This past week has involved trying to recruit even more participants. I’ve been posting flyers, recruiting people outside of the dining commons, and sending out emails to spread the word to as many people as possible. Participants have been trickling in, and I think all of my efforts are going to result in getting enough participants to finish off strong. Since, things in the lab have been running smoothly, I decided it was time to leave Nijmegen to see other parts of the Netherlands. On Friday, I took a train into Amsterdam to visit one of my old friends, Jen. Being able to go and see her was incredible because she moved away from my hometown to live in Tokyo when I was 14 years old. She came back to visit in the summer twice after she moved, but this was the first time I’ve seen her in over five years. She decided to do an exchange program through her university that allows her to study in Amsterdam the entire year, and I happened to be doing my PIRE in a town a little over an hour away at the same time. We saw this coincidence as an opportunity for us to hang out and catch up.
The five year reunion included excessive amounts of ice cream 🙂
The odds of us being in the same place at the same time are almost humorous since we didn’t believe we would see each other until we were in our late twenties when we would actually have jobs that pay us more than minimum wage. So once I got off the train, I was immediately greeted by Jen and she took me back to her flat to introduce me to all of her friends. In Dutch style, I rode on the back of her bike of course. It was her friend’s birthday that night so we immediately went to an authentic Italian restaurant and a bonfire on campus afterwards.
The next day, Jen showed me around the city which was really nice because she has been living there for 10 months and knows her way around. I think that we went to about 5 different restaurants/ food stands and 4 vintage shops that entire day. I ate arguably some of the best ice cream in my life (sorry Berkey creamery) and herring which is like a raw fish served with fries. On top of our excessive eating and shopping, we did a lot of sight seeing from the tourist filled Museumplein, to some hidden garden whose name I can’t pronounce, and lastly, hanging by the canals. Overall, it was an incredible trip and I was able to see Amsterdam for the first time with an old friend. Thankfully, she’s going to be here for a few more weeks so we can explore Amsterdam some more until we have to part ways.