...Catch Up

And that was a summary of my activities in Utrecht for the last few months. I've been adding to that document for some time, but never have enough free time to work on it as in depth as I would like. Given that I posted it without much review, please ignore anything that is grammatically incorrect or potentially incriminating that you might find. I'll do my best to publish more regularly from now on.

With that said, here is a quick recap of the last few weeks and my upcoming plans.

Pre-New Years: I returned to the US for a three-week period during which I saw friends and family.
Post-New Years: After a quick sojourn to Southern California, I went with my parents to Spain for two weeks. We traveled primarily in the Andalusia region of Spain, but began and ended in Madrid.
Now: I am back in Utrecht for another round of school. Most of my good friends left today for a school-sponsored ski trip in France and those not on the trip have, for the most part, not returned to campus yet. Needless to say, I am absurdly bored and lonely and will be spending my time cleaning, reading, and staying productive in whatever ways I can. I will be going to Germany for a brief trip on Thursday and then the following week school will begin anew.

On a side note, during the whole holiday I was being irritable and moody because I'm an angsty teenager (a quality I cannot claim for much longer given that today is my half birthday and I have six months until I'm officially 20). Though this isn't a great explanation of my behavior and there is a lot more to it than I will share here, I'm sorry for being an annoyance.

I hope this has been enlightening to those who are interested in my goings on.

Catch Up

18/12 flying home; stress of getting to the airport à early flight, possibility of public transportation being shut down by snow, Sunday bus schedule, riding on the wings of Ingrid bergman

On the plane perpetual dawn (winning the race up north, but losing it when we get more southern. I write this while on the plane, where just as we seem to make little progress in escaping the unending sunrise, we seem to have just as little success making a dent in our flight time. So far I have written the better part of more than four thousand words, studied the Dutch language, slept, eaten, and watched an animated film about cars, and time is slipping by at a grueling pace….

17/12 and preceding days; total lack of sleep

10/12 Light trail; going out to the town in the evening with friends and finally traveling on the lit trail through the downtown area à we had seen parts of it in the past, but had yet to walk it properly until this evening. A fun experience, albeit a cold one, during which I reminisced with two friends from California about the time we had over the past semester in Utrecht and what we were planning to do upon our return home.

8/12 Summer school reunion and the opportunity to see everyone from the program for the last time, hanging out in the tunnel of the light trail, foreshadowing our later tour of the trail.

4/12 Writing

3/12 Writing

2/12 Double rainbow in the morning, winter wonderland later in the day

Horse rides, Santa, Ollibollen, pofferetjes,

28/11

Following another slow day with poor weather and still missing friends, I went through the motions and finished up some of the work left over from the day before.

I am afraid that when I convey my experiences with bad weather, I am really not doing it justice. The Netherlands has some of the most torrential rain I have ever experienced, along with some of the most profound thunderstorms I have ever seen. Though the previous week and weekend contained some of this extreme weather, the weather really wasn’t an issue until the fog set in. This was truly the thickest fog I have ever been in (which should not be taken lightly given that I’m from San Francisco). It reminded me of an old Scooby-Doo cartoon in which Shaggy cuts through the fog with a knife and takes a bite of it. There was actually a severe weather warning because it was so thick that visibility was limited to 30 meters. Anyway, it is surprising how demoralizing not being able to see anything is. Thankfully a few days later I stepped outside and found myself staring at the FC Utrecht stadium about a mile away. I was so taken aback by the sight of something so trivial and couldn’t for the life of me figure out why. It took me a few minutes of reflection to realize that my visibility was no longer limited and that there was a finally blue sky off in the distance. And I still had an essay to write.

27/11 Little bit of a slow start not aided by the fluctuating bad weather

Texts from Paris

A lot of writing

26/11 Planning on getting a lot of work done, the plan that always falls through

The following two days cannot really be seen in any light as a highlight of my time in Utrecht. Two of my friends and one of my very good friends had gone to Paris, leaving me behind to catch up on reading and write a research proposal for my comparative politics course. Though I was interested in the subject matter, a comparison of the influence of socioeconomic class and related factors in voting behavior between the US and UK, the overly empirical nature of the assignment, the shear amount of source material, and perhaps especially the unabatedly crappy weather, made it a feat to stay focused and finish my work. At the same time as I was suffering with my work, I was periodically receiving texts about the glories of Paris: the weather was great, the food was fantastic (especially relative to the Netherlands), and the city was a dream. I was suffering from the relative deprivation of such fantastic experiences, but paradoxically loved hearing from my friends. Needless to say, I was hardly motivated to work over this weekend and had to push myself to get everything done.

25/11 Pancakes, Isaac having trouble getting to the station, helping Kenji find dollar bill

After a particularly dreadful week, thanks in no small part to the atrocious weather conditions and lack of proper Thanksgiving, I was happy to relax with friends in the evening. Because of an open house for prospective students, we were saved a trip to our mediocre dining hall and were given bagged lunches instead. Ironically, the bagged lunches were of a much higher quality that what we had come to expect from dining hall, and though this was a welcome change, it would come back to haunt us later in the week. As it was black Friday, a day traditionally reserved for rampant consumerism, but perhaps more importantly a nice break from school, I was again surprised to be in class. My Fridays are traditionally a very relaxed day, with only one class before beginning the glorious weekend, but regardless of that it was still unattractive to be working on a day properly reserved for vacation. Additionally I faced a lack-luster presentation about Islamic mysticism in my World Religions course, made particularly unenjoyable by its delivery in a fragmented combination of Dutch and English.

Eventually the hour-and-forty-five minutes of class had passed and I was finally free to begin my weekend. On the agenda for the evening was a laid back pancake-making party. We went out boodschappen and picked up all of the necessary ingredients for the night, but as it was still early, we had a while to wait before food. It was at this point that the night to a slightly bizarre turn.

My friend Kenji (who misleadingly adopted a Japanese moniker for his English name) was hosting one of his friend’s from Hong Kong for the weekend. Her name was Dollar Bill. The first time she introduced herself, I was sure that I misheard and asked her to repeat it for me. Incidentally I hadn’t heard wrong and the English name she had given herself was actually Dollar Bill. Asking for a little more clarification to understand why anyone would choose a currency for his or her name, she informed me that it was the rough translation of her Cantonese name. The turn that the night took was her disappearance. Before you get alarmed, this wasn’t anything serious, but rather the worried actions of her diligent host Kenji. Dollar Bill had gone into town without the bike that she had planned to use and the bikes presence outside without her with it had alarmed by dear friend Kenji. When she didn’t answer her phone, Kenji jumped to conclusions of kidnapping and murder and quickly left for town with me at his tail to help look. After a few frantic minutes of making sure Kenji didn’t get into trouble himself because of his haste, I was called away to help another friend (from Hong Kong as well) who had gotten lost in the enigma of Dutch city-planning. I quickly found her and guided her the two blocks away to her destination (why she had so much trouble getting there I will never know) before returning to school.

Upon my return I ran into none other than Dollar Bill. We went back to Kenji’s room where his roommate Isaac (the final student from Hong Kong) was packing for a trip to Manchester. We sat down and talked for a bit waiting for Kenji’s imminent return. Once he was back, we picked up a lackluster dinner from dining hall (the kitchen had opened again because the open house had ended for the day, but we still weren’t allowed to stay and eat) and returned to their room. While Isaac packed, Kenji, Dollar Bill, and I prepared for pancake making later that evening. We stayed for a few minutes after Isaac’s departure (one which cut time very close and allowed for little leeway in the Dutch municipal transportation) and then left to our friend’s unit with all of the ingredients for pancakes.

Before arriving, we were called back to the unit by a frantic call from Isaac who had accidentally gotten on the wrong train and was on the other side of Amsterdam from Schipol Airport where he was catching his flight. We did the best we could to help him get to the airport on time, but with his already constrained time table, things seemed like they would go for the worse and he would miss his flight. Miraculously, Isaac’s flight was delayed by forty-five minutes, just enough time for him to get through security and make his flight. Thankfully, that was the last of the night’s craziness. Ironically enough, despite his mistake, Isaac had gotten very lucky. Soon after his departure, a countrywide error with train controlling had shut down intercity rail transport throughout the Netherlands. Thankfully I only had to walk across campus for pancakes.

The time was finally upon us. We went to the tower (the tallest set of dorms on campus), entered the kitchen, and began preparation of pancakes. I flipped on the TV to sports highlights and an episode of Top Gear and settled in for a relaxing evening of eggs, flour, water, milk, heat, and a little bit of powdered sugar.

Week

Remittent fog throughout the week, but began to subside by the end

Thought my bike was stolen, but it was actually just moved

Finally swept a volleyball game

Traction with the residence permit extension

Early/late nights à early mornings

Feeling ill

Thanksgiving; turkey? Cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, a nice try, but really not the same as home (especially without Vietnamese food). No pumpkin pie, but a Dutch pie afterwards with friends. Making guacamole for the Spanish project (not a good combination with a lot of poor-tasting turkey)

Weird to have class on thanksgiving

Controversy with the pearl harbor party

20/11 Studying/writing/reading, boring day with a LOT of fog out, no sun all day and a range of visibility of maybe 20m

19/11 Nice night in, watching a movie, eating Brie and bread, and yogurt from a milk carton!

18/11 Shabu-shabu

Karaoke, other games

Bar for anthropology, making up surveys, Dutch

Party back at school

11/11 Bike repair, closed on Wednesday, back on Thursday, back on friday

On Friday evening went with friends on a quick train ride over to Amsterdam in order to watch the Dutch National soccer team play the Swiss in an exhibition match. As soon as we embarked on the train ride, the reality of the game was evident. People wearing orange hats, shirts, and an assortment of other garments surrounded us on all sides with those appearing less festive having merely concealed their support under garments for warmth. After the brief ride, we arrived at the station near the stadium.

Great area, freezing cold, olie bollen stand

0-0 soccer game, still fun

Massive crowd, but still not filled, crazy big crowd

12/11 The next day I continued my ritual of playing Frisbee and afterwards went into town

I picked up a Dutch lock for my bike at the market and installed it, veneration for not being able to replace my back inner tube because of a crazy bike, but more importantly, the lack of proper tools

We walked around, which was nice given that it was what we used to do when we had class downtown, retook some pictures

Music box museum

Astonished by the number of people waiting for Sinterclass in the domplein

Fresh poffrejes, taste/smell/look/skill of the guy making it

Waves of children running around and riding on parents’ shoulders

Zwarte Pete handing out papernoten from a big sack (used to throw them, discussion of how to say throw/scatter, special word for salting roads)

Sinterklass emerging, the mayor was there, everyone sang along

Returning home

With the French drinking, strange experience

5/11 Belgium

Early morning bus ride (very slow arrival of bus had us worried à Romania)

Three hour ride, meeting with Peter, cramming four into the back of a mini cooper

Good food, mussels/escargot, ice cream (coffee and speculaas)

Hostel, no room, last train 10:38 north part of town, Midi station outside of brussels

Hustled over to the nearest tram (intracity), scary buying the ticket/which stop

International travel ticket place close, all of the information people were gone

Better a trainstation to sleep in than the side of a highway

Couldn’t find the ticket, walk straight and turn left (walked around the building)

Floor cleaning guy (would he speak English?), not great direction but still on my way

Asked the baggage claim guy (it was him who you buy the ticket from)

I asked the guy and he said platform 16, train out of commission

Checked the board à 17

Was the ticket right?

Was the platform right à switched back to 16

Schipol delay to Utrecht

Up and down the escalator, not worried

When I left my bike was messed up, borrowed a bike

Walking home from Central station

Bus closed, walked home in the cold

6/11 Bland next day,

15 (13:30)-17 (00:30)/10 Hitchhiking

Many people there already, most sleeping, people still trickling in over the next two days, many gave up on it altogether

17/10 Walking around, up the peak on the funicular, rollercoaster

At the beach, more walking, eating on the beach after the supermarket (Spanish meats)

Two main bays

Plaza restaurant later

Great dinner near the plaza restaurant

Job, wake at night

Great food, great group

Little spanish

18/10 More good food, up to Jesus today

Job on Dutch News

Breakfast first, slow start, Walk up to Jesus, gorgeous

Quick escape

Sprint to the bus w/ peter, barely made it in time, nice bus ride

In Bilbao, unfortunately the hostels were at the other side of town

Trying to find an article about Job

A lot of walking, cutting through a nice park, strange but good architecture

More walking, past the Guggenheim

More walking, into the historical district, first two hostels booked

Alleged 1 star hotel turns out to be 3 stars, cheap night split between two people

Clean up for an evening out, no worries about property like in a hostel

Great room

First exploration around the immediate area, next to the opera house

Looking for a good place to sit down and eat

Waiting to eat ice cream until after dinner (missed it in San Sebastian)

Sitting down for dinner at 7:30 (getting a drink)

Kitchen doesn’t open to make food until 9:00! (Waiting, nice conversation)

Food finally arrives

Continued walking after dinner, places to explore the next day

Late night sleep

19/10 Guggenheim

Waking up in time to eat (little café next to the river) and then pack for the 11:00 check out

The room wasn’t really supposed to be as cheap as we paid for it and the price went up considerably the next day

Packing everything up and storing it at the hotel

Good walk back to the Guggenheim

Nice to retake the walk with a free hand for photos and without all of the bags to lug around, but still dreary out

Really bizarre but astounding architecture

Guggenheim was stunning from the outside and surrounded by interesting art installations (tulips, spider, fog, flowers)

Fairly heavy rain the whole day, but especially while we were inside the museum

The inside was a mixed bag with some interesting things, but generally odd modern art (some from san Francisco)

Near where we ate breakfast great spot for lunch, great cheap food, good drinks, and a fantastic upstairs lounge, dumbwaiter

Nice place to sit and review photos of the trip so far, warm/couches, cool bathroom

Plan to sleep at the airport (not the greatest idea, but it works in Latin America)

Shopping (for pants! FUN)

More walking around and looking at places we were at the day before that were closed

Weird fish market

Picking up the stuff

Finding a place to go for dinner and watch the football match between FC Barcelona and some team no one really knew of

Difficulty trying to find a TV

First getting hot tea and waiting there, changing, dinner still not open

No TV where we were, finding a new place with a good seat/food and a TV

Nice tapas, great place to watch the game

Older group of American tourists sits near us (embodies the American stereotype)

Fun game, unfortunately not a blowout

Nice people work there

Game finishes, still a little bit early, restaurant called a taxi

Arrival at the airport, making ourselves at home and printing out the tickets from an automatic machine (got to choose our seats!)

Getting ready to sleep on the benches (not so bad)

Got there right at 00:00

20/10 Being told that we actually had to sleep in the car rental area next to a freezing car garage, not long benches couldn’t really stretch out enough to sleep

Also making sure to watch the stuff/stay warm while we sleep

Woken up not only by the uncomfortable situation, but also by the floor cleaner

Get up at six to move into the main area of the airport

Finally getting some rest for our 9:30 flight

Going to the gate, food/sleep (recovering from serious deprivation)

Quick through security

Off to Barcelona airport

Quick walk around Barcelona airport, food, wishing we had time to see more of the city

Back on the plane soon after to return to Schipol

Off the plane and onto a train

Before leaving we headed outside to get my first taste of the Dutch holiday food Oliebollen (literally oil balls), FANTASTIC

Freezing outside, dark early, a taste of the Dutch winter and considerably colder than Spain

A nice train ride back to Utrecht, leaving each other

Walk back from the station in the cold (no bike because of hitching)

Dropping off stuff and going to dinner

No one back at school yet (servers asking me how much food I want! Not paltry portions)

Catching up on sleep 12 hrs, finally recovering from the deprivation caused by the hitching, late nights at the hostel and the hotel, and almost none at the airport