Civilian life

This past week we lived the more normal life of the typical Rotterdamer-ite (English major means I can make up words right? I didn't go to university 3 years for nothing! ) Rainy skies prevented us from exploring too much, although on one of the trips back from the university we found THIS!!

 

1 Euro for a croquet on a bun! It was about the tastiest croquette I have ever had. Cheap+Orange+Croquette+op de fiets (bike)= 100% Netherlands... mmm!

I also had a fairly large homework project to do on oral interviews with soldiers in WW2 (very interesting), so that took up  a bunch of time this week.

Val received recently an all-expenses paid trip to Brussels! This history student couldn't take advantage of the deal, as it was for communications students. But earlier this week a friend from the university asked if I would also like to go to Brussels with her! 23 euros (about $30) later and we have a round trip planned for Brussels in two weeks!

Earlier this week we had an official welcome ceremony which consisted of free food!!  (plus 2.5 hours of speeches about how great we were for choosing Erasmus). I get a kick out of this picture, as it kind of looks like three of us are talking at the same time. Yes, the music was that loud! It's pretty ironic  because although they want to give us a taste of Dutch life, they always end up blaring distinctly American music at these evenings.

And then Friday night we went to a friend's house. We played Settlers of Catan in Dutch! Such a cool experience. We also played Dutch Blitz (to them Ligretto), in which I creamed everyone (just sayin' :) and we learned a bit about the Dutch education system. A quick rundown: Dutch schools are made of either nerds, social nerds, or partyers.

Slowly but surely we are catching on to the language, and mastering our gag reflex that is used to pronounce a 'g'. Pretty much just cough up phlegm and you're good to go!

On Friday I watched a very interesting documentary on Quantum Physics (no, it's not an oxymoron :) After witnessing something that seemed impossible (it would take ways too much to explain it, it's called Quantum Enigma if you're really interested), Einstein simply refused to acknowledge it. He stated that he will stick to belief in the scientific rule, even though the experiment opposed the rule. He said, "I don't believe in quantum mechanics because I believe in the moon, even when I'm not looking at it." Ahem, this is putting faith over science dear Einstein. It reminds me of the message scrawled in the Jewish concentration camp, "I believe in the sun even when it isn't shining, I believe in love even when I can't feel it, and I believe in God even when he was silent."

 

On Saturday we helped out at a Bazaar that was raising money for Romania. We manned the 'shminkel' station- facepainting! It was a lot of fun, but communicating with children who do not speak English was a bit of a problem. Thankfully we were stationed with a Dutch-speaking girl. I ended up painting a grand total of two faces, which raised exactly aan euro for Romania ('aan' may or may not be 'one' in English). But it really was a great day, and they raised quite a lot for Romania.

This weekend I am going to Utrecht with some students, and earlier in the week I am off to Amsterdam, also with some students, for a project. Should be pretty good!







Hope you all have an excellent week as well!

Gouda

Goedemorgen! Here is an update and some pics of this past week for your enjoyment!

This was taken during a bike ride along a canal. The tiny cabins built over the water are just so cozy! There are a few swans swimming in front of this one.

And this is the latest and definitely the greatest development of this past week... a new bike! After jogging to and from school three times in one week (8 kms each way, so 48 kms total), it was a happy day. It's a little bit of an antique, but she is a beauty! Very happy with it, and hopefully it will last more than two weeks without being stolen...

This is a picture of Gouda! Do you notice how the houses seem to lean inward a bit? It may be partly the angle of the camera, but many houses have the dates on the front (many from the 1700s even), and they really do lean inward. It's a bit of an adrenaline rush going through some streets (ok not quite, but at some point they really will topple!)

The trip to Gouda was a bit of an adventuresome trip, as they tend to be. We started off into the blue skies with excited smiles on our face. Also alas, our constant downfall, no map. It was supposed to be a 20 km trip, and we received some pretty straight-forward sounding directions, so thought we could do it no problem. We followed the street Hoofdeweg (even the name sounds like it's not made for happy times). After following it for way too long we asked a friendly guy at the gas pumps where Gouda was, if we were heading in the right direction. He discreetly wiped a smirk off his face before answering, and I knew it would be bad. Indeed, we had to pedal back (against the wind, which is brutal) for a few kms. And then of course we were hugely off track so we relied on passer-by's for the direction. Usually a vague wave in the direction of the town was as good as we got.

But anyway, we arrived there only about 2 hours later. The town itself is beautiful! It is famous for its old architecture, its candles, stroepwaffles and obviously cheese. So we had to get a fresh stroepwaffle, which was warm, dripping syrup and simply delightful. And then for lunch we had THE world famous fries (I forget what they were called, but they are apparently famous and for very good reason). After which I felt like a ball of lead had landed heavy in my stomach.

Not trusting our sense of direction too much, we figured after 2 hours of exploring we should probably start heading home. The trip home was, well, a test of strength of leg muscles and sheer will power.

We began well, retracing our steps. Very quickly we lost the trail we had followed. We ended up going over a bridge with a 'do not enter sign' (we don't read Dutch, plus the gate was easy enough to push aside, so it couldn't have been that illegal... at least that's what I tell Val) that took us to a graveyard. Two men drinking blue liquid hooted at us, cars honked at these tourists in  the middle of the narrow road, yes it was an experience. And then of course we had to go back over the wretched bridge (we learned that it's very hard to navigate deactivated bridges, especially for the second time.) The wind was blowing against us the whole way back, which often made us set a pace slower than walking.

But anyway, all is well that ends well. For some reason, after all that I felt quite invigorated. Poor Val was ready to drop for the last five kms. We traded bikes and I think that helped a bit, but she was very happy to see familiar territory again! When we got to the MacLeans she asked how I was doing, and honestly, I had to smile and say I'm pretty sure I can conquer the world right now. But  just then, I also should report, I did fall over with my bike on top, not seeing an extra step. But hey, if you can conquer the world from beneath the bike I think one is doing pretty good!

Just arriving home... still smiling (somewhat)!

Yesterday was kind of interesting as well. Not being able to understand more than 10% of the sermon, we had contacts who introduced us to a different church. It was quite different than what we were used to. A woman pastor, people shouting their Hallelujah's, not quite as 'tame' as a Reformed service. I enjoyed it for the fact that people's emotional connection to God was very evident, they had much joy. But I think we will stick with our Dutch services from now on.

We went to a bible study of people aged 20-30 in the evening. It constantly amazes me (in a very good way) how kind people are here! They translated enough to give us a rough idea of the study. Afterwards we talked, losing track of the time until about 11:15. Talking to people like this is always very encouraging and inspiring. Definitely we are very blessed!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well!

Cheers!

Alas I have a tail.

This weekend has been rather, umm, interesting! It was really good all in all, though slightly adventurous. Saturday morning began with heavy rain and strong winds. We are not such hardened Dutchman yet to go biking in all types of weather (at least not 40 kms) so, 45 messages later, we (Val and I plus two others from the church) decided to go instead out for lunch and later to the local pool. It was a blast, and I think we managed to rope in two of Holland's kindest, most generous tour guides for this. This would come in very handy a little later. After having a great time in the pool we headed back via bus and metro.  We arrived at the Alexander station, where we had parked our bikes a few hours before. Suddenly Hannah began digging frantically through her purse. Yes, the classic lost keys! Every pocket was searched multiple times, pretzles spilled out of the bag onto the ground, the purse was completely searched. No keys. And no way to get her bike unlocked. Well, that wasn't a huge problem, she could sit on the back of Val's bike, as it had a decent 'seat' on it.
We went over to unlock our bikes. I began unlocking mine when I noticed something peculiar. As my previous bike had been stolen the past week, I was riding this new spare bike. I had not looked at it closely yet, and so had missed seeing a key on the back tire, which is a theft-prevention device (basically it stops the tire from turning.) Not having seen the key before, I hadn't taken it out of its lock when we left our bikes. As I bent to unlock my bike now, I saw this lock. And there was no key in the lock, it had been stolen as well. I tried to turn the wheel, just in case the lock was broken. It was stiff as a tomb.
"Umm guys, I think I might have a problem..." echoing Hannah's words of a minute before. We couldn't leave the bike at the station or it would have been stolen. So Rob who is really very kind offered to carry it.
So I rode his bike to a place a few metro stations down, while he carried mine to the next metro station. He carried it on, found out he had taken the wrong metro, and to make a very long story short, eventually ended up at my metro station. This hunk of metal probably weighs about 40 lbs, and most of the weight is on the back which needs to be lifted up, while somehow steering the front... a very awkward load.
So we locked up the wretched thing and headed home, me on the back of his bike somehow. And then we got home, where Val and Hannah had just left in search of us (who had the keys of course :) So we called  them and they came all the way back. They had been hungry and had eaten the pretzels (off the ground which I had put back in the bag unknown to them, it adds a nice touch to the story!)
And then we ate cookies. Which was the finishing touch to an overall very good day, in spite of all that had happened!

Yesterday I decided to deal with the bike, and take it to the shop. The shop is about a km away, which is a very long way to carry a bike with only one tire. Finally I got to the shop. It was completely dark. "Closed on Mondays" said a big white sign with red letters. I could not believe my luck.
But I needed a break from hauling the thing, so I decided to the bike, then walk the 2 kms to my bank to deal with some things. This bad luck continued. I had been a little misinformed a few weeks before, so it turns out basically that my bank cheque had not deposited... in any case it is a big pain! And then the lady didn't have a single envelope to mail my cheque so I had to buy a whole pack (anyone want a pack of envelopes that are square shaped and huge?)
And then I headed back. By this time my legs were a little sore, as I had also in a moment of inspiration decided to jog the 16 kms to and from school that morning. It was a lovely jog, but the legs were a little sore. Kind of discouraged I thought maybe an icecream would be nice. It was very cheap which was a score! Until... I dug into the icecream and it had chunks of warm. I think they make it out of marshmellows and ice. But it was also sugar, so I gulped it down. To finish the story I was heading back with the same most wretched bike under my arm, when I noticed it had a flat tire on the back. From dragging it, the rubber had worn off the bottom of the tire.
But on the positive side, a lot of people smiled at me while I was walking. I think they felt a little sorry for this girl. I even had an old colored man laugh as he biked by and yell something at me loudly in Dutch. I simply put the corners of my mouth up for him. Plus another guy rolled down his car window as he was going by, pursed his lips and made kissing noises to me. I thought maybe he was a knight in shining armour who would suddenly pull out a white horse and carry me (and the wretched beast of a bike) home. But he wasn't and this damsel plodded onward and forward.
And that, my friends is the story of the tail of adventures that seem to have been following me lately! But this morning the sun was streaming through the attic window, and I am now sitting with my sunglasses in the open window. Its a great day to be alive!

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Zeeland

And here are a few more pictures of this past week! We drove about an hour, to what could be a different country due to it's differences! Apparently the people dress funny (uhh, I think they are the typical farmer clothing...? Makes me wonder what they think about my clothes...), are very conservative, and apparently have a different (to Rotterdamer's the more politically correct term would be Weird) accent. I say apparently because I can't understand Dutch in the least, never mind distinguish accents on top of that! I guess there must be some sort of rivalry going on, but as long as they're friendly to Canadians I guess they're alright! The country side here is made of small cottages, sheep, and open land. We went to the small town and went window shopping, but hey, pictures always tell the better story :)

Your classic old-time candy store

(and I can report Mom that we had the self-control to not buy anything ;)

Typical Holland

We walked around the harbour and stopped to talk to a gentleman who had sailed across the Atlantic to the St. Lawrence channel. hmm, maybe next adventure will include buying a sailboat...

A glimpse of God

And I found this while jogging in the middle of nowhere yesterday morning! This is probably just about the coolest thing I've seen yet. That rectangular thing is a massive rock-climbing wall. From the top is a zip-line across the canal, that leads into an outdoor survival park, on the left of the photo. Basically it's all inclusive to the outdoorsman. There are 25 foot rope swings over mud pits, sketchy bridges over canals that require almost superhuman balance. There are fireplaces in teepees at the start, and huge rope hammocks high in trees. There's tire monkey bars, forts with precarious ways of getting up (to say the least), mountain bike trails, frisbee golf, kayaking, and the list goes on for 14 kms! While checking everything out I was so interested I forgot to look where I was going. Fortunately one of the creators of all this stuff was 'training' (yes, on a rope swing :) and so he told me all about it. Basically its an all-day race through all these obstacles. Too cool! And to do this stuff for a job, wow! It is pretty chilly now, and the race includes a lot of mud and cold and wet. I will definitely have to check out the race a little later on in the year though!

Also, one not so great thing (actually it's super crappy) is that my bike got stolen while parked at the university. Alas, a real Dutch experience. They tell me now that everyone has two bikes, one to get stolen and one for backup. My only backup is a man-bike that is about 2 miles too high or so, and really uncomfortable to ride. And we have a 40 km round trip tomorrow which means all day on the bike... we'll see how long I can sit down on the wooden benches in church on Sunday!

Anyway,  I hope you have a great weekend!

Kim

Model students

Lately things have been more or less settling into routine. Classes for two hours on Monday and Wednesday, church on Sunday, usually a road trip from Larry and Hanneke Bol (an older couple who like taking us out) on Saturdays, and the rest of the week for other routines. Or at least as routine as it can be when one is a traveller in Europe and slightly multitasking-deficient.
Here's how it went. I showed up to class on Wednesday, half an hour early for class as I like to be early on my first day. The door to my classroom was closed, so I nicely crossed my legs to wait while reading a textbook, pretty much the model student. Ten minutes before class I decided that someone had probably forgotten to open the door, so I decided to wait in the classroom. I opened the door... to a lecture hall filled with about 100 students. And the door had to be in the front of the classroom too yet. So I smiled primly and walked out (at least that's what I tell myself). It was a bit of a shock, but anyways I found out later that I had a scheduling problem... I had scheduled two courses opposite. But hey, all is well that ends well and both courses are really interesting, although they do include a lot of work for someone who is not necessarily the model student while in Europe- too much to do!
I have class on Monday and Wednesday, which leaves the rest of the week for exploring. So far we haven't done a ton of exploring, as there has been a bunch of organizational things to get done. But here are a few photos of what we've been up to lately.

A solo bike ride along the dike at night... this is about three minutes away from Maclean's by bike!

I was off of school early one day, and did some exploring in this area. One of these houses was from the 1600's, and is still a private residence! This part of town is where the 'snobs' live apparently, which is partially evident by the huge houses.

This is the view from our attic window where we sleep. There are kms of these types of houses, all narrow and three stories high, with identical interiors.

We have also been learning the ropes about this place. Here's a few tips for you, for when you come to visit us :)

1. Buy a rain pants for those days it pours and after your 40 minute bike ride to class you are soaked. At least if you want to come into class and not look like a tourist or a cheap Dutchman.

2. If you smile at someone, they will smile back, and often say hello and make conversation. The Dutch are very friendly!

3. Don't make fun of their mountain (aka garbage dump that is a slight hill, and has been made into a concrete ski hill. We have yet to see snow). They will no longer be friendly.

4. If you want the most beautiful quiet, bike along the canals at night. The cabins on the water flicker their lights quietly on the rippling dark surface of the water, the night birds will call out occasionally, and the ripples lap quietly onto shore. Beautiful!

5. The stroepwaffles here are seriously addictive. There has got to be some sort of a drug in them. Stay away (at least from mine) if you want to enjoy a long life!

6. Come as soon as possible to visit us so you can enjoy the spring time! Yes, the tulips and daffodails are in full bloom!





 

This weekend we are planning a 40 km-round bike trip to Gouda ( famous for its cheesc of course !) with some of the church kids! I'll post pictures soon!