I thought you might want some updates from the snowy city of Delft. It did snow today! But, much to the disappointment of the Dutch and the hope for the Eleven Cities skating race, the ice is starting to melt in the canals. I busted out my new second-hand ice skates and skated on the canals in the city center of Delft. Here's some pics of my friend Linda and me trying to look Dutch on our ice skates. We did get a complement from a Dutch lady who took a picture for us, "You two are pretty good for foreigners!" Thanks :)
Linda en Becca
Onder de brug
De kinderen spelen hockey
Eenden brij de brug
Don't go to close that bridge, there's no ice there anymore!
Sneeuw!
Attempt 1: What a newbie!
Attempt 2: New tricks
Attempt 3: The next Michelle Kwan
Linda is much better!
Natural right from the start.
Aside from ice skating, I've had lots of time this week to get to know all the exchange students. About 25 of us are living temporarily in a building that was originally a nursing home and is going to be renovated in two months, so we are kicked out in April. First of all, yes it's very creepy that the building is only half occupied AND used to be nursing home. Two of the floors are abandoned and haven't been touched since a huge party some students had there a couple weeks ago. My floor is mainly girls, which is a novelty in Delft. The university is about 20% women after all! We all share a kitchen, we have "family dinners" as I like to call them. I don't think I'll cook pasta since Claudia is Italian, and everyone knows that whatever I cook will be a disappointment in her eyes :) Just kidding, Claudia! We have had some great Indian curry, Italian pasta, vegetable and potato soup, and Swedish meatballs this week. We have a stove top with 12 burners, but only 3 currently work, which makes for a fun cooking experience for our floor.
One of the best things that happened this week was that I bought my bike! It's a typical Dutch bike where you sit up straight and pedal backwards to brake. There's built in lock on the back tire, which is cool. You need a second lock in Delft, so I have that red chain lock. Here she is...
My favorite color, too!
I'll have to update you everyone more next week, but that's a bit about what's going on. I purposefully left out school because nothing exciting has happened there. I did forget to mention water polo. All I need to say there is that there are very few girls and there's a bar attached to the pool.
Cultural tidbits:
- The Dutch are always on time.
- The Dutch can ride a bike with someone sitting on the back, while smoking a cigarette, while using the other hand to pull a second bike along side, as my friend Sandra experienced.
- An "ij" is pronounced like a "y" in try. Our local grocery store is called Albert Heijn.
- I'll add more later!
Goedenavond to all.
No comments:
Post a Comment