Nameless markers

a few weeks back we were in bridgewater, approximately an hour from boston, and decided to check out some cemeteries there. the one above was in a very quiet area; on the one side there were large family homes, and it was not a through street. or... it actually was, but you were not permitted to drive on that road, as it was leading to the bridgewater state hospital; a state facility housing the criminally insane, and those whose sanity is being evaluated for the criminal justice system. surrounded by many wired fences, that complex seemed huge, and inaccessible (with a reason, i think so). we were driving around to find the above cemetery, but as several roads eventually led to the institute, we had to turn a few times (i didnt want to risk being chased by some policemen by playing the dumb tourist, ignoring the signs). there has been an institute at this location since 1855, and just like in many other facilities in the us, bad things have happened there (just read wikipedia!); for example, in 1910 they committed a man for a break-in, for which stands 2 years; but in 1967, this man was still inot released.... also in 1967 a documentary, titicut follies, came out, showing how inmates were (mis)treated in this hospital.

the above cemetery belongs to the hospital and has similar nameless, just numbered, markers as i have showed you once before. it was just a huge field with stones in long rows, some toppled over, not well maintained. to the left you see part of what might once have been a fence, but now it was just an open field. to the right you see part of a fence; this is a small, separate cemetery! named the "conant street smallpox cemetery" with a few graves much older, not related to the hospital (established in 1778).

as you can see, a dog was curious to see what we strangers were doing there! she came out running from the garden directly across the cemetery, as soon as we left the car. she was very cute, i have to admit as someone who is afraid of dogs. and just in the corner, to the right you see the owner of the dog. we talked briefly with her, and she said she had never known, after all these years of living there, that the small cemetery was named the smallpox cemetery. she also told us that the hospital cemetery was still active!! can you imagine that? still people are buried here as a number. in 2012! she said she would sometimes see that happen, from her window. she did not seem to be as surprised about that as me, saying "well, i guess those people were just paupers, inmates from the institute who had no money and nobody to claim the body. its good that they at least get a burial!" but why there? and why without a name? a matter of privacy? i really wonder about that. she mentioned that she would see a lady with a small child, every now and then, visiting one of the "graves", but that she hadnt seen her for a while. moreover, she told us that every now and then someone would escape from the prison, and living so nearby, they would be alerted; depending on how dangerous the person is, they would be advised to stay inside.....

for other taphophiles, go here! for an interesting blogpost about this cemetery and 1 particular grave, go here.

Best shot...

or should i say... not the worst shot...?

wayne, from vancouver, was so kind to let me know there would be a festival of activist street bands in cambridge this weekend (i was completely unaware of this, so that was nice!!). it was a several locations, and we went to harvard square this sunday. but as opposed to saturday, it was so grey out, and really chilly.... and... all the pictures i took were bad. not sharp, boring... or whatever. while we listened to real nice music (played by an italian band, all dressed in lots and lots of pink!), and i saw a guy with a huge boot (you know, the ones you wear when it rains) on his head. and lots of other crazy stuff. and i hardly took pictures. i just watched, its all in my head (!!), and the pictures i did take.. buuhhh...

i guess the musicians were quite busy. not a lot of time for eating (although there really was a lot of food around!), as you can see here...

Yep, autumn....

as you can see, autumn really started! trees are turning so colorful and pretty before they will be bare again.... and the weather is a little crazy. saturday it was warm, i would say hot, even! just last weekend i had put away all my summerdresses and stuff.... but... the early evening we got rain and it cooled down quickly, and so today it was pretty chilly again! (around 15 C). and now its raining like crazy... 

lets see if i can do better with my blog the coming days. recently im not so much in the mood, didnt take a whole lot of pictures either, and never really looked at the ones i did take. and then, im indecisive on which one to post (nothing new there), and certainly too lazy to write something (although perhaps you're bored by the writing, i actually like it myself, so i should just do it, haha!). i blame it on the weather. or perhaps the kitchen (im spending more and more time there). or... maybe netflix. we are too lazy! just hanging on the couch watching some movie or series... (last night/this morning we finally watched the documentary jiro dreams of sushi, which was quite interesting... but still didnt awaken any interest in sushi in me.....)

Hanging green

this was during our roadtrip in florida, december last year. those trees, with all that green hanging down, just magical. of course, my english is too limited to have an official description for "that green"....

pretty, huh?!

Walking home

this is the path we take from the subway (to the right in the back) to our apartment. currently the weather is not that great. a lot of rain and fog.., as you can see. but not very cold. it feels weird to leave the house without a coat, but then when you are walking its actually too warm!!

i hope the weekend will be nicer, but often we have quite a few of these days in a row... (its a long weekend too, monday is a national holiday (for most people))

Presidential debate

tonight was the first presidential debate between obama and romney. i was so very curious and really wanted to see it! im not that interested in politics, but now that we are living in the us and the elections are getting closer, i start to get interested. living here on a simple visa of course does not give me any right; im not allowed to vote; only real americans are (i.e. also on a green card voting is not one of your rights, at least not for national elections; local elections depend on the state you live in).

as we dont have a tv, and its more fun to watch the debate with (at least one) real american, we were going to watch it in a friend's apartment. jeeejjj! that would be fun! as superhealthy people (when did that happen?!), we first went home to go to the gym and have a healthy homemade meal (im into soups now, even though i never liked soup!), with homemade bread made in my beautiful birthday present (a heavy cast-iron pan, which also doubles as weight to train my arms...). unfortunately already in the gym, before dinner (so it wasnt my cooking!!), i didnt feel good... and it didnt get better... :( so i had to stay home while tim went to watch the debate with everyone else. at least, as opposed to the olympics, i found youtube live-streamed the event, so i could watch it too.

bbuuuuugghhh! let me just say i was bored, most likely because i had to listen to all that mumbling by myself, without getting immediate comments/explanations from a real american... ;) 

above is somewhere in massachusetts. i dont know what kind of building it was (i remember i thought it was some sort of public building, like an office or something...), but i thought it was funny to see 2 different opinions there.... 

Last year

last year october 2nd was on a sunday, and we were in new york, where i took this photo! as you can see, the weather was really nice and sunny. this is at coney island, and i liked to see this just married couple walk around. i thought it was so spontaneous! until... i saw the photographers.. beeh, ofcourse it was a weddingshoot and they were directed to walk around casually... then to sit somewhere (on a quite inconvenient place for us normal people who wanted to pass but didnt want to disturb the shoot. until it took so long that we eventually just walked past them), etc etc....

this year? a bit chilly and quit some rain. beehhhh... 

but a nice day anyways. good night!

Eating lobster

i dont remember when i took this pic, it was certainly quite a while ago! everywhere around here you can get lobster. and i never ate one.... i dont like anything that comes out of the sea for dinner! (except fishsticks, but i guess thats not real fish anyways ;) )

this year they caught way too many lobsters in maine, and now they dont know what to do with them. as a result, lobster is very cheap now, apparently. they even tried to bring them to canada, but the canadian fishermen got angry about that... 

looking for news about lobsters, i also just read that a waitress working in a lobster restaurant was attacked by 3 customers as they were angry that she was filling their glasses too often! the customers threw water on her and hit her with a menu... how sad is that?! 

$12 bridge!

it cost us 12 dollars to cross this bridge. and i guess we paid that amount 2 or 3 times when we were in new york 2 weeks ago. grrr... we usually go by bus, but this time we went by car, and i think all in all we spent well over 50 or even 60 dollars, just on toll! 8 dollars for a bridge here, 12 for another, then 6.50 for a tunnel.... it just didnt stop!! by the time we left new york i had no money in my wallet anymore... :( (and in NY i didnt buy anything!)

at least this was a nice bridge. i think it went from staten island to brooklyn. i dont even remember the name, how bad! i do remember there were several signs warning you that it was absolutely forbidden to photograph/videotape the bridge, and that this would be "stricly enforced"..... so i was a little afraid taking so many pictures... luckily nothing happened, they only took our money...

Another street...

after a boston and new york street the past 2 days, now a "street" in california.... :) i dont know exactly where we were here, i think somewhere in the mojave desert, back in may. it was simply amazing driving there. the emptiness, the landscape. really, really amazing. and yes, i just had to sit on the route 66 sign, as probably all tourists do.... it was extremely windy (later we got into a sandstorm), so i couldnt see much with my hair blowing into my face, haha!

now i want to go again!!

Boston street

and here a rather crowded boston street... this was in august, when it was a bit warmer than now. its still not cold, but people dont really dress like this anymore, that might be a bit chilly at times... :)

i read today that by 2030, 50% of the americans is predicted to be obese (in some specific states its thought to be a little less, like 40%, and in some even 60%).....  

Street scene

somewhere in new york... looked very movie-like/american to me... :)

Dutch Americans

finally, taphophile tuesday again! i missed the past 3 times due to travels back home and sheer laziness... when i got back from my travels, late wednesday night after a long long day of traveling and having to run for my flight to boston (why is flying so much more stressful than any other mode of transportation? or at least, so i think..), it took over an hour of waiting at the boston airport to be "admitted into the country". whereas "the americans" got through passport control very quickly (there were many officers), there were only a few officers checking even more "foreigners". aaarrghhhh!! how annoyed i was! especially when you think of how the us of a was founded; by people from many different countries, many of them dutch... and now me, a dutch, had to wait this long?!!

while i thought i would have a day of rest after coming back, tim told me we were going to drive to new york right the next morning! even though i love going to new york, i was not too happy about that... but the morning came, i was awake early anyways due to jetlag and off we went..... a very hot and sunny day, and i got to choose how we would drive! jaaajjj! ever since we visited the sleepy hollow cemetery in massachusetts, i wanted to see the REAL town of sleepy hollow and its cemetery in the state of new york. it is just above new york, and sort of on our route... many wealthy dutch lived in sleepy hollow, which originally was named "slapershaven" (this translates literally into sleeper's haven, which eventually became sleepy hollow).

dirck storm, whose grave you see above, was one of the early settlers, who documented the "dutch colonial american village life" in the english-occupied new york province (this was around the time when the dutch owned "new amsterdam" got into the hands of the british, and renamed it new york). dirck storm was born in utrecht, the netherlands. in 1662, he, his wife and their 3 children emigrated to manhattan by boat. during the voyage, his wife gave birth to a daughter. only years later they moved to the little town of sleepy hollow, where they became members of the old dutch church, next to which they were later buried. according to wikipedia, dirck storm is the ancestor of many notable americans. however, they dont mention any notable americans, and i dont know any right now by the name of storm!, but apparently, many americans with the last name storm or storms can trace their lineage back to the dutch dirck storm who arrived in the us of a in 1662.....

whoops, thats a lot of writing! (and i did a whole lot more of reading about sleepy hollow, the dutch, etc etc, so i guess i should dedicate another post to that sometime later... for more taphophiles, go here!

Graffiti proposal

when biking from my sisters apartment in utrecht to the city center, i passed this mural! i had to take a picture of that, of course. as you can see, its hard not to take pictures in the netherlands without bikes in it, either parked bikes, or as above.... :) (unfortunately the sun was only illuminating the upper part of the house... )

the mural says: "lieve afra, wil jij met mij trouwen? Jan" and next to it: "ja!" which translates into; "dear afra, do you want to marry me?" "yes!" i googled around a bit and found an article that tells me that the person who painted it is a graffiti artist named Jan, who made several murals in/around utrecht. here he got permission to paint his marriage proposal on the wall of someone's house. he then led his girlfriend to it, and proposed to her. and as you can see, she said yes! isnt that cute?

there really was quite a bit more graffiti in the netherlands than i remembered (i had not been there for almost 2 years), and there was also a lot of random, ugly graffiti along the train tracks. but apparently it has always been there, and i just forgot....  :) but as you can see, this mural is pretty recent, from july 2012.

for more monday murals, go here!

Dutch snack

above; 2 glasses of white martini with lemon, and to the left a very dutch snack that i really missed while in the us of a: "bitterballen"!! ofcourse, there is a wikipedia for this snack that you can read here. in short, its a savoury snack, with a thick meat-based ragout, battered in an egg-breadcrumb mixture, which has been deep-fried. you eat them hot, with some mustard (but be careful, when served they are usually still too hot to eat, i speak here from experience). hmmmmmmmm!!!! hmmmm!!! they are sooo good! also with a glass of beer.... in fact, the dutch mc donalds has a special burger, with a patty-shaped version of the "bitterbal", on a white bun, with a sort of mustard dressing (the mc kroket!). i had that the first day i arrived, together with my sister... (they were on sale, only 1 euro, hahaha).

unfortunately, eating these in a cafe is expensive. like everything you order in a cafe. generally, service is much slower than in the us, but at least you dont have to prove you are above 21 to drink alcohol. on the other hand, the huge glass of ice water i now always order does not come standard in the netherlands, and in some cafes they will even refuse to give you a glass of water, unless you pay for it..... (i.e. you have to buy a glass of bottled water as they do not want to give you one for free from the tap). also, paying with card is not that common, and you thus will have to bring cash, preferrably some change; as you already have waited so very long for the check, you dont want to wait yet again to get your change.

why cant the mc donalds over here have this dutch snack on the menu?! im sure the americans would love it!

Still green

everything is still green! but for how long?! some trees have actually started turning color already, and the mornings and evenings/nights are becoming chilly. its not bad at all, compared to the crazy heat we have had this summer. now the mornings feel fresh, but still kind of warm enough to go without a jacket (or only a cardigan), and during the day its mostly sunny and pleasant.... 

although i dont want to leave the sun and our time at/in the pool (its really becoming a little too cold; i hope we can still go tomorrow), im also looking forward to autumn. boston and surroundings are really pretty then, and it smells so good!!

Overgrown car

noooo... this is not in the netherlands, i dont think you would see much of this there.... 

this was a few weekends back, when we were in vermont. there were actually several in a row, i think they were collecting them!

Bikes, bikes!!

already at the airport in the netherlands i noticed something different; nobody said the magic words "excuse me". in the ladies room people passed each other, or had to wait to get to the sink or whatever. in the us this dance would be accompanied by many excuse me's, and now it was silent, and somehow that was weird! at the platform waiting for the train there was plenty of time observing the dutch going to work (it was the early morning); women were dressed so differently! to me they looked more confident, especially the older women. and... what a relief; stylish shoes! no extreme high heels, although many did wear a bit of heels, also the very tall women (and there were many tall people. haha, i almost forgot that in the netherlands im one of the short people). now that im back i have a renewed incomprehension for the big white sport shoes that most people seem to wear here, no matter how well dressed they are!

while in the train i saw sooo much graffiti everywhere, thats really not the case in boston, i thought it had increased, but apparently it had always been like that (how easy it is to forget things!). 

but.... the best was to be on my (own) bike again. in utrecht! i had not done that since we left in april 2010 for boston. the traffic seemed crazy; sooo many people, such narrow streets, even more bikes!! but the cars are much smaller, and the pace much more relaxed. as much as i am scared to bike around here, amidst the chaos in utrecht it was just relaxing! no honking or irritated screaming simply because you are on a bike and on the road (as happened just this sunday here, grrrr). it was extremely crowded but everyone was courteous and nobody was in someone else's way.... (or do i now make it seem better than it actually is?! anyways, compared to biking in boston it was just pure fun! and so pretty, ofcourse, biking along the canals, wathcing the cute old houses on the other side..... 

above the center of utrecht. a mess of bikes wherever you go. a mess, but somehow organized, and ofcourse its hardly ever a problem to find your own bike back amongst all those others. in the back a few of the many cafes where you can sit outside; the weather was, surprisingly, extremely good most of the time i was there!

Blogging holiday

whoops! i took a little holiday from blogging the past weeks, together with my trip to europe (how american to say "europe" instead of specifying to which countries i went).... before i went to sweden for my practical course, i was briefly in the netherlands, where i had not been for almost 2 years!!! i had not told my parents, so it was a surprise for them to see me, haha... :)

this is utrecht from above, where i used to live before moving to boston. isnt it cute?! me and my sister climbed the largest church tower in the city (you can see that tower here). to the right in the front you can see the terrace of one of the many, many cafes, right next to the canal. it was so very, entirely, totally different from the us! and i really felt like a tourist, not having been there for almost 2 years.....

i got home last wednesday already, got back to the lab monday but somehow did not get back to my blog... from now on i hope to be back again! hope to write more about what i observed in the netherlands after 2 years of absence tomorrow....

Real swimmers!

here are some real swimmers in the swedish sea!! it was 2 days ago, somewhere around 6 in the evening. it was not cold, but not warm either, some 20 degrees C at most... i had some time to observe them and it was so different from what you would see in the us! firstly, people arrived by bike, alone or together. just left their bike unlocked and walked to the water, undressed and went in. no toe dipping, not scared of the cold! hoppa! no lifeguard either, and no millions signs saying that you can or cannot swim, or when the "water closes" (in the us the water or the forest or the park or whatever usually closes after sunset). after swimming people just dried themselves and took off their swimsuits, something you also would never see in the us, as ofcourse you cannot show any skin...

im at the airport now. i enjoyed my practical baby-course... yesterday i got to feed the baby, and saw how she was bathed... im fully prepared now... ;)  but as i think its sometimes already a burden to carry my camera everywhere, i think its still too early for babies...