Liquor store

now doesnt this look like a very american liquor store?

i still cant get used to the fact that you have to goto a separate store to buy alcohol. its weird and inconvenient... even so we dont drink that much... :) ah, and lets not forget tha you need to show you are above 21! even if you are not buying the alcohol, but just came along.. if not everyone in your party can prove they are above 21, you sometimes wont get it (but i wrote about that once before). but the most frustrating is when you goto a restaurant, and dont get your drink, as has happened to me far too often by now (i dont always take my passport with me, and that always turns out to be the case when i want a drink... )

ah well... at least its cheaper that way... ;)

But angels....

.....dont smoke. right, mom? but this angel was smoking....

i have no clue why there was an angel, i just saw him, took a pic, and at the same time a little girl came by and asked above question to her mom. 

this was in new bedford, some 51 miles from boston, and its the whaling capital of the world! (or so it used to be). the streets have cobblestones and that makes for an uncomfortable walk. we went to the whaling museum (tim insisted), but i found it rather boring, although they did have one entire room devoted to whaling-memorabilia from the dutch! there was some delfts blauw and some paintings. the only thing i found impressive was the size of many of the whalers boats; some barely bigger than the whale... we also saw how you catch a whale, and all the tools, but i did not like that. beeehhh.

and then the next disappointment came when we got home.... we had this photo contest from our apartment complex; everyone could submit photos and the best would win a prize. and see! there was a little envelope under our door. so i thought; yeeeeyyy! finally! i won something!!! and then i opened it, and yes, it was second prize in the competition!! only, it was not for me, but for tim..... buhuhuhuhuhuhuhuh....

:)

Working out

along the charles river in boston....

me, on the other hand... im still an amateur (still?! lets say i am...). until we moved to the us of a i never owned a pair of "athletic" shoes (at least not that i can remember). and only a few weeks back did i discover that the type of socks do matter, when running. at least for me... those regular black socks that i have since years are not sufficient. how i wish i had known that earlier!

Missing action

december already.... pfff. and that means theme day! this month's theme is "action shot". this is (yet another) old picture of mine that i took in 2009, in berlin. here you see a piece of the berlin wall that is still standing (i forgot where exactly this is). we were with a small group, just released from some scientific conference, free to explore the city. we were walking towards the wall, and i knew what all of them would be doing; looking through the cracks.... although we had just passed the other site by bus, and had more or less seen that there was nothing there, no action at all!! so i quickly got my camera ready for this action shot of no action... and yes indeed, they walked to the wall, to stare through the cracks... :)

i remember that during holidays, we once went to see the berlin wall when it was still functioning to separate east from west germany. i was less than 8 years old, and i still remember very well walking there. seeing those guards in towers, asking my parents if what they had just told me was really, really true; that you could not cross that barrier, because if you did, those guards might shoot you. i could not understand that it was possible to be just walking around, in the sun, while being so close to something so scary. not scary as in books or television, but something that was obviously real.

now that wall is demolished, although you can buy little (original or not..) pieces of it (people make money off anything!), and larger pieces are scattered over the world, here you can see a list of where they are. there is a piece in new york, at 53rd street, between madison and 5th avenue, with a nice little seating area around it (although it was 2004 when i saw it for the first and last time.. :) ), and wikipedia just tells me that there are at least 2 more in new york...

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Since 1980

this is a picture of tim taken at my birthday, posted on his birthday. isnt that original? ;)

its taken at the hot dog stand in coney island, new york. the business was started in 1916, when you could buy a hot dog for just 5 cents. the stand next to mr nathan's sold hot dogs for 10, and nathan used to work there. just copied this from wikipedia as it is so funny: "At a time when food regulation was in its infancy and the pedigree of the hot dog particularly suspect, Nathan made sure that men wearing surgeon's smocks were seen eating at his stand to reassure potential customers." my question; why surgeon's??! because they are doctors.. or? anyways, now nathan's famous has many stores spread over the us, and each year at coney island there is a hot dog eating contest on the 4th of july. this year, for the fifth time, it was won by joey chestnut, eating 62 of them in 10 minutes. yegh... if you click on his name, you can read all about his technique, as there apparently is a special technique and training required for eating so many hot dogs in little time.

ah well... we went out to dinner tonight, just not for hot dogs...

Crazy weather

the crazy weather continues! tomorrow is the last day of november, and you can go out with just a cardigan, no real jacket required... its so warm. im not complaining!! i like it! i just remember from last year.. i was wondering when the real cold, and ofcourse snow, would come... the weather remained so mild for so long. especially when compared to the netherlands, where it was much colder. but then the snow came, and it stayed cold for sooo long; i think only by the end of may it was warm again. 

but... this year its more extreme than last; as a result, the skating rink at the boston common had to close early today, and some trees in the public garden started to blossom again, as you can see here.

above was at the cemetery behind our apartment. there is this little pond with a green lawn around, perfect for sunbathing....

Steaming chimney

i have had this pic in my "to-maybe-post-someday" folder for quite a while now, until i saw this beautiful pic today, and a link to more info about the steam you often see in new york streets. now i spent most of this evening reading about steam, haha!
what did i learn today? well, first check this diagram, showing whats all going on underneath your feet in new york, as if whats around you isnt yet enough... steam is generated by heating water up to 1000F, turning it into... steam; every hour, approximately 125,000 gallons of water are turned into more than one million pounds of steam, which is then delivered through the steam pipes underneath the ground to many buildings in the city. its used to heat, cool or supply power. since 1882, steam has been provided to manhattan. sometimes you see steam coming from the manhole covers, which allows for nice pics (as you can see in the first link). interestingly, manholes were renamed "maintenance holes" somewhere in california, out of concern for for gender equality. hahaha! this steam can be dangerous too, as you can read here, steam pipes sometimes explode sending hot steam up in the air; the average steam pipe is 54 years old, but some are as old as a 100 years!

so what are those orange chimneys? they surround a steaming manhole and are there to make sure that nobody gets hurt; that steam vapor is very hot and could burn you!!! also, these  stacks elevate the steam vapor above street level so that drivers can maintain visibility. so... if you see steam vapor coming out of a manhole that is not protected by such a chimney, you have to call the steam company immediately, there could be a leak.... (although usually its caused by water falling on a steam pipe).

hmmm... dont know if i feel safer, knowing all this.. :) certainly i will stay farther away from those pipes, from now on, i was not really aware of how hot that steam could be and saw them as mere photo opportunities...

(the crazy glow behind the steam chimney above comes from times square, which can be seen well ahead..)

Men only

whats there to see? no clue, but it seems to be for men's eyes only...

this was in chinatown, i thought just a few weeks back, but it was in june already. how fast is time running?!

Summer day

a summer day at the end of november.... can you believe it? i didnt.... i hung out of our window for a bit this morning and decided it was quite nice, but then put on a t shirt, vest, scarf and light jacket, as we were going for a walk in the breakheart reservation, a 10 minute ride from our apartment. we hiked up some steep hill and it was hot! off went the jacket, the scarf, and then also the vest. t shirt was enough, and its almost december! just 2 hours up north they have snow and here it felt like an early summer day.... (but with leafless trees).

up at the first hill we found this piece of rust. tim tried it; the front wheels were still perfectly turning!! just googled around a bit, and here i found that it is a car engine that was used to power a rope tow for a ski hill that once operated there! (im just curious when that was) we intended to go for a short walk, but walked around for nearly 4 hours, the weather was just too perfect...

Shopping fever

the day after thanksgiving is called black friday... most stores have lots of discounted goods for the real americans. some stores opened at 4 this morning, others already at midnight... and some fanatics just skipped their thanksgiving to camp out in front of whatever store has whatever discounted product they want to buy. as you can see here; those people planted themselves in front of a store at 1 in the morning of thanksgiving, and spent 24 hours just to be the first allowed inside upon opening. why? because the most heavily discounted things will run out, and what if you miss out on all those amazing deals?! but well, nobody is harmed when you sit outside a mall for 24 hours, while everyone else is enjoying a nice thanksgiving.. :) on the other hand... in los angeles there was a lady who pepper sprayed 20 people as to prevent them from getting stuff she wanted to buy. other than that, there were some shootings and burglaries, as you can read here. we were briefly thinking to go and check out some mall at midnight yesterday, just as observers... but the thought of so many shoppers gone crazy... made me tired and we just went to sleep.. anyways, i found some pis of crazy bargain hunters here..

of course, occupiers around the nation had some opinion about this day too (actually the pic above i took at occupy boston; this is the tent where they make signs, to state the obvious). i just saw on the occupy boston facebook page that some occupiers went to meditate in some mall, apparently around a vending machine (to prevent shoppers from buying something to eat/drink?), and one got arrested.

they are all crazy!!! the best bargain would be when staying at home, buying NOTHING!! but i have to admit, this evening we went for a little shopping ourselves. it was quite crowded, and the discounts not that amazing, so i only bought a pair of shoes... as if i needed those... ;) (but they were only 14 dollars!! from 55 originally...)

Turkey butcher

today all the scientist europeans around boston gathered (or so it seemed), prepared heavenly dishes and an entire turkey (like the real americans!) and enjoyed thanksgiving like the americans do.. :) i just enjoyed and had lots of food... jeejjjj (there was not one american present, that was kind of funny, being in the us of a)

thank you all!

Food mania

tomorrow its thanksgiving here in the us.... the supermarket was overflowing with turkeys again, and this evening the whole foods (also named whole paycheck as it is probably the most expensive supermarket around) was filled with people trying to get their last shoppings done for the big day tomorrow... as tomorrow will be food, food, and food... ah, and of course about being together and thankful.

more about thanksgiving here.

But mom...!

i know... for this its really too cold now (even this past sunday, i guess), but i was going through my pics recently and had forgotten about this one. i actually posted one of the girl before (in june). here she is with her mom... i just love it... :)

few months later i saw them again, this time they were on their way to the fountain at the boston common (this is at the christian science church or center or plaza or whatever). it took me a moment to realize why they looked so familiar, but they were gone when i remembered..

today was pretty chilly.... there will be snow in some places tomorrow, but i guess not here... probably somewhere higher up.

Hell no

every now and then there is someone with a large sign telling you about jesus. jeejjj. this was last week in the boston common. jesus or hell. why that? surely i did not go and ask them. its all so negative. no jesus? then hell. what kind of choice is that! i really dont get why those fanatics impose their faith on others. ofcourse, you can just ignore them. but is that what they really believe? jesus means no hell? whats the fun in that? does that mean they only believe in jesus because not doing so means hell? thats quite a bad reason to believe in jesus, if you ask me...

Lovely weather

today, november 20 already, it was 17 degrees celsius (63 F)!! it was beautiful out.... so we went running (which was not easy at all. we did this trail, which has quite some uphill parts... and this time i really did not do well and had to stop during, or right after each hill. grrrr... but we did run an extra loop... jeejj!). but each time im running, i wonder why the hell i am doing that.... :) (somehow i find it much easier to run on a treadmill). 

well, anyways.... the weather was so amazing that it was a waste to spend it inside, so.... we took the subway all the way to the other end (haha, that was quite a while), and then we walked there in a park we hadnt been before. too bad its getting dark so early nowadays... around 4.15 it became too dark to take pics, and by 5 it was entirely dark.. :( but my pictures were boring anyways, so above a picture from the cemetery! i was fascinated with this angel and took many pics... (and forgot to even look whose grave it was on. very bad. will look at that next time...). haha, and i now see that there is some snow visible in this pic, it was 2 weeks back, when we had a few days that were sooooo cold, while today felt like a perfect spring day..

Harvard only

since november 9, harvard yard is "occupied" as well. some 30 tents have been placed right in front of the famous statue of harvard (see above). in reaction to this, the harvard administration closed the gates of the yard (they are so lucky to have it totally surrounded by gates!!), allowing entrance to only those with a harvard ID. well, arent we privileged, both me and tim have such an ID, and thus we went to the yard this beautiful saturday afternoon (while we had absolutely no business there other than to feed our curiosity). normally, this place is full with tourists, so in that respect it was really cool to be there... as one of the very few... :) while we were photographing around, we saw the real tourists behind the gates, most likely wondering how the hell we managed to get in.

and yes, there they were. the tents.... looked pretty cute. but i wonder how many "occupiers" were actually present. we saw 2. and 30 tents. the other occupiers were most likely enjoying the harvard-yale game, those 2 told us. well... is that really necessary? arent they there for a cause? is watching sport helping their cause?! i dont think so.... but... usually there are around 12 of them protesters they assured me! (12!!) i also asked them WHY they had put up tents there, as for me it seems like they want to separate themselves from the occupy boston at dewey square. i did not get a satisfying answer, but part of it was.. "some had never been there, and we want to make people aware everywhere, also here.. and its easier because we work around here, and its very dirty at dewey square... so many homeless, but mostly to make people SEE it also here..."

anyways. im wondering how long they will remain there in their little tents. and im wondering how long they will keep the yard locked. all those poor tourists... being denied their picture next to the harvard statue! perhaps the harvard administration did it to isolate those occupiers, being seen by harvard only, whats the use of their protest?
some people say those spoiled harvard students have no right to protest, as they are the 1%.  attenting harvard costs you approximately 56,000 dollars per year (!!!). who can afford that? but.... around 70% of the harvard students receive some form of financial aid (more here). well, the harvard occupiers want a university for the 99% (as you can read here). but.... i found this article in the harvard crimson that articulates very well whats wrong with exactly that: "occupy harvard seeks to trivialize the meaning of a Harvard education. In protesting Harvard as an instrument of elite financial oppression, Harvard students uncouthly slander the source of their financial aid, their educational experiences, and—most importantly—the abundant opportunities this institution provides them. For better or worse, Harvard students did not commit to attending a “university for the 99 percent.” EXACTLY!!! ah, and this article was very interesting too (and funny).

hmm... that was a long post. those occupiers get way too much attention. grrr....

Occupying anonymously

boston is still occupied, but the owners of the park now want them out.... i guess sooner or later they will have to go, just like in other cities. on their facebookpage they ask for warm coffee and pizza, but then other occupiers complain that they dont want pizza but rather have vegetables... blabla. just go home and cook something yourselves! and if you really want to make that change... take a homeless with you and feed him as well. grrrr... but who would do that?!

anyways... the first time we went there we saw several occupiers with their faces covered, as above. this is because there are so many people with cameras.. and they dont know where all those pictures end up, and some are afraid to loose their job for identifying themselves with the occupiers.... they are afraid to be filmed by policemen who might use that footage against them later on... etc etc.

they should all just go home!

American flag

the flag of the usa has thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white, and 50 stars. but... the us flag code provides for expansion: "On the admission of a new State into the Union one star shall be added to the union of the flag; and such addition shall take effect on the fourth day of July then next succeeding such admission". 

when a patriotic effect (!!!) is desired, the flag may be displayed twenty-four hours a day provided it is properly illuminated when its dark..... the flag should be displayed every day on or near the main administration building of every public institution, in or near every polling place on election days, and during school days in or near every schoolhouse. in other words; there should always be a flag. everywhere. (well, there is...!)

however... the flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise. it should never be used as wearing apparel, or as a covering for a ceiling. besides, no part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. however, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. "The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart." in other words: you cannot put it on your ass!! :DD 

ah well, here you can read more about the flag code, and if you want to see the "wall of shame", i.e. examples of how the flag should NOT be used, go here...

Grey day

while we had very cold weather and snow in october, november has been mostly mild, so far! some people dont even wear a coat..... its been so warm that opening of the skating rink at the boston common will be postponed, until it gets colder.

but today there was a lot of rain, together with very grey skies. it looks something like this, although this is in new york, and not in boston.. :) and i was in boston today and not in new york..

And this...

...is the new state house. or rather, the current state house. that golden dome there... :) its next to the boston common. you can visit it, but i never did (yet). you can see this dome from quite far, if you go to cambridge, at the other side of the charles river, you can see this dome shining..

the old state house (see yesterday's post) is from 1713 and was occupied by the british during the revolution (dont tell occupy boston! they might want to occupy it, but its far too small for all of them!!). on july 18 1776, citizens gathered in the street to hear the declaration of independence read from the building's balcony, the first public reading in massachusetts. the royal (royal?) governor presided here until the new state house (see above) was built on beacon hill in 1798... (i stole this info from here)