Today I went in to Utrecht with my host mum to get the process for my visa started. It was fairly standard for most dealings with branches of government. Go in, wait, discover that the computer system is down so the agent who's helping you has to keep running off to check something on whatever is still working, find out that due to a recent rule change they need a fingerprint scan (I'm in a system now. Not sure how I'll feel about that in the long run, but right now I find it entertaining) so go do that, get temporary visa, and leave.
After we left, my host mum asked if I wanted to stay in Utrecht or go back with her. I said I'd stay, so she showed me which direction the station and center of the city was in and said "Have fun!"
So I set of on my adventure for the day. I was wandering down the street and ended up in a clothing store about halfway down the block. I thought "Well, I need some more cold weather shirts anyway so what the hell". So I wen shopping. Wandering out of the store later I turned towards the center of Utrecht and came across a street market so (of course) I wandered through. It was fairly standard as near as I could see, but they did have some cool stuff. Right on the other side of the market my attention was nabbed. I'd found a mall! I was surprisingly happy about this fact, which leads me to an aside.
I was having a conversation with a family member earlier this week about getting used to living here and some of the things I'd bumped in to or was having trouble with. After listening for a bit they said "You know, not only are you in a completely new country you're also from a big city and you've just moved to a small town, so you're actually going through two different adjustments at the same time so it's a bit like a double whammy." An I went "Oh my god. You're right. Huh." This was confirmed for me when I went to Utrecht. But more on that later.
Anyway, I headed up in to the mall, mostly just window shopping but I did pick up a few more things I'd been needing (There's an awesome store which has just about all the basic things you might suddenly go "Oh wait, I need that" about) and eventually found my way to a few of the restaurants. It was about 12:30 or thereabouts so I decided lunch might be in order. I had a very North American lunch except for the fact that I had mayo with my fries and the coffee always came with a tiny cookie. I had a short conversation with one of the servers there about learning Dutch, because I'd mentioned I couldn't yet and he asked me if that was why I was in Utrecht. At which point I remembered that Utrecht is a University town. He said he hoped they'd see me again and maybe next time I could try ordering in Dutch. I quite liked him.
After lunch I decided to leave the dark innards of the mall (They are similar no matter where you go. It was quite comforting, really) and headed outside. From the corner I could see the tall spire of the Dom which is one of Utrecht's tourist destinations and a lovely bell tower clock as well, so I headed in it's direction. It's a free standing tower and arch that's right across the street from St. Martin's Cathedral. And I found a bookstore right in front of it so I was happy.
St. Martin's Cathedral is a Protestant church and I think it's the only Gothic style church in the Netherlands. Or one of very few at any rate. It's beautiful. I need to go back just to wander through it again. There are wall murals and statues and gargoyles, and floor plaques that are huge and old. There's a big stone covered in runes and spiral carvings out in front and the doors are bronze with murals on them. Many of the statues and wall pieces have had their faces smashed off. It's all fascinating to me.
After I left St. Martins I headed down the street in the direction of the museum district, but got distracted when I found a comic store. I was so happy. I've decided I may become a regular over this next year, not least because when the staff noticed I was spending a lot of time going over the Asterix they had in stock (in both Dutch and English! Yaaay!) they mentioned that there was a new one coming out in October. Oh, and would I be interested in some Dutch and English Tintin? Or the English comics and manga downstairs? I was in a kind of geeky heaven and thoroughly enjoying myself.
I left with copies of a Tintin in two languages, an Asterix in two languages, and a new English comic one of the guys recommended, and decided now would be a good time to head to the station and go back to Blaricum. So I made my way back to the mall, which has an entrance in the station, and went to get my chipkart loaded up so I could get home. The chipkart is like the oyster card in London and the soon to be introduced compass card in Vancouver. Interesting thing about the chipkart. You can't use it if it has less than 20 euros on it. So there's pretty much always going to be twenty euros on the card that you can't use. Which just seems stupid to me. I got back to Blaricum alright, as it's fairly straight forward, and settled down for the rest of the evening.
So. To sum up. I love Utrecht. When I went to Amsterdam it was nice, but I didn't fall in love with it the same way. I've decided I need to give it a second chance, so I'll say the jury's still out but at the moment Utrecht is my go to city in the nearby area. There's a couple reasons for this. It's smaller than Amsterdam, and that's what I'm more accustomed to. It's a big city which to me is more like home but the general feel seemed slightly more relaxed and easy. I also found a couple of geek havens for myself all on the first visit, and I didn't manage that in Amsterdam. It's also a student city in some ways and I've always had a fondness for those. There's a special feel to them and an energy in the air that I love. The locals in student cities also seem to have large stores of patience for the younger and sillier members of society, (myself included) and can be incredibly helpful.
So I'll let y'all know what I think after I go to Amsterdam again.
Saturday 21 September 2013
Saturday 14 September 2013
Random thoughts and observations
Sorry for being silent for a while. I shall try my best to post something at least once a week in future.
I went to Amsterdam last weekend and wandered around a bit with a couple of the other girls. It's a gorgeous city. The buildings are lovely, the canals are fun, the interaction of city with tourists in certain areas is fascinating. We wandered through the red light district, albeit at a quiet time for the area, and it's fascinating to try and notice the differences between what you see here and what you'd be likely to see in a Canadian city. We seem rather prudish when compared to Amsterdam.
I'm getting much more comfortable with my host family. They're a lot of fun. The kids are entertaining and the parents have interesting bits of information.
I think I may come across as an introvert while I'm here and I don't think that's going to bother me much. I quite enjoy the company of several of the other girls in the area but I'm finding when I hit the weekend that I often need quite a bit of space. This is where having a housemate becomes interesting. I've ended up holed up in my room a fair bit because I reeeally don't want to deal with other people at the time. I also seem to be needing to go to bed earlier than I did at home most of the time. I'm getting tired and bitchy much closer to midnight than I used to, and I don't want to inflict that on the kids so I'll just give up and go to bed earlier, so the likelyhood of me staying up late for parties? Fairly low. Oh well.
My sanity savers are an interesting revelation for me. My tv shows and games I was expecting. Playing GW2 with Frost and the guildies also something I was expecting. And they are very, very helpful. Another thing that's been a mainstay is radio. Specifically NPR, oddly enough. (You know your a cross-border girl when...) It's one of the news radio stations I can get at my host family's house and I've been listening to it every morning. The travel channel and Animal Planet channel are a couple more. Funnily enough, one evening when I turned on the tv the show on the Travel channel was called Descending. Two guys going to the great scuba diving locations all over the globe. The episode that night was all about them going to great diving locations of the coast of Vancouver Island. I had not realised how much I missed the landscape and look of home. I'm having fun here and enjoying getting to know the look of Holland, but seeing the mountains and ocean off the BC coast was like a breath of fresh air.
But one of the big things that's keeping me grounded right now is my almost daily conversations with a friend in Japan. Ax got to Japan shortly after I got here and he's staying for three months, and the time difference is much more convenient for chatting with him than chatting with home so we often end up having conversations that'll stop and start on and off as long as both of us are awake at the same time. It's been incredibly helpful for me. On the days when I wake up and I'm feeling particularly homesick but it's too late to try and contact home, a half hours chat with Ax can make a huge difference in how the rest of my day goes. It's a familiar and known voice or way of phrasing things in the midst of unfamiliar or only slightly familiar noises and images.
I'm still homesick, though I don't notice most of the time now. Sometimes I'll hear or see something that reminds me of home or highlights a difference and I'm suddenly feeling homesick. Not usually to badly, but earlier this week on first day off I woke up almost in tears and it got worse from there. I was lucky though, because Frost (being Frost) was still awake. I was able to talk to him and my Mum which helped a hell of a lot, but I spent the first half of that day bursting in to tears every ten minutes or so. So yeah. It's still there and it spikes. Which is why I am extremely grateful to Ax and Frost, because they are the ones who are generally up when I'm feeling this way.
I'll try and post more regularly, and try and think of more interesting things to talk about, though I'll still vent when I need to.
Bye
I went to Amsterdam last weekend and wandered around a bit with a couple of the other girls. It's a gorgeous city. The buildings are lovely, the canals are fun, the interaction of city with tourists in certain areas is fascinating. We wandered through the red light district, albeit at a quiet time for the area, and it's fascinating to try and notice the differences between what you see here and what you'd be likely to see in a Canadian city. We seem rather prudish when compared to Amsterdam.
I'm getting much more comfortable with my host family. They're a lot of fun. The kids are entertaining and the parents have interesting bits of information.
I think I may come across as an introvert while I'm here and I don't think that's going to bother me much. I quite enjoy the company of several of the other girls in the area but I'm finding when I hit the weekend that I often need quite a bit of space. This is where having a housemate becomes interesting. I've ended up holed up in my room a fair bit because I reeeally don't want to deal with other people at the time. I also seem to be needing to go to bed earlier than I did at home most of the time. I'm getting tired and bitchy much closer to midnight than I used to, and I don't want to inflict that on the kids so I'll just give up and go to bed earlier, so the likelyhood of me staying up late for parties? Fairly low. Oh well.
My sanity savers are an interesting revelation for me. My tv shows and games I was expecting. Playing GW2 with Frost and the guildies also something I was expecting. And they are very, very helpful. Another thing that's been a mainstay is radio. Specifically NPR, oddly enough. (You know your a cross-border girl when...) It's one of the news radio stations I can get at my host family's house and I've been listening to it every morning. The travel channel and Animal Planet channel are a couple more. Funnily enough, one evening when I turned on the tv the show on the Travel channel was called Descending. Two guys going to the great scuba diving locations all over the globe. The episode that night was all about them going to great diving locations of the coast of Vancouver Island. I had not realised how much I missed the landscape and look of home. I'm having fun here and enjoying getting to know the look of Holland, but seeing the mountains and ocean off the BC coast was like a breath of fresh air.
But one of the big things that's keeping me grounded right now is my almost daily conversations with a friend in Japan. Ax got to Japan shortly after I got here and he's staying for three months, and the time difference is much more convenient for chatting with him than chatting with home so we often end up having conversations that'll stop and start on and off as long as both of us are awake at the same time. It's been incredibly helpful for me. On the days when I wake up and I'm feeling particularly homesick but it's too late to try and contact home, a half hours chat with Ax can make a huge difference in how the rest of my day goes. It's a familiar and known voice or way of phrasing things in the midst of unfamiliar or only slightly familiar noises and images.
I'm still homesick, though I don't notice most of the time now. Sometimes I'll hear or see something that reminds me of home or highlights a difference and I'm suddenly feeling homesick. Not usually to badly, but earlier this week on first day off I woke up almost in tears and it got worse from there. I was lucky though, because Frost (being Frost) was still awake. I was able to talk to him and my Mum which helped a hell of a lot, but I spent the first half of that day bursting in to tears every ten minutes or so. So yeah. It's still there and it spikes. Which is why I am extremely grateful to Ax and Frost, because they are the ones who are generally up when I'm feeling this way.
I'll try and post more regularly, and try and think of more interesting things to talk about, though I'll still vent when I need to.
Bye
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