Saint Patrick....

... is taking a nap!
so, its saint patrick's day, and wikipedia can tell you everything about that day! perhaps 50% of the people at work wore green (i rediscovered i have green shoes..!) and in the evening i saw what this day really means to bostonians; wearing green shirts/hats/wigs, going to irish pubs (or stand in line to get into one), and drink.... there were so many people on the streets! the weather was surprisingly mild; mane cafes had their windows open and at one place people were even sitting outside!! (although with jackets)

we just got home, and above what i saw in the orange line... (in real the belly was much greener!!), and someone sleeping behind his drycleaned shirts.....

See something?

 

when you are waiting at a subway station, you hear a lot of messages. that the train is approaching, then that the train is arriving, that you should watch your personal belongings, that you should not litter the station as that could cause fires. that courtesy counts, and that if you see something, you should say something. apparently, commuters dont really hear all those messages anymore, and so for the "see something, say something" campaign they now started with a different approach. because... people in boston dont see, and/or say as much as people in other cities/countries and thus not that many suspicious people and/or packages are reported. they want boston to do better!! (but, maybe there are not that many suspicious things going on here... :D ?) yesterday at north station there was  this enormous package. i asked tim whether he saw it (its right in front of you when you enter the station), but he said "huh, what package?" so... today i was in front of the package, and i took a picture of it when he arrived at the station. then we went downstairs, and i asked him; did you see the package? guess what his answer was...

ah, and.. "The campaign is funded by a $1 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security’s Transit Security Grant Program.  It promotes a collaborative effort of state and local agencies to work together educating the public to be more aware of their surroundings, and report any behavior that may appear suspicious to the proper transportation and law enforcement authorities." but for sure they didnt reach tim.... maybe he should watch this video....

Time's flying

we moved the clock one hour forward this weekend, 2 weeks earlier than in europe. jeeej, now it gets dark later, but its still dark when i get out of work... now i officially cant wait anymore for warmer weather to start... :) and the pool opens again, but the latter will only be in June or so, i believe...

next month we are here a year! this sunday we went to revere beach for a walk. when still in the netherlands and searching for a suitable apartment, i found those buildings you see in the back. it seemed like they were placed directly on the beach, close to the T and to the city center, and with an indoor pool. what more would i want?! i got rather excited and decided this would be the place.... but when we went there to look, it was hard to miss how grey, ugly and depressing the enormous buildings are. and no, they are not directly on the beach, there is a busy road that separates these building blocks from the sand. the pool was a miserable, dirty, never used puddle of water and it is not that close to boston either. we did not even bother checking out the apartments from the inside, especially after we heard this part of boston is not the nicest place. but the beach is rather pretty, (and  americans wouldnt be american if they wouldnt proudly mention that revere beach is america's first public beach established in 1896; whenever there is a first, finest, biggest or whatever -st; it will surely be mentioned!) and can become very crowded on summer days. during the day, that is. it is said that after dark.. this is not a place you should goto....
hahaha, i was just looking for the official website of those apartments, but i could only find this; a website about those apartments from someone who used to live there for quite some time, but does not seem to be very happy about it...

Going nowhere...

this was friday night, donwstairs on the dock is where i took this picture. tim had picked me up from work earlier that evening, we went home for a quick dinner and 1 episode of the big bang theory (i wouldnt be surprised if we had seen each episode at least 3 times), and then we drove to the lab again where i had to do something for 10 minutes. but doing something for 10 minutes means you are busy for something like 30 and when i was done it was late and we were tired and in deserted charlestown and... i was so glad we drove here and we spend perhaps an hour in total just taking pics here and there, from the city, ourselves, whatever...

too bad i still did not read the manual of my camera, and too bad i dont spend as much time taking pics as i would like. but well, maybe that would get boring... :) besides, its still too cold out, so not always much going on....

Golden M

wherever you go, a golden M will be around. usually easy to spot from highways. sometimes more hidden; when i did an internship in the USA years ago, the canteen of the university housed a mc donalds, i found that very odd. while driving around boston today, we found a walmart. and this walmart had a mcdonalds. the golden M as entrance to your calorie infested food,  was somehow appealing to me.... why dont more mc donalds restaurants have an M like this? i never saw it before!

anyways, the walmart was an interesting experience of (a part of) american culture... it was my first time going to a walmart, finally!! when waiting for my visa, last year, i stumbled upon this website, where people post pictures of "interesting-walmart-clientele", and that made me wonder..... should i really.... ;)

unfortunately, i was once again too shy to take my own pictures that certainly could have been added to this site....

Powerful position

so says the church..... i dont know what to add to this! maybe its related to this sign i once saw carried by a man at downtown crossing?

close to Saugus, somewhere around here... ah, and it was a beautiful day today! so sunny, and not too cold.

City lights

in charlestown just an hour or two ago, at the ferry dock where (during the day) you can take the ferry to boston for $1,70. we took a lot of pics. some crappy, some nice... it was kind of foggy.
and now.. as every friday, im very tired... good night!

Shoe warehouse

it is restaurantweek in boston. eating in expensive restaurants for less money than they normally charge. but the tricky part; also their menu is different. for the cheapo option, that is... you almost feel bad when they ask you: normal menu or restaurantweek menu? (and it does feel as if they say; cheapos or...  are you coming for the real thing?). anyways.... our table was booked for 8.45. i was a little early which allowed me to visit DSW; the designer shoe warehouse for cheapos! :D 1000s of shoes at discounted rates.... when tim came, i tried on some "real american woman shoes.." ;) as above.... see-through heels in 3 different colors with glitter... (too bad you cant see that on the photo). i decided not to buy them when i found out that they actually did not light up when walking... :( a huge disappointment ofcourse....!!

ah yes, another tim-picture...

Tim's ladies...

this is a photo tim took yesterday at the entrance of the TD garden, just before the lady gaga concert. i like it much better than mine, theres so much to see! those 2 young girls with too short skirts and too high heels. it was rather chilly last night, so they probably arrived in coats that they are now giving to daddy who is dropping them off. their mom is just behind him; when the girls got rid of all their non-necessary items, she took a picture. perhaps its now on their facebook-page; "just before the concert!"

to us, as simple dutchies, its really striking to see all those girls, young, old(er) or super young, dressed like this when going out (for me its especially the extremely high heels that are remarkable). it is not an exception; it rather seems the rule! at least here in boston...

i imagine a similar scene after the concert, when they were picked up again, handing out coats, taking pictures, but now most likely very tired and perhaps without shoes.... cute, no?

Lady Fiasco

yesterday i saw large trucks with "monster tour lady gaga" on it. i asked my friend google what it meant, and i found out that today lady gaga was giving a concert in the TD garden. since the TD garden is in north station, where i take the orange line, i packed my camera this morning as i hoped to finally photograph "people going to the TD garden". ~19.000 people fit into the TD garden, so whenever there is an event, its hard to miss when you are in/around the station. tim left work a little later than me, so i was alone at north station, with my big camera, much too heavy bag, and an enormous amount of shyness!! :(( buuuh.. there were sooo many, very interestingly dressed girls (and some guys), much more interesting than these legs i recently posted. that was just child's play. seriously. but i did not dare... i felt so out of place, so obviously an outsider just there to take pictures. it was very crowded, and there were so many policemen and security guards... then tim finally came (usually then i better dare taking pics), but no.. still not... then he took some, and i was jealous, but they were all unsharp (ha! i thought... (how mean!)). finally i took the one above, but i took some time (as thats one of the things i finally learned; if i do take a pic; dont take it hastily...). and yep, immediately a policeman came telling me that i could not just stand there and had to move on. so, that was it. no extreme lady gagas for me..... :(

After skating....

... a little rest is well deserved. too bad; as an adult this isnt cute anymore, but just weird... :)

Spring's arrival...?

it was warm today (kind of..)! and so was yesterday.... the snow is melting away quickly and you can now see yellowish grass and (sometimes) a lot of garbage underneath... its kind of ugly, currently. the snow thats still there turned black.

we were at the frog pond at the boston common this morning. in summer it looks like this, and in winter as above. over the weeks i have taken pictures whenever i was there, but i was never satisfied. today they had just polished the ice (is that how you call it?), so the reflections were marvellous, but so hard to catch with my camera... :( there was quite a layer of water on the ice too, one little boy fell and was wet entirely...

it was nice to smell a hint of spring. hmmm, actually now i cant wait for the days when the pool is open and the nearby ice cream shop and we can goto the beach again and....

Building structure

this was in the mall in providence. i thought it was pretty and took out my camera. i was not entirely satisfied with the image above, and wanted to take more photos. but then 2 nearby security officers with stupid hats and barely 20 years old (or younger; they looked real young) told me that it was not allowed to take pictures of the building. why not? because the building manager does not want it. oh, but is that legal? yes, you are on his property, so he makes the rules. you could ask him, but he is not here on weekends, so right now we have to ask you to stop taking pictures. yes, we understand it is annoying, and we often have to explain this to many people, as they like the building and.. blablablabla... then they told us that it was allowed to take pictures with a normal camera, rather than a professional camera (should i have told them i still have to read the manual?), and it would be ok to take pictures of each other with phones and so on as this is something they cannot prohibit. but yes, yes, with professional cameras, and after 9/11, you know.. malls like this have become potential terrorist targets, and you might be here to photograph the structure of the building! (so i presume its also not allowed to post this pic online, since people with bad intentions can now see the structure of part of the mall!!)

so... you have to do it with this pic.... and my boring account of speaking with these 2 securiy officers... :)

Sleeping away...

whoopsa.... and another evening lost sleeping on the couch. how frustrating when you wake up and realize you were not in the most comfortable position and everything became numb... worst of all; now you have to drag yourselves to the bed and try to fall asleep again.

too tired and sleepy to really make an effort for this post.., this was a while ago at a parking lot in somerville... :) good night!
i just found this on the internet, its a video on you tube made in a neighbourhood in utrecht where i lived for a few months, its really amazing, all those birds giving away an air show...!

Empty wall

i currently feel like the wall above; totally empty... not good if you are trying to write something... :( and whatever i wrote i erased again... aarghhh...!

this was also in providence, last sunday. we wanted to walk a bit through the city. but it was really, really cold. and the streets were so empty.... we were glad when we found back the car to go to the nearby mall. but the mall was a letdown too....

March happenings..

... thats above the calendar in a free magazine from our supermarket. apparently march is national nutrition month. in less than 2 weeks the clock will be turned again; longer days! the 17th its st Patrick's day (i yet have to do my wikipedia reading on that), and the 20th spring officially begins.... 

but here its snowing again! and its very windy and cold. a good opportunity to post another snow picture (im running out of pictures and really need to take new ones! "but who has the time?" sheldon cooper from the big bang theory would say... :) for those interested; here are the BBT transcripts, haha).

anyways, this is in the center of boston, close to state street, during a snow storm. the streets were prettt empty that day.... no people to photograph... :(

American restrooms

the bad guy or poor woman in "on the run"-type of hollywood movies almost invariably have a scene where the main character is hiding in a toilet. they then always have to hoist themselves onto the seat, carefully balancing themselves without making a single noise, as to make sure nothing can be seen from underneath the doors (or heard, since the divides are so poorly constructed). i always thought it funny that in movies they have such weird open toilets, surely it makes it more exciting as almost impossible to hide there, but i hadnt given it much thought that these are just the actual american restrooms... where you have no privacy whatsoever! no moment for yourself, nothing..... whatever you do, the person next to you will know its you, by just looking down and recognizing your shoes...  how i miss the entirely closed dutch toilets..... :) also the word "restroom" i find entirely misplaced, the US kind of toilets are not... a place to rest.....(i should once find out the origin of the word restroom)

i was just googling around, and found that i am not the only one with this concern. apparently there is an "american restroom association" that advocates for better public restrooms since some people prefer working at home solely due to the restrooms at work. and... because europeans can form a bad impression of the USA as a country because of their poor restroom privacy... :) (i myself hadnt gone that far...).

anyways, the toilet above i found charming. did they take the no-privacy to another level with these faces all over the toilet walls? :) this was in the museum of art of the rhode island school of design in providence, where we went last sunday. the entrance was free since it was a sunday and we came in early...... and the museum was huge, very diverse and interesting! even their restrooms... ;)

Self portrait

the last day of february already! 

im extremely lazy right now; so another self portrait. this was last friday, when we walked home from the orange line. while the monring started with heavy rain, upon leaving the lab it suddenly had turned into snow! to me always a pleasant surprise.. :)

Parking lot

it started snowing a little last night.... and we woke up to quite a layer of snow again! very pretty.......

tomorrow it will be around 10 degrees, so that will result in a watery mess, i presume. as above; this is somewhere at some parking lot around boston. it does not really matter, since all these parking lots are more or less the same, as are the shops....

if you look carefully, you can see several shopping carts randomly scattered around. this always annoys me, and when im in a bad mood, can even make me furious... sometimes we indicate to lazy shoppers that they forgot their cart, but they never seem to get it.... especially at the end of the day, the carts are spread out over the entire parking lot, making it hard to find a spot. ironic, no? you goto the supermarket late to avoid the crowd, but still cannot park... 

in the netherlands this is less of a problem; at most supermarkets you have to put some money into the cart that you will get back upon returning it. surely most dutch will bring their cart to the other end of the parking lot when their money is involved.... :)

Aiming for....

... the sky! this is close to the supermarket in chelsea. it was last week, and i didnt yet want to go into the most likely overcrowded supermarket. the light outside was soo beautiful and for sure it would be dark when finally done shopping. so we left the parking lot and the first thing i saw where these cherry pickers (in dutch its "hoogwerker", i looked up this word on www.interglot.com, and got hydraulic hoist, lifting ramp and cherry picker. i then searched for google images and only cherry picker gave me the above pictured ones. so, i go for cherry picker, although it sounds weird to me). there was a high fence and i had to climb onto a piece of crash barrier, holding myself onto the fence. the wind was going like crazy and it was really cold, but the sky was so beautiful!!

actually, the dutch news recently had a funny story; a thief tried to steal a bike, but the owner caught him. he then asked some nearby workers for help. they put the thief in their cherry picker, and then drove it, with the thief high up in the sky, to the police. the thief later said he found that tour through the city rather humiliating, hahahaha!

interglot.com i find very useful; so often there a words i dont know. or for synonyms... for all the non-dutch; interglot will tell you why, as a dutch, the cherry picker with "lull" on it, to the left, made me laugh (just remove the last letter before you interglot it! or am i too old to laugh about something like that... ?)