Without leafs...

i think the trees are quite pretty too!!! :)
got to go now!

Hungry CaT

im tired, hungry and in no mood for writing...

but this i find a lovely picture, taken while we had a great dinner in utrecht with my sister and 2 utrecht labmates.... 

the restaurant is very nice too, its called "Boslust" and is in the center of Utrecht! (but you do have to have some patience... we waited very long till we finally got our entrees..)

Did you...

...ever sleep in an elderly home? even though you are not yet in need of living in such a home?

we did the first 4 nights when we were in the netherlands; we slept at tim's grandmother. not in her room, but in the guest room. as a guest room with only 2 beds in it, it was a decent size, but what if it becomes your living/dining/sleeping room? thats not a lot of space....!

all corridors looked like above (although this is at the cordova museum here close to boston; the corridors of the amsterdam-elderly home were not that photogenic). while staying there, i discovered that the walls are very thin, the shower not so good (not good at all; the temperature was not constant, it kept suddenly becoming hot and then cold again), and the nurses seem to have forgotten that all those people actually live there; in the early morning they were loudly exchanging stories of driving in the snow and what not all while standing in the corridor. maybe they assume that older people feel less and are deaf anyways? or were they just not aware that although they are at work, the people they take care of are at home? i guess it would be good if everyone would once spend some days/nights in such a home.....

anyways... tim's grandmother became 95 today! can you imagine? last year she and tim took a plane to france for a short weekend! and it wouldnt surprise me if her social life  is more active than ours, being locked in a lab for most of the time.... 

Melting snow

although there are still some snow mountains here and there, i saw yesterday night that all the snow pictured above in the boston common entirely disappeared; no more sleighing (i dont know whether this is the correct word for the activity above) there! the picture was taken last wednesday when boston was still covered. 

when looking up the word sleighing i discovered that it actually originates from the dutch word "slee"; it entered the american english language around 1700. the dutch were among the earliest inhabitants of north america, and therefore many words come from the dutch language! for example: boss ("baas), bush ("bos" or, in old dutch "bosch") and landscape ("landschap"). apparently, in later centuries we "gave" the americans the words dope, knickerbocker (??), snoop, spook, waffle and cookie. but for me, the most interesting is the following; also the word "yankee", the most american (word) of all, is most likely a dutch word from origin... howcome? well, the most likely source is the Dutch name janke, meaning "little Jan" or "little John," a nickname that dates back to the 1680s. Perhaps because it was used as the name of pirates, the name Yankee came to be used as a term of contempt. It was used this way in the 1750s by General James Wolfe, the British general who secured British domination of North America by defeating the French at Quebec. The name may have been applied to New Englanders as an extension of an original use referring to Dutch settlers living along the Hudson River. Whatever the reason, Yankee is first recorded in 1765 as a name for an inhabitant of New England. Around the same time it began to be abbreviated to Yank. During the American Revolution, American soldiers adopted this term of derision as a term of national pride.(this latter part i literally stole from here).

(the relation between the dutch and american language is also described in the novel Netherland by Joseph O'Neill; a book i liked a lot, surely its not merely about language, its about a man living in NY, during and after 9/11)

ok... and i didnt want to write much this time... hihihihi.

Coffee & Cookie

im in the cheesecake factory right now (oh, are we lazy! i think we hardly cooked the past weeks (in the netherlands not once); but we did share 1 meal; thats more than enough here). we were just debating whether we should take a coffee or not.... and i voted against because here the coffee, or tea, is invariably without a cookie. whats a coffee without a cookie (or whatever else small and sweet)??

above a picture of the tea i had in a cafe in the center of amsterdam, in the beurs van berlage, a famous monument built between 1896 and 1903 as a commodity exhange, and currently used as a conference venue. the cafe was real pretty, and not only did we get a tasty cookie, also a napkin with a poem by albert verwey, he worked together with the architect berlage and wrote poems for the building. the poem above is about food and laughter, and that this brings you good times (very loosely translated... :)

ah yes, i miss the dutch cookie, among other things.... :)

In 2011...

... i think i should go more often to the gym.. its good our apartment complex has a gym, too bad there are usually sooo many other things i would rather do...

and i actually want internet at home, loading my pics with the free wireless thats available when it feels like, takes much too long...

besides, i would like to publish a paper in nature or science, i should finally read the manual that came with my new camera, and i shouldnt buy any more clothes; our wardrobe is overloaded, and, as tim points out whenever i complain about the lack of space for my clothes; i already take much more than 50% of the available space. other than that, i didnt think much about the year ahead yet...

so..., lets see!

Year 2010

the dutch call the last evening of the year old year's eve, whereas in english its new year's eve, something i never understood.... anyways.. we dressed up and were just in time to see the last bits of the fireworks for children at the boston common (at 6.45 this evening...). we then wanted to have dinner at a certain place, but to get in you had to prove to be above 21, which we could not (tims dutch driver's license wasnt accepted and i did not have any official form of ID, however, if they just had looked at us, it would have been clear that we passed 21 already....). so we went to the next place and there we could have dinner, but could not drink alcohol for the same stupid reason... then we had free espressos at a very fancy hotel-restaurant (after asking twice and waiting much too long the check might have arrived after our leaving.. :) )

we walked around a bit in boston, i tried to picture real american girls with impossible high heels and extremely short skirts, but the alley with car turned out much better.... :D

now we are at home, and in 20 minutes the new year will start! this year a lot of exciting things happened, most importantly our move to the US! now lets see what 2011 will bring..... surely i will document parts of it here, as i very much enjoy posting one picture a day.

happy new year!!!

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?)

Back home

im amazed by the roads and sidewalks that are entirely cleared of snow!! this is the path next to our apartment. on sunday/monday a blizzard was roaring around in boston, a huge amount of snow fell, but yesterday all roads were cleared! compare that to the dutch and their little bit of snow... just ignoring it thereby making it impossible for many people (especially elderly) to go outside for their daily shoppings etc....

ah well.... cool to see all the snowmountains...!

Welcome back

"welcome back" thats what the officer said to me, after he checked my visa, passport, all forms that had to be filled out, stamped all those documents, took my fingerprints (all fingers) and a photo (would they have an internal blog or something where they display the most horrible pics of people arriving after long long flights...?). i have to admit; i liked that he said that... am i now one of them!?! but then i immediately thought "doe effe normaal zeg" (cannot translate that.. but literally; please, act normal..).

so, we were lucky, the blizzard yesterday/sunday cancelled many flights, yet our flights were not delayed. the only shitty thing is that tim's snowboard did not arrive with us in boston, resulting in waiting in yet another line... 

as we almost doubled our luggage, im now waiting for tim to get the car. great that allmost all airports have free internet nowadays so that i can update my blog! :) above a picture of a real dutch flower; the tulip. i was so amazed by the snow on this poor flower that only after 4 pics i realized these were fake.. its at the airport, so i guess they want to always be able to show visitors dutch flowers. although everyone ofcourse knows that tulips were originally from turkey are were imported about 400 years ago to the netherlands. but look here; in the US they even have a tulip festival! difference might be that in the netherlands you can buy 40 or sometimes even 60 tulips for just 5 euros (~7 dollars), while here, back home (!!), it will cost you probably a lot more...

Lucky santa

maybe im oldfashioned, but i think its weird i now already saw 2 shops portraying santa in a not very child-friendly way... previously we had freaky santa in boston, and now, as the shop decorated, lucky santa in utrecht... 

as mentioned yesterday, the dutch have 2 christmasdays... googling around taught me that we used to have even 4 christmasdays in the year 813, as determined by the catholic church... on those 4 days you were not supposed to work as that might cause bad luck; only work that really had to be done was allowed. christmasday one was a "gezellig" (cosy) feast at home with family, day 2 a bit more festive and was called the big horseday (eh?); farmers would go around on their horses and this would protect the horses against diseases. the 3rd day to commemorate the saint of friendship, and the 4th day was for children; they were in charge this day.... soon, the 4th day disappeared (why?), and then in 1773 also the third day was no longer a holiday. but only since 1964 the dutch consider the 25th and 26th as official holidays... the second day now usually spent at a "meubelboulevard", i.e. home furnishing shops..... (why oh why??!)

Christmasday two

unlike americans, the dutch take 2 days to celebrate christmas... recently, more and more shops (especially in amsterdam and big supermarkets) open at least at the second day. i walked around in my hometown today with my sister and big fancy camera; but most pictures i took turned out to be very disappointing. this is a reflection of myself in the window of the bakery in the center of Weesp. behind me one of the many churches, and on the window a poem from the dutch poet ida gerhardt. i just looked up the poem and its a very nice, apparently very well known poem... i searched everywhere for an english translation, but couldnt find a complete one.... :( but this is a good description i stole from here: "She sketches the sense of hope and beauty she experienced when she heard someone playing the bells of a nearby church. The time was 1941, the place: her city of Rotterdam, bombed the year before. She saw the people in the streets, their faces grey with misery; then, suddenly, the heavenly sounds coming from high up, from the church belfry. Their faces lightened up; the very sound of chimes filled them with awe and wonder. They looked up and listened, enjoying the marvel of the carillon – that most Dutch of all musical instruments." for the entire poem in dutch, go here.

meanwhile, it has been snowing in boston (buuuh, i missed that), and a blizzard has arrived; new york city cancelled 1000 flights... good i have 1 more day in the netherlands.....

While driving

yesterday we drove to my parent's place (the tree mystery has not been solved yet), and instead of taking the highway, we took the side roads; it gives you a beautiful view of the netherlands. you drive by beautiful enormous houses, sometimes a castle, the loosdrechtse plassen... pretty pretty pretty!

above not my parent's place... :D but house trompenburgh, located in 's graveland. originally built in 1654, but destroyed by the french and rebuilt between 1675-1684. taken while driving by. every first sunday of the month between april and october you can visit this place. so that would be another point in my travel guide: dont stay in amsterdam, but rent a car (or go by bike!), avoid the highway ("snelweg") and enjoy the view....

Merry christmas!!

a christmas tree for christmas eve...... :) in dutch: fijne kerstdagen to all of you!!

this tree is in a dutch mall, in my opinion quite a difference as compared to us shopping malls. almost all american malls (well, ofcourse the ones i have been to so far) give me such a sad feeling. but, although i think this building is quite a bit more pretty, this is a sad mall too...... this is magna plaza in amsterdam, a former post office, built in 1899, and converted to shopping mall in 1990. in my tourist guide i would advice to go there just to see the building (and i would have to find out why the post office had to be that huge), but the shops are not that interesting; yesterday i saw that many shops were vacant.

anyways.. enjoy your christmas!

Tourist guide

the tallest buildings in a US city are skyscrapers, in the Netherlands it is the church... above the st. bavochurch or "grote kerk" (large church) in haarlem, where we were yesterday. it is truly enormous and placed on a large square.

if i were to write a tourist guide, this would be my advice: for lunch or breakfast, goto the V&D warehouse, dont be fooled by the ground floor small dining area, but goto the uppermost floor, where you will find a large dining area with nice seats and a magnificent view of the city. i before showed you utrecht, and here is haarlem, as mentioned. the other advantage is that the food will be cheaper, and you will loose less time than in a restaurant or cafe, where the service, especially in larger cities, really is not that good (usually); at the V&D you yourself take what you want and bring it to your seat. ok.. maybe we got used to the service in the US; much faster! and now became too impatient for the dutch waiters. on tuesday we went out to dinner in utrecht, and we had to wait over an hour for the main course! even after asking the waiter he did not show any effort or compassion... dessert; same story, even so the cook just had to slice some applepie and put it on a plate. although the food was good, they did not once ask whether it all was fine and whether it was enough (probably it was enough... but i would have liked a bit more fries, im here only a few days!! and they were soooo good!). he forgot to bring the drinks several times... etc etc. thats because in the netherlands waiters get a decent salary and do not depend on tips (like in the us); you thus are not at all obliged to give a tip, and defenitely not 20% as is common in the US. in utrecht most waiters are students that have this job on the side and they just do not care at all! so... that would be the next point in my travel guide; if you find the service bad; do not tip! maybe then they will finally learn....... and you will save money; dont forget; you are in the netherlands, so why not behave as a dutch?! :)

Freezing books

"de vries" is a very common last name in the netherlands, but leaving out the "de", you get freezing books, as pictured above.... :) yup, it is still freezing, and the snow is still abundantly present... also at the beach!

de vries is a bookstore in Haarlem, and has been there since 1905; the shop seemed huge and very pretty, and most importantly; stuffed with books... we didnt go inside, (im already worried how to get everything we accumulated the past few days back to boston) but i liked their christmas decoration so much that i took a picture... the girl above then said to her mother: we have to show these stars to dad. her mother asked: but how? and then the girl said; well, we should also take a picture!

the new york city neighborhood harlem is named after haarlem; but there the resemblance stops... i would say, after having seen both....  however, in this time zone it is very late now, so if you want to catch up on your harlem wikipedia reading, click here, and for the dutch haarlem, click here... good night!

Utrecht mirror

this mirror is on the tolsteegsingel in utrecht. the street goes along the water and it all is soo pretty there! the houses, the water, simply everything... with the snow even the mirror becomes worthwhile... :)

it has hardly snowed since we arrived on saturday; most of the snow fell just before... (buuuh, i missed that!), but it has been freezing since, so the snow is everywhere, as for whatever reason nothing is being undertaken to remove it from the streets. most people are just biking as if there is no snow... i keep being amazed and tim keeps telling me that i talk like an 80-year-old, all those people are dutch after all, and know how to bike... :)

Amsterdam streets

we went for some shopping in amsterdam today! there is snow here since friday, and totally nothing has been done to get rid of it.... so all the streets now have a greyish, mouchy (is that a word?) layer of snow, at other places its not mousse, but just a thick layer of slippery ice. at one particular spot where it was real slippery, they had placed 5 policemen, and they prevented people to walk there; that looked so stupid to me!! they rather should have given them a shovel to remove the ice there, no?

this is at koningsplein (king's square), on the bridge. as you can see, many bikes are attached to the bridge, as rule number one for trying to not get your bike stolen is to lock it onto something. its often quite hard to find a parking spot for your bike; the good places are usually taken... :) 

the girl in the front looks rather dutch to me, and behind her is a real dutch bike, a "bakfiets", they became quite popular in recent years as you can use them to transport whatever you want (your 3 children, or your groceries or even to move your furniture...)

not the best pic, but i wanted to show the dirty streets!

So beautiful

today we were at the airport again; this time to say bye to a friend of tim's, and to get his car keys. as his car was close to utrecht, we went there and i marveled at the beauty of this city!! the entire time i lived there i realized how pretty it is, but after being gone and seeing it again i could only think; it truly is a beautiful city. with or without snow!of course not much changed while we were gone, but my favorite sandwich shop (that i discovered only 2 months before we left) was gone... :( we were already imagining which one we would take and then sneak into the place with the view. buuuuhhhh!!

even though none of the small roads was cleared of snow, sooo many people were biking! i am always terrified and probably because of that i usually slip and (almost) fall. roads are on either side of this gracht ("canal") and in the right corner you see the Dom.... you can see its beauty from sooo many angles while walking through the city.... :)

Snowy suitcase

i am now awake for more than 36 hours.... beeeegghhh. first work yesterday morning, then the supermarket (icelandair makes you pay for your meal in the plane and we are dutch, after all, even after 9 months US (or even more so?)), then cleanup of the apartment, then airport with a too heavy suitcase and 3 transfers; ah no, our perfect apartment is not located optimally considering airport access :) seeing boston in the dark from above was real cool, but i didnt recognize anything... 

i was a little worried as there was quite some snow again in the netherlands and the news had stories that it was a total chaos on the roads and many flights delayed or cancelled. but we left snowless boston without problems, landed into iceland that surely looked icy but snowless as well, and then approached an entirely white netherlands; beautiful from above as well. scary during landing (at least for me), wouldnt that be slippery?! but it all went smooth (except me sleeping; didnt happen). luggage was kind of a mess, so many people and it lasted forever; then we discovered many people that were waiting there for their luggage had in fact just checked in in amsterdam, but due to cancelled flights, had to pick it right up again.... i guess we were very lucky as many many flights got cancelled (also an earlier direct flight from boston).

the combination suitcase and snow turned out to be less fun.... pictured above... buuugh. i like that in the background another couple was posing, and i just saw that the building on the left has the word "oren" (i.e. ears) on it, most likely the T got just cut off (ie toren; tower).

now finally time for bed... although a little early in this timezone....