penn

A little on my Friday

FYI -- I posted two posts today, and a photo album.

I’m visiting a friend who has a computer with internet access, so I took advantage of this in order to present all of you with a beautiful new photo album. All the pictures were taken in the past week and half since I landed here in the Netherlands. Some are taken in Amsterdam and others in Leiden, but I’ll mark that in the pictures.

My mom is coming to visit in a week, so I suspect I’ll do some traveling with her. If so, I’ll post up more pictures when I get the opportunity that show all the new places I go to. If there is something particular anyone would like to see, please let me know and I’ll do my best to oblige.

Everything is going well for me. I am slowly learning Dutch, so I can ask/answer a few questions. I understand people when they speak very slowly and are careful to just use the few terms I’ve learned.

On Friday, I spent the afternoon with Amy and LJ. We colored pictures together! I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn’t think of it. We had a great time. I whipped out my ipod, and the little headphones I had on them were loud enough to play at a moderately audible level for the three of us. We colored on pages torn from a coloring book LJ brought with her.

After coloring, we went to Annika’s room to have some wine before dinner. Pretty soon, everyone showed up in her room, including Don and Patrick, two of Annika’s Dutch roommates. I subjected Don to my horrible Dutch as I tried to practice. I did alright, although I did make some embarrassing mistakes that will never, ever be repeated.

Between eight of us from the program and the two Dutch boys, we split three bottles of wine. We had two bottles of a nice red from France that was actually palatable. I didn’t drink more than half of glass of the red, but it tasted like communion wine, so it wasn’t bad. I like the sweeter wines (as long as they’re not cloying), so reds are usually too dry for me. The white wine was from Germany, and perfectly sweet. I need to figure out what the wine names are so I can buy them myself. The best part of our wine drinking was the price. The bottles of red wine were two euros each. The white wine was 6 euros, I believe. Not too shabby for some really good wine. I think I’m getting spoiled over here.

Living Conditions

In Leiden, I live in the Klikspaanweg, which is both the name of my complex of flats and the street that runs through the complex. The Klik is about twenty minutes walking, or seven by bike, from my school. It’s more suburban than the Pelikanhoff (Peli), which is the other flat complex my school uses. The Klik is nice because we have free washing machines (but I have to line dry my clothes). Other than that, it’s more of a pain than the Peli. As far as I can tell, it’s much tamer than the Peli. Some flats around me are active, but my flat is dead.

In my building, the flats are by floor. On each floor, there is a common kitchen/lounge in the middle back of the floor. In the middle there are also two toilets, each in their own closet, and a shower room that also houses the washing machine. Basically, the floor/flat is split in half by the rooms that run down the middle (kitchen & bathroom stuff). Each side of the flat has their own doors into each different common room. Then, each side has a hallway with four rooms that come of it. Eight girls (including me) live on my floor. On my side of the flat, all the girls are from the Dutch Antilles. Two of them are students and one is a doctor (the student housing flats have to allow former students to stay there in order to retain their government grants, so people stay to save up money and take advantage of cheap rent. The doctor has been a doctor for several years, and she’s planning on moving out in a year or two after she buys a house). I never really see my flatmates, so I try to go hang out with other people from my program so I can meet their flatmates.

More from Leiden

I finally got a bike here. With a good lock and everything, it was 108 euros. The bike works fairly well, tho it has an annoying catch to it. Sometimes, when I'm peddling, the chain or something will, all of a sudden, stop working. Therefore, I'll be peddling and nothing will happen. However, it does work sometimes. Consequently, when I took my bike to the shop to have it fixed, it worked just fine. If it gets worse, I'll have to take it back again. Anyone out there know what this problem might be and an easy way to fix it? The shop owner said the problem is not with the chain.

I started Dutch lessons yesterday. I think the language is fairly easy, but we are going at a fast clip. Our teacher said he does twice this fast in Delft, where he also teaches, but I think that would be too difficult. As it is, I'm having a hard time keeping up, and I'm fairly good with languages. There is a poor girl in our class who has never taken a language before, and Dutch is proving to be extremely difficult for her.

Mostly, Dutch is a mix between German and English. Much of it is quite intuitive (at least to me). I think my linguist brother could pick up conversational Dutch in a few days; it is that intuitive. Uit wat land kom jij? (Out vaht lahnd coome yay?) means "Where do you come from?", to which I reply "Ik kom uit de Verenigde Staten." If the formal form of "you" is used, then it would be "Uit wat land komt u?" So, the "t" is the only difference. If the pronoun is plural, you go to "en" -- "Uit wat land komen jullie?" (From where do y'all come?). It's pretty simple, like I said, but people have a hard time of it.

I'm enjoying Leiden. I just want to meet more people. One of my friends from school studied here, so she sent my numbers (phone, house, and email) to her friends in Leiden. So, hopefully I will meet some more people.

My mother comes to visit next week, and I'm quite excited to show her and our friend Martha around! Martha is a big fan of the pilgrims, which used to live in Leiden. More on history later, and on my town and living quarters.

Double Grrrr

because my ebay picture for an auction my dad did was stolen for someone else's auction! I hate picture theft.

Answers to questions

b/c that's all i have time for!

Mom, I'm good on PB, but a box or two more of mac would never be turned down. I'll email you tomorrow with a list of the few things I need.

Everyone: I will update as much as possible, but right now computer access is scarce. I'll write a few entries on my laptop and post them up when I get to a compy with a disk drive.

Izzy: I'll answer most questions later, but the traffic thing . . . mostly intersections, some turnabouts. It's just different. I'll try to put a finger on it and let all know.

Pancakes are huge and plate sized and topped with anything!

More to come later -- sorry for the brevity.

Day . . . whatever

because I have completely lost track of time.

First, to answer the questions:
Izzy, I suppose the shampoo/bath gel is all the rage. I'll bring some back, don't worry. Nevermind that I don't actually know you.
It is insanely easy to get around without knowing Dutch. And everyone knows that I am American, so no one speaks Dutch to me usually (it depends on what I'm wearing -- the cargo pants, hoody, or short sleeve on top of long sleeved shirt usually says it all). The navigation is different, because streets are round and based on canals. If I ever find a scanner, I'll scan in a map. Otherwise, I'll scan one in when I get home or something. The city of Leiden is so beautiful, and I love it. There is market every Saturday and Wed, so on Wed, I will go and buy all my food to get me thru till Saturday (unfortunately, since I didn't do so yesterday, it will be awhile before I get a lot of food, altho there are grocery stores).

Sitting in the internet cafe, there was someone a few computers down watching porn. In an internet cafe. With other people around. Wonders never cease.

Today I went to the Museum Boerhaave. It is the national Science and history of Medicine museum. It's another thing you'd love, Izzy. The stuff was written in two languages, so I had quite an enjoyable time. I have a museum card which gets me in free to tons of museum. With admission to Museum Boerhaave, you get free tea and a little brownie. Therefore, I already saved about 5 euros or more. This place was really awesome.

One of the mortars there says "Pharmacopola canit, dum pulsor, at ingemit aeger" (The pharmacist sings when I am pounded, but the patient moans) -- there were high drug bills even then.

I have tons more to say about the museum, but my friend Anouschka (and American with a Dutch name) wants to go to dinner, so I will go eat pancakes now and write more later. (pancakes are a Dutch specialty -- they're plate sized and have all manner of toppings. it's like pancake pizza!!)

tot ziens for now :-)

More on my journey

I am safely installed in Leiden, the Netherlands. It has been a long journey, but I've finally made it here for school. I will be here until mid-May taking a variety of classes which have not all yet been decided upon. I'm at an internet cafe updating this, and I just want to put down for people that I am safe and everything is well.

The city of Leiden is literally dripping with history. It is a beautiful place with wonderful architecture. As well, so many things symbolize what a place was used for. We looked at a building today with some strange statues at the top. Then, our teacher pointed out that the left part was Neptune, the middle is a turkish man, and the right is Mercury. Thus, this means whoever built the place was a trader with Turkey (Mercury for trade and Neptune for the ships -- the Turkish man should be obvious).

I will update more later when I have better access. I should have free internet in the next week or so at a university near my school. Then, I can type posts on my computer and put them up here. I hope everyone out there is doing well.

PS to Izzy -- I found shower gel/shampoo. It's really not too expensive here -- Should I bring some back for you?

Beauty

The city of Amsterdam is beautiful. The buildings are fairly short, but all have detailed architecture and decidedly old-fashioned features. Canals run in a circle around the city, and in rows toward the center of the city. The entire place is just . . . amazing. I am awe-struck by this wonderful city and the great people I have already met.

Leaving . . .

Goodbye to my happy little room. This is my last recorded transmission from the states for a few months . . .

Soon . . .

I leave in 7.5 hours for the Netherlands. I'm going to get a little sleep now. I think everything is packed. I hope so. Erg. This is the most nervewracking part of traveling. I just need to remember that I have my passport, credit cards, and entrance papers. Everything will be all right.