Valkenburg

Michelle and I decided to keep the birthday theme going this weekend, by cashing in on my big present; a trip to Valkenburg. Valkenburg is a small town just 13km from Maastricht and is pretty much the tourist center of south Limburg. It's an old town, with some cool castle ruins on the hill, and also a modern entertainment town, with a casino, alpine slides (which were sadly closed) and a zip chord coming down from an old church-like tower.

We started our journey in the late morning, and arrived, by bike, in Valkenburg less than an hour later. After checking into our hotel, we explored the town.

It's really a cool place, and I encourage everyone to come back here for a visit. :)

We spent the later part of the day checking out (but not indulging in) a very expensive, and fancy spa complex further up the hill, and in the Holland Casino. There was a lot of ups and downs, but Michelle and I both ended up slightly down after about 3 hours of gambling. But it was well worth the fun.

Then next day we took a slightly more scenic bike ride home. Michelle will tell you it was also slightly more hilly :) but we managed ok, and made it back home!

And for those who were keeping track, España is the 2008 Euro cup champions!

verjaardag!

Yesterday was Michelle's birthday! And she had requested a Spanish Tapas style dinner. So we indulged in some delicious platters; meat and cheese with crackers, garlic olives, pita crackers with feta and tomato, stuffed mushrooms, and some fried eggplant. And of course, for dessert, some rijs vlaai! It was all very good, which makes me think that Michelle needs to have birthdays more often.

However, someone did send her a Princess/castle card, and so she insisted that I call her "princess Michelle" for the entire evening. Ugh....

In other news, Spain won against Russia, setting up a Germany vs. Spain final on Sunday!

Bad Sad Times!

I always knew it would happen, it was pretty much inevitable, but I just wasn't ready for it. Crash, bang, boom, I was in a bike accident! I was cruising along to work, just like every other day. There was a cute little girl riding in front of me, most likely on her way to school. We reached an intersection and she turned without signalling. I wasn't paying enough attention and crashed right into her back tire. The girl continued riding and seemed unphased, but things turned out a bit differently for me. Upon hitting her bike I was catapulted off of mine onto the path, while my bike went flying in the other direction. My injuries were minimal, a gash on my finger, a scraped knee, a couple bruises, but the damage to my pride was far greater. Of all people to crash into, a little girl! Once she realized my fate she rode back to talk to me. I believe she was asking if I was ok, but she only spoke Dutch and I couldn't understand. Eventually we reached some sort of understanding and I hurried to work. What a start to my day!!

This same day was quite difficult for Chris as well. He was part of another medical study and again spent the day two floors below my office. His day started with the insertion of cathers into his arm and hand. Then it just went downhill from there, and he had to have a muscle biopsy in each leg. Basically the process went like this: his leg was numbed with local anaesthesia, a 3/4 inch incision was made into his leg, a metal rod the size of a #2 pencil (shown in the picture below) was inserted into the incision and pushed down into the muscle, a vacuum force was applied to the rod, and a smaller inner needle in the rod extracted a sample of muscle. Unfortunately on both legs the tissue sample they cut out the first time was too small and they had to go back in. Poor Chris! They bandaged up his leg, put on a compression wrap, and from there he was free to go. He's tough and didn't complain at all, but you could tell he was one sore boy. Check out all his wounds in the photo. Poor guy! Luckily he's feeling much better now, less sore, and will be able to remove the bandages very soon. The things we do for those precious Euros!

I met Chris at the end of his study and we rode home together, but 10 minutes into our ride we encountered a monsoon!! We were absolutely soaked by the time we got home! What a way to end a bad day!

Now onto the sad news...Oranje is finished. They lost last night in a hard fought battle against the Russians. It was a sad evening for all and the entire spirit of the city is down. It was certainly fun while it lasted though! Until World Cup Oranje! I'll leave you with some memories of voetbal.

Oh yes, if you are interested in the muscle biopsy procedure you can visit the link below and watch the process (not on Chris, but another subject). Please be forewarned, it is very graphic and not for the weak of stomach!! I watched Chris's biopsy and felt a bit faint, so please only watch the video if you truly want to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc4HJj3THuw

Maastricht Marathon

Today Michelle and I took a Sunday morning stroll down to the Ceramiqué quarter of town (the newest part) to watch Imke run in the Maastricht Mooiste (an annual race throughout the town, complete with local bands playing at different locations in the course) . Imke works with Michelle in the lab, and is pictured in the previous post at the bar watching voetbol with us. Anyhow, she seemed thrilled to have some extra fans there, and ran a great race through the town. Here are some photos :)

Viva HOLLANDIA!!!

Since I've never really been a major voetbal (soccer) follower, I felt it appropriate that I, Michelle, write this blog about the amazing Dutch Oranje team!! I love them and love watching them; they are, to use a Bush term, AWESOME!! Last night we went out to watch their second game and they smashed the 2006 runner-up France, 4-1. They're now on their way to the quarter-finals! Let's hope they keep this up, because it's exciting. The entire city was riled up running around last night cheering! Also their color choice works so well with my OSU attire!! Hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoys Father's Day with their families! GO ORANJE!!

Chris in a bubble! aka Kamer Time (like "Hammer time"!)

So Chris was away this week, but not so far away. He was housed two floors down from my lab participating in yet another medical study. This study was researching the effect of protein absorption and the body's use of protein. It began with an intense bike ride where he had to continue pedaling until he reached complete exhaustion...it took him a whole hour and 20 min! Upon completing that grueling task he showered and was promptly locked in the Respiratie Kamer for the next 36 hours. So to explain the kamer...it's basically the size of half of a run-of-the-mill dorm room complete with bed, toilet, sink, computer, tv, and desk. What's particularly special about this room is that it's completely airtight. Anything that entered the room had to pass though a special compartment with airtight doors on each side. Actually Chris needed to give me a form he had and we had to pass it through the compartment...so cool!! The study provided him with special food and he was basically able to relax during the 36 hours, giving him lots of time for writing and movies. Although it sounds scary to be locked in the room for that long, they do allow you to leave at any time. The only catch is that you won't be paid.

As Chris was just below me, I was able to visit him a few times throughout his Kamer days. I think it was pretty much how it would be to visit someone in jail. We could look at each other through a little glass window and talk over and intercom. I brought my camera took some pictures, this probably wasn't allowed, but I snuck them out just for you all! He escaped today and can't sit still after being enclosed for so long!

Here's the equipment on the outside monitoring Chris and the special compartment to get things into/out of the kamer.

Hup, Holland!

Euro cup 2008! It started last weekend, but the real excitement came last night. Michelle and I started out our evening with our usual volleyball routine. However we, and everyone else in the class, left early to get somewhere with a TV to watch Oranje (Dutch national team) take on defending world champs Italy.

The fütbol fever has been sweeping the town. AH is giving away free Welpie's, the Dutch mascot (if you don't know what AH is, that means you haven't visited us yet, and need to get on it!). All the shops are decked out in orange and starting at 8:45 last night, all streets were deserted, and every bar was packed to the brim.

We went to our usual watering hole to watch the match, but it was far too crowded to get inside. We watched the match for a little bit from the window, but then decided to find a less crowded place. Just as we were riding away, we could hear cheers echoing out of every house, and bar in town. The rare car that passed by us would honk and give us the thumbs up... Holland had scored! We picked up the pace, and as we approached the next bar, another chores of cheers; they scored again!

Well that brought us to half time, when we finally found an outdoor seating area in the Markt square where one of the cafés had put a large screen TV in the window for everyone to watch. We saw most of the second half, but decided, after the 72nd minute where Holland scored another goal, that it was time to head back home.

Next match is on Friday! This is just the first round, so if Holland does well, they will move on to the quarter finals!!

Holland 3, defending world champions Italy 0 !!!!!!

Basketball yo

It has been about 10 years since I've played a competitive game of Basketball (with referees) and probably about 4 years since Michelle had. So Naturally we jumped at the chance to participate in the Maastricht Open basketball tournament.

It's open for any team that wants to partake. You have to have at least two women on the court, but other than that there are no rules about who can play. Young folks, old folks, and everything in bewteen. All teams were very organized and had matching jerseys, and at least 10 players. We on the other hand, all had different black shirts (were were the zwart team...) with 2 guys, and 4 girls.... for starters. Eventually another player showed up on our team, and allowed us to sub in and out a little more. Our team was made up of people from the University of Maastricht.... and me :)

So out numbered, out practiced and out orginazed, we somehow managed to win one game! Sure we lost the other 4, but over all a lot of fun. And it's good we are getting involved in sports now, to get into the mood, because next week starts Euro cup! more on that soon!!!

Oh, and for getting 5th place, we won some superdickmans!!!! who would have thunk? So we took to the bar directly after our "victory" and indulged ;)