An elephant?

this was last year, in valley of fire, not too far from las vegas. an image i had seen already many times, like most people, i guess. in reality i thought... hmmm, really? elephant? and then i tried to take the picture as it was in my mind already, and ofcourse i didnt manage... i guess usually its taken from the other side...

earlier this evening i already tried to upload a photo (a more recent one!), but firefox refuses to do so, nowadays. now its 2.30 in the night and my cough does not let me sleep, so i decided to try again. i only have this folder with pictures from this holiday last year... there are so many images from the usa that i know since long before we came here, and its really so cool to now have visited (some of) them in person!!

now, let me try to sleep again... good night!

Lion's tooth

tim and a dandelion. or its seeds... i just learned from wikipedia that dandelion comes from the french dent de lion, which means lion's tooth, although they also call it dog's lettuce, apparently, hahahaha! in dutch we call it a "paardenbloem", which literally translates into horse-flower.

today i really went "outside" for the first time in a week!! we went to the cemetery behind our apartment, and it was so very pretty! most trees were at blossom-full-bloom, and the sun was shining every now and then as well. only i felt like my head was stuffed with cotton wool... :( it feels so much weirder when walking outside, like your on another planet with some gigantic glass helmet on, and everyone around you is mute. but not in a nice way...

but welll, maybe tomorrow i can finally go out for real again...!! but i have been thinking that every evening for the past week... :(

Cape disappointment

when we drove through washington state, we passed by cape disappointment. of course, we didnt want to be disappointed, and decided we should go there for lunch. but.... it turned out to be a disappointment after all. we couldnt park anywhere without a permit, and we didnt have a permit.... :( but at least i now know that there is a place called like that!! wikipedia gives 2 reasons as to why it may be called like that, and it also mentions that its one of the foggiest places of the usa. when we were there it was bright and shiny!

so far, this week has been a disappointment, too. i am sick... :((( it started saturday with a bit of a throat ache, which turned into high fever overnight... now its mostly fever during the night, and ache everywhere all times (ears, throat, nose, muscles). buhuhuhuhuhuhuh.....!!!

Sacred & Profane

yesterday we made a little trip into new hampshire. we hadnt driven around boston for the longest time! first we drove to manchester, to the currier museum where we had free entrance with our bank of america card. they have quite a big collection of dutch paintings from the 1600 and 1700s.... while driving back home we drove through goffstown and passed the above bookshop. that as quite interesting! the owner was just leaving, but opened the shop again just for us.... tim asked why the books were sacred and profane, and he told us that approximately half the books are religious in nature and the other half not...

and well, today we went to the museum of fine arts for free (again with our bank card.. :)), where they had an exhibition of drawings by michelangelo, named "sacred and profane"! half of them were of the human body, and the other half were architectural drawings. that was quite interesting, especially to think that those drawings are 500 years old!! 

Albino squirrel

as opposed to most americans, i like squirrels. they are cute!! even though sometimes they literally beg for food... we dont have squirrels in the netherlands, so to me its a bit special, i guess...

and the above one is very special, its white!! although, when it snowed i could see it was not that white... haha... it roams around a specific spot (which i ofcourse only know because hes the only white one), where i walk by every day when going to the lab. and yesterday i finally had my camera to take a picture! unfortunately, he was high up in a tree, but definitely white...

googling white squirrels led me to a site where they list "white squirrel sightings". apparently they are common in a few areas in the us.....in boston so far i saw only this one, and always at the same location....

Pretty tulips

jaaaajjj!!! some pretty flowers in the public garden in boston!! 

tim came back yesterday, and this evening we had a walk in the public garden. this morning it was really nice and warm, but this evening the sun had disappeared and it was a little chilly.... the tulips wre nevertheless very pretty! finally!

Artisan? Creative?

finally, i try to join theme day! somehow i always forget. either we are away, or suddenly its the third already.... theme day reminds me that time is going so fast, too fast. while at other times it goes so slow....

this month the theme is "creative artisan". artisan is a funny word. i guess i have mentioned it before, but here in the us i noticed its on a lot of expensive products in the supermarket. fancy breads, cheese, etc. often accompanied by the words "old world", "european", "according to ancient recipe", etc etc. it always makes me laugh.... i tend to avoid foods with those words..... as i posted before, i started baking my own bread about a year ago, and we havent bought any bread from the store ever since (except when on holidays). and am i glad! most of the american bread is horrible in taste (what taste..?), or crazy expensive (and still not that tasty...). at least around boston; recently we had some real good bread on the west coast during our road trip!

but... i dont feel like an "artisan" when baking bread. i also dont think its science, although many people seem to approach it like that. ooh, when baking bread you have to be super precise, you have to weigh everything carefully, the dough has to be at the exact temperature, and only then you will get a good, tasty loaf of bread. thats just funny... people have been baking breads long, long before there were scales or thermometers.... oddly enough, i do feel sort of an artisan, and even a creative one when i make soup. while so much easier than making bread, the process of making soup seems artisan to me. throwing some herbs in, some vegetables, some spices perhaps, letting it cook slowly for hours, adding some more (while its actually just all the stuff you want to get rid of!!). and guess what? i actually dont really like soup. i just like the process of making soup (and the immersion blender afterwards!!). so, above some homemade real dutch split pea soup (its real because the spoon can stand in the soup, meaning its very thick, as this type of soup should be), together with my favorite sourdough seed-bread, fresh from the oven.... isnt it old-world? artisan... ? ;)

(i have been taking pictures of my food the past weeks, since tim was away for 3,5 weeks. every now and then i would post them to his facebook-wall, to show that i was indeed still eating healthy while he was away (and ofcourse, to show him what he was missing....). this was one of them).

here you can find all theme day participants!

Empty roads

see how endless that road is? in the middle of the desert, with nothing else than this road.... no shop, no mc donalds, no gas station, no houses, no people. just heat, somewhere in california. we have driven through quite some desert by now, but i continue to be amazed. how ever changing the landscape is, how empty... something we definitely do not have in the netherlands... such enormous stretches of empty land, of desert, of crazy heat....

this was back in march, during our road trip.

blogger is acting strange the past few days, it often does not allow me to upload photos, so i have to open another internet browser to get it done... grrrr. but at least tim is coming back tomorrow, after 3.5 weeks, so i can try on his computer... :)

Boston symphony

last week i got a nice surprise! someone had 1 extra ticket for a concert in the symphony hall. since tim was (and is) still in the netherlands, the decision was easy... :) i was not dressed for the occassion so i rushed home only to change and run out the door again. in cold, rainy weather... (right now its finally really nice weather!!). it was not supercrowded, and bag check (which they always do) was done with much more scrutiny than before; they looked at every item in my bag. 

me and tim had been to concerts a few times before, but we never sat on the balcony like i did this time, front row, and almost entirely in the center! its pretty, but i do have to say that i like the amsterdam concert hall better. the stage is also much bigger (first time here i was surprised by how tiny it was). i continue to be amazed by people who just walk during the concert, or get up as soon as a piece has ended. can nobody ever wait till the break??!! i feel this is something you dont see in the netherlands. for one because its weird, and 2 because its a waste of money to miss a part of the concert... ;) (the same happens in cinemas, people constantly get up and walk during the movie. its a bit distracting sometimes and even after 3 years i think its very weird behavior).

anyways... the boston symphony has a nice program, called 20under40, meaning that if you are under 40, you can go to many of the concerts for only 20 dollars (i think it is an anonymous donor who pays the difference)! that makes an evening at the symphony not that crazily more expensive than a ticket for the movies. still... its mostly old(er) people at the symphony... :)

My brain!!

this is a picture of my brain!! i got it this saturday, as i participated in a research study at harvard. i have always wanted to participate in a study, and every week we get a very, very, very long email listing all the studies that need volunteers. but only recently i finally picked out a study that seemed interesting to me, and not too invasive (so not having to take medication or overnight stays in the hospital etc etc). 

this was a study about ADHD, and i was the healthy control :). during my first visit they tested whether i was eligible. i had to solve some math problems (im not good at that at all!!) within a certain time frame, they tested my balance, whether i could sit still, and i had to do some other exercises. some were really not that easy and they didnt tell me how well (or bad) i did. i also had to read up some words (i had a bit of a disadvantage, not being a native speaker, but they said they would correct for that), and give the definition of others (i learned a few new words!). then during the second visit, this saturday, we did the real test. first i had to do a lot of weird stuff (like sticking out my tongue for a certain time with my eyes closed), walk on my toes or heels, jump while on one foot for 50 times, etc etc. that was all filmed and i hope that will never be released to the public.... :) then they used MRI to scan my brain while i did certain exercises. i had never had an MRI, so that was interesting. i spent 2 full hours in that thing.... what a noise! one of the exercises involved tapping with my finger in a certain rhythm for 8 minutes, while otherwise lying perfectly still. unexpectedly, that all was quite tiring!

but.... i thought it was really interesting to participate in someone else's scientific study, and everyone was really friendly. most importantly, ofcourse, i got a picture of my brain and 225 dollars towards my new laptop (i still didnt get one.... :( )

Californian coast

last night blogger did not want to upload my picture, for whatever reason. so here it finally is... this is when we drove along the coast in california, so pretty!! see that road....? thats where we drove...

Winter trees

these trees still look like winter to me.... this is commonwealth avenue, seen from right outside the public garden. i actually posted a snowy view of it not too long ago. yesterday it was raining most of the day and it was so cold that i couldnt sleep!! then today it was suddenly sunny and sort of pleasant... although still not warm enough.... several trees are blossoming though, i should get some pictures soon before thats over!

Cool duckling

i did visit the ducklings on my walk yesterday. they were wearing cute straw hats and some had a runners number on them. this one is from last year april, when they all got a cape and looked much cooler, actually!

yesyes, they get dressed up for various occassions. i think thats really nice... here you can see a slideshow of some of their other outfits.

Boston streets

over the past 3 years, i have shown you many "boston streets", but never one like this. and it is beyond horrible that i can now add this one to the collection. even though "they got him", the lives of many people have been changed forever, only because they were participating in or watching a boston tradition. at the same time, every single day horrible things happen, somewhere, anywhere... but we just dont always hear about it (or choose to ignore it, or.... etc). all of that makes it hard for me to write something, as every thought seems so superficial... and who am i? i was not even there monday. nothing happened to me.

during our time in boston we have walked on boylston street, where it happened, so very often. i guess we are so boring..! every time tim and me would walk the same route, in one direction or the other. starting in the boston common, we would pass the public garden (perhaps look at the cute ducklings), get onto boylston, and then just walk until prudential, passing the hancock tower, the public library, and (excuse me) that ugly church. there is also another beautiful sculpture by the same artist as the ducklings one on copley square, "tortoise and hare", which honors the participants of the boston marathon. it has been there since 20 years and i still did not get to posting it as i never managed to take a good picture of it. today, most of that part of boylston was still closed off, entirely, and they were still collecting evidence, as you can see. at various places, people had placed flowers, running shoes, notes, etc.

i walked on newbury street today, which runs parallel to boylston, and i realized that in these 3 years we hardly ever took newbury as there was just so much to see on boylston.

Only $10.50!

i was running out of fruit and vegetables. but i cant drive, and our favorite supermarket is a 10-minute drive away. so... i went to haymarket in boston! its a 15 minute ride or so with the subway, and the market is right outside the station (which is aptly named haymarket)

the t-shirt stand next to the subway station was already selling t-shirts saying; "boston marathon, 04/15/13, we will never forget", which i just found sad and a little creepy.

i spent 10 dollars and 50 cents, and above you can see what i got. the quality greatly varies at haymarket, sometimes the stuff they sell is literally rotting, but what i got today seemed all very good. except the strawberries; 2 boxes for 1 dollar! they are about to go bad, so im thinking to bake some sort of strawberrycake tomorrow..... they also had 3 pounds of tomatoes for 1 dollar, but i decided the small box with cherry tomatoes was enough for me...

(for the scientists; yes, those are 2 50ml falcon tubes on top of the stove....)

I baked

this morning, when i was about to leave the apartment, i checked my phone (which i dont do very often), and saw a message from tim: "whats happening? suspects arrested? public transport closed? stay home, ok?" only then i really looked out of the window and saw that there were absolutely no cars parked; on a normal weekday all spots are taken well before we leave. this monday i had texted tim; "i am NOT at the finish line, i am in the lab. explosions occurred at finish, dont know whats happening." this because tim is in the netherlands (since 2 weeks by now), and im still here in boston. news travels fast and nowadays everyone has a phone, so while thats a good thing, it can also cause worries; why did i not yet hear from him/her?!! when i texted tim, he hadnt heard the news yet, but it was already on the dutch tv...

today indeed i could not goto work as all public transport had been suspended, and everyone was asked to remain inside and lock their doors as one of the suspects was on the loose. while i was still sleeping, tim had been following the news for hours already (theres a 6 hr time difference). when i went to sleep, i knew there had been a deadly shooting at MIT, but had no clue it was related to the marathon bombings. i am not in boston, but a little outside. but "a little outside boston" is exactly where all terror happened today. again, i can only say, luckily not in my area...

 just like anyone else in and around boston, i guess, i couldnt concentrate on much other than the news.... and when the power went out, even though it went right back on again, and i heard something fall at the same time, i just jumped up... something i normally would not even notice, now made me paranoid, although the suspect was thought to be in another area than where i am.

so i baked. something with yeast, salt, water and flour. ooh, and a lot, lot, lot of butter. it was not hard, but it did take a lot of time. in waiting, not in actually doing (as usually is the case with bread). i could have made croissants out of it, i guess, but the recipe said to make knots, and so thats what i did.... long after they were baked came the news that the suspect was found hiding in a boat in someones yard, and from that moment i was even more glued to the screen of my not-so-well-working computer (in the absence of a tv). i am glad they got him now. only 19 years old. i wonder if we will ever know what in the world is going on in his head....

Giant sign

i thought it would be interesting to see what kind of photos i was taking 2 or 3 years back. so i went to the folder of 2011, and looked up what pictures i had for april 18... living in the us for 3 years made us used to certain things. things i before thought were so odd, different, or just unknown to us.... when i look back, i see why i took certain photos, but also realize that nowadays i dont really see that anymore, or it doesnt strike me as interesting... (the number of photos i am taking in/around boston has also decreased quite a bit)

take giant signs, you dont see that in the netherlands. billboards, yes, but giant signs, sometimes bigger than the place the sign is for? no. here is one, taken april 18, 2011. we have driven past this sign so very often. its on our way into boston, and i dont really see it anymore... , but i like the hamburger-eating-man! we have never been to this place, but at yelp it gets quite good reviews, and it seems to be a place you go to after a night out. there is no seating, and everything is a little old and dirty... (thats another thing, by the way, americans really like to give their opinion about everything. they write entire reviews on restaurants, bars, products... )

Sun rays

as the sun was setting, sun rays were just crossing these peaks in anza borrega state park, near san diego. it was so very pretty.

at the subway stations in boston they now continuously announce that you should report anything suspicious. they did this when we just arrived 3 years ago, but the past year or so i didnt hear it that much, until last monday. there is also more police on the streets and the national guard patrols the subway stations; at some places they inspect bags before you can enter, but so far not at "my" stations. some 12 blocks remain closed off to the public entirely, as well as the subway station close to where the explosions occurred. the thought that we walked that street so very often, and that we were watching the marathon last year around that area is just weird.

i can only be glad that neither me nor anyone i know was there when it happened, but so many others were not that lucky.....

From Boston

this is from last years boston marathon, and i was very enchanted by the shiny thermal blankets all the runners received at the finish.

today's finish became quite a different one. i planned on being there, right at the finish like last year. right around 2.30 - 3pm as then some participants me and my colleagues knew were likely going to cross that finish line. but labwork got in the way, and we never walked over to have a look. the first online news site mentioned "explosions, finish and boston marathon" just 10 minutes after it happened. at that moment nobody had any clue what was going on, if something was really going on and what it actually meant. but pretty soon photos, videos and reports from people at the scene were surfacing and we were all just shocked. i am glad i didnt manage to go there, and can only imagine the horror and chaos all those people there at the wrong time and at the wrong place must have gone through.... :(

Not me!

this is a picture from last year of someone who just finished the boston marathon! last year it was really hot that day, around 30C (90 F or something?), and i got tired just from walking a bit... :) imagine running 26.2 miles.....

tomorrow its time for the 117th boston marathon, and it wont be as hot as last year. it actually hasnt been warm at all this year yet, as opposed to last year, when we had a crazy hot day somewhere in march, and where april (i just looked at my pics from last year) was very nice too, from the beginning.. now its just gloomy, quite cold at times and rainy..... 

in 2011, the fastest boston marathon was run; in 2 hours and 3 minutes....! im happy when i manage to run 3 miles without stopping, and even that i dont manage every time (i did, however, once run even 4 miles!), so im very certain i will never run a marathon... but its fun to watch, so perhaps i will stop by tomorrow and take some pics...