Heinekin and guitars

There's not too much to report from this past week due to the fact that exams dates are looming.

 

With the 'Clean Water' group a few of us jumped into the Mass River and swam 10 m to the ladder. The water was pretty gross and I ended up with a foot covered in blood (I still don't know how that happened!) but it was super refreshing! Val has the pictures on her camera so at this point I don't really have the proof except for that cut on my foot :) If you really want proof I could probably take a picture for you... Afterwards we went to a nearby small pub and finished the evening with Heinekin and guitar music... really the best Friday evening outing!

Still on a bit of a high from jumping into the river!

 

Don't worry, next week's post should be a little more interesting! (exam marks and such of course :)

Hope you have a good week!

Tea with the mayor of Leiden

This weekend I helped an acquaintance organize a river cleanup for the day. 80 people who were passionate about keeping rivers clean (or in my case perhaps the lure of 100 euros was a bit of a pull as well...) gathered together to clean 50 kms of river. There was so much enthusiasm, even after 10 waterlogged hours (of course a free dinner helped out with the enthusiasm at this point!) We kayaked, canoed and picked up garbage from beside the river... all in all a very fun day! My job was mostly to assist the head coordinator, picking up calls, giving out supplies, taking pictures etc. While in Leiden (pictured below), only the mayor and head elder showed up, and this was a kilometer that was supposed to be cleaned by the town. Therefore I got to help out! I had a very interesting conversation with the mayor regarding the Netherlands education system. After about an hour we decided that we were done, so we picked up some tea and had tea together for an hour! Quite a random experience, but pretty fun!

 

This guy brought us the drinks, and he had the most outrageous travel stories I have ever heard! Mayor is in the middle.

The head elder on right

 These ladies are two of the most welcoming outgoing people I have ever met! We have a date to meet again in Leiden, where I will stay at the head elders place and they will show me around the town. Hopefully that works out, should be fun I think!

 

Sunday Afternoon Flowers

 Yesterday between services Om Gert Jan and Tante Joke took us to the Leiden area, about an hour out of Rotterdam by car. The daffodails weren't blooming yet, but the colors of these flowers were phenomenal! Driving along narrow winding country roads we found this area. Apparently this part of the town grows these flowers as their main means of income.

  

Stepping out of the car into the scent of new blooms... so beautiful!

God's art gallery in macro view...

 

... and in micro.

Each bloom is so perfectly delicate. Thousands, together, create these amazing landscapes!

 

Each flower apparently is grown in order to produce 2 bulbs, which are sold internationally.

We also visited some nearby sand dunes, which lined the ocean for about 1 km, acting as a natural dike.

Beach day in March for the win!

 

 Having a nice hair day...

Many famous Dutch paintings feature the clouds of Leiden, for good reason!

 

In the evening we had a bible study about the Sabbath rest. We were reminded that God rested on the seventh day in order to enjoy the fruits of his labour. On this day we too could fill our senses with a sense of God's enjoyment... and it was very good! :)

A quick trip to Delft

Yesterday Val had to go to a course at Uni Delft. Due to her tendency to get lost I figured I had better make sure she got there ok. Because, as everyone knows, Kim always gets to her destination, on time, without even thinking about getting lost!
Unfortunately this not quite so impeccable record was revisited again yesterday. We began well, passing through a beautiful nature area.

 We saw this creature, and managed to get quite close. It was not fenced in, so I guess it must have been quite tame, although we have no idea what it is. Perhaps some kind of buffalo...

We could only applaud our good sense of direction for so long, before this happened. I was telling Val a pretty exciting story, and I was waving my arms a bit or something... anyway, we crashed into eachother and both landed pretty hard along with my poor bike. The front fender was bent pretty bad, but 15 minutes later we were back on track.

We arrived at the university, so that was our objective accomplished for the day! The only down side was that we arrived 15 minutes before the end of class... So we decided to visit some museums that we had free entrance to with our Roterdam pas. The picture below is from the Royal Delft museum. This picture illustrates the making of the pottery, after which a charcoal sheet is placed on top and stencils drawn, and finally the black paint is baked in the oven after which it turns this world-famous blue! It is quite neat how a fairly simple craft can become so famous!

 

Mmm, McCroquette burgers. How is this not a thing in Canada!?

 

On the way home we lost our way pretty badly. A construction zone blocked off the path we should have taken, which was pretty unfortunate. We ended up walking through mud in a construction zone with high heels, and even the locals didn't know exactly where we should go. So yeah, it was a bit long. We finally found a sign that said 'Rotterdam' and had an arrow pointing in the general direction. Which was quite nice, except that about five minutes later my bike tire gave a shivering hiss and within two seconds was completely flat. Which began a very long walk, carrying my bike. After walking about 20 minutes, the most kind gentleman finally took notice of these two damsels, and offered to drive me to a nearby bicycle shop. He also happened to be Canadian, of all things! It was only a valve that needed to be replaced, and the tire pumped up. 1.5 Euros later, we asked an old woman for directions. She had a hard time deciding on telling us where to go, and finally decided on the 'scenic route' which was quite out of our way, but apparently was more beautiful and would take us past her father's home. Anyway, we tried to follow her directions but pretty soon gave up. But things grew more and more familiar, and we ended up finding our own way home along the river, which is one of the most scenic routes I've biked on and is also shorter :) Thanks anyway old lady!

Nine hours of biking later, we finally arrived home. And drank tea. Really, I may not follow old lady's directions but when it comes to their tradition of drinking tea I am an old lady's biggest fan!

I hope your week is going well also! 

Blessings,

Kim

The Latest

Goede middag my friends!
There is not too much to report from this past week...
A Friday morning bike ride. The grey fog lifted its heavy foot after a few hours, the sunshine practically singing "It's a Beautiful Day"!

 

 A store called Hippie! Nuff said... 

Don't worry Mom, I didn't buy anything :) 

Helping a friend paint the window trim of his new house. While we were painting an old man came into the apartment from downstairs, falling in the hall. My friend ended up calling the ambulance, and it was a pretty eventful afternoon!

After which we had the most lekker of lekker dinners... The MacLean's were gone so Val and I made dinner. Bacon, poffertjes (small pancakes with icing sugar and butter), garlic bread and brownie pudding! Two of our painter friends helped us eat it, after all many hands make light work! (Also for cleanup...:) And a game of Spoons  for dessert... a really nice evening. We were just getting ready for bed at 10:30 that night when we received a phone call. Did we want to go to a party with a few of the church kids? Fruitcake, yeah! Off came the pyjamas, and ten minutes later we were calmly waiting at the train station. It was a really good evening, topped by an icecream sundae at 2 am (through the McDonald's Drive-Thru by bicycle!) with a bunch of Dutchies.

And on Saturday night it was a friend's birthday party. We were outside in Tshirts around a campfire, so gezellig!

Also, a noteworthy accomplishment of this past week would be my resolve to learn the Dutch language! I could put a few adjectives before Dutch language, but I will simply control my phlegm impulses without puking or mentioning how gross this language is. Yes, there is SO much phlegm involved, it is well... not so 'civilized' as English :) But most of our social events include listening to 90% Dutch conversation, as well as, of course, sermons are in Dutch. So it would definitely be a worthwhile accomplishment!

Exams are next week, and one girl has a bunch of studying to do! So until next week, tot ziends my friends! (Your welcome, I mercifully gave you the one word in this language without phlegm). Have a vonderful veek!

Wanderings in Brussels

This highly anticipated weekend brought a lovely classmate (Kaia) and I to Brussels! We began the  week looking for hosts on Couchsurfing, which is basically a travellers website designed for locals to host guests from other countries. It's really a brilliant idea, but due to the fact that we started looking for locals only a week before, no one could host us. So we arrived in Brussels around 7:00 pm on a Friday night, with no map, no place to stay, 40 euros (about $50), and no game plan. Perfect. Limitless opportunity called.

We got off the bus with a Canadian girl who also happened to be going to Brussels at the same time as us. She mentioned that she had connections, and could probably find us a free place to stay. It was perfect. Except that at our tram stop she spent two extra seconds looking at her map. She had just reached the tram door and was about to step out when the door shut on her face, leaving Kaia and I really on our own, in the middle of nowhere!
So we used the best wild card out there... locals! Throughout the weekend the locals came up to us many times while we were holding a map, offering help upon seeing our confused faces. Super friendly folks!
Some tech-guys pointed the way nearby to a hostel. Which also happened to be in the Red Light district of the city. Without knowing this, Kaia, I and a German girl who was also staying in our hostel room decided to go for a walk. It was quite an interesting experience, again an experience that opened my somewhat shielded eyes little wider. I've studied this topic, but to actually walk through this area gave me insight that a 50 page paper could not.

 

The next day shone bright and clear, and the remainder of the weekend was spent on a walking tour, exploring the huge variety and beauty of Brussels. It is a city that is stately and proud, where 4-storied houses look down on narrow streets through tall narrow windows. Yet in another district (ahem where we ended up upon getting lost) the houses were colorful and covered in plaster rather than made of brick, giving a Mediterranean feel. And then there was the Grote Market, which was a large square surrounded by ancient town halls and worker's unions buildings. Breathtaking. But here's the pictures :) Enjoy! 

Brussels at night

Upon seeing this there was almost a career change of plans in Kim's life to become a sewage city worker... this would be highly entertaining! 

This building very much represents Brussels. Stately, and elegant. Inside there were so many random shops that didn't quite seem to belong in the same building, new and old, salons and museums. It was all built on top of a railroad track, which we learned later was built over a river due to the bad smell of the river. Classy. 

An old abandoned train station we found along our walk. There were unexplored passages below but Kaia wouldn't quite let me go down...

Wow. The detail on some of the buildings must have taken huge amounts of craftmanship skills and time!

New and old contrast

Part of the Grote Market

The Manequin Pis, Brussel's 24 inch claim to fame. Apparently this fellow saved the city by peeing on a bomb...

Attention to detail

A bit Mediterranean style

One of my fave's

 

This guy will do tricks for a few seconds, then go to the cars and ask for money, hopefully before the light turns green and he has to quickly scurry out of the way!

Brussels also has a beautiful nature area.

Spring in full bloom! It was over 20 degrees! Take that Smithers ;)

 

Kaia is Estonian, and I had to tell her at the end of the trip that I think I may have learned more about Estonia than Brussels! We got lost so many times, but she just always laughs and says that getting lost and exploring out-of-the-way places is the best part to get to know a city.... After the weekend I had to completely agree!!

So MMMMM. I have NEVER tasted a doughnut/waffle as delicious as this. Slightly toasted, coated in syrup, light and fluffy and warm...

Walking through Brussels redneck style :)

This is the King's Palace in the distance.

Lunch in Brussels.

Probably about 30 small restaurants crowded the narrow street. Each little restaurant had someone standing in front. As soon as we made eye contact, this man in suit and tie would hurry up to us. "Look here! A full 3 course meal for only 12 Euros! 12 Euros! Plus. Because you talked to me, I will PERSONALLY give you a free drink!" We would walk a little further. "But no," the second would yell, "don't go there! I will give you two free glasses!" "But look here," one would call to us from down the street, "I will give you a choice of whatever alcohol you like! Free! Gratis!" After spending about 30 minutes bickering and dealing with these guys, we finally decided that we were very undecided girls who failed at making decisions. So we marched up to the closest one and sat down. It ended up only being one free drink, plus we were seated inside rather than in the sunshine. But it was really fancy! Mussels, garlic shrimp and a waffle completed lunch.

A random statue of a container! Brussels is a bit quirky...

Shooting stars at sunset.

(or airplanes :)

A vibrant city!

What an awesome experience!

I hope you all have a great week in your snowpants... ;)