Yes people,

Those words of F are right on the spot! Just after F published the message below I found myself up for graduation. So now Bustink & F are both MSc’s and you’ll have to call us sir. My final months as a student I passed at the office of a magazine on landscape architecture and urbanism called Blauwe Kamer, where I had the honour of doing an internship. After graduation I decided to stick around, and now I am working on two magazines, a book, and their accompanying websites. The most interesting – also for our foreign friends – would be magazine ‘scape, an English version of Blauwe Kamer. We are trying to get the magazine more and more international by gradually building up an international network of authors. That is not easy.

In the meantime F, Erik (whom you might remember from our famous trip to Canada), and I went on a short holiday to the Scottisch isle of Islay, with two other Friends, Mattijs and Simon. This is the homeland of seven of the world’s most outstanding whiskies. We visited all seven distilleries, including an eighth one that has been opened since 2005 and will be bottling whiskies from 2011. We had a chance to taste the spirit straight from still, and, as far as we can judge, it is quite promising. Therefore, the five of us are now considering pre-ordering a box of six bottles of Kilchoman. It keeps us busy.

Finally, a word or two on the Kristof, F and Bustink fellowship. It’s been a long time when we visited Minnesota (almost two years now), and airplane tickets will not get any cheaper in the future, so we might consider to visit Kristof somewhere in 2009. I assume Erik will also be glad to join, so we will have the Buben re-united, and we can do some real adventuring. As far as adventuring goes, at this moment I am trying to assist Kristof in editing a book about Georgia. One of the chapters will be the history of Georgian urban planning after the country’s independence, written by a German professor called Karl Ziegler. I am looking at the translation and the possibilities for adding extra content based on Ziegler’s dissertation. A nice job but hard to find the time to do it.

Looking into the future many things will change. When my girlfriend graduates in August 2009 (hopefully), we might move to Leuven, Belgium. She will be looking for a job, and I hope to study philosophy for one year at the university. This means I will stop all my doings in Wageningen, which has been my home since 2001. We are going to miss the people a lot, but I am also looking forward to it. And of course I will stay in contact with F, Kristof, Erik, and many others.

The best to you all,
Bustink

Hi therefolks,

It has been I long time ago since any of us wrote a message on our weblog.Bustink however,  urged me to write amessage to tell you that I graduated last year in march.  Before that could happen we had to finish ourthesis and I had to finish  a paper for the Planning Theorycourse. I got it over with and that meant that I could get my diploma. I addedsome pictures of the graduation ceremony and the drink afterwards. Thanks forthe warm words and presents everybody!

Bustinkdecided to take some more time to finish his stuff and to do internships and soon, so we didnx92t have a graduation party together, which is nice, because nowwe can have two parties! I organized my party together with Jos, who graduatedtogether with me, in the flat pub Anniex92s. Quite a famous place if I may say,you can ask Kristof or somebody else who lived in the flat Asserpark inWageningen. There we had a nice party till late (or early), you can check outthe pictures. Of course the Budcie was also there (@ Mana: that are the nakedguys).

Since then Istarted working as an additional researcher at the Land Use Planning chair ofWageningen University. There is was a kind of scientific odd-job man, doing allsorts of things: some own research, helping out others with small problems,being involved in some education and so on. Unfortunately we had to move fromour beloved building the Hucht to another building – on what they hope to bethe Wageningen Campus in the future. Too bad, because there was a goodatmosphere in the Hucht, and a nice mix of chair groups and students workingtogether. Now we and the students moved to two different buildings, which infact tears the students and professors apart. Although the chairman of theboard of Wageningen University (and R.) tried to do so, we managed to have somequality time together during our weekly Hucht-drink in the building of theprofessors.

Anyway,that era will also be soon over for mex85I resigned as an researcher and in February2008 Ix92ll start with a education to become a secondary-school teacher inGeography (diploma in education). This master will take only one year, since theybelieve I already have all the knowledge to become a geography teachernecessary; I just have to learn the didactical aspects of the job. It will memostly internships and reflection upon it, and Ix92m looking forward to start!

I think Ix92lltell you more about it some other time, but itx92s Bustinkx92s turn to inform youabout his graduation and future plans.

I hopeeverything is good with you, dear reader, and I wish you all the best.

F.

Good afternoon dear people,

It’s been quite a while since we last updated this weblog, and as a matter of fact, we are feeling kind of guilty about that. Our American friends might be worried about our wellbeing by now! So to sort that out, we are doing great! On december 1st we landed safely at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, and we’ve been doing a lot of fantastic Dutch things from that day on. It was great to reunite with our girlfriends (eega’s) and our families, and to see our Dutch friends again. In the meantime I (Bustink) even moved to a new "apartment", which I am still hobbying on.

Before we could go safely home however, we had to arrange some stuff in Saint Cloud. For instance, we wanted to cancel all our accounts, like the campus services and my subscription to the video store. But most importantly, we had a car to sell. Unfortunately it broke down on us just a couple of days before the sale had to take place. And what’s more, we had only one potential buyer, a student from Canada, who was interested in this elderly people’s car of ours, but this guy did not have any money! Of course everything worked out fine in the end, but that needed some effort, as you can imagine.

F did some repair works on the car – I helped him out a little bit by shooting some photographs, buying a new throttle return spring, and encouraging him to keep up the good work. Eventually the spring seemed to be the only problem, and therefore the only solution. We proposed a new (very cheap) deal to our Canadian friend, and he managed to borrow some money from people. In the end, the car was sold for $ 435,- which was all he could acquire in the short time we gave him. Initially we bought the car for $ 700,- but it was an old car, it performed well but it will probably show some more failures in the near future. Let’s hope it was a good deal for the Canadian.

So we sold the car just in the nick of time, and on november 30st Kristof drove us to Minneapolis/ Saint Paul Airport, where we had a very ral brunch with fries and some old country burger sandwich. Our first flight went smoothly, save for the fact that our luggage was overweight. We had to stuff everything in one suitcase so we only had to pay the overweight luggage fee of fifty dollars once. Bustink now had very heavy suitcase and F’s was ready to go. Of course nothing interesting happened on this short flight to Chicago, besides our little talk with a an old fogey (sorry, just kidding.. I wanted to use the word). She was travelling to some area where they expected some snow blizzards, and told us that she was not a big fan of George W. Bush.

Now the ral part of our journey started; the four hours waiting at Chicago O’ Hare. Luckily we were well prepared because we downloaded the Return of the King (I own the movie on DVD myself, so it’s not illegal), a four hour movie, and bought a splitter for our headphones. The only thing we had to do was find a nice spot to sit down in the departures hall and a place to hook up the electric supply for the laptop. As you can understand, this was a rather ral situation, so we weren’t very comfortable watching four hours in a row. Instead, we walked to and fro with the rest rooms and also moved around in our chairs and on the floor, nervously, anticipating an eight hour flight to Amsterdam.

It was this kind of situation that reminded me of an earlier wait we had to endure, together with Erik on our way back from Toronto. In that instance we arrived in Detroit by night bus around six o’ clock in the morning, and had to wait for our transfer until eight. We didn’t even get the least of sleep – at least for my case – and were very ral, as usual. Sitting around in a bus station in such a condition can only be a very lame experience, and indeed it was. So in order to make ourselves enjoy our time a little better, we organized a contest; "Who is the rallest bloke?" (Wie is de ralste vent?). This contest was nice, because the contestants did not know they were participating, and there were a lot of contestants around! To name but one; there was this bloke who installed himself (standing next to his suitcase) at the gate from 6:15 onwards. In other words, when the rest of us were sitting down on benches and trying to get some rest, get some sleep, this bloke was waiting for more than one and a half hours with great anxiety. There were also some old pirate look-a-like types of blokes walking around, bragging about their father’s history as a navy seal. A nice story to take home with us but, at that moment, a very ral experience!

Then the final flight was on! It was a bit of a drawback because they did not show any interesting movies! There were a dozen of very bad romantic comedies and one that might have been slightly interesting but, upon checking it out, it appeared that this one was so distorted that it could not be properly viewed. So that left us with our books and our laptop, that harldy fittet between our bellies and the chairs in front of us. Nevertheless, almost at the end of the flight we made an attempt to finish The Return of the King – which didn’t succeed – and witnessed a fantastic sunrise. It was a long flight but not so much a ral one, and at Schiphol Airport the Welcome Commitee was waiting for us. What a wonderful surprise! And then we realized.. we did not even have a jetlag!

Next time you’ll here more about our doings in Wageningen.
Have a great time,

Bustink

Hey boys and girls, friends from overseas and respected neighbors,

What F was referring to in his last report was our visit to a ceremonial drum celebration in the reservation of Mille Lacs, this being one of our case studies. Now, I could do two things; I could switch to Dutch and tell you all about this secret ceremony, or continue in English and tell you some general things about it before proceeding with another topic. Let me go for the latter so I wonx92t disappoint our foreign friends. And then maybe, we could finally tell you something about our research.

Kristof, F and Bustink were invited to come to a drum ceremony in the reservation of Mille Lacs, by the people at the American Indian Center (AIC) on the campus of Saint Cloud State University (SCSU). Up to the last moment, it was not exactly certain what we could expect but this seems to be typical for Indian celebrations and feasts. Sometimes a powwow is only announced one day before it actually takes places, usually from mouth to mouth. To attend this ceremony we were set up with a SCSU (older) student living in Mille Lacs. She was very much involved in politics on the reservation and had tried to run for district representative a couple of times. Unfortunately she was never elected but there are some reasons for that, she told us. She wanted to present us a more balanced view of what goes on in these reservations, so besides going to the ceremony, we were also given a tour around and were able to about the things we saw and the things that were going on behind the scenes. We even got to meet some relatives of our guide!

Now for the ceremony; this started Friday evening with an official opening by a band elder. We would all offer some tobacco to the drum, accompanied by our good thoughts or wishes; kind of like making a prayer. Then the elder, who was also drum keeper, would speech in the Ojibway language, we would all smoke the pipe, and the opening ceremony would end with a dinner. Out of respect you had to take at least a little bit of food, and more importantly, finish your plate. Unfortunately by accident x96 I didnx92t really think about it x96 I took a chicken wing! Being some sort of a vegetarian, I really had a hard time eating that, but I did itx85 and learned my lesson.

It was not really allowed to take any pictures so I should tell you a little bit about the setting of the ceremony. It all took place within the ceremonial building, a round building made from wood. In the middle there would sit the drum and the drum players, around it where placed benches for the audience. The architecture represents the four directions and converges when going up in order to direct the sound of the drum, the singing, the smoke of the pipe, and our wishes to the great spirit, if I am not mistaken. Let me be corrected if I am. This shape somewhat resembles that of a tipi. Most of the tribal buildings are located on a stretch of land along the shores of Lake Mille Lacs, which is really beautiful. We made some pictures!

This is picture shows the powwow grounds.

From this place Ojibway fishermen go on the lake to throw out their nets. Usually they will camp along the lake shore and wake up very early to harvest.

Here we are looking at the maple trees. Every spring and summer the Ojibway will tap the trees for maple syrup which they will sometimes make into sugar.

There are a couple of small Christian churches on the reservation. Many Indians are Christians because of the assimilation process the federal government has been conducting for major parts of the twentieth century.

After the opening ceremony when we went outside, this Friday evening, we saw a fire burning in the distance. For a moment people were thinking that the school was set on fire but it appeared to be the lakeshore vegetation. Our guide told us that there were often fires on the reservation usually set up by the bored youth; they will get drunk or, worse, drugged and set things on fire. Unfortunately, this is just the way it is, there isnx92t much to do for the youth, or so they tell us. When we drove down to take a look, the firemen arrived. The next morning we would see however, that it had been quite big a fire, for a significant area lay in ashes, also because it takes the fire department some time to get onto the reservation.

That evening we arrived in our hotel room x96 arranged for by the band x96 momentarily not knowing what to do; have a drink, smoke a cigar, relax. Of course there was no alcohol in the casino and if we wanted to smoke a cigar we would have to sit down in the hotel lobby. Finally we decided to get something to eat and chill out in the hotel lobby with a cigar. Kristofx92s tuna sandwich was very good!

Next morning, our guide took us around on the reservation before the ceremony started. The pictures I showed you above were taken on that tour. When meeting up with some family members of our guide, we found out that there was actually a powwow going on for Veteranx92s Day. So we finally got a chance to see what a powwow is like. We have some pictures of that too. It actually took place in a gym hall (Ix92m not sure how it is called in English), and again a drum band was sitting in the middle, people were dancing around it, in bright clothes, sometimes with little bells, and eagle feathers everywhere. I can imagine that a big powwow would be an impressive experience.

Anyway, after a short visit to the Veteran’s Powwow, it was time to go to the drum ceremony. Entering the ceremonial building we first proceeded to the center, where the drum was set up, to put down some tobacco. Of course, Kristof, F and Bustink did not have any tobacco of themselves, so we were using up our guide’s tobacco all the time. This did not seem to be a problem. We then sat down and waited for what was to happen. In short, there was a lot of singing and drumming, sometimes interrupted by food being shared with the "audience" or a speech in Ojibway. At the end, about three or four hours later, blankets were given to all drum keepers. This is something symbolic. All drum keepers gave a speech to express their gratitude, and this is when we left for home. Looking back at the whole experience, we are really grateful to have been invited and have felt a sense of something cultural like this. Also many thanks go to our guide who has explained to us about the ceremony and about the reservation.

See you,
Bustink

Hi there!What’s up?!

Although we we’re finally at home from our big trip to Canada, it wasn’tthe end of our adventures with Erik. He was supposed to leave on Wednesday, sowe had two more days to show him around in Minnesota. Because Erik doubtedwhether he should accept the job offer they made to become a botanist inNorthern Minnesota he wanted to see more of the natural heritage of Minnesota,so we went to Lake Maria. Kristof, Erik and F went off to take a hike throughthe State Park, while Bustink was bouting at home.

The StatePark was pretty nice and was well-known for the turtles which were supposed tobe there; unfortunately they were all hibernating in the mud. So we just pickeda couple of trails to enjoy the scenery where we saw a lot of grey squirrels,and even a bald eagle. There where a lot of small lakes and little hills, allremnants of the ice ages; a very nice area, even in the winter. Walkingaround there, Erik and I realized that we definitely have to go back to Minnesota in summer or spring when everythingis green and the turtles are awake again.

In theevening we went to a film of Phillipex92s film festival at the campus, called Tale of two sisters, a very nice Koreanhorror movie. The festival is organized by a professor of the Department of Theatre,Film Studies & Dance for students and other people who are interested (likeus).

Since Erik only went to St Paul and didnx92t see Minneapolisyet, we decided to go there on Tuesday, so F and Erik went to enjoy down- anduptown Minneapolis, while Kristof and Bustink were bouting in St Cloud x96asusual .
Erik and F went first to the Sculpture Garden adjacent tothe Institute of Modern Art, which was a very nice garden, although the lawnwas full with a lot of something produced by Canada Goose. There were some nicesculptures, and the one with the spoon and the cherry was even made by aDutchy.

After this cultural excursion it was time for some morecultural experiences, so we went to the Institute of Modern Art, which islocated in a very nice building. The exhibitions were pretty interesting,sometimes shocking, sometimes nice and pleasant.

And after a good cup of coffee we made a tour around thecity by car, to see as much as possible of the city. We had lunch at FrenchMeadow and subsequently we went downtown Minneapolis where we enjoyed some goodarchitecture, like the library designed by Cesar Pelli. We also visited a nicebookshop (of course), got some extra memory for Erikx92s camera and we walkedaround in the elaborate skywalk system.

We even had to hurry, because Kristof offered to cook us anice meal to enjoy Erikx92s company for the last evening. Henry was also invited,so the five of us had a nice goodbye-party.

The next morning we had to bring Erik to the airport,because he wanted to enjoy New York for two days. After some trouble withparking et cetera we had the last cup of coffee together and we said goodbye toErik. What Erik did in New York, we donx92t know, but you can see his pictures athttp://picasaweb.google.com/waganwega/AmerikaCanada2006

We enjoyed the rest of the day in St Paul visiting abookstore for a couple of hours and we had a good lunch at Cafe Lattxe9. It wastime to go home and relax and work a little bit. Perhaps the reader noticed it,but the things we did the last ten days werenx92t very contributing to ourresearch, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We made a lot of appointmentsto visit some administrations the next week. And after a good Gyros sandwich forlunch at Friday together with Marco and Rebekah, it was finally weekend!

This is it for now, but hopefully Bustink will writesomething about the weekend next time, because it wasnx92t an ordinary weekend atall.

Take care,

F.

Hello my fellow human-beings!

We still owe you another story about our trip to Toronto, although Bustink already wrote a lot about our trip. If I remember well, he wrote about our evening out and the sunrise at Saturday.

Well, a couple of hours later we woke up to have breakfast (although Erik didn’t have any) and to say goodbye to Marika, because she had to go to work -poor Marika. Shortly after, Meika brought us to the train station in Oakville, because we wanted to see some more of Toronto, where we said goodbye to Meika (We really enjoyed our stay at your "gezellige" home Meika, Laos and Steve! Thanks again for the hospitality (thank you also, Marika, for keeping us company till sunrise ), and we wish you all the best!).

The train took us straight to the core of the city -as the National Railroad Company in the Netherlands does- and because we had all our baggage with us we walked to the bus station to put our baggage in a huge locker. After a well-earned veggie hot dog for Bustink en F (Erik didn’t have something to eat…again) ‘the three crazy Dutchmen’ -as we were called by everybody in Toronto- went to the CN tower in order to have a nice view over the whole metropolitan area. The CN tower is a huge building, much like the Euromast in Rotterdam, but then 553 meters high. In fact, it’s the worldx92s tallest building. Despite this impressive fact we didn’t go up the CN tower, because all the old fogies and darn kids wanted to go up too, so the queue was massive. We had to settle with a walk around the CN tower and to compensate the lack of entertainment we walked through the city to a nice Italian coffee house and had a decent espresso.

Because it was very hot in the Italian coffee house and we were very ral, we quickly went outside again to get to the St Lawrence Market. This is an indoor market where they sell all kinds of stuff, from Dutch cheese to Chinese vegetables, and from Swedish meatballs to Dutch x91muntdropx92. To be short, a great place to do your weekly shopping. Erik was even considering moving to Toronto because of this nice market!

However, the lack of entertainment kept striking us, so we went to a movie theatre to make a reservation for a movie that night. Furthermore, Steve told us about a nice industrial area which they were renovating called x91the Distilleryx92, and since wex92re very interested in all kind of liquors we decided to honour the area with our presence. Unfortunately there wasnx92t anything like a distillery in the area, although there were some nice art galleries and a very nice coffee place. Given the state of our being x96which was obviously ral- we bought a big cup of hot tea to hydrate ourselves. The problem was that the renovated coffee house was too nice, so that there wasnx92t any place for us. We felt a little bit like Joseph and Mary when they were looking for a place to stay. The only option we had left was sitting outside, in the freezing cold. That wouldnx92t be a big problem if we werenx92t so very ral, but since we x96and especially Erik; the picture shows it clearly- were very ral it was not very comfortable to sit outside.

Anyway, after the hot tea we walked a little bit more aroundand we found a nice pub, where they also brewed their own beer. We had somegood snacks and since Erik didnx92t eat till then he was still not feeling verywell. But after some good snacks he looked much better. We also started wonderinghow Steve was doing, so we called him up and some time later he and Kristey(still wondering if we spelled it right) picked us up at the distillery to goto a place to eat. We went to a kind of Irish pub where we could see a Icehockey match going on, and actually the Maple Leafs from Toronto were winning(must be because Laos wasnx92t watching ). Of course we couldnx92t leave anIrish pub without playing some pool, so we played a couple of rounds and whenErik joined us we found out about his special pool-gift (man, I was glad I waswith him).

Still wehad to fulfil our entertainment needs, so we went to a movie called x91littlemiss sunshinex92 what turned out to be a hilarious movie. Steve andKristey didnx92t join us so we had to say goodbye to them (thank you again guys!).After the movie we still had to wait for one hour so we walked towards the busstation and had a drink across the street in x96indeed- a very ral bar.

The trip inthe Greyhound bus wasnx92t too bad. We had some sleep and also crossingthe border went okay for us because Bustink had to do the talking (again),although we had to wait for a crazy guy who had some trouble getting into theStates. Next stop was Detroit where we had to wait for two hours for our nextbus which would take us to East Lansing. Anyway, we couldnx92t get a breakfastaround Detroit at six in the morning, so we had to stay at the bus station andentertain ourselves with the game who is the rallest guy at the bus station? Wesimply couldnx92t agree on one ral person, because there were a lot of very ral people,but anyway, it helped us through those two hours at the bus station. FromDetroit to East Lansing was also quite a good trip, not too long, and we knewthat Kristof was waiting for us with his Volvo. So after sitting in theGreyhound bus for 5 hours, waiting for 2 hours and the again a trip for 2 hoursby bus, we started for our journey home which would take us about ten hours.

When we were back in Minnesota, we decided to have a meal ina nice town called Stillwater, form where we subsequently drove back to StCloud. Finally some sleep in a decent bedx85

Sleep well,

F.

Bless you and good afternoon,
Our dear readers,

The days are getting shorter and in the meanwhile F and Bustink are getting vadsiger; the American cuisine is claiming its toll (x93de hitte begint zijn tol te eisenx94). Letx92s pick up the story where we ended it, having checked out the Niagara Falls in Canada. We got ourselves a good nightx92s rest and woke up next morning to make a trip to Toronto, where Steve would drop us off after showing us around in downtown by car. First we went to meet my cousin, Marika, at her work; one of the nicest theatres of Toronto, where she gave us a tour around.

Then before we knew, Erik, F and Bustink were on their own while Steve had to go back to Oakville to take care of x91some businessx92. First things first, which was in this case the Royal Ontario Museum. If I remember correctly, it was Erikx92s pick because he actually did some research before going to Toronto. F and Bustink did not, of course. Major construction works were going on inside and outside the museum; an interesting pyramid-inspired structure was being build on of the sides. Unfortunately all these constructions were not so good for the exhibitions in the museum, which were sometimes a little messy, regarding for instance the information tags. Also, some sections were temporarily closed to public.
Nevertheless, the museum had a nice collection of oriental art and an interesting exhibition on the cultures of the native peoples of North America. There we learned about the incredible lives of the Inuit, through a film made in the early 1900x92s by presumably a Belgian anthropologist. Although their way of life was fascinating, I wouldnx92t want live like them.

The moment we left the museum it was already 2 or 3 pm. Knowing that we had to be back in Oakville around 6 to have dinner at a Thai restaurant with Meika, Marika and Steve, we had to rush checking out the rest of the city. Thus we walked around the campus, missed Little Italy, found our way through Chinatown and explored the central business district.

The campus is completely part of the city of Toronto; there are some university buildings, some student housing, but it is all mixed with normal residencies and shops. Like many universities, the University of Toronto has some old communist-style brown and gray concrete buildings that they really should get rid of. Luckily they are also building state of the art new stuff. It was a nice experience to walk around there; I wish Wageningen University would mix a little more x96 they are now building a campus on the edge of town, where there will only be students and university-related facilities. Right beside the campus area we found a very good bookstore with academic literature in many different fields of science. The philosophy section was enormous and even Erik found some stuff on molecular biology and botany, I guess. We spend an hour in the store but didnx92t buy anything; F was reading a book downstairs in the basement and Erik and Bustink were strolling around on the first floor.
Continuing our walk through Toronto, we noticed a small fish x91n chips snack bar (frietkot). Now as you might know, chips (friet) are always on my mind, so thatx92s where we went to have lunch. We got a huge amount of genuine Flemish fries for very little money; it was also nice and cozy inside the Chinese run business.

We went to Chinatown, not to do anything specific, but to marvel at all the stores that sell rubbish, like the umbrella hat, all the colorful signs and the crowded streets. This part of town is very dynamic and interesting, and there is probably a lot to do. From Chinatown we made our way back to the central business district where the huge office buildings are located. Beside huge office buildings there wasnx92t a great deal to see or do there, so we made a short walk to Union Station.

Union Station which is the most important train station of Toronto is a real mess, in our view. We had to find the ticket machine or ticket office for Go-Train and find our platform. We made it just in the nick of time but I guess we saw the insides of the station twice on our search for them. In front of the Go-Train there is a huge locomotive engine and the cars are double layered passenger cars, very high in the middle and diving down at the ends. I will try to find a picture of the train on the internet.

In the evening we had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Oakville with Meika, Marika and Steve. The ladies had to go to a concert afterwards so we went home with Steve and had a drink there with Laos, playing a game of x93sjoelbakkenx94. Bustink won that game either way but Laos was sure the other guys were cheating. Later that evening we met up with Marika again and met some more friends of Stevex92s. We had drinks in the Irish pub until 2 am or so, and then went to Kristeyx92s (Ix92m not sure if this is how you spell her namex85) place, listened to some of Bustinkx92s favorite music, and ordered some pizzas. Eventually we ordered a cab to get back to Oxford Avenue, where we had some more drinks and talked to 6 am in the morning, when the sun was already rising.

Good night, good morning,
Bustink

Good morning dear readers,

Noticing the declining amount of replies on our weblog F and Bustink concluded it was time to catch up. Last time you could read about our first week adventures with Erik; we checked out Saint Cloud, the Mille Lacs Indian Reservation and Bemidji. It was almost time for a long planned trip to Canada, where some relatives of Bustink live.

This all came about because Kristof had to go to East Lansing, Michigan, to do some work for his Romania research, meet some people, and give a (lunch) lecture. Because Kristof was driving there anyway, it seemed a good opportunity for me to visit my family for the first time, taking Erik and F along. On the way we first made a stop in Madison, Wisconsin, to check out the university campus.

Madison is truly a nice town; at least the city centre is, which consists of a main street of little bars and shops. The street runs from the state capitol building to the campus. Only buses can drive the road and the sidewalks are crowded with students.  The atmosphere is more European than it is American, so it seems to us. We found a nice second hand bookstore in which we spend an hour or so before we went looking for a place to have dinner. After an elaborate Italian meal and (in Bustinkx92s case) some nice Franziskaner Hefeweizen beers, Erik, Kristof, F and Bustink retired to their hotel rooms. It seems that Bustink x96 by taking a shower on the wrong moment x96 missed out on the enjoyment of some cold beers and chocolate-dipped donuts.

Next day we commenced on a long journey to East Lansing. We had to get there before 5:30 pm to retrieve our bus tickets to Detroit/ Toronto. Not so easy, while it was a long way and we had to deal with an hour less because of crossing a time zone border. Nonetheless, we made it in time.

The biggest problem was finding the Amtrak station. Train station do not seem really central places in the American urban fabric. Rather, they are a marginalized group of public facilities. Everything turned out alright, and around 6:30 pm Erik, F and Bustink hit the road, in a Greyhound bus bound for Detroit.

Waiting for our next bus, we had to spend about 4.5 hours in this infamous city. Beforehand everybody was scaring us about all the violence and crime in Detroit. Arriving in the night of Halloween, there was little evidence of this. However, we encountered some homeless people begging for money. For the rest it was totally quite in downtown Detroit. It seemed there had been a lot investments in polishing up the central business district because there were many new and shiny office buildings and the streets were clean. We had dinner in a small plate restaurant and walked around making pictures. The bus for Toronto left at 1 am, and we made it their safely.

The drive was ral but we all succeeded in getting some sleep. At 6:20 am we arrived in Toronto where we made our way to Union Station. Canadians pay more attention to train stations and train travel than the Americans do. At Union Station we took a train to Oakville, where Bustinkx92s relatives of the Csotar family live. Steve (Bustinkx92s cousin) had some time off and was able to pick us up at the train station in Oakville. He took us to a decent breakfast place and then to his parentsx92 place (Bustinkx92s aunt and uncle, Meika and Laos). Beds were already prepared for us so the first thing we did was catching up some sleep.

We woke up well in the afternoon, ready to go along with Steve on a drive through Oakville, checking out his golf driving course, and one of the local liquor stores. In the evening we had a nice dinner together, Laos, Meika, Steve, Erik, F and Bustink. And being all awake now, Steve suggested wex92d go with him to the Irish pub to meet up with his partner in business, Lynn, who would be leaving for Australia the next day. So we did, had a couple of Guinnesses and came home drunk x96 not too badly though. Erik crashed down on the floor and F and Bustink confiscated the beds.

On our second day in Oakville x96 when we still hadnx92t visited Toronto x96 we agreed with Steve we would go to Niagara Falls but because he had to do some work on the driving range, Erik, F and Bustink had the morning to themselves. We had an elaborate late breakfast and stayed around in the house with Laos, listening to his sailormanx92s stories and much more interesting things I did not know about my family yet. Around noon the three of us set out to explore the creek valley behind the neighborhood. Being interested in geology and biology this was a very pleasant trip for Erik, F and Bustink.

The river, through the ages, had cut a deep gully through the landscape, and layers of sediment were visible on the other side of the stream. Furthermore, we saw a fox hurrying away before our eyes, and checking out what was under the rocks, we could see all kinds of creatures commencing winter sleep.

In the afternoon Steve took us to Niagara Falls. I donx92t know for the rest of the guys but I was expecting some big forest with hiking trails and the like leading up to the falls set in beautiful scenery. In truth however, the falls x96 which are nonetheless spectacular x96 were flanked by a big Las Vegas-like city; casinos, cinemas, giant wheel, haunted house, hotels, burger king, et cetera. Man, what a drawback! Luckily for the boys, it was cold, dark and almost completely empty on the boulevard. Erik and F took some pictures of the show. Erik, who owns a very elaborate camera, has opened a website at which you can check out his colorful pictures. The URL is http://picasaweb.google.com/waganwega/AmerikaCanada2006.

So far for today. Next time we will tell you about our experiences in Toronto!

Take care,
Joren a.k.a. Bustink

Dear all,

First of all we’d like to thank you for your nice and warming reactions on our web-log! Hopefully we can increase our publication rate something, because the last time we did is already a while ago. We think however that this is a good case, because we’re pretty much fully occupied with our research and with some excursions. For the reader at home it might be a little bit annoying, but that’s how it is.

Without further hesitation I’ll turn to our adventures after our tiring trip to Ely and Hibbing. The next week we had some appoitments for our research on-site. We had an interview with the County-attorney of Mille Lacs and we were also invited to a meeting of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. Both were very interesting, and at the latter we also arranged some other appointments for the next week. As a result we had a nice breakfast-meeting with a lobbyist for the indians in St Paul, and while doing all this stuff we also managed to pick up Erik S. from the airport. Erik was visiting both Krisof and us, but Kristof was a little bit busy, so we took Erik along to all our appointments. First we showed him around in St Cloud of course, and he helped us while we were organizig a small dinner for our friends here. So tuesday evening we had a nice dinner with Cornelis and Maggie, Kristof, Erik, Mana and Ming. We all had a lot of fun, so we dind’t spend the afternoon cooking for nothing. And to our delight, Erik brought along some very good old Dutch Jenever.

Wednesday, F made some old-fashioned Dutch ‘erwtensoep’ for the Indian people at the American Indian Centre. Dispite the way the soup looked (like always with erwtensoep), everybody really liked the soup. Too bad F didn’t have time to make it one day in advance, otherwise we would have got some good old ‘snert’, where you can put in you spoon straight up.

Anyway, after another nice dinner it was time for the Dutch guys to go to Mille Lacs Reservation, to meet up with the planners en real-estate specialists. Of course we took Erik along, in order for him to enjoy the elderly people in the casino After the meeting we drove around on the reservation and we even saw some bald eagles!

     The 26th we went all the way up to Bemidji, a kind of centre for all kind of affairs related to American Indians. It was quite a drive, about 160 miles from St Cloud, but it was worth it. It was a very scenic drive and in Bemidji we had the chance to stand next to the legendary Paul Bunyan and the giant Blue Ox! Joren and I had a very good interview with somebody from the DNR, a kind of Staatsbosbeheer, while Erik was enjoying himself at a bog walk in Bemidji State park. For the people visiting Bemidji, definitly go to Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox, and go to the coffeehouse across the streed from the federal building, called the ‘Wild Hare’. Excellent place to have coffee or lunch and very nice people owning the coffeehouse (take some rare euro coins with you, they’ll like it). Joren and I also had a good interview with somebody from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a federal agency taking care of all kind of issues for the native Americans. After all a very good day, except for the fact that we had te drive back this 160 miles (250 km ofzo).

The next day Joren and I had a meeting with the planner of the Mille Lacs County, a very good meeting again (seems that we’re only meeting nice people here). And in the afternoon we took Erik for a hike in Sherburns National Wildlife Refuge, but this time we took a different trail. We had a nice walk (if you call this walking at least: 10 meter walking, stopping, waiting for Erik taking a picture, walking again 10 meters, stopping et cetera ;-D ), and after the walk we did the wildlife drive. Perfect concept, just get into your car and drive around looking for animals. The only thing that missed was a good bottle of wine. We saw some nice birds: some birds of prey (very hard to distinguish which one it was), we saw a pack of Wild Turkeys, a Great Blue Heron, some ducks callesd ‘Mallard’, some Canada Goose, a Belted Kingfisher and when we were driving back home we saw an impressive amount of Sandhill Cranes on their way to the south. A very succesfull day again; Erik, Bustink and I were very happy!

To finalize the first week of St Cloud for Erik, we also walked around in St Cloud the other day. Nothing special, but good to see what downtown looks like. To finish the day we had a decent meal together with one of the Indian students, Rebekah, from whom we got some hand-made dreamcatchers!
The last day of which I will tell you this time was a day to visit the opera in St Paul. Well, at least for Erik, Kristof, Ming and his French teacher, because poor students like us don’t have any money for that kind of decadent behaviour. So Bustink and I walked around in St Paul, had some good coffee and worked a little bit for our research. In the evening we had a good dinner together with the opera-people at Pazzaluna, and when finally home we were happy to get some rest. And rest we needed, because the day after we were going on a small holiday to Toronto, but we’ll tell about that the next time. So stay tuned (don’t forget to watch more pictures at www.lauwerkrans.nl)!

Take care,

Henk-Jan

Hello people,

In last weekx92s episode of Bustink & Fx92s weblog you have been reading about (emphasis added) our adventures with Suzanne in the Twin Cities. Things have been developing since the day we put Suzanne on the plane and we donx92t want you to miss out on our business. In this story I will elaborate on two things, namely our little trip to northern Minnesota and our progression with the research. The latter because x91certainx92 people seem to have the impression that we are not really working hard here, judging by the stories we put on our web log and the stuff we tell everyone over the phone. I will proof the people wrong!

But first, letx92s get ourselves to Ely, a nice little town in northern Minnesota which is famous for a history of iron ore mining and its beautiful setting in the Boundary Waters region. Ely attracts a lot of tourists all year for such activities as hiking, canoeing and skiing. Our plan was also to going hiking but it turned to be a little different than we expected. For starters, this Friday the 13th we had an appointment at the Mille Lacs Indian reservation. In the afternoon we had to go back to Saint Cloud to be at Kristofx92s faculty party and in the evening we were free to drive back north Ely. We booked two nights in a hotel so we could hike on Saturday and Sunday. This was the plan, now this is what happened.

On our way up highway 23 the weather started getting worse, more clouds came in and the sky turned gray. A little while later it started snowing and the visibility of the road got very bad. Kristof had to slow down and it seemed our 230+ miles trip north was going to take even longer than the expected four hours. It even got a little scary when we passed a car crashed into the side rail. Kristof felt the road underneath the car getting more and more slippery; especially on the bridges, that freeze from two sides. Nonetheless, we made it all the way up to Virginia, where we even took the lead on the next stretch of road; a bunch of cars was following Kristof on a safe distance, through the layers of snow still coming down from the sky.

When we got used to driving in these conditions it didnx92t take long before we reached Ely. We didnx92t have any problems finding the Adventure Inn and even managed to open up a bottle of bad Austrian wine, when we got in our room. This helped us relax and get a good nightx92s sleep.

Interesting start for a recreational weekend, donx92t you think? The next morning, at least it had stopped snowing and the sun was shining through a nice blue sky. It promised to be a great day for our hike in the Boundary Waters area. Because we didnx92t have any information about trails and walks, we asked at the reception. A guy that came in suggested we walk the Angleworm trail, which goes around Angleworm Lake. He said we could walk it in one day x96 it was still 9:30 by then.

A one day hike is not commenced without a good breakfast, so the three of us sat down in some coffee place. We took our time there, before finally driving up into the Boundary Waters area. Already on the drive towards Lake Angleworm, we experienced some beautiful scenery of pine tree forests, hills and lakes. The landscape was still covered in snow and it looked like winter came early this year. On the parking lot at the start of Angleworm trail, the snow was about ten inches thick, so Kristof just parked on a random spot. Of course, a Volvo is not afraid of snow.

12 Ox92 clock, the hike had started. F went up front because he was the only one who wore some decent shoes. Both Kristof and Bustink were wearing their sporting shoes. Unfortunately the trail was completely covered in snow, which made the hiking into a good adventure, and soon we had the soggy bottoms flapping around our legs. After a while, of course Kristof and Bustinkx92s socks were completely soaked. But these were just minor issues, because the walking kept our feet quite warm.

After three hours of walking it did not appear that wex92d reached the end of the lake yet. This was kind of a difficult decision moment because we wanted to get back at six ox92 clock, which meant we were supposed to have reached the turning point by now. There was no way of knowing how far we still had to go. So now we regretted we didnx92t take a map or a flash light. Nevertheless, we decided x96 or rather quietly agreed x96 that we would finish the walk. There were some tricky moments when we lost the track and had to decide upon which way to go. Then, at a certain moment x96 around 4:30 if I remember correctly x96 it appeared we had reached the end of the lake. Hurray and finally!

But it was getting late so we had to rush now. At this moment I felt quite confident about reaching the car, whence before I hoped we wouldnx92t get lost or something. But tired we were all and we still had some miles to go. Walking on at a constant speed, taking just five minute breaks, we reached the car at eight ox92 clock, walking in the twilight for about an hour. Relieved and tired we drove back to Ely to reward ourselves with a large meal at the local steak house.

The lesson we learned was mostly about preparation, so the next morning we already made some inquiries about cross-country skiing on a possible return in November. We walked around in Ely, had good breakfast, visited the bookstore and met a German immigrant whose name we forgot x96 or did he not mention it? He lived opposite an old and abandoned building which we were inspecting. We got into a conversation and the guy invited us into his house to see his artwork. Kristof got jealous at his collection of antique furniture, we talked a little bit about paintings and Europe and we sort of got invited for dinner should we ever visit Ely again.

Thus ended our visit to Ely and began our journey back to Saint Cloud. On our way we stopped in Hibbing, one of the major mining towns of the Iron Range. I will not elaborate about that because I think it will turn up spontaneously in some of our next stories. Rather, I will finish this log with a thank you to professor Ming, who was so nice to receive us for dinner at his place. He cooked us a very nice dinner indeed, and we had the honor to finish the visit with cognac, whisky and a good cigar.