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Changes (Or: 3 months of work left)

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Niki

Today is September 14.

My last day of work is December 14. That’s the last day of finals. It just hit me that there is only three months to go.

Now that I am in the final semester, each class seems like the last. For example, today was a Nursing Research 101 class in the morning. For them, I went to their classroom and spoke about how to use the databases for articles and the catalog for books. In the afternoon I had a genetics class where the professor brought her class to the library. She wanted me to talk about the distinction between primary and secondary sources within the sciences and how to look at only a journal article abstract and figure out which is which.

Closeup of a tree on campus, Spring 2012

At this point, when I introduce myself I’ve taken to jokingly explaining to the students that if they need help they need to come find me this semester before I move. Today after hearing where I was moving half of the class clapped, a few said “awesome/cool” and one said “Congratulations!” There’s just something about Europe that people tend to like.

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In a dash (Or: Crossing New York City)

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Niki

Recently I found myself in the city in the morning, though I had to go to work afterwards. I never knew I could power walk from 3rd Avenue to 8th Avenue so quickly to get to the Port Authority bus terminal, but I did. Somehow.

Along the way, I snapped this picture. Very quickly.

I just thought the design of the front of the building was interesting. And every New York City picture needs an image of a cab. Even if their design is changing yet again.

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London (Or: Camden Lock Market)

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Niki

Continuing the London theme, another place I visited in my short 36 hours was the Camden Lock. It is an open air market that was first started in 1975.

It is only closed one day a year – Christmas Day.

Seeing the open air market just makes me want another hot, freshly baked stroopwafel. Yum.

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London (Or: On the hillside)

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Niki

When I open the folder of images I have from the trip I took to the Netherlands in summer 2010, I am always reminded (as the pictures come first) that before I visited NL, I first went to London. A quick 36 hour trip.

One of the places my friend and I visited was Primrose Hill, which overlooks the city.

With breathtaking views, it is surprisingly steep and sprawling.

Unfortunately I have one memory of this place that comes back to me when I look at these photos. As I mentioned previously, the hill is sprawling. There is a path down, but it is very long, though not steep at that section. Well, as kids are inclined to do… a young kid (maybe 6-8 years) raced past us on his bike, letting gravity pull him down. I was watching him idly while chatting, and a long way down and off in the distance, his bike hit an obstacle of some sort and he was thrown violently to the side into the grass. Though after the shock wore off you could hear him crying, and see him moving.

What made it painful was a roughly 10 seconds of wait as everyone wondered what to do, as people made their way to him. But suddenly, a woman raced past us, screaming, and we realized it was his mother. But he was so far ahead – so very far ahead – that it took a good minute for her to even reach him. But by the time we got close, the drama was subsiding, and we ended up taking a different path that led us away before we passed him.

Some time later, we ended up passing the little boy and his mother again elsewhere on the grounds. He was protecting a very obviously bloodied nose, but seemed otherwise okay. I am sure it was one of those “kids are tough and surprisingly durable” moments, but it was agonizing to watch in real time.

But! It is but a memory now.

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Football (Or: The squashed ball kind)

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Niki

Ah! It’s the opening night of the NFL season again. Cowboys vs. Giants at the MetLife stadium. I have never been there – only the old stadium that the Giants and Jets used to share. That was an awesome night – Roger, Marco and I went to a Jets game vs the Cincinnati Bengals (the animal, not a bread product).

It was the last game of the regular season. It was the only game left on the schedule that had playoff implications. So NFL decided to use their flex scheduling option to move the 4:15PM game to 8:15PM. Did I mention the last regular season game for NFL occurs in early January?

So freaking COLD.

When a coworker tells you to bring cardboard so you can step on it and insulate your feet, listen! It was 15-17F (-8C) most of the time, with a bit of wind. Yet, it was an unbelievable experience, too, as it was my first NFL game ever. For all of us. Since it was “win and get in” type implications for the playoffs, each fan received a rally towel to whip around their head like a maniac. I also remember Roger cheering like crazy. One of my stronger memories. That and the hot chocolate was only hot for about 1.5 seconds. And the few Bengals fans who came got a bit of ribbing and booing, but not that bad (thankfully).

But it was a shutout for the Jets. They won 37-0. The other team never even scored! The only problem was the high score meant that people started leaving early in the 3rd quarter (with one quarter to go), so the stadium emptied and the body heat dispersed. Yikes.

I will definitely miss the NFL games when I move. Marco does have ESPN America, but there is also the time difference to consider. But I will still be able to see a game on Sunday nights at least.

* * * * * *

Awesome street band sign, by ithinkthereforiamsterdam. I highly recommend a quick click.

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Flags (Or: Labor Day and hurricanes)

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Niki

While I was walking to Shoprite I came across flags that had been put up in the downtown area of my town, as today is Labor Day. Mostly people just use the holiday as an excuse to grill and have the day off from work.

The flags you see continue every 15 feet or so throughout the main road in town. If you look on the left side of the picture, you can just barely see an old payphone booth. It was originally a red English payphone booth (complete with a royal crown symbol on top), but it has since been painted black. At the bottom you can see the red paint coming through, however.

Also on the left is The Saloon, which was one of the hardest hit areas for this town during last year’s Hurricane Irene in late August. It just has the bad luck of being in one of the lowest parts of the downtown area, since the road slopes upwards in either direction.

The lower level of the saloon (where the bathrooms and arcade games were) was completely flooded from floor to ceiling. The ground level was also completely damaged.

The saloon ended up being out of business from late August until just before Christmas (hence the Christmas decorations below). Although it was officially open again, the renovations for the lower level were not yet done by that point.

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Dr. Sun Yat-sen (Or: Statue in NYC Columbus park)

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Niki

In April of this year, Roger, Marco and I made a stop in Chinatown after visiting the 9/11 memorial.

This is a statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in Columbus Park, New York City. He was the first president of the modern Republic of China.

Two other things I remember about Chinatown: buying tea bags at TenRen (variety sets), as well as buying awesome red bean ice cream at The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. So good, and the portion size for my ice cream cone was a bit on the large size — I got a lot for my money.

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Fridays (Or: Russian amusement rides and college football)

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Niki

It’s Friday. Het is vrijdag!

It has been one long week, and my body would like to remind me of this fact. I felt so sluggish this week. But hopefully I can sleep in a bit tomorrow morning.

First off, I want to share with you a crazy Russian amusement ride:

http://www.wimp.com/russiaride/

My reaction:

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Phishing (Or: Hitting pay dirt

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Niki

A few days ago at work I returned to my desk and noticed two new emails. The older one (by only 8 minutes) was labeled as coming from “System Administrator” but in actuality was a phishing email. Something to the affect of “We noticed your system has a virus. To help us get rid of it, please CLICK HERE and enter your username and password.”

The newer one (by only 8 minutes!) was from someone in IT, saying the email was a phishing attempt and to delete it without clicking the link.

That was two days ago.

Continue reading →

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First days (Or: Back in the groove of school)

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Niki

School started on Monday, and it’s been an interesting week so far. I definitely have to get used to having students around. They fall into many groups.

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