More random observations....

And now it's time for a second installment of.... "Kirsten's-thoughts-are-too-jumbled-to-organize-so-I'm-just-gonna-throw-them-on-the-page-rather-haphazardly"! And here we go...

1.) The best-selling book of all time is the Bible. Well, if you divided those statistics up by country, I am 100% sure The Netherlands' best-selling book wouldn't be the bible, it would be the agenda. Ok, fine, that's not technically a book, but you know what I mean. I will literally lick the street if you can find me one Dutch(wo)man who does not own an agenda. And I've been drinking the Kool-Aid here so yes, I have an agenda, so sue me. And you know what? That thing is awesome! I don't know how I lived without it!

2.) Traditional Dutch music, I'm talking about contemporary music sung in Dutch, that isn't necessarily listened to by the majority of the Dutch (they usually just listen to Top 40, Trance, etc.)  is absolutely hilarious/awesome. Enjoy!

Monique Smit - "Blijf je vanavond"

Marco Borsato - "Ik Leef Niet Meer Voor Jou"

And you know what? Try as I might to hate them, I find myself humming them at random times of the day. Dammit! Side note: I feel like Dutch might just be one of those languages you shouldn't sing in. 

3.) I ate herring! I'm not gonna lie, I was terrified. In Holland, a very common snack that you can buy on the street is raw herring. They clean it for you (there are still little spines), and serve it with onions on top. There is a very specific way to eat herring, as I demonstrate in the video. Oh, and I actually like it! It kind of tastes like a saltier sushi! PS- sorry the video is in Spanish/Dutch, I was making it for my friends in Spain who don't speak English (well, Kevin does). But last year I went with Alba to Holland and she was literally gagging when we went by the haring stalls. So of course I record a video for her of me eating it :P 

4.) Rodolfo was stolen :(((((( Rodolfo, if some of you don't know, was my trusty bicycle. Well, this past Saturday, I parked him next to... well next to The Next (a club here), yes... I might have been there a little late. But when I came out to get him afterwards, he was gone! Some drunk idiot took him :( he was locked and everything, but I guess they know how to pick that. RIP Rodolfo, you were good to me. 

5.) I saw the most amazing, incredibly unbelievable rainbow today. If you haven't read my previous blog posts, I am absolutely obsessed with rainbows, and they happen all the time here in Holland. But this one was really spectacular. Look at it framing my little house (the pointy brick one to the left)! If you haven't realized the extent of my fascination >>>> see my Facebook. 

Ok nu is het 1 uur 's nachts en ik ben nog wakker. Morgen heb ik 9 uur college, dus ik denk dat 't een goede idee is om naar bed te gaan. Welten rusten!  

And so it begins...

The time has finally come! After a nice, long, relaxing summer and some wonderful trips, it's finally back to the grind.

Disclamer: So with Blogger, you can check out the stats to your blog site, and see what geographical areas they come from. What I find hilarious is that I made this blog for all my family and friends at home in America, so I didn't keep having to write emails to them to tell them how it's going. But where do 60% of my views come from? The Netherlands. Pfff I find this hilarious. But now I gotta watch myself, now I can't start saying things about people that live here! (PS- also shows me specific countries regardless of number of views, so yes you, you who are the only person I know that comes from that country... thank you for reading haha)

I guess I'll start back a couple weeks ago, when we had our international student introduction days. The university organized a two-day (three days for Masters students) agenda of events for us to get to know each other. Unfortunately, the Dutch weather did manage to spoil some of the events, but I still met plenty of very interesting people. Actually fascinating. I can't stop being impressed with the people I meet here. I'm still in a funny situation, because I am an international student, I consider myself an international student, but the school doesn't see me that way. And I don't know about the Dutch students either. Every time I have to register somewhere and they need my name, I say "van der Noordaa". They just stop and look at me. So I already have worked out a whole speech. The moment I get that look, it all comes out in one breath. "*takes deep breath* myfatherisfromhollandmymotherisperuvianiwasborninhollandbutimovedtoamericawheniwasfiveiwasraisedmywholelifeinamericaiswear". Then they usually look at me like I'm crazy.

In my situation, I came here because I'm familiar with the country and language, it's a good program, and it's way cheaper than it would be in the States. But these people I'm studying with have come here from all over the world, (Brazil, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Argentina, Colombia, Italy, Canada, Greece) to name a few, attracted by the fact that Leiden has one of the best law programs in Europe, and The Hague is one of the most important centers for European politics. And here I am... studying History. I'm not downplaying my study, because it is challenging and important. But I meet these people, and I can already tell they're going to do something great with their lives. No matter where they come from, they all speak excellent English. They're smart, adventurous, work hard, have no qualms about leaving the country to pursue their goals, it's intimidating! I feel like I need to get a life plan, ASAP! Some of the people that I met those first days of Introduction week are now my good friends. When we want to visit Amsterdam, or blow off a little steam at Einstein's on International Night, there's no one better to ask!

Here I am with Eva from Czech Republic and Stefano from Italy in Amsterdam

Let me interject here with a funny little anecdote. One of the events of the Introduction week was a speech and drinks with the mayor of Leiden in the Hooglandse Kerk. The seats were extremely uncomfortable, the mayor was a little late, but ok, it was pretty nice. Then we had a little break to walk around, go to the bathroom etc. Well earlier on, they had pointed to the grave of Pieter van der Werf. He was the famous mayor of Leiden that in 1574 during the Siege of Leiden by the Spanish, bravely offered up his arm to the starving people of Leiden (gross, I know). Well, he's one of Leiden's most beloved heroes. But during the break, I began to walk around and look at the graves in the ground of the church. Directly next to the mayor was another grave. I was standing in front of it, trying to read it upside down. "van...der...nooRDAA!?" what the hell!? It was the first day of introduction days, and nobody I knew was around me. But inside I was freaking out! I wanted to scream it out loud! Who is Seymen van der Noordaa? Wow, 1750, that's a long time ago! And was he so important that he was buried next to the illustrious van der Werf!? I swear I could feel my family ring on my finger buzzing being so close to my ancestors, it was a very serendipitous moment. My father had always told me he thought there were some ancestors of ours buried in Pieterskerk, which is another church nearby. I have yet to go there, but hey! Found some other ones, Papi! And of course I ran into him accidentally during International student day. Now how the hell am I supposed to convince people I'm international!? 

After the introduction week, the law students (which is about 70% of the International students, Leiden's law program is famous) had to start immediately. Ha ha! I still had a week! So I worked, and chilled, and prepared for the gathering storm.

Oh, quick explanation of my job since I never really talked about it. I decided in the summer I wanted to work to get some money coming in, if I want to travel, I know I gotta work for it! Everyone was telling me it was going to be hard, especially with the crisis. I must just be extremely lucky, the third place I walked into hired me! I work at Cafe Midi, which is a cafe right outside the Volkenkunde museum, which is the national museum of ethnology. Score! Museums... right up my ally! They hired me to work in the cafe all summer, and then when the restaurant inside the museum opens up (in approx. 2 days) I'll work there. Awesome people, awesome food, awesome pay... what more can I say? And all you creepy Dutch readers... come visit me!

First week of classes! So after the whole mess of registration, etc. (it makes me tired to even think about writing about it, so I'm not going to), I signed up for 3 classes. I thought (as I'm sure many of the readers are thinking) oh god, three classes, what am I gonna do with so much free time? Why won't Leiden let me sign up for more? HA. WRONG. My first class was Tuesday, Myths about Crime. It was one of the few classes I could take this semester that fulfill my research seminar requirement for my migration studies degree. I walked in not knowing what to expect, and walked out with about 6 articles each about 30 pages, and two mini-essays.

Okay... next class. Maritime History. Yes, I know... sounds riveting. Actually it's pretty cool. But I walk in, and there's seven students. Okay, well this will be a nice small class. Then the teacher starts talking in Dutch. All humanities masters programs here are required to be taught in English unless there are no international students present. So I raised my hand, and somewhat ashamedly told them I was international. She looks down at her roster, and looks up at me and gives me the look. So then my whole jumbled explanation came out... but for some reason I'm an idiot, and I was flustered, and I said it in Dutch. Well, she then complimented me on my Dutch, and said "I'm sure you don't mind if teach in Dutch." Ooookay then. But she's super sweet, and we came to the agreement that as long as I could write all my essays in English, and read all my books in English, and ask her anything I didn't understand, she could teach in Dutch. And surprisingly, I actually have no problem understanding the class at all! And I hope it will improve my Dutch, I'll certainly learn all the Dutch seafaring words.

Admiral Tromp: Beloved Dutch naval hero, and Mr. Holland 1625

Then was my thesis seminar, in which she said okay, we're meeting once more in September, and then we're not gonna meet until November. Okay then? But it makes sense, this seminar is just a  forum to aid in the writing and development of ideas for our thesis, but me and most people in the class don't have a thesis yet, because we just got here. Finally was my Migration and Integration class. Finally, a class focused exclusively on my study! The professor, Prof. Luccassen, was the professor I met with in January. I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite classes. Regardless, I finished my first week of classes with an obscene amount of work. They really hit the ground running here, huh?

I like to keep a nice, balanced schedule. So in addition to work and school, I wanted to do something active as well. If you know me, you probably know I'm hyper competitive and always need to be doing something or some sport. Well I wanted to join a sports team here, so during the international week I was looking at some sports. But I was shy, and I wrote down some dates and then didn't show. But one day I was chilling with my group of Dutch guy friends on the street (yes, I know, weird but it was no-car Sunday or something like that, so we thought let's drink beer), and my bionic ears perked up at the word "voetbal".... or as we yanks call it: soccer. "What? Huh? Who's playing voetbal? Do you need a keeper? Can girls play?" Well it turns out he was the unofficial coach of a girls team in Leiden, and before you know it, you're looking at their new keeper. Sweet! You have no idea how good it feels to be back on the field.

Showing off my new cleats to my dad

Then another thing falls on my lap. I swear, this stuff just keeps happening too easily, it makes me nervous. One of my roommates friends works within the humanities department, and was asking my roommate Juud if she knew any enthusiastic, active people in the humanities department. Well, I guess I'm overly social and can't keep my mouth shut, so I would qualify. Well, you're looking at the new membership promoter for Leiden University Humanities Department Career fair. One of six, baby. Only international student ("I'minternationalIswear!"), and the University pays me! Oh, and I get to network with companies. Awesome!

So as you can see, I've got a full plate this semester. Lekker bezig! :)

Cádiz, Cádiz, oh my Cádiz

Well, I have been a little absent from my blog recently. This is mostly due to me traveling, and now actually having things to occupy my time. Half of me wants to just go ahead and start writing about Holland and all the exciting things that are now starting, but I can't ignore my lovely trip to Cádiz.

Upon my arrival to Europe in June, one of the first things I did was look up tickets to Spain. For those of you who don't know, I studied abroad in Spain from Fall 2010 to Spring 2011. While both semesters were amazing in their own ways, my semester in Cádiz was beyond incredible. I really felt there as though I had transitioned from a student studying abroad to a true resident of Cádiz. My Spanish finally became completely fluent, and I fell in love with the city and the lifestyle. I was also extremely lucky that I lived with a family that had a girl, Alba, that was my age. It took little time for us to become thick as thieves. And Pepa, my host mother, almost adopted me in a way. Leaving them was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, even though I knew I was going to see them again. There were a lot of tears involved, and a beautiful letter from Alba that she had hid in my bag that made me weep to my mother on the phone begging her to let me stay.

SO. Maybe now you understand the magnetic pull Cádiz has on my heart. Well, that... and the beach. In my never-ending quest to find the most ridiculously cheap airline tickets, I finally stumbled upon a rather odd route. Cádiz is in a very inconvenient  awesome location, half hour from Morocco, two hours from Portugal, two hours from Sevilla... it's essentially a little island connected with a manmade bridge. So it's quite hard to get to. But there is a tiiiiny little airport in Jerez, which is about an hour outside of Cádiz. They literally have about 6 routes: to Madrid, to Barcelona, to London Stansted, and lo and behold! To Dusseldorf! Dusseldorf is one of the closest German cities to the Dutch border. So I bought tickets to stay for 10 days, 25 euros there, 35 euros back. Can't beat that! The only pain was that I had to take the train from Leiden to Nijmegen (a city in Southern Holland) and then there was a shuttle bus that took people from Nijmegen to the airport in Dusseldorf. But it was so worth it.

I arrived in Cádiz around 9:30 at night. I literally had enough time to get to the piso where I lived with the family, take a quick shower, stuff my face with some food, before Alba yanked me out the door to this crazy concert on the beach. Anyone heard of Carlos Jean? He's a Spanish DJ, and he's awesome. And if you've never been to a beach concert, you should go.

Your feet don't hurt because of the sand, everybody's jumping all over each other, and its convenient for the boys who all just go pee in the ocean. Classy. And that's the first time I met all the chicas. That is, all of Alba's crazy friends. One of them, Tamara, and I got on like a house on fire. Aaaand before I knew it, we were best friends.

I wish I could tell you guys about every day, but honestly, I don't even remember. My trip to Cádiz was like a dream. Not just because it was amazing, but also because I was so disoriented and completely relaxed, that I lost all sense of time. Days slipped by, we ate when we were hungry, slept when we were tired, hung out on the beach until 8 at night without a care in the world. And the nights were a whirlwind of rainbow dresses, colorful mixed drinks, pulsing reggaeton, and passing out at 9 am. Things that I was stressed about before I came to Cádiz lost their sense of importance and urgency. Those 10 days were all about me living for me, and enjoying the comfort of being with a family. They even invited me back for Christmas! I ate what I wanted, I didn't jog once, and I went to sleep happy every night. There's nothing more you can ask from a vacation. I feel like all I can do now is show you some of the photos. I don't get tired of looking at them because it is just me being completely and utterly content and happy. If any of you ever get a chance to visit Cádiz one day, I think you'll see why.

On a side note, I feel like I have to explain one thing, because of reactions I've been getting from people. Yes, I have lost weight. A significant amount, around 30 pounds. No, I am not anorexic. I did it in a healthy way. I started training for a triathlon this past February, and began regularly running. When school let out in May, I really amped it up and trained for 2 to 3 hours a day. I didn't diet, but I paid more attention to what I put in my body because I needed to fuel my body for the exercise I was doing. Unfortunately, because of an injury I was unable to ultimately compete in the the triathlon. But in the process, I developed a love of running. I really do love it, I don't do it to punish myself. Here in Holland, I have the most beautiful 7K loop that I run past the canals and windmills about 5 times a week. And I do have to admit, I lost about 7 more pounds when I came to Holland, I think mostly because of the stress of moving to a new country. Don't worry, I am aware of my body, and I love to eat! That is all :)

Adios Cádiz! Hasta la próxima vez!