Highland Games Antigonish, originally uploaded by jiruan.

高地运动会(Highland Games)是一项苏格兰的传统项目。由于我所在的加拿大地区在大西洋北部沿岸，所以从苏格兰来的后裔比较多。他们保留了祖先留下来的一些习惯，例如开高地运动会。这里展示的是2009年我所看到的比赛图片，共包括：扔链球，拔河，扔石头，跳舞（女孩子），扔木头过顶，苏格兰风笛演奏。第一次对苏格兰留下深刻印象的是在大学宿舍里看电影《勇敢的心》，然后在2007年的时候我曾短暂游览了爱丁堡，但没能去高地，更没有看到运动会。这一次高地运动会真让我开了眼。下面就欣赏更多的图片吧。

飘舞的裙摆

扔石头（英文Stone put）！是不是让你想起《勇敢的心》里面的场景？

这是拔河（英文：Tug of war）

女孩子则比赛苏格兰舞蹈

这个项目是扔柱子（英文：Caber toss），目标是让柱子的另一端着地之后整个柱子翻过它的最高重心向前倒下。

柱子很重，需要好几个人一起才能扶起来：

上面所有的尝试都失败了，所以他们不得不锯一小块接着再比：

这位大力士终于成功了：

还有一个项目是演奏苏格兰风笛：

这是最后的颁奖仪式

RGU大学的校徽, originally uploaded by jiruan.

I visited Groningen twice. The first time was in November 2004. I visited Dr. Barteld Kooi, who works in the Groningen university, after I defended my master thesis. He gave me good advices in the final stage of my thesis writing. It is quite a nice place. Barteld showed me around, and I saw quite a few difference churches:

The university is the second oldest university in the Netherlands (founded in 1614). The following statue was that of the first female student of the country:

The Christmas was close while I was visiting, and I found this interesting bread:

My second visit was in June 2006. I went there with Dr. Hans van Ditmarsch and we gave a talk to the philosophy department jointly with Dr. Rineke Verbrugge. Here is a photo of us:

We also had a photo with some of the faculty members:

Our talk was about Sum and Product Riddle in Dynamic Epistemic Logic (link to our paper).

And we went to a nice restaurant for dinner:

I did not have much time for sightseeing this time, but I did notice the packs of bikes in the train station:

At Mahoneys Beach, originally uploaded by jiruan.

I did a cycling trip to the Mahoneys Beach after finishing a week’s work. I followed the route 337, and it was a bit crowded sometimes:

The weather was terrific:

It took me around an hour to get close to the beach. I wished that I could have spent the weekend in that house:

Here is a short video of what I saw on the bike:

The beach is not very sandy, but the smell was similarly salty:

Since there are a lot of stones, you could through them at the sea:

It is certainly a nice place for the birds:

with some flying under the sunshine:

some above the sea:

some are gone:

It could not stay long as the sky was getting dark quickly. Goodbye & I’ll be back.

Flying with me, originally uploaded by jiruan.

This picture was taken during the Fireworks show and by having a long exposure and moving the camera at the same time. That’s how it is flying.

More pictures of the fireworks:

There two are the magicians:

Everything returns to peace:

好酷的发型, originally uploaded by jiruan.

Time for birds.

It is May, a Taraxacum Season. But some taraxacums are lonely.

Some early flowers start to bloom as well. This is the earliest as far as I know:

This photo was taken a week later:

But don’t worry about the dead ones, as the other flowers also wake up:

Although there is still some possibility to snow:

It even freezes the pipe:

but the sun turns the snow into water, which encourages more shoots come out.

Yep, spring is unstoppable, when it comes finally.

伦敦自然历史博物馆是欧洲最大的自然历史博物馆。原为1753年创建的不列颠博物馆的一部分，1881年由总馆分出，1963年正式独立。爱好自然，想看它历史的人可千万别错过。

这是博物馆的外观（维多利亚式建筑，形似中世纪大教堂）：

巨大的恐龙骨架

我连它的尾巴都够不到

这张是俯瞰


2.25亿年前的树的化石

一种小猿类，在啃恐龙骨头

霸王龙

人马的刨面

穿山甲（我是第一次见到实物）

食蚁兽（小象？）

超级大蝙蝠

需要理发的狮子

望玻璃兴叹的老虎

把人装肚子里的黑熊

只剩下骨头的犀牛

和谐三宝

小羊

鲸鱼和大象的比较

大螃蟹（可吃）

皮皮虾？

海鱼的一家

国宝熊猫（有一天也得把国保送一个到自然历史博物馆，让后代的人看看这种绝种的动物）

镇馆之宝：达尔文

大厅内部

硬度

宝石之家（注意不要和结石宝宝之家混淆 http://www.jieshibaobao.com ）

群山之光

访问者留言

更多照片在这个相册里

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiruan/sets/72157623648450194/

Check here to see more photos of Spring Festival in StFX University Antigonish:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiruan/sets/72157623429858694/detail/

Zaanse_Schans_Windmill_20030927_IDZ103, originally uploaded by jiruan.

I start to feel the urgency of digging out some really old photos and put them on my flickr before they get lost in my increasingly crowded hard drive.

This album is one of the first albums I took after I arrived Holland. I went to this trip with two friends on September 27, 2003. And we certainly enjoyed it.

I saw a very old version of the Albert Heijn Supermarket (founded in 1887):

Fed a sheep:

Witnessed the process of making Cheese (The concept and taste of cheese was new to me when I first arrived at Amsterdam):

And some interesting porcelains:

Overall, it is an interesting place to visit if you have a half day in Amsterdam (cost around 20 minutes by train to get there from Central Station Amsterdam):