Street photographers

on sunday i finally saw "the guys with cameras hanging around downtown crossing". i came to know about them here, after watching the short news item. apparently, they are around downtown crossing very often, taking pictures of strangers. some people claim they do this in a very annoying way, following people, and taking pictures of "body parts". here is another article, that generated a lot of responses. i dont know... when i saw those 2 (but there are supposed to be more men..), they were just talking, and not taking pictures. ha, i took a picture of them! 3 pictures, even...

i dont know... taking pictures like this should be fine, no? im doing the same! actually, they have an exhibition coming up, starting tomorrow, as you can read here. 

ah, and look at the advertisement behind them! about the british prince and his wife... :)

Soap shop

this is at downtown crossing where we got on the orange line tonight after dinner. the soap shop currently has pink led lights around all of their windows. in the netherlands that would mean something else.. or is that only when the lights are red? i find it funny and always have to think of the red light district when i see this shop now... not what the average american would like to be associated with, i guess, when going to this shop!

those soap shops have an overwhelming smell, coming towards you if you are still far away, yegh. i prefer to stay out of this shop. they have millions of different hand sanitizer; different color, scents, size etc. same for soap, room refresher, etc etc etc.... but essentially its all the same; this shop could greatly reduce its size, i would say... :D

The lottery

reason i dont win the lottery is because this shop was too sad to go into... another shop at downtown crossing, boston!

off to sleep... tired, tired, tired....

No trespassing

 

an alley close to downtown crossing. there are some shops, the boston common is closeby and if you walk in the other direction you will hit the state house and then the boston harbor. i think a lot of tourists goto this area, but i am pretty sure they are all disappointed. although it seems nice at first, there really is not much to do, not many shops and many shops are old, small and dirty. maybe this alley is one of the prettier things around there... except ofcourse the MBTA entrance to downtown crossing.....!

the talk of the day; more snow is coming our way!! since this year we have had a snowstorm every week and most likely this week wont be an exception. im still not tired of it.... :)

CVS Pharmacy

the CVS is a very american store, in my opinion.... often these stores are open 24/7. they sell a wide assortment of general merchandise including over-the-counter drugs (here a lot more/stronger drugs are available without a prescription than in the netherlands), beauty products and cosmetics, film and photo finishing services, seasonal merchandise, greeting cards and convenience foods (including candy and chips, but also milk and bread, but no fruits or vegetables). before writing this post, i never wondered what CVS stands for, but i thought i should know this when posting a pic of it! originally, CVS stood for Consumer Value Stores, but the CEO has said he now considers 'CVS' to stand for "Customer, Value, and Service" (all knowledge thanks to my friend wikipedia!). the CVS above is in the center of boston, and does not have a pharmacy, as most other CVS stores; there you can get prescription drugs. 

americans are very concerned about privacy, and the CVS gives you a Notice of Privacy Practices with each prescription drug, in which they describe that they wil not disclose your Protected Health Information (PHI), unless..... and then they virtually describe every possible circumstance in which they are allowed to disclose your health information to others... most reasons are boring; they could have spared me from all this reading by just writing; we will never disclose your information, unless we will disclose it. 

for those of you who made it to the end of this very boring post; the following reason to disclose your health information by CVS to others i found truly hilarious: "We may disclose your PHI to authorized federal officials so that they may provide protection to the President......" (suddenly your harmless prescription drug seems like a very powerful chemical weapon..., no?)

Subway office

this is at downtown crossing. i like this station a lot, and i think every time i am there, i take at least one picture. usually they turn out crappy, but i keep trying as there really is something to this station. i have been wanting to picture a subway office for a while now, but never dared. now i finally had my chance, as this office was empty, but i could take only one shot as the train was just arriving.

i think there is so much to see! someone scratched the glass, and what about the note "please keep area clean"? also the car calendar i find funny... shouldnt it be one with subwaytrains? all these offices are so sad.. and all have the same ugly, old-fashioned, PINKish telephone, here not so well visible, but in fact the main reason i wanted a picture of such an office... :)

when we just got here, i once wrote to the subway office; tim had bought a monthly pass in the last week of the month.. for 59 dollars, only to find out it was valid only for that week. a stupid mistake, maybe. but... a weekly pass you can buy at any day of the week, and logic told us a monthly pass would work the same way. and if not, surely the machine would warn you? unfortunately the office wrote me back that they were glad i like the MBTA (i thought i would increase my chances of getting a refund by telling them how great they are), but that a monthly pass is for a calendar-month, and explained me extensively what a calendar month is.... buuuhhhh!

Downtown crossing

one of the many entrances to downtown crossing. but one we hadnt seen so far, and currently is rather hidden due to some fences and construction work. too bad, because it is sooo beautiful!! especially since it was yet another sunny day... marvellous... :)
we went to the watchhospital for my broken watch, but like last saturday it had a note on the door, "sorry, we are closed this saturday". then we found some (i think) pretty weird jewelry shops upstairs in some building, but the watch maker as well as the jewelry-repair shop said that only the manufacturer could repair such damage... anyways, i didnt really want to give my watch to any of them... :(

Perish all

this is at Downtown Crossing, orange line station. usually it is very hot there. this was back in august, suddenly a man came with this big board about jesus. he was also talking, screaming, about jesus. on the other side the board said "jesus saves". he went into the train and continued his loud monologue there. he also distributed some printed text, but most people didnt want to take it. i read it and it was depressing. all will perish, everyone is doomed, we are sinners and only through prayers and devotion to jesus will we reach heaven.. ah well..... when he got out at the next station many people seemed relieved.

im a bit frustrated right now. i think it would be a lot of fun if this man would come into the lab with his board and start shouting here we are all doomed. perish all! im wondering what everyone's reaction will be. but somehow i think after hes gone and i will say to my colleagues "well that was weird", they will answer "what was weird?"

Heavy rain

last night it was soooooo hot and humid! and this morning as well. and yes, that had to end in rain and thunder; a lot, this afternoon. luckily i was just in the lab, and now its nice and sunny again. it reminded me of the heavy rain we had when sylvia was here, and the subway flooded. i still had not posted a picture on that. so here it is... :) i like this one, since the water was really flowing like crazy, and the guy is just checking which line to take, as if his feet are not soaking wet.. :) it as really like the titanice, water was rushing down the stairs and from the platform. some people made movies of that, and posted them on the internet, in fact, if you look very careful, in some of them you can see sylvia and/or me!!
pfew... now im back on schedule again with daily pics.. its just... im so busy at the moment!! (sorry, therefore also only old pics... soon some new ones again, i hope)