UNAWE

(Could also be called: “While Pedro is Away, the Interns Will Go out to Play.”)

While today is rainy and cloudy yet again, the past three days have been absolutely, deliciously, fabulously hot and humid. I’m talking DC-(or Philly)-in-July kind of weather. While I may not enjoy the sweat and dehydration that occurs in this heat, this is what summer is supposed to be like. No scarves, no wool socks, no boots — just summer dresses and ultimate shorts and swimsuits.

Pedro is away in Poland for the week, and Monday was absolutely too wonderful to be cooped up inside all day. So, Stephanie and I made great progress in the morning — I worked on an update about UNAWE Indonesia, and Stephanie worked on the website. Then, in the afternoon, we left a few hours early and biked to the beach. Katwijk aan Zee is only ~40 minutes by bike, and we made it almost the whole way without fail. We were a little off-track once we hit town, and Stephanie’s bike acted up, but we eventually made it to the beach (the trick was following people in bathing suits!)

Tons of people, yes, but the beach was wonderful. It was great to just absorb the Vitamin D (don’t worry, tons of sunscreen, too! As my wise mother says, “The skin you’ll have at 40 is the skin you’ll deserve”), and have some time to take a nap and read my book (White Teeth by Zadie Smith — SO good!).

From the beach, we biked straight to Leiderdorp for kayaking. Again, we got a little deterred directionally, and it took much longer to get there than expected, (sorry to Fabian and Justin, our guides, who waited for over an hour for us). But kayaking was terrific! Really, really, great weather for it. We are also now official LEVITAS members, meaning we can paddle whenever we like, as long as we have an instructor with us.

After dinner with the kayak club, I rode back into Leiden for a game night with some frisbee players. Embarrassingly, I got lost again. Well, not that I got “lost” — because I knew where I was at all times — but more that I couldn’t find the streets I needed to turn on. Roads here are not clearly marked, and so directions that say “Right on Rijnsburgerweg” don’t work. I was advised today to instead write directions that say “make the 3rd right” or “Right at the windmill.” So, in total, I estimate that I was on my bike (thus, the “pedaling” in the title) for ~ 3 hours and ~30km. A map of the adventure:

Yesterday was equally (if not more) hot and humid. It was also the master’s graduation ceremony for our friend and Sterrewacht (Observatory/Astronomy Department) student, Tiffany. It was quite an official ceremony, and after being personally awarded her degree, she signed her name on the walls of this Harry Potter-like room where decades of graduate students had signed their name before. Afterwords, some people threw her a small surprise party, and it was nice to socialize a bit with people from work outside of work. In two weekends, I’ll be traveling with this group to Belgium.

The heat was eventually broken by an incredibly dramatic thunderstorm, much like the ones we get at home. I really hope it’s a taste for the weather to come. This weekend I’m playing an ultimate tournament at the beach, and it will be much nicer with warm, dry weather!

Another Monday, coming off another weekend of great adventures.

Before those updates, though, I want to talk a bit about working with Universe Awareness. So far, it’s been really wonferful to be here, and I feel that I am making a contribution to the organization, while still learning a lot about what they do. I’m doing a lot of writing and editing, mostly giving updates about the great things going on at different international branches.

Every day is kind a a new adventure in that way. I show up to work, and have a few long-term projects that I feel I’m perpetually working on (the board game, the pamphlet/guide for starting a program), and then I’ll also get small side-assignments to write a news update, or a Space Scoop (which takes ESO headline stories and changes them into kid-friendly language). The website is currently under construction, and so that has been a project as well. I wasn’t shown how to edit the website itself, but I’ve done a lot of content editing for thew news updates, etc. Hopefully, it will go live tomorrow, and I can share the updates that are most interesting that I take personal pride in writing!

Ok, now for the fun updates:

1. Friday afternoon, the work crew took a trip to ESA (the European Space Agency). It’s only about a 20 minute drive from Leiden. We were shown around the building, and then went to a public talk on Exoplanets. Here’s a terribly unflattering picture of the group:

(Left to right — Me, Pedro, Wouter, Stephanie. I guess Pedro looks normal, but terrible for the rest of us…)

The day on Saturday was typical and wonderful. Sleeping in, then a trip to the market and into town for groceries and goodies. The stereotypical stroopwafel snack:

Saturday night was Museum Night in Leiden. For the low-low price of 12,50 eur, you have admission to all 8 museums in town, plus free boat transport between the museums! Each place also held special activities for the event, making it even more exciting. We only visited half the museums, but each one was so different and itneresting. We went to:

The Hortus Botanicus (Botanical Garden)

Museum Boerhaave. This was my favorite. They also had a terrific interactive circus-toy exhibit:

Each one had a button, and you would press the button and watch the circus come to life! I loved this exhibit, and would like to go back for longer!

We also went to the ancient history museum and looked at Egyptian artifacts, as well as the Museum Volkenkunde, which is their Anthropology museum, and toured an excellent exhibit on the Maori people. All in all, an excellent night!

Yesterday, the sun came out, and it was a surprisingly warm day. Stephanie and I were invited to go to a music festival in Den Haag by astronomy master’s student Carla. This is us at the festival:

Again, not flattering for anyone. We’re much nicer-looking in person, I promise!

It was a crowded event, with probably about 100,000 people there. The music was OK, but mostly it was just nice to be outside in the sun.

This week will be full of great adventures, and so I’ll have to update again soon. On the list is:

1) Moving! I’m changing housing to save a bit of money. It will be a student apartment outside of the city center, but I’m looking forward to a change of scenery. I’m thinking also that with the saved cash, I can take a trip (maybe to someplace warm?)

2) A visit from Ruben Land ’12. Between town exploring, a beach ultimate tournament, seeing Ilja Hermans (BMC ’12), and a possible trip to Amsterdam, it should be a great visit!

3) Enjoying the sun while it lasts. As we speak, I’m preparing to take the afternoon off with Stephanie to go to the beach, and then kayaking on the canals later tonight!

So, more to come!

Sunlight crossed our skies for a total of eighteen and a half hours yesterday, ringing in the new season, and bringing all sorts of great surprises. The first one:

My Danish friend Merete, who shared many an adventure with me during my semester studying in Hawaii last fall, swung by yesterday afternoon with friend Sophie (seen taking the picture in the window reflection). The two girls were on a roadtrip kitesurfing through Holland. They were planning to visit Wednesday to Thursday, but the winds were too strong to surf, and instead blew them to me a day early! Luckily, I was able to take off work early at the last minute to spend the afternoon with them. One of the places we stopped:

This book sale happens in town periodically, but I’m still unclear as to how it gets here, and where these books come from. I bought a great handful of postcards for only 2 eur  — so, expect mail, America!

The Danish girls stayed for dinner, and then headed out for their journey back to Copenhagen (only ~6 hour drive). It was great to see Merete again. When we left Hawaii, I thought there was no way I would see, considering the distance. Had you told me a year ago that I would be spending a summer in Europe, I wouldn’t have believed it. Funny how these things happen…  I’ll also be visiting her in Copenhagen for a whole week at the end of the summer, so we’ll have more than an afternoon to catch up.

Surprise #2 — a trip to the beach! Stephanie were talking about going anyway, to celebrate the longest day of the year, when I received an email from my ultimate team saying that we’d have beach practice to prepare for our beach tournament in 2 weeks. A perfect excuse to go, and a great way to make it there for the first time without getting lost. It’s only about a 30-45 bike ride, and, as beaches go, it was pretty stunning (click for full image):

The wind was out of control, and playing was extremely difficult, but hopefully it will calm down before the tournament. This sunset picture was taken at ~10:15pm. It didn’t get completely dark until after 11:30.

And, to top off the day, one final stop on the way home to celebrate summer:

(note the Windmill in the background.) Now, hopefully, the sun will shine more and the temperatures will start to reflect the season we’re in.

PS: More about work, etc. soon. It’s all going great, and I’m enjoying it a lot. UNAWE is a terrific organization, and I’m loving the work I’m doing. But no pictures! It’s easier to blog about things that you photograph…

PPS: If you’re reading, drop a comment! It’s good to know who’s actually seeing this, (besides my Mom, of course).

This weekend, I played at the largest grass tournament for Ultimate Frisbee in Europe. This is my team, PUF:

The team is a collection of high-level players from teams in three towns in the Netherlands. When I went to my first Leiden practice, Gosse (fourth from the right in the top row in the picture), said to me — “Well, it seems that you want to play a lot of Frisbee. Would you like to go to a tournament in Amsterdam next week?” How could I say no?

And so, from Friday morning until Sunday afternoon, I played with this amazing team. Everyone was so welcoming and genuine, and because the level of play was so high, I learned a lot in the process.

The tournament was home to over 1200 Ultimate players from all over Europe, and many people camped right there on the fields (myself included). That’s a great thing about tournaments — even though we’re all on different teams, it’s still a great collection of people all playing, eating meals, and hanging out together. And, I’ve never heard so many different languages, let alone so many different words related specifically to ultimate. We got lucky with the weather as well, with only 2 games in the rain. Apparently pretty good for Dutch standards.

All in all, an amazing weekend. As always at the end of tournaments, my body is tired, but I feel happy and strong and glad to have made so many new friends! I’ll go to one other tournament in my time here — Hargen, a beach tournament, in 2 weeks. And, Ruben Land from Haverford will be joining me! Can’t wait.

Even though it’s already Thursday, I just uploaded my pictures from this past (long) weekend. So, instead of going into detail about what I’ve been doing, I’ll just show you!

FRIDAY:
Talk by famous physicist, Roger Penrose.

One of the best talks I’ve ever seen about his latest theory on “Seeing through the Big Bang into Other Universes.” He used hand-drawn overhead slides, and gave no equations or proof, but it was absolutely fascinating. Apprx 700 people in the audience.

Biking home in the pouring rain, stop at AMAZING (and cheap!) Greek restaurant:

From left to right: Karen, Marissa, Boca, Peter, Me, and Stephanie (how did she stay so dry??)

Marissa is an American PhD student studying astronomy in Leiden. She does some work with UNAWE, and we met her on Wednesday. Since then, she has been kind enough to take Stephanie and me under her wing, introducing us to people, taking us out, and so on. It’s been great!

SATURDAY:

The weekly Market! I got a ton of fresh groceries, and it was also great exploring and moving through the (very tall) Dutch crowds. The market also happens on Wednesdays, and Stephanie and I have made it a habit to take our lunch break there to get freshly made stroopwafels.

To dodge the rain, we also stopped at a pannekoeken restaurant. This is what we got:

Apple cinnamon delight! They also had savory ones, which I plan on trying on our next visit.

SUNDAY: A lot of sleeping, and then exploring in the evening with a new friend from Ultimate. I didn’t take any of my own pictures, but this is one of the places we stopped:

This hill-top castle gave a great view of all of Leiden.

Monday was a “Bank Holiday,” so we worked from home and a great coffee shop (that sells HUGE mugs of coffee) instead of going into the office. In the afternoon, Stephanie arranged for us to go kayaking through the University kayaking club. This is us with our guides:

Left to right: Fabian, Oskar, and Justin. Plus Stephanie and me in the front!

It’s 30 euro to have a membership, and I’m thinking more and more about doing it. Since kayaking would be Mondays and Wednesdays, and Ulitmate is Tuesdays and Thursdays, it would work out quite nicely. Another great way to be active and explore the city!

More real updates to come, but honestly, I am feeling a little frustrated by blogging on this site. When I’ve done this before, it’s been much easier to upload photos, etc. As it is now, it’s taken me far to long to write this post. Maybe WordPress isn’t the right blog host for you, Haverford, my dear…

Since working with the Willman Research group last summer, I mark my productivity by the number of physical things that I can show at the end of the day. Using this success scale, I deem today as SUCCESSFUL. Here’s what I have to show:

A draft of the board game to be! (click for full image!)

Like I mentioned a few days ago, we’re developing a board game that teaches kids ages 6-7 about light. After meeting with Stephanie and Pedro yesterday about preliminary ideas, we agreed on the above concept. Each player travels as a photon of light from the sun along the board, with the end goal of reaching the Earth (HST is a small shortcut!). However, you have to stop and collect points first from getting to the color spaces. Each color will have you do an activity (simple trivia, rhymes, songs, etc.) The goal is that it will be interactive, informative, and most of all, FUN! So, I spent the day designing the board (I had the original idea hand-drawn, so it was pretty fun translating it to a computer design). This is still in a VERY preliminary stage, but hopefully tomorrow afternoon the team will actually play, and see what it’s like!

My second accomplishment is smaller, but I was asked to write a short news release for the website, (I’ll post it once it’s made public in the next week!). I’m so glad that I’m actually writing and producing things in my internship here! Not really knowing what I was getting into when I signed up for this job, I could have easily just been making copies and coffee as an “intern.”

A non-displayable success — I can now bike it to work and back without making any mistakes! I think that’s step 1 in learning my way around town. Although, I must say, every time I’ve gotten “lost,” it’s been very easy to get back on the right track using sings/landmarks I know and eventually run into.

And that’s all for now! I’m playing ultimate in a few hours — After playing on Tuesday, I got invited to the team’s practice!

(1) Work was good today. I hope that soon I will have more concrete tasks to do. In the afternoon, we went to a thesis defense, and I watched someone recieve a PhD for the first time. It happened in this very old Dutch hall with pictures of eminent scholars of the past, (dead white men with great facial hair), hanging floor to ceiling. We had to stand when the committee entered, dressed in black cloaks, and then we watched them ask this PhD to be all sorts of questions, and then ultimately hand her a giant tube with her degree inside. Very intense and fun to watch.

(2) I played ultimate here today, and it was FANTASTIC. I had found online the ultimate club team and contacted them ahead of time, to make sure I would be able to play (and so I knew to pack my cleats!) Hopefully next weekend I’ll be playing in a tournament in Amsterdam!

(3) I made some new friends at my house:

Hanging out with new friend Toby. His brother Tomy was hiding under my bed.

Technically, they’re not supposed to be in my room, but a little play time/photo shoot can’t hurt right? Tomy was being bad, though, and didn’t take the clue when it was time to leave. Some more funny pictures of that, later… (Let’s just say some ladder-climbing was involved…)

If you feel like it, leave comments! It’s good to know if people are actually reading.

Today was my first day of work at UNAWE, and I can happily say that I am very much looking forward to an excellent summer of doing things that I care a lot about.

At about 10am, Stephanie and I arrived at “Sterrewacht Leiden” which translates to “Leiden Observatory.” It’s actually not an observatory at all, but rather the Astronomy department for Leiden University. The department is HUGE with ~60 PhD students, plus numerous full-time faculty members, post-docs, and so on.

And then there’s us — the UNAWE team. Today it was only Pedro, Stephanie, and myself. The other members of the team are based in other places and come in only some days of the week. Because we’re so small, there isn’t really a set office for us. So, I was put at the desk of a woman who was away for the week. Next week, hopefully, we’ll have a more concrete place to be.

Once we settled in a little bit, I met with Pedro to discuss what work would be like over the next two months.

But first, a little about the organization: UNAWE acts primarily as a network for interested educators who want to teach young children (especially in underpriviledged areas) astronomy. UNAWE provides online activies, resources, and ideas, but does not have a set curriculum or structure. They also have an ideology geared towards greater ideas about social justice, which makes UNAWE special, (and probably why the CPGC is funding me!) As their website says, “By raising awareness of the scale and beauty of the Universe the main goal of UNAWE is to broaden the minds of young children and awaken their curiosity in science, thereby helping to form curious, tolerant and internationally minded adults.”

So what will I actually be doing? The major goals for the summer include:

(1) Developing a board game for children ~6-7 years old that teaches them about light/photons. It needs to be not only scientifically correct and informative, but also interactive and accessible. The goal is then to have this be a product that can be sent to all participating branches — something that is low-cost, portable, and accessible for all.

(2) Creating a pamphlet to advertise UNAWE to possible participants. This pamphlet should contain basic info about the Universe Awareness project, our mission, how to get involved, etc. It will then open up to a poster of some cool universe photo. Basically, the kind of thing you get at major conferences. This pamphlet will also highlight the European Universe Awareness Program (EUNAWE) which just received 1.9 million euros for programming.

Other continuous projects include:

(1) Maintain a weekly “Space Scoop” which takes the media releases from ESO and makes them kid-friendly. (ESO is the European Organization for Astronomy Research in the Southern Hemisphere– They’re the one’s who have the VLT — Very Large Telescope — in Chile, and also major telescopes all over the world. In other words, they’re a really big deal.)

(2) Build a base of contacts of current participants as well as potential participants around the world (the US could be next!)

For the rest of the day, I was mostly reading and learning not only about UNAWE, but also about our partner organizations, and other science outreach programs around the world. I also read a lot of kids science magazines to get a hold on what publications for kids should look like. The day ended around 6pm, and now at 10:45. I am completely wiped, even though the sun is JUST  setting!

While it was difficult for me to sit at a desk all day, mostly working on my computer, I am extremely excited about the work that I’ll be doing this summer. These are issues that I think about a lot, and it feels great to finally be getting involved in a way that I think will really make a difference!

Thanks for reading! I’d like for my posts to be mostly short with a lot of pictures, but today I thought it would be good to give an overview of things at work…

Goedenacht! (Good night)

I have finally arrived in Leiden safe and sound!

This mill is not only historic and beautiful, but is also still fully functional! It still mills grain that is used at a local bakery nearby

It’s an incredibly beautiful city with a lot of history and amazing Dutch culture. I am excited to explore and this city in the context of the rest of Holland while learning about the Universe Awareness project.

Once I arrived and settled in “the most beautiful house in all of Leiden,” according to my landlady, I was introduced to housemate and co-worker Stephanie. She is an American student from Minnesota also interning at UNAWE this summer. It will be nice to have an American peer to talk with both at home and work. Once I met her, she invited me for a night out in Amsterdam with our boss Pedro (UNAWE international project manager) and Sarah, who is a collaborator and science writer based in Cambridge. Here’s us at dinner:

From left: Pedro (International Project Manager), Sarah (Collaborator and Science Journalist), Me!, Stephanie (American student and fellow UNAWE intern/housemate

First day of work is tomorrow, so I better get some rest, but here’s a photo of my amazing room for the meantime:

Thanks for reading! More soon!