Best Western Star Hotel Hengelo

... a wonderful repast of cakes and coffee/tea (very good tea!). And then we visited the pen room! One can only view this room with admiration. Later, as I sat down and dug through Biggy’s duplicates, Pete and Bert went off on their own. Pete doesn’t speak any German and Bert not much English, but Pete said they had a very nice conversation and told me later about how Bert ...

Renata left us in the centre of Hengelo around 9.30am. The main shopping area is pedestrianised, so it is nice to walk around. Dad's ghost walked round with us, nodding occasionally at some of the older buildings. I think he recognised the church but when I asked he just shrugged. "I was only four," he said.

During the war, the Dutch were starving. The cities, like Utrecht, fared worst, and many people travelled to ...

... my sleeping bag, only to hear the whine of a lone mosquito in the dark of my room. The kids had chosen to sleep together under a mosquito net, as if Overijssel was the last bastion of malaria. I pulled the hood of my sleeping bag round me, so that only my nose was showing. Half a minute later, the mosquito flew straight up my nose, causing me to writhe and snort ineffectually in my mummified, trussed state.

I don't know how the mozzie found me, but it stopped whining after that.

Before leaving on our trip to Europe, we traveled to Houston to stay with friends from college. Their daughter, it turns out, has just become engaged, so we spent most of the weekend celebrating. Hurricane Gustav didn't make it to Houston, so we spent time in their pool soaking up some sun. This was the beginning of our vacation, which I'm calling "eating our way across several time zones." The plane ride was uneventful. During the flight I noticed I could watch someone else's TV ...

Happy 4th of July! Only a few hours left of my conference. It has been a productive experience. I have gotten positive feedback for my paper and some helpful comments that I will have to incorporate when I return. Plus, I have laid the ground work for a guest researcher position at the UNU in Maastricht, Netherlands maybe next summer. They are doing some Nanotechnology work and would appreciate the American perspective. The ...

... paper, steel and shiny things Tell them they have more value More then memmories More then experiences Promise them the best that money can buy That thieves will take And time will breake RUN, little lab rat RUN! Run past the grey walls Climb your cage No more time to waste No more time to wait Run, Run away on your own Or stay and run with crowd Run but remember if you don't run on your own The only time You are taken out of that cage Is when your dead

Na een snelle verhuizing zit ik dan nu weer bij mijn ouders. De laatste dingen zijn geregeld: het enigste wat nog gebeuren moet is het "pakken der tas". En ik heb er geen zin in, dus eerst nog maar een kop koffie en een entry schrijven. Afgelopen woensdag ben ik verhuisd van Arnhem terug naar Winterswijk: vijf maand mijn kamer aanhouden werd te duur en eigenlijk ben ik ook wel een beetje klaar met Arnhem. Na er zeven jaar gewoond te hebben, lijkt Arnhem van ...

After spending the last few days in Amsterdam I could use a more relaxed day. Heading to Deventer today to drop some stuff off with a friend. The original plan was to head to Nijmegen to visit some more people but we decided to head back to Amsterdam and finish the night with some beer instead.

... to show you my targets some time. One thing I absolutely love about Germany is that they ride bike all the time! They have separate little paths for them and everything. So that day, we went with the whole family on a bike ride. Sunday was a special day though. It was Flamingo day. The story is that one day a few years ago a few flamingos turned up at one of the community's lakes and have stayed there ever since. Now there are even ...

Travelled by train from Amsterdam to Enschede which is in the east of the country. My purpose was to visit the School of Management at the University of Twente. The university is situated in a very beautiful parkland environment. Stayed at the Hotel Eden de Broeierd which is situated close to the university. The hotel itself is in a nice setting and very quiet.