Update nummer 2

Hoog tijd voor nog eens een update... Hoewel ik weinig nieuws heb, anders hadden jullie het al eerder gehoord! De voorbije week heb ik immers niet veel meer gedaan dan werken. Zelfs het weekend heb ik grotendeels in het labo gespendeerd. 't Is dan ook waarschijnlijk mijn laatste Boston avontuur, dus ik moet ervan 'profiteren' (voor zover je in het labo werken profiteren kan noemen!).
Maar er was ook tijd voor ontspanning: zaterdagavond hadden we een 'girls night out' en hebben we het Bostonse nachtleven verkend. 't Begon alweer goed ;) We gingen namelijk naar Faneuil Hall, een leuke omgeving met verschillende pubs, maar toen we daar aankwamen, werden we weer weggestuurd omdat er blijkbaar een gaslek in die omgeving was en dus werden alle pubs gesloten!! Zoiets kan alleen hier gebeuren... Dus zochten we andere oorden op in het centrum van Boston. En 't was leuk! We vierden zogezegd Renata's 21e verjaardag (terwijl ze helemaal niet jarig was, en bovendien al 32 is!), de leeftijd waarop je in Amerika pas mag beginnen drinken. Dat was ook een manier om aandacht van jongens te krijgen natuurlijk ;). En ik maakte ook ineens kennis met het 'sluitingsuur' in Boston: om 2u 's nachts moeten alle pubs en clubs sluiten! Een beetje flauw, zeker als je je goed aan het amuseren bent, maar zo heb je tenminste nog iets aan de volgende dag ;).

Voor de rest zijn mijn huisgenoten aan het roteren. Jina en Tobi zijn deze week vertrokken, en Ben is voor 3 weken op vakantie vertrokken. Spijtig, want het was een leuke kliek! Bernhard (Oostenrijker) is dan weer ingetrokken sinds zaterdag, en één van deze dagen zou er nog een Canadees moeten intrekken.

Voilà, dat was het voor vandaag. Foto's zijn er spijtig genoeg niet, ik doe namelijk niet meer zoveel aan sightseeing, en het weer is sinds de laatste dagen terug slecht geworden!

Six flags

First of all, I'm gonna switch to Dutch! It'll make things easier for me and anyway, as long as I'm in Boston, I only have to keep the non-Boston people updated on my wherabouts and whatabouts. (if that even exists!)

Starting now!

Voila, dit is ineens al een stuk gemakkelijker!
Zondag zijn we dus met 5 man van het labo (Bia, Jess, Danielle, Matt en ikke) Six Flags gaan onveilig maken! Da's één van mijn favoriete bezigheden! En we hadden echt geluk, want het was én goed weer én ongelofelijk rustig in het park!
We begonnen onze dag met de "Superman ride", de coolste rollercoaster van al (spijtig dat ze die niet in Walibi hebben...), en het begon al meteen goed: we waren 5 seconden vertrokken, en halverwege de helling waar we omhoog werden getrokken viel het stil! Dus hingen we daar lekker achteruit te hangen, in het ongewisse. Na een minuut of 20 gingen we toch ineens terug vooruit gelukkig!
De rest van de dag hebben we ons meer dan goed kunnen bezighouden met alle andere rollercoasters, waterattracties, en andere ritjes. Om onze dag af te sluiten, gingen we nog eens in de Superman, en ongelofelijk maar waar: we vielen terug stil! Dit keer waren we gelukkig nog niet vertrokken, enkel nog maar ingestapt. Na een kwartier kregen ze ons toch los en moesten we uitstappen. Toen werden er eerst 3 testritten gereden, en daarna mochten we terug instappen. Jawadde, toen vertrouwde ik het toch eventjes niet! Maar 't is goed afgelopen ;) En het blijft toch nog steeds de coolste rollercoaster!!

Ik heb spijtig genoeg geen foto's, want op geen enkele attractie mocht de camera mee...

Update

Time is really flying, so here's a little update of the last week!

On Saturday, it was actually really nice, warm and sunny outside unlike the weather forecast predicted. So I went to Boston common and the public garden, the main parks in the center of Boston, and took some pictures with my brand new camera!
Here's a very small selection:



On Sunday, me and the girls (Bia, Renata and Jess) went out for brunch in "Zaftigs". This place doesn't take reservations but seems to be pretty good because there's always a long line waiting outside. So we decided to try it as well. We were there at 11 am, and after 1,5 hours of waiting in the cold, we finally got a table! But it was worth the wait, the food was really good! And way too much! (I forgot to take a picture though...)

On Tuesday we went bowling with a bunch of people from lab, we had free bowling lanes from 6 to 8 pm. It was fun! Even though I hadn't played in a while, I still managed to get +- 120 points, without even throwing a strike!

And now I'm gonna pray for good weather for this weekend, so we can go to Six Flags!!!

One fine day

No, not ironically! Today was genuinely a great day! For the following reasons:

1. The road construction works seem to have finished already, so I slept wonderful!

2. The weather was great! Sunny and 20°C! Just too bad that this was the only nice day for the rest of the week. Well, as long as next weekend is fine, so we can go to Six Flags!

3. I had great results in lab yesterday and today! And that after less than 2 weeks in Boston. Let's hope I didn't jinx it now by saying this ;)

4. I just bought a brand new camera, an Olympus FE-340. No, not an Canon Eos, that's a little too expensive ;) It cost $200, which is almost no money with the current dollar to euro conversion rate!

So this is my new baby (well, actually it's Pascal's and mine, but for these 3 months I pretend it's just mine ;) :

So now I might start taking a little bit more pictures :)

Online groceries - the finale

Just when I was about to give up hope, the groceries arrived! At exactly 9.58 pm!!

Road construction - the sequel

This is actually the sequel from last year when I stayed here at the same place. Somewhere by the end of May, the beginning of June, really big road construction works started on our street. Nothing special you would say, but since it's a main road and they didn't want to cause traffic jams, they only worked at night! It was a lot of noise and a lot of sleepless nights!
And just when I thought to have peaceful nights this time, they started working again last night! I just couldn't believe it. Even my super duper ear plugs didn't help and so I stayed awake until at least 4 am. Let's see how this story ends...

Online groceries - parts 2, 3 and 4...

Here's the update on the online groceries shopping.
Last week I tried to order groceries online, but I couldn't since I didn't have an American credit card. That part was easily solved though by Benjamin, a roommate of me, who had one. So he also put in some groceries and we ordered! I got an email confirming that the groceries would be delivered on Saturday April 5, between 12 and 2 pm and that I had to make sure somebody would be home. Great! So last Saturday I stayed home until after 3 pm, but no groceries... I didn't have a cell phone at the time, so I couldn't reach them to ask what went wrong. Later that day I finally had my own cell phone, so I called, but it was past opening hours.

Sunday then, I called again and I figured out what went wrong: apparently they had tried calling me (god knows why, since that's not the way it normally goes), but since I had given my phone number from work, I didn't answer, and that's when they decided not to bring the groceries anymore and even shut down my account! Great! I told that I now had a cell phone. But apparently I would have to sort things out on Monday with the people from the billing department.

Monday then, I called again, explained everything, and the only other thing they needed was a call from Benjamin to say that it was ok with him that I used his credit card. So I had to ask Benjamin if he would please call them. Afterwards I called again, and they told me they opened my account again and that I was allowed to put in 1 order (since it was not my credit card).
So that's what I did yesterday, and right now I'm waiting for the groceries... It's 8 pm now, and they should show up before 10 pm. Fingers crossed!

Geole

I already knew that Americans were having trouble pronouncing my name ("Hula"??), but that they're also having trouble spelling it correctly was new to me! Especially when they have my correct name on paper and they just have to copy it! So now my Harvard ID, wíth picture this year, says "GEOLE AERTS". Let's see how they'll pronounce that ;)

And don't laugh, I was expecting a more flattering perspective...

Westin St. Francis

This week Ann Marie (my supervisor in the lab in Boston) and I booked our hotel for the Endo2008 congress in San Francisco. I'll be staying there from June 13th until June 18th. When I saw the price per night, I was a little shocked for a second: $ 255 / night! Well, I'm glad I don't have to pay that with my own money!!

But just take a look at the hotel, and you know it's gonna be completely worth it: Westin St. Francis . I'm sure I'm gonna have very nice dreams there!