Last post!

last post of 2014!!! this year went by fast, and i didnt post much, nor took a lot of pictures....  several big things happened, though.... the first half of 2014 i was still out of work and i sort of had given up on ever finding a job. when other people started to come up with "alternatives" of all sorts to my joblessness, however nice it was, i felt it truly was hopeless.... while tim was working long days, i just went to the gym, looked and applied for jobs, went to the supermarket, baked bread. days did go by fast, and at some point going to the supermarket became an event all by itself. end of february i applied for a job, right on the deadline (i think there was one hour left). i felt i had all the skills they asked for, but couldnt quite get what kind of work it would be. they actually had another position too, slightly different; but for that one i even had less of a clue what the work would be about. having applied for one, i forgot about the other and eventually missed the closing date on that one. months i heard nothing..... and guess what?! i was invited for an interview, did NOT get the job (became second), but was invited for the one i didnt apply for. and thats the position i now got!! i think its the best possible match, it turns out it has all the elements i was looking for (science, learning (LOTS of) new things, social relevance). but.... around the same time tim got a new position on the other side of the country. so.. when i finally returned to working life, we also had to adjust to living apart. thats not as easy as it seemed, but i am so very happy to be working again (and feel so bad for the numerous people i know that still have not found a job).

other than that, tim got his PhD this year and i could finally expand my shoe and clothes collection... something i could not allow myself while out of work... :)

so... thats about it. the year started bad for me, but really ended great, and i am looking forward to go back to the office again next week, even though my little working-from-home-while-on-the-other-side-of-the-country-with-tim was very pleasant too. it felt like a mini-holiday, work included (sure, i didnt work VERY hard).

enjoy new years eve! and who knows, maybe next year i will post more! maybe not... ! :)

Purple ride

soooo... today its purple, which is still my favorite color! this is in the car museum in the hague, where we went the day before tims birthday. i actually wanted to go shopping that day, and that was also the plan when we left the house, but instead we went to the museum and it really took forever to get out of it again. they have nearly 250 cars!!! and even without reading all the descriptions and not staring at each one intently, it took ages to get through the museum. and yes, at some point i was a bit bored! there were just so many, many.... cars..... the highlight for me was the purple car above. its in the central hall, so i had seen it upon entering the museum already..... it was custom made in new jersey in 2008, and the back has room for a harley davidson motor (as you can see here).

the museum was about to close, but there was still time to do some lunging in front of the purple car.... :) afterwards, there was just a tiny bit of time left for shopping...... ah well, it was for tims birthday after all....

Merry christmas!!

and again its been well over a month since i last posted! in the mean time i have been doing lunges (i am still not good at them, but the instructor in the gym said i just need to continue practising), AND i have been to geneva for work (i was in the united nations building for work, whoohooo!), and tim had his birthday, and what-not....

and then we were in some shop and tried these christmas-glasses...

here in the netherlands we have 2 christmas-days. but tim is working today.... buuh. and tomorrow as well. we left amsterdam sunday evening and drove to groningen, and he has been working in the hospital the 3 days before christmas and i have been working from home (well, his home). with crappy internet, so that was a bit frustrating. but still, i am lucky to have a job where it is OK to work from home, and where its possible to work from home :) and had i been taken those days off, it would have been OK too... but well, i thought. tim is working, so i will work as well...

anyways, i hope you had a great christmas!

Lunging on....

several of you have mentioned that you dont think my lunging will become a trend... buhuh. so well, then i will just have to continue doing it myself. or have tim do it, of course..... 

just too bad im holding my bag, now the effect is less, i think.

ah well, plenty more opportunities to try again!!

Big bear...

ah, and me. lunging.... :) after a day of biking through amsterdam (where we passed lunging rembrandt, the fancy gym, the meadows and the marathon, i.e. nearly all my recent posts), we wanted to finally go home. not too far from our place was some roadwork and we had to take a detour. suddenly we faced a giant bear at a rather tiny playing field..... of course we had to stop again so i could take some pictures! (well, tim in this case...)

this bear made of concrete is 11 metres tall.... its called "staalman" (literally its "steel man", as staalmanplein is the name of the square), and is standing there since 2011. the buildings around the square were all recently built. the little park at the feet of the bear was co-designed by the kids in the neighborhood. one of their requests was a sculpture. they asked the dutch artist florentijn hofman (hes responsible for the giant floating duck and other giant sculptures around the world), and together they choose a bear. with a pillow under its arm. the pillow symbolizes bedtime; children should goto bed on time instead of being out on the street till late, so they are well rested again the next day. moreover, the pillow represents moving houses; all the people in the neighborhood had to literally take their pillows and leave their old houses for the new ones to be built....

University wedding

so. not yesterday, but the day before already tim defended his PhD thesis. that took 45 minutes, as tradition dictates. when the 45 minutes were over, the lady with the black hat came into the room, hit her stick onto the ground to indicate the defense was done. then all the professors (you cannot see them, they are in front of tim here, sitting behind the red tables) went into some room to decide whether tim should get his PhD. after a short while they came back, and yes, he got it! in the photo above (taken by my sister, the official tim-phd-defense-photographer), tim just got his diploma, its in the red thingie he is holding in his hands. right now he is listening to the "laudatio" given by his PhD advisor. 2 "paranimfen" are sitting behind tim (one of them being me, perhaps you can figure out which one! ;) ). paranymphs are similar to best men/bridesmaids in weddings... as in fact you marry the university (really!! i always said so, and now i read wikipedia says the same, so it must be true!). nowadays, the role of the paranymph is purely ceremonial, but in the old days they could also help answering questions during the defense. in fact, we all 3 worked in the same lab (yes, i worked a bit with tim, and yes, even one chapter in his thesis is actually "my" paper!). soo.... during the defense i actually felt like answering as well... just when they asked about "my" chapter... of course i could not have done it better than tim did... :)

it was a very nice day and evening. but exhausting!!

Endless baking....!

soooo...... the last of my 10 breads is now in the oven.... pfew!! i started thursday with the first batch (then you onlw throw some sourdough starter, flour and water together. but still, you need to think ahead!), kneaded most breads yesterday (and baked 2 as well, that need to "rest" at least 12 hours before you slice them, to let the flavors enhance and blend together), and then started baking this morning. i think i put the oven on around 8, and now, 5 in the afternoon, its still on and has hardly been off..... aside for 2 of the "easy" breads (ie no sourdough breads), i kneaded them all by hand, as you can see here.... i dont mind the kneading. the baking is the trickiest part, and takes the most time (especially since only bread fits each time, as opposed to my american oven where i could do 2!). each time, even though i baked bread so often now, i sill wonder whether "it worked" this time, and how the bread looks (during the first part of baking the bread is covered, so its always a surprise...) flour is everywhere, and i could find some dough on the dress as well, as usual....

anyways.... now its almost done! i baked a variety of breads and i hope people will like them. since i was baking anyways, i also baked 1 bread for our own lunch (yum!), and some apple cake yesterday...  after this, i think the oven needs a break.... :) and time for us to finally check out the festival!

Staying here...

this is the museum square in amsterdam sometime last month on a beuatiful summer evening. i showed you some pics before from this square (as you can see here). in the back you see the rijksmuseum, but we were actually going to the building behind us, the concert hall.

anyways. yes. tim is in groningen and i am staying in amsterdam. because yes! finally, finally. finally!! i am working again. it has taken forever, with lots of frustrations, desperations, hope, lost hope, hours and hours in the gym, and even more hours of searching and applying for jobs. i did not enjoy this time, so i am extremely happy to be working again. 

in fact, i sent the application for the job i have now already end of february. was invited for an interview in may. did not get the job (this was painful as i made it to the last 2). was invited for another position at the same place, got it and started a few weeks later (mid-june). before i knew, i suddenly had to work again! and so, in this case, having work was more important than living together. its not ideal, but neither was the situation when i was without work while i so desperately wanted (and needed) to work!!

more about my work another time. now its about time i start working for today!!! :)) i can just tell you its science-related, but i am not working as a scientist in a lab anymore. and i am very happy about that too...... :)

Self portrait

in case you forgot how we look after my long absence... here a recent self portrait. just last week we went away for a few days to scotland. we flew on wednesday evening, arrived in edinburgh, started thursday in the gym of the hotel (if you had asked me to do such a thing 5 years ago, i would have laughed very hard), then the mcdonalds for breakfast (i never had breakfast in mc donalds and it was the first thing we encountered while we were very hungry), and the off to the scottish highlands in a rental car! quite the experience to drive on the other (the wrong!!) side of the road! im glad i didnt have to drive, not sure i would have taken all the turns the right way.....

but it was beautiful!! absolutely amazing. so much green.... and we were lucky, as nearly all days were extremely sunny and even hot! (only one day of quite a lot of rain). we more or less randomly drove around scotland and on sunday evening we arrived in edinburgh again. monday we finally saw that city and while it was bright and sunny there, the netherlands had terrible rain. streets and houses got flooded and our plane was delayed.... luckily our house was still dry.

good to see some of you found me already again! we are about to leave for the weekend and are staying in a place without internet.... but monday i certainly will be back! (perhaps sooner, lets see)

Real patriots!

today the weather was not too bad, finally! quite sunny and even warm enough to sit on the balcony in the early evening. the above picture however was taken on queens day (oh no, i mean kings day). its one of the few days dutch people wear orange. as i wrote before, orange is the national color since its the color of the dutch royal family (they are named "van oranje", meaning "from orange"). the other days you might people see wearing orange is when the dutch soccer team is playing in the world cup, and i guess thats about it. orange is not worn in everyday life. so in general, people do not possess orange clothing, aside from the one orange jersey you wear that one time a year. it really is considered weird to wear orange, and you wont see much (any?) orange clothing in the shops.

i never even wore orange on queens day, but that changed after 3 years in boston. there we dressed up in the american colors on the 4th of july to feel like real americans. so... it was just natural to finally do as almost all the other dutch do. it also helped that i bought a beautiful silk orange dress in boston, just a few weeks before we left (it was crazy cheap in a shop for vintage clothing. i still miss the cheap american shopping, and hardly shop nowadays.) when else to wear it but on kings day?!

Marathon day

today its marathon day in boston again. while writing this its 6 in the morning there, but im sure many runners are up already... 36,000 people will run the marathon this year, and many spectators are expected. security is high, many additional cameras have been installed along the course, and you cannot take big backpacks with you. cnn tells me that "containers with more than 1 liter of liquid, costumes covering the face, and bulky clothes such as vests with pockets won't be allowed".

im amazed by how many people are able to run a marathon, or even a half..., but there are far more people who cannot. many are not even interested, of course. i never used to be interested in sports, either. i hated gym classes at school and used every trick and excuse not having to  participate (other than gymnastics, i ofcourse never skipped class, i was far too well-behaved for that). during the last year of my PhD i started swimming before work. when the pool closed for the season, i felt the urge to continue sports to my surprise, and i decided i could just run around a lake not too far from my apartment. now that i was a regular swimmer, i surely could run, right?! well, of course not (duh!!), it turned out. the next day i could hardly walk...... exit running!

i picked up running again in boston, thanks to the gym at our fancy apartment complex (and out of necessity, in the netherlands our main mode of transportation was biking, in boston it was the subway, and the car during the weekends).  but... i continue to be a lousy runner. i continue doing it, as i continue to hope to improve myself, but i hardly do. after each run i think; well, perhaps NEXT time it will be better?! perhaps next time i can try interval training? maybe next time i can try to run faster? but each time i am glad i can just keep up the pace i am running, and that i can run at all... and maybe i should just be satisfied with that....

Self portrait

we saw a huge shiny american type of car with shiny mirrors that were just asking for a self portrait. again an early summer kind of day!

Perfect weather!!

it seems almost impossible to believe, but today the weather was even better than yesterday. and today i had signed up for an official run!! 7.5 kms. i was a bit nervous... since a while, me and tim do runs of 10 kms every now and then, but then its not official. since it was international womens day yesterday, this run was only for women. that was only a tiny bit comforting. and it meant twice as many cute outfits i had to compete with. nononono! it was a running competition, not an outfit one..... ;) 

above you see me in blue (but with purple running shoes; they are the best!!) and my friend in orange. i finished under 50 minutes (as you can see here), and i was happy with that. many were much faster than me, but i already ran faster than i normally do.... and while tim came home this morning after his 2nd of 3 night shifts, he went with us, and followed us by bike along the course. several times during our run he would bike past us, and then i would suddenly see him leaning against his bike, taking pictures. after which he would jump on his bike again... so if not for the race, i had to keep running for those pictures!! (how romantic is all that!! no?) afterwards, seeing those pictures, made me think of this, or this.... i most certainly need to practice a bit more.....

after that, tim really really had to sleep and i just enjoyed the sun on the balcony..... :)

Hello again!

somehow one day not posting led to another, which led to a week, and then another..... and then i got clear evidence nobody actually was waiting for my posts; nobody seemed to miss them. and then i just didnt want to post since i was not posting. then i wanted to make it an entire month of not posting. then finally (finally!) someone officially asked me where i was hiding. by then tim had been demanding a new post for a few days, and i refused. and then it was a month and a few days. and well.... here i am again, with a picture of me, instead of one taken by me... :)

this is in amsterdam noord (amsterdam north), across the ij river you see the amsterdam train station. i guess its still not finished, now the roof says rdam (r'dam, which is short for rotterdam, that other dutch city. a'dam is what it should have been). and then there is me, on a swing, attached to a billboard frame. i wonder who placed the swing there, in between the bike racks. you see more and more of these kind of racks, as opposed to the ones where you have to put your front wheel in (something that often damages the wheel). recently i discovered they call such a rack a "nietje", which is dutch for staple. but anyways, when there is a swing, i need to sit in it. often i dont fit (some of you might understand, lets not go into details here), but here i did! then i wondered whether the ropes were strong enough (they didnt really seem very strong), so i got off after tim took some pics (unharmed, at least..)

lets see if there is renewed determination to post more regularly. in another month this blog exists 4 years, and i have never been absent for a month! until now, that was....

Me & bridge

it took me forever to remember the name of this park!! but now i do... its zion national park. we were there last year january and it was beautiful. it was a little chilly but not too bad. unfortunately, the hike we had planned didnt happen as halfway the road was closed due to giant icicles that might, or might not, fall off... so we just wandered around a little. and of course, only when we discovered the real cool part, it was time to move on as we still had quite a drive ahead of us. 

the park was really beautiful, but at this point in our trip we kind of were saturated. we had seen so much desert, beautiful nature, the grand canyon, the caves in pages (oops, i also forgot the name of that right now), etc etc. moreover, i couldnt get the pictures right; it was so much prettier in reality than on my camera and... well... we both sort of had it with all that beautiful stuff.... hard to imagine now but i very well remember that we both felt like that. after this, we drove on to las vegas and we were sort of happy to just be surrounded by ugliness for a change, and not having to ooh and aah at anything.... :D

and now? i want to go there again! i want to drive those roads, i want to see it all again..... 

Jan1st 2013

one year ago, on jan 1st 2013, we visited the grand canyon. it was cold. it was sunny. but really very cold. it was slippery (tim fell a few times, making me even more uncomfortable, standing there without a safety railing. but all for the picture, right?! now im just wondering what on earth i was wearing, but well...). most importantly, it was absolutely stunning. it was so impressive staring into these depths..... the entire roadtrip was amazing. just like the one we made the year before, when we spent new year in miami, after having driven through tennessee, mississippi, louisiana and florida. or our last trip, on the usa west coast.... 

this year we kept it simple, being back in the netherlands we stayed home on new years eve. tim had to work and came home only well after 8pm. we had dinner, watched some netflix (we still watch the american one), and waited till midnight. our lovely (not really) neighbours shot some fireworks from their balcony right underneath ours and kept me awake most of the night. really, aside from that, we had a nice evening! today, the first day of 2014 no grand canyon, but we did bike into amsterdam. visited a museum and took some pictures in the city. not too bad at all. but ok, a road trip would have been better... :)

so... thats my photo of the year for this months theme day!

Self portrait

we were away for a night! we explored the netherlands a bit again (and attended a PhD defence). we went to the far north part of the country; groningen. last time we went there by train, now we went by car. both is nice, but by car is defenitely more convenient and you can easily make many detours. unfortunately, when getting back today we got stuck in the evening traffic into amsterdam. beeeeehhh. 

we stayed in a nice and quiet hotel with a swimming pool, so we went for a little swim last night as well as this morning. breakfast would have been more expensive than the cost for the night. we had some special offer and stayed for only 25 euros; breakfast would have been 32 for the 2 of us. but guess what?! most supermarkets serve relatively good coffee for free, so all we had to do was buy their croissants; bringing the total cost of our breakfast to around 3 euros; we went all out and bought some fancy orange-mango juice as well.... hmmmmmm (thats how cheapos do it!)

yesterday it was really sunny, but today was grey and gloomy. and chilly! we went for quite a walk and i was glad to have something on my head...

more pictures of what we saw in the coming days!

Hoop rolling!!

sorry for my absence.... this time i had a good reason... it was my birthday and we went exploring the netherlands a little bit! (we got a car! i do have to say; having a car in the netherlands is something completely different than having one in the usa. paying for parking literally EVERYWHERE is something we kind of hadnt taken into account). 

first stop was castle loevestein, above, which was built between 1357 and 1397. especially after having lived in the US, seeing that buildings can be THAT old is really impressive to me... unfortunately, it turned out to be closed from october onwards (then only open during weekends. grrr). at least the hoops were still there, so i tried to play the game; not easy at all! (wikipedia tells me the ancient greeks already played this game....).

More pictures...

i need to take more pictures! im currently not taking a whole lot of pictures and every evening im very indecisive as to which picture i should post. sometimes i spend an hour looking at folders and folders of pictures, only to not post any of them... (like yesterday). 

so... perhaps today we will take some more pictures. lets see. most certainly, the above is in a diner in the usa (close to boston). the booths, the ketchup bottle, the ketchup itself (the dutch give you mayo with your fries..), the burger... all so very american!! a burger is something you can get in every american restaurant (if not the only thing), but thats really not the case in the netherlands (unless you goto mcdonalds)... so a picture like the one above i probably wont get anytime soon... :)

Self portrait

nooo, this is not in the netherlands, this is yosemite, where we were back in march!! but we didnt take any self portraits recently. or many other photos, for that matter... it was so pretty there, and we had so little time. just one afternoon. we did one hike, and didnt know exactly how long it would be. with all the warnings for bears and whatnot, that was a little scary to me... and it was indeed getting dark when we finally got back to the car (i already saw ourselves stranded somewhere high up, with a bear taking our last food. hmm, actually we didnt bring much. yes, we were really not that well prepared). 

lif here in amsterdam is quite different! :) no bears for sure..... but the weather at the moment is really good. jipppiiieeee!!