Since I joined the university in January, I had my second paperazzi moment last Saturday. The first was an unintended byproduct of the inaugural address of the ISS Prince Claus Chair. The attendance of royalty always draws attention. But Saturday, when I joined the annual congress of my political party, I suddenly found myself in a photoshoot intended for innocent purposes (i.e. the cover of the membership magazine) but used to make a political point. A number of camera’s captured the moment and broadcasted it on the 8 o’clock news with a headline suggesting that ‘these were the political party’s candidates for cabinet minister posts’. Ah well, you can imagine what happened next. Text messages, emails, phone calls, frantic noise at the press department and so forth. “What, she can’t be leaving already, can she??” To put everyone’s mind at ease let me say here that I have no intention whatsoever to run for whatever office in politics. I enjoy my role far too much, thanks to the many wonderful people I have met in these first months. To paraphrase a songline from My Fair Lady: “people stop and stare/they don’t bother me/ ’cause there’s nowhere else on earth that I would rather be/let the time go by/ I don’t care if I/ could be here on the street where you live!”