new atm card & new plans

In the last six days I have made travel plans, had my ATM card eaten by the machine, cancelled travel plans, moved to a new place in Utrecht, made new travel plans for once my new ATM card would arrive, and gotten sick. As you can understand I've had my hands full.

I had an ATM card rushed to me and it arrived yesterday but I was feeling under the weather so I did not go to Brussels as I was planning. Instead I am staying here in Utrecht in a new apartment in the city center which has been quite nice. Cambrigelaan is student housing on the University campus which is about a 15 minute bike ride from the city center. A couple other students also moved in to this house for the week. I have my own room and bathroom. The best part about the house is that we have our own roof and below is a picture at sunset.

This is a picture of David grilling dinner. We have been hanging out on the roof quite a bit.

I feel lucky to have gotten this week in Utrecht though because I have been exploring a great deal. Below is a picture I took at the Miffy museum. Miffy is a character designed by man named Dick Bruna, who is a famous graphic artist and also produced numerous children's books. His studio has become a museum and I went and visited it.

It's not a great picture but here is Miffy (the bunny) throwing stars. I thought about purchasing a children's book to start learning Dutch but I ended up with a very cute Miffy picture instead. Apparently Dick Bruna was influenced by Matisse who's simple lines and basic colors made their way into his art. Overall it was a really fun museum.

One of the teachers of the Dutch Language and Culture course sent us this website which satirically describes Dutch society http://www.datapage.nl/HTTTDE.htm . It's pretty funny.

Last Sunday's Museum Visit

We were assigned to go to a museum for a group project as part of my Dutch Language and Culture course. We chose the city of Enkhuizen which is a small fishing village; it has a museum called the Zuiderzeemuseum which shows the lifestyle of 18th and 19th century fishing villages that were flooded in 1930 when the North Sea was dyked.

I love the bridges they built through the reconstructed town.

Paul and I got smoked herring; it was quite good.
A picture looking out along one of the paths leading through the outdoor museum.
Here is an interior of one the houses that is decorated in traditional ways.

Traditional costume of villagers from Marken ( the town that was flooded).

End of Dutch Language and Culture Course - Beginning again

This is the last week of my Dutch Language and Culture Class; tomorrow we have exams. I am preparing a dialogue with two other students, in Dutch! I have learned a lot about the language and culture of the Netherlands in a very short amount of time. I have also been inspired to find out more about it on my own. I am especially interested in the art history of the 17th century, some of those vermeer paintings are really beautiful.

I haven't gotten to the Museums in the Den Haag or Amsterdam where many of Vermeer's and Rembrant's paintings are housed but I plan on visiting soon.

I have 10 days off soon, and I'm headed to Belgian to meet up with some girls that I met at Berkeley. I am excited for lots of chocolate and beer.

donderdag (thursday) night canoeing

Thursday evening we went on a quite an epic adventure. A 3 hour kayak tour of Utrecht by canal. It was quite a workout with some beautiful vistas. My pictures don't do it justice as I was afraid of getting my camera wet, but here are some pictures.

Now, a silly picture of all the girls right before the tour. It's around 7:30pm in this photo and still very light out. We still had no idea how far we were going through the canals.

Interesting fact of today, the Dutch named their days Moendag, Dinsdag, Woesndag, Donderdaag, Vridag, Zaturdag, Zundag after pagan gods. Donder is also known as Thor. There are both similarities and differences in the names of the days I suppose. I can tell you that Dutch is challenging to pronounce. W's are pronounced like V's. So, a contraversial name in Dutch Politics, Geert Wilders, is pronounced "Vile-ders" or something.

I am enjoying learning about the Language and Culture of Holland. Our lecture on Thursday was about Art History of the Netherlands. I like looking at Van Gough's (pronounced Van Hoe), Vermeer's and Rembrant's works in slides but I am more excited about visiting them in the museums.

we play in the park

Today it was beautiful out, so, I took pictures. Below is the church that is across the street from drift 23 the place where I go to take summer school.

Today we went to the park. However, Dutch parks are quite different from American ones. Namely, they have all sorts of different play structures and are quite big. I didn't get pictures of the whole park, but I may be able to borrow those pictures from others later. Anyway, below is a picture of the zipline, with my friend Paul riding it.

Here's the castle like play structure.
I'm sitting in a plastic hammock/swing it was very flexible and the younger kids could run back and forth on them.
The only hill in Holland.

This was a big mound in the middle of the park that created a little lookout on the rest of the very flat park. Well, actually the guy who I was talking to bikes about today, joked that you only need three gears in Holland, one for flat, one for going up bridges and one for going under bridges. I thought the stairs were a cute touch.

first impressions

After a very long plane ride (above I look bored, it is because I am), with three connections, one of which I almost missed (in Chicago), a train ride, and a taxi ride, I arrived at Linda and Jim's house. They are couchsurfers, and very sweet people. I fell asleep almost as soon as I arrived but the next day they showed me around a bit. Now, I'm in university housing on the 14th floor. I have 5 flat mates and we all have our own rooms. Below is the view from my room.

Bicycles:

I knew and had read the Dutch liked riding bicycles, but OMFG they like riding bicycles. I have never seen so many bicycles in my life.

(picture)

The couple I stayed with, Linda and Jim, had five (5) bicycles between them. I asked Linda if the cultural obsession with bicycles was fairly recent, and told me no, in fact, that the old timers from world war two, when asked about Germany during the war, say, "I want my bicycle back." Apparently, German soldiers stole bikes and the Dutch are still upset about it.

Weather:

I thought it would warm and sunny in Utrecht during the summer; my counselor ended one of her messages by writing, "best regards from a tropical Utrecht." This gave me the expectation of sun. However, the past couple days have been overcast and it really rained a lot yesterday. Utrecht is quite warm though even when it is misting, so it is more like a rainforest, hot, humid and rainy.

House Boats and Red Lights:

The red light district of Utrecht is on the river on houseboats. Since prostitution is legal in the Netherlands it affords sex workers a less troubled existence. When I asked Linda if the value of the houses near right light districts decreased or if residents resisted the placement of those districts near their homes, she said something like, "no, that in fact most of the Dutch feel that the protection of all people is important. At least these women have roofs over their heads, and protection by the law. " I knew the Netherlands was known for tolerance of religion but it seems also be very tolerant and open-minded to lifestyle choice. Close to the red-light district is the biggest sex shop in the t Netherlands; it takes up a whole city block.

Food:

Before I came to Utrecht, I was warned that Dutch food wasn't very good. After walking around the city today I think one is hard pressed to find a real "Dutch" restaurant in Utrecht. What I found was a bunch of ethnic restaurants. Even the Dutch girls who I made dinner with said they didn't like "Dutch Food" except for the sweets. I had a gyro tonight because my housemates weren't home yet. It was quite good.