However, I still don’t get why:

• Dutch people are in denial and keep on saying how uncommonly cold it is
• My Dutch for Dummies book says that Dutch winters are mild and average around 5C

I am not a statistician, but I do know what “uncommon” and “average” mean. First, if cold winters were uncommon then, how come we get two extremely cold winters in a row? Then, how can almost daily negative temperatures average out to 5?!?!? Maybe the Dutch for Dummies author needs to get herself  Statistics for Dummies

All I can say is that I cannot take people not accepting the facts and the fact is that Dutch winters are FREEZING COLD!!!!

Hey, but who does not like the sound of fresh snow and having a white x-mas?

This is a replica of the cargo ship used by the Dutch East India Company, one of the first multinational firms ever!

We were very lucky to have an amazing weather: some wind and lots of sunshine!

If you have a Museumkaartje, then you can get in for free. Advertising time: I highly recommend getting a Museum card! You pay about 45Eur the first year but you can get in almost any museum in the entire country. I am certainly renewing my card next year! So… where was I??? Yeah, this ship and the Discovery Center next door are part of the Museum Card package

Last weekend, my boyfriend and I took a stroll around a gorgeous forest right outside of Nijmegen city.

The colors are just stunning! And as each day goes by, the greenness of the trees just turns into different tones of yellow, orange and red. As Christina Aguilera sings, “it keeps getting better” and well, I just love it!

She was my hero in many aspects. She received the highest education possible for a woman back in the day. She had the courage to stand up for herself and got a divorce in the early 60′s when divorce was not an option in a mainly catholic and very traditional society. She developed a successful career as a teacher. A couple of years after she retired, she decided to go back to work and she joined the municipality’s treasury department. She was a very responsible, strict and caring person. I still resent not having been at her funeral as it all happened so fast and there was not a way for me to arrive in Mexico before her burial

Tita,  I know that you were very proud of me for having done many things and seen many places that were just concepts or dreams for you. I miss you so much and I wish you were still alive to share all my experiences, happiness and love with you.

Anyway, I will not let this day go by without thinking of all the people who are no longer with me and whom I miss and think of all the time:

• My grandmother, Tita
• My great-grandmother, Mami
• My uncle, Pepe

I was delighted to hear so!

I choreographed MJ’s Thriller (inspired by the video clip), Ghostbusters and we cooled down to This is Halloween from the Nightmare Before Christmas.

One of the girls who comes to my class bakes cakes and so she brought me these cupcakes

Halloween cupcakes

They were soo delish!!!

Overall the class was great. The dance room was full and everyone was so excited about the new Halloween songs I think I was so excited as well that I might have just taken it a little bit over the top because I ended up being so soar that I could barely move the next day

Do you think that over the years American holidays, such as Halloween, have become more popular in The Netherlands or in Europe?

When I was living in the U.S., I had a slight obsession over the food I’d eat and kept online journals to track my calorie intake, fat, carbs, etc. I would only purchase “healthy” food and fast food was certainly a big no no.

Ever since I moved to Holland, I stopped tracking my food and my eating habits have completely changed. I now eat a lot of the what  I would have back then called  ”bad food”: whole real butter, whole milk, regular bread (4-6 slices/day), etc.

Belgian waffle met slagroom

Yeah, sounds like a killer, uh? Well, to my surprise it turns out that I have lost 7lbs in exactly one year!!!!

Of course I am not claiming that indulging yourself with butter and flemish fries is a way to lose weight, but I need to admit that eating real (whole) food has definitely been a contributing factor here. Loves it!!!

OK, I will now go ahead and finish my fried egg+ tapenade+belegen gouda cheese+extra butter sandwich

Eet smakelijk!

Wafel met ijs

When rain becomes so frequent, you soon realize that new things start becoming more important in your life. In this case, the weather radar has become my savior.

Seriously, the weather radar at Weerplaza is the best thing ever, especially if we have Dutch weather and cycling is  your only means of transportation. If I have to go somewhere, I try to estimate the time at which there will be a dry patch and rush (after packing my rain coat & pants of course).

How do you cope with the Dutch weather?

While in Maastricht, we stayed at the Townhouse hotel right across the Central Station and about 15min walk from the heart of the city.

The hotel was lovely! We were always welcomed with a cup of tomato soup and they had a delicious breakfast buffet.

This is a designer hotel and each room looks different

Each room had a welcome note

Their “do not disturb” sign was a hand-made bird

This cute bird could be purchased for like 5 Euros

I highly recommend this hotel for a very comfortable and lovely stay!

View of Maastricht from the St. Jan Church tower

I had the time of my life. I was surrounded by 12+ Ph.D. students from across Europe, including someone from Brazil and another student from India. We had daily lectures and student presentations for two weeks. The topics discussed were in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation, cluster analysis, agent-based modeling, evolutionary economics, etc. It was a wonderful change! Everyone was so motivated and enthusiastic about their work and studies and so was I.

When it was my turn to present my work (aka a 1-month old research proposal), of course, I was butchered. However, I got some nice comments from fellow students telling me how brave I was for being at the summer school. Apparently, it is not very common for Master students to attend these sessions, so everyone got the impression that my advisor has “good” plans for me Anyway, I feel like I learned so much over these two weeks plus, I had the chance to meet some lead researchers and great people.

I have now scheduled a meeting with my advisor to discuss Ph.D. opportunities for me and well, I wish it goes well (fingers crossed).