09 februari 2012
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Vera Blau

Vera Blau

Vera Blau (1978, Munich, Germany) is a PhD student at Maastricht University, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience. After receiving graduate (and undergraduate) training in Maastricht, Vera recently moved to Nashville in the US continue her work as a post-doctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University. This work will be funded by the Dutch organization for scientific research (NWO), and focuses on the question of how our brain learns to combine information from various senses in order to perceive coherent events (e.g. hearing and seeing a person speak is perceived as one event instead of two). Vera likes to travel and explore different cultures. Growing up in Germany, she has been living in the Netherlands for eight years and has become a fan of Dutch culture, but is now looking forward to the new challenge of living and working in the US.

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This is my second week in Nashville and I haven’t even started working, but somehow I got invited to ‘Dutch BBQ’ on Sunday. Yes, this scene is still playing in Nashville and yes, there is a stunning number of Dutch (or at least Dutch speaking people) present here. The BBQ was in a surreal place in the middle of nowhere about a 40-minute drive outside of town. It was hosted by a couple (she American, he Dutch), who have their own business and a huge amount of land, a cottage-style range, several children, a horse and a dog. I would guess there were about 30 people and ALL were either Dutch or related to someone Dutch. I was really surprised!! I would never have guessed to meet so many Dutchmen in Nashville, some of whom already live here for ten years or more……c’m on, this isn’t New York or San Franscisco: what the hell are you doing here? Everyone had their own, often interesting, story to tell and although I don’t know whether any of those guys will become real friends, I was happy to others of my ‘kind’. Another bizarre event happened to me a day earlier when walking through a big park on a wood-trail. My friend and I just crossed a horse-riding trail and there was a guy on a horse who literally looked like a cowboy out of the movies. Big boots, jeans-shirt, cowboy hat….. he also greeted us very cowboyish (or at least I imagine that this is what cowboys do) in that he simply took two finger and taped them on his hat. Then he started talking and …… end of story, I didn’t understand much, but I think he was talking about his horse and how ‘a good lady’ she (the horse) is and how he hadn’t taking her for a ride in a long time, who knows. He definitely seemed very friendly like all Southerners I have met until know. Until next time….’have a good one’!

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