Home Sweet Home :)

No one would understand why Maggie & I are enjoying it so much over here unless you've seen how the place we stay at is like!

So, two weeks after living here, may I present to you....

...

...

... our host, Tessa!

Well, of course she's a very important reason why we've been living it up here.... She's let two strangers stay at her place, cooked for us, brought us around to her parents' place(that's another post all by itself!) , her brother's student house, on a car ride around the city and so much more of course!

I'm even blogging on her laptop right now, digesting her home-cooked dinner, half-watching her tv, so there.... you see the point.

I'm a little lazy to arrange the photos in a nice story-like order so it's gonna be in a little bit of a mess..... but here we go anyway!

Drops & Stroopwafel

Two "typical Dutch" food items! The drops are made of liquorice & isn't really the kind of candy that everyone would enjoy. But, the honey-flavoured ones are truly good for the throat. I know cos I had a sore throat & felt much better afer having those!

The stroopwafel is well.... one of my favourite Dutch foods so far! It's crispy, not the typical kind of Gelare waffel of cos. It's a wafer, more of. With something like jam in between, it's really nice!

(Note: If you would like to try any of the food I post on the blog, just leave me a comment & I'll bring some back to Singapore for you!)

Pizzas! Cost about SGD2.80 per box from the local supermarket! Really convenient .... to just put in the oven & very tasty!

Pretty dinner plates make an appetizing meal....

... but what would plates be without the food!

The kitchen with plenty of sunshine!

The dining area

This is the front door of the house! The T&s stands for 'Tessa & Svea', Svea being Tessa's labrador :)

The neighbourhood - Taken from our bedroom window

Speaking of the neighbourhood, I must say that the people here are really friendly. I don't just mean hi-bye friendly, I mean like, they do go out of the way to help you.

When Maggie & I were practising riding our Dutch bikes (define: bikes as bicycles) , Tessa's neighbours came over to attempt to help us learn how to ride them. And of course, there's the hi-bye friendliness, people just say 'hello' when they walk past!

The other side of the neighbourhood

The bathroom!!! Like a hotel, right?

Tessa's living room! The sweater draped over the chair is mine .... so it's actually very neat without me around. Oops :P

The candles there are not just for decorative purposes! Tessa actually lit them one night when there was a thunderstorm & I liked them alot!

Svea!!!!

Svea loves rice just like us :)

This is our first time being in such close contact with a big dog! She's really 'human-ized'.... Can't describe it any better than that. But now I know why the cliche goes that a dog is a man's best friend.

Our typical dinner! No, we do not have pizzas every night! Tessa's a good cook & she's been making dinner most of the nights......!

How can you not be hungry?

Now, this photo is here because the empty space behind me is where we practised riding our bicycles!

And this photo is here because everyone knows Maggie has violent tendencies..

Maggie torturing & cutting up the pig. Well...... pork.

Curry, almost done!

Well, this is actually our FIRST MEAL prepared with our very own hands! Far far away from home. Parents, please be proud of us :)

I realize there's no picture of the bedroom here! Weird since we spend most of our time there sleeping but anyway, that's for next time. Haven't uploaded that onto my camera!

So yeah, that's basically it! Really really lucky & thankful that we've gotten such a nice place to stay at..... Can't think of any thing else I'd wish for or change right now.

First week of work!

( Note: Post Edited on 24th July)

I know it seems like we're only having fun and games here but that's not true! We're learning alot too!!

We've truly put ALL our pharmaceutical analysis knowledge here to good use. Seriously, in the past, lessons about HPLC, GC blah blah was just theory & fluff. But after coming to this lab, it all really makes sense!

Of course we've seen these stuff in our labs during the practical sessions. But practical sessions, no matter how 'practical', can only be THAT real. What we've seen here is the application of those things we thought were so irrelevant. Will show you why now!

Small portion of the lab with the reagents.

Alot of the reagents are produced by the lab itself because they have a production facility. Well, most chemicals, so long as they are not the commercial immunoassay stuff, I think!

Most of our stay here this week we've been shadowing Albert-Jan (aka Bao Mu (babysitter in Chinese)) , so he's the one who's been showing us everything!

Presenting to you a HPLC (high performance liquid chromtography, for the uninitiated) machine!

Coupled with a UV-detector

The HPLC column on the outside

Side view of the machine

The metal thing to the right of the machine close to the door is the valve with the loop thing that Prof Ho explained to us. Didn't really understand then anyway, but now I know what he's talking about! Some things you just have to see it for yourself.

Thanks to Albert-Jan's drawing!

Can't really remember which substance we used the HPLC to analyse already because we've observed A-J doing so many!

A-J has been explaining things really clearly & in detailed. It doesn't matter that we're not ever going to do any work there, he still does make every effort to explain the principles & that is very, very nice of him.

Maggie with the Gas Chromatography machine

The GC machine was used to analyse the levels of GHB (a rape drug) & ethanol levels!

It's quite cool watching the whole procedure because this is FOR REAL. A true analysis... Not for fun or practice :) And now we truly understand how the labs work (maybe not the Singapore ones, I don't know) and we understand the beauty of pharm analysis!

The GC columns!

Other HPLC columns

Maggie going to be as round as the conical flasks in no time....

Maggie trying to burn down the lab

Stupid face of mine beside the ICP machine

A-J used the ICP machine is used to measure Lithium levels! Cos Lithium is a Group 1 metal, remember? Hehehe. Lithium......... Caught a Sandra Bullock movie "Premonition"on the KLM flight here & she was taking lithium for mania. Maybe we would get her tested...

Cool lab chair

Feels like a horse saddle

Tools to keep the lab healthy

A nice pipette (multi-pipette) that dispenses the same volume each time you press it!

Multitube vortex that saves time

Calibration of pipettes! We did this!




GCMS machine , which we haven't used

Analysts hard at work

A fume cupboard

Maggie with Immunoassay machines

Cool immunoassay autosampler that analyses the quantity of substances such as cocaine, cannabis or therapeutic drugs like antibiotics

Just another fume cupboard

Another machine, don't know what (yet) :)

Yup, so here's a true blue analytical lab for you! Things that are found naturally in the body are not analysed here (like eletrolytes, i think) but in the clinical chemistry lab. This lab analyses substances foreign to the body for the purpose of therapeutic drug monitoring, detection of drug abuse etc...

This week we're doing somethings different but more on that another time!

P.S. Don't bother diluting your urine if you've used illicit drugs because they measure the creatine levels & they'll know if it's diluted!

Weekend at Utrecht

New pictures added!!! These are taken & kindly sent by Petra! Thanks Petra and rest well now that you are home!

More pictures at the bar!

Sara & Petra

No more comments to add about the pictures, they're just new ones that I haven't posted yet!

Well, for those wondering how the bar was like, if it's anything like Singapore's ...... well, yes and no. We have bars in Singapore that look like that but people don't dance in such bars, just drink and chill. Alcohol is definitely cheaper... A glass of beer ranges anywhere between 2 to 4 Euros = 4 to 8 SGD. As for the music.... Hmmm.. Different. It feels more like Mambo night, with a mix of Dutch & English music.

Ok, end of the post update!

WEEKEND AT UTRECHT

Bright and early on a Saturday morning, Maggie & I set off for the Groningen train station for a 2hr train ride to Utrecht to meet 2 other exchange students & the Dutch students from the pharmaceutical society!

At the Groningen train station

Maggie in the Eurail train!

At Utrecht Centraal

Boris wore his labcoat for easy identification at the station. It was quite funny!

We had lunch here, just by a canal!

We had a healthy sandwich each. Large but manageable :)

With paddles.........

Debbie (a Dutch student) on a canoe

Boris, Sarah (Barcelona) & us on a rowing boat!

My turn to row with Boris!

Rowing is so much harder than canoeing, especially when two different people row together.... Just needs perfect co-ordination to row in a straight line.

Having my first beer since I set foot on Holland (Heineken by the way) !

I've been good, really, not drinking much at all. Teeheehee. We had a really nice dinner, I had spareribs which we nice! Paid for by the society, we're very appreciative :)

Whole bunch of us! Extreme right is Petra (Czech Republic)

The Dom Tower

The Dom Tower of Utrecht is the tallest church tower in the Netherlands, at 112 metres (368 feet) in height, and the hallmark of the city. The tower was part of Dom Church, the medieval cathedral of Utrecht, and was built between 1321 and 1382.

The oldest building of the University of Utrecht

In a bar! Where we danced to some nice happy music!

Thanh, Me, Maggie in Thanh's room, where we spent the night

Shiqi & Huixian, this photo was specially taken for you!!! This is Thanh, I'm sure you remember him from IPSF 2006 Cairns. You know what was the best part? We stayed in his room for a night!!! Hahaha :) It's nice to see him again!