well, i've been back in the states for two weeks (first sign that i was back: walking through the airport and passing 3 starbucks within 10 minutes).
i'm settling in now, but it was kind of strange at first getting used to driving, falling asleep/waking up at normal times, and seeing more cars than bikes.
and of course there are things i'll miss about leiden: eating lunch by the canal, my bike, not getting dark until 10 p.m., the pancakes...
but there are things aside from the cliche 'greater appreciation for the world and other cultures' that i'll take away from my study abroad experience--although i didn't learn any dutch, i can recognize it when i hear it. and i started watching the travel channel :)
thanks for reading.
farewell,
b.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
'it's just sushi... it's just sushi...'
hey all. well, i'm leaving the netherlands tomorrow. i had everything worked out for my last week in leiden. i was supposed to sell my bike and chain lock together for €50 to my school's student services yesterday.
on thursday, i lost the key to my wheel lock. meaning, my bike is locked and the only way to unlock it now is to have the lock sawed off. womp. i got €10 for my chain lock, though. as for my bike, i guess it's just going to sit in the parking lot of my dorm collecting spiderwebs until someone comes along with a saw.
for our last day, e. and i decided to have a leiden send-off. remember the whole dutch-people-love-raw-herring thing? well, e. made a vow that she would try it sometime before leaving. so, we headed out to saturday market.
conveniently, the fish booth is the first one.
apparently it's gotten good reviews.
preparing the herring:
i've never been so glad to be a vegetarian.
(yuck.)
she had to keep telling herself that it was just sushi.
she said it wasn't too bad, just really bony.
i'll have to take her word on that one.
then we went to our favorite pancake house for one last time.
(sad about my last-ever dutch pancake.)
i've cleaned, vacuumed, checked out with my r.a. and pretty much finished packing. so i guess that's it.
well leiden, it's been real.
dag,
b.
p.s. expect one last update when i get back to the states!
on thursday, i lost the key to my wheel lock. meaning, my bike is locked and the only way to unlock it now is to have the lock sawed off. womp. i got €10 for my chain lock, though. as for my bike, i guess it's just going to sit in the parking lot of my dorm collecting spiderwebs until someone comes along with a saw.
for our last day, e. and i decided to have a leiden send-off. remember the whole dutch-people-love-raw-herring thing? well, e. made a vow that she would try it sometime before leaving. so, we headed out to saturday market.
conveniently, the fish booth is the first one.
apparently it's gotten good reviews.
preparing the herring:
i've never been so glad to be a vegetarian.
(yuck.)
she had to keep telling herself that it was just sushi.
she said it wasn't too bad, just really bony.
i'll have to take her word on that one.
then we went to our favorite pancake house for one last time.
(sad about my last-ever dutch pancake.)
i've cleaned, vacuumed, checked out with my r.a. and pretty much finished packing. so i guess that's it.
well leiden, it's been real.
dag,
b.
p.s. expect one last update when i get back to the states!
Monday, July 7, 2008
paris je t'aime
bonsoir! got back from paris yesterday.
friday.
i took the thalys (a high-speed train that goes between the netherlands, belgium, germany and france) from amsterdam centraal to gare du nord.
(train ride wasn't too bad--a little over four hours, and that's with it making a couple of stops in belgium.)
j. met me at the station. we waited in line to get some metro tickets for me, then headed back to her place, where we caught up and exchanged bday presents (i was saving hers since i knew i was going to see her soon, and she didn't want to mail mine because she doesn't trust the french mail system--it took them like 8 months to send her residency card).
my bday presents from her:
then we went out for crepes...
...and walked down the champs-élysées.
(l'arc de triomphe).
saturday.
(at the bus stop.)
we headed to the saint-michele area, which has notre dame...
...and la fontaine saint-michele.
then we hopped on the metro:
(art nouveau!)
(i love the paris metro--it's just as easy, if not more so, than the london underground.)
and hung out at this mall.
we got recaffeinated à la starbucks and headed to the eiffel tower!
the tower has three levels.
some people are crazy enough to take the stairs!
but we decided to elevator it.
(second floor gift shop--it even sells eiffel tower-shaped pasta.)
on the elevator ride down:
monsieur eiffel:
(i'm a dork.)
we passed an interesting orangina promo:
taxi parisien:
then we went back to her apartment and chilled for a while before heading out to the bastille area for dinner.
(mexican food = awesome.)
bastille tower:
opera house:
sunday.
we went out for breakfast, then dashed back to j.'s apartment, grabbed my stuff and hopped on the metro back to gare du nord... but i missed my train back to amsterdam by 10 minutes and was informed that i had to pay 62 euros to get on the next one two hours later... womp.
so we left the train station to find an atm and kill time until my train left. j. felt really bad my missing my first train and insisted on buying me crème brûlée... i tried to protest but the woman just would not take no for an answer. what else could i do?
i made the next train back to amsterdam, and all was well. minus the woman at information originally telling me the wrong time for the next train--which, if j. and i didn't double check, would have resulted in my ending up in brussels. belgium. and a sketchy train manager putting the 62 euros i gave him directly into his own wallet, then taking them out again and telling me to take them to a different manager.
later days,
b.
friday.
i took the thalys (a high-speed train that goes between the netherlands, belgium, germany and france) from amsterdam centraal to gare du nord.
(train ride wasn't too bad--a little over four hours, and that's with it making a couple of stops in belgium.)
j. met me at the station. we waited in line to get some metro tickets for me, then headed back to her place, where we caught up and exchanged bday presents (i was saving hers since i knew i was going to see her soon, and she didn't want to mail mine because she doesn't trust the french mail system--it took them like 8 months to send her residency card).
my bday presents from her:
then we went out for crepes...
...and walked down the champs-élysées.
(l'arc de triomphe).
saturday.
(at the bus stop.)
we headed to the saint-michele area, which has notre dame...
...and la fontaine saint-michele.
then we hopped on the metro:
(art nouveau!)
(i love the paris metro--it's just as easy, if not more so, than the london underground.)
and hung out at this mall.
we got recaffeinated à la starbucks and headed to the eiffel tower!
the tower has three levels.
some people are crazy enough to take the stairs!
but we decided to elevator it.
(second floor gift shop--it even sells eiffel tower-shaped pasta.)
on the elevator ride down:
monsieur eiffel:
(i'm a dork.)
we passed an interesting orangina promo:
taxi parisien:
then we went back to her apartment and chilled for a while before heading out to the bastille area for dinner.
(mexican food = awesome.)
bastille tower:
opera house:
sunday.
we went out for breakfast, then dashed back to j.'s apartment, grabbed my stuff and hopped on the metro back to gare du nord... but i missed my train back to amsterdam by 10 minutes and was informed that i had to pay 62 euros to get on the next one two hours later... womp.
so we left the train station to find an atm and kill time until my train left. j. felt really bad my missing my first train and insisted on buying me crème brûlée... i tried to protest but the woman just would not take no for an answer. what else could i do?
i made the next train back to amsterdam, and all was well. minus the woman at information originally telling me the wrong time for the next train--which, if j. and i didn't double check, would have resulted in my ending up in brussels. belgium. and a sketchy train manager putting the 62 euros i gave him directly into his own wallet, then taking them out again and telling me to take them to a different manager.
later days,
b.
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