 |
| Academy Building University of Groningen |
My semester in Groningen already ended a while ago. I will take you back to March: the moment when we moved to the Netherlands. We started our semester in Groningen with an introduction week. In this week we got to know our teachers, we went to the island Schiermonnikoog, we visited the market of Groningen, and we had a tour in the university's Academy Building where heard its history, and we had a guided tour in the Aa church in Groningen.
 |
| Ice on Schiermonnikoog |
 |
| The island Schiermonnikoog |
The following week, my first lectures started: Language Testing during Awake Brain Surgery (LTABS), aphasia (a course on aphasia, neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and dementia, and certain speech problems), and a course on language development disorders (such as dyslexia). For two courses, we had to set up a small experiment and test people. It doesn't sound difficult, but designing and preparing an experiment takes a lot of time. First, you have to come up with a topic, think which test you can use best, invent items for this test, and design the experiment. For LTABS, I designed an experiment to test inhibition. Inhibition means the suppression of certain responses. This test consisted of unfinished sentences. Participants were instructed to finish the sentence with one word, which either 1) came to their mind first, or 2) had nothing to do with the sentence (the second assignment is inhibition = the suppression of the response that is best for the sentence fits). An example of a sentence is: "The captain left the sinking ... 1) ship vs. 2) tree ". Despite the great stress due to the workload of these courses, I am very happy with the end result!
In the second block, we got the subjects: Serious Gaming and Neuroimaging & Language. During the course Serious Gaming, we learned how to develop an idea for a game or app for a clinical population, such as for people with a language disorder. The course was new this year and it was very innovative. We had many interesting guest lectures on various topics, such as 'design thinking', 'marketing strategies', 'virtual reality', and much more.
During the last 3 weeks of the semester in August, we had a course called "academic writing". The course was not only about learning to write academic papers, but also about choosing your supervisors, creating a habit to write a something every day, and for example, choosing a good topic for your thesis.
 |
| German "rodeln" with my sister |
Of course I have not only been busy studying. Halfway through the semester I started running. How wonderful it is to run your energy out and clear your head. I also participated in an Alpha course (link). We ate together every Wednesday evening and then talked about certain topics related to faith. I also joined an international church in Groningen: Vineyard. I met a lot of nice and sweet people, and made good friends. I will miss you all a lot in Germany!
I also went on a holiday in Germany with the best sister ever. We went camping in the mountains and it was just like the old days! After camping, we were camp leaders at a summer camp with children from 6-10 years old. It was very tiring, but it was so much fun! It's very interesting how young children can hold a mirror in front of you (as a figure of speech), where you find yourself. I certainly have learned a lot that week...and kids are so much fun! We even did some theater in which we did yodeling together with our group on
a song of the sound of music hahaha.
 |
| St. Basil's Cathedral |
The semester flew by and before I knew it, my summer holiday started. I also had to leave my house in Groningen. I have traveled a lot this month (September). I visited Valeriya in Moscow for a week. She had created a whole program for me (I'm very grateful for this great friend!) and we had a wonderful time. I've visited Moscow 1.5 years ago in Winter, and it was great to experience Moscow in summer as well. And no, Russia is not scary at all. I would definitely recommend you to visit it once!
After Russia, I went to Venice (Italy) for a conference. Valeriya and I presented our research on a poster together. Tomorrow, I will be moving to Germany again! But I'll write more about Venice and my moving next time, so keep tuned!
 |
| Sunny Venice |
 |
| Hmmm, interesting! |
 |
| Poster presentation at the conference |
Arrivederci, до свидания, see you, auf wiedersehen, tot ziens!
The following week, my first lectures started: Language Testing during Awake Brain Surgery (LTABS), aphasia (a course on aphasia, neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's and dementia, and certain speech problems), and a course on language development disorders (such as dyslexia). For two courses, we had to set up a small experiment and test people. It doesn't sound difficult, but designing and preparing an experiment takes a lot of time. First, you have to come up with a topic, think which test you can use best, invent items for this test, and design the experiment. For LTABS, I designed an experiment to test inhibition. Inhibition means the suppression of certain responses. This test consisted of unfinished sentences. Participants were instructed to finish the sentence with one word, which either 1) came to their mind first, or 2) had nothing to do with the sentence (the second assignment is inhibition = the suppression of the response that is best for the sentence fits). An example of a sentence is: "The captain left the sinking ... 1) ship vs. 2) tree ". Despite the great stress due to the workload of these courses, I am very happy with the end result!
0 reacties:
Een reactie posten