Farewell Leiden

Well, it's all over. I flew out yesterday morning and now I'm back in Orlando. It was a heck of a trip and I feel blessed to have been able to do it. Thanks for reading my first attempt at blogging and I hope to see all of you soon (unless weird random strangers have been reading this, in which case, my name is Mike Stadler and I live in Palo Alto).


75 and sunny on my last day

Keukenhof

In Lisse, just outside of Leiden, is the world's biggest flower garden, the Keukenhof. I have zero interest in flowers but I heard about it. I definitely didn't go yesterday by myself and walk around for 3 hours taking pictures. That's just not me.


I didn't take this


Found this one online


I'm ashamed.

Maastricht

For the weekend, I went to the tail of the Netherlands and the city of Maastricht with my buddies Henry (Australia) and Curt (South Dakota). The city was pretty impressive and felt nothing like the rest of the country. The streets were wider, no canals and there were ruins from way back when all over the place. I did not know until I received a text from my mom that there are more bars per square kilometer in Maastricht than any other city in the country. Thanks mom, but I'm all about experiencing history and culture, not sitting in some bar and drinking gross Belgian beer.

The biggest difference between the tail and the rest of the country were the elevation changes. Leiden and other parts of Holland that I've been to are flat, and I mean completely flat, much more so than Florida. Ant piles are the most they have. But there were legit hills in the tail and on the train to Maastricht, we passed a little town with ruins up on a hill. We went back the next day to check it out and the ruins turned out to be the only castle to be built on a hill in the Netherlands, built to be more secure than others. It was destroyed three separate times and eventually burned. Not much was left but the views were good.

Saturday, we went to an old fort on the outskirts of Maastricht. From the top, you could see Belgium and we decided to walk across the border. The walk turned out to be a massive trek but the weather and scenery made it worth it. We eventually made it to the town of Kanne, just inside the Belgian border. It was a great time but thankfully, we caught a bus back to Dutch-land.

The trip was one of the highlights of my time here so far despite Easter Sunday brunch being train station Burger King. Now, I only have a few more days left before heading back to the US of A. Time flies, especially when you're 6 hours ahead. Terrible joke.


Maastricht


Valkenburg Castle


Walking to Belgium


Who could say no to more raw herring?

UF reunion

I finished exams last Friday and somehow, my European legal education has already come to a close. Oh well, hopefully I passed.

My buddies Mike and Taylor from college flew in for the week and they were waiting for me when I got out of my last final. As I hoped, they were both decked out in Gator gear from the moment they arrived. Our first outing was Amsterdam on Saturday where Holland was playing Scotland in a World Cup qualifier. The streets were packed with Scots in kilts and Dutch in bright orange but both sides seemed to get along fairly well. The atmosphere was pretty nuts and it seemed much more acceptable for the three of us to sing Gator songs amidst all the chanting Scots.

Sunday, we went to the Hague for the day and then set off for Prague on Monday. Numerous people had told me Prague was a must-see and I have to say it lived up to the hype. The city is beautiful and more importantly, cheap. Our meals were usually $5-7 and drinks were around $1. I enjoyed the goulash, which is basically beef stew minus the vegetables. How can you beat that?

A couple random stories:
We went in a hotel to get directions when we crossed paths with a fairly famous American rapper. I've never listened to him but somehow recognized him and said "Method Man?" to which he responded "of all the people right?" Well said, Method, well said.

Later, we were exploring a hill that overlooked the city when we heard a voice coming from a loudspeakers down below. It was pretty loud so there must have been speakers all over the city. After the voice stopped, what sounded like an air raid siren started blaring even louder than the voice. This was a tad disconcerting and we figured it was either a test, a giant April fool's prank, or the Germans were back and we needed to hide. It eventually stopped so option 3 was eliminated.



No caption necessary


Peace Palace in The Hague


Prague from the Old Town Hall tower.


Prague Castle from St. Charles Bridge

Dublin

Earlier this week, I went to Dublin with some friends for my birthday and more importantly, St. Patrick's Day (24 is just old). First off, it was extremely nice to be in a country where the language didn't sound like everyone had a chest cold. Dublin seemed a lot like what I remember of Boston, not exactly picturesque but still cool. The weather was great, sunny and warm, relatively warm but I'll take it. I also enjoyed the food, much more than in Holland. It was basically sausage, potatoes, sausage, repeat for 3 days and I loved every minute of it.

As for the big holiday, I thought it would be best to list the day's events chronologically, although the order is probably off.

• ordered the "full Irish breakfast" which should have been called "you might not make it to 25"
• went to the St. Patrick's Day Festival parade, I heard someone say they were expecting about a half a million people and I believe it. The parade was impressive, as parades go, but it went on a little long so we left after about an hour.
• commenced pub tour of Dublin
• was called gay by a 7 year old after I declined to put down my Irish flag after he told me it was illegal to carry if I was not from Ireland
• went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, bigger than the NYC version, but less impressive
• met a former Stanford football player, discussed coaching differences of Walt Harris and Jim Harbaugh
• got lost, began search for friends
• met some Auburn girls, ended search for friends
• got in an argument with a Miami fan who didn't like the word 'irrelevant'
• found friends, ate more sausage

All in all, a great day.

Wednesday, we were able to do some quality sightseeing which culminated with a tour of the Guinness brewery. Now back in Leiden, its exam-cramming time with all 4 next week. Not good.


O'Connell Street - the main drag


Not sure what this is


Waiting for the parade


St. Stephen's Green

Finally

Hello all, I apologize for the long post drought. I hope that you mananged to find wildly amusing entertainment elsewhere for the past two weeks. Nothing too mindblowing has happened over here but I'll share a few things. I've taken a few day trips, to the Hague and Delft. The Parliament buildings and embassies made the Hague a worthwhile stop plus being a fairly large metropolitan city, was a nice change of pace to being in Leiden. Delft is another university town that is comparable in size to Leiden but I would say is a little nicer. There was a three-day costume party that was just ending when we were there so throughout the city there were students with smeared face paint, stumbling around, mumbling incoherent Dutch (more incoherent than normal). It was kind of like sightseeing during Dawn of the Dead.

Other random notes:
Yesterday, I went to get a much-needed haircut but bailed when I saw the gelled-up mullet atrocity that the "barber" was sporting. Eighties nightclub owner, I do not want to be.
In the last two days, I've snapped a hand brake cable and gotten a flat tire on my bike. I'm praying that thing makes it a few more weeks.
It's much warmer here now with temperatures near 50 during the day. The wind has gotten intense and it still rains alot, but I no longer have to wear layers to bed.
I'm basically finished with classes after today and exams are rapidly approaching. Yikes.

My home away from...everything

After the electricity went out as I was showering tonight, I thought it would be good to document the various "features" of my Dutch home. First, the power. This was about the fifth or sixth time it has gone out since I've been here. It's not a big deal to get it turned back on, just takes some fiddling with the box, very safe I'm sure. My landlord said that she had an electrician take a look but everything was fine. She said the problem was most likely having too many things plugged in. I thought I should be fine, I barely use anything. After one blackout, one of my roommates came into my room, looked around, and said she thought I had too many things running. Computer. Heater. Light. At that point, I could have argued and live in fear of my toothbrush going in the toilet or I could comply with Greek Bob Vila. Lights out.

I can't really complain about my roommates, they have been pretty nice and considerate. The rapid fire Greek banter gets old sometimes but everything in this house seems loud because the walls are ridiculously thin. I'm not talking poorly built Gainesville apartment thin either, I mean put your fist through the wall thin. Which coincidentally, I did. No, it wasn't Gators/Magic loss related. I went to brace myself as I was leaning over my bed to reach something and crack -- right through. Luckily, there are some otherwise useless Dutch pictures hanging in my room. Problem solved, deposit saved.

Now, the clothes washing situation. There is a washing machine, probably the smallest model ever made and takes about 3 hours per cycle, but it's there. There is no dryer, however, only clothes lines in the garage. The not exactly warm temperatures are not too conducive to drying so it takes a good 2-3 days for everything to become wearable again. Right now, I have two weeks worth of boxers hanging by the door. I'm guessing at least part of the banter today will be dedicated to the American flag pair greeting the girls as they get home from class.

I've never seen the show (lie), but I think the house should be featured on an episode of Antiques Roadshow. The entire house is full of things that appear to be older than the United States. There's also an attic filled with random old stuff that my roommates said they thought was used to hide Jews during the Holocaust. I said I thought King Arthur may have hidden Excalibur in there. No response.

Breda/Utrecht

Saturday, about 50 international students went to the Dutch celebration of Carnival in Breda. From what I gathered, Carnival is what the rest of the world calls Mardi Gras, and the Dutch do it big. The streets in the center of town were closed and a costume was required to gain entrance to any of the restaurants or bars. Wanting to spread good will, I went as Uncle Sam. Personally, I'm going to say mission accomplished. It was a great time with bands playing, giant floats and general all-around merriment. The strangest part of Carnival to me was the extreme age range of the participants. To be more specific, there were toddlers at the bars. For example, in one place, packed wall to wall with people going nuts, there was a stage with people dancing. Right there with them was a little girl, probably two years old, waving pom poms, having a great time. I asked a Dutch person if that seemed odd to them. He responded, "This isn't America." Fair enough.

Sunday, I went to Utrecht, a big city with a small town feel (I read that somewhere). It was a really cool city and I would recommend it to anyone who visits the Netherlands. A highlight of the trip was the visit to the Dom Tower, the tallest church tower in the country. It was built between 1321 and 1382 (wikipedia) and for some reason, I thought I could climb to the top without issue. 465 steps later, I was thinking at least I'll go out with the Gators and Steelers on top. It was a great view though and I managed to get some pictures by blindly extending my arm out over the edge.


Ready to Carnival it up


Pre-Lent party time


Utrecht from the tower

Bruges

This week, a couple Americans from my program and I went to Bruges, Belgium for a couple days, a spur of the moment trip. It was supposed to be about a 2:30 hour trip but ended up being almost 6 because of a train accident that forced us to backtrack and change routes. Once in Bruges, we set to wandering. Luckily the people I was with didn't want to see any museums, a sentiment I usually share. Several times on this trip and in the past, I've been labeled 'anti-museum', but I try to explain I'm just 'pro-fun'.

We did, however, visit a church which housed a Michelangelo sculpture. More interesting than the statue though, was the scene outside. A construction crew, which had been replacing some piping underground, was standing around looking confused and a crowd had gathered around the ditch they had recently dug. Apparently, the crew had unknowingly uncovered some medieval ruins of some sort and weren't sure what to do. It was pretty cool because you could see paintings on what looked like an old wall buried in the ground. Unfortunately, the crew had already destroyed alot of it. Oops.

The food and drink in Belgium are the big highlights. Waffles, mussels, chocolate and beer are the 4 that stand out and they alone made the trip worthwhile. I stand by this statement even though the trip back to Leiden was also rerouted because of yet another accident. I kind of feel like I'm pushing my luck at this point.


"It wasn't me."


The view from a local brewery that we toured


Ohhh yeah

Fire it up

This is unrelated to Europe but completely related to awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n76WDzJ_g-Y

If you're short on time, skip to the 3:51 mark.

Ameland

This weekend, the school's social organization put on a trip to Ameland, an island off the north coast of the Netherlands. About 70 international students went, taking a bus from Leiden and a ferry from the coast. The placed we stayed was set up like a summer camp except that it was attached to a dairy farm. It ended up being a great time as they had lots of cool stuff planned for us to do. This included the Dutch game of Bolengolf, which is just like regular golf except it's played in a cow pasture with mini-soccer balls and a broomstick with a wooden clog on the end of it. After my first massive slice, I felt like I was home again. That being said, my group won, beating second place by 10 strokes, no big deal.

After the golf domination, we went on a bike ride around the coast, about a 15 mile trek, but definitely worth it. The weather was suprisingly perfect and the scenery was pretty awesome. It culminated with watching the sunset from a mudflat, very cool.

Now, back in Leiden, it is of course raining and I'm tired from staying up to watch the race, which fittingly, was called because of rain.


Useful shot there


"What say you, human?"


Oh yeah, God is a Gator fan

Well this was inevitable

It finally happened. I lasted 3 weeks, more than I thought I would. Total wipe out. It had been snowing last night, leaving a super-awesome layer of icey slush on the ground. I was making a turn and the tires just came out from under me. Luckily, there was no one around except for a cab driver who gave me some sympathetic sounding Dutch. I escaped without serious injury and more importantly, the bike survived the crash. That being said, after lying facedown on the ground, in pain and seriously embarrassed, I now know how Lane Kiffin will feel on September 19th.

Pass the Maalox

I'm feeling slightly ill as I'm writing this. Today, a group of us went to the coastal town of Volendam where fresh fish is the name of the game. As a seafood fan and having missed breakfast, I was very excited to stop at the first fish stand we came across. Having no idea what I was looking at, I asked the woman what I should get and she motioned to some plates of raw fish strips covered in chopped onions. A Dutch specialty, she said. Feeling like the guy from Bizarre Foods, but mainly just hungry, I downed them, skin and all. They really were pretty good but I doubted myself when a Dutch girl we were with looked at me and said, "that's disgusting."

Our next stop was a small local brewery for a tour. The guy who ran the place spoke little English so the tour was in Dutch. He did know enough to say "Nobody's perfect" when I told him where I was from. After a few minutes of praising Obama in broken English, he gave us the tour of his one-room brewery. Five minutes later, it was on to the samples. The beer was excellent but because he said I looked like Obama (yes, it happened again), he had me try some of his Dutch moonshine, a suprisingly good concoction. After thanking him for spreading the wealth, we headed back to the bus station, but not before I got some more fish, a decision I now realize was unwise.

Class has been an interesting experience but I've only had two of the four so far. I wasn't aware until the second meeting of my Intro to Public International Law class that its secondary title was "The U.S. Sucks: One Professor's Musings". The other class, Law and Technology, was fairly bizarre as the professor spent about a third of the class talking about people having sex with robots. Ah, Europe.


mmmm


Markermeer Bay, Volendam

?

Super Bowl

It was snowing when I rode home around 4:30 this morning. I didn't mind. After Fitzgerald scored with about 2 minutes left, I thought I would just ride my bike into the closest canal but Big Ben pulled through yet again. The bar where I watched the game was pretty full right up until the end but I was the only one that looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I went with another American from my program but the rest of the crowd were Dutch guys who cheered every good play by either team. At the end, they all congratulated me and a couple asked if I was going to be ok.

When I first arrived, I saw a guy in a Steelers sweatshirt so giddily, I ran up to him and asked him he was ready to win #6. His blank stare told me, no. He ended up being a pretty cool guy, a Leiden native and big American sports fan. He saw my Gators hat and started talking about Tebow, who apparently has gained the respect of the Dutch. He decided to cheer for the Steelers because their stadium is Heinz field and he really likes ketchup. Bizarre, but bizarre has become a common theme around here.

Class starts tomorrow, should be interesting, for a few minutes at least.

Orientation

It was about 27-28 when I left for orientation yesterday morning. I was running late so I didn't have time to make coffee but I've found that riding through the Dutch freezer is a good substitute for caffeine. Orientation went well as I was able to get an idea of how things work at the law school, including the bizarre way they sign up for classes. There are separate registrations for courses, work groups and lectures despite them all being the same thing. Of course they don't all match up as some classes show up on one of the lists and not on another. You also have to register separately for exams, which seemed like a good idea until they told us that there is only one available time for each exam, giving me 4 in 3 days. Oh well.

The diversity of the international students is pretty incredible. I met kids from what seems like every country on earth including New Zealand, Somalia, South Korea and Iraq. There are also quite a few Americans in the program, more than any other country, evidence that law school in the states is worth escaping.

My other roommate arrived and while her English isn't great, she seems nice. Her room is right above the den (where I've been sleeping on a couch because it's the only warm room in the house) and from the sound of it, I think her favorite hobby must be moving furniture.

Our landlord stopped by today to introduce himself and check the gas meters. He's probably in his 70s and spoke fairly good English. When I walked into the room, he said, "Ah the American! You, Obama!" I was a little confused and he said, "You look like him!" I didn't really know how to respond so he explained, "You're long like him, and have (motions to face) smooth skin." I really couldn't make this stuff up. Uncomfortable, I said, "ah...well I don't have as a good of a tan." No reaction from landlord. Just looked at me, or at my skin at least. Yikes.


The law school


A medieval fort in the center of town


The Hooglandse Kerk, the church of St. Pancras

Hello from The Netherlands

If you're asking yourself, is Nick self-absorbed enough to think people would want to spend time reading a blog about his semester abroad, the answer is Yes! Seriously though, typing keeps my fingers warm so let me have this. I have a week to cover so I apologize if this first post is a little lengthy.

I arrived in Amsterdam last Sunday via Dublin and took a train to Leiden, about a 20 minute ride. The first noteworthy event happened about 30 seconds into my trip. As my bag was going through the x-ray machine at OIA, I noticed the tsa guy motion for another to come look at the screen. I thought, oh good, Richard Reid is behind me in line. Nope, the guy asked me to step aside to look through my bag. "Are there any bullets in your bag, sir?" After I cleared my throat of my heart, I remembered that the answer to that question is...yep. Well sort of. Sam and I had gone to the shooting range awhile back and I had kept a handful of used shells as red state souveniers of sorts. After forgetting about them, they now resided in the side pocket of my carry-on. I managed to explain my situation as visions of cavity searches raced through my mind and the guy let me go. The one good thing that came out of that mess was that my red face allowed me to fit in with the Irish people on the flight. (not offensive, I'm part-Irish)

Now in Leiden, my humble (very humble) abode is in Rijnsburg, about 4 miles from Leiden. I bought a used bike to make the trip, enjoying the tropical Dutch climate along the way. It's usually between 38-43, rains about every other day, all day, and winds can gust up to 30-40 mph. The weather supposedly improves at some point, at least thats what I tell myself when I'm wiping away snot-cicles and getting passed by girls on their way to school.

I ran into a Dutch woman on my way home the other day but it was definitely her fault. I was slowing down to let her pass but she stopped then stepped right in front of me, looking the other way. I swerved to miss her but clipped her with my arm. Before I could apologize, her male companion started screaming at me and kicked my bike (an obvious never-played-sports kick, i judged him). Another guy tried to hold him back and I managed to escape. It was a really light hit and there was nothing I could do, so I didn't really feel bad although now I'm super cautious as to avoid anymore Dutch Chas Henry wannabes. (Gators punter for the non-nerds)

My roommate, Anna, is from Greece, and her friend, Sophia, moves in on Tuesday. Her english is good although she gives me confused looks every now and then (not unlike American girls). That being said, she's very nice and has taken me out a few times to meet people and see the city. Orientation is Thursday and classes start next week so I'll probably have more stories for those interested.

Other notes: Skype is a godsend as are websites that stream live US tv. I'll be up until sunrise watching the Steelers on Sunday but hopefully it will be worth it.

Well thanks for reading, and if you feel like shooting me an e-mail, please do so. I havent met an American yet and any interaction with the homeland is much appreciated.


My house, originally built on Pangea


My room


A typical street along a canal


One of several windmills around town