Agathe Chaigne

Fifa should be deeply ashamed of themselves, and that's coming from a serious football supporter.

The conclusion of my evening is that I really like Bruckner but the dude doesn't look like he was a ton of fun to be around.

How french of you.
I'm definitely Jesus.

At least one of us is actually reading the call in details 😅

That's an exclusion criteria. Is that the only thing specified?

What are the evaluation criteria? This is open to all carrier stages but I can't imagine junior/mid career PIs will be competitive CV-wise if that's a criteria. So is essentially a Super Advanced?

Nucleator of The Microtubules (NTM). Laisse moi nucleer dans ton cytoplazm (Exclusively french and dated music pun).

An interesting side effect of living here is that my 5 yo learns English language songs from Dutch kids and absolutely does not believe me when I tell her "we're doing sop sop sop" is not part of the lyrics of Golden. Also (sadly) they don't say "crucifer crucifer" in APT.

You're doing France wrong. Just do like me, embrace Thanksgiving, Sinterklaas, and 14 juillet, that way you're lazy by everybody's standards!

I am very well! Being a PI is mostly great fun. Science is going well. Cheese is cheesing.

Happy Thanksgiving Maxim! We are celebrating next Saturday :)

Picture of a teaching certification and also some chocolate

Happy to announce that I got my Dutch teaching certification (BKO)!
And also bonus chocolate!

A dutch garden covered in a thin layer of snow

Obligatory snow picture!

If you're looking for me I'll be lying down on the floor

From today onwards will follow in short succession:
St Marteens (=Utrecht Halloween)
Sinterklaas arrives in the Netherlands
Sinterklaas does stuff Every Day
Actual thanksgiving
Day we're actually celebrating Thanksgiving because here it's just normal Thursday
Actual Sinterklaas day
Christmas

Our internal talks are also either at 9am or 12, and we are very sensible people.

My lab and I take virtual shots every time someone says this in an internal talk.

Cup of coffee saying "Agheta" which is not the appropriate spelling of Agatha. There is also a smiley which can be interpreted as an ü so this adds to the confusion.

Well that's new

A windowsill with 4 lit up carved pumpkins

Oh non! Ça t'apprendra à prendre soin de toi et tout. Ça n'arriverait pas vautré dans le canapé.

Fabulous NWO Biophysics pink orange and blue socks

I had a great time at NWO Biophysics.
- great science
- did not fall off the podium while talking
- got asked twice if I was a student or a postdoc (well done, anti-wrinkle face cream)
- got excellent socks for being in the poster jury

A picture of a 5 yo who pretends to be french but in fact is clearly not since she asked for an oeuf a la coque (soft boiled egg) with bread and hagelslag, which are disgusting little chocolate sprinkles.

French citizenship revoked.

The Cathedral of Strasbourg

Had the best time visiting the IGBMC in Strasbourg! Great science, fun people, awesome cheese at the breakfast buffet.

Despite telling people to not get me anything for my birthday, I received a bunch of cheeses, wines, delicacies from various countries, fancy teas and football jerseys. And a croissant.
Legit.

Thanks Giulia!

Card from my lab members that says "you're so old"

In related news, my lab, these trolls, got me a card.

Picture of a giant seafood platter with a 40 year old woman who's about to eat them all.

This is 40!

Picture of Babette in the lab with a random piece of foil

Last week, Babette van Amen started her PhD in the group after expanding all sorts of weird bugs in @gautamdey.bsky.social 's lab for 6 months!
Welcome Babette!

As I biked my lovely 5yo to her favorite activity, she asked "mama, why are we moving like slugs?"
If you see her, she needs a lift back home.

Keep on rocking (in the microscope room)