Ice skating

Last week the teperatures in Holland dropped to about -20 degrees celsius at night, which hadn't happened in twelve years!

Temperatures of this kind have a strange effect on the Dutch. All of a sudden all other news dissappears and ONE topic is of paramount importance. Will it happen....will we see the day again....could it be true?

Slowly little ponds, canals, streams and eventually lakes start freezing over. And then out of the blue it seems that every single Dutch person owns a pair of skates ánd knows how to skate ánd is prepared to face the cold and the possibility of disappearing under thin ice to do it.

'Ice Masters' start crawling out of their twelve-year hibernation and all eyes are on them. When can we go? Is it safe yet? Can we, can we pleeeaaase?

The Ice Masters appear on tv saying that we shouldn't all freak out because the "Journey of all Journeys" will have to wait until we have had at least ten straight days of -10 degrees. So we wait.

Ice skating is a skill that is supposed to be present in everyone that has Dutch blood running through their veins. You are supposed to be born with it. So I felt kind of awkward that I hadn't been on skates in twelve years and hadn't been any good then either...(I used to be on ice hockey skates to boot. "Which is more like walking on ice than actually skating" as I was told.)

Real Dutch skate on 'Noren', Vikings, Real Skates, leather shoes with huge butcher knives attached to them. Lethal when accidently falling over and having you hand skated over. Also lethal to those who don't know how to ride them. Like me.

Wilbert and his family on the other hand are proper Dutch. With proper skates. And a proper natural ice rink next to their house. So Wilbert was properly raised as a Dutch boy, standing on water as soon as it froze over and carrying on today on covered ice rinks where he skates once a week in winter. (Read: He is good and I suck)

So we went to Giethoorn (the Dutch Venice) to skate with Wilbert's family and to let me have my very first proper Viking experience. (On skates borrowed from Wilberts family)

We took the two hour drive to Giethoorn. Unfortunately it was definitely thawing. Now the normal human reaction would be to be scared to fall through the ice and die or at the least be very cold (as I was). But no! Not the Dutch! They stay on the ice until they can prove not to be Jesus.

I was aching everywhere after ten minutes. To make a long and embarrasing story short(ish): Wilbert pushed me back to our starting point and I enjoyed my hot chocolate and view of proper Dutch people for the rest of the day.

The day befoe I left, so last Thursday we went out again to skate near my moms house. This time I actually enjoyed the proper skating and the beautiful surroundings (I taped my ankles to keep them from spraining 300 times a minute) so YAY! Proper skating can now be ticked off my 'To do once in your life' list.

Now to get back to the Journey of all Journeys: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elfstedentocht

The last time this Journey of eleven Dutch cities, a skating marathon of 200 kilometers, was ridden was twelve years ago. The name of the winner of this race is remembered by all Dutchman. It is such a rare occurance that everyone looks forward to it with wild anticipation as soon as the thermometer hits -1.

Last week the Dutch championships have already been ridden. One hundred kilometers on natural ice. Men with frozen eyebrows drudge through dense mist to claim a title that might land them another twelve years of fame. The whole country goes insane. Maybe soon they will experience the Journey of all Journeys again.... Even my proper Dutch heart skips a beat.

For more wintery pictures see:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=57860&l=5536e&id=565292619

Blissful Holidays

Yesterday I arrived back from Holland after almost four weeks of ultimate nothingness and extreme busyness. Obviously I haven't done half as much class work as I wanted to do nor half the catching up with people as I wanted, but still I found myself spending no more than three nights at a time in one place.

Wilbert and me had my mom's car to ourselves and I think we've spend a quarter of our time in it. Had no less fun than if we would have stayed in one place though!
I like driving with him (or actually him driving me :P). We talk, we sing with the radio, comment on ridiculous topics discussed on it and are just generally sitting next to eachother. Nice.

So we went from a birthday here to a Christmas dinner there to a Christmas breakfast way over there back to a New Years reception or ice skating or house-sitting or being ill way back over here.

I'll tell you about it in smaller portions :D

So now I am back in Glasgow. Started my first day typically by getting groceries through wind and rain and almost setting of the fire alarm.
(I actually did set it off but ran around closing doors, opening windows and freaking out until it stopped. You should've seen it...stupid toasters)

A week of singing

I'll blog about last weeks choir concerts in a bit. Here is a little video of last weeks choral society's concert of Bach's Weinachts Oratorium to start with. Tilt your head and enjoy :)

Weekend with Wilbert

Hurray! Finally I got to show Wilbert where I live, where I go to class, to study, to shop, to drink beer, etc etc.

We speak (almost) every day on msn or skype but still it was weird that he did not have an actual idea of what it looks like around here. And so I was very happy that he came to spend a weekend with me (next to all the more obvious reasons of why you would want to see your boyfriend).
He arrived one day after our one Year aniversary (aaaaaw), I went to pick him up at Edinburgh airport. After having a very festive Toad in the Hole (for the neccesary cultural education) we spent the night on the Royal Mile.

Visiting Edinburgh castle is an experience...First you have to stand in line for about an hour and pay an obscene amount of money. But then the fun begins. The views from the castle are great and the amount of stuff that is there to see is enormous. We ended up seing two of the museums and the chapel and walking up and down the hills 300 times (it was FREEZING, but fortunately the hillsides weren't iced over) and then all of a sudden 3 hours had gone.

After picking up our bags we took the train up to Glasgow. That was actually the first time I took the train here (I went by bus on the way there) and it was quite good :) Nice hilly countryside passing by and the smell of chips and vinegar in the air. And it takes you only 45 minutes by train to go from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

The next two days I tried to show him everything I know about the city, mostly in the West End and the city centre. Luckily we didn't have much rain althoug it was pretty cold at times.

In the West End we spent some time in the Botanics (I hadn't been ín the glass houses before...althoug walk past them almost daily) and at the Hunterian museum in the Uni. As expected Wilbert was most impressed by the University (en terecht..) and said he 'wouldn't mind studying here', hihi.

On Saturday we had dinner at Annemieke's house. It was nice for Wilbert to meet them, since they are sort of my 'home-base' here.

When walking around the city centre we ended up in a little Christmas market with stalls where they sell mulled wine and bratwurst and that sort of stuff. I said 'if they would sell poffertjes here, I would definitely get them...' With the idea, of course, that they really wouldn't be selling poffertjes on a Christmas market in Glasgow. We seriously take two steps after I said this and we see a stall where they are selling 'traditional Dutch tiny pancakes' and belgian waffles.

WHAT? That was just very weird... Of couse I had to buy them, because of what I'd said before.

We end up talking to the lady that makes them, first in english then, after we realise we are all Dutch, in Dutch. She asks us if we are on holiday and I tell her I live here, after which she immediately offers me a job! Since I'm going home for Christmas and have an essay to turn in this week, I don't think I'll go back there to help her, although she did offer me unlimited poffertjes....hmmm.

We also visited the People's palace, which was new for me (and not extremely interesting) and Wilbert met some of my friends when we went to Waxy O'Connor's on Sunday evening. On Monday we did some serious shopping and started to get a bit depressed about the next day, when he was leaving again... So Tuesday duly sucked because of that. I had class so I couldn't take him to Edinburgh. I could bring him to Queen street station in Glasgow and then take the subway back up to class.

Truly a sucky day. Anyway, we had a lot of fun that weekend. I am so happy that it wasn't weird to have him here and that the only 'not so nice' thing was that he eventually had to leave again. No worries though, I'm still having fun here and enjoying (most of) it.

In the last couple of days some things in my course fell apart, with my head professor telling us he is leaving in February (excuse me???). The crisis is averted a bit after having a meeting with him yesterday. I'll keep you posted. The talk of going home earlier than expected has died down a bit, although I was quite close in the last couple of days.

Guiness.....ew. :)

Bridal weekend

Shopping for a wedding dress is FUN!

My mom and her best friend came over to stay with Annemieke so we could spend a whole weekend shopping for a wedding dress. Not for me obviously (though sometimes the 'little girl' side of my brain took over) but for my mother who is getting married on the 21 of March.

The weekend was so much fun. We didn't end up actually buying a dress, but at least my mom hs an idea now of what she wants. Most of the weekend was spent talking and eating, which is always good if you ask me.

I'm uploading some pictures here to illustrate the general happiness and fun times we had. I still have some weekends to cover in this blog ánd I have an essay to turn in next week, so no big blogging shall be done (probably...although procrastination is always around the corner..) until after the 16th, when I will be in Holland for Christmas! Yay!

So some pictures and tiny stories will have to do for now!

The infamous Sub-Pub-Crawl

Met Karen en Marieke na de schotse pizza :)

Zie het voor je:

Éen metrolijn, vijftien metrostations, dus vijftien pubs, één middag.

De metro hier houdt er om 11 uur mee op, dus als je een metro kroegentocht wilt kunnen afmaken moet je om 2 uur smiddags beginnen.

Op zich al bizar om te bedenken dat íeder metro station, of ie nou in een woonwijk of naast een snelweg ligt, hier binnen 100 meter een pub heeft...Britten.

De regels zijn simpel (en toch erg ingewikkeld soms):
* In iedere pub moet je een alcoholische drank tot je nemen.
* In de metro mag je niet zitten en niets vasthouden behalve de mensen met wie je op de crawl bent.

Variaties hierop zijn: deze metro rit op één been, of hangend aan de stang zonder dat je voeten de grond raken.

Topdag.

Mijn Finse vriendinnetje Meri was jarig, dus dat was een goede reden om ons met 15 mensen op 15 pubs te storten. Ik had me voorgenomen een 'paar' pubs mee te gaan en me daarna weer op mijn essay te storten. Na 9 pubs heb ik het opgegeven en zijn Karen en haar vriendin die over was, Marieke, gaan eten bij een italiaans restaurant in de stad.

Er zijn véél foto's gemaakt die dag. Niet met mijn camera though, dus ik steel van anderen :)

Just hangin' on the subway...

Ibrox stadium bar

Met Fredrik en Abby. (Abby! You're in my blog! Hullo! :P)
And yes I stole your pictures...if only because they're hilarious. Didn't take the worst ones though :)

Jarige Meri en Abby

The Day with Men on Boats

Karen and me had the opportunity to attend a 'borrel' (social evening) on a huge Dutch Navy ship a couple of weeks ago. Annemieke had gotten invited to this evening since the commander of the Dutch maritime forces is married to her cousin and she is a member of the Dutch community here in Glasgow. But since she was not going to be in Glasgow that evening she had asked the Dutch consulate if it was okay if she sent two Dutch students instead...
Karen was very excited when I invited her :) Soon we called the approaching day of the borrel the Day with Men on Boats.

The borrel was to be held on the HNLMS Rotterdam, one of the largest ships in the Dutch fleet. (http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/rotterdam/) You should realise that there is a staff on this ship of about 150 and the ship is designed to accommodate a marine battalion of up to 620 troops. The ship can also transport 160 armoured landing vehicles and has space in its hangar for 6 helicopters.
Get it? It's BIG.

I had told my grandfather that I was going on this ship and he was almost as excited as Karen and I :) He made sure I promised him to tell the officers we would meet that my grandfather had been 'one of them' and that I had Navy blood running through my veins. And of course I did. Since Karen and me were the only females under 40 there without a uniform on the young officers found us surprisingly fast ;)
The social was held literally in between the landing vehicals.

I remember feeling very comfortable there. I found out that I know a lot more about the navy and the army then I had realised before. I was actually quite proud I was able to joke with them about the red stripe on the marines' trousers and silly inside info like that. I must have learnt a lot from my grandfathers old stories and the experiences in the army or navy of other men close to me.
I'm probably going to sound weird here, but I sort of felt my grandmother there. I felt she was proud of me and happy that I could see part of their lives and the position she had often been in as an 'outsider' woman on a Navy ship. I could vey clearly picture her feeling as comfortable there as I was standing between these young officers.
Anyway! I was very curious to see the rest of the ship and fortunately one of the officers we'd met could show us most of it. As said before, it is HUGE. It is as big as a skyscraper and contains a whole world. We saw everything, from the kitchens, the sleeping quarters and the hospitalwing to the platform and the guns. Of course we also had to meet the commander of the forces. When asking our new officer friends which one of the uniformed people he was they dropped their jaws and were impressed when we went up to him to introduce ourselves. 'Do you know him??' Well...he's family of a friend, so now we do :)




The ship had been on a training mission in the two weeks before, so this was the first evening most of the staff and marines had a night off. The official social where we were at had most of the officers there but obviously there were about 600 other people there too that were having small parties all over the ship. Walking up onto the bridge with two girls at their side probably made the two officers with us quite popular to the guys having their party there, haha.
We ended up taking three of the guys (who had changed their uniforms for normal clothes...pity but understandable :P) back up to the West End with us to show them some of the places students here go out in. We ended up having a lot of fun and having tea at my place in the middle of the night accompanied by strange conversations about Ikea foods and Karen leaving in a cab with all three of them :)
Walking the streets of Glasgow at night seems a lot less scary with three Navy guys walking next to you.