People ask me frequently if I notice the ongoing elections much. Not really, to be honest. Of course I followed the news around Super Tuesday and I keep track of who is winning there. But I do not feel bombarded by news messages or politically flavored commercials. This might have something to do the fact that I hardly watch television.

The States are known for their enormous variety of television channels and it might be surprising to hear that I watch more Dutch television than local television. Yes, the Internetz are awesome! The Dutch national broadcasting societies release everything they do free online. The website is kind of crappy, but I get to watch this really interesting history show, laugh at cops pulling people over on the highway or follow some of the sports shows. My computer is connected to my TV and amplifier, so I can pretend I am actually at home. I also have a subscription to the basic package so I receive about 30 local channels, but I really only watch one of the two football channels. Cultural habits even seem to effect my choice of television. Now all I need to do is find a channel that broadcasts Champions League football!

A while ago, my motivation to continue an academic career abroad was pretty low. The days were getting shorter, there were worries about loved ones, there were troubled relations, times passed by slowly. I never felt too bad for a good winter depression. Time for an update on that situation. At this stage, I have to point out that I have to be careful about what I write here. People in Boston, including colleagues, are discovering the blog.

But hey, nobody ever died of being honest (uhm… except maybe a few).
Life is not so bad right now. A cool crowd of people has assembled that is willing to do things. The weekends are starting to become good fun. It does happen that I go to work on Sundays because I have nothing better to do (sad, really). My research is moving forward (albeit with ups and downs). My Fellowship has started this month which means some financial space (I get paid in Euros). I will spend a large part of the months March and April traveling. So yes, the life is turning towards the bright side. Not that it was ever really bad, considering the fortunate position that I have. But you don’t stop your genes…
Soon to be posted on this blog: One Year of Blogging. What has it brought us?

Recently I have had several discussions and conversations about Dutch food. Going out for dinner with some friends, they asked me what Dutch food is like. Honestly, I could not really give them an answer. Andijvie? Patat mayo? So they asked me what I would usually eat. Of course, being vegetarian, my diet is probably somewhat different from typical Dutch family food.

I eat mostly different variations of pasta and rice. Sometimes I return to the West-european variation of (fake) meat, fried potatoes and vegetables. Not to mention some of the crappy microwave and restaurant food that a vast part of my diet. A different issue is the quality of the food. On a another occasion, a Spanish friend went as far as to rate Dutch food as second hand. He is not the only one.. I am a nationalist and obviously started to defend my country against his brutal attack. Last week I was backed up when talking to an American who lived in the Netherlands who spontaneously mentioned he never ate as well as when he lived there. So what to make of this? I definitely miss some of the stuff from back home and and brought over bread decoration, beschuit and ontbijtkoek when I returned last time. Fortunately, I can also order stuff online. Indicating that at the very least, I am not the only missing it! Eat that, Inigo!

The social life of a postdoc can be quite volatile. That sounds negative but it really is not. It means that I meet new people all the time, who become good friends very rapidly. It also means that these friendships are not meant to last forever. On Saturday, I went skiing with six friends - one American, four Spaniards and an Argentino.

Most of them I have met in the last two or three months, but it feels as if I have known them for a long time. The skiing was great fun. We left at seven in the morning and were on skis by ten. The lifts closed around four in the afternoon so we were on our way back around five. I drove together with Maria and Fatima, in Maria’s car. When we left it started snowing but we were on the highway soon. Although we drove slowly we did not expect any trouble, and I went to take a nap in the back. But then a car in front of us went sideways, and then another. Maria tried to brake, but then we also went sideways and hit one of the cars. About 6 cars ran into each other like this. We stopped to check the damage and to fill out insurance forms. Somebody called the police. The damage to our car and the one we hit was small. But more cars, driving to fast for the icy conditions, went to fast, lost control and one almost swiped us of our feet - if it wasn’t for us all jumping over the concrete fence, just in time. On top of that this car crashed into ours. The damage was quite bad, both bumpers wrecked, the bonnet and the boot unable to close. It was quite scary but fortunately nobody got hurt! In the end we were able to drive home and arrived back in Boston around ten at night, both us and the car wrecked. Hopefully Maria will get the damage paid for by somebody’s insurance.

On Friday, my team Fc Twente lost their game against NAC. Before going out last night, I took a shower. When I finished I wanted to put in my lenses, but I lost one. Also last night, I lost my phone (or was is stolen?). This morning, my second team Feyenoord lost the classic game again Ajax. Today, my bike back light dropped and was immediately run over by a car. Lost. Tonight, the New England Patriots lost the most important game of the season (the Superbowl).

Now, I had a great weekend. Party on Fridaynight with a bunch of cool French people. Dinner and party yesterday with mainly Spanish guys and girls. But I am the only seeing some kind of pattern here?

The nightmare of every beginning scientist. You open the website of one of your favorite scientific journals (such as Nature or Science) only to discover that that problem you have been working on for the last years has been solved. BY SOMEONE ELSE!

It kind of happened to me and some fellow researchers last week. We have been pursuing a project in which we try to find whether common cancers can be caused by bacteria or viruses. This has been reported for a few cancers (mainly female cancers such as breast- and ovarium-). However our approach is kind of revolutionary. But not anymore - some clever bugger in Pittsburgh also figured out our trick and published a new type of cancer caused by a virus. In Science!. We feel it is kind of unfair - we were the first one to come up with the ‘trick’ (well, my boss Matthew Meyerson at least) but they are the first ones to actually show that all our assumptions are right. Of course the Pittsburgh guys deserve credit for really finding something. We can only hope that we at least will be second. And fortunately I have two other projects to work on, so let’s hope this will be the only scoop for the coming years.