More newz...

Tjeena!

How are you all doing? We're still enjoying ourselves here in Stockholm. Except for some small details, almost everything in the apartment is we'd like it be. We have finally put up our Dali poster. It took some effort, since you can't find any frame for it that fits. Luckily there was some black spacing left at the edges of the poster so we could cut it to size. So that's hanging nicely now in our 'study room'. Then we also made our own kind of poster/painting/thing-you-put-on-the-wall-for-nice-decoration. We were looking for a poster, but didn't really find a suitable one. We did find a nice peace of cloth, so we figured we could hang that on the wall after nailing it onto some piece of wood. Works perfectly! We found the perfect piece of wood in the dumpster outside the other building. The workmen looked a little puzzled though:

He: JK382 jsdg0 jsfg9025 dfgjsg00 j2j29jgs82jz,n; s dggu483 ?!
We: Sorry, we don't speak swedish yet... What did you say?
He: Where do you live?
We: There, in the other building!
He: Sorry, you can't put your garbage in here.
We: Don't worry! We're taking out garbage! Is that Ok?
He (thinking): Ehhhhhhhhhh, there is no compny policy on taking out garbage, only for putting it in!! Oh no!! What should I do? We should have more rules! Something for the next meeting!!
He: Ehhh, I guess so?
We: Thanks! Byebye!

And there we walked with our brandnew-secondhand piece of wood for our decoration in the bedroom. It looks quite nice! You can check it out on the pictures down below.

Last friday there was a dissertation from someone from a different group but same floor. So for me also a nice opportunity to see what a Swedish PhD defence looks like! Unlike in Holland, there is only 1 opponent who is considered to be an expert on the topic of the dissertation. And then three other people representing the committee. First the candidate has the opportunity to state any mistakes in her manuscript before the defence. Then the opponent gives a small presentation about the background of the subject. After this the candidate gives an overview of here precise subject, and here findings and conclusions. Then the discussion starts, which is only between the one opponent and the candidate for as long as pretty much the opponent likes to, in this case about 45 minutes. Then there is time for the audience to ask some questions, starting off with the members of the committee. It was a nice defence I would say, both very general theoretical questions as in-depth questions about the experiments and conclusions. So now I have an idea what is awaiting me in about 4 years! If I'm able to do it as she did last friday, I'd be a very happy man :).

And then more good news! I more or less heard I can definitely stay! All the time you feel like the decision isn't yours to make. I had already decided for myself I would very much like to stay, so then it's up to your supervisor whether he thinks you can stay or not. So the least you suspect is when he asks you whether you're busy or have a few moments to spare, followed by "do you like it here in sweden and stockholm, you think you would like to stay here?", "Off course!", "Great, I'm happy to hear that, so then we can start some procedures for registration next month". So, that's it! I can definitely stay here for the next 'few' years, I'm really happy about it!

Well, that's it for now. We'll be picking up Bart and Nicole in about half an hour. They're here to celebrate "valborg" together with us. We'll be going to Uppsala on monday, to a Swedish friend of Bart he met in Groningen to celebrate it typically swedish style. Although I think it's more the typically uppsala student style than the swedish style, but it sounds nice anyway! We'll tell you more about it later!
Byebye!

Jeroen

New telephone numbers!!

Hey All,

We finally have 2 Swedish phone numbers. Not that a lot of people will use it, since it is much cheaper to call us by skype. But just in case, you never know. These are our new numbers
Lianne: +46737520857

Jeroen: +46737520856

Yes it is typed correctly, our numbers differ just one number. That happens wen you buy your simcard at the same time :)

Besides buying new telephone numbers a lot more things happened here in Sweden. For instance the temperature suddenly raised to 20 degrees on Saturday, summer in Sweden :). My mother arrived Saturday evening. Also I had some interesting talks with people of my maybe future lab. Still nothing is certain yet, but they gave me the impression that they really want to have me there. What they exactly want me to do there en if they found the money to pay me, I don't know. That we will discuss on the 4th of may, when the prof is hopefully recovered enough from his hart attack to talk to me. I know what I more ore less want to do, so I hope we can work things out.

My mother arrived on Saturday evening for a visit. She will be here for a week. Yesterday we spend a relaxed day in the park near our house, enjoying the sun. Today my mother and I went for a walk around a big lake nearby. Jeroen unfortunately had to work again. A really big lake, because the walk took us around 3 hours. Which was also described in our little booklet, so that wasn't a sup prise. It is a big lake in the city of stockholm surrounded by a big national "city" park. It used to be the gardens and hunting ground on the royal family. The do not live there anymore, but all the buildings and the park are still there and free to visit. It is a beautiful place to escape the business of the city centre. Also the botanical garden is at that lake, which is not really beautiful yet, but it is to early in spring for that. I think it will later this year. They have at least 2 nice greenhouses with tropical plants. So I think you will find me there more often :) What we also found on one of the shores was a rowing club!!! Lucky girl I am. I added some pictures I made during our walk.

3x den Hollander in Stockholm

My father and grandfather arrived safely in Holland again a few days ago. Of course they did not only came here to help us move, but also to get an impression of where we will live the next couple of years. And I think Stockholm left a good impression on them. The weather was nice and sunny, a bit cold, but that's normal here at the time of the year. We visited the old city center together and the day after they went for a ride to see the surroundings of Stockholm wile I was unpacking all the boxes (Joy :S). Of course there are pictures of it all........

Hey,
I arrived!!! Finally after a lot of preparation I arrived safe with all our stuff in Sweden. And all that stuff was a lot!! We, my father, grandfather and me, left wageningen on Monday 13:45 and arrived at the Backvägen 8 o' clock the next morning. By now everything is unpacked and it looks a bit like home already. The apartment is really nice. Big and light. I think I can live here for a while ;)