be a scientist

It seems that I will be going to Prague in february! Woohoo! The university there has accepted my (and my classmates) admission. The exact program has to be determined still. I will follow at least 5 courses, but may be one or two will be added. Right now I still have to get my school accept the program and apply for a scholarship. After that we need to find a place to live in Prague, but I’m quite confident we’ll find something. I’m excited about going. Another thing is I’d really like to learn some Czech. I’ll ask the contactperson at my school to see if I can follow a course Czech there. I’m sure they have something like that for foreign students. I’m hoping all things will be taken care of soon and I can start looking forward to my time in Prague!

My internship is also still fun! I only have 7 weeks left, so time is going fast! I really need to start worrying about my reports and things like that, because I have to finish in time. Otherwise I’ll get in trouble because I’ll be in Prague. I still have enough time to write my reports and such, so no worries!

hey i am a new one… i hope to get adjusted soon

Woohoo! My final mark for the internship is an 8! I’m so very happy about that. I worked hard and I think I really deserved an 8, so I’m delighted that I also got that 8. Now I have my mark for the internship it is really a closed chapter. I’m in possesion of another 30 ECTS (well offcourse it takes a couple of weeks before those credits are assigned to me)!

Also last week I started with the final year of my studies. The first semester (20 weeks) will be my final internship and the last semester will be my minor. So, monday I started with my final internship and the first week has been fun. Offcourse I had to read a lot of articles and other things, so I didn’t do much experiments yet, but I’m excited about the project. I won’t tell too much about it yet, because first I need to get things rolling. The project is about research on bladder cancer and I’m working in the urology lab. The people at my new place seem very nice. Offcourse I don’t know them that well yet, but I think I can get along with them very well. Also this friday we had a teambuilding day, not only with the lab, but also with the people from the hospital. We went to a survival ‘playground’ so we had to climb over all sorts of obstacles and such. Everyone was divided into 6 teams and we had to compete. It was a very nice day, besides the survival thing we also went kayaking and had to build a raft. I really enjoyed myself and I got to know the people a bit better. I’m hoping the next weeks will be as fun as the first one, but I’m pretty sure they will be.

As for the minor, there is a chance I might be going to Prague with a friend/classmate to study there for a semester! They’re trying to put a schedule together for us right now, so I have to wait for that to become more clear. I’d really love to go to Prague! I’ll keep you posted about further updates on the subject :).

I haven’t updated my progress on this goal for a looooooong time. So, where to start. My internship is over and I’ve had some vacation in the mean time. I think I’ve done pretty well on the itnernship. Eventhough I didn’t finish the project fully, but that was not my fault. Some things didn’t work out the first time and it took me a bit to get them back on track. That just happens in science sometimes. In the end I did get quite far anyway and my supervisor would have had the same problems with this if he had done it himself.

I’ve finished my research report and reflection reports. I so hate reflection reports. It feels like school needs to find something to keep us busy and they make us do reflection reports. Anyway, it is all finished now and I handed it in last thursday. Everyone was already on holiday when I finished it, so I couldn’t hand it in any sooner. And to speak the truth I was struggling a bit with the reflection reports. They are not hard, but just a pain in the ass to do. Next thursday I will have my assessment and I will get my final grade for the internship. My supervisor at the internship gave me a 8 (out of 10, with 1 being lowest and 10 being highest)! I’m so very happy about that and I hope school will go along with this 8. But I’ll have to wait ‘till thursday for the final grade. I think I deserved the 8, because I did work hard and everything went well. They could have gotten worse students. For me 8 is also the highest grade possible. A 10 is out of the question for an internship, since you cannot do everything perfect. A 9 would be best, but in order to get a 9 you must work at a level of a professional that has a few years experience. I don’t have that. It was my first internship, so it was only the start of my scientific carreer. Still, I don’t know everything, but I also still need to do my final internship. So, the 8 fits me perfectly. Ok, I’ll stop about my grade now, since it is not final and who knows it may end up being a 7 if school feels that a 7 would be more appropriate.

Anyway I learned a lot from my internship and I really enjoyed it as well. I can definately see myself working as a research scientist.

So, what’s next? Next week I’ll start my final internship at the university of Nijmegen. I’ll be doing research on bladder cancer and the project is more applied than the last internship, where the research was more fundamental. I like the fact that I’m going to do more applied research now, so I can see how that is. I’ve already figured out that I like to research at an university, instead of a farmaceutical company for instance.

After my final internship I still have to do a minor of half a year. Don’t know what though, but I’m also not going to look at that very soon. First the internship needs to take off and after that I’ll see what I’ll do in about half a year.

Also, I’ll try to keep everyone updated more often about my internship, because this goal is one of the more important goals on my list :).

hi my name is jacob.my favorite color is orange

So, time to tell some more about my internship. I’m half way done right now and I’ve started to write a bit for the report I need to finish in the end. I still enjoy my internship a lot. The work is nice and it is going well! I work with DNA a lot, which is my favourite. I prefer DNA over protein work eventhough the last one can be very interesting as well. Offcourse there are some things that are delayed, or go wrong, but nothing too serious. It is science after all and in science nothing goes right all the time. I think I’ll ask my supervisor to give me a mid evaluation this week. See what he says, I hope he is ok with the work I do. I don’t get the impression from him that I suck at what I do, but well there are probably some things to improve as well. I’m only still learning everything.

Eventhough everything is going well at my internship I’m very confused right now. I’ll have to do a minor and a graduation itnernship next year. The problem is I do not know what I want. I want to go abroad, but I have to sort everything out myself. It really takes a lot of time and energy and I really don’t have both at the moment due to my internship. Sometimes I’m thinking of taking a break for half a year. Work a bit, earn some money and take a good holiday in a country far away. Just to recharge my batteries. I would have plenty of time to sort thing out then and to take action. On the other hand I don’t really feel like delaying my studies. I’ll be done next year! I also have so many questions of what to do after that. I want to do a masters, but it cost a lot of money and to be honest I’m quite done with going to school. But, I’ll get a nicer job when I do a masters, my own research, whereas now I’m working for a post-doc and doing the research for him/her. It is so difficult and all these questions are inside my head and tiring me. I really don’t know what I should do :(.

Well, time to write something about my internship :). I’ve started 3 weeks ago and time has gone fast these first few weeks. I have to do the internship for a total of 20 weeks. The place is really nice. Lots of opportunities to learn different techniques and see how science is practiced outside the school :D. I won’t tell you too much about the actual project. Not because it is secret, but because it is pretty difficult to explain in English for me. The group I work with is very nice. There are lots of foreign people doing PhD or PostDoc work. So English is the main language and also the language I have to write my laboratory notebook in. At first I thought it was hard, but now I’m doing ok and it has a advantage, because most things in science are in English. I’ve been working alone too already. At first that was a bit scary, because I can be very insecure, but now I’m fine and I even feel proud when I get good results :D. Also I feel like I’m changing the world with the research. Ok, it is not my project, I’m helping my supervisor, but still I take over a little part of his research :D.

I hope the other weeks will be as good as the past few weeks and that I will enjoy it. Somehow I don’t think that will be a problem :).

Woohoo! I found out that I passed this second period too :). Ok, one of the exams I barely passed, but the score was good enough. I’m not really proud of that one, but at least it takes the stress away I would have when doing the exam again. It was the first exam, for which I somehow couldn’t learn. I always have starting problems when learning, so basically the first exam always is crappy. The second one I passed with a 7.6 (out of 10) which is a decent score. I did manage to study for this exam, even if it was only one day, but I’m happy with the result :). We also had a group poster presentation for which we got a 7 (8 is the highest, except if someone has an exceptionally great poster). So, the grades are pretty good, except the one exam. I still have to get my grade for my practical skills and my laboratory journal, but most of the time that is not a problem. So, now I have to write one more reflection report of this period and collect my ECTS :).

This also closes my major. No more school courses :). Offcourse there is the minor, but I’m still planning on doing it abroad. I haven’t looked into it yet. First the internship and if that goes well, I’ll start looking for a place to do the minor. I’m pretty excited right now, because I feel like I’ve closed one part of my studies (major) and now have space to look to the future (internships and minor).

I like physics so much I hope to be some thing great in this field

Woohoo! I got an internship place! I’m so happy right now. I won’t spill to much of it here, at least not untill it is certain. They accepted me there, but school still had to approve the place. I don’t expect any problems, but you’ll never know. So, my to do list is: get school to approve the place, search for a living place near internship and I’m ready to start! It is at the other end of the country, so I’ll have to move. Don’t feel like spending 3 hours a day in the train. Hope all goes well.