' meal a day here. This means that there is a lot of bread and a lot of cheese. You get bread, and then you choose your two slices of cheese; pretty much whatever kind of cheese you'd like too. Anyhow, I've always really liked whichever kind of bread I took (yes, "I love bread" I said it for those of you who love to remind me whenever I talk about it), but today was odd. I thought I was getting a sort of oat/wheat roll but instead, it had cashews and dried fruit in it. It was so weird. We also had a conversation over "car parks". Apparently that's what they call a "parking lot". A 'car park', really? That sounds more like a valet service to me! :)
Anyhow, later when we were getting coffee, I thought I would just get water out of the machine. Apparently the water comes out of a different spot than if you get coffee or hot chocolate, and it comes out very fast. Needless to say, I ended up a bit wet after. That was a bit embarrassing considering this machine is in English too so I very well could have followed the directions... whoops!
Sarah and I were sitting in our (temporary?) office and I caved in, I had to go downstairs to get a stroopwafel out of the vending machine. I already ate the ones that I got at the grocery store. I knew this would be a challenge though because I couldn't get anything out of this machine in particular before because it didn't have an English option. I'm not going to lie though, it was a bit of a disappointment and not nearly as good as the one from the market or even the grocery store. For this reason, I didn't share with Sarah and it was determined we just have to go to the market on Saturday which I have no objections! :)
Today I had to go to the technology office because I needed to be registered in order to use internet in the biology building which we could be working in one day a week. The office is located in a building that I haven't been to yet and Pedro had a meeting in that direction so he led me over there and reminded me to pay attention to where we were going - I just don't know why I lack or how my sense of direction is so poor. Oh well, I made it back easily after. It took me about a half hour there too to realize that I still can't get on the internet in the other building anyways!
Jos, one of the science communication professors here is quite a character. His office is in the biology building with the bugs that we have been visiting periodically. Today he told us about a research project he did that was published in a magazine he used to be the editor of. You know when the oil spill happened and people were cutting and donating their hair to be used to soak up oil? Well, Jos knows all about this - his research ultimately determined the amount of hair produced in a month of all the people on the Earth would soak up all the oil leaked in one month. Fact. I have personally determined too that Jos talks about more random things than I do and gets on larger tangents than myself. That is a fact too. I know many of you reading this will have a hard time believing so but he's hysterical.
At lunch, Sarah and I decided that Pedro can be Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. I proclaim that he and the rest of his friends make up the astronomy version of the Big Bang Theory crowd. He even has a friend who can be Raj and I think he would agree that Aqua Man sucks.
Today we had a meeting for all the people involved in UNAWE that are at the University. It was nice to put faces with names! There are so many great ideas that are being thrown around and it makes me very antsy to want to do more and develop them. The program has so much potential. I am anticipating all of the events and work that can be done in the U.S. when I return; though I would love to be here in Leiden for a much longer extended amount of time.
After our meeting, we chatted with Jos for a little while too. In his notebook, he had been taking notes; he had written "dead dogs". When we asked him what that was (me thinking some sort of odd biology thing), he thought that's what he heard a student, Jaya, say when she really said "TED talks".... Oh my. I'll leave that there.
Sarah and I have continuously been trying to convince Pedro that he could be a character for some videocast show for UNAWE. Then we developed "Sheldon, Sarah and Stephanie's Space Science Show". At the meeting today, others brought up the same idea of having some sort of character - and that Pedro would be a good example - without us even saying anything, just reinforcing our 'genius'-ness!
Pedro also has a desk in the biology building and it seems it will become a small battle over who will reign in the office - planet magnets or leaf diagrams and dinosaur figurines... Oh the fun of the clash of scientists!
Tomorrow and Friday are national holidays so the University is technically closed, but we will still be working. We might make a trip to the coast because there is supposed to be some sort of large sand castle contest which would be neat. Otherwise I'm working on a trip to Space Expo - I feel it will compare to NASA's Space Center Houston. I'm getting excited just thinking about it and all the cool exhibits it has!
Tonight I met Sarah and Pedro out and I rode my bike, without a light, which is technically not allowed. We went to a place called Einstein's. It was international student night which we all got in - even though I was technically the only student! It was nice to sit outside too, a bit chilly, but it was right along the canal. I love Leiden!
I felt so cool biking to the University today. I say this because I have refused to wear my tennis shoes or 'lounge' clothes per say, because I am (hopefully) looking like a "European"! Just a small accomplishment of mine!
So the whole joke here at the lunch cafe that is in our building is the simple repetitiveness. It's actually quite good food but it never, ever, changes. There aren't many hot options, as there is typically only one 'hot' meal a day here. This means that there is a lot of bread and a lot of cheese. You get bread, and then you choose your two slices of cheese; pretty much whatever kind of cheese you'd like too. Anyhow, I've always really liked whichever kind of bread I took (yes, "I love bread" I said it for those of you who love to remind me whenever I talk about it), but today was odd. I thought I was getting a sort of oat/wheat roll but instead, it had cashews and dried fruit in it. It was so weird. We also had a conversation over "car parks". Apparently that's what they call a "parking lot". A 'car park', really? That sounds more like a valet service to me! :)
Anyhow, later when we were getting coffee, I thought I would just get water out of the machine. Apparently the water comes out of a different spot than if you get coffee or hot chocolate, and it comes out very fast. Needless to say, I ended up a bit wet after. That was a bit embarrassing considering this machine is in English too so I very well could have followed the directions... whoops!
Sarah and I were sitting in our (temporary?) office and I caved in, I had to go downstairs to get a stroopwafel out of the vending machine. I already ate the ones that I got at the grocery store. I knew this would be a challenge though because I couldn't get anything out of this machine in particular before because it didn't have an English option. I'm not going to lie though, it was a bit of a disappointment and not nearly as good as the one from the market or even the grocery store. For this reason, I didn't share with Sarah and it was determined we just have to go to the market on Saturday which I have no objections! :)
Today I had to go to the technology office because I needed to be registered in order to use internet in the biology building which we could be working in one day a week. The office is located in a building that I haven't been to yet and Pedro had a meeting in that direction so he led me over there and reminded me to pay attention to where we were going - I just don't know why I lack or how my sense of direction is so poor. Oh well, I made it back easily after. It took me about a half hour there too to realize that I still can't get on the internet in the other building anyways!
Jos, one of the science communication professors here is quite a character. His office is in the biology building with the bugs that we have been visiting periodically. Today he told us about a research project he did that was published in a magazine he used to be the editor of. You know when the oil spill happened and people were cutting and donating their hair to be used to soak up oil? Well, Jos knows all about this - his research ultimately determined the amount of hair produced in a month of all the people on the Earth would soak up all the oil leaked in one month. Fact. I have personally determined too that Jos talks about more random things than I do and gets on larger tangents than myself. That is a fact too. I know many of you reading this will have a hard time believing so but he's hysterical.
At lunch, Sarah and I decided that Pedro can be Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. I proclaim that he and the rest of his friends make up the astronomy version of the Big Bang Theory crowd. He even has a friend who can be Raj and I think he would agree that Aqua Man sucks.
Today we had a meeting for all the people involved in UNAWE that are at the University. It was nice to put faces with names! There are so many great ideas that are being thrown around and it makes me very antsy to want to do more and develop them. The program has so much potential. I am anticipating all of the events and work that can be done in the U.S. when I return; though I would love to be here in Leiden for a much longer extended amount of time.
After our meeting, we chatted with Jos for a little while too. In his notebook, he had been taking notes; he had written "dead dogs". When we asked him what that was (me thinking some sort of odd biology thing), he thought that's what he heard a student, Jaya, say when she really said "TED talks".... Oh my. I'll leave that there.
Sarah and I have continuously been trying to convince Pedro that he could be a character for some videocast show for UNAWE. Then we developed "Sheldon, Sarah and Stephanie's Space Science Show". At the meeting today, others brought up the same idea of having some sort of character - and that Pedro would be a good example - without us even saying anything, just reinforcing our 'genius'-ness!
Pedro also has a desk in the biology building and it seems it will become a small battle over who will reign in the office - planet magnets or leaf diagrams and dinosaur figurines... Oh the fun of the clash of scientists!
Tomorrow and Friday are national holidays so the University is technically closed, but we will still be working. We might make a trip to the coast because there is supposed to be some sort of large sand castle contest which would be neat. Otherwise I'm working on a trip to Space Expo - I feel it will compare to NASA's Space Center Houston. I'm getting excited just thinking about it and all the cool exhibits it has!
Tonight I met Sarah and Pedro out and I rode my bike, without a light, which is technically not allowed. We went to a place called Einstein's. It was international student night which we all got in - even though I was technically the only student! It was nice to sit outside too, a bit chilly, but it was right along the canal. I love Leiden!