way to go

The blogging is going goooood, I start to look like Floor, well almost, because my posts aren't that long :P (+ an extra :P @ Floor). So this afternoon Francesco, Lucia and I went to the scanner (which was actually not in Livorno hehe but I forgot in which town it was) . The institute is called Stella Maris and they do a lot of different kinds of research. Technical aspects, language research, clinical research etc... Being there was really different from the hospital.. This place reminded me vaguely of the FC Donders and also of the UM (although this place is really small), don't know the atmosphere was kind of the same. I felt a lot more "at home" there, then in the hospital, which is really different. So now I found the kind of researchers I was looking for haha.. Too bad that I can't go there easily by myself, because I have no car and there is no other easy way to get there. But maybe I can go there sometimes with Lucia, we'll see. There, they are trying to combine EEG and fMRI and solve the problems with artifacts in the EEG signal because of the RF pulses. So today I watched them putting a special EEG cap on and you can connect it to the computer directly to look whether the resistance at the electrodes is ok yet or not. Which I thought was very nice, better then to check one by one with the crappy machine.. But they only have one cap, for children, so the volunteer researcher, well I think he got an headache. :) It was a lot of waiting today, but nice to see how they work there.. They wanted to see the signal during sleep, so the guy first slept and they measured the EEG and then went into the scanner with the EEG cap and tried to sleep again. Hahaha, but how can you sleep when functional images are acquired?? The noise! (although a certain someone might be able to do it :P) So I think he didn't fell asleep, at least not while we were still there.. Then we went to meet the owner of a house with a possible room for me.. It was not bad. The room was not too small (don't know maybe 12 or 14m2?) and there was a little bathroom for myself (very little though hahaha, one person just fits into the shower haha). The walls were a bit ugly with ehm a bit of schimmel on it, but not tooo bad hehe.. Only the neighbourhood, or at least the way I should walk to the hospital and home is not too great.. I would not see myself walking there at night when I am finished here. Maybe I should get a bike (that they actually do use here!!). I will have a look tomorrow maybe if there is a good way to get there (that seems reasonably safe).
Actually today I start to feel a little bit more at ease here.. but maybe it is gone tomorrow hahaha let's see.. I tried my best to follow some of the discussions today, but it is really hard to learn something, let alone contribute something when you only understand a little part of what is being said.. Haha and at one point Lucia, another girl and me were sitting somewhere and they were discussing something about the artifacts and Francesco came by and said: please speak english! So the poor girl tried for two sentences and became totally red haha and then we gave up again and Lucia (she is becoming my personal translater hahaha) translated now and then what they were saying and what I didn't understand (which was most hehe) . By the way, it is really remarkable (to me) that most researchers I have seen untill now are women.. But maybe the guys are hiding somewhere haha :P
Now that I have found the way to the emergency entrance (which is always open) I feel free to stay a little bit longer here at the hospital. Since I have not much to do at night, I can better spend my evenings here.. I wish I could find a room with internet, but that is really impossible I think..
Well that's it for now...
Ohh it is so annoying.. internet requires a certain password here, but every..20? minutes it signs out automatically, so I never know whether I am still online with MSN or not... Maybe half of the time my or other peoples messages don't arrive, so be aware of that!
xx