Environmental Research Institute

All good things come to an end

21 July, 2010

Just as title describes is, all good things come to an end. On Friday 16th of July I had my last day at the ERI. The last two weeks where fun but hectic, a lot of work had to be done before I would go back to Holland.

The Last Two Weeks at ERI

On July 6th Martina and I both did a presentation on the work we had done in our traineeships. Martina had focused on biochemistry by doing research concerning oxidative stress in salmon eggs. It’s a part of her PhD project which she will complete at her home university in the Czech Republic. After that I did my presentation about limpets on the rocky shores and their home scars. The two topics presented are entirely different, it’s quite fun to see the variation of projects within the ERI. The presentation went well I think. There was a nice discussion afterwards about some of the results and possible causes of those afterward. Personally I think that is a good thing.

After the presentation I had 1 week left at the ERI to get as much done as possible. For myself I decided that I wanted to finish all the fieldwork and statistics before leaving, and then finish the technical report from home. To do so was hard work but I’m very happy at succeeding in this mission. Angus helped me out on the statistic with lots of patience (thanks!) because statistics can be a bit difficult at times. 3 of the 4 experiments had significant outcomes, I’m very happy about that as well. I have taken all my stuff with me to Holland to write up, I hope to finish it within two weeks.

The Caithness County Show

The Saturday before I left the Caithness County Show was in Thurso, the ERI was there as well with some rocky shore plants and animals (including limpets of course). It was great fun to see all the farmers proudly show their animals or machinery. Also a lot of food and other competitions like dancing and such were great fun! I tried some real Scottish soup with fish (I forgot what it’s called again). I also did notice that it would have been handier to put on wellies, I didn’t and regretted it. The rain made the field a bit muddy at some places.

Saying goodbye

And then the moment saying goodbye arrived. On the Friday my colleagues gave me a DVD of Caithness and a funny little highland bull cuddly toy which I named George. In the evening I gave a bit of a farewell party, which was a lot of fun. We had some nice talks and laughs. Most of the people I would see again on the county show next day so it wasn’t a real goodbye thing just yet. But the next day it was and I was feeling rather sentimental. When Annette dropped me off at the train station on Sunday I was still feeling rather sad about leaving. I had a real good time in Thurso at the ERI and I am missing everybody!

The Journey back

The journey back went rather smooth, especially in comparison to the arriving journey a few months back. I took the train from Thurso to Aberdeen on Sunday, stayed at an airport inn and then flew back to Amsterdam on Monday the 19th. In Holland there’s a heat wave going on so the temperature difference was quit shocking, but not a negative thing at all. The welcome home was a bit different then I had expected. It seemed that the builders who are renovating the house I live in took out the toilet and the hot water! So the next day I went to friends (who do have a toilet and hot water) and in the evening the builders had fixed it for me so I could start unpacking and all of that.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody at the ERI for all there help and humor ;) I had a great time also thank to you all!