Eindhoven, The Netherlands

I'm now in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. This is the home of Phillips--as in Phillips light bulbs. Yup, the city is pretty much dominated by all things related to Philips, from statues, to factories, to museums and impressive lighting displays. I will be collaborating with some folks here, but I won't bore you with talk of mathematical cryptography. Instead I will make some observations...

The celebration of Carnival here is a bit different that in Germany. The Germans had more coherent themes to their costumes--dressing up as a particular character (e.g. doctor, cat, etc.). The Dutch simply dress up as colorful and wild/weird/ostentatiously as possible. This results in a lot of crazy, bewildering encounters on the train, in the streets, and in cafes.

I went with a colleague to a Mexican restaurant--I knew it would be nothing like the Tex-Mex I grew up with, but was curious what I'd find. We shared nachos as an appetizer...and they tasted like pizza, I kid you not. It was basically "tortillas" (flour/water...could be a pizza crust) crisped in the oven, topped with "salsa" (actually a tomato sauce suspiciously reminiscent of pizza or spaghetti sauce) and mozzarella cheese (not Monterrey Jack cheese or other more Mexican-flavored). Viola, you've got pizza. I squirted a lot of tabasco sauce on it, to give it some kick, but that didn't help much. I ordered a burrito with kidney beans as the filling (as opposed to chicken or beef), and it was quite tasty. Not like anything I've had in a Mexican restaurant before, but nevertheless very good.