Fresh Bread...A Swim...And a Large Intestine!

Friday is an exciting day for me as soon as I wake up.  The yeast starter I've been faithfully feeding for the past week is alive and ready, and I celebrate by preparing one of my favorite loaves, buckwheat cinnamon-raisin.  The bread rises beautifully and I'd like to think I'm done with instant yeast forever.  I think the smell of fresh bread baking in the morning, especially a sweet bread like that, is enough to put anyone in a lasting good mood.  

Since I shelled out the money for a fitness card, I decide to stop being lazy and finally go to the pool.  At home, I've been trying to swim since last fall, but the inconvenient Free Swim hours prevented me from establishing any sort of routine.  Here, I don't know if the Free Swim hours are more convenient, but I certainly have more Free Time to work around them.  There are two pools to go to, each on the outskirts of the city.  It's about 3.5km (according to Google Maps) to the pool I go to, a nice ride despite the strong winds.  The pool is part of a bigger sportscomplex, presumably privately owned and in partnership with the University.  The locker room is one giant co-ed area (with some gender-marked spots), and the pool can be roughly described as the same.  Though there are no lane markings, I realize soon enough (ok, I admit, I got reprimanded by some Dutch kid) that the right side is for lap-swimmers.  Somehow, I seem to be swimming always against traffic so that I am in constant danger of running into another swimmer, but perhaps the Dutch like to break up the monotony of swimming laps with a little bit of chaos.  In any case, I do a respectable if not overly ambitious 50 laps and call it a night.  About halfway through, I remember that I'm a former competitive swimmer and that this shouldn't be difficult - and, in fact, it becomes much easier and more enjoyable after this thought.  On the ride home, which is as equally pleasant (and windy) as the way there, I realize that for all my complaints, I could ride to the pool at Busch or Douglass in just as much time.  The popularity of biking here has really changed my entire mentality on transportation - and is slowly eliminating any excuses I have to be lazy back home.  

In other news, to those of you curious about my play auditions last Sunday...I am happy to announce that I will proudly play the role of Large Intestine in our upcoming production, Blood Enemies!   I also know the people playing Small Intestine and Right Kidney - we actually all read together at the audition, so I suppose they liked our chemistry.  I have yet to obtain a copy of the entire script, but from the scene's I've read I can promise it's as absurd as it sounds.  Set inside a man's body as he is being rushed to the hospital (drunk driving accident, I think), the organs are trying to figure out what is wrong - and determine their chances for survival.  Needless to say, I am extremely excited, not just to be on stage again, but also to finally interact with some Dutch students, who are running the production end of the show.  We should start rehearsal next week - I'll keep you posted (and let you know if we survive!).

Den Haag on €0.00

Rachel and I leave for Den Haag around noon (Brian backs out), armed with a map, some sandwiches, and, of course, stroopwafels (if you've never had these, you are missing out on possibly one of the best edibles on earth).  The first half of the ride is familiar to me, as it takes us through Wassenaar, where my dad is staying.  We then bike a ways along a major highway into the city.  Although it might not sound nice to ride next to a highway, don't think it's like pedaling alongside the NJ Turnpike.  The highways here are never as busy as back home, and on top of that the carefully planned bike lanes make it enjoyable to ride almost anywhere.  The highway cuts through some woodlands, in which we are able to catch glimpses of some absolutely fantastic houses.  At some point, we also see what looks like a domed observatory, set on top of a hill.  These woods seem like a great place to go back to and explore once the weather gets warmer, but for now we pedal on to our destination.

After about an hour, we victoriously reach Den Haag and (somewhat ironically) pike our bikes and eat lunch at the train station.  We then walk through the city, past a statue of Willy the Silent (first picture), to our prime destination, the Mauritshuis  It's a mansion from the Dutch Renaissance that now houses an amazing collection of 16th and 17th century art.  We have museum cards, so we don't pay to enter, and we happily discover that the audio guide is also free.  The house itself, with its lavish staircases and ceilings, is something to marvel at, but the art is truly spectacular.  We spend a good three hours in the museum, checking out Vermeer (The Girl With a Pearl Earring is here), Rembrandt, and several other artists I was previously less familiar with, such as Peter Paul Rubens.  The detail and life-like quality of the paintings, as well as the extraordinary lighting effects created within them, enrapture us.  

We don't leave the museum until it closes at 5:00, when all the other museums are closed as well.  We take some time to check out the Binnenhof, a beautiful courtyard of the former castle which is now used to seat the Dutch Parliament (third picture - I'll be seeing the inside of Parliament on March 7, when I take a tour with my dad and some other NIAS fellows).  We also try to find the gardens of the Paleis Noordeinde, a 16th century palace now used as the Queen's office (what she does in her office is beyond me), but since we can find nothing but a closed gate near the palace, we assume they must be closed.  So after checking out yet another statue of Willy the Silent (second picture - how could I have known, all those times I walked through Voorhees Mall, the importance of this man?), and admiring the beautiful architecture of the city, we head back for the station.  Briefly considering the merits of taking the train home, we gain some resolve and head out on our bikes.  The ride home is a bit more challenging, since we are riding against the wind, but we reach Leiden in just over an hour, pink-faced and triumphant.  

Overall, I'd say it was a great day trip.  There's a lot more to discover in Den Haag for sure (I'm still holding out for the M.C. Escher museum), but we have plenty of time to revisit -though it's an hour by bike, it's a mere 10 minutes by train.  And perhaps best of all, we didn't spend a single euro!  Though I can't say I wasn't quick to stop at my favorite falafel place on the way home...

Some LIght Traveling

Last Thursday, after my Archaeology course, I embark on my first long-distance bike journey, to visit my dad in Wassenaar.  Although I am a bit worried about navigating the main roads, I reach my destination with surprising ease after a leisurely 45-minute ride.  My destination, NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study), is a beautiful building set among other equally beautiful buildings (mostly large houses).  It's night by the time I reached NIAS, so I don't get the chance to really look around the neighborhood, but next time I'm there during the day I will definitely make it a point to explore.  In any case, at NIAS I meet several of the fellows my dad is spending the year with, and I get to see my dad fulfill his weekly role as bartender (somewhat comical, but I think it suits him well).  I take a different route back to Leiden with Wim, the Director of NIAS, and he points outs some highlights of the landscape along the way (he also shows me that my bike does have gears after all, accessible by a mere turn of the handlebar!).  It's Valentine's Day, but having no particular sweetheart of my own and feeling a bit tired after all that biking, I take a quiet evening to myself.  

Saturday I visit Utrecht with my dad, which is about 40 minutes by train.  Definitely more bustling than Leiden, but not nearly as busy as Amsterdam, it's filled with churches, museums, and other buildings to discover.  It's definitely a place I plan to return to, and since transportation is so easy here, I don't need to worry about going back.

Other than that, I've mainly stayed in town, exploring the city with my friends.  The hardest thing for me to adjust to here is how early everything closes - my street all but shuts down at 6:00pm every night except Thursday (most stores stay open late once a week in the Netherlands, and in Leiden it's Thursday).  Likewise, stores don't tend to open until 9:00 or 10:00am.  The only night scene, as far as I can tell, is comprised of the bars (even the coffee shops close at 10), and so I've started to reevaluate my night-owl lifestyle.  It's amazing, really, how much earlier I go to bed when I know there's nothing "awake" around me, even though I used to stay up late without leaving my room.  This may also have to do with the fact that I have a LOT more free time here - for the first time in years, I can actually sleep as much as I want every day.  As my friends and I are finding, the hardest part about having free time is motivating yourself to be active!  

 Tomorrow I'm biking to Den Haag (The Hague) with friends Rachel and Brian for a day trip.  I'm especially excited for the Mauritshuis, an old mansion with an excellent art collection, and for the M.C. Escher museum.  It feels good to be making travel plans - I think now that we're starting to really feel settled in, we'll be seeing the sights and moving around much more easily.

In other news, on Sunday I auditioned for a play!  Those of you who know me from my pre-college days understand my background in theater, but I haven't been involved with the stage since I sacrificed my last year of Arts High School for the We the People competition my senior year.  The play is a black comedy called Blood Enemies; it's set inside the body of an alcoholic man, and the three main characters are Large Intestine, Small Intestine, and Right Kidney.  A few of my friends who also auditioned started to second-guess themselves after seeing the script, but I personally think it's great (this coming from a girl who proudly played the role of Cereal in the ninth-grade play).  I'll find out later in the week if I have a role, but it felt great just to audition.  I've definitely missed the theater, and it's great to have the time to go back to it again.

Classes Begin...

I've now had two of each class, so I guess I'll go through them in turn.  Transhuman Epistemics is my first class, and the one I'm most excited about (you can read a course description here: http://www.leiden.edu/studyabroadinLeiden/index.php3?m=2&c=17&t=3&v=&k=18510&oc=210&garb=0.805992417037487).  Since the class breaks down into about 30 Dutch students and 5 international students, our professor suggests dividing into two parts, English and Dutch.  So my class is now a tiny seminar with 3 Americans, a Greek, an Australian, and our crazy professor.  At the second class, we discuss an article relating the art of an exceptional autistic girl, Nadia, with early European cave art.  Tomorrow, I am giving a presentation on an article written by the professor himself, on "Greek Zombies."  The general premise we are discussing is whether or not early humans had substantially different minds than we do now.  This should segue nicely into a discussion of how our minds are changing in the future, which comprises the bulk of the course.  Though it's early in the semester, I can tell that this will be an especially worthwhile class.

My next class is Philology, a history of the English language.  The lectures alternate between a male and female British professor, and although they are both a bit dry, I think I will appreciate the course (those of you familiar with my especially nerdy side will recognize my interest in language, language formation, and words in general).   It's a night class, so the students are mainly adults, and I can't help wondering what exactly motivates all of them to pursue an "alternate route" degree in linguistics, but I'm not one to question.  Adult students in general seem much more common here than they are back home, so perhaps continued education is appreciated as a luxury of comfortable middle-aged living.

I initially signed up for an Introduction to Shakespeare course, which I have since decided not to take.   Our first assignment, The Taming of the Shrew, leads to an interesting class discussion on sexism in society, mainly fueled by one male student's comment that Petruchio is a typically masculine character, demonstrated by his rational way of thinking.  Needless to say, I put him in his place with a few well-chosen, rationally thought-out words.  Although I can't deny the allure of reading a play a week for the class, I'm pretty sure I can gain just as much from reading them in my own time.  And since dropping this course opens my spring weeks for extended travel time, I think it's best to let it go.

As my first foray into archaeology, I'm studying a nine-week course on the Aegean Bronze Age.  We are graded entirely on the completion of two essays, for which the professor has set out appropriate books and articles at a work station in the library.  Other than the research required for the essays, there is no assigned reading.  The professor lectures once a week, taking us from the pre-ceramic, through the Neolithic, into the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations (incidentally, the same period I'm currently studying in Transhuman Epistemics).  There's no pressure, really, to go to lecture, but since I'm taking this course entirely out of personal interest, I 'm happy to attend.  

My last class is Dutch Architecture, a Monday evening course that is also filled with adult students.  The professor, in fact, began the first lecture with an apology that the course had to be taught in English to accommodate the (8 or so) international students - not the best welcome one could ask for.  In any case, so far we've only looked into the earliest architecture up to the year 1150, of which there isn't much.  We're mainly examining remains of the earliest grandiose churches and hypothesizing about their origins.  It's interesting enough so far, but I'm hoping it will pick up once we get into the more recent styles of the buildings I see every day.

So those are my classes, overall I think it's a great schedule for a great semester!

First Week in Holland

I've been here a week and two days now, and already my time in the Gambia seems far away in memory.  Since I mean to start this blog at the beginning, however, I will do my best to go back to last Sunday evening, when I take off from Banjul Airport on an overnight into Brussels.  Not able to sleep on the plane, I enter the airport at 5:30 a.m. a bit dazed but definitely excited.  The man in front of me at border control, dressed in traditional West African clothing, is hassled by the immigration official, forced to produce documents confirming his agenda and to answer detailed questions about the nature of his itinerary.  I am stamped through with a simple nod.  Later, I watch the same man wait as his luggage is searched while I walk through customs unscreened.  I am definitely not in Africa anymore, though this type of ethnic profiling is no less common where I'm coming from, albeit among tribes or against non-Gambian Africans.  

In any case, after a fairly smooth journey by train, followed by a seemingly endless wandering by foot, I find my apartment building and am let in by Beatrice, my smiling landlord.  We walk up a flight up stairs, across a wide terrace, and up another, narrow, winding staircase to my apartment.  She lets us in, and I get my first look around.

Walking through the narrow hallway, she points out the toilet and washing machine (inside, they are one room; outside, they are two doors) on the right, followed by a sort of mini boiler room, and the shower on the left.  My bedroom is immediately to the left upon entering, and it is fairly sparse save for a wardrobe, clothing rack, and queen-sized bed.  The entire wall across from the door is window, covered by bamboo shades which successfully let in light while keeping view out.  

I then enter the main living space: a big, open, living/dining area.  The ceilings are high, and the long wall overlooking the street consists mainly of three wall-length windows, unshaded so that the apartment is surprisingly bright.  Because I am so high up, my view enables me to look out over many of the nearby buildings (first picture), and I have a great view of one of the many church towers in Leiden.    Beatrice shows me the kitchen, tucked into the other side of the apartment but fully equipped for anything I'd need it for.  She leaves me on my own, and for the first time, I realize that this is my own place, for me to live, however I want.  I can't imagine a better apartment to spend my Semester in; its location, on one of the main (pedestrian-only) shopping streets, is also ideal, and I almost can't believe how great it all seems.  

Passing my first days without a bike, I mainly explore the city and try to get a handle on its geography.  Although Leiden is fairly small, it is packed with all sorts of quirky stores and places to discover, and I can't say I've yet found a fraction of what it has to offer.  Able to find a health food store on my second day (I have since found at least three more), I prepare myself to start baking bread, something I've missed in Africa. 

As my stove is quite old fashioned and has no markers noting its temperature (besides a small flame and a big flame), I am left to bake at some mysterious level of warmth, which I will only be able to judge through experience. Undiscouraged, I have so far baked two acceptable batches of sunflower multigrain and several loaves of challah.  With the abundance of bakeries and cafes selling excellent pastries and desserts, however, I may soon be tempted to branch out into the realm of Dutch baking.  

Thursday is our first day of orientation, which is nice if altogether uninformative.  Losing my assigned group at some point during the day, I go with two new friends, Justin and Moe, to pick up a bike from a second-hand shop.  My bike of choice is a purple Gazelle with a pink bell (now outfitted with a removable wicker basket); though it is a humble one speed, it takes pride in having both pedal and front brakes.  With a bike, I am able to fully realize how easy it is to get around - literally nothing in Leiden is far away.    

After a reception  Thursday evening in an Astronomy building (which was, to a girl used to public-school accommodations, amazingly classy), they take us to Delft on Friday, where we get an excellent private tour of the city and then are left to explore on our own.  For those of you interested in the fate of Silent Willy, the faithful statue watching over Voorhees Mall, in Delft you can see the holes made by the two bullets which left him dead in his mansion in 1584.  

Not to bore you with details about course registration, suffice it to say that even a slight decrease in technological innovation is enough to make one develop a new appreciation for Webreg.  In any case, I think I am finally set up with a schedule, and classes start this week.

As for food, I've developed a whole new appreciation for cheese, bread, and coffee (even french fries with mayonnaise,  in definite moderation, has its place).  Just a few buildings down is Maoz, a small vegetarian place with falafel to put all of Easton Ave. to shame.  Beyond that, I haven't much ventured out (except, of course, to sample some of the many cafes or bakeries).

After one week, though I haven't yet taken much time to venture out, I've certainly ventured "in", so to speak.  My first few days are enough to convince me that this is the perfect place for me right now; in time, I'm sure I will be able to confirm these impressions.

Welcome to My Blog!

 Hello, and welcome to my Blog!  Here I will attempt to account for my time here in Holland, which has so far totaled just over one week.  Please feel free to email me, or even write me by post (!), if you want to establish a more personal form of communication.  Otherwise, I am going to try to write what is most appealing to all my readers.  My blog is open for sharing, so please do pass it on to anyone who might be interested.  And in case I fail to hold your interest, let me know what you want to hear!  This blog is for you; enjoy the read :)