Train rides...

i think this was a tulip field or something.... very flat, of course... :) theres always a tree-lined road somewhere near or in the distance (do you see the dots in the back?), very dutch too.... when in the train from amsterdam to utrecht (or groningen to utrecht), you speed through many green pastures. some with cows, others with sheep... some empty. i like staring out of the window, letting it all pass by. yesterday morning everything was covered in a layer of fog, and it was just so beautiful! for a moment i truly enjoyed the trip and didnt mind i was up so early....

in the afternoon the train was a little crowded, so when i finally found a seat, it was taken by a backpack. the girl in the seat next to the bag ignored my "sorry" (in american it would be "excuse me", of course). then she ignored some other noise i produced to make clear i wanted that seat ( i think the noise really made clear that she better remove the bag that instant, but she didnt even look up!) then, a bit louder (it felt like i was screaming but i probably wasnt), i asked (actually demanded) to sit there... she looked really pissed off and very slowly removed her bag, but continued to take more space than necessary. in the meantime someone else had removed his bag too, but by then the only seat i wanted was the one she refused to give up for as long as possible.

instances like that really make me dislike people. the entire train ride i was furious and she probably wasnt even aware that her behavior was ridiculous. i wonder whether at such moments it would be good if people could read my thoughts....? most likely not, during my commutes i have a lot (and i mean a LOT) of bad thoughts about the people around me... just like they have about me.... maybe?

It's time...

for my american red shoes...! unfortunately not to trudge through mountains of snow, but to avoid wet feet. it has been raining like crazy the entire weekend (as well as friday, and perhaps thursday, i dont even remember), and it will rain tomorrow as well.

while tim suddenly had to come into work for a few hours today, i was deciding whether i would just spend the entire afternoon on the couch or do something useful.. that was until i suddenly saw quite a puddle of water in front of the old-fashioned heater. water? is the thing now spewing water?? hmm, highly unlikely. is it perhaps condensation....but from what... the drying laundry? (i can be a little slow) then i finally looked up and saw it was coming from the ceiling.... buhuhuhuhuh. water was dripping down and quite a bit!! its coming down from that ugly plastic ceiling that tim cleaned back in july. for once it was a good thing we have been extremely slow with filling the cupboards we bought a little while ago. they all needed to be moved to not get wet. it has been dripping all afternoon and evening (worsening a bit). for once i was also happy we werent out all day, i think we would have come back to quite a mess! tomorrow someone will come and check. no, they couldnt come before dark today. and as he said on the phone "you know, its the rain. there is a lot of rain coming down right now, and lots of rain gives lots of leaks, but its just the heavy rain you know". hmppf. great...

(and no, i dont know whether the neighbors really have better stuff. i do hope for them its less wet than in our place..., i also hope the ugly ceiling wont come down or something... you never know...)

Trash can...!

today they were doing some repairs on the trash receptacle, as you can see. normally, only the green trash can is above the ground. only when they empty it, they pull the entire thing out so that it can be emptied. im always afraid they are going to hit the cars when that huge thing is hanging in the air, swaying from left to right, but it seems to always just work out... :) every street has one, so they must have some practice doing it! when i lived in utrecht, i did not have the luxury of throwing out my trash whenever the trash can at home was full; only once a week the trash was being picked up (as is still the case in many places in the netherlands). since i did not have an outside (not even a balcony or something), i had to keep all my trash in my tiny kitchen until trash-pick-up-monday. imagine hot summers! yuck!! so sometimes i had to secretly throw my trash in the public bins (which is not allowed, ofcourse).

here you can even put out all big stuff you dont want anymore next to the bin. but only once a week. on wednesday evening, not before 9 in the evening, and then they come pick it all up somewhere thursday morning. ever since i live here i am annoyed by all those people that just throw all their big trash next to the bin, regardless of what day it is. and if one person puts something there, others come to add their stuff as well, resulting in a huge mess thats standing there for days. every now and then people come by and take stuff they can use, or halfway change their mind and just leave it somewhere on the pavement; an even bigger mess. AAARGHHH!! i really dont get the laziness (and carelessness) of people....

MY bike!!!

i showed you the I Amsterdam sculpture already... but this photo also has my bike on it. its one of the few photos with my bike in amsterdam, and there wont be any more as my bike was stolen this week.... :(( buhuhuhuhuh. all those years i lived in utrecht i never had my bike stolen, while i parked it everywhere. i was however always careful to lock it to something you cannot move (like one of the many bridges or a streetlight, sometimes hard to find, as all dutch cities are literally flooded with bikes attached to things that cannot move), and then i used an additional lock to attach my front wheel to my frame (and if possible, would lock that also to something that cannot move). 

i didnt yet have the second lock since i live in amsterdam. but i just went out for a bit, parked my bike at the subway station, locked it with the simple bike lock that every bike has and an additional one attached to the bridge. when back, that lock was still hanging there, but my bike was nowhere to be found.... :( buhuhuhuhuhuh. i was so happy with the pink basket on the front (i had found it at a trash receptacle, perfect for my american water bottle), and look at the saddle bags!! this was MY bike and someone thought they could just take it and did that..... in broad daylight!! :(((( in the days since i have been looking everywhere to see if if my bike is standing around, but ofcourse it isnt. i looked on the internet if someone offered it for sale (thats how someone recently found her bike, and the thief, back), but no luck of course.... 

so... if you have seen this bike. its MINE. if you took it, bring it back, its not yours!! according to the internet, there are approximately 18 million bikes in the netherlands (1.1 bikes per inhabitant), and many of them are stolen each year. the exact number is hard to determine, as most people dont even file a report. i got a new one already... as well as 2 big locks.....

Oooh, biking..!

a typical dutch scene. bikes, bikes and bikes. ive been biking a bit, mostly with tim since i dont really now my way still on a bike in amsterdam. and... i get to experience again why i so often used to say "aaarrghhh, everyone around me needs to take lessons in biking!!! from ME!". while in boston i really missed biking, and was very annoyed by the aggression many motorists displayed just by seeing someone on a bike on THEIR road. and i remember even once writing that those that do bike in boston dont really know how to, and that dutch are so much better at it... HA! a perfect example of glorifying the dutch bikers when not surrounded by them, while in fact.... i am more often than not annoyed by fellow bikers! (and scooters too, but thats for another post). yesterday we biked through the city center during a busy time of day and then you get bike traffic jams. people are too slow, people bike next to each other so that you cannot pass them (and refuse to move aside when you are approaching), people are frantically using their "fietsbel" (bicycle bell) to let you know they are coming and YOU need to move aside asap (and then they turn out to ride so slow that you have to pass them again). others are on their fancy phones while biking and dont pay any attention (that really pisses me off, and is something new, 3 years ago it wasnt this bad), and yet others are so superfast that they think they have the right to just hop onto the footpath to pass everyone, perhaps even running over some pedestrians in the process. then at the next traffic light everyone is together again, even the fast ones (unless they ignore the light, which happens often too), and the whole process starts again.....  aaarrrghhhh. i had forgotten all that and how i get worked up about it. tim doesnt really have that problem... he probably has a lower chance of heart disease than i do.... :) oh, and then i didnt even mention the tourists. all those tourists that want to have the real experience and rent a bike, usually in large groups, blocking every possibility to pass them while they are figuring out how you actually move forward on a bike.... ;)

pfew. i feel a bit calmer now... the street above leads to the entrance port i showed you earlier, but you dont get to bike underneath it...

Fun run

yesterday we participated in the color run! as you might know, the color run is more of a fun run than an athletic event where you run 5 km (3 miles) and every kilometer you get sprayed with another color, so that you look quite silly when done.... i had read about those while in the us, but we returned to the netherlands before there was one close to boston... then i discovered they were also in the netherlands, so i got a friend and tim crazy enough to join me. jaaaj!! it was supposed to be in utrecht, where i used to live before moving to boston.

when they finally releassed the course map, it turned out not to be in utrecht at all, but in a tiny town nearby. not very well accessible by public transport. grrrrrr... that already pissed me off, just like the "rules" they posted: bringing your own food or drinks was prohibited (water would only be allowed in case of hot weather). and their "advice" pissed me off even more: bring plenty of money, so that you can buy food and drinks at the party! (we had paid already 30 euros per person (some 40 dollars) for the ticket). so i did some googling and discovered that the color run does good by donating part of the entrance fee to charity (i must say i missed that point and solely joined for my own fun, but some were really thinking they were "doing good" by participating in this event; but.... 90% of the money goes to the organization, and only 10% goes to a good cause! moreover, most of the event is run by volunteers who got nothing more than a t-shirt (and of course the chance to douse everyone in color, that must have been a fun job). considering that 10.000 tickets were sold for this run... they made a LOT of money.... (in the US, over 600.000 people participated last year in various cities). (in fact, on their website they do mention they are a "for-profit" organization, but they are better at telling everyone they are "giving back and doing good")

well, anyways... while we started off pretty annoyed (we were stuck in a train with other color runners, and most of them turned out to be giggling girls... the 3 of us felt old and out of place!!), had to walk over 30 minutes just to get to the location NOT in the center of utrecht, had to aimlessly wait over an hour in the hot sun just to be able to start running (i actually didnt mind the sun, but apparently some more fragile creatures collapsed before they even started running)... the actual run was quite fun. well... run... i think around 75% of those giggling hip young girls were not running at all, but just walking (and some were smoking too, arrrghhhh, those dutch idiots)!! that really surprised me (although i didnt start running until 29 and would not have been able to run at their age either....). all those colors were pretty to see (but not fun to get into your mouth, at least it was just colored food grade corn starch), and as you see above, at the "party" everyone got to throw their own packet of color. too bad i didnt bring my camera... surely there wont be a next time, but i wouldnt mind watching from the sidelines to take pictures....

Rain, go!!!

this was when we were in new york. the subway train was above ground and outside was something i wanted to picture. but my camera only wanted to focus on the rain drops.... :(

now its raining like crazy in boston too!! grrrrr! i am SO annoyed. i hoped for some sun and pooltime. but yesterday evening the pool was pretty chilly, and it rained the entire night! today was grey and rainy too. during the day not extremely bad, but very grey. and now... crazy rain again.... hope the sun comes out before we leave!
and while everything is totally soaked with water, the sprinkler system at our apartment complex still switches on every evening, drenching the poor plants even more. such a waste!!

Homeland security

homeland security.... i think thats a very funny term, and something you probably will only see in america. what other country assumes that naturally anyone knows what "the homeland" is? if this car drives to canada, would it provide homeland security to the canadians...? :)

i have a list of things i still want to see, do or photograph while still here. this i can now cross off my list.. its funny how you see some things every so often and always think; hmm, i should take a picture of that! but before you know, 3 years have passed and you still think that.... 

wikipedia just told me that "homeland security" is "an American umbrella term referring to the national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the U.S. to terrorism, and minimize the damage from attacks that do occur". the term came into use after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

my sister arrived today from the netherlands and to protect the homeland, she had to wait in a very long line, proving she is not of any harm to this country. i knew the plane had landed, and waited, waited, waited... i guess some 1.5 hour. when it was finally her turn, the guy protecting his homeland asked her very important questions like "what are you doing here, how much money did you bring, do you have a creditcard, where does your sister work, what is her status (really??!! he meant whether i am allowed to work here, but still... grrr), what kind of work do you do? and the weirdest of them all; why is your sister (thats me) not married to her boyfriend (that would be tim)? really...?!! really?! she answered that she didnt know.... hahahaha. and after that, he finally let her go without another word. i dont know how i would have reacted to that question. these "homeland" officers really tend to piss me off, and i often have to make the greatest effort not to show how awfully annoying i find them. i guess they do it on purpose. just because they can...

anyways, i feel a lot safer now. i think my sister wont be a threat to the homeland.... 

Decaying beauty

june 1st! another month has gone by, its theme day and our apartment is empty... this months theme is the "beauty of decay". i actually have quite some pictures of abandoned places (i like to visit those), but currently we are busy to "abandon" our apartment... so, heres another picture... :) its all i can think of right now....

we sold the dinner table and chairs on thursday. since we had some boxes left, tim immediately set out to make us another table, as you can see (compare with the original situation here!). today we also got rid of our bed and couch. we got the couch out really easy, and also carrying it down 2 flights of stairs was not too bad (it was horrible getting it here when moving in, so we were a bit worried about that). while getting that all done i was also doing laundry and baking bread as we had a goodbye BBQ this afternoon; when we had gotten the couch down one flight, i had to run back up, just to check on the bread.... not to rest, ofcourse.... ;)

we went to goodwill to drop off the couch, only to find out they didnt want it... it has a small tear and the guy accepting "donations" said he only takes things he would want to buy himself. having brought numerous itmes already over the past days, that really pissed us off. moreover, now what to do with that huge couch??!! certainly the soaring heat (35C!!, around 95F) did not help to cool us down... after some ideas of where to secretly drop the couch, some weirder than others, we finally figured out that we could bring it to the "solid waste station". i was very sad to see our couch being brutally dumped into a huge, disgusting, smelly pile of waste.... it didnt belong there at all!! buhuhuhuhuh. moreover, we had to pay 6 dollars and 40 cents, as dumping goes by the pound, and we dumped 160 lbs of couch.... :(

for more beauty of decay, go here!

Empty apartment....

nooooooo.... this is not from today!! its from xactly 3 years ago... i actually intended to look for a picture of tim looking like a doctor (see yesterdays comments; the tim doctor post will have to wait a bit), but then thought; hmmm, lets look what pictures i took 3 years ago (i.e. during our first months on boston). and this is what i found..... isnt that a sign.. somehow? here we had already signed the lease and all, the place was "ours" (oh, how excited we were!), and it would be waiting for us until july 1st, 2010. they painted 2 walls for us for free, so the wall to the left is now actually light purple.

the apartment now does not look like that just yet, although a LOT of furniture has disappeared over the past few days. basically, the living room now only has the couch and dinner table left (im so disappointed nobody wants our table, its the nicest piece of furniture we have! :) ) there is a lot of random stuff standing around, and everything we want to ship is now in boxes (or so i hope). tomorrow the moving company comes to pick them up. it makes me so very nervous!! did i pack it all right?! arent the boxes too heavy? wont they fall apart during the move? will everything left really fit in my suitcase? is it enough...? did i make the right choices..? did i pack something essential (which i now wont see for the coming 8-12 weeks)? did i forget something? it goes on and on and on in my head like that. i know, i know, there are much bigger worries in the world, but currently those are my worries.... pffffttt.... 

ok, i guess its time for bed..... good night!

Tim clown

before we started the horrible task of packing (its worse than i thought. beeehhh. i moved quite a few times too often during my PhD, but at least that was within one city, certainly makes things easier...), we went to say goodbye to new york. dont know whether new york was sad too, or just didnt want to give us nice weather; it was freaking cold! and raining most of the time.... :( beeehhhh. not what we expected this time of the year! this is at coney island, which was even more sad with the cold weather and most attractions closed....

today we got rid of some furniture, now we dont have lamps in the bedroom anymore... :) someone else came to pick up the espresso machine, and the lady wanting the chairs canceled at the last moment (oh, craigslist.. great for buying, not for selling), another lady picked up some other chairs, and she also took one of the plants... (yaajj! i dont want my plants ending up in the trash...). the apartment is still a giant mess, but it seems the packing is almost done... i guess the stress levels will go down a bit once the mover has taken the boxes (and approved their weight... i quite worry about that).

Dutch snow....

this morning it was so warm that it felt like one of the first spring days; it was a bit humid. warm, but not superwarm, yet definitely with the promise that real summer is on its way.... normally you then look around (in boston, at least) and see the marvellous blossom trees all around you, and the grass getting even greener (if thats possible). but today; all grey. leafless trees... and me dressed too warm, as i am expecting winter!! winter! and im not getting it... :) i still have these nice red winter boots that i cannot use as there is no snow... :(

whereas in the netherlands its crazy once again; they have snow!! and far too much of it for what they can handle. trains are not riding, traffic is a mess, etc etc (although ofcourse, many people will still go to work by bike, because thats what real dutch do.... (not me though)). it started today and tomorrow more is expected, if i read the news correctly.... so yes, im a little jealous...

here a picture i took in the netherlands in december 2010, in a cute little city just above amsterdam, haarlem. some kids playing with a piece of ice, as then there was some snow too.... :)

Self portrait

as you can see behind us (perhaps) this is at the niagara falls where we were last month. it was so very cold!  for us, it was the first meeting with real cold this season. luckily i was prepared and was wearing a real winterjacket.... unlike when we were in the netherlands last week; i assumed it would be as cold as in boston, but now i remember again that the last month of the year definitely is colder in holland than here (i now clearly remember being very surprised about that the first year we were in boston; everyone had scared me with the mountains of snow that could fall here, and how very, very cold it would be and then... i didnt need my winter coat until january!). the past weekend it was really quite warm here, and monday it was almost 15 degrees! but as the week progressed, it slowly got colder and colder, i read something about a possibility of snow next week.... lets see!

Stop idling!!

today it was supposed to rain (or so said tim), but it didnt! during the night we had crazy rain, so much that some places around boston got a little flooded. here it was ok, but the rain did wake me up..  today, on the other hand, was gorgeous! it was 20-24 degrees C. can you believe it? ending october, and we could walk around without jacket. a perfect day to goto the cemetery behind our apartment, as they are at their best in fall, i think. 

look at this tree, isnt it beautiful?! i walked towards it to take a picture, and then i saw the police car. arrghh!! why are they always hanging out at the cemetery? to keep me safe? to protect the ghosts? to hide? to close secret deals? it really, really annoys me to see them at the cemetery, in a car. do they really need to make their rounds also there? this guy was not even driving around, he was just standing there, while his motor was running. thats my next frustration! why do i see police cars everywhere idling around?! why dont they just shut off their engine? this is what the massachusetts law says about idling (chapter 90, section 16a); 

" No person shall cause, suffer, allow or permit the unnecessary operation of the engine of a motor vehicle while said vehicle is stopped for a forseeable period of time in excess of 5 minutes. Whoever violates this will be punished by a fine of 100 dollars for the first offense, and 500 dollars for each succeeding offense." so... why do i literally everywhere, even the cemetery!, see police vehicles doing exactly that..? are they excused from the law? moreover, it costs extra gas, causes more pollution and is not good for your car.....

Best shot...

or should i say... not the worst shot...?

wayne, from vancouver, was so kind to let me know there would be a festival of activist street bands in cambridge this weekend (i was completely unaware of this, so that was nice!!). it was a several locations, and we went to harvard square this sunday. but as opposed to saturday, it was so grey out, and really chilly.... and... all the pictures i took were bad. not sharp, boring... or whatever. while we listened to real nice music (played by an italian band, all dressed in lots and lots of pink!), and i saw a guy with a huge boot (you know, the ones you wear when it rains) on his head. and lots of other crazy stuff. and i hardly took pictures. i just watched, its all in my head (!!), and the pictures i did take.. buuhhh...

i guess the musicians were quite busy. not a lot of time for eating (although there really was a lot of food around!), as you can see here...

Get out!!!

found this photo in my "to-post-folder". its from the st patricks parade. i guess this street was blocked for traffic and this officer was placed there to make sure nobody would enter.

its extremely hot and humid these days. its so hot that it doesnt cool down much during the night. but... in the weekends there is at least the great prospect of starting the day in the pool next to our apartment!! yesterday, we got there just around 9.15. hardly anyone there yet, and those who were, were just enjoying the morning sun, not intending to enter the water at all. its the perfect time, no children yet, nobody just hanging in the water; the pool entirely empty to do some real swimming! then, when most other people arrive, we have done our workout, had some sun, AND still an entire day ahead of us... but.... just as i was about to get in, the security guard came and ordered us all to leave the pool area! right NOW! because.... it was not yet 10 am, and the pool opens at 10. "yes, i know you are here every weekend, and i never say anything, but head security checked the videos and noticed i dont order you out and told me i have to. so, you have to leave. because... its not yet 10, and if something happens when its not yet 10, you could sue us". really...??!! really?! 

there is no lifeguard at the pool, and there is a huge sign that swimming is at your own risk.... but not before 10, apparently. at 9.50 someone tried to enter; nope, not allowed. one resident just placed herself on the ground in front of the entrance, waiting to be allowed to return again. it was one of those times that what happens is so plain ridiculous, that everyone starts talking to each other... :) we heard that ball playing is not allowed either. there are many green lawns around the apartments, but when 3 adults were calmly throwing a ball around, it was quickly ordered to be stopped by the security guy. 

this morning we did not even bother going to the pool :(( at 9 yet another parent with a young child was ordered away, to come back at 10. it seems we should be "grateful" we are allowed to live here in the first place. as if they prefer not to have any residents! just perfect green lawns, empty of any life, a blue pool, without anyone around it, and certainly nobody in it (perhaps only people with a perfect figure?). beeeehh, oak grove village, im really tired of all your rules..... :( i live here, and you definitely forgot that i dont leave at 5 as you do....

#1 Hospital

i havent joined theme day for a while, and was sure i didnt have a fitting photo for the one of august. until i saw this cookie lying around. its been lying on our kitchen counter since july 17 (im sort of conducting the mc donalds experiment, as i dont feel the urge to eat this cookie at all. which says a lot, as i generally eat cookies/chips/chocolate/candy instantly...). so, massachusetts general hospital (MGH) was named the number 1 hospital on the 2012-13 us news & world report americas best hospital list. it was a big happening. there were signs everywhere, and free cookies and bracelets and commemorative pins with MGH #1. these annual rankings are done since 23 years, out of which johns hopkins hospital has been number 1 for 21. so... what does that mean? did johns hopkins get worse? or mgh better? whats the use of such rankings anyways..? shouldnt health care be excellent anywhere, regardless? why should you give it a number? 

should i be proud? i was a patient at this hospital, and i work here. my doctor, even before the rankings, told me the same each time i saw him; we are the best, our treatment is the best you can get, and you are my favorite patient (at some point tim and i knew when he would say what, and it got boring... although he was a nice doctor, i do have to say that). now, as a researcher, should i be proud? maybe i should be proud of the fact that i still didnt give up research, even after all that ive seen along the way, even at the #1 hospital of the usa.

a few examples, that didnt necessarily happen to me personally. when being ill, but still appearing at work, telling your boss you dont feel that well, getting as a reply; "work. you are only sick when you are in the hospital with high fever. i come too, when i am sick, so it is not an excuse.". or: "why did you get even more children? now you will definitely not make it in science." or, when working at the bench (which is somewhat similar to cooking, and sometimes you just have to continue what you are doing, or you ruin it) and the boss comes by to ask you something; "next time, when i come, you stop your work and talk to me. you dont continue working, understood? i am your boss and if you dont give me the respect i deserve, you can go. anyone can do your job, in no time i have you replaced." i dont know the number of abused postdocs, but i think there are quite some. its not something postdocs talk about a lot, as it is embarrassing. more importanly, most are afraid to loose their job. many are on temporary visas, tied to their job. loosing the job means loosing the visa, which means having to leave the country; depending on the type of visa, you have to be gone within a month. it doesnt matter that you lived here for several years, that you have an entire household and what not. you have to leave, or you become "illegal". surely, bosses know that their postdocs are dependent and powerless.

now some other numbers; this is the salary many of us postdocs get on their bank account each month; around 2300 dollars. that at least includes health insurance. but it doesnt include retirement savings. 2300 dollars, with the average rent of a boston 1 bedroom apartment being around 1900 dollars... even when disregarding the level of education (PhD), then consider the workload; 40+ hours, and often you have to come in on the weekend (some bosses demand (!!) workweeks of over 50-60 hours, and coming in entire days in the weekend). for 2300 dollars... i think those are sad numbers. aside from the miserable salary and the abuse many endure, there is scientific as well as financial misconduct (thats what you sometimes read about in the news; some scientist that faked data and now has to retract his/her publications, and thats just one example). all of that makes you wonder; why would anyone want to do science?!

purely because of the science! its exciting! you get to "play" in the lab, do experiments, see what comes out, or not. get to think about what that means, what other things you can try next. thats how "stuff" is solved. how eventually diseases are understood, and perhaps even cured. thats why people go into science; the excitement. the numbers, whether salary-wise and/or the number of times you were yelled at or got otherwise screwed, is what makes many postdocs leave science eventually. and thats just sad...

by the way, tim thought this cookie was perhaps distributed to crank up the number of patients at mgh.....

(if you didnt get it, theme day this month is numbers!). for other participants of august theme day, go over here to julies blog!

The inflatable...

do you see it? that tiny blue inflatable tire? not allowed in the water. not allowed!! never mind that the water (until the red thingies) is not deep at all.... or that the mother was with the child in the water while she was wearing it (do you wear an inflatable tire? i dont know...). i thought it was really so sad! here i really liked the 2 girls (twins?) with their colorful swim caps... placed above their ears... :)

so, thats the lake we went to yesterday. its called walden pond (maybe you know it from the writer thoreau, who lived on the shore of this pond for a while, in 1845, and wrote about it at length). as mentioned, we swam across it. while standing on the beach (as you can see), it doesnt seem far at all! and while swimming, you think each time while looking up; ah, almost there. and then you still arent... but i really liked swimming it, i think i never did something like that before! (except for last weekend, when i swam it for the first time, haha).

More rules

at the water fun place in boston you do have to wear shoes. ah, and you cannot run.

today we went swimming in a lake, and there was a strict rule of "no inflatables". i didnt have any, since they had sold all the pink inflatable tires (or whatever you call them). im still sad about that, they were so pretty! but... you were absolutely forbidden to use them. there was a little girl with her mom and she was having fun with such a small inflatable tire. nope, lifeguards came to send her out of the water. only acceptable inflatable was a life vest. the girl didnt have a life vest.... 

really? why is something like that forbidden? i really dont get it...

we had a long swim (some 50 minutes! back and forth across the lake), and now im tired. i took a few pictures there but im too lazy to get them. next time, next time... :)

Thats trash!!

i dont know, but im getting more and more annoyed by the hundreds of cups i see left here and there and everywhere!! theyre usually still half full at least. and its usually this gross watered down ice-coffee with lots and lots of sugar and milk. beeehhh. this morning on either side someone came to sit next to me with a cup of "something" in their hands. and it never smells like a good cup of freshly brewed REAL coffee! no, it smells sweet. beeehhh!!! why cant they just drink a normal black coffee, like grownups in the rest of the world? why does it have to come through a straw? really, i never saw more adults suck on straws than in the us of a... and ofcourse, in the other hand is a phone...

and when they are done with their far too huge cup (really, a small coffee would still be considered large or extra large in the netherlands...), they just put it wherever they happen to be at that very moment. done? lets put it down. i dont care anymore. 

it really annoys me. find a trashcan, please! carry it until you encounter one. while drinking from it it also wasnt a problem to carry it around, so just do that a little longer... pfew. that was nice. but really, i hate it!! i decided to do a little project; every time i see an abandoned cup i need to take a picture of it. dont know yet what i will do with them, perhaps a set on flickr..... :) so this will be photo umber 2. here you can see number one...