Piled Higher and Deeper

My status within the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen has changed. Behold, a new PhD student has emerged from the troubles of her MSc! First task: selling myself as the best thing in town to NWO (Dutch Foundation for Science). That means coming up with ideas, then writing them in a way that makes them seem more interesting and useful than they really are, then putting emphasis on every little thing on your CV as if Hercules himself would have to try really hard to reach your level of hard work. Then I will send this brilliant grant application to the scrutiny of NWO, but so will most of my classmates, who are really good, all of them, not to mention the dozens of students from other universities that will apply… So, the chances of getting the grant are anyway tiny. Ah… The joys of science.
But in the meantime I went to meet my new supervisor in Lausanne, Switzerland… Yep, I went from flat Dutchland to the Alps!! I loved it!! Lausanne is great, it’s like… a real city. And the University has a wonderful view over lake Geneva and the Alps… Hmmmm. I felt like Fraulein Maria, only without that ridiculous haircut. Nor the powerful voice… But even so I felt like singing… The hiiiiiiiiiiillllllllls are aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive… With the sound of muuuusic!
More developments soon: will Fraulein Maria get the grant or not? And how come Captain Von Trapp fell for that uninteresting creature? We all know in real life he’d go for the baronesse… Don’t miss the next episode!

All the graduating topjes. From left to right: Elske, Sanne, Laura, me, Aniek, Saleta.