Zeehonden

Today I had the privilege of going to the Zeehondencreche, the seal rehabilitation center about 40 minutes outside of Groningen. I went with Leeann (an au pair from PA who I met in Bible study) the two cute kids she watches (Moran and Ot) and her fiance Jimmy. The center finds about 100 seals each year who are in danger, takes them to the center to get them healthy and then releases them back into the wild. At the center, you can see the feeding times, the healthy seals swimming and the sick seals in their quarantined areas. It's very informative and great for kids. The video above is a commercial for the center which is shown on Dutch tv. It was fantastic to be outside of Groningen for a bit, the seals were wonderful, the story was touching and the company was fun! It was a nice day.

*seals*

*Moran playing on the wooden seal*

*Ot with the giant stuffed seal*

*waiting for the seals to swim past*

*seals outside in the rain*

*a seal is a perfect diving boat*


*Moran and me standing in the wooden waves*

*even Barbie wants to save the seals*


*scientists saving seals*

windmills and more

*appropriate graffiti along the bike path*

Well, this weekend I had planned to visit the West Frisian Island Schiermonnikoog, but it didn't work out due to my momentary brain lapse in European dates: I read the ferry schedule which started 1/6, which is June 1st, not January 6th. So, I missed the ferry, but I guess it's alright. I had a (slightly boring) weekend in Groningen and I can go to the island next weekend instead.
Friday night I went out to dinner with everyone in celebration of Michaela's birthday! The dinner was excellent, the atmosphere was so cozy and wonderful, and the company was fun and happy. Here are some pictures from a slightly camera-happy group:

*all of us, L-R: Jeremy, Kristina, Michaela, Olga, Ryan, me, Daria, Anitha, Felipe*

*Michaela and Olga*


*happy couple, jeremy and kristina*

*me and daria*

*Anitha and Felipe*

*Olga and Ryan*

Saturday I went to the library to study, since I tend to get distracted easily when I stay in my room. I'm still not used to libraries (and most other things) closing around 5. I was spoiled by the 24 hr Alden library at OU. After the library I went to the weekend market-- this is the best time to go because everyone is closing and so usually you can get cheaper prices on produce and other goods. I was looking for the vendor who sells belly dancing wraps. I had bought a green one but I think it's ugly, so my fellow belly-dancing classmates recommended the market. I found the vendor at the last stall, and I fell in love with a red velvet wrap with gold beading. It's much prettier and louder than the other one, and although it was expensive I'm very happy with it. Belly dancing lessons have been really fun and although the moves are basic, I find it challenging. The last class was focusing on shimmies-- from the hips and from the shoulders. It turns out that I shimmy in the Persian style, but unfortunately we are learning the Egyptian style of belly dancing so I have to practice making bigger shimmies.

Today I wanted to ride my bike to find a windmill. It's Holland right? They're supposed to be everywhere. I hadn't seen any yet, so I asked around at church, and found out there's one in the north end of the city, so I cycled there to find it. In the outskirts it was so peaceful and quiet-- I saw more people riding horses there than riding bikes, it was lovely. The windmill was bigger than I expected, but it wasn't moving, which is strange because it was very windy.

*near the windmill (the horses weren't happy with their picture being taken, they kept snorting and stomping)*

*strangely colored geometric housing in the north of groningen*

There are rumors that there's a second windmill by a lake in the south of Groningen, but I have conflicting information about the exact location. I tried to bike there this afternoon, but it was so windy!! The lake is a bit far away (and I would most likely get lost on the way), so instead of biking to the lake, I just biked around the park and by a canal near my neighborhood for about an hour. Other than the huge wind gusts, the weather was fantastic-- mid 50s and dry-- so there were tons of people out: biking, walking, rowing, kayaking, running, with kids and with dogs. In fact, I ran into 3 friends during my bike ride! That's something I love about small towns/cities. I'll have to wait to bike to the Hornsemeer and try to find another windmill later.

linguists

Yes, linguists do go wild.

There has been no (heavy) rain in Groningen for over a week!

Projects and presentations are ongoing and life here is good.

Amsterdam

*Amsterdam!*

Last weekend I went for a couple of days to Amsterdam and had a lovely time. It's a unique city with two distinct sides-- one side is elegant and relaxed whereas the other side is filled with drugs and sex. You can go from a canal lined with beautifully gabled houses to a canal lined with prostitutes in windows next to "coffee" shops where drugs are sold in the matter of a single block. Even though the city has somewhat of an identity crisis, I liked it a lot there.

Friday we happened upon the Rijksmuseum, where paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer are exhibited. Rembrant's paintings were especially memorable-- pictures of them don't do them justice. There's so much intricacy in the actual works, it's really incredible.

*The kitchen maid, by Vermeer*


*Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem, by Rembrandt*


*i love this statue of cupid-- he looks so mischievous!*

*lunch after the museum-- pancake with bacon and pineapple in it and Amstel--
cheers grandpa!*

That night we saw some of the major sites, walked through the red light district and went to a dance club where they played pretty horrible dance music-- remixed disco beats with a live saxophone.

*palace*

*oude kerk (old church) which is surrounded by the red light district*


*artwork in the sidewalk outside of the old church*


*statue of "belle" outside of the old church, asking for respect for sex workers*


*coffeeshop and sex shops in the red light district*


*giant shoe for tourists to sit in*

Saturday we went to Anne Frank's house which has been converted into a museum. That was a really moving experience, having read (but shamefully not finished) the diary in the 5th grade. There are videos from people who knew them and from those who helped to hide their family in the various rooms, as well as quotes from her diary painted on the walls. You can walk through the spaces where they hid, feeling how loud the floorboards are, how small the space was and how beautiful the sites from the windows are, making it all the more terrible to be trapped there.
At the end there was another exhibit featuring various freedoms (speech, press, religion, demonstrate, etc) and difficult situations where the viewer had to vote if the freedom should be allowed in that particular situation. At the end of each situation, the statistics for the viewers present and all museum visitors is tallied-- it's a really interesting interactive approach to the topic and it made everyone there think a lot, which was the ultimate goal of the exhibit.

*me outside of Anne Frank's house*

Later we took a canal boat tour of the city, which was relaxing, especially since it was nice and warm inside the boat!

*squinting into the sun on the canal boat that's floating down the Amstel river*

*old locks in one of the main canals*


*one of the 20,000+ houseboats in Amsterdam*

Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Van Gogh museum, which was on my list of things to see. Our timing was bad, since we had a lot of free time in the evenings, but everything closes around 6. We needed another day, but we have projects to work on, so we came back.

Valentines Day

*some of the decorations*

Happy Belated Valentines day!!

I threw a small party for my classmates on V-day, where we watched Love Actually and ate sweet things. Unfortunately, we had some technological problems with the DVD player and had to watch it on my laptop after downloading it online, but in the end it all worked out. We were able to watch, laugh, talk and eat-- all the activities for making a great Valentines day!

*love, the theme of the day*

*daria, felipe, janneke, kristina, me and olga*

ESN week continues

*feeling the Dutch pride: me, Kristina, Olga*

Well, it's almost over, but the ESN introduction week has been quite nice. I haven't gone to all of the events since I (unlike most of the new international students) have studying and projects filling up my schedule. Last night I attended the Dutch party with Kristina and Olga. We had to wear something orange (the color of the Netherlands), but since I didn't own anything orange, I had a great excuse to go shopping. I found some great deals and ended up getting a few non-orange things.... But I had fun at the party, mainly dancing to good and not-so-good music. Tonight is a Valentine's Day party for the last night of the Intro week, but I'm not going to that party since I will host one of my own on Thursday night. My classmates and I will watch Love Actually, cry and eat ice cream, as is my V-day tradition. Then this weekend I'll go to Amsterdam with Olga!!

*face painting!!*


*Kristina enjoying the Dutch party*

ESN Intro Week

During the midst of our quarter here, there is the Introduction Week for new international students, hosted by the exchange student network (ESN). The week consists of free dinners, museum visits, workshops, movies and a tour of the city. All of the students were broken up into groups who we do the activites with, so that we can make good friends, and my group consists mainly of girls and a team of 2 dutch brothers who are leading us around and introducing us to Groningen life.
So far, we've gotten a tour of the city, visits to pubs, dinner, a visit to the art museum, quality time shopping in the Vismarkt (fish market) and more. It's a wonderful chance to get to know Groningen and new people, although I can't go to everything since I have to work on projects and study.
Here are some of the photos so far:

*My ESN intro week group, all wearing fake mustaches*

*Kristina and I are in the same "mustache" group. The mustaches are paper cut-outs from postcards give out for free in pubs*

*Bas and Thomas, real-life brothers and our intro week guides*

*The museum of art in Groningen*

*one of the large exhibits was on Russian fairytale art*

*one of my favorites in the museum*

*after the museum, eating raw herring (a dutch tradition) in the vismarkt*