To see or not to see

After my graduation I hoped that I could find a job quite easily but soon after the start of my interest for the job market I discovered that it is not easy at all. Most companies have a very limited number of vacancies, especially in environmentally related jobs. This is because the government stops all its funding to environmentally favorable projects during an economic crisis. Unfortunately for me, this means that it is hard to find a nice job. At least for now.
Since I returned to Wageningen after my internship I was sitting home. Not yet bored but after a month, right around my graduation, I wanted to do something relevant again. And so I asked the professor of Meteorology and Air Quality, the research group where I graduated, if he had some work for me for a few months. Amazingly, he offered me a full time job for four months, starting the beginning of April. Two employees just stopped and therefore there was a gap in teaching capacity. He hired me as a teaching assistant to assist a course for bachelor students in May and June. Before the start of the course there is time to prepare the teaching material and in July I can write an article about my thesis work or help around where necessary.
After Easter, at April 6, I started my professional career with this temporary job. Now, two weeks later, I really enjoy the work, although I still have to get used to working full time. For the course I have to develop teaching material together with an employee. He gives me a lot of freedom so I can make my own little project. It’s nice to have this freedom and it’s a real challenge to develop good material. In two weeks time I will assist the first students. Then we will see if I’m a natural teacher and whether they understand my project.

Last Tuesday the research group went a day out and I could join them. Some PhD students organized the trip. We gathered at Ede-Wageningen from which the took the train to Nijmegen. Apparently, the group is rich, since we traveled first class! In the morning we did a puzzle walk through the city. However, my group was more interested in the many terraces, cause the weather was really nice. So we didn’t see a lot of the city but even with a few answers to the puzzles, we were able to find the solution!
In the afternoon we went to a museum called “MuZIEum“. This is an experience museum about seeing and not seeing. Some optical illusions showed how your eyes can fool your brain and vice versa. Another part was dedicated to not seeing: how does braille work, how to use a computer by sound, how to play games without seeing. We could experience this ourselves by writing with braille and by playing games blindfolded. Four-in-a-row and “mens-erger-je-niet” in which shapes and marks tell you what is your pawn or how much you threw with the dice. The games were doable but it took ages. In the last part we experienced how it is to be completely blind. In small groups we were let into the pitch black with a stick used my blind people and with a nearly blind or blind person as our guide. We were guided into several rooms, each with aspects from daily live: a study area with desk, chair and cuddly-animal, a balcony with fresh air and plants, a bridge, trains, dogs, birds, bikes, cars, a traffic light with sound to cross the road complete with stepping from the sidewalk to the street and back, a market with vegetables, fruit and clothes, and a bar in which we had a drink after paying (yes, still in the dark). By completely trusting the guide, using the stick and by hearing, smelling and feeling we all made it through the dark and back in the ‘terrible’ light again.
It was a very unique experience and quite exhausting cause you’re still trying to see things, and you’re not used to only hearing so every sound is much louder than normally. After the muZIEum we enjoyed another drink at a terrace. Some went home but most stayed for dinner. With a nicely filled stomach we went back to Wageningen, appreciating our sight!