Exactly one week ago I left the Netherlands and arrived on Iceland. One week already. Time flies! Some people have been asking what I have been up to, so with this blog I would like to give you a quick update.

The past weeks I had been preparing for Iceland. Some practical stuff back home, being in contact with the Icelandic AFS office and packing my stuff. As I expected Iceland to be super cold, I made sure to buy enough warm clothes in NL that I could take with. While packing I was surprised how much stuff I could actually bring. I even managed to fill my 40kg that I could take with.

February 18th I invited family over to say goodbye, while I already had said bye to some friends of mine earlier that week. The morning of February 19th I visited my grandparents’ to say goodbye to them there.  Due to farmer strikes we didn’t want to risk to get into a traffic jam on the way to the airport. My dad dropped me and my mom of at the trainstation from where we left to the airport. Good job to me….. I almost forgot the most important bag in the car. Luckily my dad could bring it just in time to still get into the train on time. Arrived at the airport we had much time left. We checked in my bags, went to the panorama deck,  had some food and then I waved my mom goodbye when she took the train back. For me that was the time to go through security to the gate. At the gate I ran into another Dutch AFS volunteer I’m working with who was gonna travel, such a coincidence.

 

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It was a good flight. The landing was in the the middle of a snowstorm, so it was a real welcome with Icelandic weather.  Aron and Mathilde, two AFS volunteers, picked me up from the airport. Aron dropped me and Mathilde (who I already knew) of at my new house where we put my stuff in my room. Then we walked to her place where we ate late dinner. In the picuture below you can see the house where I live now. It is the grey house in the picture.

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Thursday I started at the office. Elín, a girl from Iceland who was at the same time on her exchange in Iceland, lend me her bike for one year. She brought this on Thursday to the office. The next morning it turned out the tire was flat, so I already to to fix it this weekend. At the office it was lots of practical stuff this week, also helping out with some tasks and getting to know the people in the office of course. Everyone is super nice and I’m excited for what will come!

 

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On Saturday morning I walked around Reykjavik. I’m living in the downtown area and I was curious about where I actually live.

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In the afternoon there was Árshárið, this is an annual party for AFS volunteers. It was super nice seeing the volunteers I already knew and to meet more of the Icelandic volunteers. There was an afternoon program with some teambuilding and at night there was a vegan dinner and a party with some more activities. The party was musical themed, I borrowed a pink ladies jacket from one of the volunteers. One thing I have already noticed in Iceland: Icelandic people are very into Eurovision.

 

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Sunday morning I joined the free walking tour around the city. The streets downtown are heated, so I put on thinner shoes: worst decision ever. Of course we walked routes through snow and standing still in parks with snow so I got quite cold at the end. After the tour I went home to warm up and to get lunch. In the afternoon I went to the Icelandic pool with some volunteers; a whole new experience. Also being in an outside pool with 1°C outside was not the thing I would expect me doing this fast. It was very nice tho, and afterwards we went to get some icecream. This is also something that you could get yearround here, in the Netherlands icecream shops are usually closed in the winter. On the way back home it was dark and it snowed which allowed a beautiful view at the Sun Voyager.

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Monday evening there was a chance to see the Northern Lights. I went out on my bike and waited. I did not see anyting, but my camera cought a bit. Earlier this week I already missed very good opportunity, Laura texted me when there were nice northern lights, but it was just after I went to sleep.

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This week there are many holidays in Iceland. On monday it was Bolladagur. This is a day where everyone eats Bolla, which is like a bun.  Kids will have made a wand on this day and hit their parents while yelling “bolla, bolla, bolla”, the amount of times that they hit and say bolla will be the amount of bolla that the kids will get. Then Tuesday it was Sprengidagur / explosion day, which is a day where people just eat until they can’t eat anymore if I’m right. And today it was Öskudagur, also known as ash wednesday. For this kids dress up and sing songs at companies to get candy. I did see some kids walking around downtown, but as AFS is on the 4th floor the kids don’t get there. I do want to mention that this is how I understood these holidays. Think it is about right, but it could be a bit different.

Today I started my first Icelandic classes at the Tin Can Factory. I’ll be following a course for the next 6 weeks and hopefully I’ll be able to understand and speak some of the Icelandic language soon. I also bought some children’s books which will hopefully help me learning the language faster.

Think that’s about it for now. I’m really enjoying my time here. I’m not sure how often I’ll update my blog. If you want to really keep up to date you can also follow me on Social Media. Have a great day! Goðan dag!

Hi guys!

It has been a while. I’m keeping myself busy and because of that I don’t make a blogpost very often. But maybe that is about to change; A new adventure awaits!

After I graduated I travelled for a month through Europe and during that trip I also went to the VSS in Austria. I did apply to some jobs, but unfortunately it didn’t work out at those places. I have been in Denmark  in November to attent the international Training for Trainers, where I facilitated an online webinar. And in December I had the chance to be a trainer at the PEACE camp in Brussels, this is the end of stay camp for the trimester program of AFS.

And now the big news:
FEBRUARY 19TH 2020 I’LL BE FLYING INTO ICELAND TO WORK THERE FOR A YEAR!

Iceland november 2019

About a month ago I saw a call coming by that said AFS Iceland was looking for someone for a ESC (European Solidarity Corpse) spot. The ESC program is an initiative  from the European Union which is part of the Erasmus+ program. I decided to apply. Two weeks ago I got an invitation for an interview, last week I  heard I got selected. The process went by very fast and next month I’ll already be in Iceland where I’ll be staying for a whole year. I’ll be working at the office of AFS Iceland where I will do projects within the volunteer- and ICL (intercultural learning) development.

The funny thing is that my parents just came back from a trip to Iceland. So they’re like telling me a lot of things about what they had seen and what I should check out. I’m very excited and curious for what will come this year.

First I’ll just prepare myself this month and start to learn Icelandic!

I’ll try to update the blog so now and then. Eigðu góðan dag!

Lots has happened. As I have been very busy this past year I did not really write updates on my blog. But here I got a new update, as my student life has ended.

This summer I graduated as a healthcare technologist at Avans Hogeschool. Probably an unknown field for many people. In short my studies are about how you can improve the quality of life or the healthcare by adding technology. So which form of technology will work best within a specific situation. It could be very broad with everything that the healthcare touches and then also with technology which starts with simple devices,  up to robotics or e-health and systems.

 

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After my exchange in the USA I moved pretty fast to Tilburg where my studies was based. The first two years we learned a lot about the different fields within the healthcare and also getting the knowledge of the different sicknesses that exist and what you have to think of working with those people. Then we had some practical lessons about different kinds of technologies. Every semester we had two running projects in groups. The first year it was more like case studies while we went to the fields in the second year. For example, we looked into safe solutions for a closed care home where they didn’t want to hurt the privacy of their clients. Also we did a project with mentally disabled people. The care group used smartwatches to monitor their clients, but it was not validated. And as they wanted trustworthy data, they were wondering what the alternatives were to get the data from their clients. Next to the projects within the field we also had projects with designing for or advising about several case studies.

In the third year of my studies I started of going to Bali with the minor International Sustainable Development. Often I had the feeling the healthcare in the Netherlands is already really good and I really wanted to take the step back for myself to the basics. Back to the why. Why are we working on this, where did we come from? Bali was part of a 3rd country culture. The people are poor and their income is mainly based on the tourists coming to the island. As I lived for four months in Singaraja I really experiences the whole different culture. During my time on Bali I went to the local university to learn about the culture and the basics of ‘bahasa Indonesia’ (Indonesian language). I also set up my own project on Bali. As the minor did not have projects yet in my field. I worked with physically disabled people in Bengkale and Singaraja. Visiting those people really gave me the insight on how ‘spoiled’ we actually are in the Netherlands. But the people are happy with their lives and they are always there for each other. During my project I first braided many Inke baskets, and later on when I visited the disabled people I gave them advise on simple solutions which could help them to live in a more independent way with less complaints of their injuries. I even managed on two people getting new wheelchairs by contacting a local foundation.

Next to getting the insights how good we have it in the Netherlands and how ‘spoiled’ we might be, I also learned how to communicate better with people and how to respect the other values and accepting it is not all the same. The people are happy with the way they are living, we can help them. But their culture is so different that solutions that might be best in the Netherlands won’t work at all on Bali.

The second semester of my 3rd year I did my internship at UMC Utrecht. For the people who don’t know this place: it is a hospital in the Netherlands. At UMCU they were testing an online support program for the partners of people with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Being a caregiver can get rough and with the support program they got tips on how to handle specific situations and they got personal coaching. As the program was build up in a basic student learning platform, it did not really fit the target group (people aged +- 40-60 who might not be so experienced on the computer). During my internship I looked into the program and tried to pick out the difficult parts for the users. Then I gave advise on how they could change the program so there would be less mistakes made by the users. As the program was build in an external program it was hard to change it myself. But I made a mock-up as example and further the hospital was super happy to have everything on paper.

In the beginning of my fourth year I did the minor ergonomic design. During this minor we learned a lot about how to design something for specific target groups. During the minor we did two projects. The first project was about the LEA robot, this robot is similar to a walker. As many people want to take more stuff on the robot, we got asked to design something that would make it possible. We ended up making a kind of tray that allowed to carry more on the robot. With the other project we did reverse engineering. Here we redesigned a Fidget Lap Pad to the next product phase.

During the last stage in my education, year four, semester two. I did my final internship at Health2Work, a company that focusses on an ergonomic working environment. They are offering this exoskeleton that is designed for the industry and were wondering if it could have an added value within hospitals. So that is what I worked on for half a year. I visited lots of hospitals, figured out within which hospitals fields the exoskeleton might have an added value. I got the chance to test the exoskeleton within the ultrasound and I could demonstrate it at the OR (operating room). I also looked up what the obstacles are to implement the exoskeleton and what the best ways are to overcome these obstacles. I really loved my internship here and finished it with a 8,5/10. My last grade that I got as a student.

Now my life as a student is over. I will be looking for a traineeship or a job and hope I can start a next adventure and challenge soon!