It takes guts to run away, you know. *
Oct. 3rd, 2007 08:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bending_sickleLots of people would be as cowardly as me if they were brave enough.*
The night of October 2-3 is the biggest celebration event in Leiden. It conmemorates the liberation of beseiged Leiden via successful flooding and the very noisy collapse of a tower, both of which made the seigeing Spaniards run away, leaving a pot of hutspot for a little boy (Cornelis Joppenszoon, orphan, or course) to find and take back to the starving town.
This means that yesterday I was, indeed, eating hutspot at the Einstein bar (weekly site of the International Students Network, ISN, get-together). At the dinner, I met a friendly French/Mexican guy called Lander, who grew up mostly in Asia (ending with Japan). He's also a Globo sapiens, as I like to call it, or maybe Filius diplomaticus would be better. Anywho, we got off splendidly, and I had a good time chatting with him and a Portuguese girl and a Brazilian girl.
Then I teamed up with two Italian girls, both called Julia (although one pronounced is "Yulia" and the other "Djulia" (like the j in judge). They're both 3-month exchange students doing clinical psychology. We listened to some of the live music (very 70's, the kind where the entire song is one line repeated ad nauseum) then walked around Leiden.
Leiden was pretty packed (and I mean "standing stock still in the midst of the crowd, waiting for it to shuffled forward" packed) and chock-a-block full of Fair Day stalls (selling oliebollen, of which I had an appelbol, and what my family calls barb a papa** (cotton candy), taking after the French).
Today, at the pre-crack-o'-dawn (that's 5:45 am), I left my warm bed to go to Leiden for the 7 am Wake Up call ("People of Leiden! The Spaniards have gone!" und so weiter), a bit of singing from enthusiastic Leideners and a speech by the Mayor and others. All was translated by the lovely ISN folk. Then, this being the Netherlands, it starting pouring buckets, so our little group of brave yet sleepy students broke up until the 1 pm parade.
I spent the time in between having a hellishly expensive bagel with two Taiwanese girls also on exchange doing English Literature/Linguistics/Teaching. We got on great, and will be keeping in touch. Diners at a popular Chinese restuarant in Den Haag and the watching of Stardust are on our to-do list. I also got to check out what sort of residences the university provides (also hellishly expensive), which was instructive.
Then back to the ISN group, where we got our free*** raw herring sandwiches. It's actually quite good and doesn't taste like raw fish (I'd been expecting somethin like what you smell at the fishmarket). In fact, it's delicious, like sashimi, which is what it is. (It would've been so much simpler if they'd just said that. My brain would've taken the concept in much better, rather than, "Raw? Herring? Raw herring? ...raw?") A tad salty, but yummy. So then parade, which was paradish, and then fair food, then home.
And golly gosh am I going to sleep right now.
Links of the Day:
Stephen Fry talks about Fame.
The New York Entertainment Magazine has Exclusive Comics Excerpts for graphic novels, which this weeks means The Arrival by Shaun Tan. Very moving drawings of the immigration interview. The NYE also has Art Candy, Early Evening News and the film-related Trailer Mix.
Dutched Pinyay in Expatriotism: "personal observations on the nuisances, idiosyncrasies, and superfluous affairs of living, working, traveling, and acclimatizing in flat, cold, grey, windy, and drizzly Royal Kingdom of the Netherlands"
Cooking: Wiki: Fried Dough Foods List, Wiki: Dutch Cusine, Fair Food Recepies
Tom Parker's Quotes Page and Pratchett Quotes
* Rincewind, The Last Hero by TPratchett
** Not this Barbapapa.
*** -ish, because technically you have to register a month in advance so there'll be enough for everyone.
The night of October 2-3 is the biggest celebration event in Leiden. It conmemorates the liberation of beseiged Leiden via successful flooding and the very noisy collapse of a tower, both of which made the seigeing Spaniards run away, leaving a pot of hutspot for a little boy (Cornelis Joppenszoon, orphan, or course) to find and take back to the starving town.
This means that yesterday I was, indeed, eating hutspot at the Einstein bar (weekly site of the International Students Network, ISN, get-together). At the dinner, I met a friendly French/Mexican guy called Lander, who grew up mostly in Asia (ending with Japan). He's also a Globo sapiens, as I like to call it, or maybe Filius diplomaticus would be better. Anywho, we got off splendidly, and I had a good time chatting with him and a Portuguese girl and a Brazilian girl.
Then I teamed up with two Italian girls, both called Julia (although one pronounced is "Yulia" and the other "Djulia" (like the j in judge). They're both 3-month exchange students doing clinical psychology. We listened to some of the live music (very 70's, the kind where the entire song is one line repeated ad nauseum) then walked around Leiden.
Leiden was pretty packed (and I mean "standing stock still in the midst of the crowd, waiting for it to shuffled forward" packed) and chock-a-block full of Fair Day stalls (selling oliebollen, of which I had an appelbol, and what my family calls barb a papa** (cotton candy), taking after the French).
Today, at the pre-crack-o'-dawn (that's 5:45 am), I left my warm bed to go to Leiden for the 7 am Wake Up call ("People of Leiden! The Spaniards have gone!" und so weiter), a bit of singing from enthusiastic Leideners and a speech by the Mayor and others. All was translated by the lovely ISN folk. Then, this being the Netherlands, it starting pouring buckets, so our little group of brave yet sleepy students broke up until the 1 pm parade.
I spent the time in between having a hellishly expensive bagel with two Taiwanese girls also on exchange doing English Literature/Linguistics/Teaching. We got on great, and will be keeping in touch. Diners at a popular Chinese restuarant in Den Haag and the watching of Stardust are on our to-do list. I also got to check out what sort of residences the university provides (also hellishly expensive), which was instructive.
Then back to the ISN group, where we got our free*** raw herring sandwiches. It's actually quite good and doesn't taste like raw fish (I'd been expecting somethin like what you smell at the fishmarket). In fact, it's delicious, like sashimi, which is what it is. (It would've been so much simpler if they'd just said that. My brain would've taken the concept in much better, rather than, "Raw? Herring? Raw herring? ...raw?") A tad salty, but yummy. So then parade, which was paradish, and then fair food, then home.
And golly gosh am I going to sleep right now.
Links of the Day:
Stephen Fry talks about Fame.
The New York Entertainment Magazine has Exclusive Comics Excerpts for graphic novels, which this weeks means The Arrival by Shaun Tan. Very moving drawings of the immigration interview. The NYE also has Art Candy, Early Evening News and the film-related Trailer Mix.
Dutched Pinyay in Expatriotism: "personal observations on the nuisances, idiosyncrasies, and superfluous affairs of living, working, traveling, and acclimatizing in flat, cold, grey, windy, and drizzly Royal Kingdom of the Netherlands"
Cooking: Wiki: Fried Dough Foods List, Wiki: Dutch Cusine, Fair Food Recepies
Tom Parker's Quotes Page and Pratchett Quotes
* Rincewind, The Last Hero by TPratchett
** Not this Barbapapa.
*** -ish, because technically you have to register a month in advance so there'll be enough for everyone.
