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!

Alright, alright.... I get the big deal about Paris

Okay, okay, okay. I'll admit it. I'm kind of starting to see the big deal about Paris.

If you don't know (or didn't read my post about Paris in my Spain blog), I was always a little underwhelmed by Paris. Sure, I had fun, and the the Notre Dame is striking, and the food is good... but I never got the stars in my eyes like other people did when they talked about the City of Lights. Well, I might have to change my stance after this last trip. 

So my roommates had planned a trip to Italy with a group of their friends before I ever came to live there, so it seemed to be that I would be in that big house all by myself for a week, with no company but the mice and Rodolfo. Taking any excuse to travel, I pulled out my Rolodex (I'm just kidding I don't have a Rolodex... I swear....) of people that at some point or another had offered me a place to stay if I ever came and visited (I don't care if it was a drunken offer, an offer out of forced courtesy, or a sneeze that sounded like an offer... if you think I'm not gonna take you all up on it some day, you've been warned!) And voila! Alexis (pronounced Ah-lex-ee, not the feminine American pronunciation) came and stayed with my family for 6 weeks about two years ago, and he made the rookie mistake of offering me a place to stay if I was ever in Europe. How I know Alexis is hard to say. All I know is that there are pictures of me, Alexis, and Saskia playing together when we were two years old. Apparently his grandmother and my Dutch grandparents share some great-great-great-uncle or something really removed like that. And apparently that's grounds enough for family. Anyway, lucky me, Alexis lives in Paris! Score! And he has a car! Double score! So, with some very last minute planning, I booked a train ticket the day before (3.5 hours Amsterdam-Paris... gotta love European travel) and off I went! The plan was for me to spend the first day in Paris, putz around, and then spend the rest of the week traveling to every other city around Paris that people don't go to. Because I'm obnoxious like that. 

So. Day 1. I purposely did not want to go to the Notre Dame, or the Eiffel Tower, or the Champs Elysee, etc. So I did some research beforehand, I found some neighborhoods that are a little less-traveled, but nonetheless charmingly Parisian. Last time I was in Paris, I spent the day in the Marais district and the historical Jewish quarter. Highly recommended. This time, I decided to go to Grands Boulevards and Canal Saint-Martin. Grands Boulevards apparently had some really cool turn-of-the-century passages, which are like beautiful, Art Deco shopping malls full of quirky stores like a milliner that still made hats in the style of the 1890's, and a store full of rare postage stamps for the ardent collector. 

It was a really cool neighborhood, but once again, I realized I was up too early. You know what, Europe? Sometimes, you just need to actually begin your day before 10:30, okay? And being alone and surrounded by stores selling dusty samurai swords and glassy-eyed baby dolls from the '20's was freaking me out, so I decided to hit Canal Saint-Martin early. Well... never quite made it there that day. I have a travel strategy called.... getting absolutely lost everywhere I go. In Venice, I got lost for approximately 6 hours until I followed some helpful graffiti to the Piazza. In Vienna, I took the train in the wrong direction, and instead of ending up in Stefansplatz, I got off, saw a river beach dotted with nude sunbathers, and realized something had gone wrong. Well nothing too dramatic happened this time, but I walked. A lot. And took the metro maybe.... 4 times? I didn't have a map or guidebook of Paris. It's not that I decided not to get one on purpose, I bought a travel book on Northern France! But then I kind of made it into a challenge for myself and refused to get one for Paris. Well due to that very stubbornness, I purposely disobeyed doctor's orders (damn ankle) and ran a teensy bit too much the day before I left for Paris. Therefore, my ankle resembled cantaloupe. So after a while, I stumbled into a random park. At that point, my ankle was screaming for mercy. So, after observing all the other Frenchies taking in the unseasonably warm sun on the grass, I plonked my derrière  down right next to them. 

Aaaaand... for some reason I decided to narrate this decision with play-by-play shots. Guess I knew my life was about to turn into a movie. So I'm kind of taking a risk talking about this openly on the internet, but I'm hoping he's too French... and therefore too cool for school... to read this blog. All of the sudden, a chic guy with skinny pants rolled above the ankles, Repetto oxfords, and hipster shades walked directly towards me, sat down next to me, and said "......."  well I have no idea what he said because my French is laughable. So I managed a "Je ne parle pas français". Woo-hoo! That's what one semester of French will give you. Good thing he spoke English. Even better, he had an adorable accent, he sounded like Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast. When I told him where I was trying to go, he pointed  at the street outside the park and said, "That's Canal Saint-Martin." Oh. Typical. He invited me to go out dancing with him that night, see the real Paris.... scenes from Taken raced through my head. I said I couldn't. We talked some more. He also does triathlons, travels every second he can, and has his own business. Did I want to get a drink now then? Oh, alright. Cut to charming hidden cafe in a courtyard filled with only Parisians that cannot be found in a guide book. 

He's photo shy. So my head is still switching between scenes of Liam Neeson pistol-whipping gangsters to get his daughter back........ and then every other movie Hollywood has ever made about meeting a handsome frenchman in Paris. So we continued talking. He's already making plans to visit me in Holland. Damn, these Frenchman move fast. Then Alexis called me and said he was done with work, so I had to go meet him. Ah, well... we can't live in a movie forever, right? Oh, wait, I forgot one scene. He walked me to the street, gave me a kiss on each cheek, and then with all the cars and pedestrians around us watching, dipped me and gave me a Hollywood kiss. Artistic embellishment? Maybe. Maybe not. ;) 

The rest of the day went quickly. Alexis and I met at L'Opera, got gelato, and went to look at the stores that I would have to sell organs in order to afford anything inside. Hey, no harm in looking! 

Despite my stomach's protestations, the French refuse to have dinner before 8, so I had to revert back to my Spanish eating schedule. Gosh darn it, why can't the whole continent just pick one time and stick to it? In Holland they eat at 6:30! My body can't handle this unpredictability! So to burn time before dinner, he dragged me to the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysee. Gah. So many people. But since we were already there, I wanted to get a replacement for my beloved Shu Uemera eyelash curler I left in America (girls? Am I right?), so I went into the Sephora on the Champs-Elysee. Big mistake. My nose was so assaulted by the melange of roserhubardtreebarkjasminesandalwood, my eyes could barely focus on the kilometers of aisles that separated me from the back of the store. Overwhelmed was putting it mildly. So I conceded defeat. Alexis' parents met up with us, and we went to a delicious souffle restaurant that only made... you guessed it... souffles. Which I was over the moon about. 

Délicieux!

And that concludes my first day in Paris. Okay. Wow. This blog post was supposed to be about the whole trip. Okay. Well obviously, my mind has been changed about Paris. I'll write about Day 2-5, visiting the French countryside, another day. When my fingers un-cramp themselves. 

Random Observations

1. I absolutely love the bells here. I know most people hate them, it rings every hour, on Sundays it rings all morning long. But to me, if I keep my eyes closed, it feels like I could be in 1860. Plus the fact that I can see the steeple from my window makes me feel like Wendy.

2. We have mice in our house. Actually, I think they're pretty much in all the old houses here. And I know that sounds gross, but I actually don't mind them that much. You just have to make sure not to keep food out, and I really don't hear them at night like all my roommates. I just didn't like finding that dead one downstairs by the front door. But they're kinda cute! I think I'm gonna start naming them...

3. I need to start using Rodolfo more. Because of my overprotective belief that everyone is out to steal him (yes, I know he's a poop brown secondhand bike), I keep him locked with a chain as thick as my forearm. Which is a pain to get off. So I'm having trouble shaking the habit of walking. I love walking! But I'm afraid I'm making Rodolfo sad... I'll have to stop being lazy and let him off his leash.

4. People in Leiden have a serious sleeping problem. The fact that I can get up at 8:30, run, shower, eat breakfast, loaf around and listen to music, be out on the streets at 11:30 and still be the only one there seriously concerns me. My friends say it's because Leiden is a student city so everyone sleeps late, but seriously people? Even the shops open at noon!

5. People don't really run here. Ok, yes I have seen a couple. But it doesn't stop me from getting strange looks... and comments. Yes, I am running in the rain. No, I don't need a ride home. No, I won't die of pneumonia. However, I appreciate the supportive bums in the park! "Ja, goed zo! You go girl!"

6. I live next to a Turkish bakery. Ok, and a coffee shop. But honestly, I'm more interested in the bakery. Do you know how dangerous/amazing it is to live next door to a bakery that just bakes fresh bread all day long? A mini baguette (read: a foot-long) is 35 cents! Ohmygod I smell it right now wafting through my window.

7. The clouds in Holland are awesome. I'm absolutely obsessed with them. Ok, it's really all of Europe. But they're so... dramatic. Our clouds in America, they're shrinking violets. These clouds are full blown CLOUDS, and they are just screaming to be painted. I call them Vermeer clouds, they're just oh so pretty!

8. Two other things I am obsessed with that my roommates think is hilarious. The windmill on our street. And rainbows. Yes, I know windmills are kind of a tourist oddity. But I think of the one on my street as a sort of pet. Every time I walk out of my front door, I glance at my beautiful windmill to see what direction he is pointing today, and whether he's spinning hard, a slower pace, or not at all. And the rainbows! They happen all the time here in Holland! I've already seen two, and I wasn't even in Holland last week! I caught my roommate looking out the window for a second longer than normal, turned around, saw a rainbow, and flipped out. They didn't understand the big deal. But come on people, correct me if I'm wrong, but in America if you see a rainbow, it's at least worth a mention, right!?

I'll just keep posting random observations about life here in Holland every once in a while. I haven't lived here in a very long time, and I'm just starting to remember how strange/interesting/amusing/awesome the Dutch culture is.

My Room in Leiden!

Ok I have been promising everybody forever that I was going to put this post up, but I just never felt quite finished enough with my room. To be honest, I still don't feel like it's quite ready, I want to hang some more stuff on the walls, but that's just going to have to happen when I wrangle a guy that has an electric drill. My walls are hundreds of years old and VERY thick.

So my house. I live in the center of Leiden, right on the Beestenmarkt plein (square). I'm a five-minute walk from the Haarlemmerstraat and the Breestraat, which are the main shopping streets in Leiden, and a five-minute bike ride from the university. So all-in-all, a pretty good location! Under us is nothing right now, but they're building a Toko shop, which is an Indonesian food shop.

And lucky for us they like to start their drilling and hammering at 8 o'clock in the morning. Next door to me....... is a coffeeshop. And not the Starbucks kind. I know, I know, most people would love to live next door to a coffeeshop, to fulfill their misguided Dutch fantasy, but I was kind of wary of it. Good thing it only opens 4 to 10, and you're not allowed to smoke it there, you have to buy it and leave. But so far, all the customers have been pretty nice to me, no weirdos standing around. On the left side is a Turkish bakery, which is oh so dangerous. Their mini baguettes are 35 cents and delicious. And they have Turkish pancakes and a sort of Baklava things as well. Then across the street? Another coffeeshop. And down the street? Another coffeeshop. I have four on my street. But it's ok, nothing too sketchy, and because it's such a casual thing in Holland, you don't get any weird illegal happenings, or sketchy drug incidents. But the best thing on my street? My beautiful windmill! I love it!

All my roommates keep making fun of me, but I am in love with that thing. I've taken a million pictures of it, and sometimes I like to just stare at it. When I first google mapped the location of my house, I couldn't stop laughing. I mean, I'm really getting the Dutch experience here. I saw the bar next door with a huge Heineken sign out front, a coffeeshop next door... and a windmill on my street. Seriously? And by the way, not every Dutch person has a windmill on their street, and our houses aren't powered by wind or anything... I just happened to be very lucky! See the pointy house on the right? That's my house!

Ok now on to my room! My room is huge! It's about 20m2, and on the top floor facing the back of the house (quieter). I was so lucky to have family in Leiden that helped me out the first couple days. And they even took me to Ikea (there was A LOT of Ikea involved... I still have boxes stacked up all over the house). But now it's finally done! It feels like home!

I'll just let the pics do the talking :)

The stairs up to my room (I feel like I live in a pirate ship - yes, that is a rope instead of a banister).

Before:

AFTER!

The view from my window! 

Becoming a Leidener

Hoi! It has now been a week since I moved into my new place, and I'm loving it! I just about finished putting my room together, just a few finishing touches tomorrow and it will be done! Don't worry, I'll put up lots of pictures of my room... and my house... and the windmill on my street. Yes, I have a windmill on my street.

So I had been in an awkward waiting period because you can't really do much without money, but my chipkaart (a Dutch debit card that is pretty much the only thing accepted besides cash) finally came in on Wednesday! First thing I did? Grocery store. I literally ate nothing but fruit and toast for 4 days, and my pants were getting a little too loose. Not to worry! I quickly loaded up on all my favorite Dutch foods again. Yes, I already went through a liter of Fristi  (a yoghurt drink), yes, I'm halfway through my liter of Chocomel (the best chocolate milk in the world), and yes I have a sandwich with Jong Belegen (young Gouda cheese) almost every day. Oh, and I already had a piping hot Stroopwafel from the street. So food is no longer an issue!

Actually, I'm getting quite spoiled over here. In Fredericksburg, I would rarely cook, because honestly? I'm lazy. I'd come back from the gym or class.... and pop in a lean cuisine, or a make a wrap. My favorite trick was to literally make an entire box of quinoa, make a salad out of it, put it in one of those huge bowls, and ate that for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 10 days... or until whenever it went bad (Quinoa tastes fizzy when it goes bad... weird). But here, all my roommates are quite avid cooks! And we've already had some delicious family meals together!

Pannekoeken met zalm en avocado
(Dutch pancake with raw salmon and avocado)

Kabeljauw bedekt met ui en rijstwafels, en een sla van rucola
(Cod encrusted in onion and rice cakes and arugula salad)

I am a bit of a fruit freak, so I was little dismayed to see that there was kind of a limited produce selection at my local Digros (the nearest grocery store). But I heard/already saw that Wednesdays and Saturdays there's a huge market (markt) on the Botermarkt, near the Stadhuis (Town Hall).

So I went, and yay! Cheap fresh fruit! I bought 5 apples for 1,50 and 5 clementines for 1E. Two cucumbers (komkommers) for 50 euro cents, and a bunch of bananas for 1,75. I was a happy camper :) There were lots of strawberries, but that's what I ate last week for 4 days straight, so I wasn't too inclined to get more. But next time I'll get some wild strawberries. Now THOSE are delicious! And you can't get them in America, but they're even sweeter... and more expensive... than strawberries. A real delicacy, highly recommended if anyone is visiting in the area!

Miss you all! Kusjes!

...and waiting...and waiting....

I've realized I'm kind of using this blog as a diary now... sorry! It will get less...diary-ish soon I hope. But hey, I've got time to kill, so for now you're gonna read my thoughts, and you're gonna like it.

I'm in such a weird in-between moment right now. I've done all I can in terms of getting the ball rolling (applying for a bank account, going to town hall, etc.) and now I just have to wait the week before everything is sent to me. I am essentially penniless right now. Everywhere in Holland, you need a card that has a "Chip" in it, that you swipe differently than a credit card. So of course, nobody accepts my credit card. So here I am, in my partially furnished room, with a basket full of fruit and a loaf of bread that has been lasting me 2 days and should last another, and I am about to go stalk the mailman until he brings me that !$#^*% envelope with my Dutch card in it! Until then, I'm just gonna keep watching "Taken" on my laptop.

By the way, look what we as a country have contributed to society. I'm so glad that is our legacy.

OOH! I hear the mailman, I'm gonna go run downstairs for the 16729 time and stalk him. Wish me luck!

A snapshot of Leiden

Instead of trying to tell you how beautiful my city is, I thought
I'd show you...
(the pictures get bigger if you click on them)