While waiting

yesyes. defending your PhD in the Netherlands is a very serious business. you need to dress up, and everything goes according a strict protocol. the candidate and his/her 2 paranymphs have to be present well in advance. so there is time to get the "protocol" explained, and even practice a little (where to stand, when to sit, where to bow to the committee). of course, we were even earlier than "well in advance". but that was fine. did i mention already the weather has been great this september?! while august was awful, september feels like summer. as a result, we were overheated when arriving at the place where it would all happen; its not easy walking around in fancy clothes i can tell you....

we had to wait in the above room, so i had some time to take pictures. i guess you are supposed to work up your nerves in this room, but this was a better way to spend our time.... no? :)

Autumn already!

just a quick post. we baked a dutch apple pie, but now its late already.... soooooo, time to sleep so we can finally taste it tomorrow... (no, seriously!).

i took the above picture this past sunday. some places really look like autumn already. but... while we had some awful, rainy, autumn-like days in august, september started great. last week we had lunch outside, and in the evenings i could sit in the sun on the balcony! this weekend is supposed to be rather summery too! yaaajjj!

In Utrecht

this is in utrecht, the 4th biggest city of the netherlands, where i used to live before moving to boston. i have to admit i like utrecht better than amsterdam. its smaller, less crowded, certainly less tourists (but more students, or so it seems). it has canals too, of course... :) in the back you see the dom tower, long the tallest building in the city. and as you can see, we have mc donalds in the netherlands as well! downstairs are a lot of restaurants and bars, and in summer those terraces are filled with tables (if the weather is any good), so that you can sit outside.

and while the east coast of the us is in a snowstorm right now, we have some of the warmest temperatures for this time of the year since a very long time! yet, its not pleasant out; quite some rain and lots of wind. beeeeehhhhhh!