Internship in the Naturalis Biodiversity Center

One month ago I started my internship in the Naturalis Biodiveraity Center (http://www.naturalis.nl/nl/). Before starting there I had to choose between this center or doing my internship in other two labs: one working only with bioinformatics or another where the project was focused on antibiotic resistance. Naturalis was the only one which offers the opportunity of learning bioinformatics, a field very demanded, but not only computers (so there was also bench work). The choice was very clear for me, so I contacted quickly to the director of the minor and the responsible of the position in the Naturalis. Then we had a meeting where they accepted me. The project was going to be using metabarcoding and NGS for monitoring the quality of the water. I was very excited about working in NGS, something I had studied several times but never seen with my eyes.

The Naturalis Biodiversity Center is a museum of Natural History containing different kind of fossils and animals but it also a center dedicated to research about evolution, biodiversity, etc. It is situated in the Biosciences Park of Leiden. The labs of the institution are located in the Sylvius building, which is shared with the University of Leiden, providing an environment quite juvenile due to the great amount of students found there.

Going back to my project and lab, I have to say that all the people is absolutely nice. Everyone there is always kind and helpful. The atmosphere is relaxed although all of us are working on our own stuffs. Despite I am the only foreign in the lab, people speak in English so I can follow the conversation and participate, which is something I appreciate (otherwise I would be isolated from my workmates). However, sometimes I try to practice my Dutch, which is very basic, adn they help me to improve it.

In that lab we are about ten students in total. There are people from the Hogeschool, like me, and from the University. Besides, not everyone is doing their bachelor, some of them are master students, so we can have a different perspective.

For all this reason I am very grateful to UFV, Hogeschool Leiden and Naturalis for give me this opportunity of doing something I wanted do. I am amaze about can use IonTorrent and make a research by myself.

Japanese Market in Leiden

Today, a very special event has took part in Leiden. Regarding the great influence from Japan, a Japanese Market has been setted up by Japanmuseum Sieboldhuis. The event has been inaugurated by the Mayor of Leiden as well as the Ambassador of Japan. As you can see in the picture below. Interestingly, because of the Ambassador holds his position only from two months ago, he still doesn't speak Dutch, so his speech has been given in English. For me it has been great, because I have only understood him, the other speeches were in Dutch and I applauded when I saw the rest of the public doing it. I didn't understood the jokes neither.

The market took the whole rapenburg street. It started at breestraat and finished in kaiserstraat. There were a lot of street shops and hundreds of people (basically, it was completely crowded). The shops were selling not only traditional Japaness items but also products that can only be found in Japan, such as pumpkin or mint kit kat, Japanese drinks and sweets.

There were really impressive kimonos in all textures. Some of them were more rough and other were soft, with a silk-like texture. The inside of most of them represented vegetal items in golden and other brightful colours.

Also, food was really easy to find, specially sushi. Just at the beginning of the street there was a shop selling yakishoba, rice, sushi, etc (it doesn't matter which one of both sides of the street you consider the beginning). I've tried a sort of small pasty filled with prawns and vegetables, i don't know the name of the thing itself, but it was absolutely delicious. (Ik vind dat lekker). Because after eat them I was still hungry I bought yakishoba. It was nice, the only problem was that they give me sticks, there was no fork. I had never eaten using sticks, but after some trials I finally achieve eat the yakishoba with the sticks, what, regarding that they are noodles is quite hard.

Another interesting shop was about bonsais. Actually there were two. One selling bonsais, from 15 euro to over 100 euro. They were all kind of trees and sizes. They were really beautiful. 

The other shop wasn't selling bonsais but the tools for taking care of them. They were also showing three terrific trees. They were bigger than the previous ones. One of them had the leafs red and it was absolutely awesome. I would take it with me to my home for sure. Besides, part of the roots were visible and a light layer of moss covered the soil.

However, it wasn't everything about buying. Inside the Rijksmuseum van oudheden some martial arts performances were carried out. The place was incredible because it has been just in front of an ancient Egyptian temple. There, two different styles has shown their movements, including defence agains stick pretending swords and knives.

Finally (but not less important), I would also mention about other shops. It's fairy common in these kind of events to find people doing cosplay and shops focus on manga and anime issues. This market count also with the presence of cosplayers and a lot of anime/manga/videogame items being sold. The only issue was that almos all of them was in Japanese, what is nice if you're so into the culture that you can read it, but for the rest of the mortal isn't that good. Some of the shops were really specialized, for exaple one of them only sold figures of the characters who appears in the series. So for those who are into the kawai/otaku culture, this will be felt as home.

5 mei in Haarlem

May 5th is the day when the Dutch liberation from the Nazis is celebrated. For this reason, hundreds of people go to the street and enjoy the vrijmarkt (it seems is the Dutch way of celebrating events) and some of the most famous festivals take place. One of these festivale is the Bevrijdings Pop, in Haarlem. Yesterday, I attended to it with some friends. 

In this festival, some of the most well-known artists play, such as Ronnie Flex with its "drank en drugs". There were three stages and a lot of stands selling drinks and food. From pizza to kebap and vietnamese food. 

Before go into the festival we visited the city. Haarlem is a very beautiful city, it looks like a mix between Leiden and The Hague.

If being around The Netherlands, Haarlem is a place that you should visit, for sure. It is very well located and it takes no more than 20 min from Amsterdam or Leiden, by train.

Going back to the festival, it is such a great event that people from all parts of The Netherlands go to it, and the TV as well. If you want to see the superstars, you have to take in count that they are  the first who play so you have to be there at the starting hour (17:00). It was surprising for me because I am used to see the main bands playing the last.

The entrance to this event is free but you're not allowed to bring your own drinks or food. Food and drinks inside must be paid using coins, not real money, and besides you have to pay for using the toilettes. This is something strange because outside the area of the festival there are free toilettes, and regarding you can go out and return freely it doesn't make sense for me paying for using the toilettes.

The festival is set in a huge area just in the middle of the city, but other stands and parties are present all around the city.

My personal opinion is that Haarlem worth a visit and if you're in this country the 5th of may you should also go to this enormous festival.