Ceiling cleaning

even though the weather was amazing again today, we spent nearly the entire day cleaning and painting again. here you see part of the ceiling... my goodness, all the walls and especially the ceiling were rather black. bleeeeehhh. at first we werent sure about cleaning the entire ceiling as its quite a lot of work and in an uncomfortable position, but while painting the walls nicely white the ceiling looked of course more and more black. and so tim (pfew... i couldnt have done it), cleaned the entire ceiling! look what a difference!! (and what an awful ceiling anyways. yuck, who has such a ceiling... ?  :D ).

as in many old houses in amsterdam, there is no central heating here. the living room is heated by a gas heater. i guess coming winter we have to choose whether we want to be warm or clean the ceiling again.... ;)

all the walls in the living room are now done. the floor however is a terrible mess..... since tim did the ceiling, i probably should do the floor.....

Beautiful day!

today the weather here was  great!!! we got up early. earier than the pool was open, so we started painting the living room until we could go swimming. theres a olympic sized outdoor pool nearby.. i guess it has been at least 3 years since i swam in a real pool. compared to the little pool in our apartment complex, this one seems enormous and swimming one lap suddenly seemed endless.... really nice...! then some sun, definitely much less strong than in boston (but tim still got a little bit of sunburn),  and more painting... the living room should finally be done by tomorrow! 

ah, the above picture was taken on july 4th, independence day, last year. we were on cape cod and had a great day of biking and swimming....

On supermarkets...

oops, its been a while again.... 

in boston the market basket was our favorite supermarket. by far the cheapest, and the fruit and vegetables were always fresh (usually its very crowded, so that makes for a high turnover). back in the netherlands i have to get used to the small supermarkets and their even smaller produce sections... :( no more any fresh herb you can think of (here they are wrapped in tiny amounts and very expensive, if they have them at all), no more huge bags of whatever nuts you want, roasted and/or salted or not.... at least the mushrooms are much cheaper here... :) everything here is also sold in much smaller quantities (which is better, sometimes), and i really had forgotten how good plain yoghurt tastes here!! and i still have to find my way in the supermarket; today i made 3 rounds before i found ricotta. and they had only a small tub (in the market basket there were many types, brands, and sizes). 

and, of course, the checkout is very different. here everyone brings their own bags (although we also used to do that in the us, since they always managed to put 5 items in 7 bags, somehow), or you can buy one. and there is no one packing your groceries! im fine with that, but i again have to get used to how fast the cashier is scanning all your items!! before you know, everything is piling up at the end, but then i still have to pay and if you dont hurry, the cashier is already helping the next customer. at least there is a divider for that person's groceries, but if you are really, really slow the cashier will already be helping the third customer, piling his/her groceries onto yours... i guess i got used to how verrrryyyy slow cashiers in the usa usually are, so  its quite stressful for me... ;)  

the apartment is still a giant mess, but we hope to finish painting at least the living room this weekend.... 

Love pink!!

this weekend we have been quite busy! on saturday to ikea (and yes, with the mattress in the subway. but at least it was a 1 person mattress), and yesterday we first got ourselves informed about the local gyms (so very expensive; with discount, 3 months for just 200 euros (some 250 dollars). we really got used to the luxury of having the gym with the apartment. sure, we then also had a very high rent, but still...). 

then we went to the dutch home depot (ten times smaller) to pick out some paint for the apartment. our apartment in boston was freshly painted when we got in, with 2 walls painted in the color of our choice (tim allowed me to pick purple and dark purple), so seeing the amsterdam apartment with very ugly walls was just... well... beeehhh. we ofcourse quickly found the discount section and found all kinds of colors with 70% discounts. including the pink you see here in the wall. i actually thought it would be a little less bright, but i like it! and tim said he likes it too... :) the wall with the ladder in front was a very deep, terrible red and it took 4 or 5 layers of white to not see that anymore. instantly the apartment looked so much lighter! now we still have to paint the opposite walls. the one you cannot see in this picture is a very dark blue and i cant wait to get that white as well.... now we only need to paint the dining table yellow (i think it will be nice with the pink, no..?) and i would also like to do something with the ugly ceiling fan. i was thinking silver...? :) (i got inspired after seeing this picture).

Weird sign!!

in the us i was always looking for weird signs, and i found plenty. so i was glad to see that weird signs are also present in amsterdam. this is next to the terrace of some hotel in amsterdam, and the sign says "vetafzuig", which literally means "liposuction". eeehhh?! tim tried it by lying on top of the wall, but nothing happened..... too bad! (perhaps you need the key to that box in the wall..?)

yesterday we went to ikea as i needed a new mattrass. so sad, since i had just trashed our perfectly fine mattresses in boston... :((( we needed some small stuff too, so we ended up going twice, by subway, to ikea (no more huge car). it took more or less the entire day and gave us quite the workout (and public transport is so expensive... buuuh, that certainly didnt change in my absence).

i tried to bake my first bread, but the yeast i had was different and the bread didnt rise.... but well... lets see... :)

Hello again....

ok, ok, its time to stop hiding and finally write another post again.... this monday i was still in the craaaazy heat of boston (it was well over 35 C, i think), frantically getting the apartment entirely empty. even though several people had come by during the weekend i hadnt managed to dump all our stuff with them and so it was really time to trash things. i realized i never have trashed something that you can still use and i did not like it at all! all that stuff that we used now just disappeared in the dumpster... :( i also had placed a bit in the hallway of our apartment complex, and at least fellow residents were taking stuff from that...

somehow i managed to get the place entirely empty (with the help of my sister), and then it was time to lock the door and go to the airport.... :( i had quite some luggage; two 22-kilo suitcases, and a 15-kilo small (!!) hand luggage that i was forced to check in as well (grrrr!!). 

and so... since tuesday i am back in the netherlands. in amsterdam, to be precise. it all feels weird. the weather is shitty, i cannot run down to goto the pool or gym anymore. in public transport (the ticketsystem changed during my 3year absence) people are all staring at their phones (just like in boston. when there, i always thought that was an american thing, haha), and when talking on their phones they do it sooooo very loud!! (much louder than in boston, i think). when i bump into someone i mumble "sorry" in english (with my dutch accent, ofcourse). i havent done much yet, aside from unpacking my suitcases and going to the shops around the apartment here. i dont like that i cannot find my way in the supermarket (i like routine, i guess), nor that the eggplants and zucchini are so very very expensive!! ($1,30 each!!). at least there is good cheese, as you can see above. and my boston mug, a gift from someone at work!!

i need to fill the kitchen cabinets again with spices, herbs, sugars, flours etc etc.... the apartment really needs to be painted and there is not enough space for all of my clothes and shoes (and this is already before our shipped goods are here! which come in a few weeks). so...., im just grumpy about all of it and i guess it will take a while.....

Upside down

yesterday i didnt know what to post, so i didnt post anything. and today i didnt know either. i went back to our first year in boston and found photos of us packing around this time. we had lived in a temporary place for 3 months and were about to move to our current apartment. and now, after 3 years, there is only 1 night left here before i fly back to the netherlands.

yesterday some people came by and they took some of our stuff. i was so happy about that! and... one of them was actually flying to the netherlands that day, for just a week and he was willing to take 2 pairs of my shoes, my folder with recipes (i forgot to ship that, so stupid), and some other stuff!! today i could get rid of some more stuff to other victims i lured into our apartment, and then me and my sister brought quite some bags to the garbage receptacles that were already overflowing. i also put some small stuff in the hallway, and some of it was taken by our anonymous neighbors.... 

this picture i took somewhere in cambridge 2 years ago. right now i am not really here anymore, but i am definitely also not in the netherlands yet. i guess mostly im just worried about my stuff. now that i think about it, maybe i should start practising the philosophy of non-possession, as it is weird actually, how much you can worry about stupid possessions... but i think i wont start that until hmmm, at least next week or so.... ;)

i packed one suitcase, and my second one is half packed. i hope it will all fit but i am still not sure...

American eagle

we were at the forest hills cemetery in boston the other day, and suddenly we found a grave with a huge eagle on it. here you see a part. it was really huge and quite intimidating... :) and, to me, very american.... :)

its on the grave of 2nd lieutenant kitchell snow who was killed in 1923 (thats how its on his grave; born 1899, killed 1923). so far, i cannot find much more, other than that he was a pilot and landed the first plane on what is now boston logan airport (then still a tiny piece of land), in 1923, just a month before he died.

i will be having my last weekend in boston. it will be mostly consisting of emptying out the apartment and worrying whether everything will fit in my suitcases (maybe i should start packing so that i know!), and whether there are things i forgot to do/arrange etc....

Just this...

today just this pic. i dont want to write yet again about my upcoming move, its going through my head all day already... :)

it was such a lovely day today. very sunny and warm, but not hot. and above one of the images i saw today. this is on georges island, one of the islands in the boston harbor. those people have a view of boston, from afar.

 perfect weather for swimming too. so this evening i did some laps in the pool. so very relaxing!

Bye MFA...

today it was time to say goodbye to the museum of fine arts in boston. its one of the largest museums in the usa, and has its own subway stop named, ofcourse, "museum of fine arts". once someone put an F in front of arts, but that was quickly removed....

me and tim have visited this museum many, many times. sometimes we went for a special exhibit, sometimes just because we had nothing else to do. we always very much enjoyed it and i was a little sad walking there today for the last time (at least for now...!). dutch as we are, we never paid the steep entrance fee of 25 dollars (when we came, in 2010, it was 20), as we could go with our bank card for free every first weekend of the month, and each wednesday its free from 4 pm onwards for everyone (you can, however, make a donation. i donated some money in the gift shop today ;) ). 

the museum is gigantic and has a very wide variety of art. we would often would get lost, despite having visited it so often. there were 2 pieces i liked to visit every time we went there (also to again try to take pictures of them, never satisfied when at home), and today i said bye to them.. :) (ooh, how dramatic! ;) ). the first you see above. its from the american painter john singer sargent. i had never heard of him before, but visiting museums throughout the usa we started to recognize his paintings. they are always beautiful, and full of detail. this one is named "the daughters of edward darley boit", painted in 1882.

the ladies were sitting there and didnt move... so then i decided to include them in my picture... :)

Last days...

there are only a few more days to go before i leave the usa.... i start to get a littl more nervous. i look in my closet and wonder how its all going to fit. i look around the apartment and wonder how i will get rid of all the stuff still left (without having to trash it), i look at the fridge where i put up all these colorful post-its with things i have to do before leaving. (we had these post-its for 3 years, and only now i am using them). then there is my little booklet in which i had made a list of all the things i would still like to see, do and/or photograph in boston. me and my sister did some today.

and my mind is not so much on blogging.... but here is a picture i took yesterday from the local cemetery. the clouds were so ominous!! and yes, not long after it started to rain. and not much later lightning, and very, very heavy rain. somewhat later again there was a gorgeous rainbow, but i managed to miss that... :( many others didnt, as you can see here.

yep, boston is showing its entire weather repertoire.... from quite hot and sunny to chilly, rain and thunder. and back again.... while i actuallywould just like the sun... but well....

Cardboard bears

these are made out of cardboard! pretty cool, no?
in montreal!

By train

so actually me and my sister spend a day in new york (with some rain, beeeehhh!), and then from new york we took the train to montreal, canada. we were told to be at the train station between 7 and 7.15 for a train leaving at 8.15. well that was a waste of time... a lady checked we had the required documentation and so at 7.01 we were told to be back at 8. but at 8.15 we were in a fancy amtrak train with lots and lots of legspace and fancy chairs (those where you even have a "leg piece" that you can move up an down. sort of like a dentist chair). 

and then we were off for a 10 hour train ride. that is quite long!! luckily i really enjoyed the views and every now and then even i fell asleep. we mostly rode along the hudson, and passed through teeny tiny towns with tiny "stations", some with cute yellow stepstools to get in and out of the train. amtrak says on their website its on of the top 10 most scenic train rides in the world (because being one of the best/beautiful/fastest etc in something is always important to americans... ;) ). but i was too lazy to take pictures and the ones i took were not the best... i just was enjoying the view and didnt actually want to do anything.

at the border with canada we stood still for an hour or 2. that was quite boring, especially as we were not allowed to "move" (i.e. getting up). everyone was questioned. and one person was not allowed into canada. the guy was sent back after having just spent some 8 hours in a train....

Oooooohhhh rain!!

oooh, still a lot of rain... reaching almost my last week here in the states and rain is what i get.... 

buuuuuhhh... 

lets see about tomorrow....

Cemetery angel

another cute cemetery angel, which reminds me, i want to goto the cemetery once more before i leave. last time with tim the battery of my camera was empty (which seems to happen almost every time we go there. that, or there is no memory card in the camera..).

today the weather was ok-ish. but very windy and mostly cloudy. some rain later on, but had a very nice swim in the pool!!

Rain, go!!!

this was when we were in new york. the subway train was above ground and outside was something i wanted to picture. but my camera only wanted to focus on the rain drops.... :(

now its raining like crazy in boston too!! grrrrr! i am SO annoyed. i hoped for some sun and pooltime. but yesterday evening the pool was pretty chilly, and it rained the entire night! today was grey and rainy too. during the day not extremely bad, but very grey. and now... crazy rain again.... hope the sun comes out before we leave!
and while everything is totally soaked with water, the sprinkler system at our apartment complex still switches on every evening, drenching the poor plants even more. such a waste!!

Homeland security

homeland security.... i think thats a very funny term, and something you probably will only see in america. what other country assumes that naturally anyone knows what "the homeland" is? if this car drives to canada, would it provide homeland security to the canadians...? :)

i have a list of things i still want to see, do or photograph while still here. this i can now cross off my list.. its funny how you see some things every so often and always think; hmm, i should take a picture of that! but before you know, 3 years have passed and you still think that.... 

wikipedia just told me that "homeland security" is "an American umbrella term referring to the national effort to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce the vulnerability of the U.S. to terrorism, and minimize the damage from attacks that do occur". the term came into use after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

my sister arrived today from the netherlands and to protect the homeland, she had to wait in a very long line, proving she is not of any harm to this country. i knew the plane had landed, and waited, waited, waited... i guess some 1.5 hour. when it was finally her turn, the guy protecting his homeland asked her very important questions like "what are you doing here, how much money did you bring, do you have a creditcard, where does your sister work, what is her status (really??!! he meant whether i am allowed to work here, but still... grrr), what kind of work do you do? and the weirdest of them all; why is your sister (thats me) not married to her boyfriend (that would be tim)? really...?!! really?! she answered that she didnt know.... hahahaha. and after that, he finally let her go without another word. i dont know how i would have reacted to that question. these "homeland" officers really tend to piss me off, and i often have to make the greatest effort not to show how awfully annoying i find them. i guess they do it on purpose. just because they can...

anyways, i feel a lot safer now. i think my sister wont be a threat to the homeland.... 

Two weeks

last sunday we parked the truck next to a row of cars that had been standing there for a very long time. including the one above. all cars that when fixed up, would be so impressive! but now they were just standing there, a little sad. tires empty and falling apart, rust everywhere..... it was funny how i was very much aware that for at least a while "our" car would be standing there too, unused. i wondered when and how these cars were left, if the owners ever come back, whether they are at least planning to come back, some day.... i couldnt get the safety belt perfectly straight from the passengers seat, and somehow that seemed very important. we also left a tin with some candy in it. candy that you can keep forever, so thats fine. i guess it was a bit on purpose, although it is very likely that tim didnt think about it for one second, while i am now writing a blog post about it, hahahaha.

the next day i brought tim to the airport. and everything we did that day, breakfast, swimming, going down with the suitcases, locking the door, taking the subway, would be the last time here together. again, tim was most likely just thinking about his flight and his new job starting in just 2 days, but i tried to remember every moment. even though we did all those things so often, and i never thought about it! (and its not like we will never visit the us again; theres still so much to see!)

and now there are only 2 weeks left before i will leave as well..... the kitchen is still so full with stuff (quite some food and we hardly packed any kitchen ware). will all my clothes (and the ones i bought on top of that during a 6.5 hour shopping spree yesterday) fit in my suitcases? what do i still need to do? what stuff still needs to be arranged? (change of address, cancelling subscriptions, my bank account, etc etc). and sometimes i remember an item, and am not sure whether i brought it to goodwill or packed for shipping. more often than not i hope that i packed it..... i guess (i hope) when we get our boxes in amsterdam, it will be kind of like presents on christmas....

Cemetery angel

i like the little ceramic angels that a lot of people have put atop graves. often they are glued to the stone, like this one. i guess they are a bit cheesy... there is quite a variety. whenever i see one, i take a picture. or 3... :)

this is behind our apartment complex, even on tims last day we went for a walk there. i brought my camera. with an empty battery. grrrrr....

the weather is really bad currently. the whole it has been pouring and the temperature really dropped. its chilly right now and it doesnt seem like the rain is going to stop any time soon. in fact, while writing this sentence it started to come down even harder. beeehhh. hope it gets better soon, i stayed here to avoid the dutch weather, remember!

Holland style...

quite a while back i saw this product in "our" supermarket here in the usa. of course, i had to buy that! i know we often had them at home, although i wasnt the biggest fan of them. when trying these, i was really disappointed. those were nothing like the dutch "zilveruitjes" (pickled silverskin onions). they were not at all crunchy, as they are supposed to be... :( so... after one bite they were left in the fridge for months, since i first wanted to take a picture before trashing them... maybe we had a bad batch, but i think these are just american style holland-style onions (the barn in the background also looks more american than dutch to me).

wikipedia tells me that you can hardly find these onions fresh, they are almost always already pickled (like above), and are often eaten as a snack (with a beer or something), but are also used in soups (never had that, i think) or in casseroles.

its funny how almost everyone always refers to "the netherlands" as "holland". i myself never do that, but have noticed that sometimes people then dont know which country you are talking about. but as soon as you mention holland, they will say "aaaah... amsterdam....". for an entertaining video explaining the difference between the netherlands and holland, go here (it was going around on facebook at some point). warning; during the 4 minutes they manage to make it actually really complicated!! :)