About 1.5 week ago, Tjitse, a Dutch student who has been studying here since September and a real northern lights hunter, reminded me about the high chance to see northern lights in Trondheim that night. A lot of conditions have to be met, like high solar activity and a clear sky. There have been clear skies in Trondheim for about two weeks, but on this Thursday night the sun was also that active to make this magical event of nature possible. So I quickly went to a place at the dark cemetery in the neighbourhood. And I was not the only one, at several spots more hunters were equipped with their cameras to catch the northern lights. The light show lasted only a few minutes, but the huge bow of green lights was definitely worth it! It was not as spectacular as it is supposed to at more northern latitudes. Unfortunately I forgot my tripod, so I made my first, shaky pictures of northern lights. Hopefully new chances will come soon for more sharp pictures, and time is running out for this, as the nights are shortening fast here.

Last weekend I subscribed as ‘Hyttevakter'or ‘cabin volunteer' to work in the ‘Studenterhytta'. I ate panecakes in this student cabin a few weeks earlier, this weekend I could join the meals for free and stay for free, in exchange I officially had to help in the kitchen. But it appeared to be a quiet weekend, so there was not too much work in the kitchen. My help was only needed some times when doing the dishes, which was actually done by a machine. The rest of the time I spent either reading, hiking in the snow around the cabin (at 500 meters above sea or fjord level...), talking and playing games with other visitors and volunteers. On Saturday afternoon there were some more ‘internationals', amongst them 3 Dutch students, the rest of the weekend I was mainly among Norwegians (and one Swede). Luckily they often switched to English for me.

Sunday morning I was able to observe in a great way how little, Norwegian children take their first steps on cross-country skis. And this turns out to be not so easy, neither gives the children a lot of fun (yet). After falling for three times and lying in the snow, while crying, mum was still waiting till the child got up on its own.

Sunday night I visited an Easter quiz organized by ESN (Erasmus Student Network) in Café M, the activity house at the student campus where I live. The quiz was organized especially for Erasmus exchange students. At the end of the quiz there was a blind chocolate tasting test between Belgian (Cote d'Or) and Swiss (Lindt) chocolate. The Swiss should could proudly go home after a close win. According to me the Belgian student should have chosen for a better taste than coffee chocolate. The atmosphere in this activity house was really nice, so Monday I returned to this place after a long working day.

Monday night I discussed for a long time with a Turkish student in electrochemistry who got a PhD job offer in the Netherlands (at Wetsus in Leeuwarden). He was in doubt about this position, and I know his potential supervisors and this project group well from my own thesis, so we discussed about it a long time. Luckily we spoke about more interesting things than this. I met his girl friend already the day before, introduced to me by my Turkish lab mate Deniz. So I am really integrating in the Turkish student community in Trondheim, I know 5 Turkish people by know (including my supervisor).

Because I had to wait again for an order of primers (DNA pieces) to continue experiments with one bacterial species, my supervisor provided me with some additional experiments with a photosynthetic bacterium. So we installed a desk lamp very professionally in the incubator to make these red bacteria grow.

And photosynthesis became even much more the story of this week. Wednesday I had a phone conversation with two professors in Wageningen about a very challenging PhD position in Microbiology from September on. Together we concluded that we are all very enthusiastic about this project. So Friday morning I finally sent them an email that I like to work in this PhD project. So my ‘first job' when returning in the Netherlands is already arranged, in about a week after my return I can start for this 4 year position.

Wednesday evening I went again to Studenterhytta, this time for dinner with the Ski og Fjell association, the association of which I did visit a drink earlier. The skiers and hikers organized a photo competition before dinner, including some really great pictures of the past winter season. Despite the mainly Norwegian members of this association, an Iranian student got the price in two categories. The food was typical Norwegian, okay it was pizza, which I think is the most popular food in this country. At the end of the evening the bus brought us from the nice hut back to the Student city.

Friday I was working in the lab till 19.30, my experiments were actually going quite well (finally), so even on Saturday I visited the lab for a short time to check things. Except for the nice Norwegian social life I am working as well, and even on very uncommon times.