First of all, I must address the hot topic of the week: VOLCANIC ASH. It is EVERYWHERE, blocking out the sun, clogging the canals, killing innocent birds...
That was a lie. There is no visible ash anywhere to speak of, although someone at church today said he found a thin layer of dust on his car. We can see the effects of this exciting moment in natural/aviation history, though. A few of our fellow NL2010 students, Sarah, Willem, and Andrew, are currently stuck in Spain. They went down there last week to visit other Calvin students and will be there until...whenever it is they get back. So they are definitely getting to experience this first hand.
As for life on the ground, everything goes on as normal -- except much, much quieter. When you live in an apartment complex that lies under the flightpath to Schiphol and you normally hear planes flying overhead every three minutes, it is very strange to have not heard any for three days now. I can say I was in Europe for the Volcanic Ash Incident of 2010, though, and maybe someday get a few people to believe that it blocked out the sun...
Although this comes nowhere CLOSE to "I was in Chile for the earthquake of 2010." Elyse, you will forever have us all beat, whether you want to or not!?
Second thing -- this blog is famous!
Again, I exaggerate. I need to stop doing that. The truth: our Calvin group was featured in the latest issue of the VU newspaper, Ad Valvas. About two weeks ago a reporter came to our STNL class and asked Andrew, Willem, Anna, and me some questions. And --tada!-- we are featured in this article, titled "Hi, I am Andrew Dijkhuis."
The link to the pdf is here if you would like to look at the picture and translate some of the article (we're on page 4). It talks mostly about the differences we've noticed between Calvin and the VU, like the way people talk about religion and weather in the same sentence, or how students act in class (we think they are slightly more disruptive here -- sorry, VU students!).
And there's even a box about this little ol' blog! Now I really feel the pressure to make astute observations about the intersection of Dutch and American culture...
Nah, I'll just keep writing what I want. And if you're interested, you can keep reading. And if you do keep reading, I will love you forever and faithfully read your blog, if you have one. Sound good? Great.
Okay, moving right along now: Keukenhof! Last Wednesday I went with Anna and Deborah to the tulip garden of the world. Right away, know this: not all of the tulips were open yet. We were about a week or two too early.
That being said, the garden still did not disappoint. First of all, many other flowers, like daffodils and hyacinths, were out and coloring the fields:
Second, there was an indoor exhibition greenhouse filled with thousands of tulips. Some were waist high, as Anna demonstrates here:
Some had interesting names, like (my favorite) Spongebob:
And everywhere you looked, you saw this:
Another wonderful thing about Keukenhof was, well, the food! We had delicious poffertjes (made me think of the Lynden fair!)
And ice cream!
But the thing that made Keukenhof were all the unexpected thrills/fun spots. For example, these walking stones in the water:
(Notice how both children and adults are enjoying the randomness)
Or, look over here -- a maze!
And, best of all, a petting zoo! We spent quality time with some chickens, a pony, and a few goats, one of which was very unhappy...
Keukenhof: the Disneyland of flowers. It was huge, fun, probably overpriced, crowded with tourists, and worth every penny. And it is one of the main reasons why I'm glad this is a SPRING semester (the other is coming up in 12 days...)
Alright, I think that's enough of a post for now, don't you? I still have only recapped about half of last week, so I will put in another installment tomorrow morning before a new week starts again. But now I have an exam to study for, so until next time -- thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment