Alrighty! Here we go!

I think the last time I wrote I was going to be going back to The Netherlands for yet another PhD interview.. well I found out the friday before I was leaving that in fact I was going to have two interviews instead of just 1! woohoo!!! So off I went and had to do it a bit of the hard way.. just to make things cheap for me. I took a bus from Aberdeen down to Edinburgh and then took an easy jet flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam, then took a train from Amsterdam Schiphol to Ede-Wageningen and then took a bus from Ede-Wageningen into Wageningen and then just had a little bit farther to walk to get to the hotel where I was staying for the night. I stayed at this huge hotel with a big fancy restaurant in it called Eat-Cetera hahaha funny play on words.. there was also a convention center in the hotel as well. I got to the hotel really late that night and they had a couple that came in looking for a room so I gave up my double and took the single because otherwise they were completely booked up! but I was quite happy with my little room AND they fed me for free because I got there late and I didn't get a choice of what the chef fed me.. It was lamb but it sure didn't taste like it. It was quite tough and just a bit of a strange taste but whatever it was super good and it came with a beautiful rice side dish and steamed veggies! I ate almost EVERTHING!! a full day of travelling will make you super hungry!! and super tired. That night I tried to practice my presentation that I was going to give on my masters thesis but just fell asleep watching dutch television.. I had no clue what the heck was going on but it was fine ahahah it was TV, no need to actually know what people are saying.. The next morning bright and early went and had my free breakfast! WOOHOO!!! it was really weird because I was in the netherlands and having a full english breakfast.. what?! yeah exactly.. oh well it was good! I took the bus to the University which was wayy not hard to miss with the giant atlas building staring at me like a giant box with an exoskeleton. I walked into the Atlas building and I had to check in with security! holy cow! security at a university building? right well I guess they have to have it because so many projects are backed by large agricultural and chemical companies. I then had to be escorted by a staff member to wait for Dr. Hoffland (my first interview). Dr. Hoffland was quite nice and we had a nice chat before my interview.. I was also introduced to some of the PhD students there and was taken to a glasshouse that was 15 hectares! of course also half commercially owned! but still that was the biggest greenhouse I have ever seen! and to open the doors you pull on strings that come down from the ceiling! I know its not like modern technology or anything but it made me happy! I think the PhD student that was showing me around thought I must have crawled out from under a rock because I was so excited to pull the strings to open all the doors! So the presentation of my masters thesis went well.. even though I only had a week to really write it and get it ready to go with little help from my supervisor.. but I was ace and thats what matters.. everyone was impressed with what I was doing and all agreed that it seemed like a lot more than just a masters thesis but I assured them that I will be able to complete it and get it done and be awesome while doing it! Everyone asked really good questions.. everyone being both groups supervising the PhD's and some of the PhD Students. the only critisisms I had was from this older prof. who proved to be a jerk who thinks his stuff doesn't stink..

The first interview went really well and they really all seemed to like me.. one of the gentlemen that was there actually works with ash (fly ash) and he is really interested to see what becomes of my research.. so that was cool.. I then had lunch with the PhD students and they all bought me lunch.. I sat down and didn't even have to introduce myself.. People just started going "SO YOU"RE THE ONE!!!" well that was stuck.. I actually found out that almost everyone there had been itching to meet me.. our small table of about 4 PhD students then started to involve almost everyone at lunch at that time. it was quite fun. though everyone wanted to hear my stories of what happened and I didn't really want to relay but I did it anyway. It was quite nice! I also met Winnie van Vark who helped me out a lot whilst I was stuck at the airport. I brought her a nice card to thank her as well. but it was just surprising on how many people knew who I was and I didn't have to say anything. I felt like a human case study. but it was fun! It was then time for my second interview which was so unstructured I was actually appauled at the behaviour. The lead supervisor was late. The other supervisors started the interview without him. and it was held in the main supervisors office! how freaking rude!! then they kept repeating the same damn question of why in the world would I apply for 3 different PhD's within the same department.. and really I didn't think it was any of his business and after about the 4th time that the lead supervisor brought it up, I just kinda shoved it back in his face saying how normally it would be encouraged to have a wider range of interests because it can bring new angles of looking at the issues at hand. He was appauled but I dont care. He was rude and I was super not enjoying it. I left the interview and went and took a tour of the labs.. didn't really see much other than they are humungus and VERY institutional white. I also found out that no one does their own analyses there. very interesting but everything is commercially backed pretty much. all in all I decided that I would have rather gotten the first PhD than be offered the second one.. I dont want to work for people who are so completely not put together and rude. even if the research is interesting..

I did end up in town after my interviews of the day. The town isn't very big but one of the PhD students was very nice enough to print me a map of how to get to the main shopping streets. I bought ice cream, chocolate, tiny wooden shoes and a pair of super awesome converse! they have ribbon laces and are just indescribable! so awesome!!!! it was then time to go back to the airport where I had to wait for my flight to go back to edinburgh. Whilst on the plane I had been sitting next to this girl the whole while and didn't talk to her.. I was too tired to really care about what other people were doing.. it wasn't until I asked to borrow her pen to fill out my landing card that I got interested.. I realised she was dutch so I asked her what she was doing in Edinburgh.. She was on a conference for soils!! She then asked why i was so dressed up and said that I had two interviews with the Department of Soil Quality at Wageningen.. and then she said "Oh my! you are the american! I thought I wasn't going to get the chance to meet you!!!" Holy cow she was from the soil quality department at the university of Wageningnen. How funny!!!

When I got to edinburgh it was almost 10pm and I was tired!! I finally got to my hotel only to find out that they had over booked themselves.. so they gave me a handicap suite because it was on the ground floor and closest to the bar! HAHAH!! they asked where I wanted to be and I told them I didn't care and then the guy who was checking me in said I looked like I needed a drink and boy was he right! so he put me down stairs lol. I was happy for it too.. I just couldn't deal with people anymore. The guy behind the counter also was one of the bartenders.. he helped me bring my copious amounts of different drinks back to my room because I didn't have enough hands! hahaha it was just a couple gins and a coke and some crisps but I still couldn't carry it all by myself.I ended up falling asleep watching some BBC news thing.. but I got to look forward to another english breakfast in the morning! WOOHOO!! eww for the stale croissants!

the next mornings bus ride was uneventful but I was sure glad to be back in Aberdeen so I could get some decent sleep without a timezone change. oh I forgot to mention that I had to change buses 3 times on the way down and 4 times on the way back! no rest for me on the bus because I had to pay attention to where the heck my next transfer was!

The outcome of all of this?! I didn't get the PhD I wanted but I was the second choice out of 5. The only reason why I didn't get it was because the other candidate was almost finished with her masters thesis where I had only just begun mine but its ok.. I don't think I really wanted to live in the netherlands.. its nice but I just wasn't inlove with it.. and most of the people I ran into weren't very nice.. and didn't want to speak to me because I said I can't speak dutch right off the bat. whatever. its ok :) so what now? I dont know.. I really don't know but I can't even worry about a real job until the end of july or so. So here I am!

Lately I 've just been working on my project. I did get my grades back from my last exams though.. I did crap :( not exactly how I wanted to do but I screwed up and I am owning up to it. I should have done more... I could have done more.. but I didn't and now I have to live with it.. but the good thing is that it isn't going to make that much of a difference at all with my grades. so we're good on that respect. I have gotten things started though.. no leaching yet but I got my tubes and frames set up so I am hoping tomorrow I can get my leaching started and microbial sections taken out... I'm going to have to weigh things out instead of guestimating which I think is what I was suposed to do but I'm too anal to do that. I want things to be perfect.. and I want to be revered at such a young age in the scientific community! MUAhahAhjaHha! I know it wont happen but I can dream :) I want to be done with this research and submit it and have people ASKING me to do a PhD at their school because I"m so freaking awesome! You never know what could happen.. but this is super freaking cool research and its going to make splashes in the scientific community because this has never been done before! there is very very little research even related to my topic so yeah. anyway I need to get my awesome self in bed. I've been doing alright mentally wise lately but I've battled it badly this week so far. I know it will all get better.. it always does.. but its the worry of what is going to happen to me after I turn in my dissertation. It will all work out :) it will!

Alright goodnight world!! :)