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. 

My first trip to France and to Paris.  Quintessential picture of Paris. 

Just returned from a long weekend in Paris.  Didn't have much time to explore the city.  I guess I'll just have to go back.  We joined a tour group that gave us a bus tour of some of the more popular sites.  They gave us saturday afternoon to explore by ourselves.  I found my way to the Louvre museum (had to see the mona lisa) and the notre dame (nice building).  We had a nice boat tour along the river seine.  Took tons of pics of the Effiel tower but didn't go up it.  There'll be other opportunities.  It's not too far away. 

http://www.njagyouth.org/Liberty_.htm

My own private fireworks display.  Happy 4th!

Just about finished with laboratory animal science course.  We have give a presentation tomorrow and we're finished.  The exam wasn't too tough.

Netherlands didn't even score a goal last night even though the score was 2-1.  Exciting game nonetheless.