It was one of the hardest things I think I’ve ever done 🥵 as if defending my PhD wasn’t already one of the toughest things I will ever have to do 😱 Let’s add an extra level of difficulty and do it in Dutch 🇳🇱 Just as a cherry on top 🍒 ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ And while I am fluent in Dutch 🇳🇱 and you probably can’t hear an accent when I speak 🗣️ My entire scientific education had been in English 👀 So the idea of talking with the same precision about a subject I usually only spoke of in English was VERY daunting 🫣 ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ Luckily, I did have some idea of how to talk about my subject in Dutch 🤓 My supervisor was Dutch and most of our meetings and conversations took place in Dutch 😃 So I had some ground to go on 😊 but it still felt different somehow…. Doing it for a whole defense 😅 ☀️ ☀️ ☀️ Thank goodness most scientists speak English because there were a few times I could not think of the Dutch word 😬 and I just said it in English and it was fine 😮‍💨 and I passed 🥳 so I must have done...