Call her...Dr. Woodburn

On May 18 Kate -- along with 120 or so of her classmates -- graduated from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine and officially became a doctor.  But before we talk about that, let's back up a bit to March.  

Lori and Kate before leaving for the Match Day Ceremony.  

March 20 was Match Day, where med students across the nation learned where they would be spending the next 3-4 years of their life as residents.  It's a little like sorority rush, where the students submit their top school choices and the schools submit their top student choices.   All that data is loaded into a huge algorithm and out pops the answers.  I'm sure this generates all kinds of questions in your mind, such as "what happens if a student doesn't match?" or ""do all students get into a residency program?".  If you want the answers to those and other questions, talk to Kate.  

The letter in hand.  But she had to wait for all the students to open their letter at the same time.  

She looks a lot calmer than I would be.  

And the answer was.......Cleveland Clinic.  She was (and still is) thrilled.  

Kate and her friend, Jess, at Match Day.  Jess boarded foster cats during med school, providing Kate with a great distraction from her studies.  

Everyone always takes "first day of school" pictures.  This is Kate on her last day of school...ever!  No wonder she looks so happy.   She went to school for 20 years.  Bill Clinton was half way through his first term when she began kindergarten.  Movie of the year -- Forrest Gump.  

The week before graduation Kate received an award from the Ob/Gyn faculty.  They jumped the gun and put "M.D." after her name.  

Got it!

At the graduation ceremony the students are "hooded".  No, they don't become dementors.  The hood is the shawl-like cloth that is draped over their shoulders as part of the ceremony.  Rutgers graduates wore the normal mortar board hats.  Kate was hoping she'd get to wear the floppy hats.

The night before graduation we all went to dinner at our favorite New Brunswick restaurant.  

Kate had lots of fans to help her celebrate -- Joan, Ray & Carol, Doug's parents Dave & Debbie and us.  

Kate and Grant four years earlier at her White Coat Ceremony.  

Are those the same flowers from the White Coat Ceremony?  

Dutch Bike Trails

Yesterday I rode my bike into Den Haag for some shopping.  It's about an 8 km ride and 70-80% of it is on bike trails through the woods.  It was a sunny spring day and the trees are finally green so I took some photos to share how nice the Dutch bike trails are.  It explains why so many Dutch cycle.

In case you were wondering there are about 32,000 km of dedicated bike trails in The Netherlands.   Considering that the entire country is about 200 x 300 km the Dutch have got things pretty well covered with trails.   There are on-line route planners and GPS's for bikes.  All the trails don't look like the ones below.   Some are smooth asphalt through the country.  Some are bumpy pavers.  Others include a 1 million euro tunnel underneath a freeway.

So this is where they got the idea for Oreos

The Close Shaves Go Semi-Pro

Today was King's Day in The Netherlands -- a day started many years ago to celebrate the birthday of the reigning Monarch.  It has evolved into a great holiday.  Traditions include wearing orange clothing, kids setting up "stands" to sell their old toys & junk and general partying by all.

This is the view of our village's shopping street.  Both sides are lined with kids selling their treasures.  

Grant's Barbershop Quartet, The Close Shaves, took advantage of the opportunity to perform, and more important, to try and get some money in return.  They've got a set of about 10 songs and they went through that 2-3 times.  Their location wasn't ideal (most people get to the street around 8 or 9 to get the best spots) but they had steady listeners.  In the end the take was around 60 euros -- not bad for a beginning group.   Like most start-ups very little of the money made it home; it was immediately invested in lunch.

75% of the group warmed up at our house.  

Note that all members are appropriately attired in orange. 

For you Jersey Boys fans -- "four guys under a lamp post signing somebody else's songs"

North to Finland

Grant & I went to Finland again this year for his February break.  Last year we traveled there with hopes to see the Northern Lights.  Despite spending a beautifully clear evening in the middle of nowhere, no lights were sighted.  This year our luck was even worse.  There were no beautiful clear evenings, let alone any Northern Lights.  So we were shut out again.  

Of course upon our return, I talked with a colleague who had just returned from a cruise in Norway where she saw the lights 4 or 5 times.  And even more disheartening, my niece just saw them from Minnesota. 

Despite being 250 km north of the Arctic Circle our weather was mild with temperatures staying around freezing.  This was somewhat ironic since during this time most of the Midwest and Northeastern US was suffering from bitter cold temps.  

Without any Northern Lights to see Grant spent his time making snow angels.  

Our lodging.  On the good side, it is right by the ski trail and has free cross country ski use.  However it's a little rustic and the lunch menu is essentially limited to toasties and fried cheese sticks.  

The trail outside the lodge begins with a big downhill.  Notice the lights on the side of the trail.  They have around 20 km of lighted trails for night skiing.  In December and January there is a lot of dark in Finland.  

We hit some great ski weather.  Temperatures around freezing with occasional snow.  

The remote landscape

Grant & I liked skiing next to this small creek.  

The Sariselka area has about 250 km of groomed ski trails.  Grant was in charge of plotting our route each day.  

We took two snowmobile rides.  I'm always surprised at how difficult it is to turn those machines.  

This is an observation tower on top of the local mountain.  It was a bitter cold there as it looks.  The wind was incredibly strong.  

Grant was the only member of our group to catch a fish while ice fishing.  

His success must have been due to his professional fishing stance.  

Drilling a hole in the ice.  It was almost a meter thick.  

Our hotel parking lot included a Soviet built Lada.  Wikipedia says it is one of the four most popular cars ever sold.  Topping the list is the Model T followed by the VW Beetle, the Toyota Corolla and then the Lada.  

This is how hot dogs are served in the Helsinki Airport.  Lots of dog and not enough bun.  Just the opposite of most hot dogs.