A Series of (mostly) Fortunate Events - Rayyan Gorashi

Fortunate, grateful, appreciative: practically any word that thesaurus.com can generate that describes even the slightest inkling of gratitude encapsulates my feelings that came about within the first hours of touching ground in Brussels. Our first day was packed with tours of the different IMEC facilities, meeting endless people, and trying to find a working ATM to get some cash for dinner. Despite my 20 hour journey to Leuven from California, the energetic and welcoming faces we met completely overtook any lurking sleep deprivation.

One of these faces was my supervisor Thomas. A Belgian and IMEC native (he defended his PhD just two weeks before!), he not only was extremely passionate about the microfluidic device model involving cardiomyocytes that I would be working on, but was also helpful both in and outside of the lab. When telling him that we would be traveling to Brussels on our first weekend after settling, he gave me several landmarks and suggestions to make sure that we wouldn’t be wandering aimlessly around the city. In the pictures, we are by a famous garden near the Royal Palace. The only downside to Brussels was the taunting smell of waffles and fries - we arrived in Leuven in the last week and a half of Ramadan, so I wasn’t able to try those oh-so-famous Belgian Waffles just yet.

Our second day in Leuven consisted of getting our bikes to ride around the town. Within twenty-four hours, the chain of my bike broke mid-ride to my appointment at city hall. Obviously enough, I missed it. I tried to hop on the bus to the bike shop to get my bike fixed, but I ended up getting on the wrong bus: I didn’t realize this until my journey on Google Maps had increased from 18 stops to 24 stops to 28 stops. At that point, I hopped off the bus and made my way onto the correct bus route and to the bike shop, dragging my broken bike with me along the way. Even between the mishaps of my third day, the cool Leuven breeze that dried my sweaty face on the way back to my apartment instantly made up for it. My first two weeks at IMEC have been filled with a lot of learning, but I am nonetheless very eager for what the rest of the summer has in store for me and my research project!