San Francisco is also known as the gay and hippie capital of the US. During my first weekend here, the big Love Pride took place. More than a million people assembled in downtown San Francisco to support and cheer for equal rights and love for everyone. I don’t think I could have wished for a more appropriate first weekend!

This summer, I’m in San Francisco for three months doing my internship. I don’t think TU/e and UCSF maintain a solid partnership, but since the university is known for its high-quality clinic and research facilities, it’s an attractive destination for a Medical Engineering grad student. I work in a very nice lab on the brand new Mission Bay Campus, where I try to make stem cells from human endothelial cells. We want to determine the cell’s ‘identity’ during reprogramming - to see if other cells originate that are partial stem cells. It’s very interesting, and very different from the applied sciences at TU/e.

Outside the lab I do fun things with other international students, whom I met through the International Students and Scholars Office. We went out of town for a weekend to go rafting, see the Californian capital Sacramento, and taste wines in Sonoma, for example. All in all San Francisco is an amazing destination that I can recommend to anyone!