I’m in the Netherlands!
In the fall, I participated in the first half of an international scholar exchange program by hosting a Dutch scholar — an English teacher from Summa College in Eindhoven — for two weeks.
And this week I started the second half by traveling to the Netherlands for my own two-week visit. It’s only my fourth day, and it’s only the second day of the school week, but I have so much to talk about already; so I’ve decided to break up these first days into 1: the weekend; and 2: the start of the work week. That way I can give everything the just descriptions they all deserve and not overwhelm you readers.
So, here’s how I came about to Holland and how I spent my first forty-eight hours!
Trevor took me to the airport on Friday afternoon. I was fresh from entering my students’ final grades; I’d finished packing and we hopped into the car.
Roo doesn’t like when we go to the airport: most of the time, we come home with one fewer person.
I got through security in ten minutes, ate a sandwich, and then read my book for an hour while waiting to board the plane.
What book, you ask? Oh, only the library book that was due on the 13th but that I hadn’t finished and assumed I’d be able to renew, but then I couldn’t renew because someone has a hold on it, and now I’m 4,176 miles away from the library so it’s going to be returned three weeks late. Right. That book.
Sorry, fellow librarian patron. I have done you wrong.
But, I got on the plane with my overdue book and had an uneventful flight, which is the best kind of flight. We landed in Amsterdam at 9:20 a.m. local time and I met up with Noëmi, where we hugged a great big hug hello and then immediately made plans to get coffee. And while getting coffee, we saw this bird.
He wanted very much to show us his worm.
Noëmi drove us to her village, Valkenswaard. It’s about 12 kilometers south-east of Eindhoven, where Noëmi teaches. The village is adorable: there are snack shops everywhere so you can get frites (a.k.a. chips [a.k.a. fries]); and the Dutch still use automats, so there’s a bit of a Dutch Mad Men vibe; and there are just as many bicyclists on the road as there are cars.
A Dutch Bakery in Noëmi’s neighborhood. The smells were amazing. I was not surprised by this.
Relaxing with Noëmi!
And then she and I just hung around and caught up. I met Noëmi’s boyfriend, Dave, and their cats, Wooff and Karel, and I moved into my room, which, when I am not visiting, is used as Dave’s exercise room. He has motivational posters on the walls, and they are now keeping me company.
I honestly feel very happy with these guys on the walls.
We continued to be low-key on Sunday, heading to the Eindhoven city center to wander around the shops…
The Dutch give things…interesting names.
I would not shop here.
…sip some hot chocolate and people-watched while it rained…
…and look for important souvenirs to bring back for Trevor.
Warning: Snore Alert (Trevor would probably like to hang this on my face)
I was *this* close to getting one of these. THIS CLOSE.
We also went to a beautiful book store, the Boekhandel Van Piere, and did a bit of wandering. Noëmi took a surreptitious picture, which is something Trevor does. So it felt like home.
Should I go back and get that copy of The Shining? I should, shouldn’t I? I should.
Dave was at the PSV game, and when the match was over (PSV won, though it was the final game of the season and it didn’t matter much [but they still won!]) we met up to find some dinner. And dinner we did find! We went to a high-end food court called the Down Town Gourmet Market: Dave got Indian food, I got sushi, and Noëmi got pasta. But she was still hungry, so she also got this:
Ridiculous. And delicious.
A post-Nutella picture
We had a great time, and then headed home for the night, making a pit stop so that they could teach me HOW TO DRIVE A MANUAL TRANSMISSION!
OMG I’m driving a stick-shift and Dave is letting me!
I’ve always wanted to learn, and now I have! I drove in circles around a mostly empty parking lot for about fifteen minutes, and I would have kept going, but I think Noëmi and Dave were feeling woozy. It was so much fun! And I only stalled the car once! Ha!
And that’s all I’m going to write about now. My next two posts will be about the excellent school visits I’ve had so far this week (these students are great; these teachers are great!) and grocery shopping in the Netherlands. Yes. Grocery shopping. I love it.
Until then,
lakeprojects 