Hello!

I have been back for a while but have simply been to busy to post anything, sorry!

I had a great time in Switzerland, the weather was wonderful (quite warm but the good thing about the mountains is that you just have to go up to get to nicer temperatures), thunderstorms almost everyday (I even took photos!), did lots of hiking, took many trains, boats, cable cars, lifts, buses… Got sunburnt but I also got bitten by spiders (??) and woke up covered in bites… they are still not completely gone. Of course I spent a lot of time in Grindelwald, but I have also discovered some new towns that I’d like to go back to, especially Luzern, it’s so beautiful! Anyway, I won’t put the photos on this blog, I am working on a site about Switzerland with the photos of this year but also last year’s photos!

Since I came back, I have moved to the new house, which is absolutely wonderful. I live there with Candice (MSc in ENV, she will stay for about a month), Nem and Tanja. I am really enjoying the house, my big room, but most of all my housemates! It’s really close to campus as well, it only takes me a few minutes by bike, I will get lazy! Good thing the sport centre is even closer than uni, mayyyyyybe I’ll finally go to the gym… I prefer swimming but the pool is closed till the end of next week.

What else… my project has changed quite a bit, we took a big decision last week to change the model we are using. I do think it’s for the best, and I am motivated to learn to use the new model and finally do some real research instead of studying computer science!! Unfortunately everyone seems to be on holiday right now, so progress is a bit slow (I have to set up accounts in different places so I need permission from people in Reading, Manchester, etc).

Last week I went down to the British Antarctic Survey, to meet with my supervisors there, but also to try on the clothes for Antarctica. Our funding pays for the clothes, and we had to try everything on. Lots of fun!! Fortunately it wasn’t as warm as it was this week. They pack everything in kit bags which will be sent along with the ship going down, sometime late August or in September I think. It’s all very exciting!!

I have loads of photos that I want to put on here, most from before I went to Switzerland. Nicole gave a goodbye party the day before I left, and there are very nice photos of that night. I also have some photos of the trip to Thetford Forest with Patama, and a lot of photos of playing Catan… Ever since I am here, I tried to find people to play with. We played occasionally, but not very often. Recently, I got some people really hooked, so now we play a LOT!! Which is good fun… I also have an online version of it, so we even play at work… shhhhhh 😉

I will put those photos online in seperate blogs, I hope I have some time to do that tomorrow. Now just some photos of my housemates 🙂

My lovely housemates!

That’s all for now!

Hanneke