Slovenia

The debating training Slovenia, is already about to end. It has gone so so fast! By now we have had 5 days of intense training (debating söögi alla - söögi peale, tõsiselt), with 3 different daily lectures plus exercises, plus two full debates every day. So 10 full debates with 5 days plus all the debating exercises!

With Qatar and Netherlands girls and Lebanon hat :)

For me, personally, it has passed with mixed emotions. The entire world is new to me, but not to most people here - most of us are really advanced debaters, who participate in national and international championships  In total, I think, there are people from 13 different countries, so the debates are really interesting. 

Finding myself in this entirely new world was in many ways a big shock for me. But I have made many discoveries, and grown more than in a lifetime. Or ok, maybe not more than in a lifetime, but at least more than on (m)any other consecutive 5 days in my life:

1. The debaters are really like a population group of their own! 

getting henna tattoos :)

They all seem to know each other and are up to date with eachother's results from tournaments, their trainers, progress, partners etc. They even 

have a whole language of their own and some strangest strange inside jokes (but I must admit, despite my initial beliefs, I have started to laugh with them)

2. I have learned so much about the world. 

I know it's not a thing to admit, but really - I don’t know much about the world. I know one is ought to, but I don't. I think it is because for a large part of recent years I have lived without a 

TV. I also don’t have a regular habit of reading the news (I promise, I will develop the habit now), and in general, I have just been so caught up in my own little world – working, moving to Netherlands, studying etc, that this is what goes on in my head, not the general problems of the world as a whole. Basically, shamed to admit, kind of what goes on in my blog is what I consider news :/ :D.

Debating about all these different motions with all the international people (i think we are in total from 13 different countries, including Netherlands, UK, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Qatar, and many more).

3. At times, debating is really uplifting, fun and you really feel like you're making the world a better place. At others, however, it makes me so so so upset. For example: if my lecturer says "I am going to teach you how to make your arguments more important. However, I have to stress that this has nothing to do with reality, but only with how to make your arguments sound more important" (at least he is one of honest ones who admits it). Really. We learn how to make all sorts of random arguments, which seem really relevant and important. Yet, even though they sound important, they stand for a case which we probably all know, would never help the world in any way (that's too strong of a statement, but luckily there isn't a judge in my blog.)

Of course I understand, that in debating, the winner is the team who can prove to the judge that we can come up with good argumentation for and against anything, which makes it a bit more acceptable, but still - I can totally see how politicians are made/trained, and how come they are so vague. 

We are thought to always respond to the oppositions move, and say what ever, in order to win over them. We learn tricks like "oh if they start going on about the poor people, then you bring the children up" and then, by saving the children instead of poor people, we are likely to win (if the arguments are technically ok) and I guess that might be how to get a law passed in real world, and therefore, what the politicians do all the time.

4. There are debaters that know nothing of the world, but have learned really well how to make arguments on different levels and from different political, economical, religious, moral etc aspects. Then, there are debaters, who really have a lot of knowledge about what is going on in the world, what the discussion is about in reality!!! but who are bad at the strategy and techniques. And then, eventually, there are debaters who have the knowledge and the techniques, and these are the ones who are good at debating.

5. I hate when people scream!

I felt so cheated when I first arrived here! The moto of Wageningen debating club is "don't raise your voice, improve your argument". But they scream like crazy! Of course, it is not promoted, and also not all debaters do it, but yet, it is so disturbing. I often feel like there is only a little something holding a person back, and when that breaks, they will jump off the podium and come kill me for nothing. That's how emotional debating gets! And I get really disturbed by that and always start feeling somehow sad or bad and want them to stop - I always thought i am quite tough, but apparently not.

6. There is a whole new level of fast speaking - a debater level. I should maybe explain how the entire debate works, to make it more easily understandable, but basically, if a native English speaker who is also, what seems to be like "native" debater, speaks, it is...really, an entirely new level of speed! Maybe the guys who work at auctions practice at debating first.

It is maybe a strategically wrong place to start explaining how the debating works, here at the end, but I do it anyway.

The type of debating we do is called the British Parliamentary (BP) and goes like this:

In total there are 4 teams of 2 people, and a judge, who we are all trying to convince. Two teams - one "opening team" and one "closing team" are at the government side, and two on the opposition, and each speaker has their own role.

Firstly, each team gets to know what position they will be on. Then, the "motion" is released. The motion is whatever we are going to debate about, and in a form of "This house would/should/believes/ etc." For example "this house would ban all advertisements."

Then there is 15 minutes to prepare before the debate starts, where each team has to come up with good arguments.

At the debate each speaker has 7 minutes to speak, where first and last minute are "safe" but during the other 5 minutes, other teams can try to ask you questions, to show to the judge that your case and arguments are weak or not logical, and thereby they are better. It is good style to take at least 1 question, but still not to take too many, because then you don''t have time to explain your own case. (However, through out your speech, the others would normally be standing up shouting "Madam!" or "..Before you move on!" etc, where you just have to keep on speaking and wave them to sit down.)

First the opening government goes, starting with the prime minister. The pm explains the problem, defines it, and brings up ca 2 arguments for the motion. Then, it's the opposition's turn. They have to go with the prime ministers defintion, and just give their opinion on the governments arguments and present their own. Then, thirdly, its the deputy prime minister, who tries to rebuild their case by rebuting (=putting down) the oppositions arguments, and presenting some more of their own. And then, the deputy of opposition will finish the "first half" putting the government's arguments down again, presenting more of opposition arguments, and then making a little conclusion of the first half, while explaining, why the opposition has won.

Then the second half - closing government and opposition go. The first speaker of each team in the second half, has to "extend the discussion" by adding some arguments/dimensions which weren't mentioned or explained in the first half (so you have to have MANY arguments when preparing, so they wouldn't get used by the first half). And the last speaker of each team, called the "whip" speaker, has to conclude the entire debate, by giving the judge a good overview of what happened and which arguments were presented, and why obviously, your side (government or opposition) and especially your team (opening or closing) has won. The whip, however, is not allowed to bring any new material into the debate.

Then the judge gives points to each speaker for role fulfillment, speech, and some other things, I am not sure of. And then the winning team and the best speaker of the debate are announced.

So this kind of crazy structure! And then you can only imagine me at my first debate, having just arrived to this entirely new crazy-seeming world, still not being sure what to think of all thesis. Then finding out that I am the whip of the debate (=have to make the conclusion), everybody else is experienced debater, many of them are native English-speakers, and the motion is "This house regrets the rise of anti-hero in media".

The motion meant all kinds of "heroes" from batman to the guy making meth at Breaking Bad, where the "heroes" are someone who do something bad or illegal or violent, but we still like them.

As already mentioned - I dont know much about the world. So you can imagine how my conclusion went about a debate where everybody seemed to be able to speak faster than anyone I have ever met in my life, and where I (knowing nothing about most popular TV series) couldn't even differentiate between the various examples of heroes and and antiheroes and therefore not see what they are meant to be the examples of. Welcome to debating, huh! (at least it was easy to make a progression from that point on ;))

Well, anyway, as mentioned, the week has gone fast, has been busy, and I have developed in many ways. Tomorrow, we will move out of our fancy and lovely hotel, go to an excursion, and then to Ljubljana, to start with the tournament. Tomorrow evening, there are two first debates, then 3 debates on Saturday, and then the semifinals and finals on Sunday.

Everybody has to participate the first 5 debates, from where, according to the scores, some teams get on to debate on Sunday.

We'll see how it goes. However, I don't have too high expectations, taken everyone's level, and I will just go to do my best and see how far we get :). My patner, Nany, is really really good as well, so at least we have a chance of being successful :).

Then, on Sunday evening, we will be flying back home to Netherlands. I have really really enjoyed Slovenia, both the debating, but also the nature. We are up at the mountains and it is so so beautiful! With the cold and snow it feels so like home and like Christmas! And also the food is much more similar to good home Estonian food, than it is in for example Denmark or Netherlands. The other day I was having mulgikapsas ja tatatar! Just like heaven!

This kind of long debating post, and now, picture time! :)

I thought I'm not even on the list, but there I was!

doooog!

Trip to Denmark

Aka Kui Kirsi viimaks lennujaama jõudis, oli “final call for the missing passenger” juba valjuhäädites käimas.

I am back from Denmark :). Life is an adventure as ever, so I had quite some nerve-wrecking moments on the way to Eindhoven airport on my way to Denmark, and only with EVERY persons help I finally made it. What happened was, that when planning my journey (2 busses, 3 trains) to the airport, I asked my friends how long they think it’ll take. They guessed that about 2 hours. To be sure, I used a Dutch website, which showed more or less the same. So I saved myself 3,5 hours and started going directly after the morning lecture. However, I don’t know if the trains were slower or delayed or what, but it took MUCH more time than two hours.

Luckily I didn’t have any luggage and had done online check in, but the gate to the plane opened, when I only arrived to the city of Eindhoven, from where I still had to take a bus trip to the airport. So already on the train I asked a girl if she knows the train station well, and can tell me where the bus stop is. Luckily she could. At the bus stop, there was a man whose job was to arrange people on the busses etc. I told him about my situation and that there’s only 25 minutes until the gate closes, he said the bus ride takes 20 minutes, so “don’t worry, you’ll make it”. Only that I had to miss the first bus to the airport, and take a next one, which should come in 2 minutes, because that drives a shorter route. I asked if taxi is faster, but he guessed it’s not as it was almost 17:00 and much traffic. So with heart banging out of my chest I let the first bus to airport drive away without me and stayed waiting. The man was very nice and kept telling me it’ll be alright. Then the right bus came, he led me on it and said to the bus driver how much in a hurry I was. The bus driver said to me that he can’t risk other peoples’ wellbeing and can’t arrive too early to stops, so there’s not much he can do for me, which I said is fine as he could probably only save me a minute and I needed much more. BUT. As soon as the last passenger got off the bus, he started going SO fast :D. Then he called me up to where he was, and started telling me about the airport. He said he will do something completely illegal and drive the bus in front of the airport where the taxis stop. Then as soon as the doors open, I should just run as fast as my feet can, to the furthest end of the airport (“but don’t worry, it’s a not that big, you will make it” ;)), so he did. I arrived like a queen to the main door of Eindhoven airport with a personal city bus and –driver. By that time it was 16:48 and the gate closed 16:50. So I got off the bus and ran like an insane person :D. Luckily, in the line for showing the boarding pass, before the security, about 70% of the line let me pass, but then there was a family who said I can’t pass them because everybody has to stand in the line. So when I finally showed my boarding pass it was 16:50 (and indeed, the final final call for the Missing passenger for flight to Cph was going). I asked the woman if I can still make it, but she said “no sorry, the gate is closed” to which I looked at her and asked “but..could we try?” she was quiet for a second, and then said “yeah sure! I see what I can do”.

So next stop security – I explained the situation again, but as the staff just said “do as fast as you can,” I stood to the end of the line, but then suddenly one of the workers ran to me, screaming: “Excuse me MISSS,  WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU’LL MISS YOUR FLIGHT!!,” so she grabbed my bag, passed all the line, pulled me with and basically threw my bag to the machine, then they all were pulling my coat and boots off, rushing me to the metal detector, gathering my laptop and liquids to the bag again, threw it back to me and went all together like “ruuuuuuuuun!!!!”. So I did. There were three workers at the gate (gate 1, thank God) waving to me as the recognized me, (it was 17:53, insane how slow time goes in situations like that), and said it had been no problem waiting for me. :).  As soon as I got into the plane, the doors were closed and it was moving even before I reached my seat.

Oh my something how crazy that was. Also cause I didn’t want to let Agnes in Copenhagen or anybody in Aarhus know, not to make them worried before they had to. And then my next instinct was calling to mum, but that was kind of the same way pointless. Luckily, I had helpful friends from Wageningen with me via cheering SMS-s, that I can do it. Huuh. And thanks to everybody, from the girl in the final train, to the man at the bus stop, the bus driver, the people in the lines and the airport workers, I did it. Crazy experience, and next time I’ll be going somewhere I’ll save the entire day :D.

Anyway, about the trip – Wednesday evening and Thursday with Agnes in Copenhagen were so nice. So good to see old friends and talk about our new lives. Train from Cph to Aarhus was annoying as ever – every time Im on that train, I am too excited to exist and caaaan’t wait to get off. But it was also nice to sit there and look at the familiar road. Many big thoughts of my life at different stages have been thought on that exact train route. Obviously, then, to make my waiting longer, there had been a traffic accident on the high way and we had to stop for about 30 min. By that time I couldn’t take the excitement anymore, gave up and fell asleep, only to wake up in good old Aarhus :)

.

There’s a poster saying “Aarhus is not just a city, it’s a feeling”. And that’s so true. I had loads of good fun, ate good foods and met the best best people ever. Strange, but I think in Netherlands, I have been Aarhus-sick much more than homesick. And it was so lovely to know the local language, know where buses go, know what street is where, where to go and what to do. And I got so many hugs that there’d be probably ca 2 for every day I’ve been away from there :).

As uni is going and trip to Slovenia is waiting, I finally pulled myself together today, got on the train and left. Now I’m on my 12 hour train journey, which just got prolonged by an hour because of a train – delay, and now I have to see how my connecting trains are going to go. Hopefully it’ll work out.

There is always something special about leaving a new home town for the first time. As crazily as my leaving went, I still had time to think about it (especially in the start, when I was sure I have more than enough time for anything). It was so nice to be in Aarhus, too. And to think about it – for me it was much easier to move to Aarhus than it was to move to Wageningen. Somehow everything fell into place really quickly there and was exactly the kind of life I wished for. Wageningen is small. And slow, and quiet. And one’s entire existence evolves around the student life. Which is of course nice, but not at all what I am used to. When I left Aarhus, I had a job, money, boyfriend, friends – entire life. Now I’m in Wageningen, live in my little container-home, study six times harder than I ever have in Denmark, and still get only half as good grades. Whereas all my friends in Aarhus are still enjoying the cool life, and Agnes lives in Copenhagen, where there’s so much to do and life is definitely bigger than uni. So..it wasn’t that easy to head back for Wageningen. 

(Congratulations me! – I am now on the train that was 30 min delayed to start with, and we have just stopped the engine in the middle of nowhere and no one tells us what’s going on. Yay!)

Well anyway – I think that before I left Wageningen I felt way more happy about it, than I do now. However, I also feel that seeing all the autumn world passing kilometre after kilometre, my heart grows more and more calm and quiet, and I am actually already looking forward to getting back to the life in Wageningen. (uujee, and the train started going again :)) Even though I won’t have more than Thursday and Friday to be back there, I am looking forward. And then on Friday night me and Nathalie from my debating club will be heading for Amsterdam, to fly to Slovenia early on Saturday morning. I am so fed up with all the practical aspects of traveling, but really looking forward to that trip.

I also hope that it will take my mind off this (..the train stopped AGAIN) post-Denmark down being, and I also cant already wait to just having a quiet life in Wageningen after all the trips, only studying and doing well. (and it moves again :)).

So that kind of thoughts from late-autumn Europe and my life. I would sincerely like to thank the Dutch people for being SO lovely and helpful, and believing in me in my moments of panic, maintaining cold nerves and telling me that I’ll make it ( I know these specific people probably don’t read my blog :D, but anyway ). And confused or not confused – at least in my presentation about Wageningen UR at my old university in Aarhus, I recommended all the girls to come and study there – life is easy and at least you can get very smart if you try.

Sadly I was having too much fun to take photos in Denmark, but I will check if I have some, when I finally get there, and post this post.

I’ll write again after Slovenia, and wish you all the best!

Kirsi.

Pictures with me and Agnes ALWAYS end up looking like that

..and the best one is not much better

Selfymasters

and another great well captured party

p.s. I also had some time meanwhile to read my own blog. I am so embarrassed – 362 people read the post about survival run, and I only now noticed that I (just after bragging about being smart and a scientist), switched the words “horizontally” and “vertically” :/ :D:D. I am sorry about that and thought I’ll mention that actually I do know what these words mean.

That’s all. Be good and bye!

Monday

Hei-hei!

Just another gray autumn day, huh? Doesn't matter much for me, Im feeling very happy! :)
I got all the grades now. Statistics and Scientific Skills Training were 7.5 and Epidemiology 7.
And I am so so so excited about going to Denmark on Wednesday! It is not just the excitedness of that trip Im feeling, but also, after Denmark, there'll be Slovenia almost straight away, and then only 1 week of classes, 1 free week to study on our own, and then exam week and home and Christmas! So it feels like after Wednesday, all this will happen, and it almost makes me jump around in my little apartment, because I dont know how to express my great joy :D.

To make sure my great joy will also be great joy, I am trying to be as good as possible with everything at uni and study as much as I can. So I've been going over all the things we have done so far, and trying to read a bit ahead. In that way it will be easier in the study week, I hope. And its ok. I feel like I understand whats going on and whats going to happen. But still, I would instead like to go out running or to the gym (now that Im a member I'd like to be there all the time!) and read books and watch movies etc. So I have to keep reminding myself that there'll be plenty of time to have fun in Denmark and Slovenia, and its good I'm making the last efforts here. It also isn't helpful at all that I've lost my agenda, where I was writing everything I have to do when and where. And I mean, who even loses their agenda? Isn't it quite a random thing to lose? But I wouldn't be me if nothing would happen, so I guess it is what it is.

I don't know how I feel about autumn. Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees now, and it gets dark before I get home from uni. But it's fine I guess. And peaceful. It makes me want to take walks in rubber boots and to listen strange cheesy songs like anything from Lana Del Rey or this another-gray-autumn-day-song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geYuZ_neEE4 , think of previous life experience and be very reflective and thoughtful. Why not. :).

I hope and believe that life is still a good place to be, and that we all remember that! :). Happy autumn!

Me.

Ooops!

I forgot to introduce my dog.
It is ok to have pets in our apartments, and I have so so often missed having a pet, which then must be a dog, as that's the only animal I'd like to have. On the other hand, getting a dog would be the worst and most selfish idea ever, as I am at uni most days, want to travel, and under the current assumption only live here for 2 years. So it was a perfect coincidence that I found that little homeless dog and decided to rescue him about 3 weeks ago.
So, everybody, pleased to introduce you, this is my dog Tommy:

Tommy is a nice dog and I keep him as a promise that I won't be taking any pets until a long time from now.

Good night! :)

About exams, lab and scientific research methods ;D

Howdy-ho!

Period 2 is going on full speed already, so I'd like to quickly conclude period one and the exams, write a bit about what we are doing now in period 2, and what I've been up to besides studying :).

Exams went fine :). I passed epidemiology, but don't know the grade yet, and got 7,5 out of 10 for statistics. Maybe the results aren't quite what I expected in the start and what I am used to get, however, I feel like I understand these subjects now better than I have before, when I've passed with higher grades. This is nice to know - it shows that the level here, at Wageningen University, is much higher, and when normally it is not to say easy, but at least doable for me, to get high scores, then here, with the same amount of studying, I am only somewhere in the middle with the "medium" grade, showing how much more they actually expect us to know. That is very motivating, and I am willing to put hard work into it, to learn as much as possible here.

Now period 2 has started, and I like it much better than the first one. The workload is bigger, and study material is a bit harder to grasp, but my two courses are Nutritional Physiology and Methodology in Nutritional Research, which are somehow much more "real" to me. We learn what goes on in the body and how to research that, and it is easy to see the relevance of that and its connection with my future career. This is not to say that epidemilogy or statistics is not relevant, but they are just a means of understanding the real thing, which is what actually happens in the body when we eat, starve or exercise.
And we are really finding out much about that! There are lectures, group work, and lab practicals. I have never been to a lab before in my life (actually my entire experience is limited to looking at a piece of hair and a slice of onion through a microscope once in my life, in about 9th grade), but now I suddenly have my own personal lab coat, glasses, and I know how to do things at a lab! It's very exciting. It is also easy to study it all with my course, because most of us seem very at home and know exactly what they are doing.
In my first practical we looked at how protein is digested in human body - in the stomach and in the small intestine. Basically, nothing which we expected from reading the book, happened (:D), but it is still such a nice way to learn! It makes things much more clear and easier to remember, when we go like "ok, now we pretend we are in the stomach so we add a little bit this acid; and now we are going to small intestine, so this one comes in and makes the environment more alkaline again". And all the steps our protein has to go trough according to the protocol, are exactly the ones which were described in the book, so in the next lecture I totally remember the things, what happens and why. Also, it turns out that I am not too clumsy for lab at all, I was fine :).
Here I am, little happy lab nerd ;)

Currently, we are designing and carrying out our own little intervention studies, and participating in our course-mates' studies. That is so odd. Basically we are learning about biomarkers. Knowing how full of errors the information from lets say a food records can be, when wanting to measure the actual energy intake (people cant remember or cant´describe exactly how they were cooking, or want to pretend that they eat more than they do or less and we dont know the exact nutrient composition of the type of food they're eating etc etc), we would like to know if there are components in the diet (and therefore in the body after you've eaten your diet), which we could measure. So each of us has to record what we eat, what we do, and then gather 2 times 24 hour urine samples.
A 24 hour urine sample means that you gather your entire urine for these 24 hours in a container. There are pills we have to take, so we could later check in the lab if the urine sample is complete (the pills are not used for anything and therefore excreted in the urine in the same amounts as they were in the pills), so we cant cheat. And so we all just walk around with a 3-liter container in our purse or packbag and pee in it every time we have to, for 48 hours in total. It is so strange. I went to lecture today, and normally after the lecture we all sit and chill and study at campus; today, as soon as we were off, people were rushing home to pee :D. Also, if you do have it in your bag, the liquid in the plastic container makes the sound, so everyone can hear how much pee you're carrying around and...ooh...it is all so so so strange. Also, it needs to be stored in a fridge. I really dont know. At least it totally increases my respect to people when I read studies like "..Thirty 24-hour urine samples were collected for each participant.."
It's Helen's birthday today and we are going to a restaurant for dinner later. That should be good fun with the containers ;D.
Well anyway. After we have gathered the samples, we will analyse them, and try to see if the intake reported on the food record is in any kind of relation with the biomarker (eg. urinary sucrose for sugar and sucrose intake, or nitrogen for eating protein). And then, if we discover that it always corresponds the same way to intake, then in the future we could just make everybody collect their pee for us rather than having a food diary or a recall, so we would know exactly what they're eating and could give them good advise, or at least could know if and how much they are lying about the food records. Obviously the teachers already know the answer, so we are not actually discovering anything, but all the nastiness aside, I think it is actually a rather cool way of studying ;). Eventually we will write a report on everything we did, which is basically like an article which could be published in a scientific journal or like a mini masters thesis.
This is the big lab work for one subject, and there will be plenty more in the other. So I get to use my lab coat many times, so cool! :)

I have really lived into this student life, and gotten used to the constant overflow of all kinds of study materials and texts (as opposed to the start of period 1, when it frustrated me so much that I felt I never have any time for anything besides reading at all). Suddenly I feel how I am in a constant rhythm of studying and doing other things, little at a time, but enough of everything. I am keeping up with the same hobbies - I run, yoga (also with youtube, still ;)), debate and learn Dutch. With winter coming, I have also started to do a little bit chrocheting (? heegeldamine ;D), which is fun, and I can do it while I read for uni, so even better.
One day, the Saturday after the last exams, I went to a bit bigger city than Wageningen, to Utrecht with my neighbor Ben and his Belgium friend, and spent a nice day there. It's funny, I am originally a small town girl and should be used to peace and quiet like in Wageningen. But when we went to Utrecht and I saw the first H&M, my heart jumped with joy of recognition like "whoow, we've gotten back to real world with H&M and traffic and not one cow in sight" :D. Yeah, it was very nice to be there, but even better to then come back to our own little peace and quiet Wageningen, which I've really started to appreciate and consider much homeish.
On top of that I've had some nice dinners with my Indian, German and Indonesian neighbours, with my AID "dad"-s and couple of other friends. I've been to one party too, but no..I think parties here are too much like a high-school disco, and possibly I myself am becoming too old or academic to enjoy them the same way I did. But anyway, life is totally happening, and I like it :).

The next weeks are also going to be interesting :). On 11. November, I will go to Denmark for a long weekend, to bring some of my stuff, attend an early Christmas party, see friends and have a lot of fun! (I guess whether or not I still like partying will be demonstrated there :D). After that I will be back at Wageningen for a week and then go to a 10-day debating training camp in Slovenia. I am so looking forward! And in December, I am going to participate in my first debating competition! After that there are already exams again and Christmas with home and family in Estonia!! Time goes so fast. But I am sure that plenty of funny happenings will fit between right now and Christmas, and I'll make sure to write about them ;).

The blog has recently again become so much about me and what I do, think, and am, but I am thinking, and will try, to write about something health-related and more interesting/relevant to everybody, soon. Just not about urinary sucrose :/. I wait til I get a better topic ;).

Long post as ever, maybe next one will be short and precise ;D.

I wish you all all the best, be happy, be active and enjoy the last autumn weathers before very soon welcoming the winter and Christmas! ( I joined gym!! :) in case it gets too cold or muddy for running).

Ciao!

little bit of Utrecht

autumn from window at uni

and happy me and Helen after the first exam at Wageningen UR. This will become a historical picture for when we are old and scientists ;)