Back from vacation but been too busy to update.

My friend from college came to visit last week and we hung around Holland for a few days.  Did some touristy things in Amsterdam and Utrecht.  Towards the middle of the week, we made our way over to Germany.  We spent about 5 hours in Koblenz; a small city where the Moselle and Rhine river meets and a place to start a visit to the wine valleys.  We didn't have much time to get to any vineyards but we did some wine shopping. 

After that, we hopped on a train to Munich.  We did some sight-seeing and visited some of the more famous beer halls.  After a couple of liters of beers from the beer halls, we found our way to Oktoberfest.  It was a mad house.  The beer tents were jammed with people and finding a place to sit was next to impossible.  A couple more liters of beers there and we were complete. 

Overall, I found Germany to be very attractive.  A lot of buildings, churches, and castles had splashes of color on them.  I'm definitely not done visiting that country. 

I'm sorry for my lack of updates.  I've been extremely busy.  I have 2 undergraduate/ masters students under me now.  I've been helping them along with their projects.  I found out this week that they might throw another one at me in October.  I'm also doing work for the company and developing my own project.  On top of all this is scientific conferences.  I had to make a poster and prepare a presentation.  The first of many conferences will be held in the next 2 days.

The next Dutch language class will start next week.  I've been rather lazy with the Dutch learning since my class ended in May.  I better do some studying this weekend.

I have a friend visiting from the states next week and we might make it to Germany. 

This summer has been one of the coldest in the Netherlands.  It went by rather quickly.

Fire in my building in Chinatown.  Happened Thursday morning.  My family is safe.