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!
the Dutch Blitz master strikes again!!
ReplyDeleteI had to ask uncSteve what the Enigma was... sounds like a fascinating documentary!
Are the croquets shaped manually, or are they more sophisticated than us in that? The one on the photo is shaped very beautifully!
ReplyDeleteEither they have more sophisticated hands or they are done with a machine :)
Deletevery interesting Kim! my uncle and aunt to a lot of work with orphans from Romania I believe...
ReplyDeleteYes, this church is very involved with Romania as well, it sounds like very interesting work!
Delete..making me drool....Dutch croquettes are the best!!
ReplyDelete