It's Spring!!! and an apology

I realize it's been a month since my last update, so, as the Dutch say as means of an apology, "sorry." So much has happened and it's hard to believe how busy I've been in the past month, but I promise to make more of an effort to stay on top of posting for my loyal followers (all five of you). It would be pret

ty difficult to cover everything I've done since my last post, but here's a general overview.

The first weekend in March I travelled to London and stayed with my friend Jeremy at his flat, just a few minutes' walk from King's Cross and in the middle of it all. It was strange how disorienting I found the relatively familiarity of London -- it has a similar feel to New York and everybody speaks English, but I found it oddly disconcerting to be able to understand the conversations ar

ound me on the tube. I ate fish and chips, drank pints, bummed around in pubs, hung 

out with Jeremy's friends and saw some of the sights. In the British Museum we were in awe of the English's ability to supplement their own history with countless invaluable cultural relics plundered from former colonies and conquered peoples. We went to the Globe, Camden market, saw Parliament and Big Ben, and drank more pints. It was a nice trip, but next time I'll be interested to see the English countryside. 

Immediately after my return Liz was here for just over a week and we headed it off with a weekend in Belgium. It turns out that Belgium is kind of like the Canada of Western Europe -- Belgians tend to be the butt of a lot of jokes in the Netherlands especially (my Dutch professor's favorite Belgian joke: "Why do Belgians have square mouths? So the fries go in eas

ier!" It was kind of lost on us.) They definitely seem a bit unsure about just what their national identity is, and it was always confusing trying to figure out whether we should speak French or Dutch depending what restaurant or store we were in. We stayed in Brussels and made trips out to Bruges and Ghent. I really liked Brussels -- a lot of people say there's nothing to do and I certainly wouldn't want to spend a semester there, but I thought it was a beautiful city to walk around in. Bruges is every bit as beautiful as people make it out to be, but I felt kind of like I was in Williamsburg there -- it seemed like every single person on the street was a tourist, and I wondered if the locals ever left their houses. Ghent was great -- it was a little less of a destination and a little more

 of a real city, and it was beautiful and exciting at the same time. We also were able to go see "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb," an incredible polyptych painting housed in a cathedral in Ghent. We ate waffles and chocolate, took boats through beautiful canals and horse drawn carriages over cobble stone streets, and, of course, drank a lot of beer.

Everything you heard about the beer in Belgium is true. It is the Mecca for beer drinkers. It was a heaven of Trappist beers, lambics, and brews I've never even heard of. The most exciting beer venture was visiting the Cantillon brewery in Brussels. It brews lambics using spontaneous fermentation -- rather than adding yeast directly to the mash, it's actually left to ferment by naturally occurring yeasts in the air. In order to achieve this result, the brewery is necessarily left dusty and uncleaned, and with plenty of openings to let the air in. These types of breweries are actually exempt from EU sanitary requirements. At the end of our tour we got a tasting of kriek, a lambic brewed with cherries very popular throughout Europe, and gueuze, a highly acidic, incredibly flavorful blend of once, twice, and three-times fermented lambics. It was unlike anything I have ever tasted and the rest of the weekend was a quest to discover more gueuze. 

This weekend our program took us on a daytrip to the Deltaworks on the Eastern coast. The museum here is a tribute to the efforts of Dutch engineers to protect the low lands from the encroaching sea. It's kind of difficult for us to understand, but the Dutch are extremely proud of what they call "the fight against the water." If it weren't for all the dikes, dams, and far more intricate contraptions Dutch engineers have come up with, about 50% of the Netherlands would be under water. Following a serious flood near Rotterdam in 1953 that killed almost 2,000 people, a huge project went underway to build the "Deltaworks." It's very difficult to describe (especially because I really don't understand water management or exactly what all these things they built do) but it cost 6 billion euros and took around 20 years to build an incredibly elaborate system of dams and storm surge barriers that now protect the area and give everybody peace of mind. Today the Dutch are busy helping fix the levees in New Orleans and reclaim land in places like the UAE, but they are also constantly coming up with novel ways to fend off the water in their own country, especially because of the threat of global warming.

Two nights ago, my program took us to see the Netherlands play Macedonia in a World Cup qualifying match. Obviously the competition itself was not too exhilarating, but it was great to go to the game. It's refreshing to be in a country that takes soccer seriously (like most countries in the world, besides America). We geared up in orange, painted our faces, and headed out to the massive stadium (about 50,000 people) for the game. Unfortunately upon getting there, there was some confusion as it seems that our program managed to purchase us 50 counterfeited tickets. After several of us were detained and questioned by the police, we figured out what had happened, received new tickets, and finally got to our seats just in time for the first half to end. We still had a great time -- the Netherlands have a great team and we watched them effortlessly win 4-0. 

That's all for now. I have some pretty exciting trips in the works during the next month and can't wait to be traveling again, but the weather here is starting to warm up a bit and Amsterdam is beginning to take on a more vibrant life as people take to the outdoors more and more. I'm working on booking a trip next weekend to Luxembourg with my friend Chris, who is currently studying in Paris. The only hostel in Luxembourg City is booked, so it looks like I might try couch surfing for the first time. Wish me luck...