The thoughts we have, the emotions we feel, the persons that we are can be so abitrary. Over the past two weeks, I've had some of the worst moments that I've experienced in a long long time. And yet now that I've been back in Amsterdam, I can barely relate to how down I had been feeling. I'm seeing everyone again in Amsterdam, and just the joy of seeing familiar faces makes me forget what has happened. The last two weeks has been pretty terrible, at the same time its been a time that God was in control and using to refine me. What worries me, is that as I forget the ordeals that I've been through that I'd also forget the lessons I've been learning. Hence, my desire to sit down, reflect and write it all down. Both, so that you(the faithful few... :p) may know whats been happening, and so that I may know what has happened.
I had arrived at Luton Airport at 10am even though the flight was scheduled to depart at 1.20pm. You might wonder why I didn't catch a bus to arrive at the airport at a better time. Well, it was basically because the earlier bus were cheaper than the later buses: £2 cheaper (and people think the Dutch are cheap...). I figured that I could get there early and do some reading, while saving (some...) money. When it got closer to the departure time, I went to check in. The lady gave me an invoice and told me to go to another counter. It turns out that I was supposed to have checked in online the night before, evidently I hadn't done that. The invoice was to charge me for the service of having to use their check in services. How much was it? £40! You can imagine that if I'd endeavoured to save £2, having to cough up £40 was quite a shock to me. For a few moments, I considered not getting on the plane. The only reason why I was going to Barcelona was because peope had returned and were raving about it. I wanted to check it out for myself, and yet I wasn't that eager. Anyways, I ended up paying the £40 and getting on the flight.
I started to get really homesick in the first few days that I was in Barcelona. Only on my second day in, I was walking around and had already started to feel down. I kept thinking about what in the world was I doing in Barcelona? What was the point of travelling? Frankly speaking, I couldn't come up with any good answers. I'd been to Venice, Verona, Antwerp, Bruges, London and what had it all meant? Nothing. I'm not any wiser or any different having gone to these places. It seems like being a tourist amounts to ticking things of a list so that you can say/boast: "I've been there. I've done that." How pathetic. Coupled with the fact that I found Barcelona quite underwhelming made it all seem very pointless indeed.
I was sightseeing on my own, and that made me feel quite isolated and lonely. And being away from Amsterdam for a month was making me want to be back in familiar places and with familiar people. I was starting to feel quite depressed. After a while, I sat myself down on a bench and came to God with my despair. It was then that I realised that all my travelling was simply living for myself. In fact, the only reason why I was feeling down was because I wasn't having a great time in Barcelona. As I came to God, I realised that I needed to get my priorities right. I needed to make God's priorities my priorities.
So...while I had originally planned on travelling down to visit a friend in Granada (southern Spain), I decided to cut short my travels and fly back to Amsterdam where I did have a church and Christian fellowship. I was still a bit unsure about my decision. Once again, my desire to travel and see the world was telling me that I could go to Granada and then fly back to Amsterdam. However, in the end I decided to just stay in Barcelona and then fly out from there. On skyscanner.com the cheapest way to get back to Amsterdam would be to fly from Barcelona to Manchester and then from Manchester to Amsterdam, about £50 each way. Expensive yes, but at least I'd be back in Amsterdam. The flights were on the 14th of August, which gave me, 10 days, a decent amount of time to stay in Barcelona and experience the city.
I still had about 8 days left in Barcelona. The first few days were still pretty bad. I had met some people while out at night, but during the day I was just doing sightseeing on my own. I actually enjoyed myself quite a bit in my last few days in Barcelona. Well actually, it was while I was outside of Barcelona that I enjoyed myself. I went with some guys on a day trip to visit Cadaques, a nice beach town 2.5 hours from Barcelona and also went hiking in Montserrat. I had a great time at both of them. I was still excited to be getting back to Amsterdam. On the 13th, I started to get paranoid. I'd already paid £60 + 40 to get there and now I was paying another £100 pounds to get out. I was worried that something would go wrong and so I tripled checked my flights to make sure that I had done everything for the day after.
I got to the airport 2 hours early. This time it was because I didn't have much choice for which bus I could take there. I had a really nice flight to Manchester. The guy next to me offered me his meal as he'd ate a big breakfast. I had a nice time talking to him about Spain and a bit about football. I thanked God that things were looking pretty good. We arrived in Manchester, I picked up my backpack and had another 3 hours to spare before the flight to Amsterdam.
When the time came, I went to enter the departure hall. The lady took my ticket and scanned it over the gate. The gates wouldn't open. She scanned it again. The gates wouldn't open. She then looked at my ticket and pointed out that the date on my ticket was wrong. The ticket was dated for the 13th of August, not the 14th... It sounds like a pretty funny joke now. But at the time, my heart just sank. I was hoping that because I had checked in online early, that the date might have been mixed up. I went to the ticketing counting and asked the girl to check it out. It turns out that I was really that incredibly stupid and had booked it on the wrong date. At that point of time, I just wanted to cry. There was another £50 gone. How much would it cost me to buy a ticket on the flight I had intended on catching? £140. I almost had a heart attack. I wished I had a heart attack and just died right there. I'd noticed a prayer room in the airport before and decided to go there to come before God. I was at a complete loss of what to do. All I knew was that I didn't want to spend another £140 to get back to Amsterdam. I considered going back to London and then taking the coach back to Amsterdam from there. It would have been more affordable. But getting to London would have been expensive. Maybe I could just get to Manchester stay over night and re-think everything. What would you have done in my shoes?
I ended up procrastinating to the point where I missed the opportunity to get on my intended flight. I pretty much just didn't want to pay get on that flight. Having missed the flight, I still didn't know what to do. If I stayed overnight anywhere, it would have cost me around £20 for one night. It seemed like maybe I should have just bit the bullet and took that £140 flight. I seriously just wanted to crawl into some hole and die.
I ended up asking the ticketing counter again and they mentioned that there was a KLM flight leaving for Amsterdam. They were kind and generous enough to let me use their computer and even checked up the cost of flights for me. Turns out that a two way flight from Manchester to Amsterdam and back would cost me £160. I'd take it! I was already considering flying to Manchester to visit Abby and Jess. I booked the tickets online, bought the ticketing girls coffee and then hurried over to Terminal 2 to catch my flight.
If I had caught the first flight, I was scheduled to arrive in Amsterdam at 7pm and was planning on surprising my bible study group. I arrived at 9.40pm and was trying to catch them just as they were wrapping up. However, when I arrived they had already gone. I went to Suresh and Babu's and surprised them by showing up at their door right after the study. It was great to see them again. I shared about how things had been going for me and we prayed together before heading off to sleep.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Ben's wedding
Last weekend, one of my good friends from Singapore got married and I had the honour of being his best man. I always thought that all the best man did was to stand next to the groom, pass him the rings and make an embarrassing speech about the groom. As it turns out, best man's have a lot more responsibility in Welsh weddings.
I only found out while looking through the itinery that Hannah had given me. I noticed that my name featured quite a few times throughout the wedding day: making announcements, organising photos, ushering people, keeping to the time. Junyi was surprised to find out that he was scheduled to dance during the ceilidh. During the day itself, I was quite stressed with having so many responsibilities. it wasn't exactly the things I was responsible for that made me nervous. It was probably more the fact that I was so unfamiliar with pretty much everything. I had never been Best man before, neither had I been so deeply involved in the running of a wedding, and finally, I had never been to a wedding in Wales. Lastly, I had the best Man speech to give later that night. While I had spent a lot of time thinking about it, I had never written it down word for word. By the afternoon, I had still yet to figure out the last parts of what I wanted to say.
Thankfully, everything went quite well. We managed to keep well to the time and get photos done alright. And my speech went quite well. I didn't think I would be that nervous. But I was incredibly calm while giving my speech. And after the speech was done, I was finally free to have fun. There was a Ceilidh band that started playing afterwards, and they got some sort of line dancing thing going. it was heaps fun for everyone. At the end of the day, I was glad to see that Ben and Hannah had had both an enjoyable and memorable day.
My time in Wales was really enjoyable. It was great to spend the week hanging out with Ben and to help out with the wedding preparation. It gave me a really nice break from having to plan what the heck I'm going to do for the immediate future and later future; something that I've started to get pretty tired off actually. Although in the very immediate future(tomorrow), I'll be watching Les Miserable at West End and this Friday I'll be helping out at the Soul Survivor Youth Conference for 4 days. I'm looking to both things quite a lot.
I only found out while looking through the itinery that Hannah had given me. I noticed that my name featured quite a few times throughout the wedding day: making announcements, organising photos, ushering people, keeping to the time. Junyi was surprised to find out that he was scheduled to dance during the ceilidh. During the day itself, I was quite stressed with having so many responsibilities. it wasn't exactly the things I was responsible for that made me nervous. It was probably more the fact that I was so unfamiliar with pretty much everything. I had never been Best man before, neither had I been so deeply involved in the running of a wedding, and finally, I had never been to a wedding in Wales. Lastly, I had the best Man speech to give later that night. While I had spent a lot of time thinking about it, I had never written it down word for word. By the afternoon, I had still yet to figure out the last parts of what I wanted to say.
Thankfully, everything went quite well. We managed to keep well to the time and get photos done alright. And my speech went quite well. I didn't think I would be that nervous. But I was incredibly calm while giving my speech. And after the speech was done, I was finally free to have fun. There was a Ceilidh band that started playing afterwards, and they got some sort of line dancing thing going. it was heaps fun for everyone. At the end of the day, I was glad to see that Ben and Hannah had had both an enjoyable and memorable day.
My time in Wales was really enjoyable. It was great to spend the week hanging out with Ben and to help out with the wedding preparation. It gave me a really nice break from having to plan what the heck I'm going to do for the immediate future and later future; something that I've started to get pretty tired off actually. Although in the very immediate future(tomorrow), I'll be watching Les Miserable at West End and this Friday I'll be helping out at the Soul Survivor Youth Conference for 4 days. I'm looking to both things quite a lot.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
5 days left in Amsterdam
I've got a nice relaxing Sunday morning, just waiting for church music practice at 2 later. I haven't been knowing what I should really be feeling because I'm in such a wierd situation. The fnuny thing is that even though I have to say goodbye to my friends who are exchange students, at least in the past weeks I've been getting to know and hanging out with ultimate frisbee people more. And since most of these are Dutch, I won't really be saying a full goodbye since I'm coming in August and September.
My lease ends on Friday 26th of June. And right after that, I'll be playing in another frisbee tournament on the 27-28th of June at Delft. Delft is where Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer was born. Doesn't ring a bell? The movie Girl with the Pearl Earring was based on him.* After that, I'm going to slowly make my way to London through Rotterdam, Antwerp, Bruges and then to England. I've got people to stay with along the way. But haven't really figured out what happens when I cross the channel to England. I'm hoping to get to London around Monday 6th of July and spend a week there before going to Swansea, Wales, for my friends wedding. I'll be best man at Ben's wedding.
And after the wedding on the 18th, I haven't really figured out what I'm going to do. I'll stick around in the UK for a little longer but I'm also pretty set on visiting a friend in Granada, Spain. I hope to get back to Amsterdam in August and work.
I've decided to take the rest of the year off to travel. BDO Kendal said that I could start working with them next year in march or April so I'm just going to take the time to travel and see the world while I can. Truth be told, I am missing a bit of stability and familiarity. Its going to be good hanging out with old friends in London and Swansea. However, I'm sure when I start working in Sydney I'll be getting all the "stability" I need from my 9-5 job.
So after I get back to Amsterdam, I'm just going to work, do church stuff, and play frisbee while waiting for my friend to get back from the US. Hilco's a Dutch guy that was playing on the same frisbee team and he's keen on going to Iran and Nepal. And so in October we're going to head out for that trip. It should be some really amazing experiences.
I guess its going to be sometime again before I see some of you. These 1 year travel things are really quite a wierd thing. I wonder how other travellers feel about being away from familiar people for so long. And going back to "normal" life must be the worst thing. I can't imagine how its going to be next year when I get back to Sydney and start working. Think I'll ask Arienne from church about it later.
*Its actually pretty pathetic but half of what i know about Europe comes from popular culture. The only European towns and cities I know are the major football clubs: Eindhoven, Stuttgart, Munich, Valencia. The only reason I had heard of Bruges in Belgium was because of the movie "In Bruges", which I did not find that great. And I had only heard of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris because of Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. Talk about immersing myself in history and culture...
My lease ends on Friday 26th of June. And right after that, I'll be playing in another frisbee tournament on the 27-28th of June at Delft. Delft is where Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer was born. Doesn't ring a bell? The movie Girl with the Pearl Earring was based on him.* After that, I'm going to slowly make my way to London through Rotterdam, Antwerp, Bruges and then to England. I've got people to stay with along the way. But haven't really figured out what happens when I cross the channel to England. I'm hoping to get to London around Monday 6th of July and spend a week there before going to Swansea, Wales, for my friends wedding. I'll be best man at Ben's wedding.
And after the wedding on the 18th, I haven't really figured out what I'm going to do. I'll stick around in the UK for a little longer but I'm also pretty set on visiting a friend in Granada, Spain. I hope to get back to Amsterdam in August and work.
I've decided to take the rest of the year off to travel. BDO Kendal said that I could start working with them next year in march or April so I'm just going to take the time to travel and see the world while I can. Truth be told, I am missing a bit of stability and familiarity. Its going to be good hanging out with old friends in London and Swansea. However, I'm sure when I start working in Sydney I'll be getting all the "stability" I need from my 9-5 job.
So after I get back to Amsterdam, I'm just going to work, do church stuff, and play frisbee while waiting for my friend to get back from the US. Hilco's a Dutch guy that was playing on the same frisbee team and he's keen on going to Iran and Nepal. And so in October we're going to head out for that trip. It should be some really amazing experiences.
I guess its going to be sometime again before I see some of you. These 1 year travel things are really quite a wierd thing. I wonder how other travellers feel about being away from familiar people for so long. And going back to "normal" life must be the worst thing. I can't imagine how its going to be next year when I get back to Sydney and start working. Think I'll ask Arienne from church about it later.
*Its actually pretty pathetic but half of what i know about Europe comes from popular culture. The only European towns and cities I know are the major football clubs: Eindhoven, Stuttgart, Munich, Valencia. The only reason I had heard of Bruges in Belgium was because of the movie "In Bruges", which I did not find that great. And I had only heard of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris because of Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. Talk about immersing myself in history and culture...
Friday, May 29, 2009
Updates
Gosh its been too long since I last wrote anything here. Story of my life.
I've got about half an hour before I have to head out and catch a train to Berlin so I thought that I'd quickly update the blog with whats been going on. I've been telling myself to do it for ages. But i'm sure you guys know how things go......
So this is what has happened since I last blogged.
Weekend of April 17th-19th: Hitch-hiking competition to Southern Belgium
April 20th-28th: Went to Venice, Verona and Como in Italy
Thursday April 30th: QUEENS DAY!! Massive Party and Flea market all over Amsterdam
Weekend of May1st-3rd: Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Brugges (yes Colin Farrel was in a movie about it)
Tuesday May 5th: Liberation Day. Massive Party again in Wageningen.
I didn't do any work whatsover in those two weeks. And furthermore, I had two essays due around this time. So i've been working on getting those done for the past few weeks. I've realised that I really don't handle working on essays very well. I keep thinking that I need to get it done as soon as I can, and then enjoy myself afterwards. I tell myself not to answer emails, organise any fun stuff, or just relax. And try and use all the time to read and write the essays. In just doesn't work. I've got one last essay left. But I've got to learn to take it easy while I'm writing the essay instead of just telling myself to try and get it done ASAP. Because that just doesn't end up happening.
In any case, I might not have the luxury of doing that. I come back from Berlin on Wednesday night. I will have a presentation to give on Thursday morning and then in a bit over a weeks time, I will have to hand in my last paper. Haven't done anything for that yet. Although this paper could/should be quite interesting. I want to compare the way that Chinese Dutch people have integrated into Dutch society, with the way that Chinese-Australian people have integrated into Australian society (or not...:). I haven't met any Chinese Dutch yet so it should be interesting to interview them and see how things are different.
Looking forward to going to Berlin today. I've heard some good things about it. Unfortunately, I'll only have two free days to see Berlin. We''ll be playing in a Beach Frisbee Tournament from Saturday to Monday. Yeap, Beach Frisbee in Berlin, makes perfect sense. The team name is Santa's Reindeers. Why not? Beach Frisbee in Berlin barely makes any sense. Why not make it a Christmas team in summer?
Our colours are red and green. We've got santa hats and I'm bringing my Santa sack (i knew it would be of use someday). Alex asked me to get him a green shirt. I said I'd get him something "nice and tight". And he said "yea surprise me, you can buy a dress even." He's definitely going to be surprised.....
I've got about half an hour before I have to head out and catch a train to Berlin so I thought that I'd quickly update the blog with whats been going on. I've been telling myself to do it for ages. But i'm sure you guys know how things go......
So this is what has happened since I last blogged.
Weekend of April 17th-19th: Hitch-hiking competition to Southern Belgium
April 20th-28th: Went to Venice, Verona and Como in Italy
Thursday April 30th: QUEENS DAY!! Massive Party and Flea market all over Amsterdam
Weekend of May1st-3rd: Ultimate Frisbee tournament in Brugges (yes Colin Farrel was in a movie about it)
Tuesday May 5th: Liberation Day. Massive Party again in Wageningen.
I didn't do any work whatsover in those two weeks. And furthermore, I had two essays due around this time. So i've been working on getting those done for the past few weeks. I've realised that I really don't handle working on essays very well. I keep thinking that I need to get it done as soon as I can, and then enjoy myself afterwards. I tell myself not to answer emails, organise any fun stuff, or just relax. And try and use all the time to read and write the essays. In just doesn't work. I've got one last essay left. But I've got to learn to take it easy while I'm writing the essay instead of just telling myself to try and get it done ASAP. Because that just doesn't end up happening.
In any case, I might not have the luxury of doing that. I come back from Berlin on Wednesday night. I will have a presentation to give on Thursday morning and then in a bit over a weeks time, I will have to hand in my last paper. Haven't done anything for that yet. Although this paper could/should be quite interesting. I want to compare the way that Chinese Dutch people have integrated into Dutch society, with the way that Chinese-Australian people have integrated into Australian society (or not...:). I haven't met any Chinese Dutch yet so it should be interesting to interview them and see how things are different.
Looking forward to going to Berlin today. I've heard some good things about it. Unfortunately, I'll only have two free days to see Berlin. We''ll be playing in a Beach Frisbee Tournament from Saturday to Monday. Yeap, Beach Frisbee in Berlin, makes perfect sense. The team name is Santa's Reindeers. Why not? Beach Frisbee in Berlin barely makes any sense. Why not make it a Christmas team in summer?
Our colours are red and green. We've got santa hats and I'm bringing my Santa sack (i knew it would be of use someday). Alex asked me to get him a green shirt. I said I'd get him something "nice and tight". And he said "yea surprise me, you can buy a dress even." He's definitely going to be surprised.....
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Hitch-hiking tomorrow
Wow, believe it or not this blogpost is going to be in advance rather than weeks and weeks delayed. Tomorrow morning ,Friday 17th, I'll be having to wake up early to take part in a hitch hiking contest. Where are we going? I don't know yet! We're going to find out tomorrow morning at 8am tomorrow when all of us gather together. I'm pretty excited cos I've never gone hitch hiking. It should be a good experience and who knows, if it goes well I might consider hitch hiking back to Singapore and Sydney? I've been spending a little bit of time to research the best ways to hitchhike and apparently two students from the UK completed the London to Singapore by only hitch hiking! How made is that! It took them 7 weeks to do it! Which really isin't that long if you think about it.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Persevering Against all Odds
So I bought this cheap PC a few weeks ago so that I would be able to get on to the Internet while I'm at home. Believe it or not, for the last 2 and a bit months, I've not had my own Internet connection. I've either been going to university or public libraries or every now and then when my housemate isin't at home (like now...:). I've gone through like this incredible amount of trouble so that I can save money and get myself a computer and connected to the Internet cheaply. The story so far has been incredibly stupid but I will persevere. After all, perseverence gives hope and hope doesn't dissapoint*...
First of all, I bought this PC second hand for about €25. When I called the guy, he said he could give me a monitor with it too. However, he said that I might not want it because it was pretty heavy. I thought to myself, yea sure monitors are heavy but they can't be that heavy. Turns out that the monitor he was offering was massive. And it was not massive because it was like 45 inches. Instead, it was because it was a monitor along with the PC casing all in one. I haven't got to weight it. But I would estimate that it was at least 30 kgs. Anyways, it was free so I took it. And this is what I mean when I say "took": what I really meant is that I had to haul it to the nearest bus-stop and wait for two buses to come cos the first bus driver didn't even stop to pick me up. Thankfully, I didn't have to change a bus. I left the monitor at the bus stop and walked back quickly to fetch my bike. And then placed the monitor on my bike and wheeled it home.
I got the computer set up and tried to connect it to the modem in my apartment. But because the PC has Windows 98 installed, it doesn't connect automatically. Now I would ordinarily be able to work this problem out, but the bloody windows 98 was installed in Dutch! Well I guess, even if i wasn't able to conect to the Internet, I'd be able to do some of my readings and assignments on it right? WRONG!! Remember how its Windows 98? Windows 98 doesn't automatically detect USB memory sticks either! And even if I could, the PC didn't have MS Office installed...
So I've got two problems: its not connected to the Internet, and it doesn't detect my USB drive. I got some Dutch friends to help me get it connected to the modem. And the reason why it doesn't automatically connect to the Internet is because you need the drivers for the modem. Guess where you can get the drivers from? The Internet...of course. Well, maybe I can download the drivers from some other computer and then transfer it to the PC using a ...USB...stick...right.
The only option I had now was to transfer the drivers through a 3.5 inch floopy disc. Yeap a floppy disc, 1.44 mb capacity yeah. I managed to get the drivers downloaded while I was at a friend house. Finally, I was going to be able to get connected! I transferred the drivers to the hard-drive and then went to the modem set-up to install the drivers. But lo and behold, the set-up didn't recognise the drivers. Why not? Because they were in a zip-format. Of course. Except, this computer didn't have winzip installed...
And so...I thought "no problems I can just go to the unversity library and download winzip there". I went to the university library and found a computer. And then I found out that they didn't have 3.5 floppy drives on them.
Yeap and so as it stands, I've had this bloody useless PC and this monster-sized monitor sitting on my desk for the past few weeks thats done jack all for me so far. However, I will persevere and I will get it connected!...one day...
*However, my spelling might definitely dissappoint. Is it two s'es and two p's? I really don't know.
First of all, I bought this PC second hand for about €25. When I called the guy, he said he could give me a monitor with it too. However, he said that I might not want it because it was pretty heavy. I thought to myself, yea sure monitors are heavy but they can't be that heavy. Turns out that the monitor he was offering was massive. And it was not massive because it was like 45 inches. Instead, it was because it was a monitor along with the PC casing all in one. I haven't got to weight it. But I would estimate that it was at least 30 kgs. Anyways, it was free so I took it. And this is what I mean when I say "took": what I really meant is that I had to haul it to the nearest bus-stop and wait for two buses to come cos the first bus driver didn't even stop to pick me up. Thankfully, I didn't have to change a bus. I left the monitor at the bus stop and walked back quickly to fetch my bike. And then placed the monitor on my bike and wheeled it home.
I got the computer set up and tried to connect it to the modem in my apartment. But because the PC has Windows 98 installed, it doesn't connect automatically. Now I would ordinarily be able to work this problem out, but the bloody windows 98 was installed in Dutch! Well I guess, even if i wasn't able to conect to the Internet, I'd be able to do some of my readings and assignments on it right? WRONG!! Remember how its Windows 98? Windows 98 doesn't automatically detect USB memory sticks either! And even if I could, the PC didn't have MS Office installed...
So I've got two problems: its not connected to the Internet, and it doesn't detect my USB drive. I got some Dutch friends to help me get it connected to the modem. And the reason why it doesn't automatically connect to the Internet is because you need the drivers for the modem. Guess where you can get the drivers from? The Internet...of course. Well, maybe I can download the drivers from some other computer and then transfer it to the PC using a ...USB...stick...right.
The only option I had now was to transfer the drivers through a 3.5 inch floopy disc. Yeap a floppy disc, 1.44 mb capacity yeah. I managed to get the drivers downloaded while I was at a friend house. Finally, I was going to be able to get connected! I transferred the drivers to the hard-drive and then went to the modem set-up to install the drivers. But lo and behold, the set-up didn't recognise the drivers. Why not? Because they were in a zip-format. Of course. Except, this computer didn't have winzip installed...
And so...I thought "no problems I can just go to the unversity library and download winzip there". I went to the university library and found a computer. And then I found out that they didn't have 3.5 floppy drives on them.
Yeap and so as it stands, I've had this bloody useless PC and this monster-sized monitor sitting on my desk for the past few weeks thats done jack all for me so far. However, I will persevere and I will get it connected!...one day...
*However, my spelling might definitely dissappoint. Is it two s'es and two p's? I really don't know.
A Day to end all days: INTERNATIONAL PILLOW FIGHT DAY
Last week I had a high school friend from Singapore over. It so happened that he was coming at a really good time because lots of good stuff was happening in Amsterdam. We watched the Netherlands play Macedonia at the Arena stadium. It was pretty awesome when we entered the stadium area from the stairs. It was amazing to see the whole stadium dressed in orange! The crowd was ecstatic, especially when Holland scored its first goal. By the first half it was 3-0. The second half was pretty boring, nothing much really happened. Macedonia isin't really known to be a soccer powerhouse and they really couldn't muster much against Holland. Final score: 4-0. And my wallet €18 lighter but nonetheless a worthwhile experience.
More importantly, Saturday, April 4 2009, was International Pillow Fight Day. The name pretty much tells you what its all about. On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered at Dam Square (the place to visit if your a tourist) to participate in a massive pillow fight! I seriously had no idea who organised this and why they were doing so. I didn't really care. There was no way that I was going to miss out on it. When I read the invite on Facebook, I knew that this was something I wasn't going to miss. The Pillow Fight was set to start at 5pm that day.
On the day itself, as I was making my way to Dam Square I begun to get a bit apprehensive. There really is such a fine line between what is incredibly fun and that which is just plain stupid. I got to the square about 20 minutes early and actually, there wasn't that many people there. I begun to get even more apprehensive about it. At most, people were going to hit each other for about 10 or 20 minutes. And then they'd get tired and stop and go "now what?" Anyways, by the time it got to 5.55pm, there were heaps of people gathered around the war monument. It was beginning to look up.
At 5.00pm, the organisers rang a buzzer and the pillow fight started. Chaotic is an understatement. You couldn't even run around flailing your pillow because there was just a throng of people gathered together. I managed to spot a few friends in the crowd and when they weren't looking, I made sure that I hit them well (which really isin't that bad cos its a pillow). The pillow fight didn't last 10 minutes. Instead, it went on for about FIF-TY minutes (not just fifty, FIF-TY). By the end of the battle, many pillows had indeed been sacrificed. It was clearly evident by the fact that the ground was covered in pillow feathers. Some people would chuck handfuls of the feathers into the air and it would look like it was snowing.
One incident while during the madness of the pillow fight was when this guy hit me pretty well with his pillow. This guy was huge, easily over 2 metres tall and he was also dressed in these white overalls that made him look like a chemical inspector. There really should have been a height restriction for people like this. He clearly had an advantage over me and so I shouted "Attack the tall guy!" Haha, everyone surrounding turns around to hit him with the pillow. In the midst of the chaos, the incident made me realise how maleable people are. All of us are sheep following something or someone in one way or another. I contemplated shouting out some politically-incorrect war crys but thankfully, my better judgement prevailed.
I just went to the website to find out more about it. Check it out if you want: http://www.pillowfightday.com/
It basically says something like public event blah blah blah non-commercial blah blah blah more public and social cities blah blah...no one needs a reason to hold a massive pillow fight. I can't help but imagine how this world would be different if International Pillow Fight Day was invented before the 20th Century. How many wars would have prevented by such an ingenious idea? Hitler, Stalin, Churchhill and Musolinni should have just gathered a hundred of their best men and had a massive pillow fight to the death (of their pillows).
More importantly, Saturday, April 4 2009, was International Pillow Fight Day. The name pretty much tells you what its all about. On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered at Dam Square (the place to visit if your a tourist) to participate in a massive pillow fight! I seriously had no idea who organised this and why they were doing so. I didn't really care. There was no way that I was going to miss out on it. When I read the invite on Facebook, I knew that this was something I wasn't going to miss. The Pillow Fight was set to start at 5pm that day.
On the day itself, as I was making my way to Dam Square I begun to get a bit apprehensive. There really is such a fine line between what is incredibly fun and that which is just plain stupid. I got to the square about 20 minutes early and actually, there wasn't that many people there. I begun to get even more apprehensive about it. At most, people were going to hit each other for about 10 or 20 minutes. And then they'd get tired and stop and go "now what?" Anyways, by the time it got to 5.55pm, there were heaps of people gathered around the war monument. It was beginning to look up.
At 5.00pm, the organisers rang a buzzer and the pillow fight started. Chaotic is an understatement. You couldn't even run around flailing your pillow because there was just a throng of people gathered together. I managed to spot a few friends in the crowd and when they weren't looking, I made sure that I hit them well (which really isin't that bad cos its a pillow). The pillow fight didn't last 10 minutes. Instead, it went on for about FIF-TY minutes (not just fifty, FIF-TY). By the end of the battle, many pillows had indeed been sacrificed. It was clearly evident by the fact that the ground was covered in pillow feathers. Some people would chuck handfuls of the feathers into the air and it would look like it was snowing.
One incident while during the madness of the pillow fight was when this guy hit me pretty well with his pillow. This guy was huge, easily over 2 metres tall and he was also dressed in these white overalls that made him look like a chemical inspector. There really should have been a height restriction for people like this. He clearly had an advantage over me and so I shouted "Attack the tall guy!" Haha, everyone surrounding turns around to hit him with the pillow. In the midst of the chaos, the incident made me realise how maleable people are. All of us are sheep following something or someone in one way or another. I contemplated shouting out some politically-incorrect war crys but thankfully, my better judgement prevailed.
I just went to the website to find out more about it. Check it out if you want: http://www.pillowfightday.com/
It basically says something like public event blah blah blah non-commercial blah blah blah more public and social cities blah blah...no one needs a reason to hold a massive pillow fight. I can't help but imagine how this world would be different if International Pillow Fight Day was invented before the 20th Century. How many wars would have prevented by such an ingenious idea? Hitler, Stalin, Churchhill and Musolinni should have just gathered a hundred of their best men and had a massive pillow fight to the death (of their pillows).
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Dream is over...
Once again, its been quite some time since I've blogged. A month to be exact. In my defense, I've bought myself a cheap PC (cheap being €25) and have been trying to get it hooked up to the internet to make it easier for me to get online. The problem is cheap PCs come with Windows 98 which doesn't have a plug and play connection for the Internet. Well that isin't the real problem. The real problem is that because I'm living in the Hollands, the Windows 98 that is installed is in Dutch!! And so I can't configure anything because I can't understand whats going on. However, a friend from the frisbee team will be coming over tomorrow to see if he can help me out. Fingers are crossed.
Just to let you guys know whats been happening. University has been ticking along as usual. I had a mid-semester paper and a presentation two weeks ago. So that was a pretty hectic week. But other than, some others things:
a) visited Paris on weekend of March 20th
b) had the Dutch university ultimate championship the weekend after.
c) friend from Singapore (doing exchange in Birmingham) came over to check amsterdam out
d) watched Netherlands play Macedonia
e) celebrated International Pillow Fight day at Dam Square!!
e) outdoor competition (1 day Ultimate tournament)
After the weekend in Paris, I realised that I was starting to come out of the "honey-moon" stage. I didn't really think that I would get too upset/irritated at things over here, but I guess it did. On the weekend I was in Paris, the weather was amazing. Sunny and clear skies. It was a great weekend for me to be walking about. Coming back to Amsterdam, the weather following on was really terrible. It was possibly the windiest week that I'd had since getting in. I remember having to cycle back home, and the bloody wind was blowing against me for nearly the whole 20 minutes. Well, it didn't help that I didn't have my jacket and only had a hoodie on. I guess that I was partly to blame for that. Nonetheless, that week had some pretty shocker weather. I wasn't exactly missing Sydney (sorry guys), but was definitely getting quite irritated at the weather.
However, the following Sunday was the Dutch University Ultimate Championships. The weather was decent-ish. It was sunny at parts, rainy, and then cloudy at parts. Not the best weather. But at least it wasn't windy or cold. Overall, I had a great day because NUTS, the Amsterdam student club, had split into two even times for this tourney. By the end of the day, my team was ranked third, which was probably what we deserved. However, we had played some games where we everyone really stepped up and we played much better than we were.
In particular, we played against Gronical Dizziness in the round robin. They were a better team then us, but we managed to get it to Universe point before taking the last point. The last point was a pretty ridiculous was to end the game. The frisbee was thrown deep along the sideline and it was just slightly out. A guy from my team was running deep to catch it for the point. But because it was out, he had to lay out while trying to keep his feet in. The funny thing was that there was a water logged area of the field right by that side of the endzone. Jack was soaked. But it was a great bid and we won the game. Gronical Dizziness later on stepped up their game and eventually won the finals game quite convincingly. Thats right, NUTS1 beat the team that won.
This past week, right after the championships, the weather was amazing! It was warm-ish (come on, obviously not as warm as Sydney). By warm, I mean not below 10 degrees. The sun was out on most days, and it was seriously clear skies. When Pengyang(friend from Singapore) was over we cycled down the Amstel river again. Beautiful day to be doing that. I've noticed that my eyes have gotten so used to the crappy grey skies and lack of sun, that I have to squint when the sun is out.
So yeah, the dream is over but reality isin't that bad anyways.
Just to let you guys know whats been happening. University has been ticking along as usual. I had a mid-semester paper and a presentation two weeks ago. So that was a pretty hectic week. But other than, some others things:
a) visited Paris on weekend of March 20th
b) had the Dutch university ultimate championship the weekend after.
c) friend from Singapore (doing exchange in Birmingham) came over to check amsterdam out
d) watched Netherlands play Macedonia
e) celebrated International Pillow Fight day at Dam Square!!
e) outdoor competition (1 day Ultimate tournament)
After the weekend in Paris, I realised that I was starting to come out of the "honey-moon" stage. I didn't really think that I would get too upset/irritated at things over here, but I guess it did. On the weekend I was in Paris, the weather was amazing. Sunny and clear skies. It was a great weekend for me to be walking about. Coming back to Amsterdam, the weather following on was really terrible. It was possibly the windiest week that I'd had since getting in. I remember having to cycle back home, and the bloody wind was blowing against me for nearly the whole 20 minutes. Well, it didn't help that I didn't have my jacket and only had a hoodie on. I guess that I was partly to blame for that. Nonetheless, that week had some pretty shocker weather. I wasn't exactly missing Sydney (sorry guys), but was definitely getting quite irritated at the weather.
However, the following Sunday was the Dutch University Ultimate Championships. The weather was decent-ish. It was sunny at parts, rainy, and then cloudy at parts. Not the best weather. But at least it wasn't windy or cold. Overall, I had a great day because NUTS, the Amsterdam student club, had split into two even times for this tourney. By the end of the day, my team was ranked third, which was probably what we deserved. However, we had played some games where we everyone really stepped up and we played much better than we were.
In particular, we played against Gronical Dizziness in the round robin. They were a better team then us, but we managed to get it to Universe point before taking the last point. The last point was a pretty ridiculous was to end the game. The frisbee was thrown deep along the sideline and it was just slightly out. A guy from my team was running deep to catch it for the point. But because it was out, he had to lay out while trying to keep his feet in. The funny thing was that there was a water logged area of the field right by that side of the endzone. Jack was soaked. But it was a great bid and we won the game. Gronical Dizziness later on stepped up their game and eventually won the finals game quite convincingly. Thats right, NUTS1 beat the team that won.
This past week, right after the championships, the weather was amazing! It was warm-ish (come on, obviously not as warm as Sydney). By warm, I mean not below 10 degrees. The sun was out on most days, and it was seriously clear skies. When Pengyang(friend from Singapore) was over we cycled down the Amstel river again. Beautiful day to be doing that. I've noticed that my eyes have gotten so used to the crappy grey skies and lack of sun, that I have to squint when the sun is out.
So yeah, the dream is over but reality isin't that bad anyways.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Weekend in Paris
Spent a weekend in Paris a few weeks ago, and have been wanting to blog about it ever since I got back.
Paris really wasn't very high on my list of cities to visit while I'm here*. However, a girl who lives on my floor (of my building) was driving back to Paris for the weekend and wanting people to go with her so I thought why not. I had already visited Paris 5 years ago when I was England for a month, and wasn't that impressed with it. The one thing I really can't stand is how much people make it out to be: "ooh Paris, thats so romantic" "oh wow, your going to Paris". I didn't think it was that worth its hype from the last time I was there. But with petrol being split 4 of us, and with a friend in Paris, I thought it wouldn't be too expensive to check out for a weekend.
As we entered the Greater Paris area, I was struck at how much of a population centre it was. Central Paris has 2 million while Greater Paris has about 10-12 million people. This was a huge difference in population coming in from Amsterdam. I've never been a big fan of huge population centres, like Manila, Hong Kong, and Paris wasn't any different at first. One of the girls had never been to Paris before and she was just ogling at Paris and going on about how pretty everything was. Exactly what i didn't want to hear.
The second day I was there, I walked around the main touristic sights of Paris. I was staying at Rue Montague, I nice walking thoroughfare where many (bourgeious) Parisians do their shopping. From there, I walked to Les Halle, Musee Du Lourve, Jardin Des Tuilleries, Grand Palais and Hotel Des Invalides before meeting up with Josh. I have to say I was quite impressed with the, not the sights in and of themselves, but with the amount of history, and significance, that lay behind these buildings. Some of them were incredibly grand and harked back to some era in French history. I can't imagine how these places must have looked back in their heyday. While in Jardin Des Tuilleries, I took a break to read on French history from my guidebook. The few pages did no justice to the glorious history that lay behind the country. And therein lay the problem about visiting France, you can't properly appreciate the sights unless you know the history behind them. And yet French history is much like Gorgonzola cheese, its simply overwhelming. At least for the ordinary person.
Furthermore, its not as if French history is the only bit. The Musee Du Lourve showcases arts and antiquities from the Ancient world. The Musee D'Orsay exhibits French art from the 19th century while Centre Pompidou houses modern art. I know jack-all about art! I'm guessing that the average person reading this know just as much art and history as my soccer boots. So what explains the throngs of people who line up to enter the Notre Dame Cathedral, or the scores of Japanese tourists who are literally crowded around the Mona Lisa to admire it. None of these people know anything. Why are they there?
This is what really annoys me about France. Its so over-rated. Not that it shouldn't be high on the tourist circuit. But its just that its a bit too high. I passed by some incredibly beautiful buildings while walking through Paris: La Beurs Du Commerce, the Grand Palais. None of these buildings had anyone admiring or taking photos of. They were just there in the background. More importantly, they were never made into tourist attractions, or marketed for their architectural/historical significance to tourists. I should stop going on about Paris.
By the time I was about to leave Paris, I was really beginning to appreciate the city for what it is. Much of central Paris was built in the 19th century. And as I reflected upon that, it kinda me of how of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. How? There, there were villages that were erected right next to colossus monuments that were 800-1,200 years old. It seemed like such a shame that the Cambodians were living in the backyard of a civilisation of some different era. Paris reminds of this. You have a mass of people living in the remnants of a 19th century civilisation. I don't know if it was just because it was a short holiday, but I wasn't that happy to be leaving Paris when we did.
Especially after getting back into Amsterdam, I started to appreciate the subtle differences between the two cities. Its amazing to think that there is no way that one can truly compare a city to another. Each develops in its own way: Paris very much through the riches of monarchy and Amsterdam through the prosperity of trade and investment. Each of these circumstances result in a city that is so unique to another. If possible(and if its cheap), I'd like to spend more time just getting a better feel for the city of Paris.
However, let there be no doubt: Paris is over-rated.
*Actually such a list doesn't really exist, as I wasn't planning on doing that much travelling while I was here.
Paris really wasn't very high on my list of cities to visit while I'm here*. However, a girl who lives on my floor (of my building) was driving back to Paris for the weekend and wanting people to go with her so I thought why not. I had already visited Paris 5 years ago when I was England for a month, and wasn't that impressed with it. The one thing I really can't stand is how much people make it out to be: "ooh Paris, thats so romantic" "oh wow, your going to Paris". I didn't think it was that worth its hype from the last time I was there. But with petrol being split 4 of us, and with a friend in Paris, I thought it wouldn't be too expensive to check out for a weekend.
As we entered the Greater Paris area, I was struck at how much of a population centre it was. Central Paris has 2 million while Greater Paris has about 10-12 million people. This was a huge difference in population coming in from Amsterdam. I've never been a big fan of huge population centres, like Manila, Hong Kong, and Paris wasn't any different at first. One of the girls had never been to Paris before and she was just ogling at Paris and going on about how pretty everything was. Exactly what i didn't want to hear.
The second day I was there, I walked around the main touristic sights of Paris. I was staying at Rue Montague, I nice walking thoroughfare where many (bourgeious) Parisians do their shopping. From there, I walked to Les Halle, Musee Du Lourve, Jardin Des Tuilleries, Grand Palais and Hotel Des Invalides before meeting up with Josh. I have to say I was quite impressed with the, not the sights in and of themselves, but with the amount of history, and significance, that lay behind these buildings. Some of them were incredibly grand and harked back to some era in French history. I can't imagine how these places must have looked back in their heyday. While in Jardin Des Tuilleries, I took a break to read on French history from my guidebook. The few pages did no justice to the glorious history that lay behind the country. And therein lay the problem about visiting France, you can't properly appreciate the sights unless you know the history behind them. And yet French history is much like Gorgonzola cheese, its simply overwhelming. At least for the ordinary person.
Furthermore, its not as if French history is the only bit. The Musee Du Lourve showcases arts and antiquities from the Ancient world. The Musee D'Orsay exhibits French art from the 19th century while Centre Pompidou houses modern art. I know jack-all about art! I'm guessing that the average person reading this know just as much art and history as my soccer boots. So what explains the throngs of people who line up to enter the Notre Dame Cathedral, or the scores of Japanese tourists who are literally crowded around the Mona Lisa to admire it. None of these people know anything. Why are they there?
This is what really annoys me about France. Its so over-rated. Not that it shouldn't be high on the tourist circuit. But its just that its a bit too high. I passed by some incredibly beautiful buildings while walking through Paris: La Beurs Du Commerce, the Grand Palais. None of these buildings had anyone admiring or taking photos of. They were just there in the background. More importantly, they were never made into tourist attractions, or marketed for their architectural/historical significance to tourists. I should stop going on about Paris.
By the time I was about to leave Paris, I was really beginning to appreciate the city for what it is. Much of central Paris was built in the 19th century. And as I reflected upon that, it kinda me of how of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. How? There, there were villages that were erected right next to colossus monuments that were 800-1,200 years old. It seemed like such a shame that the Cambodians were living in the backyard of a civilisation of some different era. Paris reminds of this. You have a mass of people living in the remnants of a 19th century civilisation. I don't know if it was just because it was a short holiday, but I wasn't that happy to be leaving Paris when we did.
Especially after getting back into Amsterdam, I started to appreciate the subtle differences between the two cities. Its amazing to think that there is no way that one can truly compare a city to another. Each develops in its own way: Paris very much through the riches of monarchy and Amsterdam through the prosperity of trade and investment. Each of these circumstances result in a city that is so unique to another. If possible(and if its cheap), I'd like to spend more time just getting a better feel for the city of Paris.
However, let there be no doubt: Paris is over-rated.
*Actually such a list doesn't really exist, as I wasn't planning on doing that much travelling while I was here.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Squat Party at De Nieuwe Anitas
Last saturday 7th of March, I was at a squat party as a member of my homegroup wanted to celebrate her birthday there. What is a squat party? Its not where we get together at someone's house and see who can squat the longest. Squatting is actually quite an institution over here. After a year of being vacanted, you're actually legally allowed to enter into a building and occupy it, AKA squatting. At this squat, called De Nieuwe Anita, they hold movie screenings on Monday nights, open mics on Tuesday and parties on Friday - Sunday nights.
Its completely different from going to clubs or bars. Inside, the first room looks like someone's lounge room, with couches, chairs and tables set out. And then theres a balcony inside the next room. Yes, thats right a balcony which overlooks the basement floor where the dance floor is set up or where bands set themselves up. They didn't play sleazy hip-hop/rnb music, but a mix of music harking back to an older era, like 20s swing or rock and roll from the 50s. From the times that I have gone to clubs, it seems like people are there with the purpose of getting wasted, and it seems like people are doing because well, other people are doing it. The other impression I get is that people go to clubs to see and be seen by other people. There was none of that pretension at the squat party. It seems like people were out there to have a good time with friends. If they wanted to chat, they stay in the "living room" area, take a seat and just hang out with friends. And if they wanted to dance, they could go downstairs and dance. There was a cool vibe in that place.
Last saturday was actually the second time that I had been there. The first time I was there was in the second weekend I was here, the night before valentines day. I have to say that I wasn't as impressed by its coolness the second time round. I get the sad feeling that its because I'm getting used to life in Amsterdam and so things aren't as new and different and cool as I would have found them just 3 weeks back.
Its completely different from going to clubs or bars. Inside, the first room looks like someone's lounge room, with couches, chairs and tables set out. And then theres a balcony inside the next room. Yes, thats right a balcony which overlooks the basement floor where the dance floor is set up or where bands set themselves up. They didn't play sleazy hip-hop/rnb music, but a mix of music harking back to an older era, like 20s swing or rock and roll from the 50s. From the times that I have gone to clubs, it seems like people are there with the purpose of getting wasted, and it seems like people are doing because well, other people are doing it. The other impression I get is that people go to clubs to see and be seen by other people. There was none of that pretension at the squat party. It seems like people were out there to have a good time with friends. If they wanted to chat, they stay in the "living room" area, take a seat and just hang out with friends. And if they wanted to dance, they could go downstairs and dance. There was a cool vibe in that place.
Last saturday was actually the second time that I had been there. The first time I was there was in the second weekend I was here, the night before valentines day. I have to say that I wasn't as impressed by its coolness the second time round. I get the sad feeling that its because I'm getting used to life in Amsterdam and so things aren't as new and different and cool as I would have found them just 3 weeks back.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Bike Trip #1: Down the Amstel River
Its been so long since I last wrote something. I actually went to the computer lab last Tuesday to blog, and after spending about 40 minutes of writing, I accidentally deleted everything. I wasn't in much of a mood to write after that...
Anyways. In the second weekend that I was here, a bunch of Australians and New Zealanders did a bike trip down the Amstel River. FYI: the Amstel river is where amsterdam gets its name from. The city was founded when they first built a dam around the Amstel river. Hence, Amsterdam. There was actually some really good weather that day. The sun was out, and we could actually see the blue sky, something that I've really learnt to appreciate over the last month here. We met around 1.30 pm at Central Station before heading off. The mission was to cycle down the river, get to the closest town, find some windmills, and find some cheese. We managed to complete all 4 tasks.
We cycle for about 20 minutes when we fulfilled our first task: we found a windmill. It was actually quite huge, someone/people were actually living inside it. And from its construction and aesthetics, you could tell that it was made quite some time ago. Seeing as it was a windmill, we were obligated to get off our bikes and take a photo. Once we were off from the windmill, we had completely passed the city/urban area and was in the countryside. It was only after 20-30 minutes of cycling, even at a leisurely pace! There were no more buildings, or roads, or concrete, only flat pastures surrounding both sides of the river. In fact, there weren't even many houses built along the side of the river. There were definately a few houses, but I was surprised to see that it was largely quite undeveloped and left as it is. If this was Australia or Singapore, I reckon the riverside would have completely exploited for its commercial value. I think its a great thing that the land hasn't been divided up and developed into apartments or nice houses.
We soon reached a cheese and clog farm. After we got off our bikes, a young guy came out to greet us. And he was actually wearing clogs(I kid you not!). I couldn't really believe it myself. He took us around the farm, let us try some cheese, and showed us how to make clogs using the machines. The cheese was pretty good and at 7 euros a cheese-thing, it had better be.
After that it was a straight ride to the nearest town, Oude Kirk Amstel (Old Church Amstel). The town was pretty small but it had a nice quaint feel to it. The main street consisted of cobble stoned. And it was rather narrow, which gave it a more old-world feel to the place. We stopped by at a local cafe for a drink and some applepie before heading back the 9km to Amsterdam. All in all, it was a really nice bike ride and one that I would recommend for anyone visiting Amsterdam.
Anyways. In the second weekend that I was here, a bunch of Australians and New Zealanders did a bike trip down the Amstel River. FYI: the Amstel river is where amsterdam gets its name from. The city was founded when they first built a dam around the Amstel river. Hence, Amsterdam. There was actually some really good weather that day. The sun was out, and we could actually see the blue sky, something that I've really learnt to appreciate over the last month here. We met around 1.30 pm at Central Station before heading off. The mission was to cycle down the river, get to the closest town, find some windmills, and find some cheese. We managed to complete all 4 tasks.
We cycle for about 20 minutes when we fulfilled our first task: we found a windmill. It was actually quite huge, someone/people were actually living inside it. And from its construction and aesthetics, you could tell that it was made quite some time ago. Seeing as it was a windmill, we were obligated to get off our bikes and take a photo. Once we were off from the windmill, we had completely passed the city/urban area and was in the countryside. It was only after 20-30 minutes of cycling, even at a leisurely pace! There were no more buildings, or roads, or concrete, only flat pastures surrounding both sides of the river. In fact, there weren't even many houses built along the side of the river. There were definately a few houses, but I was surprised to see that it was largely quite undeveloped and left as it is. If this was Australia or Singapore, I reckon the riverside would have completely exploited for its commercial value. I think its a great thing that the land hasn't been divided up and developed into apartments or nice houses.
We soon reached a cheese and clog farm. After we got off our bikes, a young guy came out to greet us. And he was actually wearing clogs(I kid you not!). I couldn't really believe it myself. He took us around the farm, let us try some cheese, and showed us how to make clogs using the machines. The cheese was pretty good and at 7 euros a cheese-thing, it had better be.
After that it was a straight ride to the nearest town, Oude Kirk Amstel (Old Church Amstel). The town was pretty small but it had a nice quaint feel to it. The main street consisted of cobble stoned. And it was rather narrow, which gave it a more old-world feel to the place. We stopped by at a local cafe for a drink and some applepie before heading back the 9km to Amsterdam. All in all, it was a really nice bike ride and one that I would recommend for anyone visiting Amsterdam.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Getting into the routine of things
My first week in Amsterdam wasn't actually particularly exciting. I know that some of the people I've met have been going out every single night since they'd arrived over here. I haven't really been doing that since its not particularly my thing. I've spent a bit of time in my room. However, I don't have computer, nor do I have my guitar here which is probably what I'd be doing if I were back in Sydney. So i've literally been left with nothing much to do in my apartment. Awww poor me.
The funny thing is that the lack of things to do wasn't exactly boring, nor did I actually feel really lonely or sad. With the way things are usually so busy back at home, the boredom was actually a welcome change. Boredom isin't even the right word since it didn't even feel that way.
But in any case, I've started to get more into the routine of things.
On Tuesday night, I went to play ultimate frisbee with NUTS, the student ultimate team in Amsterdam. We were playing outdoors... At first, it was really cold. I had a thermal with a T-shirt on top and wearing trackies. The most important thing was taking extra care when you catch the disc when your hands are cold. Cos it can really hurt if you catch it badly. There was a lot of new people so the standard of play wasn't that high. However, the Dutch guys on the team play with another mens team, the Cambo cakes. Cambo cakes train on Monday and Thursday nights so I'm probably going to join them for practices. hopefully I'll be able to make the team to go for some tourneys.
I've got classes on Monday, Thursday and Friday mornings til 1pm. Probably one of the worst schedules to have while your on exchange and want to go travelling. However, I'm not really planning on doing that much travelling so its all good. The first week of classes was incredibly boring. We never went into the course content since it was the first course. And its even worse over here cos my classes go for 3 or 4 hours at a time. There are breaks but nearing the end, its pretty hard to pay attention. The second week has just finished and classes were way more interesting.
The funny thing is that the lack of things to do wasn't exactly boring, nor did I actually feel really lonely or sad. With the way things are usually so busy back at home, the boredom was actually a welcome change. Boredom isin't even the right word since it didn't even feel that way.
But in any case, I've started to get more into the routine of things.
On Tuesday night, I went to play ultimate frisbee with NUTS, the student ultimate team in Amsterdam. We were playing outdoors... At first, it was really cold. I had a thermal with a T-shirt on top and wearing trackies. The most important thing was taking extra care when you catch the disc when your hands are cold. Cos it can really hurt if you catch it badly. There was a lot of new people so the standard of play wasn't that high. However, the Dutch guys on the team play with another mens team, the Cambo cakes. Cambo cakes train on Monday and Thursday nights so I'm probably going to join them for practices. hopefully I'll be able to make the team to go for some tourneys.
I've got classes on Monday, Thursday and Friday mornings til 1pm. Probably one of the worst schedules to have while your on exchange and want to go travelling. However, I'm not really planning on doing that much travelling so its all good. The first week of classes was incredibly boring. We never went into the course content since it was the first course. And its even worse over here cos my classes go for 3 or 4 hours at a time. There are breaks but nearing the end, its pretty hard to pay attention. The second week has just finished and classes were way more interesting.
The Zolder...
I've decided to join a church in Amsterdam called Zolder. Zolder means "attic" in Dutch and (I think) it refers to where the church used to meet when it first started out: in an attic. Well probably not literally in a dark, dusty, low-ceiling attic, but at least in the upper levels of a house. At present, the church meets in the basement of a house. But they've decided to keep the name of Zolder. For sentimental reasons (I dont really know....).
Anyways, Zolder has quite a different concept to how church is structured and run. First of all, the church itself is set up like a cafe. There was a stage area running by the length of the room, and then couches right in front of the stage, followed by coffee tables. Behind the coffee tables was a walk way, and then there were those small round tables that you find in bars. I have to take a picture of it sometime. But yea, no pews, no chairs set about in rows, no pulpit. When I entered, I thought the place was run commercially as a cafe during the week.
The whole layout of the church really gave it a relaxed, informal atmosphere to the place. And I think it also reflected the dynamism of the church itself. Another cool thing they've done is to make a church plant. Not in a different area, but at the same location! At the same time! Instead of meeting every Sunday, the church meets every two weeks. And so each congregation meets up fortnightly. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Sunday church services and I think it was a great idea. Someone told me that changing it from weekly to fortnightly, stressed the importance of homegroups as opposed to Sunday services. I thought it was brilliant.
After service, I was invited to have dinner at one of the church member's house. To get there, I was given a ride the back of Gerard's bicycle. I had to hold up the bike light since it had broken off (I broke it the first time I got on). i didn't have any gloves, my hands were freezing cold. They had never been that cold before. In fact, they went numb after a while and I was seriously (and paranoically) afraid that I had gotten frost bite. I didn't. However, I did have a good time at dinner getting to know some of the other people from church.
The following Wednesday I joined a home(bible study) group and it was really good. I already knew two people from that group, and the rest of the people were really easy going too. We had an interesting discussion on pre-destination (don't get me started) that night. However on the whole, I know its a group that I can get involved with and be actively serving in. I'm really thankful that its only taken me 2 weeks to find myself a church that I can be involved with.
Anyways, Zolder has quite a different concept to how church is structured and run. First of all, the church itself is set up like a cafe. There was a stage area running by the length of the room, and then couches right in front of the stage, followed by coffee tables. Behind the coffee tables was a walk way, and then there were those small round tables that you find in bars. I have to take a picture of it sometime. But yea, no pews, no chairs set about in rows, no pulpit. When I entered, I thought the place was run commercially as a cafe during the week.
The whole layout of the church really gave it a relaxed, informal atmosphere to the place. And I think it also reflected the dynamism of the church itself. Another cool thing they've done is to make a church plant. Not in a different area, but at the same location! At the same time! Instead of meeting every Sunday, the church meets every two weeks. And so each congregation meets up fortnightly. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Sunday church services and I think it was a great idea. Someone told me that changing it from weekly to fortnightly, stressed the importance of homegroups as opposed to Sunday services. I thought it was brilliant.
After service, I was invited to have dinner at one of the church member's house. To get there, I was given a ride the back of Gerard's bicycle. I had to hold up the bike light since it had broken off (I broke it the first time I got on). i didn't have any gloves, my hands were freezing cold. They had never been that cold before. In fact, they went numb after a while and I was seriously (and paranoically) afraid that I had gotten frost bite. I didn't. However, I did have a good time at dinner getting to know some of the other people from church.
The following Wednesday I joined a home(bible study) group and it was really good. I already knew two people from that group, and the rest of the people were really easy going too. We had an interesting discussion on pre-destination (don't get me started) that night. However on the whole, I know its a group that I can get involved with and be actively serving in. I'm really thankful that its only taken me 2 weeks to find myself a church that I can be involved with.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
It snowed!
On Sunday, I was walking around the city centre while waiting in between two different church services. As I was walking along the street I noticed these fluffy things floating about in the air. They kinda looked like those really small tufts of bubble foam was flying about in the air.
Believe it or not, it took me a few seconds to realise that it was snow! I'd been to the mountains for snow back in Victoria. But you don't really get real snow in Australia. And so this was the first time I've seen it snowing in a city before. I thought it was pretty cool, but I presume most other people weren't very impressed.
However, this winter has been the coldest winter in Amsterdam in 12 years! I heard that a few weeks before I came the canals froze over and people were ice-skating on the frozen ice. I'm really really hoping that the canals will freeze over again so that I get the chance to do that. I guess that I could have always gone so ice-skating in a rink. Whats really so special about ice skating over a frozen canal? Nothing much I guess, except for the novelty of it and also the fact that I can brag that I've ice-skated over a frozen lake/canal. I've heard reports that the canals might freeze over again. My fingers are crossed...
That said, it really isin't that cold over here. I've been wearing about 3 layers. Usually a jacket to keep the cold, wind and rain out, and another two layers underneath. I noticed that in the first few days, I would always find it extremely cold coming out of a building into the open air. But I've gotten over that now. My apartment is actually really well heated and its actually even too hot to wear the warm track pants that I'd brought to wear while sleeping. Funnily enough, the apartment is even warmer than my house in Sydney.
Believe it or not, it took me a few seconds to realise that it was snow! I'd been to the mountains for snow back in Victoria. But you don't really get real snow in Australia. And so this was the first time I've seen it snowing in a city before. I thought it was pretty cool, but I presume most other people weren't very impressed.
However, this winter has been the coldest winter in Amsterdam in 12 years! I heard that a few weeks before I came the canals froze over and people were ice-skating on the frozen ice. I'm really really hoping that the canals will freeze over again so that I get the chance to do that. I guess that I could have always gone so ice-skating in a rink. Whats really so special about ice skating over a frozen canal? Nothing much I guess, except for the novelty of it and also the fact that I can brag that I've ice-skated over a frozen lake/canal. I've heard reports that the canals might freeze over again. My fingers are crossed...
That said, it really isin't that cold over here. I've been wearing about 3 layers. Usually a jacket to keep the cold, wind and rain out, and another two layers underneath. I noticed that in the first few days, I would always find it extremely cold coming out of a building into the open air. But I've gotten over that now. My apartment is actually really well heated and its actually even too hot to wear the warm track pants that I'd brought to wear while sleeping. Funnily enough, the apartment is even warmer than my house in Sydney.
Life in Amsterdam so far
I just got my bike yesterday! Bikes are essential for living in Amsterdam as most people get around by bike. There are only 800,000+ people living in Amsterdam so its actually a pretty small city and the distances you have to travel are actually pretty small. Not only that, there are always bike lanes on the side of the road so it makes it even easier to get around on bike.
Currently, I'm living in a shipping container. if you don't believe me, refer to the picture:
These are shopping containers that have gotten converted into housing apartment.
It looks exactly like that...except I'm in winter at the moment. There isin't the clear blue sky and the grass is not green at all. Everything is pretty much... grey. The buildings are the same though
Before coming, I was really hoping that I wouldn't be put with an American college student who would be full drinker and party-er. Alas, things were not meant to be that way. Well, my housemate (justin) is a bit of a party-er. But it hasn't been bad at all. In fact, we get along decently well. If anything, there is a commonality in that we both play guitar. And it was pleasantly(pleasant is quite a big understatement) surprised when I heard a guitar being played from his room. And it was just any guitar, it was a Taylor 600 series too. Sweet. :)
It's kinda wierd being in a totally different country. It's kinda like I have to reconstruct my life from anew: thinking about how I should spend the (massive amount of) free time I have. Travel? Church? Frisbee? Meeting new people? Not only that, but its made even pronounced since its the first time I'm out of the home. So I did spend a few moment thinking about how I'm going to arrange my room, furnish the apartment as its rather bare at the moment, and also how/when to cook dinners.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A few days back in Singapore...
Keeping a blog is hard work. I've been wanting to make a post for the last 2 or 3 days now. I find that I can only write when no one is around me, kinda hard when your living in a 3-bedroom apartment with 8 people living in it at the moment. Furthermore, someones always on the computer.
I got back to Singapore from KL on Friday afternoon. Its been nearly a week since then.
I was really keen on getting back to Singo by Friday night cos I wanted to visit the cellgroup/bible study that most of my old friends used to go to. I got there and was pleasantly surprised to see Juni there. Juni is supposed to be in London doing his masters and I (and himself too) never knew that he was coming back to Singo in his holidays. Against his better judgement, he decided to check the prices for airfares to SG and kinda ended up making an impulse decision to come back for a week. It was definitely cool to see him again.
After cell group, we went to a nearby place for drinks. We had an interesting discussion about whether Christians should expect healing when they pray for it, a viewpoint that is very much taught at my church in SG. Despite the fact that the leaders preach and support the idea of expecting physical healing when you pray for it, I'm glad that quite a few people, if not the majority, did not actually think it was real. And I'm glad not just because this is coincidentally the stance take, more importantly, I strongly believe that its the stance that the Bible endorses. My view can be stuffed if the Bible says otherwise.
I fell pretty badly sick on Sunday morning. I kinda knew the fever was coming on Friday as I returned from KL but it really hit me on Sunday morning. I was really looking forward to going to church but when I woke up, my whole body was sore. The air-conditioning was on, but I had woken up in the middle of the night to put long pants and a fleece jumper on AND I was using a sleeping bag as a blanket too. I don't think I've felt that crap before. I spent the morning sleeping. And then in the afternoon, I went through some Chinese with my 10 year old cousin, and then we played foosball and computer games.
I found out at 10 pm that night that a bunch of my friends were hanging out at a friends house to watch a soccer game. I'd grown up with these five guys at church and we've spent a huge amount of time playing frisbee/soccer, munchkin, and computer games together. I knew I probably should have stayed at home and slept. But I went out anyway. Two of the guys were leaving for Taiwan and London the next morning. It was my last chance to hang before they left.
Even though it was only 3-4 hours, it was pretty awesome to be hanging out. Only a few months ago, all 6 of us were in a different part of the world: Taipei, London, U.S., far western China, Sydney and Melbourne. Was good to see them all again.
I got back to Singapore from KL on Friday afternoon. Its been nearly a week since then.
I was really keen on getting back to Singo by Friday night cos I wanted to visit the cellgroup/bible study that most of my old friends used to go to. I got there and was pleasantly surprised to see Juni there. Juni is supposed to be in London doing his masters and I (and himself too) never knew that he was coming back to Singo in his holidays. Against his better judgement, he decided to check the prices for airfares to SG and kinda ended up making an impulse decision to come back for a week. It was definitely cool to see him again.
After cell group, we went to a nearby place for drinks. We had an interesting discussion about whether Christians should expect healing when they pray for it, a viewpoint that is very much taught at my church in SG. Despite the fact that the leaders preach and support the idea of expecting physical healing when you pray for it, I'm glad that quite a few people, if not the majority, did not actually think it was real. And I'm glad not just because this is coincidentally the stance take, more importantly, I strongly believe that its the stance that the Bible endorses. My view can be stuffed if the Bible says otherwise.
I fell pretty badly sick on Sunday morning. I kinda knew the fever was coming on Friday as I returned from KL but it really hit me on Sunday morning. I was really looking forward to going to church but when I woke up, my whole body was sore. The air-conditioning was on, but I had woken up in the middle of the night to put long pants and a fleece jumper on AND I was using a sleeping bag as a blanket too. I don't think I've felt that crap before. I spent the morning sleeping. And then in the afternoon, I went through some Chinese with my 10 year old cousin, and then we played foosball and computer games.
I found out at 10 pm that night that a bunch of my friends were hanging out at a friends house to watch a soccer game. I'd grown up with these five guys at church and we've spent a huge amount of time playing frisbee/soccer, munchkin, and computer games together. I knew I probably should have stayed at home and slept. But I went out anyway. Two of the guys were leaving for Taiwan and London the next morning. It was my last chance to hang before they left.
Even though it was only 3-4 hours, it was pretty awesome to be hanging out. Only a few months ago, all 6 of us were in a different part of the world: Taipei, London, U.S., far western China, Sydney and Melbourne. Was good to see them all again.
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