Being Dutch in America

Hi everybody,

It's been another week and I feel like writing another blog. This one will be about my experiences as a Dutch person in America. The first thing that stands out is all the measurements. I seriously think that the only measurement we share is time. Imagine if that would be different.

Another example is the cheese slicer. I have finally found one in the Stop&Shop, it's actually pretty nice designed, but I think I like the Dutch "kaasschaaf" better. Here's a picture:

Furthermore, talking English all day is of course a good exercise for later, but it sure was a big relief when I could finally talk in my first language with another Dutch person here in Boston. After we emailed a couple of times he was happy to sponsor me for the Wentworth Baseball practice camp in Florida in the Spring Break. I'm really looking forward to that!

Something that disappoints me a bit is that people around here aren't really interested in the MLB Playoffs. I know that the Red Sox didn't make it this year. But it's crazy that there are about 10 sports channels on our cable TV, all with College Football on instead of the Giants - Nationals game (which by the way is still going on right now). 

I did get to see the Wild Card games, the AL game Royals - Athletics was awesome with the walk-off in the 12th inning.

Our own Fall Ball is unfortunately over already. We had about a month of practices and a couple of games. Now it's getting too cold and rainy outside, so we're heading inside. We have two strength and one yoga workout per week. But the best thing is that Wentworth has an inside batting cage which we may use for free any time we want. (Except when other Wentworth Sports team have practice in Tansey Gym.) So I've been hitting a lot of balls the last couple of days! 

My academics are going good as well. Some classes are more difficult than other, but they're all pretty interesting. The most difficult class is called: Methods and Topics in Applied Mathematics 1. As it implies, it's only for Applied Math majors. My other Math classes (Calculus 1 and Discrete Math) also allow students from other majors, such as Computer Science or Mechanical Engineering. 

For that difficult class (which I would call Modeling by the way, because we're making and discussing a lot of Mathematical Models) I now have to write a paper about a subject which we were free to choose. I chose the Fibonacci sequence. It seems a simple subject where most of you probably already have heard of. But I'm going to try to find a formula which can find any number of that sequence without actually having to add all the numbers in the sequence. 

Oh, and we have to write our paper in LaTeX instead of Word. That's kind of the professional Word for Mathematicians. Has anyone heard of it?

I enjoy keeping you guys up to date. How's everything going in the Netherlands? You can reply below this blog :)

See you next time,

Bram