Hmm, the weather forecast seems totally random. Now they predict rain for only one day next week, on Friday to be exact.
But the temperature and weather type are pretty Dutch so no transition time needed to get used to that.

Best news of this week is that I got my first security deposit back! Verizon Wireless sent me a check for $411.51 so it feels good to have that money back where it belongs: my pocket!
Also got my paycheck today which is perfect timing with only 3 days to go before my parents land in Pittsburgh.

Almost everything is arranged for our Niagara Falls trip, hotel and rental car are booked. Only thing I still need to do is drop by the AAA to get some road maps but that's an easy fix.

Tomorrow at 6 pm is our next soccer massacre. Good thing it wasn't earlier this week cause my legs are finally starting to feel normal again. So the muscles are ready for some heavy activity again.
And it might even rain which makes it even better cause being Dutch, playing soccer in the rain is definitely one of the best things in life :-)

Weather going downhill :(
Four days left and I hope my parents bring their rain coats haha.

My apartment is actually looking quite nice now that I've got some furniture haha.
Also just picked up all of Niels and Julia's kitchen utensils so now I have a lot more than I need. Will see what I'll keep and what I'll bring to a Thrift store or something.

The temperature outside has dropped slightly but it's still about 80 F in my house. Even with my silly ass aircos on. Funny to realize I'll be freezing my ass off in about 2 months from now.

Only 5 days left.

Ok, playing soccer for 3 straight hours yesterday while knowing I had to move lots of Niels' stuff to my place wasn't the smartest idea ever.
But I'm sure my legs will feel better in a few days haha.

Only 6 days to go, I'm curious if they will touch down in Pittsburgh on the estimated arrival time.

Divine intervention!
The anti abortion car has vanished ha!

Was raining quite a bit earlier this morning but the temperature is still around 30 Celsius. And I'm willing to bet the humidity has increased even more.
Gonna be tough playing soccer in this kind of weather but fuck it.
Just bought my own ball so I can get some extra practice to show these Americans how Dutchies play soccer haha.

7 days aka one week left...

There's a car parked in front of my house with a sticker on its back bumper saying "Abortion is destroying America's future".

Right.

I didn't expect such pro-life idiots in Pittsburgh and the fact the slogan combines it with America's future is utterly retarted.
With their current president pretty much every bit of future being destroying ought to be credited by Sjors Dobbeljoe Boesj.

I seriously have to refrain myself not to tear off the sticker and replace it with a liberal one!

Time is flying for sure, 8 days left now.
So far the weather forecast for the period mom and dad will be here is looking good, sunny with 26-27 Celsius.

Will do some shopping today at the Waterfront. After jumping in the shower and doing some laundry.
Soccer again tomorrow, hell yeah!

Busy little Dutch bee, 9 days...

Having a Dutch night today with mostly Dutchies I have never met before. Gonna be interesting.
Too bad I have to skip today's soccer game though.


10 days...

Haha, man oh man.
What a day.

Had my road test today but since I didn't have an international driver's license the guy didn't let me take the damn test. My international license expired in April so he was right. Until today I could bullshit my way through all the things and the people at Penndot Pittsburgh even let me take the damn knowledge test without the international license.
Go figure!

But the guy told me to get a friend with a valid license and come back in the afternoon haha.
So that's what I did, got my friend Soudi and passed the silly test and now am fully legal concerning the driving papers!
Only took me half a day more than planned haha.

Anyway.

11 days left.

The countdown continues... 12 days left.

Summer in Pittsburgh still going strong which can't be said for my home country haha.
Well let's see if the weather keeps up in September.

Played another pick up game of soccer yesterday which lasted for 2.5 hours. We did have 3 short breaks but that's still a pretty long time I'd say. Muscles pretty achy and shit today but it's worth it.

And the countdown has begun, 13 days left before pops and moms arrive in Pittsburgh!

I almost forgot but when we went to have lunch at the Indian place in our street there was a woman sitting at the table next to us with several tattoos.
One of them was on her chest.
Couldn't help but think of the obvious question Matthias would ask her hahaha!

Been a while again, slacking as usual.
Must admit I've been up and about for quite a bit of sports. Running once a week and now pick up soccer games. Lotsa fun for sure!

Found this funny TV ad for "March of the penguins"
Go check that documentary out if you haven't already!

Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum

We were called to the forest,
and we went down.
A wind wind blew warm and eloquent,

We were searching for the secrets of the universe,
we rounded up demons and forced them
to tell us what it all meant.

We tied them to trees,
and broke them down, one by one.
On a scrap of paper they wrote these words:

And as we read them, the sun broke,
through the trees.

"Dread the passage of Jesus, for he will not return."

Then we headed back to our world,
and left the forest behind,
our hearts singing with all the knowledge of love.

But somewhere, somehow, we lost the message,
along the way,
and when we got home, we bought ourselves a house.

And we bought a car that we did not use,
And we bought a cage, and two singing birds.
And at night we'd sit and listen to the canary song.

For we'd both run right out of words.

Now the stars they are all angled wrong,
and the sun and the moon refuse to burn.

But I remember a message,
in a demon's hand,

"Dread the passage of Jesus, for he does not return."
...he does not return
...he does not return

Okay, I made what was wrong right again.
Passed the damn knowledge test for the PA drivers license WITHOUT ANY ERRORS!!!

So now I'm gonna make an appointment for the road test!
Bring it on!!

It's official now: I'm a complete retard!

Failed the knowledge test for the PA drivers license yesterday.
Made one too many errors so I'll go back on Monday morning.

CogSci/Vancouver trip

Monday basically was a lazy day. Got up very late, went to stroll around the shops in Vancouver and spent a lot of time in the HMV. That's a big CD/DVD store so yes I couldn't resist the urge to buy something.
Bought the Criterion edition of Mike Leigh's "Naked".
That's one of my fave movies of all time and even though it was 50 Canadian dollars it most definitely is worth every penny.

Got up at 4:15 am on Tuesday to catch my 6:30 am flight out of Vancouver to Chicago.
Since I tried to carry on my 3 piece luggage in Pittsburgh and was sent back to check 1 bag in, I decided to check in one bag right away.
Asked them if I should pick up the bag and re-check in at Chicago but no, I could pick it up in Pittsburgh.

Right.

I spent most of both flight dozing so that's brilliant but when I landed in Pittsburgh and wanted to pick up my bag.
Taadaa.
No bag.

So make a report and filled in a form to which they said the bag would be delivered later that night (yesterday night).
Got home and waited but no one came by to drop off my bag. Called the info phone number and a very friendly computer informed me I should wait with complaining until after 12:30 am.
Around 11:17 pm I got a phone call from the company who works for United Airlines to deliver all the lost baggage, and they asked me if it would be okay if the bag was delivered the next morning between 10 and 12 am.
To which I kindly said no cause I need to go to work (duh), and asked whether they couldn't deliver it last night. To which the guy agreed and just before 1 am I was finally reunited with my bag.
Happy happy joy joy.

And FUCK United Airlines.

CogSci 2006 report part deux

During the eye movement workshop I recognized someone whom also started psychology in the same year as I did and soon I met several other Dutchies as well.
Lunch was always on our own according to the conference schedule so we always went out and walked around in downtown Vancouver for a nice place to eat lunch and talk Dutch.

On Wednesday evening there supposedly was fireworks scheduled but we weren't sure where exactly it would be. When we finished dinner and walked out of the restaurant it seemed like the entire population of Vancouver was walking into our direction to the beach.
Being the deductive researchers we are, we figured the fireworks were to take place right there.
So we waited and watched in amazement (Belgian PhD student Ben) and amusement (me) how the cops poured a whole tray of beer cans they had confiscated into the gutter.
The fireworks were cool and organized by Italy, to be followed by China on Saturday.

On Thursday the conference kicked off with keynote speaker and lots of interesting sessions of which I wisely chose Learning to be the main topic to attend.
Since they didn't leave any room between the talks and the posters sessions (three sessions, Thursday night through Saturday night 7pm-10:30pm) I skipped the last session prior to the first poster session and got some tasty McDonalds food.
Yum.
But at least I didn't starve to death cause there was no food whatsoever during the 3.5 hours I represented my dissertation poster. Had some good reactions, interesting and entertaining conversations and got rid of the 5 copies of my dissertation I brought with me.
Totally exhausted at 10:30 pm I bought (yes, bought) a card at the reception of the Sheraton to go online and check my e-mail.
Oh, in between all this I also checked what happened with the payment and the exact same girl who checked me in said she forgot all about it.
*Insert condescending bitch bashing rant here*
So I kindly asked her to check and it appeared all had worked out just fine.

Friday consisted of more talks and work things. Even went to the 2nd poster session while I didn't have a poster. I hooked up with colleague Dr. Phil and after a good healthy walk we found a good Indian place and had an excellent dinner. Afterwards we went to a place called Little Amsterdam. Guess what was going on in there.
Yes it smelled just like home.
And no, I was completely sober throughout the entire evening/conference.

When Saturday kicked in I was getting conference fatigue and I knew I would have my 2nd poster from 7 pm till 10:30 pm. So I decided to skip the sessions after 3 pm and went to the indoor pool and whirlpool to chill out.
There was less crowd left for this 3rd poster evening session but I still had some interested folks to explain my research so all good.
Around 10 pm I hooked up with some other Dutchies and assorted other nationalities and went out to see the Chinese fireworks. Which was cool as well but seemed shorter than the Italian.
Afterwards we lost track of each other but found most of us again at a central point we'd agreed to meet. Though the police (on foot and on horse) did their best to clean the streets ordering everyone to piss off.

Sunday was my first day off and after a long and comfy sleep I hooked up with (surprise surprise) Dutchies in Stanley Park. After lunch they had to get ready to catch their plane and I went off to the Aquarium.
Cool place and I love taking advantage of my CMU faculty card acting like I'm still a student. What can I say, discounts bring out the best in me!
Afterwards I went to the Vancouver Lookout which has an amazing panorama on the city, the mountains and the harbor.
Also went to see "Superman returns" and it simply rocks. It's popcorn Hollywood stuff all the way but I love it!

Back in town

Back from Vancouver where I visited the CogSci 2006 conference. I did try to leave a message the day before I left but this blogsite crashed and I figured 'fuck it'.

Short report:
Conference was good, my 2 posters had a fair share of interested people, the Sheraton hotel sucks, Vancouver is a very cool town and I ran into a whole bunch of Dutchies.

The only pic of the conference:

More pics HERE.

Long report, part 1:
On Tuesday July 25th I left Pittsburgh at 6 am and spent most of the day travelling with a lay over in Chicago.
I arrived at the Sheraton in Vancouver in the afternoon. Upon checking in I got the response that my credit card didn't work. To which I replied I only have a debit card since I'm a foreigner working/living in the USA and as such do not have any credit history.
Then she tried my card as a debit card but for some reason she could only deduct $600 from it, prompting her to say I was only good for 3 days and that she would try again later and leave me a message.
After dropping my bags in my room and refreshing I went out for a walk in downtown Vancouver and really liked the atmosphere. Lots of shops, people up and about but not too crowded.
I also had to buy some shaving cream since I forgot to pack it.

On Wednesday morning I decided to get some breakfast and had 1 cup of tea, 1 jus d'orange, a croissant and a piece of bread. Total cost $15.
Lesson learned: go to Starbucks which is in the hotel as well, one floor lower and costs for a Blueberry muffin (yumyum) and a drink are substantially lower.

Shortly after the breakfast experience the conference started with a day long workshop on eye movements and we got a good and interesting overview of the current state of research on this topic.
Note: no drinks were supplied during the afternoon break. By mistake?