My first week as a Geordie
Door: Tjerk Zult
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Tjerk
27 Januari 2013 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Newcastle upon Tyne
Time flies, which makes that I already past my first week in Newcastle. After my first familiarization with the city in the weekend, Monday was the day that I became acquainted with the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. I started the day with a “lab tour” with my supervisor as guide. They have many labs here, which creates an enormous amount of possibilities for doing human movement related research. The most fascinating labs were the climate control chamber, the 60m indoor track, and of course the neuroscience lab in which I will spend most of my time. The neuroscience lab is brand new and I will be the first person that is doing research in this lab. A great honor and hopefully I can reward this honor with some magnificent study results.
After the lab tour we went to the PhD office in which I have my own desk, computer, and most important, a coffee cup. Around 20 PhD students of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences are seated here, which creates a good and productive atmosphere. I will be on the faculty from 9-17 and the absence of a 9-17 mentality, lots of new impressions, and constantly English speaking, made my first week a hard one. But during the week everything became already better and I will try to continue this pattern during my next week(s).
Because the English culture makes me sensitive for becoming big and fat, I decided to join the Gateshead Harriers to remain fit and a bit in shape. We train in Gateshead International Stadium with a capacity of 12.000, so it’s not the worst place for training. The stadium is located 2.5 miles away from my room, so I thought it was a good idea to go to my first training by feet. This wasn’t a good idea, it was further away than expected and I was a bit lost, so next time I will definitely take the metro. I arrived at the stadium after my 1 hour walk and I asked the service desk woman where I could find Phil, the sprinting coach. There was a bit of miscommunication and after hearing the training program of 4 x 800m it was time to ask him if he was the sprinting coach. And he answered: “no, I’m the middle distance coach”. The coach was very helpful and brought me from the outdoor track to the warm and very busy indoor track. Because of all the delay I was 20 minutes too late, but I joined the sprint group after a very short warm-up. I introduced myself to the coach and of course he had some trouble with pronouncing my name. I told him to call me T. but after my first sprint a new nickname was born: Dennis Bergkamp!
The group has one sprinter with a 100m personal best of 10.20 second, but he wasn’t there last Thursday. Maybe because he knew that the famous Dennis Bergkamp wants to compete with him? Already after my first sprint the coach saw some inconsistencies in my sprinting technique and gave some really helpful instructions. His instructions and coaching make that passing the 12 seconds barrier is just a matter of time now.
On Friday there was a bar crawl, a battle between the 2 universities of Newcastle, the Polies (Northumbria University students) vs. the Posh (Newcastle University students). It was a good way to discover some of the many clubs in Newcastle and to get around with some other international students. The flat I’m living in is a really international one and before the bar crawl started we did some pre-drinking together with the whole flat. It was the start of a good night out and we, the Posh, won the bar crawl. Everyone told me that Newcastle is Britain's party city and Friday I have experienced that this is definitely true.
This late morning I went to my second training by metro. We did couple of 50m sprints full pull and my times were quite consistent and good. After the sprints we did bench press and because of the instable bench I had almost a Tjerkie, but I kept myself under control. This afternoon I found a cheap and big supermarket close to Gateshead Stadium and they sell porridge oats! I still couldn’t find the quark, but I’m happy with the porridge oats now.
This were my most important stories of last week and we shall see what the next week will bring.
Cheers,
Dennis B.
After the lab tour we went to the PhD office in which I have my own desk, computer, and most important, a coffee cup. Around 20 PhD students of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences are seated here, which creates a good and productive atmosphere. I will be on the faculty from 9-17 and the absence of a 9-17 mentality, lots of new impressions, and constantly English speaking, made my first week a hard one. But during the week everything became already better and I will try to continue this pattern during my next week(s).
Because the English culture makes me sensitive for becoming big and fat, I decided to join the Gateshead Harriers to remain fit and a bit in shape. We train in Gateshead International Stadium with a capacity of 12.000, so it’s not the worst place for training. The stadium is located 2.5 miles away from my room, so I thought it was a good idea to go to my first training by feet. This wasn’t a good idea, it was further away than expected and I was a bit lost, so next time I will definitely take the metro. I arrived at the stadium after my 1 hour walk and I asked the service desk woman where I could find Phil, the sprinting coach. There was a bit of miscommunication and after hearing the training program of 4 x 800m it was time to ask him if he was the sprinting coach. And he answered: “no, I’m the middle distance coach”. The coach was very helpful and brought me from the outdoor track to the warm and very busy indoor track. Because of all the delay I was 20 minutes too late, but I joined the sprint group after a very short warm-up. I introduced myself to the coach and of course he had some trouble with pronouncing my name. I told him to call me T. but after my first sprint a new nickname was born: Dennis Bergkamp!
The group has one sprinter with a 100m personal best of 10.20 second, but he wasn’t there last Thursday. Maybe because he knew that the famous Dennis Bergkamp wants to compete with him? Already after my first sprint the coach saw some inconsistencies in my sprinting technique and gave some really helpful instructions. His instructions and coaching make that passing the 12 seconds barrier is just a matter of time now.
On Friday there was a bar crawl, a battle between the 2 universities of Newcastle, the Polies (Northumbria University students) vs. the Posh (Newcastle University students). It was a good way to discover some of the many clubs in Newcastle and to get around with some other international students. The flat I’m living in is a really international one and before the bar crawl started we did some pre-drinking together with the whole flat. It was the start of a good night out and we, the Posh, won the bar crawl. Everyone told me that Newcastle is Britain's party city and Friday I have experienced that this is definitely true.
This late morning I went to my second training by metro. We did couple of 50m sprints full pull and my times were quite consistent and good. After the sprints we did bench press and because of the instable bench I had almost a Tjerkie, but I kept myself under control. This afternoon I found a cheap and big supermarket close to Gateshead Stadium and they sell porridge oats! I still couldn’t find the quark, but I’m happy with the porridge oats now.
This were my most important stories of last week and we shall see what the next week will bring.
Cheers,
Dennis B.
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
