Lekker

According to google translate, "Lekker": adjective: nice, delicious, tasty, yummy, tempting, snug, enticing, luscious. But my Dutch water polo friends say it pretty much means "cool" if you're talking about anything but food, so it's officially my new favorite Dutch word and I like to use it a lot. When you don't understand what they just said, but it sounds funny/interesting... "lekker!"


I've been slacking on blog posts like I've been slacking on studying for my two exams I have for this period. I'm here for two periods. Here the exams are 100% of your grade, so don't mess up. But if you do mess up, just take the re-take exam a few months later, no big deal. How's that for an idea, UT engineering? You'd get so much more tuition payment having us around an extra 1-2 years since we keep failing! Oh wait, I already paid my 5th year dues. Oops. Just to clarify, it wasn't from failing...


One thing I haven't slacked on is going to the Wave water polo and swimming practices. I don't think I'm the same person if I can't get in a pool at least 4 or 5 times a week. I've played in a few tournaments with the Wave water polo team. The first one wasn't so great since we lost all our games. The second one went much better; we won all of our games! By the way, this is a co-ed team of all ages, so the level is pretty low compared to other tournaments here, but it's still fun.

Our last tournament in Rotterdam

"You're putting that on your blog, aren't you" - Maarten.

These boys are catching on.

To get to the tournaments you can go by train:

Naar de Treinen! This is the Den Haag train station. 

The buses are on the top level. No wonder I couldn't find them!

Delft train station

"Something that disappears is only hidden away" - Mr. Klaas de Pater

Or you can take the "Wave bus"

I have yet to have the pleasure of riding in this classy chassis. 

The last tournament was in Rotterdam and it was a beautiful day walking back the station after our games.

Pretty weeping willows

Rotterdam train station is in the distance

We've had some fun dinners with Wave... like all you can eat at a medieval place where you have to eat with your hands and all you can eat sushi, see a trend with swimmers? There was also Christmas dinner in March (which I couldn't go to since it was when we were in Belgium).

Edwin the Entertainer

Boys happy that they can eat with their hands

The side of the table that kept stealing our food

My sushi doily makes a nice skirt, even on a windy day.

I taught the word "doily" to some of my teammates. 

Finally, a word I can teach THEM, and it's so useful!

Okay, onward and upward. We had an exchange house warming party since we all love our new apartments. Here's some pics -

My girls! Tine, me, Johanna, Rhiannah, Claudia

Aka, Denmark, USA, Finland, Australia, Itlay

Do we fit the stereotypes?

Getting their dancey pants on.

Last week I got to hang out with my Texas bestie, Pam, in Den Haag for a few days. We booked our trip to Barcelona, leaving next Thursday. SO excited. Now we can use that Spanish and feel good about knowing another language besides English and actually be able to use it, unlike Dutch. That being said, if you have any Barcelona suggestions, send them my way!

Pam the professional dog walker!

That's Russel on the left, and Brie on the right.

Pam & Melanie at the dog park, my family away from home.

Cami, Russel, Brie!

First exam tomorrow, and I'm so much more relaxed than I ever was at UT, *don't jinx myself*. Lekker!