Julia's travels

The internship

I’m going to start this second post with the main reason of my stay at Woods Hole. This will probably be the most serious part of this post and you are allowed to skip it. It will also be the shortest though 🙂

In the past two weeks, I have been preparing for the experimental part of the internship: designing the experimental set-up, writing down a protocol etc. Next week, I’m going to see the animals at MBL and we’ll move them to WHOI and start with the experiments in January.
So far for the internship.

The lab

The setting in which my internship takes place is far more interesting and as far as I’m concerned one of the best places I’ve ever been to do research. The lab facilities are fantastic and everything is done to promote a good work atmosphere. I went down to the library for some books and got to sit in the reading room just for the sake of it and for the comfy chairs. Otherwise, if I need a book, I can order it through the library website and someone will bring it to me from down town. Other lab services include the shuttle between the Quissett campus (where I’m sitting) and the Village campus; small vans are driving between the different WHOI locations all day and you can just hop on and off when you need to go somewhere, an interesting talk for example. There are talks about different marine subjects several times a week, with speakers from WHOI and from other research institutions and universities. I went to one talk for now and it was really interesting (especially the hot drinks and cookies at the entrance, the talk was about sharks though, I remember that).

A peculiar thing at the lab is that lots of people take their dogs with them to work. Both my house mates bring their dogs to work, my supervisor does, I think everyone who owns a dog does. I guess they have some kind of dog-allergy-test during job interviews… “Well, nice C.V., I really like your motivation but uhm… your dog allergy… I’m sorry, we’ll have to hire someone else. Thanks for the interest”. There has been research about the well-being and relaxation that result from being around animals and petting dogs and cats and I have to say, these dogs do just that. They require their owners to walk outside several times a day, a good habit to have when you spend most time of the day behind your computer. The dogs also walk around in the building and they sometimes pop in our students’ office. So you’d be busy with your proposal or data analysis and here comes a fluffy friend 🙂 Two minutes away from your computer screen, talking baby talk and saying the most stupid things to the wandering stranger (“oh yes you’re a good doggie dog you’re so pretty aren’t you sweet oh goodie no I don’t have cookies for you yes I know that’s so bad oh I know sweetie doggie dog”) and going back to work, totally relaxed. We don’t do breaks other than the lunch break but these dog-elicited-micro-breaks are just perfect.

I guess also at WHOI people apply the american principle “work hard, play hard”. As I just wrote, no morning or afternoon breaks, just a lunch break, but people (supervisors, postdocs, students…) often pop into an office for a small chat or to show something. Hard work is definitely taking place here! Play hard also though and, besides good research facilities, WHOI also provides good play facilities: a fitness trail in the woods, everything needed for softball/baseball, tennis, basketball, beach volleyball, parties…

The life

Working roughly from 8.30 to 17.00 and without any other obligations leaves lots of time for all kinds of social activities. One of my house mates (Robin) often has people coming over to the house for dinner and hanging out together, talking about all kinds of things and listening to music. On other nights, we’d just all sit around reading with some jazz playing in the background, a cup of tea and the reassuring snoring of the sleeping dog.

I also discovered the trivia here (pubquizzen!!! Teamnaam: The Flying Dutchwoman, jaja!). The one I went to consisted of four rounds of 16 questions (instead of the usual eight rounds of ten questions); the quiz master would announce the theme of the questions at the start of every round (geography, music, history…). Then, we would get the first question and have one song (literally just a song playing) to hand in the answer and the number of points we wanted to get from that question. The first two rounds were worth 20 points (2, 4, 6 or 8 points to give to every question, every value can only be used once), the third and fourth rounds were worth 16 points (1, 3, 5 or 7 points). So if you’re sure you got the right answer, you can earn lots of points; if you’re not so sure about your answer you can go for less points. Between rounds 2 and 3, there is a questionnaire that can earn you more points and at the end of the evening, there is a final question for which you can bet your total score or part of it (did not totally get how that works yet). So to sum it up: trivia in Woods Hole is not only about how broad your knowledge is, it’s also a highly strategic game.

On Sunday, I biked the whole Shining Sea bike path, most of it without holding on to the handlebars. This may seem like peanuts for some of you but facts are: when I came to the Netherlands, I was dreaming about finally getting myself to learn how to bike with my hands tucked deeply into my pockets. It took me six months of failing to find out that, really, it wasn’t about me, it was about my bike letting me down. It took me six days to learn it here and be confident enough to let go off the handlebars most of the time… It took me a trip to the other side of the ocean to get in touch with my inner Dutchwoman. Oh that sounds so cheesy, please do forget about this last line.

So other things of interest… I have been dating daily since Tuesday, getting back early from work so we can enjoy the sunset at my house together, before the other house mates come back from work. I met him on the internet past weekend and got to see him in real life on Tuesday. He lived in Falmouth but has since Tuesday moved in with me; he is chinese but the quality of his sound is better than I expected from a chinese one. So big news: I got a violin! Well, I hired one for the length of my stay, and I can’t keep my hands off him! Think I got some people reading the last lines very fast now, haven’t I? (“Oh my god, she is dating someone… OMG, OMG, OMG”). That’s 10 points for me now 😛

Another happening that is of some interest for you: there was a party last Saturday. I have heard that it doesn’t always happen this way but it felt like I was in one of those american movies, I swear, it was so funny! It was all in the details, like those big red plastic cups. I have always thought they look so stylish in movies; in real life, they are definitely more stylish than the small, white goblets we have back home. It was also in how people interacted with each other and the talks and the music. The thing that really topped it off though, the cherry on the cake, was when Jared and I were almost ready to go back home and there was a whole group of people in the hall. “What’s happening? What’s happening?” – “Don’t know, seems like there are two people locked in that room” – “Oh no, really, who? Who’s in there?” – “Are they making out?” – “OMG, but it’s not someone living in this house right?” Yup, just like in the movies 🙂 So a couple making out in one of the rooms there, the guy living in that room not so amused, people trying to open the door… They finally got to open the door but the couple had gone out through the window 😀 Yup, that’s how we roll here in Woods Hole! Fantastic action though, good enough to tell on for many, many generations to come!

Happy and alive

I’ll end this post with some thoughts I’m not sure everybody will understand. First because it is really difficult to explain the following in plain words, secondly because it’s about a state of mind or a state of being and it is so much easier to understand it when you have already experienced such a state of being. For people already losing me at this point: you are very welcome to keep on reading and I hope you’ll one day feel it and go “that’s what she meant” because it feels incredibly good!

It is a kind of happiness that comes from deep within, it has nothing to do with the superficial “I’m so happy”-things. Wherever I’m walking, there is a kind of peace coming over me and I feel alive. I’m active and doing things and at the very same time, I’m contemplating everything around me. I was completely surprised when I realized that I actually got the time to sit and watch the sunset, listen to music I like and read a book (the first one in a very long time!) after a day at the lab; and in the end, I realized it wasn’t about having experienced all these things in one evening, but about how I felt that evening. There was balance, happiness, contemplation, peace, feeling alive, feeling like I belonged to the place and time I had been in that evening, grace, feeling myself. I’m not scattered all over the place anymore. Being in a totally different time and place puts me together and I can finally live in the moment again, instead of having to plan things and live in the “what if” part of the future. I’m just there.

I did my best to explain how I feel but it’s not really clear to me either. If this last part looks like total nonsense to you (it does to me!), pat yourself on the shoulder and just remember that you’re not the only one not getting it. I hope this short summary will in that case be sufficient to ease your mind: I am happy and I feel alive!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 16th, 2011 at 19:55 and is filed under Geen categorie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.