Volcanic ash, anyone?

Boy, oh boy. I have quite the week coming up. In an effort to keep the blog caught up with the times, I'm going to try write a massive catch-up post that brings together all the loose ends of LAST week. And what a week it was!

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!

I'm alive

...and about to go finish the lab report that has been eating up my brain...not actually eating up much of my time, but brain because when I haven't been working on it, I have been thinking about working on it.

But it is due tomorrow, and so now I must go finish it.

First, though, I thought I would take the time to remind you all that, yes, I am still blogging. When I can (which I want to be soon!) I will write what I hope will be glorious posts about:
-the weekend excursions
-Keukenhof and the tulpen
-characters from the Office
-a newspaper article
-my continued quest to get a picture of the green building's resident ghost cat

Until then, here are some teaser pictures from Keukenhof that will maybe keep you interested until I write again. And happy April 14, everyone! Abraham Lincoln was shot, the Titanic hit an iceberg, and it's the day before tax returns are due -- so go celebrate!

Sunny day, chasing the clouds away...

Today was a Leiden kind of day! We made the quick trip to Leiden this morning and stayed for most of the afternoon, enjoying blue skies and mild weather.

I've been thinking about how to make this blog post interesting, since I posted all of my pictures and accompanying captions on Facebook already. This can't be just a rehash of the same old information. No, this is going to be better! First I will start with a story. We read it in a guidebook on the train ride over, and I have just now supplemented my knowledge with Wikipedia.



The Siege of Leiden

Setting: Leiden, June 1574. The Dutch are rebelling against their Spanish governor, the Duke of Alba, who in response has been besieging cities left and right with his army.

Duke of Alba: My army has you surrounded! You have no way of getting supplies! Give in!

People of Leiden: Oh no! What should we do?

Rebels: Never surrender!

People of Leiden: But what about those residents in Haarlem and Naarden? The Duke took no mercy on them!

Rebels: No! We must never surrender!

People of Leiden: Ok.



September, 1574:

Army: We are still here!

People of Leiden: Dude, we have no food. It's been three months. Thousands have died.

People from the south: We just broke the dikes, allowing waters to come flood up to the city walls! Then boats can deliver food! Oh, wait, the water's not high enough...

Mayor of Leiden: I offer my arm as food, out of loyalty to my city (this fact is disputed).

People of Leiden: How noble! We must hold on, as an example to all other cities!



October, 1574:

Storms: CRASH!

People of Leiden: A storm! Enough water that now the broken dikes will flood, and relief forces will come to our city!

Relief Forces: We have used the flood waters to bypass the Duke of Alba's army, and bring food directly to your city walls. Here, eat herring, white bread, and hutspot!

People of Leiden: Hurray!



1575:

William of Orange: This city was brave during the entire siege. I therefore establish the University of Leiden.

People of Leiden: Hurray!

END SCENE




And that, my friends, is a story about Leiden. Nearly all of it is true.

Now to some actual stuff about my day.

-We first got off the train and almost immediately saw a windmill. Then we made our way to our top museum priority, the National Museum of Antiquities. There are plenty of other museums in Leiden, but one can only handle so many in a day. This museum was A) full of Egyptian, Roman, and Greek artifacts, B) bigger than I thought it would be, and C) free on our museum cards. Win-win-win.

-Later we wandered into the Botanical gardens, which were very pretty even with only a few things growing/blooming. I decided that I like crocuses a lot. They are brave for being the first things to come out each spring.

-We never once used a map to navigate, relying instead on signposts, intuition, and luck.

-It really is very hard to cross the road when you have to sneak between fast-moving bikes and faster-moving vehicles.

-The "beach" setting on my camera (highlighting blues) makes all sky/water scenes in spring look great:








































































Leiden was an great time, and I'm glad I got to spend such an excellent day there. I know several American colleges do an exchange program through the University of Leiden, and I can tell that Leiden would definitely be worth spending an entire semester in.

But I've always been a big city girl at heart ;)

Some things change

Some things change...like my blog layout! Do you like it? Better than the old one? I usually can't go three days without changing the desktop background on my laptop, so I'm surprised that I made it over a month without revamping the ol' blog layout.

Here's another change I noticed on the way to Aldi this afternoon:


















Spring is coming! And it can't come quickly enough.

A few other changes have been happening around here that prove that I've been here for a while. For example, a furniture store down the road has moved to a new location, and two shiny new bike shelters have been built by the tram stop. Now I guess I can say things like "Remember when there wasn't a bike rack here? Those were the days."

Hmm...those are about the only two changes I can think of at the moment. I will keep my eyes open for more. Sorry for the short post, but more will come soon!