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.