Ooops! Did I forget to tell you about Carnaval?

So I was looking back at my blog and I realised I completely forgot to write about this and it would be a shame not to since it really was my favourite weekend on exchange and soooo Dutch. This happened in mid-February, Valentines weekend, so you know only running a month late…

Carnaval or Vastenavond (in Limburgish: vastelaovend) – where do I even start? Probably with a bit of context – Carnaval is apparently originally a European Pagan Spring Festival (and spread to Latin America via colonialism) and was later adopted by the Catholic Church (hence why it is only celebrated in the Catholic south of the Netherlands). It is celebrated in the days leading up to Lent, but actually goes on for weeks before with small parties and events. Wikipedia describes it as a “role reversal” event in that all social norms about behaviour are disregarded and I think I can certainly agree with this – it is rare you see actual adults (as opposed to students) in fancy/costume dress partying in the streets. People of all ages dress up so crazy and it is clear the amount of time some people put into their costumes it’s incredible. Honestly I have never seen something like it. So with a small, tiny bit of context so you know what I am talking about, I will now tell you about my experiences of Carnaval.

I was lucky enough that one of my kids from introweek has family in Limburg (one of the main provinces where Carnaval is celebrated), but even luckier when it turned out her family actually were key in organising the Carnaval in Venlo and would be DJ-ing at one of the stages. So not only did we have a fantastic house in which to stay in, but also experts on the Carnaval. I arrived Saturday morning and the first order of business was to create a costume – the sillier the better. Our costumes were not quite as co-ordinated as a lot of the people we saw but I feel we looked good in a very mix-matched way – especially once we obtained co-ordinating aprons later of people in lingerie (you know the ones I mean). The amount of people from Venlo though who seem to own crazy printed matching suits – four leaf clovers, dollar bills, balloons, you name it I think I probably saw a suit with it on. I think my favourite costume I saw though was a group of 4 people who came as Piglet, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger, and in a move of peak Dutchness had brought a bag of cubed Gouda and ham as a snack which they were more than willing to share. I chose an all-in-one white overall, accessorized with a delightful Hawaiian shirt and tiger mask – the tiger mask was quite a challenge to keep on especially since actually wearing it over your face really obscured your vision.  I think the bit of our costume that got us the most attention though were our signs around our neck saying where we were from. It is a tradition to take signs with you, or wear badges etc. stating where you are from and since we came from all over, we really couldn’t not. So there we were with signs from Toronto, Sydney, and London. This lead to so many people all day asking us “are you really from Sydney?”, “Did you come all the way to Venlo for this?” which was pretty entertaining. The best part though was due to Lotte’s uncle being a DJ on one of the stages we got to go up on stage and sing along to one of the songs about how the allied forces saved Venlo in the war. We didn’t really get many of the lyrics other than “Jeep, Jeep, Jeep” and “Petroleum stinks” – but after a few drinks, you really feel you can do anything. 

The day was fantastic, a real festival feel with multiple stages, music, and huge amounts of day drinking. We very sneakily hid alcohol in our bags and in various pockets and under items of clothing, so avoided paying for drinks in any of the stages all day until the evening. Our favourite was Rudolph’s though which are shot sized bottles of an energy drink and vodka mix – similar to a Flugel but cheaper (and probably not quite as tasty). Although all day we couldn’t understand the lyrics to any of the songs, by the evening I think we started to get the hang of mouthing along pretty well – no one would have known we weren’t locals…

That evening we went out, the bars were all so full, and there was a great street party going (fortunately we were absolutely blessed with gorgeous weather the whole weekend) – so we danced in the street and walked among the debris of the days activities, sat on the stages, and most importantly got a kroket and pataats special to end the night. Pataats special is essentially chips/fries, onions, mayonnaise, and sate sauce – personally I did not enjoy it, but the kroket was great. The Dutch love to deep-fry everything, but some of it you can’t deny tastes good. We did also go to a bar which was absolutely rammed and so hot, and we had really dressed to wrap up. Something about Carnaval though brought out all the creeps, so we spent a lot of time trying to avoid strange men trying to hit on us. Why do they never get a hint and insist on putting a downer on everyone’s nights? Oh the rant I could have on this topic, but I will save you that pleasure.

After the madness of Saturday, we had a far more chill day on Sunday. We didn’t dress up as much, only wearing our aprons and location signs and walked over to the next village for a Carnaval parade. This was far more like the carnivals I am used to at home with local organisations having floats and parading past. However we were right near the end of the parade, so it was somewhat… disjointed. We had a great time getting sweets thrown at us though, sitting out in the sun, and eating Limburgse Vlaai (super delicious pie). It was a shame to go back to Utrecht that evening, but having such a wonderful weekend with such lovely people just made me so happy – even if I did manage to pull a muscle Irish dancing at the street party. And next year… maybe I’ll be back!

It’s a Gouda life

Except Gouda isn’t pronounced at all like good. Not one bit. “How-da” – with the trademark Dutch throat full of phlegm for the g. About 2 weeks ago now, me and some of my kids went to Gouda for the afternoon – it being only 14 minutes from Utrecht by train. Turns out there isn’t all that much to do in Gouda, which worked out well after we lost someone at the station and spent 30 minutes trying to find them – downside of having one of the biggest train stations in the country. But off we went to the home of Gouda kaas and the beloved stroopwafel. Gouda is such a quaint place – really cute back streets and canals (as ever, canals everywhere, I’m more surprised when there aren’t any). I especially liked all the footbridges over canals into people’s houses or shops, really lovely. Obviously being in Gouda though the focus was really on cheese, and oh my god did we eat a lot of cheese, I think the shop was out of samples by the time we had been in and tried every type. We did all then buy cheese though, largely out of guilt for the number of free samples we ate. I got some geitenkaas (Goats cheese) – but hard goats cheese as opposed to the soft stuff we are used to at home. I really should have bought some gouda though. Next up on our tour of Dutch delicacies was stroopwafel – we went to a cafe that specialises in them and they are easily the best ones I have ever eaten, which is saying something because even Albert Heijn own brand stroopwafels are good. I didn’t buy any though – instead favouring the stroopwafel liquer which really is the best thing I have ever drunk and am considering going back to Gouda just to buy some more. I even bought it in my best Nederlands: “Hoeveel kost het?”. It was actually a rare occasion when a shop worker replies to you in Dutch even though they know you are English. I had spoken to her in English and then as soon as I said something in Dutch she swapped the language. Makes a change from getting English responses when you have made the effort to attempt Dutch, and trying to speak another language, especially with no lessons, really does take a lot of courage particularly when your pronunciation is as bad as mine. We managed to find a little cafe in the warm since it had started snowing. Fresh mint tea is something that I think the UK really needs to get more into, every cafe here sells it and it’s wonderful. We then tried to find a restaurant, but apparently everyone in Gouda wants to go out for dinner on a Friday evening so we couldn’t get sat anywhere, then we had the great idea of going back to Utrecht. Meneer Smakers – probably my all-time favourite burger bar. It’s always so busy but the burgers are unrivalled and it’s got such a cool feel to it. I think it ties with the pancake house for my favourite place to eat in Utrecht.

Back on Campus – Introweek 2.0

After a short trip to Bussum to the home of one of my unitmates, I arrived back on campus and it was time to start preparing for introweek. This time however I got to experience it from a completely different angle – I was chosen to be a Mum which meant I got 10 of my own children (along with Sebastiaan and Fleur – my co-parents/spouses). I don’t think any of us realised quite how exhausting it was going to be, but for every tiny bit of stress and all the exhaustion it was so worth it. One of the most fun weeks I have had since getting here. This introweek was a lot smaller than the fall one as it was only halfies and exchange students. Halfies are students who start in January as opposed to August. I think this made it a much tighter knit group and was just really gezellig. To do a play-by-play account of the week would be too much, but I had something scheduled for almost every hour of the day, which included campus games (our family came second), capture the flag, ice-skating, a city tour at night, formal dinner, and parties almost every night.

My kids are great – 3 degree students and the rest exchanges – and a really international group. We had 2 Canadians, 2 Americans (one half Italian, one half Vietnamese), a Dutch-Australian girl, an Israeli girl, a romanian girl, someone from China but on exchange from Singapore, a girl from Mexico, and someone from Indonesia but an exchange from Hong Kong – plus 2 Dutch parents and one British one. My accent was mocked mercilessly during the week with an entire night spent with everyone trying to talk in their best British accents which were all shocking attempts.

I think one of my favourite activities was ice skating, I’m pretty awful, especially by Dutch standards – but it’s so much fun. Although there was one girl (not part of our huge group) who must have been about 9 who was such an incredible figure skater – needless to say we all disliked her for making us look bad. The rink was also a speed-skating rink and watching them skate in their lycra suits was absolutely hilarious, quite potentially my new favourite sport (to watch, not partake in). Surprisingly ice skating was actually warmer than our day trip to Amsterdam on the Friday.

Amsterdam was definitely the coldest day I have experienced since being here. I ended up wearing 2 pairs of gloves and still not being able to feel my fingers. This just meant constantly finding warm places to sit, have tea or eat. However due to the fact that all museums here have an admission fee, we decided to not go into any and just walk around in the cold all day which is certainly bracing if nothing else. I do miss how London museums are free though – makesgoing to them so much more appealing and accessible. If you are not sure you would be interested in a museum, why would you pay an entry fee especially €15 which seems around average for Amsterdam? Whereas free museums really allow you to just try things out and you don’t have to commit to the entire museum if it’s not to your taste. I also tried my first kapsalon whilst in Amsterdam (well a bite of someone else’s), whilst I can see the appeal of them I really am not a convert, it’s just a bit of an odd concept – Doner meat, fries, salad and cheese. No thanks, think I am more of a kroketten girl if we are discussing Dutch drunk food.

If I am being honest, I think I preferred this introweek to the one I had in August – maybe it’s just because I feel more settled now or maybe the activities suited me more. UCU definitely feels like home, and I know how to do things, I can do my shopping, sort out all the trains, I just feel far more confident than I did when I started knowing no one in August. It’s very odd to think I do have to leave here in 4/5 months – I think going back to Leeds will quite the culture-shock, but hopefully it will improve my English which has become absolutely shocking since moving here. The other day I genuinely used the phrase “what you did say” this is what comes from living in a super international enviroment, I think there are around 54 nationalities on campus and only around 600 students, it’s definitely unique and I feel very lucky to be here.

Sorry!

I haven’t blogged for so long – and I’m really sorry. I will hopefully try and catch up over Christmas. But I’ve just been so busy and really settling into day-to-day life, and everything feels normal now – there is much less ‘exciting’ stuff to write about, plus I have had a hideous amount of school work the second half of this semester. But I will do a quick run-down of stuff I have done since I last blogged which is ages!

• Dad came to visit at the end of mid-term break which I may have blogged about(?) – we went to the Heineken factory, and a speciality beer place in Utrecht that sells hundreds of vareities of beer – including one called Raging Bitch IPA which every time I go I ask for to no avail. (This was actually all before Prague, so I probably have written about it)
• Went to see Swan Lake at the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam which was really good even if we were in the cheap seats. In all honesty though I much prefer the Matthew Bourne interpretation, contemporary ballet is far more dynamic.
• Went to Eindhoven to a light festival – Eindhoven is the technology capital of the country so it made sense for this to be here. I took a few photos which I will post soon. But really incredible, a lot of it was done by arts and engineering students and included light shows projected on churches and houses and installations in trees. Really lovely way to see Eindhoven (even if it was dark) as it took you outside of the main city centre.
• Had lots of dinners with friends
• My Mum came to visit which was lovely and I should really do a full blog post on – but it mainly consisted of eating, drinking and wandering around somewhat aimlessly. We went to the Stedelijk contemporary art museum in Amsterdam which is fantastic and I can highly recommend – even if half the art work we could definitely do, but half the fun was laughing at the art and forming your own interpretations (us uncultured, what?). In Utrecht we went up to the top of the V&D which I will also post photos of and you get see all across the city – but still not as high up as the Dom.
• Saw the new Hunger Games film – it’s good, but didn’t wow me.
• Went to Den Haag (The Hague) for an afternoon to see Shirin Ebadi speak. She is an Iranian nobel peace prize winner and gave a fascinating talk on women and Islam and the incredibly false perceptions of Islam as anti-women. Plus The Hague is beautiful – definitely need to go back and spend more time there.
• Went on a pub crawl around Utrecht with some of the teachers and the dean – nice to get to speak to them outside of the classroom. The hangover the next day was not so nice – why is the beer here so strong? Also became convinced I could speak Dutch whilst drunk which resulted in me insisting on order fries in a mix of Dutch, German and English. Well done Emma.
• Celebrated Becca’s (one of the other Leed’s girls) 21st birthday!!!
• Got Sinterklaas presents!!! Yay, thank you Sint & Piet xoxoxo
• Got accepted to be introweek parents next semester – so I get my own family!!!

So that’s a quick update might post some photos and such soon, but for now back to essay writing – Rape as a weapon of war, cheery topic for a cold Tuesday afternoon!

3 day weekends are great

On Monday, Abbie and I made our way into Amsterdam for a day of museums and tourism. Having a three day weekend is so good! Touch wood, I have such a good timetable next semester… a girl can dream.

We went to the first museum, Body worlds, with Abbie’s housemate from York, who completely coincidentally was in Utrecht at the same time. The museum sounded really interesting, it was called the happiness project and I’m super interested in how emotions work and how they affect the body and such, so it sounded like it would be right up my street. I definitely had not realised it would be real-life dead bodies that had been like plastinated. So creepy, especially how you could actually tell what a lot of the full body ones would have looked like alive. It was actually really interesting though, even if some of it went over my head a bit. Abbie and Gillian were very into it though, and as two nurses probably understood a bit more of it. Definitely worth seeing though, even if it is a bit pricey.

I sampled “holland’s number one fries” for lunch, and I must admit I was disappointed, definitely had better chips. It is very odd, everyone seems to have an opinion on who does the best chips and everyone claims theirs are best. I don’t feel like we have that as much in the UK. Either way, I’m still a McDonald’s girl – with fritessaus.

I am Amsterdam

That afternoon we went to the Rijksmuseum, which is predominantly a huge dutch art gallery, but it does have a few pots and clothes and guns, etc. It’s an absolute maze in there, we kept ending up back in the main foyer somehow and having to re-enter the museum. Without sounding hideously uncultured, a lot of the art wasn’t really to my tastes, it was more just looking at it and walking on. The architecture was beautiful though, such an incredible building – especially the library which is really what I went to see, so pretty! Some of the more modern stuff I really enjoyed as well, although because it closed quite early, we only got to see half of this and missed the side that I really wanted to see, with Yves Saint Laurent and Appel. But I am here for a whole year – next time I’ll just see if I can borrow a Museum card though instead of having to pay again!

Bibliotheek

We went to Wok and Walk for dinner, which is probably one of my favourite fast food places – you get to choose what noodles you want, what sauce and what toppings and then they cook it all for you in a wok in front of you, and it just tastes soooo good! They only have them in Amsterdam here, but also in London in the UK, so if you’re passing, I would recommend it.

When we got home, we were celebrating my flatmate Bart’s 18th birthday so we got loads of chocolate cake which was so good. In my mind starting uni at 17 is so young, I mean it’s my sisters year at school, but it’s so common here. It’s probably partially because skipping (or being held back) grades isn’t really a thing at home, and everyone tends to be the same age if you are in the same academic year. I don’t think you really notice the age difference most of the time anyway, even if I am two years older than a lot of my friends.

Tuesday was back to class so I sent Abbie off exploring Amsterdam by herself. In the afternoon we had the study abroad fair where Abi, Becca and I (3 of the Leeds exchanges) tried to convince people to go to Leeds, which is slightly hard to do when you are competing against the USA and Australia and far more ‘exciting’ locations. I think we repeated the same conversation at least 20 times: “everyone in Leeds is always up for a good time”, “You’ll barely have any class and never have to buy books”, “You’ll be taught by people who are experts in their field”, “We have one of the best Student Unions in the UK, look at how much there is to do”. We also may have attempted to deter people from going to the other UK destinations (sorry guys!) but people should go to Leeds, especially if they’ll be going whilst I’m still there.

Abi, me and Becca

That evening we went to the best burger bar in town, Meneer Smakers. I had a goats cheese burger and it is potentially the best burger I have ever eaten – absolutely incredible. It’s such a nice atmosphere as well, really cute decoration. I will definitely be going again, even if I have already now sampled both the vegetarian burgers they sell – maybe I will have to try a meat burger next time and take a break from vegetarianism, or maybe I’ll just have the goats cheese one again because that was heavenly.

Geitenkaas burger

The weather has been a mixture this week, but on Friday it was absolutely beautiful and campus looked so pretty in the sun! I love living here, I am seriously never coming home.

More soon – especially on the incredible 1975 gig I went to last night, but I should definitely be revising as I have my first mid-term on Tuesday for Linguistics and I have no idea what a phoneme is… Wish me luck!

My first guest

For the majority of the past week I have had my friend, Abbie, from school (STAGs) staying with me and sleeping on my floor. It’s nice to have people to stay, not only to actually see them, but to be able to show people how beautiful my city is. It also definitely encourages me to do more touristy things – like the museums and churches. I do not envy her though, it was about a 23 hour journey on the megabus, compared to a 1 hour flight – far cheaper than flying though and some of the journey is spent on the ferry. So if you want to come and visit that might be something to look into if you want to book a last minute trip.

Lunch aan het kanaal

Saturday was all a bit of a disaster as Abbie’s coach was late and phone didn’t work abroad so I had almost no way of keeping in contact with her to find out when she would arrive, fortunately though through the kindness of others we managed to meet at Utrecht station and get the bus back to campus. We went into town in the afternoon and sat by the canals eating pizza and sandwiches which was lovely and so relaxing – loads of people were kayaking and on pedalos/canal bikes. Thrift shopping is great here, so so many vintage stores – continued with my theme of imaginative shopping by buying a bandanna and huge plaid shirt in red, I already own both these items in black. What can I say? I’m just such a creative dresser. So fashion. I also bought my first Dutch language books as I am determined to improve. I bought Rijmsoep by Roald Dahl and Harry Potter en de Steen der Wijzen (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone) – some of the name changes/translations are hilarious. Dumbledore for example is Perkamentus and the Dursleys are the Duffelings. Dirk Duffeling. No, it’s just not okay. In the evening we met up with a group of friends and watched Catching fire and ordered in pizza – oh my god Gorgonzola pizza is everything I have ever needed in my life.

Mijn nieuwe boeken

Sunday was a pretty lazy day – again we went into Utrecht and went to the Dom (but not up it) and to the Domkerk which was really nice and there was a very interesting display about Gaza in there, which suprised me as it was very explicitly pro-Gaza. I might not be religious, but church architecture does tend to be beautiful. I did however bruise my bum hugely riding on the back of the bike – sadly Abbie is better at being Dutch than me as I just do not have the balance, strength or co-ordination to carry someone on the back of my bike, which I’m sure is not surprising to anyone who knows me.

De dom

In the evening we went to a pannenkoekenhuis (pancake house), the same one in the woods that I’ve been to before, but it’s just so cute – I am going to take all my guests. I had an apple and ginger pancake which was incredible, and I’ve completely forgotten what Abbie had but I am pretty sure it had bacon on hence why I didn’t eat it. Vegetarian problems. Riding your bike there and back definitely helps with how full you are after finishing your pancake – how are they so filling?

Pannenkoeken

I’ve decided to continue the rest of Abbie’s visit on another blog post, because otherwise this will be much too long!

General catch-up

I haven’t blogged in a while mainly because I have had 2 pretty busy weeks, I hadn’t forgotten I promise! I think I’ll split it up into 2 blog posts just so there’s not too much to read.

I got my first journalism assignment back on Scottish Independence and got an A on it, so I’m very pleased with that – especially since it was so fun to write. The work is hard but I’m keeping on top of it (mostly) and doing reasonably well which I’m happy with. The past 2 weeks have been great as I’ve been interviewing people all over campus for my feature on campus life, which means I’ve met so many new people. Linguistics is still great fun and I’m loving it – I think if I had come here for my full degree it might have been an area I would have majored in, but I was instead destined for BA Politics (International). Sociology is still awful, this week my lecturer referred to women as “bitches”. Much misogyny, very objectification – on the bright side though it is super easy and I managed to get an A on my first essay by recycling previous modules. Plus I would like to thank my political theory lecturers for their very detailed powerpoints on Marx that mean I basically need to do no work for it. We’ve finally moved on from the holocaust in my violence, trauma and memory class, which is an anthropology module on genocide – super interesting but a very depressing topic for a hungover Friday morning.

The horrific hangovers have returned, but I am attributing them to my British nationality and blame that entirely for my alcohol consumption – “I can’t help it, it’s my culture.”

Last Tuesday (23/9) my lovely housemate from last year, Emily, was in Amsterdam so I popped over for the afternoon after class to see her. We spent a lot of time walking around Amsterdam, which is great because it now means there are plenty of places I can find my way to – mainly hugely touristy places though, but soon I’ll learn all the local spots. It’s definitely much nicer on a week day. It was one of the last days of nice weather, although I definitely wore too many layers. We went on a long hunt for warm stroopwafel which we eventually found in the museum square, but they were disappointingly below average – but still super tasty! We spent a lot of time sat by the I am amsterdam (Iamsterdam) sign outside the Rijksmuseum just people-watching and trying to avoid getting splashed by the dogs playing in the fountain. It made me think of Oliver, my little puppy dog. We went to find a restuarant for dinner, but food is so extortionately priced here. We did eventually find somewhere within our price budget though. Whilst we were waiting though a Dutch man behind us asked if we were waiting to be seated, and I replied yes, you know as you do – then he shouted at me for not calling him Sir. Just kept repeating “Sir…Sir…Sir” – the rudeness of it, I’m genuinely still in shock. I am not calling you sir, you are not my teacher. I am not your subordinate. Nope. The audacity of it.

Honden in die fontein

Top tip for travelling/biking in the Netherlands: Always remember where you’ve parked your bike, especially if you will be going back to it in the dark when your phone will have run out of battery for light. I didn’t. I left it at Utrecht Centraal station, which for reference easily has over 1000 bikes there and only vaguely remembered where, so spent 20 minutes searching for it in the dark. Not my finest moment.

An old picture – maar hier is mijn fiets

On the Wednesday, so the day after, I went to my friend’s birthday party in her unit which was super lovely – very “gezellig”. Everyone else’s living rooms are so pretty but ours is still quite boring, and messy as we have absolutely no storage space at all…

I have now got plans for fall break as well, Maurits and I will be joining the TripCo hitch-hike to Zaragoza in Spain which I am very excited for. I think we will also stay in Brussels for a few days after.

Dining hall food is still bad.

Sometimes I trick people in shops into thinking I speak Dutch, mainly by not saying anything, until they ask if I want a receipt or something gift wrapped and can’t understand them.

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