I'm going home...

Hello from across the pond!

It's been an adventure-filled week...enjoy!

Scottish word of the week: Wee: adj. small; "Look at the wee car over there!"

Picture(s) of the week:



Erik and I at the dikes in Zeeland. You can see the water rushing from the sea inland in the background.
















The harbor of Volendam. You've got it all here - the water, sky, bikes buildings, and willow trees.

What I've been up to - in bullet points

Monday:

• Enjoying a 9 a.m. start on a Monday
• Scribbling furiously for my first exam-conditions essay in MB3005
• Making my way to the Foresterhill Campus for a meeting with my personal tutorial advisor, Dr. Neil Gow
  
• Hearing my first live performance of a Beethoven String Quartet!
  

Tuesday:

• Practicing the piano
• Trudging up the hill from the grocery store, Lidl's, to Hillhead with what seemed like 50 lbs. of food
  
• Delighting in the auditory buffet of an organ recital in the 500 year old King's College Chapel
  

Wednesday:

• Enduring through three straight hours of lecture
• Practicing the piano
• Singing with the choral society at rehearsal
  

Thursday:

• Having an extremely productive morning, which involved eggs for breakfast!
  
• My 2nd piano lesson, which was a success!
• Embarking on an adventure which involved frozen chicken breasts, dizziness, the NHS, and pasta.
  

Friday: THE BEGINNING OF THE WHIRLWIND TOUR OF HOLLAND

• Skipping class for the first (and second) time(s)...to go to the Netherlands! (The lecture notes are posted online).
  
• Visiting with Erik's family and enjoying the culinary mastery of Chef Fred!
  

Saturday:

• Connecting with my roots in Zeeland
• Standing on a masterpiece of Dutch engineering - the dikes in Zeeland
• Enjoying kroketten at a marvelous restaurant in the town of Zierkzee
  
• Admiring the Windmills at Kinderdijk
• Yet another symphony of tastes from Chef Fred - Ribeye!
• Playing Settlers!!!
  

Sunday:

• Walking along the shop-laden streets of Volendam
• Seeing the sights of Amsterdam (in 3 hours)
• Traveling back to the U.K.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK: RETURNING TO THE MOTHERLAND -

DER NEDERLANDEN!

When coming over to Europe, I had a few things that I really wanted to do. One of those things was visit the Geiger family in the small town of Oegstgeest, der Nederlanden. (It's a bear to pronounce, especially because you have to make the "phlegm" noise for each of the g's. All weekend long I failed.)

Back during high school Steve was lucky enough to participate in the Netherlands exchange program and Erik came over to our house for two weeks during the fall. In the Spring Steve went to Europe for two weeks, and a friendship was formed between the Geigers and Donkersloots. Roughly two years later I came to Europe with Blue Lake and the Geiger family came to see a concert of mine in Germany.

Now, five years after visiting last with their family I contacted Erik on Facebook to see if I could come and visit for the weekend. To make a long story short I flew into Schipol Airport on Friday and had a dream weekend with the Geiger family. I have never stayed with such gracious and kind hosts - while at their house I truly felt like a member of the family.

Der Nederlanden in an odd way, felt like home. First, the landscape was very similar to the landscape in Michigan. Both landscapes are relatively flat with towns surrounded by farmers fields, a large body of water is about 20 minutes away, and I didn't feel like a giant walking down the street.

It was incredible how much was packed into one short weekend. I saw the sea, small villages, the dikes, Amsterdam, and lived in a Dutch household. There is too much to tell in a short blog post, so I will tell about my favorite part of the weekend (apart from enjoying the company of the Geiger's)- the town of Zierkzee. The town is filled with brick houses and cobblestone streets. In the center of the town stands a large church. All around people on bikes zoom past, ringing their bells if you happen to wander into their path. The center of town has a large square filled with tables where people in the summer lounge during hot afternoons. It seems like a good life.

Fred, Brigitte, Erik and Erwin thank you for the wonderful weekend! I will never forget it!

RANDOM SECTION OF THE WEEK: THE TALE OF A YOUNG COLLEGE STUDENT, FROZEN CHICKEN BREASTS, AND THE NHS

Once upon a time, there was a young college student that arrived ravenously hungry at his dormitory after his normal supper time. Excitedly he pulled his chicken breasts out of the freezer for the making of a wondrous chicken and white sauce pasta, but was extremely disappointed to find that the three breasts were one frozen solid mass. Being a very frugal young college student, he determinedly started sawing away at the mass of chicken breasts with an ordinary dinner knife in an attempt to only use one for dinner.

As progress was slow, he sawed faster and faster. Eventually the knife slipped and much to his dismay, happened to pass over his middle finger. "Ouch!", he said, and quickly found a paper towel to put over his new souvenir. It turned out that the wee cut was a bit to deep to just put a plaster (band-aid) on, so one of his kind flatmates walked him to the Central Building to get a ride to the ER. While walking he became very, very lightheaded, and walked like he might have been doing something other than cutting his finger...

The young college student is studying to be a doctor, and was excited at seeing how a foreign country's medical system works. The rumors that he heard said that it was a bit slow, but he wanted to see for himself.

After waiting, and waiting, and waiting (for four hours...), he finally got to see a doctor. Much to his relief there wasn't any nervous or tendon damage, it was just a deep cut. Deftly the doctor put some superglue and a plaster on the cut, and the young college student was as good as new!

Upon returning to the dormitory, the young college student found that his kind flatmates had gotten the chicken breasts apart. Even though it was 1 a.m., he resolutely made a big batch of chicken pasta with white sauce for all of his flatmates. It tasted wonderful.

THE END

Anyways, that's all for now.

Cheers!