| First week in Leiden |
[Aug. 17th, 2008|03:04 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  chipper | ] |
I'm BACK!
That was a fun but exhausting week. I don't think I could do that for very long.
Monday:
Arrived at the dormitory the day before, so I woke up here. I made a few friends the night before, and went out and had a beer with the newspaper, who were talking photos. Amazingly enough, it was good beer, beer I could actually stand to drink!
Anyway, woke up at about 8:00 and went to the meeting place for our groups. There where 162 of them and we were number 152, a group of 9, so you can imagine how busy this was. We were also a smaller group than the rest. All of us were masters students, including our mentor (leader) Marco. We were supposed to go on a bit of a city tour, but we didn't get very far before we had to stop and change our route because people had forgotten things. So we ended up chatting and playing ice-breaker games at Marco's house and a garden where we had lunch. Got to know my group, three of us were going into psychology. Good people.
Had an introduction from the mayor and the hoofdrechtor (University president approx.) in a giant church. Huge church. Where the introduction began with a Brazilian dance group in bikinis. Now I know what blasphemy feels like :)
We ran off to do a bit more looking around at the various student groups (like frat/soror but without separating the genders) and had dinner at the snooty one, the one all the rich kids go to. Decided that that one was definitely not my style. I did enjoy the history of the organization though, and I thought it was a nice place, just not a place for someone like me.
After that we went to a theater for a cultural evening, which ended up being a bunch of foreign films. After four of them, we decided that was enough and went to a place called the Q bar and listened to one of the best rock bands I've ever heard (the flying martinis). To round out the evening we went and took some tango lessons at a student group, confirming my belief that I can't dance to instructions. Marco showed off his samba skills, which I have to say are considerable, and then we all headed for bed. Slept about 2:00.
Tuesday:
Woke up (8:00) and had a bite to eat (and I do mean a bite; having had some money problems with the bank and the ATM eating my card I was left with 15 euros for the entire week. It was quite an experience) then went to a museum to wait for my group. Had some time so I watched the ducks in the canal and did a few puzzles, and chatted with another early bird from my group until the others arrived. The museum was pretty nice, but we didn't have much time so we didn't get to see it all. Luckily it's free to students.
Later we all went to a student fair, which was a bunch of lectures on random topics. I listened to a lecture on creative innovation and model united nations. It was somewhat hard to answer the questions in the creative class since he used a lot of words I didn't recognize. Guess I'm still learning.
After that we were supposed to have a facility tour and introduction to our respective study programs. Instead we got a presentation on the study group for psychology (Labyrint) which I joined for the 15% off my books and free tea and cookies every morning. : ) The rest of the time was a talk on studying abroad, which is kinda not useful for me, so I ditched and went to the student complex the Plexus and looked up housing and sent an email. Didn't have much time, seeing as the Plexus is across town and I had walked there in the first place. When the Dutch say University city, they mean the university is throughout the entire city!!!
Had dinner and then went to a Cabaret (stand up comedy) at a student group called SSR, which is a social group. They have really good food and drink there, so this may be one of my hangouts in the future. The stand up guy was very funny, and we hung out there until everything closed and I had to run to make it back to the sleeping dorms on time.
Slept at about 2:30.
Wednesday:
Woke up (8:00, why so damn early people?) and headed for a riverside park to grab some free breakfast and join in on the watersport activities. A couple of us from the group actually arrived on time; the rest slept in. We got to go kayaking through the Leiden canals, and even went through a very narrow, very low tunnel during. It was very cool and a lot of fun.
After that we watched the presentation of the sport groups, which included bridge jumps by the diving team and kayak teams, swimming by the (gasp) swim team, sailing for beers by the sailing team, and stripping by the rowing teams (guess they were too hot?).
For some reason the group wanted to visit the rowing team afterwards (hmmmm) so we went rowing, which was actually kind of fun, but not something I want to do a lot of all the time. One of our group did join them so we all got special treatment from them the rest of the week (tours, free drinks, games, etc.)
From there we biked to the sports center, which is huge and encludes an actual fencing hall, full of equipment and lanes. Made me very happy : ) Also played some tennins and was roped into another samba lesson by Marco and the group. OK, samba isn't so bad and it's easier than tango, so I enjoyed it.
Had us some dinner and chatted around with more groups, then went back to the rowing team for some late night texas hold em. I won the last round, but didn't have the most money (Liz kicked all our asses) and then Donna said she won because she stole everyones chips, claiming she had the right to them since it was now her student group. : )
We were invited to go a huge party a bit outside of town so we joined in, riding a bus out to another watersport center. Had some drinks and lots of dancing, and then we all were tired so we went to a lounge and relaxed for the rest of the party upstairs and talked a lot.
Got to sleep at around 5:30.
Thursday:
Woke up 8:30 (ugh) and had a leisurely (and by that I mean very sleepy) breakfast then went to the sailing club for lunch. Discovered I can eat dutch melted cheese without retching! Yay!
We then proceeded to a huge festival with lots of organizations, groups, and random advertisers. Got a lot of free stuff and sumo wrestled in one of those huge suits with Marco (he won 2 out of three). Wandered a bit, then signed up for the SSR group and managed to lose sight of my group in the process. Spent the next hour looking for them, then sighed and walked the 5 km back to the city (no bike for me...). After this week I think I could walk anywhere!
Didn't know where the group had gone for dinner so I went to our next activity, sailing, and chatted with the folks there. Very nice people, even gave my some of their dinner, and one of them knew Marco's phone number, so he knew where I had gone.
Went sailing, which was amazing and I still remembered everything from before, so it went very well. I talked with them a bit about their group, then joined them as well (that's three groups... gotta stay busy!). Now I can go sailing anytime I want!
Docked, then ran back to town for the pub crawl (yeah, they have an actual event encouraging you to get drunk off your ass; I love this culture) We visited a lot of bars, one of which was a gay bar where we all took turns pole dancing and Marco had a dance off with a gay guy and held his own pretty well, which led to much teasing later of course. It was definitely good times. Went back to the dorms and chatted with lots of very drunk people (no, I actually wasn't very drunk) and then crashed into bed at about 2:30.
Friday:
Woke up about 9:00 (yay, thirty more minutes!) and had a brunch at a local park. We wanted to go swimming afterwards, but some of the gals didn't have suits, so they went shopping while Marco and I tagged along and chatted. I taught him some Chuck Norris sayings and he gave me a nickname (Jack, as in jack of all trades, a term which they apparently don't have in the Netherlands).
Went swimming in the big pool center, which wasn't quite big enough to keep from bumping into other people all the time, but it was still fun. The hot tub had something to be desired (like hot water...) but we had a great time playing catch and trying to keep Marco from tipping over our floating tubes (inner tubes) that we were riding on. One time he tried to flip me and ended up flipping over himself instead. Victory! : )
Went to the final barbecue, where I learned some Australian sayings (by the way, they don't say shrimp they say prawns) and didn't burn all of the food. : ) We talked about the week and then went to prepare for the last night's party. Danced a lot and got a lot of drinks from friends I had made throughout the week. Poured one over Marco's head per a gals instructions (it's ok, he got me back with one and ended up leaving with her... those loose Dutch!). Lots of dancing and singing later, walked the group to their respective homes and said goodbye, deciding to meet up in a few weeks for a dinner when we all got settled in. Got to the dorms at around 3:30 and crashed.
Saturday:
Woke up at 9:30 and packed all my things, then dragged them to the bus station and took an hour and a half ride back to Hoofddorp (no money for the train). Walked with all my stuff from the town center to the Warmerdam's house, so they all think I'm crazy for not calling and asking for a ride. Probably would have been a good idea, but it was kind of fun to see just how far I could push myself before collapsing. Yes, I know I have a strange sense of fun. Spent the rest of the day writing this, only to have it disappear when I went to save it. : (
Hope you are all well and I'll talk to you all later! |
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