Fun and Games

Last week was fantastic. Even though I had eight hours of classes each day, I was blessed with a course that has only lab reports and an individual assignment as opposed to a group presentation. That meant that drinks for Giorgia's birthday last Tuesday was followed by beer at De Ruif on Wednesday night, aquadiente in front of IHE on Thursday, and Stefania's birthday on Friday (I have posted the April photos, along with March and Italy, finally, these are not as well captioned as I would have liked, but I've been taking lots of pictures). Then a day in Amsterdam on Saturday. Last Sunday was our final formal futbol match of the season. The first years lost to the graduating students 3-2 in the last minute, but the match was followed by a nice picnic at the lake. I hope that I don't give the impression of being a lush, but since spring is here it has been easy to relax.

In two days I go to Chicago. I'm really looking forward to seeing my family and friends, but at the same time, I'm a bit nervous about going back to the US after spending the past six months living in Europe with the international crowd. The last time I left the states for a significant period of time (10 months) my sister picked me up from the airport. When I asked her what had changed while I was away here first response was, "Everything is now low-carb, even the beer." I shudder at the thought of another epiphany like that. I'm afraid that I will find everything in the States to be too big, too loud, too fast, too ostentatious. I mean, Mom and Dad live two blocks from the corner store and we would occasionally drive there. But I'm sure after 24 hours it will be business as usual.

Summertime?

The weather has been excellent this weekend, high 70's to high 80's. Apparently that barely happens in The Netherlands in July, much less April. So how could we not take advantage of it? Saturday I spent the morning in Leiden. I went to the Museum of Ethnology, since all the museums in Holland were free this weekend. They had an exhibit on food and drink in different cultures, really cool, but mostly in Dutch. I had a great lunch in one of the squares, then took the train to Den Haag, then the tram to Scheveningen (I figured out how to spell it but still can't pronounce it). Scheveningen is the beach, sort of like Myrtle Beach. There is a boardwalk and restaurants and bars and casinos. I had been there once before, at night in January. It was cold, windy, and empty. Saturday was different. It was alive, people lounging, tanning, swimming, flying kites, playing volleyball, having picnics. I met friends, who all brought friends, until we had a group of about 20 of us, most from IHE, some of the regular MSc group, but also some short course participants, and some guys from TU-Delft. It was really nice to meet some people from outside IHE, but there was not one Dutch among us. We confused one waitress with our mini United Nations. It got a bit overcast in the evening, but it was nice to spend the day outside.

The weather was even better on Sunday. I started the morning at church. Yep, church. I was invited to a memorial for the Rwandan genocide. I believe I was invited because I'm a Jew, and happened to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day. It was a nice service. The Rwandan ambassador spoke, but it was the same speech as he gave on Friday night at IHE. The program on Friday night at IHE was much better. At church it was just a service and a speech, but at school we heard a survivor talk as well and saw a movie and had more discussions. Surprisingly, though the theme was "Never Again", nothing was mentioned about what is currently happening in Darfur, though there was some criticism that the West had ignored Rwanda when the genocide occurred. As with any event at IHE, the program ended with drinks at the bar. In church as well we had some beers in church at 11AM just behind the altar. Maybe it's a Dutch thing.

Sunday afternoon was more uplifting, Julia, Lobo, Elena and I went to the lake. We lounged in the sun, took a walk, got some ice cream, and did lots of people watching (though the nude beach was not much to look at) and saw some baby ducks. Then Julia, Elena, and I got some apple tart and iced tea at a little restaurant nearby. It was fantastic. Apparently the pear tart was better, but they were out. Then there I went to a BBQ. No mosquito bites, I think our disposable grill smoked them away. Eventually I made it home at around 10:30PM, about 8 hours after I started my leisurely Sunday afternoon. So what is the plan for next weekend?

Photos

So, it may be a while before I write more because somehow I have managed to change this blogger into Dutch. I will try change it back tomorrow. I won't even attempt to write much since I can't use the spell check. It's not that cumbersome, but it's annoying. But I have posted some photos, of both Madrid and the visit from my Women. I miss the women already. We had such a nice time here, I mean, I did and I assume that they did. It was great exploring Delft. I really should hang out in my cute little small town more often...

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?

International Sports Day

Yesterday was International Sports Day. Seven Dutch universities with international programs akin to ours, descended upon Delft for a day of activities and a night of celebrations. There were eight sports: soccer, volleyball, basketball, running, darts, chess, table tennis, and badminton. There was extra pressure on us this year since not only were we the hosts, but it is the 50th anniversary of the institute (yeah, not all the athletes are number 50).

I wasn't supposed to participate. From the moment that I arrived at the TU-Delft sportscenter everyone began to ask me why I wasn't participating. I had to be very diplomatic with the answer. I would tell people that I had intended to play on the woman's soccer team, but since our match had been taken off the schedule (well, it actually hadn't been put on the schedule, there is no Title IX here) and the men's team had already been chosen, I didn't play. And the running team had already been set. The truth is that I didn't make the cut (I think). I'm actually glad that I didn't play because I didn't like the format. The matches were only 10 minutes each.

So I brought some gym clothes with anyway. And books. The plan was to either work or play. During the lunch break was the running. We went to watch. As the runners were lining up for the 1200m, I asked why there wasn't a woman running for IHE. The coach said that our runner had been injured. So I offered to run. After a three minute warm up I did. I placed 2nd. Out of three. Apparently I had a nice sprint at the end. I don't remember my time, but I don't think it was at all impressive. I've discovered that I am not a sprinter. It took about two hours for me to breathe normally after the race. And I got a t-shirt.

But I feel that my participation was crucial (but not critical). IHE placed first in running. It turns out that we placed first in half the events. TU-Delft place first in the other half. But at the end of the day it was all about the seconds. We won the cup! But we didn't know that until the party. There is always a party. This one was a bit different because we actually got to socialize with the other students. But everyone was tired and had to head back to other parts of Holland. The party at IHE wound down about midnight. So we had another party in Mina. But I didn't stay for too long because I was tired and sore (not from the running, but from last weeks capoiera class).

At least one team I support has something to cheer about this week.

As They Say in Chicago...

I went to sleep for six hours and I woke up I found that Duke went down in the first round. There goes my bracket. So...there's always next year.

March Madness

It's tournament time. I missed the entire Duke basketball season. This morning, by dumb luck, I was reminded and was able to complete my bracket for the SOM pool just in time (the seven, or is it now six, hour time delay helped quite a bit). It's strange that collage basketball just fell off my radar for an entire season, probably because I don't have a TV and there aren't any games on here anyway. Even though I know my Blue Devils aren't at their best this season, I still believe that an all ACC final four will happen with Duke beating UNC in the championship game. A girl can dream, right?

Perfect Day

Today was a perfect day. Well, it actually started yesterday and it wasn't exactly perfect, but really good. But I still think it's worth writing about even though I still have to analyze my trip to Madrid, plus post the photos of Spain and Venice. Anyway, yesterday was Maria's (Spain) birthday so we had some cake and coffee at here and Elena's place last night. Well, we didn't actually have cake, it was Chocolate Bread Pudding, and we didn't actually have coffee, we had some wine instead. While tasting the delicious dessert, someone asked if it was a traditional Spanish birthday food. "No," I responded (because I had baked it), "it's traditional Martha Stewart."

There were blank stares. "Who is Martha Stewart?" I didn't know how to respond at first. Part of me was happy that not all the useless pop culture and brouhaha in America has been exported. At the same time, another part of me was trying to figure out how to explain Martha Stewart (do you start with the homemaker part or the insider trading?). And the rest of me was wondering if people liked the bread pudding.

My first class today was at 10:45AM. I was able to sleep in. My leisurely ride to IHE was sunny and wind-free, uninterrupted by the usual morning traffic. Classes in the afternoon let out half an hour early, so I was able to stop at home before my capoeira class this evening. That was fun. I went with Julia (Brazil) to the class to sample it because we had been invited my the instructor (a Brazilian, one of the samba drummers that came to our European-American night). My arms and legs are aching, I didn't really know what I was doing, just sort of flailing my appendages, but I had such a good time. So that was my great day, but now it's being interrupted by an impending paper...

European-American Night

The pictures are finally posted, now for the commentary. Every few months, IHE has a cultural night. Since there are less than a dozen Europeans, Europe has been combined with the Americas to form one night of dancing, eating, and drinking with some powerpoint presentations thrown in for good measure. We chose to use Carnival as a theme to tie the two continents together, since it's celebrated in one form or another in all of the participants home countries (even mine), and we were really in the mood since many of us were to be celebrating it the week before. But the theme was not liked by some religious leaders, saying it was sacrilege to celebrate Carnival during Lent, so during the presentations I had to add the disclaimer that this would be a representation of Carnival, not an actual Carnival celebration. I was the one announcing this, because Alejandro and I were the MC's for the evening.

A big part of the night was food. Since it was decided that it would be a bit offensive to explain the Mardi Gras "culture" of throwing beads to girls who responded to the call of, "Show us your tits!", I baked some chocolate chip cookies. 600 of them. I didn't actually bake them all, but managed a team who chopped the six pounds of chocolate into bite size pieces, formed balls of cookie dough that somehow managed to make it into people's mouths, and the all important quality control, which involved the disappearance of at least one cookie from every batch. The rest of the menu included Panamanian chicken and rice, fried plantains (Colombia), Spanish tortas, and apple strudel (Austria).

The presentations were excellent. The costumes and music and dancing were divine. I was really surprised by how many of my friends know traditional dances and reminisced about square dancing in 4th grade gym class when we still thought it was gross to hold the hands of the boys. To get in the Carnival spirit I figured a short skirt would be appropriate, but once the wig and makeup were applied, I ended up impersonating a New Orleans prostitute. It was a bit strange being on stage, since my only previous experience in the theatre had been being the man behind the curtain.

At first I was a bit frustrated by the lack of communication between the technicians and the stage, but after a shot of tequila and a cup of Colombian coffee, the show seemed to go quite well. Alejandro and I had to improvise a bit. Nobody laughed at my jokes, except the one American who was there, and Bin because he was laughing at everything. I don't think that they were even funny, actually one was, but I figured that someone would laugh out of pity at the rest. Fortunately, the painful part was over quite quickly and we sambaed our way to the cafeteria for drinking and dancing in the typical IHE fashion. If you are not sure what that means, look at the photos again, and review some in the previous albums.

Blah

I really have a lot to write about, but that's not going to happen today. I am ill. I have a cough that is reminiscent of my bronchitis days at Duke and all I want to do is lie in bed. I am very grateful to have such good friends here who feed me and water me and provide me with an international pharmacy of vitamins, cough drops, and decongestants. In class today we discussed potable water disinfection. Through some simple calculations we discovered that one person (or animal) using the River Muse as a toilet could contaminate the entire watershed (which is all of the Netherlands, Belgium, and a good portion of Germany). That made me feel a bit more sick when I thought about all the times that I have I drank from what looked like a pure stream (Mc, please keep this in mind when we go on our next trip).

So maybe tomorrow I will write about European American night and my holiday in Madrid last weekend. I was able to do some laundry today, which was very necessary after a bird shit on my jacket in Madrid. Apparently it is lucky (says the Colombians, Ecuadorians, Serbians, and Spaniards), but I just felt like I spent three days walking around with bird shit on my jacket.