End of a Chapter

Masters Hydrogeology Office, Photo by Liza Bourchtein.

Back in Utrecht here! Was just thinking how crazy that two years have flown by and come 24 September I will have a master's degree in my hand. All my grades are in and approved and next week I have an appointment with Immigration for a new Dutch visa since I am no longer studying, ack! 

Side note: Here is a link to my masters thesis in case anyone wanted to read or just skim through it. It is by no means perfect (always room for improvement in terms of analysis), but I learned so much this past year about planning, fieldwork, lab analysis, writing and just science research in general.

Alright, having just been back in the US and Canada, many of my friends and family have asked me what my plans are, so here it goes for anyone else interested:

I am planning to stay in the Netherlands while job searching (water/hydrology/geology/geochemistry fields) until at least the winter holiday season. Plus my internship at Deltares got extended for another month to the end of September. For jobs I am searching in the following countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. There is a bit of a range for choice but I figure this is the best time to take a chance and see what is out there. Plus I do not want to limit myself and not take advantage of obtaining experience from the best opportunities. At least I know I don't need visas for the US and Canada, whew. 

Spanish Banks Beach Park looking towards Vancouver

Now if nothing comes up, then I plan to head back to New Jersey, pack up my car and drive on out to British Columbia, get a waitress job or something in Vancouver area and continue on my job search! Not that I don't love New Jersey, which is honestly a wonderful state to be from and live in (to all you haters!), but I want to try living in a province that I really only love more and more each time I have been there from when I was really young taking the BC ferry to Victoria to see my grandparents (and totally freaking out when the horn blew), celebrating Canada Day with family along the river in Kelowna when I was 10, to discovering interior BC and the Cariboo Mountains while collecting samples last fall for my thesis. There is so much I still want to discover there and never have enough time to do, like going to the Queen Charlotte Islands, continue driving north up Highway 97 to the Yukon and Alaska and kayaking besides wild orcas along the coast. So yeah...tentative plans, but who knows, everything could always all go down the drain and I will come up with something else that is just as grand instead!

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To now backtrack to talk about the past as opposed to the future - my trip back to the US/Canada was really wonderful and a much-needed break from all the thesis and internship report writing and conducting groundwater experiments. Definitely needed that breather. There were a number of reasons for the timing of my trip back, some of which included celebrating my mother's 60th birthday, a sea burial for my Oma and Opa, meeting my dad out and seeing the BC branch of his family (remind me I should draw out a family tree for you all, I think I have it down now...), and getting to view firsthand how my mom's new house is coming along!

SeaWorld Dolphin Interaction, CA

Oceanside Harbor, CA

While the weather really was not the best in Encinitas this time around, it was good to see my cousins, aunt and uncle again on top of my mom and sister. My aunt put together a lovely birthday surprise for my mom where she, Gillian and I got to swim with a dolphin at SeaWorld! The dolphin we interacted with was a 25 year old dominant female with a bit of a silly side to her personality. We also had a very nice sea burial ceremony for my mother's parents, both of whom passed away while I was studying the past two years in the Netherlands. It was a gorgeous evening, we left the harbor and saw a rainbow and it was nice to be out on the water as my first memories of them are of playing in their pool or at the beach in Florida!

Deep Cove, North Vancouver, BC

The next stop was North Vancouver where Gillian and I stayed with my Aunt Lynell (my dad's youngest sibling and only sister) and her family. She hosted one evening a nice dinner where my Uncle Warren (my dad's younger brother) and his wife came out from ...well I forget where they live now since they sold their last place, oops! My aunt also has a new dog named Kyla, a 6 month old female who really is adorable! Haha. As a surprise, it turned out my Aunt Marilyn (wife of my dad's oldest brother Roy) and their daughter Courtney were passing through with their 3 Samoyeds and 2 puppies that one had just had. So it was nice to catch up with everyone!

Wells, BC

Those days there we spent visiting the University of BC campus (got to keep PhD in mind!), going sea kayaking (well more like bay), going downtown, and taking a hike along Deep Cove. I then left to head up to interior BC and thus parted with my sister as I will not see her again until at least October. I flew up to north to Prince George, rented a car and headed on down to Wells (in Cariboo mountains more north of where I was last year in Likely/Horsefly) with a good friend for a music festival, which was unlike all the other music festivals/concerts I had been to earlier this summer. Some of the artists I ended up really liking were: Samson's Delilah (husband and wife from Robson, BC), Corin Raymond (man from Ontario) and Tanya Tagaq (contemporary Inuit throat singer). 

This is Corin Raymond singing "Don't Spend it Honey" written about saving and spending Canadian Tire "money" (for non-Canadians - think coupons in the form of bills but only very small denominations that people tend to save for years). He was actually able to pay for all the costs of his album with this money that people sent him. (Skip to 1:39 if you want to listen to the song).

He also did an autobiographical play called "Bookworm" and if you love books and reading, definitely find an hour of your time and watch it HERE.

This is a live improv performance of Tanya Tagaq - just to warn you, if you have never heard throat singing before it is quite different and this is by no means the traditional way as it was normally a vocal exercise between two Inuit women and Tanya takes things to a whole different level. It was amazing listening to and watching her though, she had performed with a violinist and a harpist and imitates many different sounds and emotions, i.e. howling like a wolf (go to 4:26 in this video).

The ArtsWells festival was amazing, and I loved being able to look up at the stars and wake up in the morning, taking a dip in the nearby river, and spend the day volunteering my time and listening to some wonderful musicians. Upon arriving back to Prince George, I got the chance to finally see the University of Northern BC campus and say hello to the two Canadian professors who were able to help fund the fieldwork I did last year for my masters thesis. In a way it brought everything full circle as I had finished the thesis a few weeks earlier and was in the Cariboo region when one year early I had driven out there to start the whole process! What a year! The campus was small but actually quite charming and I have only been hearing and reading good things about the university so was glad to have the opportunity to walk around and explore a bit (again...PhD?? My mind is always buzzing with ideas.)

QRTT Photo Op!

After a 1.5 day process of getting back to Vancouver (took a 13 hr Greyhound and slept for the first time at an airport), I started my journey back east with a small stop in New Jersey. I was able to see both of my parents again, tour around the basically finished with renovated house of my mom's and catch up with my hometown friends! This included another QRTT dinner (QRTT standing for quartet, aka my 3 good girl friends and I) and photo op. :P They also got to shop around all my old stuff as I was trying really hard to recycle donate and get rid of my things I had accumulated over the years. Books though are hard for me to part with, apparently my mom and sister filled a whole car of them to take to storage (mind you there is a good bunch that are science textbooks).

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Well I suppose this will be my last post as a masters student as I will be officially no longer a university student come end of August! Scary...makes me feel older, also knowing that when I go back to New Jersey, it will not be to my childhood home! I will still continue to blog about my travels as I haven't left Europe yet and there is still so much to see and do besides...internship, jobs, Irish dance classes, and any other projects/activities I land myself in :P TTFN!

Update on University + Bonus Video Clips

Today was the day my thesis was suppose to be done...obviously I asked for an extension, for several reasons:

(1) Started a bit late with the labwork, had wanted to do it last November/December, but as I needed some supervision, did not begin until January.

(2) Received results from the ICP-AES (measured heavy metal concentrations) a few weeks ago, and wow that was a lot to sift through and make preliminary graphs from!

(3) Freaked out because the concentrations from the sequential extraction procedure were just way too low compared to the total concentrations. Finally realised why Tuesday as they were not calculated with the correct dilution factor. Whew, crisis averted, but now have to wait for those new results, re-organised, and make all new graphs.

(4) I have a lot to write! (story of every thesis-writing student's life)

The plan is to finish my thesis within the month of March (of course there will be a blog devoted to that once it is finished!). This would be done in time for me to start my internship at Deltares by April 1, which is an applied research institute in the field of water, subsurface and infrastructure. They mainly focus on deltas (hence the name), coastal regions and river basins. They have offices in Delft and Utrecht; Utrecht's offices are conveniently on De Uithof (the university's campus) and I will be conveniently working there within the Soil and Groundwater Systems unit.

The internship should last 4-5 months, so until the end of August, which is when my two year masters program here in the Netherlands would be complete. I will be working with a PhD student, who has been in the workforce for awhile and decided to take the opportunity to obtain his doctorate degree this past year. He is looking at the hydrological and biogeochemical controls on phosphorus retention in lowland catchments. Phosphorus if you didn't know is a widely used fertilizer in the agriculture, which is definitely prevalent in the Dutch landscape. There is a high demand for phosphorus, but the supply is dwindling, therefore its retention is of particular interest to many and also to ensure minimal surface and groundwater pollution. 

As long as the Exam Committee at the university approves of my internship, I will be looking at mechanisms of phosphate immobilization during the exfiltration of anaerobic groundwater...basically I'll sample groundwater that is not exposed to oxygen (anaerobic) from two locations in the Netherlands, (1) calcium-rich brackish groundwater and (2) iron-rich groundwater, both with high phosphate concentrations. These samples will be brought to the lab so I can set up aeration experiments varying parameters like oxygen levels, temperature and pH while noting the effects on the formation of Fe and Ca minerals.

After those experiments, I will then need to write up a report about the results, hand it in, graduate and then...(scary part)...find a job! If you guys didn't already know, I plan to look here in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany, Canada, and the United States. Keeping things super open because I am not tied down to anything/anyone and looking forward to gaining new experiences/perspectives. Not sure what type of job I am looking as one would think with a masters you would have a better idea, wrong! I do like surface water (think rivers, lakes, estuaries) and soil/water quality, so guess I shall go from there (of course anything to do with water I like...but that entails quite a lot).

Well now that I got that off my chest and this post is all words and no pictures...here are some lovely short video clips for you to watch:

Used a centrifuge to collect some resuspended sediment from the Horsefly River, but in order to do this we had to kick up the sediment to create plume in front of the pump resulting in a weird dance...and yes I know I look really ridiculous, but that is what we would do for 15-20 minutes at a time.

Marjolein and I made several sampling trips to the Horsefly River and often were accompanied by a research assistant, Ben. We asked him to take a photo and I guess he took a short video instead...

 

Last September when I was in Alberta for Labour Day weekend, we had 14 people and 7 dogs and stayed at my uncle's place along Cowboy Trail with a view of the Canadian Rockies.

 

Driving back from Banff through the Kananaskis part of the Canadian Rockies to my uncle's place.

Drive from Calgary south to my uncle's place, gorgeous view of the mountain range as you drive through farmland. Definitely one of my top favourite views (sorry for all the wind noise).

A whirlwind of 10 months

Well it's been since last April that I did a post and to be honest, I had lots of time available just never could get my thoughts together and feel motivated enough. Here's then to a big update on what has been going on with my life from last spring to this winter.  

Icefields Parkway, Alberta, Canada

Karneval, Eindhove, Netherlands

After determining my masters research, I could focus on finishing up quarters 3 and 4, where I co-wrote a lengthy paper on the "State of Estuaries" (quite depressing sadly), walked around and fell in mudflats, visited Shell's headquarters and lots of coffee breaks during lectures

After my trip to Istanbul in February, I visited Germany twice to go to Berlin and Hamburg (love the Eurail pass!), went to Karneval in Eindhoven, and London for St. Patrick's Day, the famous Keukenhof (think lots of tulips and hyacinths) in Lisse on Easter weekend, and Queen's Night in Utrecht. Come May, I went to a Liberation Day festival with a good friend and her boyfriend (May 5) that was lots of fun  - beers/whiskey-colas, eating Döners and listening to Pearl Jam covers while WWII airplanes flyover.

Now comes my whirlwind where I basically live out of a suitcase from end of May - mid November. Ready? :P

Bodrum, Turkey

We had a long weekend in March so met up with a college friend in Dresden and Berlin since she was visiting family in Poland. Dresden was such a chill city and there happened to be International Dixieland Festival during that time so was able to relax on some steps with a beer in hand, listen to the bands and take in the scene. The city did a wonderful job rebuilding post-war.

Fieldwork in Brest, France

June, when I think of that month I do not remember where I honestly got my energy. It went something like: weekend in Paris, 4 full days of class, weekend to Bodrum, Turkey to meet up with NJ friends, have 4 hours to unpack and go on vans down to Brest, France (Brittany) for a 2 week fieldtrip for my Field Geochemistry class. Our days filled with eating baquettes at 6:30 am, full day out in the field or working in the lab, make dinner, talk about what we did, play volleyball/swim in the ocean/play Bang! and go to bed around midnight. Then work hard on a report and making lots of Excel graphs, jetset to Rome for a weekend and try out couchsurfing (definitely recommend), pack everything up and leave for North America on July 4.

Rome, Italy

Southern California

Needless to say, at the end of Independence Day weekend where I was back in New Jersey, I was so devoid of energy and jetlagged I ended up sleeping pretty much 24-30 hours straight. It was a fun weekend of course with catching up with all of my NJ friends, going down the shore, and just being able to sleep in my bed.

So July consisted of me driving down to Washington, DC to visit college friends, go into NYC at least once, experience a massive thunderstorm in downtown Manhatten (it was glorious) and fly off to California for a week to see my mom's side of the family. It was nice to see my Opa after a year since while I had been away in Utrecht my Oma had unfortunately passed away. 

New Jersey, Photo courtesy of Cleo Chou

Now the real fun begins! Fly back to NJ, next day pack for 3 months and pick up my Dutch fieldwork partner, sleep and set off by 10 am heading due west! So if you want to see the massive 13,000 miles (21,000 km) trip we did, look at Tripcolor, which is a cool app I found that would track your iPhone photos and plot them on a map. Anyways, it was awesome driving and being able to see family, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Rockies, Oregon & California coasts and the Grand Canyon.

Wyoming

Two highlights of the roadtrip itself would have to be:

(1) Getting up early in the morning to drive to Lamar Valley and watch the wolves and being able to listen them howl in unison. It is one of the purest sounds you can hear and fulfilled a childhood fantasy of mine.

(2) Watching the sunset into the Pacific Ocean while in southern California and then swimming in the ocean right after because it was so warm. Ah, I really do miss the salty sea air, the crash of the waves and the feeling of the sand beneath you. 

Grand Teton National Park

Horseback Riding in Cariboo Mountains

In Canada itself, I was able to see the vast majority of my dad's side of the family in Alberta and Vancouver, which was wonderful. Of course the main objective of the trip was to collect sediment samples in the Cariboo mountain region of interior British Columbia. It was wonderful living out there for 2 months and take a step back from the business of life that I had known from growing up in NJ and going to school in Washington, DC and Utrecht. 

Swimming in Quesnel Lake

 Some highlights of being in Likely, British Columbia would include:

(1) camping next to a river and abandoned mine town

(2) seeing bears every week driving to and fro our sample sites

(3) hanging out at the local (and only) pub and playing pool listening to a old jukebox

(4) horseback riding for the first time and seeing the most breathtaking view

(5) driving really into the woods to a lake to just take the afternoon to relax and enjoy nature

Ghost Lake, Photo courtesy of Ben Anderson Millington

Big Sur, California

Needless to say I was quite sad to leave because of the above and enjoying the group of people I had met there. Had a fun time driving back to NJ via the West Coast and stayed there for another two weeks before flying back to Europe. Spent a fun weekend in Manhatten and in Jersey City catching up with friends, before my last week made more interesting by the landfall of Hurricane Sandy and the subsequent loss of power and gas shortages. 

Family Vacation to Jamaica

 

Coming back to Utrecht, I was without a room as it was impossible to search for a room back in the spring/summer (remember my crazy June??). But during my first week back found a temporary room for two months and go off to Stockholm for a quick weekend before starting up another class I decided to take. During this time I was figuring out labwork for my Canadian sediment samples, but was still able to go Aachen for another fun-filled weekend of visiting the Weihnachtsmarkt and drinking Glühwein. Then before I knew it, it was holiday break where I went to: Germany for Christmas, Jamaica during the week, one night in Utrecht for New Year's Eve, and England/Wales for the first week of January. (At the end of this, I did realise that jetlag and I are really terrible friends and I should refrain from such intensive traveling across timezones in short intervals..attempt to at least :P)

Austrian Alps

End of January comes, my labwork finished, the last final taken, I move into a new room and leave promptly on a night train to the Austrian Alps for a week of skiing with Contiki. For years now I have wanted to go back into skiing since I gone for two winters during high school and had enjoyed myself. Things always seemed to get in the way though, like living where there weren't "real" winters, university classes, waitressing my butt off for a year and traveling elsewhere. Well, 8 years went and enough was enough, it was time to bite the bullet and do something. I ended up taking 5 days of lessons with an awesome Austrian ski instructor (who would ski to and from work since he lived on the slopes) and hanging out with mostly Australians (had no idea that Contiki was such a big Aussie thing). Definitely was sad on the train ride back up north to leave all the snow and mountains.

View towards Hopfgarten, Austria

That should bring me up to speed to the current date where my main focus is thesis writing and also obtaining furniture. Also setting up my internship with Deltares, details to come later!