1,5 month!

I can't believe I'm in the US for 1.5 month already.
I will say it again I really love it here and I am slowly falling in love with Chi-town! It's such a big city and so much to do. I made a new friends, lots of them..
I joined a social club, meetup, to get to know woman new in Chi-town. I went 1 time and I've already met people who I would like to hang out with. Since one of the woman is German, we went football watching on Sunday. I was staring at the Netherlands-Portugal screen and the rest of the group to the Germany-Denmark screen. It was fun, but after the games was even more fun. We went to the Navy pier and rent a 4 persons bike and biked along the lake. Wow it was such a tough job! It was seriously a 1 hour workout. But we had soooo much fun, you should have seen us! Haha, I would definitely recommend doing that, wherever you are. Biking makes a city so much fun!
One, she is from Italy, doing a post doc at Loyola, dragged me to a house party on Sunday night. Yeay! it was my first house experience in the city, with amazing European Dj's shaking up the dance floor. I loved it! Although so controversy that I smelled weed everywhere. And the weed did not smell good, it smelled like cheap stuff (at least not like the dutch weed). Disgusting! But I did enjoy the party, and everyone in the club was excited and dancing. So here I am really groggy writing a report (and this in between). And I have a lot to do, so I will probably be here till late, sleeping in front of the computer or just hating my life.

Some of you I told before, but I am trying to lose 5 kilogrammes. This is hard! Omg, I still haven't lost anything. That's one thing I hate about the/my body, I don't gain or lose weight, doesn't matter how hard I try.. Pff.. So I am living on 3 meals per day and no snacks, and I took 1/4th off of my meals. And I work out 2 days a week and bike from time to time half way to work (45 minutes biking). I am so hungry... I don't know for how long I will survive. I'll keep trying another 2 weeks or so and if I still don't lose anything I'll just go back to my normal diet. What's the use cutting of calories if you're not losing weight, right?

And another thing, they offered me a PhD program to finish my research project! Yeay!! I am so happy.. It looks like I am going to be doing a specialisation after all and live in the US for a long time.. Which I don't mind at all. I just hope I can combine PhD with working as a pharmacist, cause the PhD salary is kind of poor.
Alright I am going back to work now. I'll post some pictures later. Or tomorrow.. I need sleep!!!

-xx-

Madison, Wisconsin

Hey all,

Right now I am writing from Madison, a town up north from Chicago. Madison is really pretty, it's so small but still very beautiful. The city has a capitol located between two lakes, actually it has multiple lakes. But Madison has a lot of farming, and that's probably why they have so many lakes.. Madison also has a university which seems to be very good in research and medicine. Today the weather is perfect to go swimming; clear blue sky, good temperature.
But yeah, why am I in Madison. I have told you before I am in Chicago for a research project. Research is all about conferences, talking to people, networking and listening to stories from others about their research project. We'll that's what I am doing in Madison. There is yearly conference about cardiac dysfunction so we have 3 full days of oral presentations and posters about the heart. It's really fun though, but does get kind of boring after a while. In the mean time we are drinking a lot of beer (after the conference of course) and getting a lot of free food and making fun of each other! What bring me to this point, Americans really love talking behind one's back. Yeah, it's really funny though, but it's also weird. I don't know if it's per se worse than in the Netherlands, but it's just that I know so much about everyone, but I don't actually know them. You know what I mean? I know stories about colleagues I actually only know from a "Hi" and a "Bye"!
But whatever, stories are always fun to hear... Today we are having diner at a fancy restaurant somewhere near the capitol and tomorrow we're heading back. I am absent at today's morning session, but I had to finish something before wednesday and now I am going for some breakfast and a t-shirt to wear under my shirt. They have a gap around the block.
It's funny how America is build. Everything is so far from each other. To go grocery shopping you just need a car, to go clothing shopping you need a car (because most malls are far). They have public transportation all over the place, but no one uses it. The buses are always empty (Except for in Chicago, but that's because it's a big city). But seriously I live in downtown Chicago and I still need a car to do grocery shopping. Sigh..
But I have to go now.

Here are some pictures of Madison.

 What is this huge thing doing in such a small town.

 My funny colleague Dave presenting his poster.

 My funny colleagues Brian (Chinese guy) and Jason (guy with glasses in the back) presenting their posters.

 There was a 5 miles bike tour. Looked like fun! Even little children were biking.

 Taya on the right.

 What I ordered.

 Taya's steak

Dave's burger and Alex and Taya as background