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 The Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC; the group where I’m working now) organizes a summer and a winter weekend each year. The weekend of 29-30 January was time for the winter weekend, also called the snow-event weekend. On Saturday morning we traveled to Axalp, a small village up in the mountains south of the Brienzersee. With several trains and a bus we arrived there after 3.5 hours. About 40 people quickly changed into his or her ski or snowboard outfit and then it was time for action.
I had been in the mountains before, but that was always in summer. So although I had been on glaciers and on snow, I had never really seen the beautiful white landscape of the mountains in winter. On our way to Axalp, the first significant amounts of snow basically arose when we took the bus from Brienz to climb to about 1300 meters to Axalp. With beautiful weather I immediately loved it!
From a colleague I borrowed skies, shoes and sticks, and with a warm jacket and rain trousers over my jeans I was ready for my first experience on skies. Another colleague was willing to teach me the basics, while in the meantime he learned some other colleague the basics of snowboarding. Axalp has a beautiful safe area for children (and beginners), so in between the kids we learned our first sliding, stopping and of course…falling. Almost right away I fell on the first small slope downwards, cause I couldn’t brake enough. Soon after that I started to get some grip on it and had a good time with sliding downhill almost without braking or by making turns from left to right. After about an hour or two it was time to head back to the hut. Completely exhausted but very happy with my first ski experience combined with beautiful sunny weather made it a perfect day. 
After the typical cheese fondue we went in the hotpot. This is a barrel just outside the hut filled with hot water. It was a lot of fun with 14 people in this not-so-big barrel, especially since we combined it with rolling in the snow once in a while when we felt to hot.
On Sunday some went skiing and snowboarding again, but I was too tired of my first experience that I traveled back with a few others. A very nice weekend with a very good experience. Next time I will go in a class to really learn how to ski!
Friday 24 December was my last working day as a teaching assistant at Meteorology and Air Quality at Wageningen University. Just a handful of people were still working on this last day before Christmas. I decided to work till lunchtime, have a nice final lunch together and then really say goodbye. That morning I was able to finish my article about my Master thesis work and sent it to a journal. Just in time! For lunch we went to our normal place, but this was already closed for the Christmas break. Therefore, we decided to have lunch with just three girls at someone’s own place. After saying goodbye to them, I packed some stuff for the Christmas days and went home to celebrate Christmas with my parents, my two brothers and on the first day of Christmas also with my grandparents. These very nice, relaxed days came too soon to an end and I traveled for the last time to Wageningen to pack all my stuff.  
A couple of days later we moved my stuff to my parents place, where it had to stay a week till the big move to Switzerland. The next day we also moved my brothers stuff, since he was about to leave to the USA for a post-doc position. We finished the year with a good gourmet and fireworks at 24.00. At New Years day my brother and I gave our goodbye party to the family. Quite a strange moment… And another such moment was at 3 January when we waved my brother goodbye at Schiphol Airport to his adventure to the USA. 
My big move started on 5 January together with my father and my other brother. I said goodbye to my mother, another strange moment. In two days, in a total of about 10 hrs, we drove with a big van to Baden. At the Swiss border I declared my house stuff and an hour or so later we arrived at my apartment. The next days we unpacked, shopped at IKEA, assembled furniture, had a short tour to the little town, and started figuring out what should come where. The first night my father and brother slept on air bags on the ground, but the second and third night my father took advantage of the bed sofa.    
Sunday morning, another strange moment. My father and brother were going back to the Netherlands. What left were a very quiet apartment, only German TV channels and still quite some things to unpack. After this unpleasant day I discovered how to subscribe me as a new resident of Baden, open a bank account and arrange internet, TV with also English channels and a mobile phone. I unpacked everything, furnished my apartment and arranged a nice fellow. By the end of the week my apartment was more or less finished, except for some plants and things that should be attached to the walls.  
At the moment I’ve no idea how it will be to live such a long time abroad. I think I’ll discover that soon when I start my PhD, meet people, discover the country and see my family by Skype and ones in a while for real when we can visit each other. This adventure has just started! 
As I’ve been busy with a lot of other things than writing on my blog, here at last a summary of what I’ve been up to the last months.
After my Master’s graduation in March I started to look for jobs at research institutes and consultancy agencies in the Netherlands. I wrote quite some applications for open interviews since no job offerings (in my field of interest) were available. At a few occasions I was invited for a preliminary interview but without job openings this turned out to almost nothing. Almost, because somewhere down the line I discovered that the consultancy jobs were not enough to my liking. I preferred to do research and to discover things instead of e.g. using a model in which only the input and output are relevant without hardly bothering about what is inside the model. So, at that point I had to think very hard about what kind of job I really wanted. After discussing this with some people I found out that without finalizing a PhD it is pretty hard to have a career in research at a research institute. Thus, I turned my attention to finding a PhD position.
In the mean time I was happy to have a job as a teaching assistant at Meteorology and Air Quality at Wageningen University, in the group where I graduated. At first, the job was from April to August, but since I hadn’t found another job yet, this was extended to the end of December. I assisted in three different courses related to Air Quality for first and second year Bachelor students. Meanwhile I was able to continue writing an article about my Master thesis work.
After my holidays to Denmark I really started to look for PhD positions. I discussed the possibilities of writing my own research proposal at Meteorology and Air Quality and I send emails to all relevant universities in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, there were no openings in my area of interest. So what now? I rejected the consultancy agencies, the research institutes were affected by the economic crises and no PhD positions were available in the Netherlands, except when I’ve a lot of luck writing my own proposal and get it accepted for financing.
Slowly, I started to send emails to universities in countries surrounding the Netherlands and applied to a mailing list. In England, Denmark and Belgium I got quite some no’s, so writing my own proposal seemed more and more necessary. I made the decision to go for it and discussed this with several people. But then? A few days after my subscription to the mailing list, a very nice PhD position came up in…Switzerland. Not exactly the country I was looking for but the research topic was exactly what I wished for. Immediately I sent an email to figure out how to apply and within a few days I did send my first application for a PhD position. And not so long after that I was invited for an interview at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Villigen, Switzerland!
At Saturday 23 October I flew to Zürich and after a short walk to the city I took the train and bus to the guest house of PSI in Villigen. In the evening I was invited for dinner with the supervisor of the PhD position and his family. At first I was pretty scared to do this, but what a nice opportunity to meet my potential supervisor in an informal way. The dinner was great, the supervisor and his wife very friendly and the whole evening was a success! Sundays I had a look at the PSI forum, a hands-on museum to discover what kind of research the institute is doing. Furthermore, I prepared the last things for my presentation and interview for the next day. On Monday it was the day of the interview. I got the details about the PhD position, gave my presentation and had my interviews with the big bosses of the research group and with Human Resources, and I had a good look at the big instrument I might be using. The whole day was very relaxed and the position seemed really interesting.
Two days later they had the other applicant, after we were chosen from a total of 24. At the end of the day I got the good news…
They offered me the position!!!
And…
I agreed!!!
Soon after that I started to arrange my movement to Switzerland since I will start on 17 January 2011. The last two months as a teaching assistant I did what I had to do, and I finished my article. Else? I found out what to do with all my insurances, stopped all subscriptions to magazines, found an apartment in Baden, gave my address changes, went a weekend to Baden with my mother to check the apartment and to get the keys, gave goodbye parties for my colleagues of the Meteorology and Air Quality group and for my corridor mates and gave a goodbye party together with my brother for our family.
And there I am, graduated, struggled with finding a nice job, and now just arrived in Switzerland for a stay of three to four years for a PhD position at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen. Time to move! But that’s for the next log.
 The only white daisies field we saw - the Margueritroute is named after these fields. For the first time in my life I went on holiday with a friend. I’ve been on holidays with my brothers and with my study association from my bachelor study back in Utrecht, but this was something new. We borrowed the car of my friend’s parents and headed to Jutland, Denmark for a week.
On Tuesday 10 August we started our journey. Without problems we drove from Wageningen via Apeldoorn to cross the Dutch-German border at Enschede. From there we went via Osnabrück, Bremen and Hamburg to the German-Danish border at Flensburg. At Kolding we headed west to Esbjerg to arrive at our first destination: Billum. All in all it was a good first day, except for the many road works which slows you down to 80 km/h with one good lane and one 2 m wide lane. Billum is one of the many small towns in Denmark, consisting of just a couple of streets. With no Danish krones yet, we drove 3 km west to the next town Oksbøl to get some cash. In Billum we stayed in Billum Kro. Kro’s are just a kind of inn in which you pay for bed and breakfast. In our case all the Kro’s had a restaurant as well.
 My feet in the North Sea at Aargab Strand. During the night it was poring with rain together with heavy wind. Luckily, in the morning we only had a few drops of rain followed by a dry day with from time to time dark clouds but also a lot of sunshine. Today we drove part of the Margueritroute, a signposted route through Denmark along beautiful roads. From Billum we headed north where we had our first stop at Blåbjerg viewpoint at Blåbjerg Klitplantage. Unfortunately the trees were just to high to get a really nice view over the west side of Jutland. We continued our road over a strip of land between Ringkøbing Fjord and the North Sea. This was a really nice road surrounded by dunes and water. We got our feet wet in the North Sea and had a look at the dam and lock at Hvide Sande. Here the fjord and North Sea meet. After a short walk through Ringkøbing we followed the fjord to the south until Sønderby. From there we went east to Skjern and took the big road to Esbjerg. Having a beautiful blue sky and temperatures over 20 degrees we enjoined the sun with a drink in the center of the city. As it was too early to have dinner and we were done walking around we drove north to Varde to eat. Unfortunately it was really quiet there, so we had dinner together with only one couple.
 Den Gamle By - one of the first bicycles. On Thursday the Kro in Billum changed to the Kro in Rold. From Billum we took the highway at Esbjerg to Kolding in the east, followed north via Vejle and Horsens to the highest point in Denmark: Ejer Bavnehøj. At this point of 171 m a tower is built to mark the point. After this short stop we went to Århus to visit Den Gamle By, an open air museum. With the help of a map and navigation system we found the museum, but saw the parking signs leading dead end into the entrance or leading away from the park. No single parking space along the road of the park was available, and after a short detour we saw temporary parking signs. Following this we parked our car in a parking garage and had to walk 800 m back to the park. There we saw that the original parking was gone, and was making place for an extension of the park.
 Den Gamle By. Finally inside the park we found a living image of life in a market town at the time of Hans Christian Andersen (1800s). All kinds of houses from Århus, Aalborg and surroundings, and from the islands Funen and Zealand are filled with historical shops and all kinds of exhibitions to show the life as it was in the 1800s. I liked to see all of this. Unfortunately luck was not really with us today. After the troubles with parking we had problems with the lunch. Before entering the park we tried to find some nice bread rolls but in the supermarkets this isn’t sold. Therefore we bought (expensive) sandwiches inside the park. After entering my PIN code of my credit card twice, and getting it refused both times, I was afraid something was wrong. However, the lady behind the desk wasn’t surprised and restarted the pay desk. Being afraid my credit card might be blocked after three times having problems I tried my normal PIN card. Strangely, this card was refused as well. In the mean time the line of waiting people grew and grew. Having no alternative, I tried the credit card again, and somehow it worked! Finally, we could eat. Afterward we continued our tour but were bothered by heavy rain. Hopping from house to house we finished most of it, before we had to leave in the rain back to our car. More strange things happened when paying in the parking garage. Here my credit card was refused again, but now my normal PIN card was working. I didn’t understand it anymore… The weird day continued with really heavy rain on our way to Rold, over an hour north of Århus and 50 km south of Aalborg. After this unpleasant ride we arrived safely in the Kro, where we had dinner in its unreasonably expense restaurant. And it wasn’t even good food! Hopefully this was our only bad day…
 Vikingecenter Fyrkat.  Mariager Fjord just east of Fladbjerg. The next morning it was chilly with only 16 degrees, but at least it was dry. According to the weather forecast we could expect rain and thunderstorms during the day. However, we only had some clouds and quite some sunshine with temperatures around 20 degrees in the afternoon. First we went to the Vikingecenter Fyrkat in Hobro. In this open air museum nine reconstructed Viking dwellings and workshops are built of oak timber with mud-and-wattle walls and thatched roofs. Inside the buildings all kinds of objects were shown which were used by the Vikings. In one of the buildings we baked our own bread above the open fire. Close to the center a Fyrkat Fort is built. Such a ring fort was used by the Danish Viking king Harold Bluetooth in 980. After all this culture it was time for nature. We drove the Margueritroute south of the Mariager Fjord from Hobro to Hadsund, where we had really nice views over the fjord. From Hadsund we drove north west into Rold Skov. This is a forest area with nice quiet roads and beautiful lakes. We continued our route to the east, to Dokkedal at the Kattegat. Here we spent some time watching the ocean and all the small fish swimming in the shallow water near the coast line. Just south of Hals we had to take a ferry to cross the Langerak fjord. The trip was only about 3 minutes, but we had to wait a total of 45 minutes before we could enter the ferry.  Lindholm Hoje at Norresundby near Aalborg. The small boat could only transfer 8 cars at the same time, and at that time it was pretty busy. Because this took a lot of time we weren’t sure if we could still do what we had planned. We wanted to see Ulsted Molle in Ulsted. This Dutch mill from the middle of the eighteen hundreds was already closed when we arrived after 5 pm. We had more luck at Lindholm Høje at Nørresundby near Aalborg. The museum was closed ten minutes earlier, at 6 pm, but we could still enter the area. Lindholm Høje is a Viking burial site with 700 graves from the period 500 till 1100. All graves consists of large stones placed in a circle, 150 of those are in the form of a ship, in which shape and size indicate the status and gender of the persons inhumed. Most of the burials were cremations, only some were inhumations. This area was really impressive to see. To finish our good day we had dinner at a terrace in the city center of Aalborg. It was nice and lively, but unfortunately my dinner wasn’t that good. After asking for some explanation about Danish dishes I went for Sild. The waitress explained it as just fish which is marinated, and is served with bread and salad. What did I get? About 6 small pieces of raw herring in a sour dressing within a small bowl served with a small amount of salad and two slices of rye bread with butter. I finished my plate, but it wasn’t nice and not enough. Well at least I tried a Danish dish…
 Bracelet from Vikingecenter Fyrkat.  Souvenir from Vikinge center Fyrkat - had to knot the cord myself.  Souvenir from Vikinge center Fyrkat - had to knot the cord myself. On Saturday we had to move again. This time from Rold to the kro in Sønder Omme. We took the 180 from Rold south to Hobro where we continued the Margueritroute to Viborg. We wandered through the city and saw the Viborg cathedral. Unfortunately, we couldn’t enter it since they were starting a funeral. South of the city we had a nice stop at Lake Hald Sø near Dollerup. However, here the fun was over. I noticed that our right rear tire was looking soft. As it wasn’t completely flat we drove the Margueritroute further south until we found a petrol station near Nørre Knudstrup to check the air pressure. Amazingly this was down from 2.4 bar to 0.6 bar! We filled the tire with air and drove about 15 minutes to Vinderslev. There we had a look at the tire and it seemed that it was already getting softer. With the help of our navigation system we drove to the nearest garage and petrol station in Kjellerup. We received the worrying news that everything is closed during the weekend… We checked the pressure, 2.2 bar, and wondered what to do. Finally I called one of my brothers to check the internet to see if something might be open. Luckily he found a dealer with garage in Silkeborg which should be open until 5 pm (by that time it was after 12 pm). The trip took about 20 minutes, and yes, the dealer was open, but the garage was closed. We told someone in the shop for car parts about our experiences and asked for our options. He advised us to buy a repair set which enabled us to repair the leak ourselves, and which should be a definite solution. After having contact with my friend’s parents, we went for it. But of course, nothing was going right the first time. My credit card was, again, not working. So the guy gave us directions for the nearest cash machine. With some delay we finally had our repair set! It is called Slime and works as follows: check the tire for any sharp objects stuck into it, remove all the air by removing the valve, fill the tire with the Slime (a weird green substance with black dots), re-inflate the tire with the generator connected to the car’s battery to the right pressure. Afterward we had to drive slowly for a short while to distribute the substance evenly across the tire. We checked the pressure again, and it seemed to be working. Girl power!!! Two girls fixing a leak in a car’s tire! Carefully we drove to our Kro via the secondary roads 46, 13 and 411 where we safely arrived after about an hour, around 4.30 pm. There we checked the pressure again. It was 2.2 instead of 2.4 bar, but we believed that could be just a measurement error of the small generator. However, we weren’t completely carefree yet. Therefore, we decided to drive the least as possible on our last day before heading home to Wageningen. All in all a strange day which started good but where we had to give up our plans for the last one and a half day.
 Repairing the tire with Slime - completely flat tire.  Repairing the tire with Slime - filling the tire with the remedy.  Repairing the tire with Slime - re-inflating the tire. After some discussion we finally agreed to go the Legoland in Billum at our last day in Denmark, as this was the closest by. This time the weather forecast was actually quite ok. They expected sunshine with late in the afternoon clouds and some rain. Until halfway the afternoon the sun was shining and it was about 22 degrees. A very nice day to be outside. In Legoland it was quite busy but not that extreme. We enjoyed miniland. This is a kind of Madurodam, miniature land, in which all kinds of countries are built out of Lego blocks. I really liked the amount of detail they included in this miniland as well as in the rest of the park. The rest of the park consists of all kinds of activities for children, ranging from duplo land for the youngest children, pirateland, imagination zone, adventure land and knights’ kingdom with varies attractions. We enjoyed some simple roller coasters, water rides and the aquarium Atlantis which were all nice for older people as well. Legoland was a good finish of our holiday.
 Entrance to Legoland in Billund.  Legoland - miniland, Holland.  Legoland - miniland, Lego Safari.  Legoland - dragon at Vikings River Splash.  Legoland - Pirate Boats.  Souvenir Lego city men. So on Monday we had to go home again. After a short while we checked our tire which was still ok. We were more or less certain that the tire was fine again. With good mood we entered the highway and traveled via Kolding to the south into Germany. Just north of Hamburg we checked our tire again and finally we were able to say that we fixed the leak. We continued our journey via Hamburg, Bremen and Osnabrück to the Dutch border near Enschede. Most of the day we were bothered by rainfall varying from heavy rain to drizzle. This combined with the continuous road works made it not very pleasant. But without troubles we made it safely to Wageningen. I was happy to be home but I also really enjoyed this holiday!
 Billum kro  Rold kro  Sonder Omme kro
Just over a week ago at 4 July the air was beautiful in the evening around 22pm.
 4 July 22pm; the sky viewed from my balcony in Wageningen Today, a major storm passed the country with thunder and lightning, wind gusts and heavy rain. Wageningen wasn’t hit so badly, but for an hour the sky was dark, the wind was really strong and the rain was intense.
 14 July 2010 19pm; view on the storm from my balcony in Wageningen  14 July 2010 19pm; view on the storm from my balcony in Wageningen
The Netherlands = occasionally high temperatures (>30 degrees C) for a couple of days = thunderstorms after these few days = major problems
For the last days temperatures were high throughout the country and as usual the expected thunderstorms arrived on Saturday evening. After a beautiful day watching baseball at the Haarlemse Honkbalweek 2010 I spend the evening and night at my parents house. Soon after the start of the World Championship match for place 3 and 4 a big thunderstorm arrived together with poring rain and wind gusts.
We had no problems at all but didn’t notice that some parts of the country were having problems. This, I discovered the next afternoon when I was heading home to Wageningen. From Uithoorn to Amsterdam-Bijlmer-Arena everything was normal. Soon I heard a call from the speakers that no train traffic was possible between Bijlmer-Arena and Schiphol. I wasn’t too bothered by it, since I had to go in the other direction. However, the repetition of the call claimed that no traffic was possible between Bijlmer-Arena, Utrecht and Schiphol. Now I was bothered, cause I had to go over Utrecht.
At first I waited to see what was going to happen, because normally they explain what the alternatives are. Nothing happened and several other passengers tried to find out what to do. Suddenly a train stopped at a different platform, which was going to Utrecht and Nijmegen. I tried to get in, but was too late, as were many others. The NS personnel said that that train wasn’t supposed to stop, and that it was, for sure, the last one going to Utrecht. I wasn’t sure what to do, go back to Uithoorn and try later, or try to find another way. Finally, together with some others I decided to go to Amsterdam Amstel and from there to Utrecht (via Bijlmer-Arena). That train was also delayed, and just in time we went for the tram. After one transfer we arrived at Amstel.
Luckily, trains were driving from Amstel to Utrecht. I got a crowded, delayed train going all the way to my final destination. About 45 minutes later than planned I was home.
The problem???
Lightning stroke at several places around Utrecht causing major problems at the tracks.
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!
Last Tuesday 23 March 2010 I got my master degree. During an official ceremony with 9 other students the head of Environmental Sciences handed over my master degree. A few weeks ago I had to answer some questions and so had my supervisors of my thesis and internship. With these answer the head was able to make a speech without even meeting her before. She had a nice talk and apparently my supervisors were pleased with how I worked in their research group based on the good evaluation they gave me.
After the ceremony we had some drinks in Hotel De Wereld; the famous hotel were the negotiations took place for the Germans to surrender and which ended World War II. I didn’t want to end this special day right there and so my parents, brothers, grandparents and two friends joined me in my room for some more drinks and a nice dinner. Everyone brought flowers and gifts, so my room was nicely crowded with people and presents.
But just celebrating the end of my student life for only one day was not enough. Last night I invited friends and family to have a drink in a bar in Wageningen. With a small group I had a wonderful time to fully celebrate my achievements. My dad gave a nice speech and because I had to follow this, I also said some words. After a really nice evening with more presents and fun I was completely satisfied with celebrating my new title:
Suzanne Visser BSc is now Suzanne Visser MSc!
As I’m almost graduated for my master degree it is time to leave my student life and start my career. Yesterday, at the National Career Market, I gave this a start. All kinds of companies had a stand in the RAI in Amsterdam and during the day workshop were given. I followed a workshop about the future of engineers, one about argumentation during job interviews and one about personal branding. This last one was about who you are and how a company is in terms of its culture, and how to match you as a person with the right company. I thought it would be interesting but it was rather disappointing. This feeling was shared by a lot of persons as many people left the room during the workshop. The first two workshops were interesting and quite useful. The speaker in the argumentation workshop had a very good way to keep the crowds attention. This was necessary as people were sitting everywhere to attend it (couple of hundred people). Everyone had a green and red paper and had to stand. By asking questions with a green and a red answer we showed what we thought was the right answer. The ones that were wrong had to sit down until one person won. After the first question about half the crowd was still standing and after two question some 50 were left. And I? I survived the first question.
Besides the workshops I visited a couple of stands from companies working in my area of interest. But as it was really crowded everywhere I had to wait every time before someone was available to talk to. And every time I started talking to someone and discovered immediately that he or she didn’t know about my area, so I had to wait again until the right person had time. A bit annoying but in the end I got quite some information and a good feeling about the work that is done. It was a good way to informally meet companies and to learn what kind of questions I have to ask and the things I have to know before I can do job interviews.
I was pretty luckily on my way back to Wageningen. From the RAI I took the tram to Amsterdam Amstel and there I saw that an interruption between Utrecht and Arnhem was just over and the trains were starting to go again. The only consequence of this was that the trains were chock full but somehow I found a place to sit. Everyone stopped at the balconies but I entered the seating areas to find a place to stand but luckily there was just one seat left. My sore feet were very pleased with that  At Utrecht the train almost emptied but became full again with people waiting over there. Without problems but pretty tired I arrived back in Wageningen.
So now the time has come to have a detailed look at the websites of the companies and apply to them in order to find a good and nice job.
This dates back about 2.5 years ago. It was the summer before I was going to start my master study in Wageningen. I was in the car with my parents and two brothers and we were talking about my study. I can’t remember exactly what I was talking about but out of nowhere one of my brothers asked me to bet. If I will finish my master study before my brother finishes his PhD he will buy me a dinner and vice versa. If everything would have gone according to plan I should have finished in June 2009 and my brother in August 2009. However, things were different. My brother finished in October 2009 and I?
I will graduate in three weeks.
So I lost the bet and I owed my brother a dinner. Last night we went to a Spanish restaurant called “Toledo” in Wageningen and enjoyed a very nice and delicious dinner.
Maybe I will try to come up with a bet which I’m sure I will win…no, just kidding. We had a great evening and it was a nice excuse to have dinner with one of my brothers.
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The Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC; the group where I’m working now) organizes a summer and a winter weekend each year. The weekend of 29-30 January was time for the winter weekend, also called the snow-event weekend. On Saturday morning we traveled to Axalp, a small village up in the mountains south of the Brienzersee. With several trains and a bus we arrived there after 3.5 hours. About 40 people quickly changed into his or her ski or snowboard outfit and then it was time for action.
