The Women

It's been a really long time since I posted anything, but I will have lots to say in the next week about the past month. So much has been going on that I haven't had time to sit at my computer and sort through stories and photos. McHale and Genny are currently visiting. Molly left on Friday. The four of us are an effective gang, a clique from Duke who meet up once a year in a different city. This year I played host in Delft.

It has been so nice to see my friends and we have had lots of fun exploring The Netherlands together. I've been living here for almost six months and this week was the first time I've been a tourist in Delft. We climbed the New Church (which is only about 600 years old) to get some amazing views of the city. We visited a Delftware factory and saw how porcelain is made. We explored the small streets and pubs that I had never managed to see. Then we did the same in Den Haag and Amsterdam. I even made it past the train station in Rotterdam.

On Thursday we went Keukenhof gardens. I have never seen so many flowers in one place. Well, maybe I did at the flower auction in Aalsmeer, but those were all cut. These were planted. There were so many in bloom, but I have been told that it's early in the season and that they will be even better in about a month. A month? But they are perfect now. We wandered through the tulips for hours and were fortunate enough to not only have no rain, but even sun.

Yesterday while Genny went to Brussels, McHale and I went to Maastricht. We eat our way through the city. Most people will eat their way through Spain, France, or Italy, countries known for their diverse and distinct regional flavors. Holland is a bit different. I would describe the cuisine as boring, which is perfect for me because I am a picky eater. The country is so small that it is in effect a region, so in the southernmost part Mc and I feasted on bread and cheese, waffles, chocolate, coffee, (we skipped the raw herring), beer, and fries. I know that some (most) of those foods are usually associated with Belgium, but we were right on the border and were not about to spend the whole day eating bread and cheese.

Leiden today?