I am famous! .. but in a very weird way ..

For already a couple of weeks, I am working on an article that I will – hopefully! - get published in a magazine. The earth is warming up, and this is having an effect on some particular (tropical) diseases. Malaria might spread and thus the incidence in countries like Turkey or Greece will increase, Dengue might go direction Holland, and since the amount of ticks will go up because the climate will be warmer and thus more favorable, the chance of getting Lyme disease will be bigger. An interesting topic, at least that’s what I and Eline, a fellow student, thought.

Long story short: After writing down the first version of the article we are now trying to sell it to every possible magazine. Unfortunately we are experiencing the difficulties of the life of a starting freelance journalist – it’s all about whether your name is already known or not. Anyway, we also wrote a query to Natuurwetenschap en Techniek, but unfortunately we got disappointed again. Too bad, we thought, we will try it somewhere else.

I just got back home from a long day at Karolinska Institutet, and I saw that I had received an email from Eline. Telling me that we are mentioned in the blog of the head editor of Natuurwetenschap en Techniek! I was amazed after reading it, this was absolutely not how it had went at all, and his statement is absolute crap. Luckily we are not the only ones with this opinion, and so far already 3 teachers of our studies have responded!

So here I am in Stockholm, and the most important news I got to tell you is something that is happening in Holland! Ok, of course there are also some things going on over here. For instance, I started my classes at Karolinska Institutet. Good lectures, interesting topic, and it’s fun to notice all the typical Swedish things. For example, yesterday one of the lecturers was saying: “Probably you have not heard of this, since it is not that common in Sweden. But maybe it is in Europe.”

Furthermore, I had dinner yesterday at Raheleh’s place, I met already quiet a lot of Swedish students and of course I got to know the Dutch students a lot better these last couple of days. I am here together with Marieke, Jolien (annoying name! Constantly think persons are talking about me), Rianne, and Claire (two years older and studying both Medicine and Biomedicine). Next week we will celebrate Sinterklaas together, we will go to the Nobel Prize Ceremony, we will celebrate St. Lucy’s Day and visit Globen for an icehockey game. And probably this weekend I will go on a boat trip to Vaxholm, an island north of Stockholm, and once there’s enough snow we will go langlaufing in a nature park close by.

So I'm not sure if I can continue blogging that often! :)

xY