EMCL ~ The last chapter

The weeks and months flew by when I was in Moscow. I can't believe my two-year Master's programme ended so quickly! I often think back to the day I flew to Finland for my first semester. It has been a great adventure to live in so many countries in such a short period, although I would like to stay in the same place for a bit longer. Every day I thank God for the special people He has brought into my life and the friendships that evolved from this; people from different cultures who have taught me so many valuable lessons. Now that my Master's has finished, I finally have time and energy to write a new blog post about ... Moscow!

"Moscow seethes and bubbles and gasps for air. It's always thirsting for something new, the newest events, the latest sensation. Everyone wants to be the first to know. It's the rhythm of life today." (Svetlana Alliluyeva ~ daughter of Joseph Stalin)

Moscow - the city that never sleeps. This saying is certainly not exaggerated. Anywhere you walked, at any time of the day, people everywhere. A lot of people. This is not surprising since Moscow has around 20 million inhabitants, of which the non-registered people are not included. Why did I actually go to Moscow? The fourth semester (the last 6 months) of my EMCL + programme comprised an internship and thesis. You could choose to do your internship and thesis separately or to use the results from your internship work for your thesis. I chose to combine my internship and thesis. So, I went to Moscow to work as a research intern at the "Center for Language and Brain". At the center, they conduct research in various research areas, such as language acquisition, bilingualism, neurolinguistics (i.e. brain and language), language and aging, etc.

Chruch near to my dorm

My shared dorm room

A new project in the field of neurolinguistics had just started and I would participate in this project. In my previous blog posts, I've talked about aphasia, a language disorder after brain damage. If you want to read more about this language disorder, I would like to refer you to the website of the National Aphasia Association. You might already have guessed that the Moscow project was about aphasia, aphasia types to be more precise. In Western Europe, we use a different aphasia classification system than in, among other places, Russia. That is because these classification systems came into existence around the time of the Soviet Union (1922-1991). The well-known Soviet neuropsychologist Alexander Romanovich Luria (1902-1977) played a major role in defining different aphasia syndromes. During his career, World War II broke out. Many soldiers came to him with brain damage resulting from bullet wounds. The brain damage led in some cases to language disorders, which differed in symptoms and, so, Luria divided the symptoms into different syndromes; the different aphasia types. There is one big difference between the aphasia classification we use here in the West and that of Luria, namely the cause of the aphasia in the patients the classification systems were based. The brain damage resulting from bullet wounds is many times more focal than, for example, is the case with strokes, in which large brain areas are affected.

Cake to celebrate the lab's anniversary

Let's go back to the project I participated in. Luria also indicated where the brain damage would be for each aphasia type based on the bullet wounds of his patients. The project, therefore, aimed to see if Luria was right by using modern neuroimaging techniques, namely with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). On an MRI scan/image you can see which areas of the brain are damaged. With a certain program, you can label this brain damage, which we call delineation. Then we overlay the labeled brain damage of all patients with a certain aphasia type and then we can see which brain area is most often damaged in people with this specific aphasia type. For my thesis, I chose the aphasia type called "acoustic-amnestic aphasia" (Luria's classification). People with this aphasia type mainly have problems finding words and this can be demonstrated with a test in which the person must name pictures. Furthermore, these people may experience problems remembering a series of numbers and words that are offered auditorily. This is also called a problem with the auditory short-term memory. The project is still ongoing and we hope to be able to publish the results next year.

Victory Day (Den' Pobedy)

Spring

Of course, there was also time to relax in Moscow! My internship and thesis were very demanding and at a certain point, I decided to take at least every Sunday off to relax. In Moscow, I found an international church (International Church Fellowship ~ ICF). and I was immediately invited into this church family and invited for lunch. This was the start of many friendships and Sunday lunches and relaxation together. I am so very grateful for all the people I met there! You have my time in Moscow great. I really loved to hang out with this international group of people. We presented most parts of the world: Russia, South-Africa, United States, Philippines, South-Korea, China, Ireland, Pakistan, Syria, Ecuador, United Kingdom, France, Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, and many more countries. I miss you all a lot!

Meanwhile in church

Great people!

During my time in Moscow, I didn't do much sightseeing. If you want to read more about what you can do and see in Moscow, then I would like to refer you to my blog posts of three years ago about Moscow. This time, I mainly explored nice lunch- and coffee places, watched the ballet, etc.  I also have a new hobby... Latin dance! In the summer in Moscow, there are many places outside in the city and parks where you can dance (Bachata, Salsa, Kizomba, Lindy Hop, and more). I was very lucky to have made some friends from church who are very good in bachata and salsa, and who taught me some basics. Besides dancing, I also practiced my Russian. When I was in Postdam, I listened to many podcasts in Russian. It's funny how much of a language you can learn by just listening and trying to understand what has been said. But this is a totally different story (maybe for a future blog post?). I could make myself quite understandable in Russia and after living there for 5 months, I knew quite some Russian words. I even had a conversation in Russian with a grandma in the metro during one of my last weeks there. I'm far from being a near-native speaker of Russian but I'm definitely planning to practice my Russian in the coming time.

Syrniki!

Izmailovo market

When I wrote this blog post, I was already back in the Netherlands and I had submitted al my work for EMCL+. I can also say that I'm officially graduated from my Master's degree!

Graduation ceremony in Groningen (2019)

Also, I already had packed my stuff to move to my new destination. Many people already know that this destination is in the United Kingdom, more specifically, in Lancaster. Are you curious about what I'm doing there? Then, read my next blog post, which I hope to post in not too long. A few interesting facts about the UK:
The country has a rich history and, again, wrote history not too long ago.

• A total number of 163 million cups of tea are consumed a day.
• More than 3000 people ended up in the hospital because the tripped over a laundry basket.
• In London, the capital city, the number of languages spoken is the highest (300!) compared to other capital cities in the world.

I'm looking forward to sharing my new adventure with you!

Nikolskaya straat

With Clarissa on my last evening in Moscow