Good vs. bad

Three downers today:
1.       My request for the Saal van Zwanenberg fund was denied. Something with only wanting to give away larger sums of money? Personally, I think 2500 Euros is pretty large. I don’t get it…
2.       I’m studying for this HUGE test for tomorrow on cardiology. A practice exam was posted online, and I was just in awe at the amount of detail. Also, a friend of mine took the course last year, and did the test twice in order to pass. And he’s Asian. Needless to say, my spirit is since gone.
3.       As retail therapy for point 2, I did some online shopping. To my utter horror, the sunglasses I bought had a 50% discount rate yesterday! Still, I got 20%, so not a total loss…

On the other hand, something good did happen:
1.     I bought a pair of sunglasses from Polaroid. Even though the sun isn’t shining. Bite me.
2.     My dad bought my favorite Lady Grey tea in the supermarket in Bilthoven (where he works). Our local supermarket in Houten has been out of the specific tea since last week (even with daily deliveries, according to the staff). So apparently you have  to travel 30 minutes for a bag of tea. Very British, according to my dad.

So because the ‘bads’ are still outnumbering the ‘goods’ I’ve decided to stop studying and watch “the Nanny Diaries” on tv. Not sure if that falls under the good or bad category, but I guess there’s only one way to find out…

Shopaholic

Ah yes, another weekend post. The last two weeks have been kinda tiring, with the final exam of my vaccines course last Friday. Which sucked to say the least, so let’s keep our fingers crossed. However, these last two weeks have been very good for my closet: the need to escape reality, and find a more shopaholic friendly environment has let me to the (Dutch) marktplaats.nl website. Which is basically a giant secondhand store (or “market place”, literally translated) for anything unwanted. In my case meaning clothes and jewelry, but apparently houses, cars and large animals (aka horses) are also welcome. So in the last two weeks I have bought a heavy long wool winter coat (€26.75) and a blue hearing bone matching jacket and skirt (€16.75). Granted, this doesn’t include dry cleaning costs, but I can’t say I’ve ever bought a wool coat for under 30 bucks. However, it does mean regular trips from our local delivery guy to our house, and since it’s always the same guy we’re getting to know each other pretty well by now. And whenever I say “ Mom, I need to tell you something...” her first reaction isn’t “Omg! Are you pregnant?!” but “Omg, what did you buy this time?!”. Gottta love the women :P. So I’m currently waiting for a red blazer (from America Today), bidding on a H&M tan wool cape/poncho, and searching for a green tweed blazer. But please don’t tell my mom.  

With love

Back in routine

Isn’t it amazing how easy you slip back into your old routine after a vacation? I’ve been at it again for 4 weeks now, and it almost seems like I never went away. One week ago I started a new course, which is an extra pull back into reality. Those 3 weeks of writing my thesis were easy compared to the 9 to 5 classes, filled with endless presentations. Although it  is a interesting subject about vaccines and vaccination, after 4 hours of presentations my brain is just swamped with information. And my but is beginning to hurt from the hard chairs. Really, are they trying to make it even flatter than it already is?! Also the weather has taken a turn to the cold, marking the return to normal life. It’s unbelievable: two weeks ago (during my thesis) my friend and I decided to take a break from writing, and treat ourselves to a trip to the Primark and the beach, while wearing shorts and summer dresses. And now, two weeks later, I’m actually wearing the winter sweaters I bought during the hot sunglasses-and-ice-cream Primark trip. The Dutch weather is really the most unpredictable thing… And we are famous for complaining about it ;)
Other good news! My application fund from the Dutch Cancer Society good approved! Finally, after the previous fund rejection some good news. Which sort of feels justified, since we are loyal contributors and my dad did many projects funded by the foundation. Unfortunately, at the same time my friend is experiencing firsthand how lazy and unhelpful a psychiatrist can be. After my bad experience I warned her about taking a (bachelor) thesis position at the children’s psychiatric department, but we were both confident that it wouldn’t turn out as crazy as mine. However, after just 4 weeks she’s beginning to regret her decision. He burns her writing down to the ground, without ever making suggesting for improvement, and told her to work with a statistics program she’s never heard of and has no experience with. He told her to just “figure it out” and seems very reluctant to help her. So she’s asked me if I could help her out, which of course I will try to do as much as I can. But it does make you wander about the profession of psychiatrist. For someone who job it is to talk to people, they seem to have very little communication skills. Luckily I have my program coordinator to stand by my side. She has talked about my previous internship, the supervisor and seemed genuinely shocked and helpful to straighten things out. So I’m happy this thing can finally come to somewhat of a happy end. Anyway, can’t dwell on it anymore now, need to start learning for my exam next week. ;)

Hope you have a nice weekend!

Willemijn

 

Holiday to an end

Well, to be honest it ended two weeks ago, but I've been too busy (and too lazy of course) to post. Although I can't really complain, because writing this thesis feels like a semi-holiday. 1) I can make my own hours (so I take a bus later), 2) I'm situated at the medical library, so no-one is looking over my shoulder making sure I work every minute of the day, and 3) one of my best friends is writing her bachelor thesis at the same time, so we motivate and distract each other at the same time. And she makes for an excellent lunch conversation. There is (of course) only one downside to this thesis: the subject, which is HLA-DP and T-cell education in the thymus, is apparently quite unknown to the world. Or at least until now, no-one found it interesting enough to write much about it or do any proper research. So I'm really scraping the barrel for some good articles. Although I've got a lot on paper, much is about HLA class II in general, and not about HLA-DP specific. Which is of course the reason why my supervisor wanted me to write his thesis/review in the first place, but I feel I could have done more in two weeks, if only there were more articles. I'm planning to email my progress to him tomorrow, so we'll just have to wait and see. Luckily, my dearest friend promised me a trip to Primark to cheer me up, so if all goes downhill from here I've got something to look forward to. And after this week I'll be starting courses anyway, so I'll be gone for the next 6 weeks. Not my idea of a good planning, but that’s the master administration for you, everything at the same time.

So if you are still celebrating your holiday: I’m jealous! And if you just started work or school: I feel your pain!

With love


p.s. I celebrated my birthday this August! Happy me, I turned 22! :D