Looks like

this building has a face! no?

this is close to harvard square. saw it once already while driving by, but recently we finally walked there, so i had to take a picture....

Fast food

for only 5 dollar 50.... in chinatown.. but i thought this street looks rather sad...!

Tree rat

tree rat (in dutch; "boomrat") is a whole lot easier for me to pronounce than squirrel. 

they are not shy at all, and do whatever necessary to get some food... even holding out a helping hand... or is that to get some food... ? :)

Purple lollipops

purple is my favorite color, since a while now, and these gigantic flowers were just amazing. they made for great photo opportunities for many people, young and old... :)

in the public garden, boston, on sunday afternoon.

after that we went to see the movie "beginners"; the father of the main character wears a purple sweater (actually, he wears a robe) when he tells his son he is gay, and now, after his wife passed away, wants to explore this side of himself... well.. it could have been a hilarious movie. or a very sad one. or both. but it was not really either of those.....

American badass

if forgiveness is the way..... then.... here something to think about.. :)

Is it?

depends on what it is... i guess...
this is somewhere on a building in the center of boston.

Ieeekkk jellyfish!

when my sister was here, we went to the boston aquarium. that was the first and the last time. it was over-over crowded, the building as old, dark and depressing and the entrance fee high (even though we had discount through work). the only thing i liked were the jellyfish.. :) jellyfish have no heart, bones, eyes, brain or heart, and are made up of 95% water, yet they are able to kill other animals, in some instances even human.

the other amazing thing is that they have green fluorescent proteins (GFP); so they emit light. we saw some tiny jellyfish that were emitting many different colors of light. they were in a corner of the aquarium, and not many seemed to notice them. i watched them for quite a while, so beautiful! unfortunately, the pictures were crap (you thus have to visit the awful aquarium yourself, just to see them!). nowadays, GFP is widely used in laboratories as it is a very useful tool in microscopy. the people who discovered and developed GFP, received the nobel prize in chemistry in 2008.
by now, scientists have made many different colors of fluorescent protein. here you can see a plate of bacteria, all expressing another color of fluorescent protein! science can be fun.... ;)
enough lecturing... good night!

Just sitting...

saw the street, and only upon looking twice, i saw the guy sitting there... 

this is in the north end, a part of boston we do not visit very often, for whatever reason. yet this website calls it one of the most famous neighborhoods of boston... :) we did go to a restaurant there, once, or twice? for sure something italian, as this part of boston is also called little italy....
when finally coming home from work, im usually just sitting as well. i should be cleaning up my stuff, i should be writing emails, i should.... but usually im just sitting, and then its time for bed, but then i first have to do my blog, and then i dont know what picture to choose, and then i dont know what to write, and then it always ends up being late when i finally get to bed.. :)
good night!

Rain, rain

another fountain photo! we were there for quite a while, and i took many pictures. i guess i should upload them to flickr. another day.... :) currently i have annoyingly few photos of boston.. i need to get out more...

this boy looked so triumphant, hihi. today you didnt need a fountain to get wet, it was pouring! almost the entire day. and according to the forecast tomorrow as well, and perhaps friday too. buuuh, no more lunch outside.

Its summer!

today summer officially started! here in boston its warm, since a little while. unfortunately, at work they put the airconditioning on high, so inside im cold, most of the times, and need warmer clothes than during winter. aarghhh! 

the picture above i took almost exactly 2 years ago, in the netherlands. those boys were enjoying the water, by jumping into it over and over again. it is around utrecht, where i lived. this part is sooo beautiful! i think that winter it was so cold that even this lake got frozen. it was fun to walk on it, while just months before we were swimming in it....

today was also the longest day... :( buuuh, already from today on, the days will get shorter again. and they are already shorter here than in the netherlands! here it starts to get dark around 8.45 now....

Flat tire

yesterday no post; i was exhausted once again...

tim picked my up from work at 8 by car; in that way i would be home a little earlier. and i was so hungry! but... halfway home i heard this weird noise. we stopped right at a bus stop, and when opening the door there was this enormously loud hissing noise. surely that was the airconditioning of the building and luckily not from the car.... until we found it it was actually the tire that was flat in no time.... buuuhhh. a large piece of metal still stuck in it, shitty roads!!

of course i had no clue what to do. but tim did and he exchanged the enormous flat tire for the enormous spare tire. by then it was so late that we had "dinner" at applebee's. the good thing about being so late; the appetizers were only half the price.....

Observing children

i like to observe children. but that is a dangerous thing to say, i guess... :) like the girl from yesterday, she was sooo cute! she was cheerful and inviting, and just happy to be playing with the fountain in the sun. there were many other kids, proudly showing their parents that they could run into the water, over and over again. 

the one above is an old one, from the museum in lincoln (that we really have to visit again soon!). i dont know what you think, but to me its clear they are eagerly waiting for something to happen, you can deduce it from their posture.  thats why i like to observe children; it is so much easier to see how they feel, as they dont (yet?) have the need to disguise whatever they are feeling at the moment, or what they want/expect/or do....

now i feel old...! :D

How cute!

this girl was enjoying the fountain at the christian science plaza today. yesyes, there was a parade for the bruins, but since everyone else was there already, we decided not to go... the girl was not shy at all, she showed us how she ran into the water, and later she asked me how old i am. she went from 20 to 42, to 36 and eventually 29. ofcourse, she knew it!! and she is 6... :)

other than that, we saw how cruel the world can be. we went to an exhibition at harvard about the holocaust. it showed how scientists, physicians and politicians joined forces to create a superior race. this was called eugenics. to stop biological degeneration, as they called it, germany was supposed to produce more fit children. i do not want to go into details; if in/around boston, you should just go to this exhibition. what amazed me was that also other countries, including the US, were into eugenics. this included sterilization of people that were deemed "inferior", as determined by observation, family genealogies, physical measurements and intelligence tests. simply look at this horrible display used by the american eugenics society in the 1920s. it shows how disgusting the human race can be, and/or is... the exhibit showed how monstrous people can become, when given power. but... why do others obey? is this a reasonable question? i guess you cannot answer this question unless you have been in that situation yourselves. is it simply altruism? i dont think so. i think people have descended from altruism into mere egoism and selfishness.

yuk.. now i really became too negative. but this exhibition was thought provoking...

on a lighter note; we went to see the movie Super 8. i loved it! every single moment of it.... and please, remain seated when you think the movie is over; it is not quite... but most americans missed that when rushing out as soon as they thought it ended (including me; only because tim was so slow we saw it till the very end!)

The family

a while ago, it must have been a first sunday of the month, we had free entrance to yet another museum. this time in new hampshire, where we went to this museum. a spacious museum with a lot of interesting things. there was an exhibit from jon brooks, a wood sculptor. im not into that at all, but it was simply beautiful (you have to check out his website!). as bonus, he himself was there and gave a presentation about his work, and signed his artbook for us! but i was too shy to ask for a picture.

so.. above something else we saw there, and that i liked. this artwork is called the family, by marisol escobar. it is a comment on "the families of the 60s". mom is dressed stylishly (the gloves, the hat etc), her husband, and 4 children. it featured as the cover of time magazine in 1970, when they had an article about the "crisis of the american family". i just searched for it and could perfectly find it back online (hooray for the internet!!), here the quote with which they start the article: "Students in rebellion, the young people living in communes, unmarried couples living together call into question the very meaning and structure of the stable family unit as our society has known it." The family, says California Psychologist Richard Parson, "is now often without function. It is no longer necessarily the basic unit in our society." click here for the entire article!

time magazine is smart, as soon as i found the article, a window popped up, offering me a yearlong subscription for their weekly magazine for only 30 dollars! now thats a deal..... and i anyways should learn more about the us of a, no?

Out playing

this was a few weeks back just behind harvard yard. there is a fountain, and as it was rather hot, it was a nice way to cool down...

Also Texas

endless rows of power masts, flat fields (like the netherlands!), and sizzling heat.... that was my impression of texas (or at least the tiny part we saw of it). 

they told me the current heat was just the beginning of a few more months of even more heat. unbelievable! but... everywhere airconditioning. and most places the airconditioning was set to very cool... so while outside you were meting away, inside i was cold!! it seemed like a perpetuum mobile of heat; all the airconditioners cooling down the buildings to frigid temperatures, thereby expelling heat on the streets, making outside even more unbearable than it already was...

and i realize there it still sooo little i saw of the US! texas so far has been the furthest south and west i have been so far. funny; often people from europe complain that americans "do europe" in a few days, hopping from one capital to the other. how can you see europe? and what is europe?! all those countries are so very different! but the same goes for the us, in fact; i defenitely need to "do more us of a!"

Downtown Dallas

on saturday we went to Dallas, Texas. it was hot, hot, hot! i guess it was over 35 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, and we had an afternoon to check out dallas... we first went to the dallas museum of art, which had free entrance (jeejjj!), and was very big and pretty. as all american museums we visited so far; they all are spacious, architecturally interesting, and with a lot of european art. they all have quite some dutch painters, a rodin or 2 (this one had even more), some monets.... then some ancient art, and some contemporary art. we always get lost and dont understand the walkway and/or the map of the museum... but its always very enjoyable (and usually free; or at least on the day we choose to go.. ;) )

after that we decided to walk the streets of dallas. that was pretty toasty! the streets were deserted, on a saturday afternoon! and we could not find any shops... so that was kind of disappointing...

Self portrait

today the entire day was wasted on coming back to boston... got back late and now im tired and defenitely i want to post more texas-pics. above you can see that we surely behaved like real tourists in texas... so, for now a self portrait, as that was a while ago as well! good night!

oooh, we did have a perfect breakfast in a real pancake house in texas with the bride who had her birthday today, her husband, his mom and his brother, that was great and yumyum...

The Bride

This is Shannon, Tim's friend of 11 years. Today we went to her wedding reception for which we flew from Boston to Texas. It was a very Texan wedding party, on a real ranch with a meadow, orchard and what-not. There was lots of good food (including a brisket) and drinks, and the owner of the estate showed us around. He is in construction and built the entire farm and adjacent buildings himself. He has a jeep from WWII, and other toys rich Texans play with, like a fishing boat, model trains, and hunting gear. The temperature was also quite Texan (sizzling!), so afterwards we went to cool off in the pool. If only the water was a little colder.....  but all in all, it was a hoot and a half!

(this time tim wrote... and i took the picture....)

Skating rink!

we went roller blading tonight! in a real american skate center. i only knew those from the movies, and the big bang theory (look at howard's purple pants!!). for only 7.50 we could skate as long as we wanted, including skate rental. i remember i used to love roller blading.... so much that at one point i was that good that i could skate real hard and then hit the wall.... i went on with it until i broke my arm... 

anyways... i thought roller blading is similar to biking; something they say you will never forget how to do. that wasnt quite the case! i felt very insecure and unstable on those things (and mind you; they were real roller blades, not inline skates), but after a while i kind of new again how to do it... and it was cool! going round and round... and just the entire ambiance.... the music, the lowly lit skating rink, all the kids going really fast. i felt like a real american!! :D

and so i was sure roller blading was an american invention. but information at the skating rink told us that it was actually an unknown dutchman in the 1700s that wanted to go iceskating in summer, and thus put some wheels under his shoes... oh, what would the world be without the dutch?! ;)

above; thats me...  :)

In Texas

we arrived in dallas today. stupid, this morning, at the airport i had to ask tim where we were flying to; i did not even know! i knew it was texas, but.... anyways... we went from boston to newark, and from there to texas. then we got into a car and this is what i saw.... lots and lots of highway. and you can go very fast there, much faster than around boston!

and now im tired... its hot here too. real hot. sizzling it said on the weather forecast in the plane. i thought it was funny, but it really is sizzling.... ah well.. airconditioning is everywhere and right now im a little cold, even though its 10 pm and outside its 28 degrees celsius...

More pink

another pink lady i saw on times square... :)
now i am packing, as tomorrow we goto..... texas! i never been there so i am very curious.. its hot there and we go for a wedding.. i hope i packed the right clothes...

Pink fashion

in new york as well....

thats my belated post from yesterday... came home, had dinner and went to sleep... quite boring! im just rather tired and too much work. beeggghhh.. hope that i soon will have some new photos again, grrr..

NY fashion

she looked stylish to me... but i only saw her from the back...
in new york, close to ground zero.

Going slow

:)

im not in a writing mood, recently. and i decided i dont have any pictures to show... its like in the morning, standing in front of your closet, all those clothes, but nothing to wear...!!

Tired, sir?

me too!
so i leave it at that.... good night!

Poetry board

i saw these magnetic poetry boards today along the charles river., in cambridge. open to whoever felt like writing some poetry. on another board it said "start swimming woman" :D

i thought it was interesting, not only for the strange poetry, but also because of the see-through boards.

today it was summering indeed. by far not as hot as last week. even a little chilly, at times!

Holland tunnel

when we visited new york we stayed on the jersey side, just like last time. less expensive, easier when coming by car, a bit more quiet and a nice skyline when walking home... :) this time we found a place through airbnb; not a hotel, but someone's apartment! the place was not the best, but well, what more do you need than just a place to sleep when in NY? we stayed at the 32nd floor, i never slept that high up before! :) (for dutch it would be the 30th floor; here ground floor is 1st and they skip the 13th). unfortunately we did not have a view on manhattan, but on new jersey, as above. you can see the entrance to the holland tunnel. in the holland tunnel you have only 2 lanes, so during rush hour the road towards the tunnel is very congested, as you can see! 

the name holland tunnel has nothing to do with the netherlands, as i always assumed. it was named after Clifford Milburn Holland, chief engineer on the project, who died before the tunnel was completed in 1927. wikipedia also tells me that the tunnel remained closed for all traffic for nearly a month after 9/11. until november 2003, single occupant vehicles (SOVs) were prohibited in the tunnel on weekday mornings between 6:00 am and 10:00 am. 

getting into the tunnel, from this side, costs you 8 dollars. but leaving new york through the tunnel is free! in fact, you can drive from boston to new york without paying any toll, but the opposite direction costs you nearly 20 dollars for toll roads! avoiding it will cost you a day worth of driving, instead of 4 hours.. :)

Four men

4 men. lost in thought.. or reading. in harlem.

Manly contest... ?

as mentioned previously, the harvard stadium was built from money that came from the 25th reunion gift by harvard's class of 1879. the above sign is in the harvard stadium.... so... this stadium is dedicated to the joy of manly contest...... ehmmmm?! whats manly contest? is that a contest between males? or not necessarily, but it should be "man-like"? or....?

well... im not very good at the manly contest. tim and me decided to do some more sports... but after work its always late and we are tired and hungry.. during the day is no option. so... the morning was left.. thus far, i have gone to the gym once, friday morning (and saturday/sunday, but weekend does not count), while tim went every morning! i do promise every evening that i will go, but then... eehmmm. no.. rather not..

perhaps tomorrow a little manly contest again?