Rotterdam (or Anywhere)

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

Hello everyone,

Just a short message to say that I will be away for 2 weeks! I’m leaving for Switzerland tonight, where I will travel around by train and do lots of hiking. And of course I will visit Celia (and Gert-Jan) for a few days!!

The last week has been very busy, since I had to move out of my house as well. After my holidays I will move in to the new house. My supervisor planned a meeting on the Monday straight after I come back, so I guess I will be working that Sunday… So I will have a crazy weekend after I come back, but that’s ok. I won’t worry about that now!

I’m sorry I didn’t have time to update my blog, I have lots of nice photos to share, but not enough time to put them on here 🙂

Anyway, hope you all have a good time and I will be back on the 8th of July!

Bye!!!

Hanneke

Hello,

Here are some random photos of me and my friends taken during the last weeks…

My brother asked me to take some photos of the lunch boxes, I did this outside on a very nice day early May, and also took some other photos…

Patama and me on the field around the lake on campus.

Nicole & Patama

On the 11th of May we had a symposium dinner at the University, in the new Sainsbury garden restaurant. There were mostly researchers there, but there were also quite a lot of PhD students. We had to dress ‘smart casual’, it was a fun evening!

Patama drinking wine before the start of the dinner, and Paul & me during the dinner

Aga & Tanja, Luke & me, on this last photo you can see the nice glass wall of the restaurant

Nicole & the rest of our table (Tanja, Richard & Tim)

The next day we had a dinner at my place. We were making pasta salad, and just when we were done cutting all the vegetables and ready to mix everything, Nicole accidentely tipped over a full bowl, and by trying to rescue it, got the second bowl all over herself. It was quite funny!! Unfortunately ALL our food was now on the floor and we didn’t have time to start over. So… we gathered everything from the floor, washed it and ate it… hehe!

Gathering & washing the food

And finally ready to eat it!! We are all still alive by the way 🙂

On the 14th of May I went to the last day of the Norwich & Norfolk Festival. There was a big street festival, lots of fun! There was also a treasure hunt, in which you had to find oranges by solving clues. With Veronika we only found half of the oranges, but we still found the “square of love” where we got a jam tart, a gold nugget and we could make a wish and eat a paper heart so that “the wish will be part of you and has room to grow”. I did the same thing with Johannes, but he was able to find all the oranges!!

Music made on rubbish.. and Johannes making his wish 🙂

Later that day we celebrated Veronica’s birthday, we played Uno in the park.

Johannes, Veronika, Veronica & Andrew

On the 19th of May we had dinner at Aga’s place before going to a Scottish concert in the city center.

The last one is taken by Johannes – looks like its taken from the ceiling!!

At the concert, we went outside in the break

That’s all! Have a good weekend 🙂

Hanneke