out and about

First, a reflection as promised:

As it has now been over three weeks since my last blog, I'm becoming increasingly aware of how little time I have left and how quickly time passes. I think this is something we always talk about and seem to understand, but yet when it again becomes the reality, it hits us like a brick. So I'll blame my lack of posting on that brick. But really, when I realized I was halfway through my time here, a spark lit and a flurry of activity began, both from my intentions to make the most of my time and also from the many things that began or happened and added to my busyness. Isn't this always true, though? Isn't my time always short? My entire life is but a breath; I am only a mist. Having a very specific end date has been very helpful in forcing me to live intentionally, and while the busyness it causes is sometimes exhausting and overwhelming, it is overall a great thing. 

So, wait. I haven't made a post because I've been really busy. But what have I been busy with?

We'll start with some general updates.

The two classes I took through the local university at the beginning of the semester are over. They ended at the end of last month, which was halfway through the semester. For each, the whole grade hinged on a single final paper. Luckily, I got both done just in time in spite of travelling and other fun things.

I've started a physics course. It's great to be back in a science class - I definitely am in the right field of study. Although this class is just as many credits as each of the classes I've now completed, it meets four times a week rather than one. But it's been great. The professors are really good, and even though everyone makes jokes about the socialness (or lack thereof) of physics students, I've made some good friends and seem to have found my niche. Hopefully this doesn't mean I'm just a part of the stereotype.

Nowadays I have class everyday but Thursday. This leaves Thursdays as perfect days for visiting museums, coined as Museum Thursdays.

My focus lately has been more on Amsterdam and the Netherlands. This means that rather than travelling away from the Netherlands to other countries, I've been more intentionally travelling around the Netherlands, enjoying the city that I live in, and learning more about the culture that I'm submerged through these experiences and the friends I'm making here.

And here's some of the places/times that I've done that and a couple interesting things about them.

HAARLEM (The Founding Museum Thursday - 11th of April)

Grote Kerk: Mozart and Handel played on the famous organ in this church. It’s also where the famous artist Frans Hals was buried. It was different from other churches in that it seemed to be decorated in spurts, the most modern of which was a stained glass window installed within the past decade.

Corrie Ten Boom House: Corrie Ten Boom was a leader of the Resistance Movement against the SS during WWII in the Netherlands. She was an amazing woman of faith whose family hid six people in a secret spot behind a closet between an inside and the outside wall. Many lives were saved as a result of her efforts. She survived the concentration camps after she was arrested and went on to teach and live restoration and forgiveness around the world. This was especially neat since I so recently went to both the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and the SS and Holocaust Museums in Berlin. Obviously the background for each was the same, but the focus and perspective could not have been more different. Throughout everything, Corrie relied on God and hoped in his goodness. She saw God clearly even through these horrific events, and more importantly continued to love, adore, and follow him.

ZEELAND, DELTA WORKS (Stop One of Southern Roadtrip - 13th of April)

Neeltje Jan Delta Works: This was an semi-awkward cross between and engineering marvel and a playground. As in, there's a huge storm-surge barrier meant to hold off storms up to the ones that happen one in every ten thousand years, but there's also seal and sea lion shows, a waterslide, and a water playground. 

ROTTERDAM (Stop Two of Southern Roadtrip - 13th of April)

Rotterdam Architecture: Let’s just say it was super modern. Every building was completely different and often quite artsy. Because of WWII bombings, lots of buildings have been rebuilt, and they seem to have a lot of freedom in what sort of architecture they can use. 

Kubus Woning [Cube Houses]: These houses are basically cubes turned sideways and set on hexagonal base, meant to look like trees in a forest. It seems like it would become a lot of wasted space, but it would be pretty sweet to say you lived in one. 

The Euromast: Rotterdam’s version of the Space Needle. Super great views of the city! 

Pannenkoekenboot [Pancake Boat]: Two and a half hours of all-you-can-eat pancakes while on a boat along the Rhine River. It even had a ball pit (but I didn’t do that because those things are nasty). And we could go on the deck of the boat and look at the passing shipping containers, lit up in the night. My favorite pancake was one with brie and bacon, although the one with apples, cinnamon, and banana was also quite good. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

 DELFT (Stop Three of Southern Roadtrip - 14th of April)
        

     

Delft Blue, Delftware, Delft: We took a half canal boat, half walking tour of Delft. It's a really cute little city! Points of interest were the hundreds of bikes thrown into the canal as a congratualtory move after university graduation (since you should be getting a car soon), pretty but expensive Royal Delft pottery originally fashioned to mimic Chinese porcelain (ironically, now China makes some of the fake Delft), and the fact that the Old Church tower leans over 3 meters toward the water (which is more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa!). 

LEIDEN (Stop Four of Southern Roadtrip - 14th of April)
     So I thought I loved Delft, and then we went to Leiden...

Museum of Antiquities: Netherlands take on the Romans and the Egyptians and their own ancient history. 

Walking in the Sunshine: I think I had forgotten how nice the sun was. It was so nice that we got ice cream. And this ice cream happened to be the best coffee ice cream I've EVER had. 

Windmill Museum: We got to go up in a windmill (finally!), and it was winding while we were out on top on it's deck. I can finally check that one off of the Netherlands-Must-Do list!

Horticus Botanicus Leiden [Leiden Botanical Garden]: Just beautiful.

The Dunes [technically in Katwijk, but close enough]: So we got there literally about a minute before the sun was completely below the horizon, but after climbing through bushes, over barbed wire fences, and through stinging nettle, we got to see the sunset over the North Sea. It was cold, but it was beautiful. A great end to the day and a great couple days. 

AMSTERDAM (Museum Thursday that actually happened on Friday - 19th of April)

Van Gogh Museum: The actual museum is being remodeled, so it was temporarily in the Hermitage, but this was really quite neat! It gave a good description of the life of Van Gogh, and his paintings were organized by theme, color, and setting. I really like him.

ROTTERDAM AMSTERDAM (A Day Trip turned into a Day Stay - 21st of April)

 [The four sophomores of the trip had planned to go to Rotterdam for the day as most of the group was in London for the weekend, but on second thought, we did a little exploring of our own city instead.]

Museumplein Lawn: We joined the smattering of  people scattered on this lawn in picnicking in the sun. We bought a bottle of wine to make our picnic classy, yet only realized after that it was corked. What'd we do? Just push the cork into the bottle, of course! I was actually surprised at the fact that it actually worked. It was a wonderful picnic, too.

Rijksmuseum: This just opened, and it's one of the biggest art museums in the world. It was great, but it was packed. I saw Van Gogh, Vermeer, Rembrandt, and many other lesser known names.

Begijnhof: A real life secret garden. It was a group of houses for the Catholic beguines (basically nuns who hadn't taken vows). From 1580 for about two hundred years, Catholicism was illegal in the Netherlands, yet the government allowed this area to persist since they were peaceful. It is still a place where only women can live and is a nice oasis from the bustling city in which it lies. 

[And all of this happened basically because of our tram breaking down on the way to the station...]

ROTTERDAM (First Stop Travelling on the Day Train Pass - 27th of April)

Keringhuis: It was time to do a little engineers exploration, so a friend and I went on the hike out to one's of the world's biggest movable storm surge barriers. And it really was a hike. It was a good 45 minute walk from the train station, assuming you know where you're going, with no public transportation available. But after walking out on an abandoned train platform, crossing over one fence and through another, and then doing some interval running, we finally made it to our destination. This thing is huge - each fan is the size of the Eiffel Tower on its side. It takes 2.5 hours to close and has only closed once due to emergency since its inauguration in 1997. And for a single cycle, it uses 9 MW of energy, which is apparently about what 10,000 houses use in a year. You can't put a price on safety, though. And this thing was pretty sweet.

DORDRECHT (Second Stop Travelling on the Day Train Pass - 27th of April) 

Ark van Noach [Noah's Ark]: Yes, a boat built to scale of the ark Noah built chronicled in Genesis. The place itself seemed quite tacky and expensive, so we didn't go in. But it was neat to see with my own eyes how big the ark was. Too bad the plastic animals weren't quite so realistic. Also, the nativity scene didn't actually happen in the ark, did it? Didn't think so. 

S'GRAVENDEEL (Third Stop Travelling on the Day Train Pass - 27th of April)

Festival for the Prince's Birthday: It was the soon-to-be-king's birthday, so this little Dutch town was having a party! It was really great, and they had delicious potatoes cooked in the local style - in lard! 

Zip Line: And then we zip lined from the top of the church tower onto a platform in the nearby lake. How many people can say they've done that?

Giant Game of Musical Chairs: About 500 people played musical chairs around the lake!

So there's a lot of what I've done in the past three weeks!  Hope it wasn't too dull for you - it sure has been keeping me busy and has been quite enjoyable! At this point, I'd like to think I have a fairly good handle on the Netherlands and that I've been to quite a bit. And yet, there are still new things I learn everyday. I love it.

And tomorrow is Queen's Day! Exciting stuff happens all the time. It's too good. :)

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!

All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.

Let the Amen sound from His people again,

Gladly for aye we adore Him.

blustery brussels and bustling barcelona back to back

It was a B-city girls' weekend! Six (sort of 5.5) girls travelling to two cities in five days = trouble waiting to happen? But both cities brought their A-game. (Don't worry, the puns end here. You can keep reading.)

In all seriousness, it was an incredible trip with some really beautiful, wonderful ladies. And yes, we took advantage of the all-girl-ness with some nail painting, MASH playing, chocolate eating, photo-op taking, scarf shopping, dress wearing - need I continue? I learned more about them than I otherwise could have and came to appreciate and love each and everyone in new and incredible ways.

I know, enough of the sappy. But what did we actually DO?

(brussels, belgium)

We hopped off the Megabus, landing almost in the very heart of Brussels. After getting our bearings a bit, we pulled out the Rick Steve's travel guide as discretely as possible and began exploring the city. We stopped at the main tourist attractions in the famous Grand Place, including the overrated Manneken Pis. Maybe part of that was the fact that I didn't understand his history: apparently, long ago many monarchies and government figures sailed into Brussels for an important, international meeting, and as they were landing "red carpet style", a young, nude child stood on the edge of the dock relieving himself. He was clueless, they were amused, and now a fountain stands in commemoration. We ended up using him as a reference point due to his proximity to our favorite waffle place and his popularity - if ever you turned a corner and saw hordes of tourists, you were almost certainly by this little guy. 

We then found some things Brussels is known for: chocolate, lace, and waffles. The Belgians really seem to love their chocolate, or at least know that tourists do. With chocolate shops littered all around and chocolate elephant and Town Hall sculptures, the temptation was all too strong. I've always loved lace, so that was great. And the waffles, oh the waffles. Over the short amount of time in Brussels, I got waffles three times because I loved them so much. Belgian waffles are actually different and incredible. Some were savory, some sweet. Some had the "toppings" as fillings, including one with bacon, cheese, and tomatoes, another with brownie batter. Then there were other sweet ones which had the syrup baked into the waffle itself and dark chocolate drizzled on top. YUM. 

We went to a choir concert inside the old St. Michael's and St. Gudula Cathedral. It was quite a neat experience, and they even sang some songs I recognized from my choir days! 

And then we were back to famous foods, eating mussels in Brussels. We were given free drinks of our choice and treated like princesses! At this point we were quite full from all of the Belgian cuisine and retired to our hotel for some good, old fashioned girl time. 

The next day entailed a photoshoot at a park with 52 statues to emulate, a trip to the Notre Dame of Brussels, shopping in both an antique market and a typical-for-us shopping mall, a choco-crawl to some of the most famous and oldest chocolatiers (like Godiva and Leonidas), and a tour of a Belgian brewery where the beer was fermented by the yeast in the air.

What a rich food culture! That seemed to be what made Belgium different; the architecture was not very distinct and it seemed to be more of a conglomeration than it's own identity. At least that was our impression until we took the hour long train ride from the city to the southern airport. Needless to say, the airport was quite a ways outside of the city, but it really was a cool chance to get a more well-rounded view of the country.

(barcelona, spain)

If I could live in Barcelona, I think I would be one happy girl. We came off the plane (minus a girl who had to return to Amsterdam, hence the earlier "5.5"), it was warm, people spoke some Spanish, and that was just the start. We took a bus to central Barcelona, basked a bit in the sun, and then had an (unhealthy but) satisfying lunch of chocolate and churros. But this was no ordinary hot chocolate. It was almost the consistency of pudding it was so rich. You'd think by this time I'd be sick of chocolate, but I think it just made me more addicted... 

And then we went to our hostel, called the Hipstel. Though the name sounds a bit tacky, this was one of the coolest places I've ever stayed. It was clean, safe, warm, welcoming, well-decorated, and had free coffee. It's kind of an issue that this is the first and only hostel I've stayed in and it set the bar about as high as it could go. 

In Barcelona, I was just a girl chasin' her dream. In all my years of Spanish I developed a love for the language and the culture - being there was really a dream come true. We saw La Sagrada Familia, a modern day cathedral yet unfinished, followed by Parc Guell, a gorgeous mountainous park filled with artistic formations and mosaics, both designed by the famous artist/architect/mathematician Gaudi. These were things about in school, and I was seeing them with my own two eyes! (And it was still great though it was POURING when we were at the Parc. So much for rain in Spain staying in the plain...)

One of my goals when I go to another country is to try the indigenous foods, which in this case was fulfilled by a Catalan dinner of baked cheesy tomato bread, goat cheese topped beef, and flan with sangria to drink beside. Incredible. I also had helado (ice cream) and paella the next day to top it all off.

Another girl and I decided to go back to La Sagrada Familia so that we could go inside. After a little hassle and confusion due to lack of signage, we had tickets and entered what would prove to be one of the most breathtaking structures I've ever seen. I was overwhelmed with the beauty and creativity of this church - it was so different than any other we had seen in all of our travels and still utterly incredible. For a minute, I was speechless, and when I finally regained ability to speak, all I could say were things like "This is so beautiful! This is amazing! Oh my gosh!". Gaudi is officially my favorite artist. Everything he did was inspired by nature - the columns supporting the church collectively look like a forest, the spires resemble bunches of grapes, some of the detail shows that of a honeycomb. And then he used math to make it all work; the windows are strategically placed to let light into the church at the right angles and positions. So take some of the things I love most (architecture, math, and nature), give it to Gaudi, and out comes beauty. 

And then add to the trip a cable car ride up to the top of a mountain overlooking the entire city and the Mediterranean Sea, a dip in the Sea itself and it's sand in between my toes, a walk down the famous La Rambla, and another night with the girls. 

I was quite sad to say goodbye the next day and make the long journey home. But I could not have been more pleased with how the trip worked out and how wonderful it had all been. At some point on this trip, we made the realization that we were becoming quite the competent tourists. This was further proved when though arriving at the airport only one hour before our flight, we were still second in line to board.

So in a nut shell, we went to Brussels to have wonderful, fattening food and then to Barcelona to soak up some sun and maybe even a hint of artistic genius.

And then, like a splash of cold water in the face, I was back home to write a paper worth my entire grade for a class in less than 24 hours. Smart? Meh. Worth it? Totally.

Now physics starts, marking the halfway point of my time here! Reflections to come? Until then...

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (ROMANS 15:13)