Biology Practicum

How do you know if some tissue contains cancer-cells? How can you make them visible? How can you locate those cells, to destroy them later?

Those questions were lain down before us. Two students from the University Leiden came to our high school and gave a short college and a practicum. Really interesting.

We had to put a fluorisenting liquid on the cells, which will show the structure of the cell so we could see if it was a cancer-cell or not. And it was. Simply great.

And how did it affect my vision on the University?

• First, I learned that you have much more cool stuff on the University. They brought a special microscope, simply fantastic.
• That even if you study Medicine, you can learn a lot about DNA and how to show it. This guy studies Medicine, and this is his side-job. So instead of working at the McDonalds, he worked for the University and gives presentations at high schools, pretty awesome!
• When you study on a University, you learn to presentate even better. These guys just explained some really hard topics, and they made it understandeble. Of course, they did it a couple of times before, but they have a really easy way how they present the topic and themselves.
• I know now that University is going to be great. Of course, I already knew it, but I'm even more sure. It is going to be great, if I see those guys, I really look forward to become like them, really.

I learned a lot about biology, but also about the University, so I think it was a afternoon well spend!

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So I decided to become a hippy

Saturday I had to compete in the Dutch Championships debating for students, in Leiden.

Debating is something that is extremely underestimated in Holland, but it is coming up.

There were three kind of debates on the championship.

1. The Parlement Debat, the 'real' debate. 3 vs 3. Debating about a thesis.
2. The trouble speech. You get a situation, and you have to speech yourself out of it.
3. The balloonspeech. You are a person, and you are with 4 others in a balloon, which is descending. Four have to jump, you have to say why you aren't among those. The public has to decide who is going to jump.

I did the balloonspeech.

The first round I had to be Barack Obama. Not that hard. "Change we need", "I have hope" and "Yes we can". Ended third out of seven. It was a bit different than I expected. There was a jury who decided who had to jump. Pretty weird.

Second round, I had to be a medicinemaker. With thick glasses from my father (from the '60) on my head, I ended second! Yeah.

The parlement debaters won 1, lost 3, the trouble speecher ended 5th and 7th, bummer.

So we were in the great auditorium to watch the finals. And suddenly I had to compete in the finals! Wow! Great!

I had a half an hour to prepare myself. Now you can choose your personality for yourself.

I decided to be a hippy. Got my shoes of, some kind of ribbon on my head and put the two fingers in the air. Peace!

But I had to prepare my speech. If I wanted to have the public vote for me, I had to be funny. But I couldn't make up any jokes. I thought (after reading all those blogs about creativity) I just sing a hippy song in my head, the jokes will come. They didn't came. So I decided to sing the song. On stage. In front of an 500 heads counting audience. And with one handicap. I can not sing.

Just do it, with the nike slogan in my head I stood there. "Yo, I, euhm, decided to sing a song for you. "Here is a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it, note for note. Don't worry.. come on.. Be happy!"

And everybody sung with me! That was a great feeling!

But, unfortunatly, after a close call I was voted out of the balloon. Ended 4th. 

Nobody sung in that debate before, I heard afterwards.

I was satisfied. And happy. Don't worry.

I'm dutch, so my English is pretty good, but not perfect, please correct me when I'm wrong!

Visiting a University #1

This is part one in the (I guess..) three part series about me, visiting a university in Holland. Making my decision which one I should join next year..

I think it is wise to tell you that I live in a small city, with nothing like a university, so every trip is a trip to 'the big city'.

Today I've visited Leiden University, Holland's oldest university.

Leiden is one of the biggest student cities. 1 on 7 person who lives there is a student. I love it.

It is a really Dutch city, with the old houses near the canal. So Dutch, so lovely.

I went to the informative meeting of medicins.

The speakers spoke in a large lecture room. A room which can fill 350 men. A sparkling new room, with microphones on the desk so you can ask the teacher question, without screaming.

The presentations of different persons was talked to each other by a student. A typical student from Leiden. A prep. In Holland we call it a 'bal'.

I heard some interesting presentation, I think Leiden is a good city to study medicins.

After the meeting, we went to the city, not less important!

We ate a pancake, in a cosy restaurant. And in front of us, there were to elder woman. I guess they were above 70. And what do old people do when they have to read the menu? Getting their glasses. But what did this woman do? Get a magnifying glass! I was perplex. So funny, seeing this woman looking at the menu through such a big magnifier!

I wanna put it in a list. Why should I chose Leiden, and why I shouldn't.

Should:

• Fantastic, Dutch city
• Oldest university, so many old traditions
• Relatively not that expensive rooms
• Everything is close, from your room to the university is 5 minutes on a bike

Shouldn't:

• There are many preps, which I don't want to become
• The decentral selection (on which you can avoid the draw) requirements are just crazy. I won't stand a chance

So, only two shouldn'ts. But the second one is a very heavy one. If I want to be sure to enter medicine next year, I can compete in the decentral selection. I think I will do that, but not in the one from Leiden, but from Groningen. Which I will be visiting soon, I hope..