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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