I hate this fucking country! Some cunt stole my bike yesterday, in the 30 minutes between coming home and leaving, right in front of my house. My sweet baby Gazelle! It is probably the only Gazelle in Boston, which gives me a very slim chance of finding it back. I left home to see a concert by Turbonegro, infamous for songs such as “Dont say motherfucker motherfucker”, “If you see Kay” and “I got erection”.

The gig was good, but more frustration accumulated. Moshing, crowdsurfing, stagediving: prohibited. How on earth am I supposed to enjoy this show then!? I might as well start listening to bloody Britney Spears instead. I got into a fight with an undercover security guy but my friend Chris calmed things down and prevented me being thrown out. The show was still good, though. These guys know how to make a party.

Normally I try to update my blog every five-or-so days; this week has been crazy and it took me a little bit longer. My first work discussion. We have two weekly meetings; one at the Broad and one at the Dana-Farber, the two institutes were people from our lab work. Yesterday it was my turn to present at the Broad. It was actually my turn somewhere in November, but I wanted some feedback for one of my projects and moved it forward. Of course from that moment on all my experiments failed and I ran into all sorts of trouble.

This resulted in me staying late all week to get the data for my presentation finished. But when I left the Broad Wednesdaynight at 01:00 am, I felt pretty good. All data were finished. The presentation went good, lots of reponse. When we finished around 01pm, I left for home and crashed on the couch. Today I am still feeling more than ready for the weekend, which I guess shows that I am not used nor made for working hard

Aside from the habit of dining out a lot, the menu is quite different here. For lunch, I often go to the cafeteria at the Whitehead Institute (there is nothing at the Broad). This is another famous research institute which is neighboring the Broad. The menu consists of wraps, fries, burgers or salad.

As I am trying to avoid a daily fat overdose, the salad is a frequent choice. Just salad is a bit limited. So lets have a bag of chips with that (fat is still an essential dietary element). Of course, with only a small bag of chips and some salad I am starving by 3pm, so I better also eat some of the sandwiches I took from home. Few people bring lunch here, and if they do it is a leftover from the night before. And given the quality of the bread here (it sucks), it is no surprise that I am probably the only one at the Broad bringing a sandwich lunchbox. However, I do try to expand my horizon as far as eating new stuff is concerned. I will not claim I am a big fan of mint chocolate chip ice cream drizzled in peanut butter sauce, but it sure is an at-least-once-in-a-lifetime-experience

I updated the style of my blog and added a ‘Current’ feature that shows what my latest movie, music and book are. Hope you like it (I do).

(Disclaimer: this will be one of the gayest posts so far). Many things are different between the Netherlands and the States. Even or maybe especially simple things. The first time I did laundry, I ruined a whole bunch of clothes by accidentally using detergent with bleach. Bleach in detergent! I think we got rid of that stuff years ago in the Netherlands.

Amongst the damage were two pairs of jeans I loved. When I went shopping for new stuff, it quickly became clear that I am either too long, or too slim for this country. It is hard to find my size, something like 30×34, in regular clothing stores and I usually end up with the more expensive ones. Apart from the lack of choice, the other big frustration when I go out to get new clothes is the poor design. Oversized is consider hip here. And when I say oversized I mean oversized: as in, a white tshirt reaching to your knees and trousers the size of a curtain. A current trend is the pullover with a zipper. I think we were through with that trend in Europe last year. And let us not start the use of flipflops (’slippers’): wearing flipflops when you go out for dinner is perfectly ok. I never thought I would say this, but I start missing the We! Not that that is a good example of great design, but at least they would have my size…

A new apartment, a new phase. This weekend was Big Moving Weekend in the Boston area. College starts this week and 95% of the lease contracts here begin and end on September 1. As breaking your lease is expensive (typically costs one month of rent), the cheapest option to switch between places is to move around September 1.

Last weekend, the Great Trek started. Uhaul and other truck-/van rental (Penske, Budget) companies were sold out weeks and weeks before. The trucks were everywhere, three in every street on average! Very funny to be a witness of this mayhem. On Sunday, it was my turn to make the move from Harvard to Columbia Street. I rented a truck, even though the distance is only 100 meters. Uhaul is the cheap option for a truck rental. You make a reservation online for a certain date and number of hours, and they call you the day before where and what time to pick up your truck. Unfortunately I never received a call and was pretty stressed out on Sunday morning. When I finally got somebody on the phone, I was told to go pick up my truck in Lawrence which is about 30 miles/50 km from where I live. Well, at least it was cheap (and Meri has a car). Three friends, Chris, Meri and Martin came to help and we were done in a few hours. I spent all day unpacking yesterday (a free day here, Labor Day) and now I live by myself again! I already enjoy it enormously. Now I am busy getting internet, cable, insurance etcetera, which is the same hassle as in the Netherlands. I love it when a plan comes together.