The Adventures of Stephanie

Browsing Archive: July, 2011

bonjour Paris!

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Sunday, July 31, 2011,
FOR THE RECORD: I have one suitcase with me - yep, I did it - packed my 2 1/2 months of life into one bag. (well, plus a carry-on) but still.  This is typically not possible for me.

During my flight I sat next to a girl from Germany who is studying law.  She was very nice and also ended up needing to take the same train I needed and was very nice to let me tag along until I got to my stop.  She gave me a few pointers about the city too.  She studied here for the last year and her mother also l...
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one week of minnesota

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Sunday, July 31, 2011,
My week home was a bit of a whirlwind with lots of things to do.  I got home on a Thursday and the next day I headed up to our cabin in Aitkin with my parents and aunt and uncle to prepare for my brother-in-law's surprise 30th birthday party to be on Saturday.
 
My sister is a maniac planner too, but in the end it turned out to be a great weekend.  The whole time he thought I was having a welcome home party but we got him!  My sister and mom surprised me too by getting some of my friends to com...
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hello minnesota!

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Thursday, July 21, 2011,
Well, I know I haven't written much in the last few days, but they are my final days in Leiden and I will be sure to spend the plane ride home today writing up my on it and my final thoughts of my trip here.  So no worries, it will be good. :)

I'm currently still packing (in my usual style) so I will get back to this soon!!  See you today Minnesota!

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the last lunch

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Tuesday, July 19, 2011,
Last night a group from the Uni went out for drinks which was nice.  It has finally stopped raining too! (but I don't want to jinx it...)

My last day at work at the Uni is today, Tuesday.  Another very sad day.  It was also my last lunch at the canteen with everyone.  Here, I can carry around my Nutella jar and a loaf of bread and make a sandwich at the table, and there is about an 80% chance that someone at the table on both sides of me is doing the same - if not with Nutella, with sprinkles....
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my last weekend in leiden

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Monday, July 18, 2011,
A very sad time, it is now Monday and my last weekend in Leiden is now over.  It was definitely a great one though!

Friday was very very busy at work.  I have never biked home so fast either as I ended up staying until almost seven.  For dinner, we headed to Marissa's and made a typical Portuguese dinner called bitoque.  After a failed effort at good Portuguese food in Belgium, Marissa wanted us to try the real stuff.  It was delicious too!

Everyone enjoying our Portuguese dinner (Maya is takin...

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life decisions

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Thursday, July 14, 2011,
So nothing too exciting has been happening at work recently.  Just chugging along on getting various tasks done.

Yesterday we went to the Hague to see Harry Potter in 3D.  To my surprise, it was a pretty good movie.  I guess I can't really spoil it for anyone back home (since it came out here 2 days before there) with already knowing what's happening from the book, but more so what is or isn't included in the movie to book.  The place we went to for dinner beforehand was delicious though.  Sup...
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harry potter people

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Wednesday, July 13, 2011,
I've gotten a gallery of pictures on the photos page from Belgium trip this past weekend - all the photo credits go to Mattia and Matteo for having working cameras with them!  

Monday and Tuesday have just been a whirlwind of events.  Yesterday we brought all the of UNAWE materials from storage into George's office so they can be gone through.  It has become quite a daunting task as there is a lot - a lot.  We also 'tried' playing the board game again but now have more revisions and work to do...
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the last launch, belgium, france and south africa

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Tuesday, July 12, 2011,
So much to talk about here - thanks for being patient!

First, Thursday night I was forwarded a post about an internship being offered by the International Astronautical Federation, IAF, headquartered in Paris to assist with the International Astronautical Congress IAC2011 to be held in Cape Town, South Africa in the beginning of October.  The position is to start as soon as possible.  Myself, thinking I had a long shot, but that it would be pretty cool, I stayed up til about 2 in the morning F...
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wasabi!

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Thursday, July 7, 2011,
Today I was passed on this article from a friend here.  It is truly disappointing to see this happen.  NASA, in my opinion, even if you don't want to support various projects, you must agree that it is in a way a beacon of America.  Yes, NASA has had its failures, but it is America!  
 
Last night I ate, and made, sushi for the first time.  It wasn't too bad either.  3 people there have spent an extended amount of time in Japan too so we definitely had some guidance!  Some people had lots of fu...
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and so the countdown draws near...

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Wednesday, July 6, 2011,
In honor of the last shuttle launch, I have three NASA shirts with me and am wearing one today, tomorrow, and July 8, the planned date for the launch.  Check out the article Carthage has on some of my friends who are traveling to Kennedy to watch the launch (and work on some follow up from our Microgravity project).  Super jealous - I can't wait to hear about all of it from Kim, Amber and Steve!  I unfortunately cannot attend because I am in Leiden but will surely be watching it live online! ...
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success!

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Tuesday, July 5, 2011,
4th of July was a success could be an understatement.  I found sparklers so we had a great time playing with those.  We had to wait until about 11 of course to take full effect since the sun doesn't go away until after 10.

Matteo has an awesome camera and took pictures for us.  They turned out so cool!
 
 
Karimu, Irene, Marissa and Me!


Maya, Karimu, Me, Irene, and Marissa

More sparkler fun!
 






The potluck/picnic was great too.  Marissa made the cake and I helped her decorate the flag.  It turned out ...
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happy 4th of july!

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Monday, July 4, 2011,
Today, instead of heading to the Uni to work, Pedro, Wouter, Sarah, Frederiek and I headed to the Hague to visit a children's science museum to discuss prospective programs and activities to do in collaboration with UNAWE in the Netherlands.  Besides going there for such a meeting, we also got a personal tour of some of the exhibits and then got basically a VIP pass to 'behind the scenes' = practically all of their archived items.  It was SO COOL!  They had different warehouse-type rooms depe...
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zaterdag = saturday

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Saturday, July 2, 2011,
Last night, we met up with Fabian (from the kayak club) and some of his friends to Odessa, a place in town.  Turns out one of his friends has a brother who goes to Hamline - as in Minnesota.  So crazy.  Then he said that when he went to visit, they went on a road trip to none other than Fargo with a stop a Paul Bunyan land.  Who does that?!  



Today, Saturday, Sarah and I went to the market and I got a stroopwafel.  So good.  I'm a loyal customer and won't go to any other cart!  We stopped at t...
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go spaceballs!

Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Friday, July 1, 2011,
So last night dinner at the African restaurant was really good.  It was definitely different than anything I've had.  They also don't give utensils and you use your fingers to eat.

Today was the astronomy department BBQ and futbol tournament.  There were ten teams in total and we played 10 minute games of 4 v. 4.  It was fun, but definitely very tiring.  It was a beautiful day too.  We ended up winning one out of four games and got our butts handed to us by the faculty team.  For those of you ...
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