Tax free

last weekend it was "sales tax holiday" or something.. anyways, it meant that that weekend there was no tax... what i find annoying here, is that you for example see a nice "ruffle top" (whatever that may be) for 8 dollars. but then at the counter it is 8,something as there is also tax on top of that (in the netherlands it is already included in the final price..). but not last weekend! also not on computers (then it really makes a difference), or alcohol.. anything (just curious, also not on cigarettes? dont know!) well, we missed it entirely... we didnt buy anything! as we were working on grant proposals and so on.... we only did grocery shopping, and there is no tax on groceries in the first place (hmm, maybe there is on bad food, like chips and so on, but even that we didnt buy...). ah well, we also do not need more stuff, i guess... :)

No wisdom

this was in the christian scientist church, or rather in the building next to it, where they have the Mapparium (that was in fact very nice to see). this was some kind of fountain that was spitting out words that were then flowing through the water, over the ground and then disappeared, and reappeared again in the fountain.
ah well. i have no wisdom, i guess! buuuhhh. just burned eggplant in the oven. and so on and so on!! beeeeghhhhhh

Lets go...

.. to wonderland!! well, thats perfectly possible in Boston. just take the blue line till the end... :)

Another lady

i think her glasses are sooooo old-fashioned american! this was close to the public library in boston, and she "forced" her grandson (i assume) on a picture.. :) (and she was not posing for me..! i just also took a pic)

Old lady

i think this was on july 4, in/at the boston common. did she buy the balloon-creation? find it? get it? she reminded me a little of the old lady from the museum of fine arts. but then a friendlier-looking version.... looking back that guard really looked a bit evil.. like from a roald dahl story or something.
ah, and look... a baseball cap!

Public works

this pic i took already in june, when we were in chinatown. i like it a lot, but somehow never came to posting it. so..., here it is!

Balloon man

this guy i saw before in the boston common. here he was in cambridge, actually on the day the dutch lost from spain..... there was some festival going on, it was bastille day, but i saw nothing special. as i noticed before at the common as well, children are a little afraid of him, they do like his balloon creations, but they dont want to come too close to him. why? because hes a little scary? or just because hes an adult...? (i found him a little scary..)
ah, and i am wondering why their father (?) is filming him.. maybe so that he can do this at home as well?

North station

at north station i change from the orange line to the slow green line. in fact i can also stay in the orange line to Ruggles, but then i have to either catch a bus or walk 20 minutes. the buses here dont keep their schedule very well, and thus i almost always take the green line, however slow.... :) besides, I prefer north station over Ruggles. and usually tim is already there waiting for me..
what i notice here, is that people do not like to sit next to me. whenever there are free seats available, people next to me move away. the first 3 months i thought there was something specifically wrong with me. so then it is good again to have american colleagues... :) apparently many americans have "problem with personal space" and thus keep as much distance from strangers as possible (unless the train is really really full; then they just push themselves in, as everywhere else). pfew. that was good to hear... :) i also asked if i am expected to do the same when sitting next to someone and another free spot becomes available, but they said i am not.. pfew again... (at first i though i should have listened to the advice in my "orientation" handbook, namely "do not use any perfume, as americans are oversensitive to that". ah well, maybe it is me after all... :S

Bike seat

entering the orange line at north station through oak grove, 12 minutes long (according to the website of oak grove village), i wondered why this guy held his bike like this, his front wheel on a seat. it was not that he was stuck or something, because he also just left at oak grove station. maybe he just thought his bike deserved a seat? he didnt think his bike deserved the escalator, instead he carried it up the stairs.
right now it is 11 in the evening, and still almost 30 degrees and very humid. sleeping will be difficult once again....

Behind bars

tim took this picture in amherst. i like it a lot! :)

Amherst yeast

on wednesday we went to patrick! we left work in the afternoon and drove to amherst. i needed to pick up some yeast strains that so far refused to grow in boston, and it was easier to get them from patrick than to have them sent form utrecht. now we finally saw amherst in daylight, previous time we came after 7 and went straight to patrick's house (with sylvia!). amherst college is on walking distance from his house and the campus was sooo beautiful. small buildings scattered on hills, a huge sport's field and a great view on mountains further away. the building on the back is where his lab is, so i finally saw that as well. and his office... where we spend over 3 hours discussing a still to be published paper from utrecht. then we had dinner in a nice small restaurant with his lab members and his wife. nice!

Remember to

stretch!! it was on the HarborWalk ("a 38-mile landscape bike, jog and walking path extending from Boston’s South Shore, through Harbor Point, to downtown Boston and onto the North Shore"). i think the lady in the back does not do a lot of stretching! :)
sorry, yet another old pic. this is not my best week....

Heavy rain

last night it was soooooo hot and humid! and this morning as well. and yes, that had to end in rain and thunder; a lot, this afternoon. luckily i was just in the lab, and now its nice and sunny again. it reminded me of the heavy rain we had when sylvia was here, and the subway flooded. i still had not posted a picture on that. so here it is... :) i like this one, since the water was really flowing like crazy, and the guy is just checking which line to take, as if his feet are not soaking wet.. :) it as really like the titanice, water was rushing down the stairs and from the platform. some people made movies of that, and posted them on the internet, in fact, if you look very careful, in some of them you can see sylvia and/or me!!
pfew... now im back on schedule again with daily pics.. its just... im so busy at the moment!! (sorry, therefore also only old pics... soon some new ones again, i hope)

American beach

however, this picture is from revere beach.. and in fact it was pretty nice there!

Dutch seaside

this was in the boston public library (beautiful library! we went there with sylvia). there was a display of old advertisements for places to go to. ofcourse i had to picture this one... :) and yes, the beaches in the netherlands seem nicer than the ones I saw around boston, so far... and no sharks!

Beach boy (3)

and then sometimes he would lift his shovel into the air, walk away or towards the water... but refraining from joining the others in their play, totally absorbed in his own :)
and yes, this is the last pic of him (unless i find him again at nantasket beach!)

Beach boy (2)

see, how hes just standing there with his miniature shovel, observing the others?

Beach boy

this picture was taken 2 weeks ago, at Nantasket beach, while i was sitting in the lifeguard chair. this boy was sooo cute! there was actually a huge family, and everyone was playing and chasing each other in the water. the youngest of the family however was just mostly observing them, standing there with his red shovel, in which he was most interested... i took many pictures of him, hopefully unnoticed by his mom.. :)
many beaches are closed, or rather, you are strongly advised not to go into the water, due to too high bacteria levels. as stated in a newspaper: "Officials dealing with closed beaches said the high bacteria levels were likely caused by heavy rains washing contaminants into swimming areas." or, in other words: due to huge amounts of rain in a short amount of time, waste pipes overflow and everyone's waste (i.e. shit) gets into the water. yegh....
no, i have not been in the sea yet, and havent been tempted to do so either (the water is much too cold!!). besides, just came across an article about Massachusetts shark sightings...

Fancy building

yesterday we went to a "networking seminar". in fact i was not aware that the purpose of the meeting was to network, i was just interested in the topic presented. the presentation was good, however short and very much about protein structures, but i learned something new. besides, it was in a very very fancy building with extremely expensive furniture and very nice glass-walled seminar rooms. the view over the Charles river (see above) was beautiful. we were only on the first floor, so higher up would be even more perfect.
surely it was not a research building. i just discovered Microsoft is in there so i assume the space we were allowed to use was from microsoft. interestingly, i also found out that there are City rules preventing Microsoft from putting up their logo atop the building; it would ruin the beautiful skyline along the Charles river (article in boston globe)
after the seminar was done and all the free pizza (but cold) was finished, everyone left rather quickly; i dont think much networking has occurred. surely i will attend the next seminar as well, if only for the fancy building! :)

Cleaning apples

a month ago or so i posted about the apple store and everyone very busy touching all these fancy apple-design-beauties and the absence of handsanitizer. thursday we were in the cambridge side galleria (but i call it the "Malleria") to have cheesecake at the cheesecake factory. buuughh, it was too much, even without a decent dinner. anyways, when we left the shops in the malleria had just closed, and all the blue-shirted apple store employees were frantically cleaning all the ipads, ipods, ibooks!! it was really fun to see, but hard to get a decent picture.. and then they noticed me taking pictures and started to pose...
btw, i dont understand why their shirts are blue! apple green would fit soo much better and they would also stand out of the crowd more. but well... im still not an apple store manager...