Amsterdam.

Spent a glorious weekend in Amsterdam. A reunification of sorts of several different characters I've known throughout my life, Chrissy of course being among them. Gotta love Amsterdam, though, walking along the canals at dusk, the rows upon rows of warmly lit curtain-less windows, where every so often you see someone going about their evening, reading a book, cooking; they must be so used to being watched by the people walking by.

Two museums (and a purchase of a Dutch museum card, 22 Euros and good for one year for entry to almost any museum in the country): Anne Frank and Van Gogh, two prominent figures of Dutch history, but forewent the zoo (it was too near closing time) to instead hang out in a park of geese and ducks. Sore calves and knees from all the walking (next time will bring bike!) and quiet evenings in playing chess in Jamie's 2-floor flat, conveniently equipped with 4 single beds.

Bike Ride to the Lake

There are two lakes just 20-30 minutes South of the town. I believe you can swim in them come summer. I biked out there to check it out.









Also visited a houseboat for the very first time the other night. Sometimes they are rented out to students. The bedrooms are very very small but the living spaces are quite large.






This is the tiny toilet which you have to pump by hand to flush.


This is house from outside...


In other news, I finally saw No Country for Old men here:


Kind of what I expected, a slick, violent, good vs. evil thriller, about crime, revenge, heroism, and doing the right thing, from three perspectives: the 'law', the conscienceless criminal, and the guy who accidentally gets caught up in it all. With western tones, thoughtful performances (Javier Barden, Tommy Lee Jones), and the usual Coen brothers sharp wit, it is thoroughly entertaining and suspenseful...out of the (somewhat bizarre) nominations for Best Picture this year, it definitely stands a chance and probably deserves to be there.

Also, I discovered last.fm, a 'radio' station where you type in an artist and it will play similar artists for you until you type in something new! Fun.

Past the one week mark...

I have now been here for 9 full days. I did end up participating in the Introduction week and while most of the activities were not really my...style...there were a few interesting things, like today we did some mini workshops: model united nations, debating, and film basics (didn't really learn much except where the best video store in Groningen is). It's funny that I chose this town to come to. It's really a student town, and I'm not really the type to appreciate that aspect of it. It's probably like Kingston or London, Ontario, but in Holland. But I do like it, and I'm sure that in time I will discover the finer things it has to offer. I liked the idea of a small town, but just wasn't prepared for all this student madness. I am, however, a great fan of Dutch society. They seem to be a liberal, tolerant people and I have so far only had positive encounters with native Hollanders.

Not much in a writing mood, so this one will be mostly photos:

this guy was just hanging out in the middle of the sidewalk

my bike!

this beer was given to me in a bank...as a refreshment when i opened an account. they wouldn't let me take a picture of the bank but i'm not lying!

this is the main clock tower here, useful for finding your way, and also the biggest one...in holland...or something

the synagogue in Groningen, very old. There are bronze moons and stars in the cobblestone leading up to it.

the Groningen red light district. there are prostitutes here too, i just found out.

a terrible 'Japanese' restaurant where there was a dinner for all the International kids.

this is the biggest bar in Holland, Drie Gezusters, which means Three Sisters. 4 buildings, 3 floors, and revolving bars apparently.

I think this guy might be on a South American soap opera. this girl is from France and is really sweet.

@ the museum


played a few games of pool with this American guy, Greg.

the organ grinder. he's there every market day (Tuesday, Friday, Saturday)

here is a couple of Internationals...from L to R: Julien from France, Mia from Finland, Massimo from Italy

5 Days in

I have been in Groningen for 5 full days and it's beginning to feel a bit like home. I have visited my University a few times now, finalized all my courses, and gotten my schedule. I have Mondays off, and end at 1:15 on Fridays which is great because I have a long weekend, perfect for weekend trips to Paris or Amsterdam or...
My classes are....intl. communication, the news interview, pop music: theories and discourse, and international human rights. I'm quite content with all of them, in theory at least.
This is my school...


I have been cooking all my meals at home. I still get a bit frightened every time I light the stove. I ran out of matches and had to start using a lighter today, which is terrifying, but I'm actually cooking a lot more than I did at home. One small disaster trying to make rice pudding but otherwise successful.





I bought a bike! It's a kids mountain bike (rare in Holland) and I got it for 50 E. It has changed everything. The city seems to have shrunken. It take me about 5 minutes to get anywhere, such as school. Though people say you don't need to lock your bike up here, most people do, but just with a thin chain locking the wheel to the frame. If someone went through this town with a big truck they could grab every single bike. But noone does. I guess everyone already has a bike, so bike thieves wouldn;t have much of a market. Though they could bring them over the border....to Belgium...hmmm

Staring tomorrow, there is an introduction-type week for International students. Still trying to decide whether to sign up or not. Paying 30 E will get you a tour, museum visit, 3 dinners, drinks....but the rest of it seems kind of 'froshy'... so I may have to not participate in the evening activities, and then determine whether its worth it paying 30E for the other stuff. I hate organized group activities though! and Icebreakers! So.....

The Groningen train station, sunset


My big accomplishment today was buying an alarm clock. There is this huge electronics story called Mediamarkt. They have anything that plugs in, from computers to vacuums to blenders to stereo systems. I bought alarm clock because I've been going to sleep at 5AM and waking up at 1PM almost every day and that clearly needs to change before I start school. Unable to sleep last night, I turned on the television for the first time. I get almost 50 channels, and one or two of them are in English. At 4AM, most of them were quite...sexy....but the most interesting channel was playing movies while a man stood in front signing the entire movie out for the deaf. I wonder if he is an actor.


I heard someone playing cello on the floor above me. When I went to investigate, I realized that I only have access to my floor. So the cellist remains a mystery. Maybe I will leave her a note in the lobby....

Day 3

Had a lovely evening in last night. This feels a bit like camping; I have a 2-element propane stove that I have to light with a match, I have to bring my own toilet paper to the bathroom...but it is actually quite homey, which is nice. But I made a nice dinner of rice and some sort of mystery meat (chicken? beef? pork? horse?...not sure).

Here is the hallway of my building....

I downloaded Skype and it is amazing! You just add credit to your account and you can call anywhere and it's cheap! Except to European cellphones. To Chrissy's cell in Paris it cost 2.50 E for an 8 minute call, but only 1 E for an hour-long call to a Montreal landline. Amazing!

Went out for a walk as soon as I got up....which was not early. There were a few things I needed to get...some essentials like shampoo, soap, a sponge for the dishes...but apparently this entire town shuts down on Sunday. Nothing, NOTHING was open....except McDonalds and a few other cafes and restaurants. And there is this almost eerie but peaceful silence throughout the town. The only sounds to be heard are footsteps, bicycles, and talking. Barely any cars (there are many roads where cars aren't allowed), no music...but a lot of people out on the street despite everything being closed. Is it people going to/coming from Church? Just walking around? Groningen is also very clean
Here is the town square where the market was on Saturday....empty on Sunday

There are a lot of canals here, and people live in houseboats...I guess most of them are anchored and never leave that one spot.




I ended up walking around for hours. At first I just wanted to walk around, and then I just got very very lost. But I did get to see a lot more today then I did on my last few walks. I even found a mini red-light district (sex shops, "koffieshops" (very different from cafés), tatoo/piercing...record stores...and the lingering scent of 'grass'), as well as two movie theatres. One is just a big commercial chain (Pathé) but the other was a really cute small one with a nice café inside. Today was the last day of the Rotterdam film festival and they were playing special movies all day...also found the University, or part of it. I guess Groningen is quite a bit bigger than I thought. Quick fact: the population is 185 000 people. I guess sizewise it would be somewhere between Sherbrooke and Quebec city.


university...right outside the library, that's why there are so many bikes!

What I figured out is that there are two town squares that have markets in them on Saturdays. Because when I asked people where my street was, and they didn't know, I said I could get home from the square, and I kept getting pointed to this other weird square which wasn't MY town square...I must have asked 5 people for directions and I just kept going around in circles. I think some people just pretended they knew:
Me: do you know where Eendrachtskade is?
Dutch woman: What is it?
Me: A street...
Woman: In the city?
Me: Yes...
Woman: go straight, then right, then left.

Finally some helpful young lads in a 'Koffieshop' were able to procure a map and point me in the right direction. Since I have no watch I had no idea how long I had been out. I thought it had been something like 7 hours, but it turned out to only have been about 4 1/2.



To finish, here are some of the words I have learned so far:
kaas/cheese
broodje/bread
kippen/chicken
vis/fish (learned this by accident when I accidentally bought fish broth instead of veg. broth)
sinaasappel/orange (that one is weird...shouldn't it mean apple or pineapple?)
huis/house
let op/pay attention
koopjes/bargains
schoenen/shoes
winkel/shop
kortingen/discounts
hypotheken/mortgages? (from dictionary.com) (there are 'hypotheker' everywhere...mortgage brokers? banks? I don't know.)