Day 10 - Pub Crawl
Wednesday was both productive and a ton of fun. I handled some business, and I'm creeping closer to and closer to being "settled." Wednesday's main event was the ISN-I Intro Dinner and Pub Crawl, which kicked off at Einstein's. The Netherlands is two-for-two in billing food as "Thai" and then not coming anywhere close to it, so I'll keep an eye on the international food situation. The "fast food" here is cheap Middle Eastern food served at snack shops, so at least that's interesting. The dinner was nice, and I hanged out with Adam, Steve, and Michelle, which was a good time. I was still ravenously hungry after my chicken dinner, so I was relieved when they brought the Dutch staple - fries and a very vinegar-y mayonnaise - to the table, my first time with this peculiarity in Holland (thought I think the pomme frites at the Cadieux are dipped in the same sauce).
After dinner, we headed out for the pub crawl. I was most excited about it as a chance to see other places around Leiden to head to, so that was nice. The first stop was a nice, small pub that our group quickly overran. I love the dark, wood-covered, laid back atmosphere of the pubs here - a much better atmosphere than anywhere I've ever been in America, granted this is mostly sports bars to sip a Coke and watch sports. We headed to Vi-Kings next, which was small and kind of shitty, but it's another sports bar location and appears to show ESPN America, which is good. Next, we headed to Proost!, the atmosphere at which was punctuated by flashing lights, but I got to sample my first Belgian beer, which felt like an appropriate thing to do. The next stop on the tour was called, conveniently, Next, and was by far the trendiest feeling bar we went to. It was upstairs, in what could pass as a trendy hipster loft in Manhattan or something, and had a decidedly different atmosphere than any of the previous places. The strange custom of singing at the top of one's lungs to Kings of Leon continued here, but they had snacks which was a tremendous development. Once we arrived back at Einstein's for the usual International Night it was absurdly crowded, but all in all a fun time. I got to talk hockey with Kyle, a student at Boston College, and she shared my hatred for Sidney Crosby (Caps fan). I got to see Dani and Karen again, which was great, and I was declared Dani's "Meant to be Mentee!" It was also nice, and this should be taken in the best way possible, that I was able to have conversations with people on my own without needing their help, which feels like a positive step. Only the second time at Einstein's and I'm already recognizing lots of people, which is comforting. I made the long bike ride home in the rain with Adam and Steve and survived, so all in all the night was a success. I ended up talking to friends back home again when I got back to the Rijnfront, and that's always the best.
I couldn't fall asleep again, shockingly, so I ended up reading more of Game Change, which was long overdue. Looking forward to getting back into it. I should definitely take advantage of all my free time to do more reading, I only wish I had thought to bring more books. The store I was at yesterday didn't have any books in English, but hopefully I can find a place that does.
Day 11 - First Day of Class!
I successfully made it to my class of the year, Urban Inequalities, and found James there - it's going to be great having all of my classes with him. The professor seems quite nice and the class is about 60-40 Dutch to international students. It appears to be quite the anthropological study of cities, which I'm really looking forward to, and I talked a lot about Detroit (I'll need to be ambassador!). I've been planning all along to keep a record of the cities I visit and compare them to Detroit and Ann Arbor, and at the end of my time have some kind of compilation of musings on different cities and how they strike me, so that will be nice if I follow through. The course itself is listed to run from 10-1, but starts at 1o:15, there was a break in the middle (at which point I got a delicious muffin from the cafe downstairs - all the buildings I have class in have cafes!), and we got out an hour early. The professor told us that this level course is generally mandated to have 600 pages of reading, but that she's going to go easy on us and have us read 200 pages over the semester. This is where things really hit me... University here is NOT like home. I'd have 200 pages of reading per class each WEEK back home, and to have the equivalent of a 5 credit social science class with only 200 pages of reading for a semester is mind-blowing.
Afterwards James and I biked over to the Lipsius building for our other class of the day, Culture and Society in the Netherlands, which a lot of my international friends are taking. It, once again, appears to be quite the cake walk - 12 course meetings, including 4 that are field trips or films. It's kind of astounding, really. My other course, which meets on Fridays, is Globalization and the Market, which should be the only difficult course I take this semester, just given my problems with economic concepts - ha! We'll find out tomorrow at 10!
James and I were talking about how University here is like what we would have dreamed up when we were in middle school. Classes start late, break in the middle, and end early. We only meet 12 times during the semester (once weekly, so I only have classes on Thursdays and Fridays each week), so I'm already 1/12th done with two of my courses. The reading is light, and there are minimal assignments when compared to UofM. This will be an interesting experiment in different educational philosophies, and I'm very curious to see if this style is more or less conducive to actually learning anything. This is a very highly ranked university globally (60/70ish), but at least initially the gap in rigor between this and Michigan (which is, after all, the best University in the world) is shocking, and makes me appreciate how wonderful UofM is even more. Can't wait to study here, though, so we'll see.
After class I went to a record store that apparently sells tickets for shows in Amsterdam, so I'm headed back tomorrow to get tickets to see Cut Copy at the Melkweg. I also stumbled upon the most bizarre find while there - a box set of vinyl, put out by a German record label, composed of like 60 tracks from 1960s Michigan teen punk bands. It's called Scream Loud: The Fenton Story, and was the most shocking thing sitting there in this little record store in Leiden, Holland. Amazon link.
On that note, I must also mention that I returned home last night to discover that The White Stripes had officially broken up. Having one of my two favorite bands break up was/is quite hard, but honestly, with The White Stripes, hardly unexpected. I got used to their hiatuses and everything, but I'll still be sad they're officially done. Thankfully Jack continues making music non-stop, but nothing he does will ever be better than his White Stripes discography. Just earlier that evening I bonded with a friendly Englishman over Jack. He said to me, right off the bat, "You know why I love Detroit? Jack White." Things went well from there. He and his buddy from Uni in the UK are the life of the party, so it'll be nice to be able to pull the Jack card with him, as weird as that sounds now that I'm saying it.
After the record store I settled in at Bagels and Beans, the only place in Leiden to get a bagel, and got delicious hot chocolate (you mix in chocolate chips to warm milk!) and a great tuna melt on a bagel, which tasted like heaven. Afterwards I headed home, where I've been all night. I finally got around to unpacking today, which was therapeutic, and I kinda already feel like this is less of a temporary thing and more of a life change for a while. We'll see!
I need to make myself some dinner, catch up on Friday Night Lights (only one more episode left in the series! Tragic.), figure our what the size conversion for pants here is, read some more Game Change, and hopefully watch Michigan beat #1 OSU on the road at Value City Arena. I'm really looking forward to tonight and all the events of the weekend, as I've got more class tomorrow and then shopping, heading to Amsterdam on Saturday with Adam and Steve (and maybe more? Chase? James?), and then celebrating Steve's 21st Sunday before the Super Bowl party at Bad Habits. EUROPE! COLLEGE!
As you can probably tell I'm getting more and more happy with each day. It's a testament to the wonderful support of all of you reading this wherever you are across the world, and I cannot thank the people I've talked to for support and comfort enough. You guys are always in my heart. I love you all, and I mean that.
I'm probably going to deserve the "tl;dr" comments, but I had a lot to say! See you soon.
I had a dream I visited you and helped you clean a mirror in your bathroom.
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