The dark side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is... Waawaaah!

Hey there. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog the past few months. I've never published a blog, but it warmed the cockles of my heart to know that people were interested in the going ons and trivial musings of yours truly. I can't tell if the roughly 2,000 hits were genuine (or the result of one or more crazy stalkers), but it's probably best to just let sleeping dogs lie and say that they were.

Unfortunately since school has ended, so must this blog for the time being. I'm not sure if I'll reinstate my blog anytime soon, but this is the last post for at least the next little while. As far as the immediate future in concerned, I'll be travelling in Europe (Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, UK and Iceland) before returning to Vancouver in late June.

Studying in Rotterdam has been fantastic to say the least. If you're at all interested and have a chance to study in and explore another country, I'd advise you to give it a try. Not only can you learn a lot about the country in which you're studying, but probably a lot about yourself too.

Best of luck to you and keep in touch!

Teeks

Thanks for dropping by Rotterdam

I had six visitors during my exchange here in Rotterdam. And those lucky six were the recipients of one of the most unscripted, unbiased and uninformative bike tours of Rotterdam of all time. Monica, Gladys, Sandy, Tyler, Angus and Craig got to see first hand most of the interesting things and places that I know of in Rotterdam.

More impressive than my generally-poor descriptions was my unabashed willingness to admit that I actually know nothing about which they were asking. I hope that it has planted the seed of curiosity for them to learn and find out more about Rotterdam (and perhaps pass that knowledge on to me someday).

Amazingly enough, rain was forecasted for everyone's visit yet we didn't get rained on in any significant amounts at all. I am willing to take full credit for this. So really, thanks to me the worst we had to deal with weather-wise was some gusty winds which actually provided some mild, biking entertainment during the course of one of the days.

And I think it shows that everyone had fun too. Looking at the above collage of photos, pretty much everyone has a smile or is at least faking one. You may notice that Tyler does not look like he is smiling at all. I am, however, attributing it to his (self-admitted) inability to smile.

But finally and most important was the introduction of these fine people to krokets, stroopwafels and muesli cereal with mango-flavoured milk. Yeah, that's right. Mango-flavoured milk; don't judge it until you've tried it. It's crazy delicious.

Teeks

The bicycle hath changed me

I have ridden many bikes in my life. There was the white BMX I had when I was a little kid (loved that bike). And the green mountain bike I owned in my teens (that thing weighed a tonne). Here in Rotterdam I own a modest, mustard-coloured, metal steed that transports me with near-flawless execution every time. And thanks to constant use, over the past few months, I believe my riding ability has improved.

But improved over what? I didn't really take note of how good/bad I was when I first started riding. However, with the increased number of visitors who have been lucky enough to obtain a bicycle for a few days and enjoy Rotterdam the way it should be enjoyed, I've noticed that they are not very good in terms of stability, speed and stamina (with the exception of Sandy). So this begs the question "was I that terrible back then?" It's not far-fetched that the answer could be a "yes".

But since I've become such a bicycling snob, this answer is obviously ignored. Thus, I will continue to secretly roll my eyes to myself every time someone complains that "we're going too fast (because I want to see the sights)" or "I'm tired from riding all day" or "I'm not used to these bikes". Alternatively, I will mock your lack of bicycling prowess to my Rotterdam friends.

Be forewarned. =)

Teeks

The sun is setting

It's weird to have been living in Rotterdam the last few weeks. And I'm definitely not talking about Dutch becoming more weird (they are the same weirdness as when I arrived). I'm referring to the fact that Rotterdam sits at a latitude of about 51' 55º N.

Do you know what that means? It means that it's May 19 and it's light out until about 9:30 p.m. It's ludicrous. Take for example the photo above. It a shot of the view outside my window looking west at about 9:00 p.m.

Funny thing is how much I rely on the sun and its relative position in the sky to determine some of my activities. Case in point, I'm used to preparing dinner when the sun looks like its getting close to the horizon. But since it stays light out for so long, it's still broad daylight when I make my way towards the kitchen. Even more preposterous is the fact that the days will continue to get longer until June 21st.

Being from Vancouver (which sits at a latitude of 49' 16º N), you would think that I'd be used to this kinda thing. And honestly, I am. But it's always a weird feeling when you get caught thinking it's 6:30 p.m. when it's really 8:30 p.m.

Teeks

You win this round, Keukenhof.

The Keukenhof is a beautiful garden located near Leiden (it's actually closer to Lisse) in the Netherlands. On the way to the Keukenhof, one can expect to see a veritable sea of tulips of various magnificent colours... except this year. Well actually, I should qualify this statement by saying that the magnificent colours were there up until probably just recently.

You see, the Netherlands and its residents have been the beneficiaries of some unseasonably warm temperatures over the last few weeks. And while everyone (including myself) has been enjoying it, some of the repercussions were lost on me. That is to say, because it's been so nice weather wise, all the flowers have bloomed early and were cut & gone by the time I got to the Keukenhof last weekend. Egads.

Who knew that the incomparable sights pictured above would be rendered into a vast wasteland of culled botanical heartache? Seriously, who could have predicted this??? Perhaps an expert on flower stuff or some Dutch person from the Netherlands but, certainly not I.

However as you can hopefully see from the photos, Monica, Becca and I did make the most of it and had a good time in the process.

Teeks

Brussels, Belgium

Rich, Becca and I took a jaunt over to Brussels for a couple of days to check out the sights and to visit Rich's buddy (thanks for putting us up that night too, Shane). Brussels is a lovely little spot about 2 hours south of Rotterdam by train that boast a lot of curiosities for those interested. We checked out a lot of cool stuff over the course of two days and definitely had a good time doing so.

One of the attractions that we saw (and as you can probably guess) was the world-famous Manneken Pis. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with this statue, but basically it's a bronze boy peeing into a fountain. Many people are enchanted by its innocent yet cheeky behaviour. However, many are also disappointed by its lack of grandeur.

No offense to those who love it, but to me people are going a little overboard with it. The throngs of tourists who line up just to get a photo are ridiculous; they marvel at its "je ne sais quoi" and snap picture after picture (mind you, I took one too) like some sort of rite of passage. Personally, I think the fellow who designed it was a some sort of medieval marketing genius. He was probably commissioned to boost the tourism industry in Belgium and created something that still lures 'em in hundreds of years later.

Teeks

Queen's Day in Amsterdam!

Every year Dutch people celebrate the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands. This day (April 30) is commonly referred to as "Queen's Day" or "Koninginnedag". Basically, Amsterdam (and a few other cities) shuts down and people take a day off to enjoy themselves. Typical celebrations involve outdoor music, lots of dancing and public drunkedness.

A few of interesting points to mention. First, April 30th is not actually the birthday of Queen Beatrix but that of her mother, Queen Juliana; Queen Beatrix's birthday is on January 31st. However, for practical purposes (i.e., weather) they decided to keep it on April 30th. Oddly enough, from what I was told the weather usually isn't that nice and for us to have a gorgeous day like we did was a very special indeed... or there maybe something to this global warming thing.

Second, Koninginnedag is also the day where everyone sells their junk. It's like the whole country decided to have a yard sale on the same day. Coolsingel, one of the main streets here in Rotterdam, was closed off for people to set up shop and put their crap on display. Everything from old clothes to appliances was being hawked to anybody with a penchant for second-hand deals.

Third and most fun, everybody dresses up and puts on some orange (called "oranjegekte") as a part of the celebration. This is reference to the name of the Dutch royal family, the House of Orange. It's quite entertaining to watch the sea of orange throughout the day and into the night. And as you can see from the pictures, my Dutch football jersey did the job quite nicely.

Hup Holland hup!

Teeks