For those involved: I have booked a flight and will be in the Netherlands/Germany for Wacken

I work at the Broad Institute. It was founded in 2002 by Eric Lander, who was one of the project leaders of the Human Genome Project. The name ‘Broad’ comes from the Broad family who have donated in total $100 million dollar, no strings attached. This seems - and is - fabulously generous. It is also not uncommon to do so in the US. High-profile institutes as Harvard and MIT are especially rich in buildings-with-a-name. Next to the Broad Institute, there is the Whitehead Institute. My official employer is the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute - mr. Farber was the doctor who initiated this specialized Cancer Institute, mr. Dana was the guy who funded it. Other examples are the Bauer Center and the Yawkey center. If you are not as wealthy, you can also buy a seat in one of the auditoria where scientific lectures are given (a name tag will be placed on the seat) or buy the lecture itself (it will then be called the xxx-lecture). The reason I point this out in this blog is that although America’s social systems are terrible compared to the European systems, the more wealthy Americans frequently donate money to all kinds of organizations that will provide some form of welfare. I guess Americans want to be more in control of what their money is spend on.

Apart from funding the Broad Institute (and a similar institute at Caltech, the Broads also like art. They have acquired a collection this has an estimated worth of $500 million. Life is all about priorities…

On my way to work this morning, I saw a nun on skates. To me this looked quite funny. But then again, why not? Why would a nun not like to exercise? Yet, I have a strong feeling that there are few places in the world where you will see a nun skating to - the monastery? The supermarket? It is this thing with American people I noticed; they do not really care how they dress - it is not uncommon to go to a bar on flipflops or jogging shoes - but yet they seem to feel the need to be very expressive. Nowhere will you so many people with the most lively, colorful and BIG tattoos, for instance. Or blue hair. Or ear piercings the size of a small glass. My small tattoo seems quite harmless compared to that and I gave up my earrings a while ago.

I think the nun, apart from needing a means of transport, also wanted to express herself. It worked, she made an impression on me. I probably make an impression on other people since I, being Dutch, go everywhere by bike. This was actually proven by the gentleman the other day that shouted through his open car window “you are going to kill yourself this way brother!”. I will watch out better next time.

The MIT Francophile group organized a soccer football tournament this weekend. One of my roommates is French and so I was able to play it. We had a good team, won a few, lost a few and had lots of fun. The sun was very hot. And now it is time to face reality: I am growing old. After two days playing, my legs are very stiff today. I guess that is the price you pay!
Other then that, I also went to a birthday party on Saturday night. One of my co-workers celebrated her birthday; we were invited to come to a poolhall to play some games of pool. I thought this was somewhat particular, to celebrate your b-day in a poolhall. Bu then again, foreign friends of mine in Rotterdam always make lots of fun about Dutch circle parties, so I guess it is the Dutch who are particular, not the rest of the world. Hurray to us then, I personally favor a good circle party

My journey on the slopes of life continues and is still leading uphill (jeez I should write poetry ). 7,52 m3 with clothes, books, CDs, and some furniture arrived in good shape yesterday. The aerobed that served as my nightly shelter for more than two months has been deflated, my IKEA bed has been set up. Hurray!

The apartment I rent together with three others has a contract until August 31, like almost all apartments in Boston and Cambridge. At that point, the landlady and us have to decide whether we want to extend our lease, or not. I have already decided to move out. Ten years of living by myself is not very compatible with living with roommates, even when they are as nice as mine. So now I frequently visit Craigslist, the American equivalent of Marktplaats, to find one of the many 1-bedroom apartments available in Boston (1 bedroom meaning 2 rooms in total). The price range for these is between $1200 and $1500 - not cheap, even compared to my room for which I currently pay $762. Luckily I do not pay taxes in this country.

Life has been uphill for me lately. The KWF fellowship, things at work go well, and I integrated into American society quickly as I am currently dating an American girl. Not everybody is this lucky. A relative of a close friend has been in the hospital since a few weeks, mostly in a coma, after having been found unconscious on the streets of Manhattan. Doctors think he has been attacked - the poor man is 68. Police now thinks it was because of his race.

This man has been a professor at one of the Ivy League universities for most of his life. He died yesterday as a result of the attack. I cannot believe people can be so… stupid? Cruel? Ignorant? How do you describe such people? It makes me very angry, It makes want to turn away from public service and to become one of these selfish consultants or investment bankers. Then again, I guess life is not so black and white. Lets hope this news hits the media and helps preventing such horrible things in the future. RIP to this poor man, at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Robert Weinberg is a very famous scientist who has worked as a professor of Biology at MIT for most of his life. His contributions to science have been numerous, such as the discovery of the first oncogene (ras) and tumor suppressor gene (rb1). My supervisor, Matthew Meyerson, did a postdoc with Weinberg. Weinberg has written several books and his most recent book, ‘the biology of cancer’ is invaluable to cancer researchers. Matthew thought so too and generously bought copies of the book for all lab members. As a special treat, he invited Weinberg for a signing session.

Although I personally do not really care for an autograph in my cancer biology book, it was exciting to meet and talk with this big shot professor. I was even more excited when he started talking in Dutch to me! Turns out that Weinbergs’ roots lie in het Gooi, an area close to Amsterdam.So now I have a copy of his book, signed and autographed. He wrote more or less the same in all books but mine is probably the only one concluded by ‘groetjes’ :).

Although my days in the Netherlands suffered from bad karma, it was all worth it because I got to see my family and friends. And now the actual reason for coming - interviewing for a Fellowship of the Dutch Cancer Fund - has been successful too. Please everybody, donate to KWF, they will be paying my salary for the coming four years! I am extremely happy with this of course. It means I will be working at the Broad in Boston for three years and will then return to the Netherlands to work at the UMC Utrecht. I will try to find out if the racial background of a cancer patient makes a difference for treatment and chance on survival. This is going to be seriously celebrated over the weekend