Graffiti proposal

when biking from my sisters apartment in utrecht to the city center, i passed this mural! i had to take a picture of that, of course. as you can see, its hard not to take pictures in the netherlands without bikes in it, either parked bikes, or as above.... :) (unfortunately the sun was only illuminating the upper part of the house... )

the mural says: "lieve afra, wil jij met mij trouwen? Jan" and next to it: "ja!" which translates into; "dear afra, do you want to marry me?" "yes!" i googled around a bit and found an article that tells me that the person who painted it is a graffiti artist named Jan, who made several murals in/around utrecht. here he got permission to paint his marriage proposal on the wall of someone's house. he then led his girlfriend to it, and proposed to her. and as you can see, she said yes! isnt that cute?

there really was quite a bit more graffiti in the netherlands than i remembered (i had not been there for almost 2 years), and there was also a lot of random, ugly graffiti along the train tracks. but apparently it has always been there, and i just forgot....  :) but as you can see, this mural is pretty recent, from july 2012.

for more monday murals, go here!

Dutch snack

above; 2 glasses of white martini with lemon, and to the left a very dutch snack that i really missed while in the us of a: "bitterballen"!! ofcourse, there is a wikipedia for this snack that you can read here. in short, its a savoury snack, with a thick meat-based ragout, battered in an egg-breadcrumb mixture, which has been deep-fried. you eat them hot, with some mustard (but be careful, when served they are usually still too hot to eat, i speak here from experience). hmmmmmmmm!!!! hmmmm!!! they are sooo good! also with a glass of beer.... in fact, the dutch mc donalds has a special burger, with a patty-shaped version of the "bitterbal", on a white bun, with a sort of mustard dressing (the mc kroket!). i had that the first day i arrived, together with my sister... (they were on sale, only 1 euro, hahaha).

unfortunately, eating these in a cafe is expensive. like everything you order in a cafe. generally, service is much slower than in the us, but at least you dont have to prove you are above 21 to drink alcohol. on the other hand, the huge glass of ice water i now always order does not come standard in the netherlands, and in some cafes they will even refuse to give you a glass of water, unless you pay for it..... (i.e. you have to buy a glass of bottled water as they do not want to give you one for free from the tap). also, paying with card is not that common, and you thus will have to bring cash, preferrably some change; as you already have waited so very long for the check, you dont want to wait yet again to get your change.

why cant the mc donalds over here have this dutch snack on the menu?! im sure the americans would love it!

Still green

everything is still green! but for how long?! some trees have actually started turning color already, and the mornings and evenings/nights are becoming chilly. its not bad at all, compared to the crazy heat we have had this summer. now the mornings feel fresh, but still kind of warm enough to go without a jacket (or only a cardigan), and during the day its mostly sunny and pleasant.... 

although i dont want to leave the sun and our time at/in the pool (its really becoming a little too cold; i hope we can still go tomorrow), im also looking forward to autumn. boston and surroundings are really pretty then, and it smells so good!!

Overgrown car

noooo... this is not in the netherlands, i dont think you would see much of this there.... 

this was a few weekends back, when we were in vermont. there were actually several in a row, i think they were collecting them!

Bikes, bikes!!

already at the airport in the netherlands i noticed something different; nobody said the magic words "excuse me". in the ladies room people passed each other, or had to wait to get to the sink or whatever. in the us this dance would be accompanied by many excuse me's, and now it was silent, and somehow that was weird! at the platform waiting for the train there was plenty of time observing the dutch going to work (it was the early morning); women were dressed so differently! to me they looked more confident, especially the older women. and... what a relief; stylish shoes! no extreme high heels, although many did wear a bit of heels, also the very tall women (and there were many tall people. haha, i almost forgot that in the netherlands im one of the short people). now that im back i have a renewed incomprehension for the big white sport shoes that most people seem to wear here, no matter how well dressed they are!

while in the train i saw sooo much graffiti everywhere, thats really not the case in boston, i thought it had increased, but apparently it had always been like that (how easy it is to forget things!). 

but.... the best was to be on my (own) bike again. in utrecht! i had not done that since we left in april 2010 for boston. the traffic seemed crazy; sooo many people, such narrow streets, even more bikes!! but the cars are much smaller, and the pace much more relaxed. as much as i am scared to bike around here, amidst the chaos in utrecht it was just relaxing! no honking or irritated screaming simply because you are on a bike and on the road (as happened just this sunday here, grrrr). it was extremely crowded but everyone was courteous and nobody was in someone else's way.... (or do i now make it seem better than it actually is?! anyways, compared to biking in boston it was just pure fun! and so pretty, ofcourse, biking along the canals, wathcing the cute old houses on the other side..... 

above the center of utrecht. a mess of bikes wherever you go. a mess, but somehow organized, and ofcourse its hardly ever a problem to find your own bike back amongst all those others. in the back a few of the many cafes where you can sit outside; the weather was, surprisingly, extremely good most of the time i was there!

Blogging holiday

whoops! i took a little holiday from blogging the past weeks, together with my trip to europe (how american to say "europe" instead of specifying to which countries i went).... before i went to sweden for my practical course, i was briefly in the netherlands, where i had not been for almost 2 years!!! i had not told my parents, so it was a surprise for them to see me, haha... :)

this is utrecht from above, where i used to live before moving to boston. isnt it cute?! me and my sister climbed the largest church tower in the city (you can see that tower here). to the right in the front you can see the terrace of one of the many, many cafes, right next to the canal. it was so very, entirely, totally different from the us! and i really felt like a tourist, not having been there for almost 2 years.....

i got home last wednesday already, got back to the lab monday but somehow did not get back to my blog... from now on i hope to be back again! hope to write more about what i observed in the netherlands after 2 years of absence tomorrow....

Real swimmers!

here are some real swimmers in the swedish sea!! it was 2 days ago, somewhere around 6 in the evening. it was not cold, but not warm either, some 20 degrees C at most... i had some time to observe them and it was so different from what you would see in the us! firstly, people arrived by bike, alone or together. just left their bike unlocked and walked to the water, undressed and went in. no toe dipping, not scared of the cold! hoppa! no lifeguard either, and no millions signs saying that you can or cannot swim, or when the "water closes" (in the us the water or the forest or the park or whatever usually closes after sunset). after swimming people just dried themselves and took off their swimsuits, something you also would never see in the us, as ofcourse you cannot show any skin...

im at the airport now. i enjoyed my practical baby-course... yesterday i got to feed the baby, and saw how she was bathed... im fully prepared now... ;)  but as i think its sometimes already a burden to carry my camera everywhere, i think its still too early for babies...

Some sightseeing

its not too cold here, but often quite windy, and then its suddenly chilly! many clouds make it very pretty... here we were at the sea side, where many people were still swimming...! i didnt try, seemed so cold.....

In Sweden

sorry for the lack of updates! sometimes there is no internet, then im at the airport and its not working, or i am too tired. or too lazy. or whatever...

but now im in sweden for a few days... without tim, so the above sign was funny! im visiting a friend who got a baby last november. she says im here for a practical baby course... they also have other friends over with a baby of the same age.... so i can practice, she says... hahahahaha.

Very american

this sign is so american! must look nice when its dark...

even after more than 2.5 years, i still cannot get used to having to buy alcohol in a separate store. in the netherlands you can buy your wine and beer in the supermarket, only for hard liquor you will have to go to a liquor store. and ofcourse, having to prove that you are over 21 while 30 is very weird too. or that it can only be a passport, or an ID from the state you are in... leading to sometimes complicated situations or not being able to buy any alcohol at all...

Fancy chairs

saw these colorful chairs in the mc donalds! looked really new... too bad only that you cannot swirl around on them, they are fixed....

Dog days...

dog days of summer are supposed to be over! its september now.... :) (but its still hot!) i knew this expression, and that it has to do with the hottest days/weeks of summer, but until i asked wikipedia i never knew why...! well, it comes from the ancient belief that sirius (the dog star) in proximity to the sun was responsible for the hot weather...

we are having a long weekend (monday is labor day), and i think i september dogs are allowed on the beaches again.... but not their sh*t, as you can see here, you will need to bag that and take trash it properly. i always find it a funny sight.... here they are very strict, and everyone indeed picks up after their dog (unlike the netherlands, at least the last time i was there..). i wonder what the dog thinks, sometimes, of this practice... :D

Ready to...

.... shoot!

this was at the cliff diving event last saturday. everyone was ready to take that one shot. except me... :)

i think its interesting that on the one hand there are all these fancy cameras, and on the other the phones. not much in between anymore, it seems!

Fresh veggies!

veggies for sale, just along the road somewhere in vermont. isnt that cool? we stopped, just to take a picture (our fridge at home still full with vegetables that needed to be eaten...). to the right on the stand you see a small white box, on it was written "donations". on the other side a list with the names of all the vegetables present, and that they were dusted, but still needed to be washed. for you to take, and for you to determine how much you pay for it! amazing, no? i wonder how much money comes in that way!

i would like to seel stuff too... pastries and bread... anyone interested? :) 

Local eatery

we had "dinner" in vermont. after the cemetery, we walked further on the main street until we hit this eatery a little before the center of the town. we had seen it already when driving by, and i had decided we should eat there... it seemed well visited, and eating was outside. could it be more american?! the other option was a bit further down the road; some posh looking house and a sign "fine dining". well, i preferred the eatery! 

moreover, i was extremely interested in the locals. but i was afraid taking pictures too obviously, and thus had put my camera on the table (the unsharp lower part of the picture). 

the food? we had burgers, shared one order of fries and a drink; it was 20 dollars!! i somehow really thought it would be good, and then it wasnt.... :( the fries looked like they had been fried already 7 times. at least. we didnt finish them....

ah well, i enjoyed observing the locals.... ;)

Restland, Vermont

this weekend we drove to vermont. from boston its approximately a 3 hour drive, but i had never been to this state! we stayed 1 night in a motel in wilmington. it was called "the vintage motel". i just wonder what came first, the vintage or the motel.... it wasnt very crowded, i guess this town is more alive when winter comes and snow covers all the mountains... (wikipedia tells me wilmington is in the heart of the "snowbelt")

even so it was a 3 hour drive, we ofcourse took a bit longer as we avoided the highway, stopped here and there, took some photos, etc etc... in the evening we walked a bit around in wilmington, and accidentally found the cemetery just behind the church on the main street of this tiny town. i just loved the name of this cemetery. restland. ofcourse, restland!! why have i never seen a cemetery before called like that? how else should a cemetery be named, anyways? restland seems just the perfect name to me! we walked around a bit, and although all stones seemed intact, many were hardly readable, due to dirt and erosion. but well, i actually just wanted a picture of the gate with the name of the cemetery anyways....

there were some 500 graves, and i guess it was established somewhere after the town itself was established, which was in 1751. it didnt seem to be in use anymore, but as you can see, still well maintained...

more taphophiles can be found here!

Somewhere along...

the road from massachusetts to vermont, yesterday! i guess it was at the border with new hampshire, still in massachusetts... 

i took many crappy pics but i hope to find some nice ones in the coming days. we had fun driving, anyways!! and saw a lot of beautiful/interesting/weird/ugly/very very american sights...

I'm lazy!

today we saw some guys jumping off the roof of the ICA (institute of contemporary art) into the boston harbor. some 90 feet if i remember correctly. before they were down in the water, they did some nice turns and flips and what-not. but it went so very fast i missed many of the jumps (i guess a jump took 3 seconds?). also, i did not want to sit ready with my camera, until they would finally make the jump. and the few times i did, i didnt see anything of the jump as i was too busy clicking..., or seeing that i held my camera wrong and he jumped a little to the right, or left... most shots that i did manage to take were blurry, or just empty... 

i guess this is the only one that worked out... :)

it was super- supercrowded! but the weather was nice, and we had a good spot (thanks to our friends who were there much earlier than us; we somehow managed to miss the stop while on the subway, and had to go back, and it all took forever and ever). ah well... i dont think i want to become a cliff diver (they were all wearing tiny speedos), and before people realize what you are doing is amazing, its already over. besides, i prefer to be in the water, rather than jumping into it all the time....

Orange line

this is the train i take everyday to get into boston. bostons skyline you can see in the background!

it is a few stations after the one i get on, where they store all the orange trains that are not in use.... you walk above them when you leave this particular station (you can see the reflection of the glass, unfortunately).

its so hot here! usually im ok with it, but at this very moment... beeehhh.. maybe its also my hote computer, and we were using the oven quite a bit this evening (making dinner, baking bread, etc etc). but as usual, i get cold just a few minutes after we turn on the airconditioning....

good night!

Sun rays

this was at our campsite in new hampshire, 2 weeks back. in the morning we saw the most gorgeous sun rays on the river... :) most likely because there was a lot of smoke in the air from all the BBQ fires at many sites, people start them up early in the morning already! 

building a fired was really nice (or rather, tim did that, i just commented, so i should say, having a fire in the evening is really nice, but i didnt like smelling like it. everything smelled like campfire when we got back.... so even for just 2 nights, i had a huge amount of laundry to do....