michelle rivers - my adventure blog

Dam Square, Amsterdam. Cruising through Amsterdam's famous canals. I just got back from two magnificent weeks in The Netherlands and Belgium!  One great thing about graduate school is the travel it has afforded me - I won an award that covered my flight, conference registration, and accommodations for an International Conference right in the heart of Amsterdam (and of course, extended my trip to explore the surrounding area). The conference was great!  Our conference was at the beautiful Beurs Van Berlage  center, which was only a 5 minute walk from Amsterdam's Central train station. The center was very accommodating.  I think my favorite part was the unlimited espresso throughout the day, and Heineken on tap in the evenings! I also got to meet some international colleagues for the first time, present my research (exploring how monitoring memory can improve memory performance) , and discuss ongoing projects with collaborators. Presenting my research a...

I was able to see quite a bit of this beautiful country! Need to return for more of the Swiss alps (Zermatt area). View of Lake Zurich. This summer, I finally made it to Switzerland! For years, my mom and I have promised our former foreign exchange students we would come visit them.  In June, I met my mom in Zurich (she was "on the way" home from a vacation to South Africa) where we were greeted by Silvia, one of our former students and friends.  We went up to the top of a hill in Zurich, overlooking the lake and city.  Turned out this was just the beginning of our adventures with her - Silvia was an excellent tour guide, and she found some spectacular places to take us hiking and exploring. We also met her sweet boyfriend Iwan , who loved telling us the history behind a lot of the architecture and churches we drove by. They even cooked us a traditional Swiss meal called Raclette , which we devoured in their home in front of their HUGE aquarium. Toward the end...