Utrecht Part 2

So I've been living in Utrecht for about 10 days which is actually pretty crazy to me because it feels like longer and shorter at the same time.

Back to School, Back to School, to Prove to Dad that I'm not a Fool... ;)

Yesterday I began my intensive course called Fundamentals of Neuroscience.  This is my only class and we meet from 9 to 5 every weekday.  So far it's been alright but I know that it's going to be a pretty exhausting 10 weeks.  Tomorrow we begin dissecting a human brain.  I'm very excited for this.  It's simultaneously freaky and incredible to have the opportunity to do this.  We'll be working in large groups of 9 people to 1 brain.

Most of the people in my course at dutch (~85%) and so it's been interesting to be surrounded by people speaking in another language.  Now, the course is absolutely taught in english but many of the students revert to Dutch when speaking to eachother.  I definitely don't get upset about it but occasionally I have to remind them that I'm there and need them to speak in english.  It makes me further aware of how boring and monolingual I am.  Everyone tells me that they don't mind and even like speaking in english but I'm still embarrassed that I can only speak english.  Additionally, everyone tells me not to bother learning dutch.  They argue that it's a useless language and although I might agree with them in some respects, I'd also like to learn the language that's spoken to and around me constantly; particularly since I'll be living here for 2 years.  We'll see what I decide to do.  I think I might try and get the dutch students to teach me in passing and see what I can learn by immersion.  I think I can also trade my english for dutch as well if I were to sign up for some partner learning.

I've been able to meet a lot of people in my program during this last week at our orientation and also during class since we often do group work.  I've been enjoying all of their company and learning new things about dutch culture and thoughts about american culture as well.  It's a growing experience to meet so many international and dutch students and I feel so lucky to be here.

Continuing Impressions

This past week was, as the dutch jokingly say, typical dutch weather.  Meaning that this week was beautiful sunny and warm weather not at all resembling the typical dutch day.  I tried to take advantage when I could by going out into the city.  I had three different introduction days for my masters, international program and my graduate school and all of them had great free stuff and activities for us.  They gave me an opportunity to meet new people and explore the city and campus.  Saturday I signed up for an intro day by the Erasmus Student Network which is a group that supports international students but boiled down, they're basically a party all the time.  ESN is more for bachelors students but it was a fun opportunity to see the city and meet more people.  They also hosted a party that evening and a bunch of us went to that as well.  It's pretty funny riding your bike to the bar.  Definitely not something I thought I'd be doing all the time.  I've had the chance to meet some great german friends and we decided to go to the beach on Sunday.  We drove to Den Hague (40 mins away) and it was amazing.  It was beautiful and such a great temperature.  Even the freezing ocean was delightful.  We stayed and watched the sunset while eating fish and chips on the harbor.  I can't imagine a better way to spend my last day before starting this masters.

Challenges

I know it goes without saying but this adventure has not been without it's snags.  One of the more obvious difficulties is that they speak dutch here which means that I don't know what people are saying when they speak to me at first (I also have to ask for english), I struggle pronouncing cities, street names...everything, shopping at the grocery store can be an adventure even with pictures on things(!) and plenty of other things.  Now, it's really been okay so far and I survive just fine because the dutch speak english and I can always ask questions and get an okay answer.  Another trick is money.  For some reason, the Netherlands uses cards with chips on the card, and a pin as well, almost exclusively.  This means my credit and debit cards are rendered useless because I only have magnetic strips.  This means I always need cash on me which makes me pretty uncomfortable.  To get a card with a chip, I require a bank account.  I truly thought this would be an easy enough endeavor.  I signed up for an account ahead of time and planned to sign my contract and activate the account at the international intro day on Thursday.  Of course the bank immediately had technical difficulties get anything to work for anyone and said we would need to go to the one and only bank branch that handles our student accounts which is also on the other side of town.  On top of that, they were so busy that they were turning people away on Thursday and Friday. I have class everyday from 9-5 which is their working hours so it's nearly impossible for me to get over there from campus even on a lunch break.  It's INSANE.  So ridiculous that such a large bank could eff up a simple enough process.  You might be thinking: why doesn't she just go to another bank?  Well I would in a heartbeat if I could.  But since I'm on scholarship, the school needs me to have a rabobank account so that they can put my money in there and then pay for my tuition as well.  Luckily my classes today are shifted later tomorrow and thursday so I'll be able to activate it then but it's been frustrating.  I also require a bank account in order to get a contract cell phone so right now I don't have a real phone.  I've been borrowing one but I'd like to have a smart phone that I can do translations, conversions and maps on as well as simply a number that I don't mind giving out to lots of people because I'll have it permanently.  The biking thing was mostly intimidating for a few days but now I ride everyday and although sometimes I still struggle with head winds and rain, I feel confident enough to get around.  I also get lost on a somewhat regular basis.  I always make sure to have a map with me (usually 2-3 slightly different ones that have better versions parts of the city).  I don't mind being lost too much because I get to see more of the city (silver lining).  All in all, things could be much more difficult and I'm happy that I chose to move here.  It's bound to be an incredible adventure!

                                                               The Dom Tower in Utrecht

                          One of the Uni buildings in the City Center.  I'll graduate here in 2 years

                                                   An example of the many many bikes!

Until next post.  Tot ziens!

Brenna

Utrecht Part 1

Now this is the post that I think you've all been waiting for.  And partly for that reason and also because I've been incredibly busy, I haven't written much til now and I suspect that I'll be writing this post in pieces during downtimes (like now).

There are many things I want to say about Utrecht and of course they're jumbled in my head so bear with me if it feels jumpy.

First Impressions

As you might recall, I got a sneak preview of Utrecht when I first arrived in the Netherlands.  During those 3 days my hosts and others showed me around the campus (De Uithof--pronounced D Idoff) and the city.  Utrecht is a smaller city that feels very cozy and inherently european.  The streets are often bricked or cobbled and the architecture is very different from in the US.  Also, generally speaking, the dutch are friendly.  There have been occasions when once I've revealed my accent, people immediately enquire where I'm from and what I'm doing here (made friends with a bus driver that way).  It's nice and reminds me of being home because in Los Alamos and the US in general people are friendly.  I found that isn't true in other countries during my euro-trip.

Bikes

Also as you've probably heard, there are lots of bikes.  But really, there are LOTS of bikes.  Stats show that there are more bikes than people in the Netherlands and I can certainly see why.  One of the first things I set out to do once I moved into my apartment was buy a bike.  Since I really don't know much about bikes and particularly about bikes that the dutch use (more on this later) I walked into a shop hoping that they could easily guide me through it.  Instead, I spoke with an older gentleman who spoke english but not fluently and I'm not entirely sure how well we communicated.  But in the end I picked out a nice somewhat rusty black bike with fixed gears and back pedal braking.  Now, before I go further I think it's important for me to explain the difference in bikes here and the in the US.  In the US I typically see people on road bikes, mountain bikes and crossovers.  Some would say you also see hipsters on fixies.  All of those bikes are fine but require the rider to hunch a little more and are more about going from one place to another.  In the Netherlands, their focus on bikes is to be able to be comfortable and able to transport a number of things including people, groceries, giant bags etc.  They also have mud slingers over the wheels because it rains here a lot and covers on the chains so that it requires much less maintenance.  Fixed gears here make sense because the country is pretty much completely flat and they also require less maintenance and you don't have to worry about your gears breaking on your daily commute.  The same goes for the back pedal braking.  Now I do see the other bikes around but the bike I've purchased is a classic dutch bike.  Also, I mentioned being happy about rust.  That's because bike theft is incredibly common here and the less attractive the bike can be, the better.  I'm hoping to decorate/paint my bike so it's easier to find in the parking (I'll take pictures soon to help you understand) and I've just gotten courier bags for the back of my bike and would like to get a basket in the front for easier transport of groceries.

I'm going to be lazy and make this my first post and then I'll add more every few days.

Aux Grands Hommes La Patrie Reconnaissante

Paris

My final stop was in Paris and unfortunately, it was a very short stop.  I was only there for 2 full days.  I was staying with Charlie who is another friend from Los Alamos.  We were staying at his parents house because he hasn't gotten an apartment for himself and friends yet.  It was a really nice apartment. After settling in we walked to the basillica on the hill in montemarte.  At this point we had a pretty awesome view of Paris and it was really nice to see it at dusk.  After wandering here for some time, we met with his friend Edward(you must pronounce it the french way) for dinner.  It was fun because Edward spoke english as well and we had a good time trying to chat and sometimes figure out how to explain something that wasn't translating quite right.  Our dinner was very delicious and the guys were kind enough to ask for an english menu for me.  After dinner we did one of my favorite things of the trip partly because it felt very parisian.  We got some beer and jumped the fence at the basilica and looked out over the city and night while talking and getting to know eachother while also people watching.  The guys told me that they did this when they were teenagers.  It was simple but just felt like being more part of the city rather than a visitor.  The next day we did pretty much the opposite.  We toured!! We saw the eiffel tower in the morning and did the whole thing!  We took the stairs to the 1st and 2nd floors and then we took the elevator to the very top.  Overall we didn't spend too much because we did the stairs.  It was Charlie's first time actually going to the top.  I'm glad we did because you could see the layout of the streets and it was striking.  Then we met with Edward again for lunch.  We had amazing crepes.  I got a breakfast one with eggs, cheese, tomato, spinach etc.  It was so good.  We then went to the Pantheon which was really neat.  It has a fascinating history which I won't go into right now :)  Afterwards we went over to the Notre Dame.  It's a stunning piece of architecture.  I preferred it from the outside because inside was so full of tourists and it was very dark but it was still really interesting to walk around the cathedral.  One thing that was interesting is they have a priest who speaks like 5 languages for confessional and even more unusual is that confession occurs in a "glass box" type room which I thought takes away from the privacy of it all.  When we got out of the Notre Dame, the weather had turned rainy so we decided to go to the modern art museum.  I also really liked this museum.  I used to really dislike modern art but I've realized that I just don't like some modern art.  A lot of it is really interesting.  I'm particularly fond of minimalistic and design focused works.  Since eating out can get expensive, we bought food at the store and made dinner.  It turned out okay but we ended up overcooking the salmon :(  BUT we had dessert crepes and they were yummy.  Nutella all the way!  They even had a legit skillet for crepes and the stick spreader thingy.  The next day we did museums.  First we did the obligatory Louvre tour.  That was CRAZY.  I know they say it's huge and you'll never see it all but really they really really mean it.  But I saw the Mona Lisa and a bunch of famous old paintings.  I was less excited about those than I thought I would but I prefer more modern art, I guess.  I did really love the two floors of sculpture.  The rooms they have for them are flooded with natural light and you can really appreciate the forms.  I've always loved how people can turn stone into something that is so lifelike and full of emotion.  It's incredible and those works are classics.  Following the Louvre we went to l'Orangerie which is home to the famous oval rooms of Monet's lilies.  I could've sat there for hours.  Monet has always been my favorite artist and I was in heaven at the opportunity to see these paintings in person.  Sadly they didn't allow photos so I don't have any.  The museum also has a permanent collection with art by many artists I also like.  That museum was one of my favorites.  Finally we walked through the king's gardens and visited the Invalides.  Something I haven't mentioned is that the guys discovered that most places let young people under 25 who are from the EU into museums for free.  Since we arrived at Invalides close to closing time, I told them to go in and check it out and I would happily wait outside.  I got some cool photos of the church's gilded top and of the gardens.  We cooked a yummy dinner the second night :)  I left the next morning by train for Amsterdam and then to Utrecht.

I chose the above phrase because it's the only french that I can remember how to say and that the guys taught me on this trip :)

Back to the Mountains

Zurich

After the non-stop walking and touring in london and edinburgh, I was looking forward to going to Zurich and visiting with my friend Cecelia.  I also met Cecelia in Los Alamos and she's italian but just moved to zurich for a phd in mathematics.  Ceci met me at the airport and we took the bus back to her apartment and after settling in for a little bit we adventured out for dinner at a classic swiss cuisine restaurant.  Aside from the cost for a single trip on the bus (nearly 5 francs), this was my first introduction to just how expensive switzerland is.  Any entree starts at 20 francs almost everywhere!  It's unbelievable. The only comfort was that the swiss franc and the US dollar are worth almost the same amount so I wasn't spending even more money as I would if it were euros or pounds.  We both ordered a sausage and the classic potato salad side.  It was very tasty!  When we returned to the apartment we planned for the weekend.  We decided to go to Lucern on Sunday and travel the mount pilatus and do the silver round trip.  On Saturday we did a bit of a walking tour of Zurich.  The weather was sort of crappy out but we went to an art museum which was really awesome!  I got to see some famous works of art by monet and van gogh.  We spent nearly 3 hours wandering through the exhibits. It was lovely.  We later stumbled into a street festival in the old part of the city and stayed there for beers and listened to a band play followed by karaoke.  That was hilarious.  Listening to swiss people singing american songs is everything you can imagine.  I had 2 beers and actually felt a little tipsy.  I suspect they were stronger brews than I had thought.  Mount Pilatus was amazing.  It was a little expensive to do the trip but it was totally worth it.  We saw the mountain, the lakes, and incredible 360 views.  It was gorgeous.  It was also very cold at the top of the mountain and I was glad that Ceci convinced me to rethink my idea of wearing shorts.  The next few nights we stayed in and made dinner because it was truly too expensive not to.  I think, admittedly, I was lazy in Zurich and didn't wander enough but at the same time, I was interested in sitting by the lake and enjoying quiet relaxing time reading my book.  So that's what I did.  I don't have many pictures because I didn't want to haul my big camera around with me.  One of the evenings, Ceci met me at the lake after work and it was a warm day so we sat at the lake with our feet in the water, watching the sunset, eating carry out food from the grocery store and discussing all kinds of things.  One of my favorite moments.  From Zurich, I went to Paris!

A scottish brogue

Edinburgh

I decided to visit Edinburgh because my friend Michael is living there and studying at the university.  He did a year internship at Los Alamos National Lab so that's where I met him.  I timed my visit really well because there was a huge theater, arts, music, and comedy festival going on in Edinburgh while I was there.  As such, Mike went ahead and took care of reserving 5-6 shows for us to see in the 4 days that I was there.  It was a pretty jam-packed trip because we toured during the day and then saw shows and had beers in the evening.  We saw the castle, climbed the crags although we didn't do arthur's seat, saw the "athen's of the north", went to a crazy optical illusions museum and just wandered.  The comedy was pretty good and fun to see.  Overall, I really liked Edinburgh and I know that I would've been happy if I had attended my masters there.  BUT before my edinburgh pals get high and mighty, I think Utrecht is really perfect as well!  Oh another weird thing was playing beer pong there.  Mike had invited a few friends to play because they never play it.  So it was funny to be doing something so american and typical to me that was so novel to them.

London Calling

London

This trip to london held a very special place in my heart because I was getting to see my friend Jodie for the first time in two years.  Jodie studied abroad at State University of New York at New Paltz for a semester and I helped to arrange that she live in our suite since she was studying psychology and half of us were doing the same.  She became a great friend in those few months and I've been hoping and saying we'd met again and I finally could fulfill that promise.  We met in London on Friday evening and proceeded to our hostel and then hopefully some dinner!  This was our first hostel experience and I was excited while Jodie was more apprehensive (probably a smarter emotion than mine).  The hostel was nice and in a park in Kensington.  We were sharing our room with at max 6 other girls.  There were 3 young girls from Sweden that we chatted with for awhile.  We left and got dinner just before the place closed(!) and then headed for a bar in the same area.  It turns out that we probably should have gone somewhere else for cheap, chill bars but we had a fun time anyways.  Unfortunately we didn't know the tube stops running at 12am so we had to take a cab which was exciting but also too much money :-\  The next day we did an insane grand walking tour of London.  We started at Portobello road street market which was really fun and crowded.  Didn't buy anything mostly because I didn't have room in the single backpack I took with me on this 2 week trip.  Then we went to the Tower of London and decided that the outside was pretty enough because nearly 20 pounds to go in was way too expensive.  From there we just strolled along the Thames and went towards all the classic sites like Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and others that I can't think of...essentially we walked a crazyyyyy amount but saw a lot!  It was beautiful weather bordering on hot.  The night before our waitress recommended a district with good drinking and food so we checked it out.  Unfortunately, we now loathe that waitress because we wandered around a district with hardly any food or drink and just got blisters on our feet.  It was a pretty defeating experience all around but that's life.  The next day we decided to take it a little easier and walked at a slower pace with frequent breaks because our poor feet ached.  That day we wanted to see a show at the west end but the shows that were on were sold out so we walked around that area and then went to the natural history museum and saw the bodies exhibit for animals.  That was super cool.  That day we decided that rather than wandering around looking for dinner, we would go to a place near our hostel that we'd walked by everyday.  This was our best decision ever.  The place was lovely and delicious.  We decided to extend our experience and ordered cocktails then an appetizer and then a main and then more cocktails and finally a dessert.  We were there for a good 4 hours and they never made us feel rushed to leave which is so different from in the US.  It was so nice to just sit and chat together about all kinds of things in our lives that we'd missed out on when we were apart.  The next morning we said goodbye and spoke of her coming to visit me in Utrecht soon!  I headed towards the train station to get to edinburgh.

New directions to new places

Gosh where to begin.

Well for introductions, in case someone I don't know is interested and reading this, I'm Brenna and I've just moved to Utrecht in the Netherlands for 2 years to complete my masters in Neuroscience.  I'm doing this blog partly for the benefit of my friends and family who are interested in how I'm doing and also for myself.  This experience is unique and I want to be able to document how it has all worked out.    I've picked the title "Subtle Differences" for my blog because what I've realized is that many things are similar to living in the US.  Generally we do the same things but I have noticed tons of subtle differences in random items like how they package some foods or how the toilets are.  Silly things but that's what I've truly noticed most.  Maybe I'll come up with a better title later but for now this is good enough :)

For starters, I've been living in Utrecht a grand total of 4 days now but I've been galavanting in Europe for two weeks.  It's been a whirlwind of activity and fun.  So many new things to see and do (and get used to doing).  I think I'll just do a little documentation of my trip so far...

Leaving the US

Turns out that no matter how many times you do the whole "goodbyes" thing, it's still pretty difficult.  My year back in los alamos turned out better than I ever dreamed and I met some true friends.  I'm lucky that some of them will be living in los alamos semi-permanently and I will see them again when I go home to visit and that some of the rest of them are from europe and will be there while I'm here.  But for many they were open-ended goodbyes that you're not totally sure when you'll see eachother again and that is truly saddening.   But I hold high hopes to meet those people again.  Packing my life for two years into essentially 2 bags was a challenge particularly considering I've never experienced this climate before and had no idea what to expect.  It was interesting to realize how easy it was for me to just put things aside because I knew I wouldn't need them.  Needs and wants are two very different things.

It was hard saying goodbye to my family at the airport this time.  For some reason it was harder than it has been in the past.  I think part of it is related to the fact that I moved home for a year and was able to live with my parents as an adult and not as a teenager.  Our relationships changed from when I lived at home as a high school teenager, in a good way.

                                                            A view of my home state


Arriving

For those who know about my air travel history and horrible luck, you'll be surprised to hear that I truly had a hassle free trip to Amsterdam even with some opportunities for misfortune!  First off, despite being assured by the woman at the airline desk in abq that I would NOT need to exit the terminal in Chicago, I had to leave the terminal and check in again at Aer Lingus and go thru security again at a different terminal.  But all was well.  I had plenty of time between my connections and no trouble.  My only issue was that they had no food in the international terminal I was in, after security so it was pringles for lunch!  My flight to Dublin wasn't very crowded so I had two empty seats next to me.  The plane was huge and new with tvs in the seat back in front of you with loads of choices.  I watched a few movies, napped and read.  Overall a delightful flight!  The only drawback is my seat was the only seat who's a/c was broken and I couldn't turn it off so I was cold but I had a blanket so it was fine.  Dublin airport was really lovely and had free wifi so I could let my family know I was safe.  Getting to amsterdam was fine as well and what's more is that Kirsten surprised me and picked me up from the airport!  This was really nice because she knew how to get around much quicker and it certainly helped with carrying around all my luggage pieces.  After leaving on a monday morning and arriving on a tuesday afternoon in Utrecht, I was pretty exhausted but following the warnings of friends, I did not take a nap because I knew it would mess with my jetlag.  Luckily I was staying with 3 people who are in my program (2nd years) who were so kind and kept me awake with lively conversation and a delicious dinner.  I stayed with them for 3 days before beginning my euro travels and got to see a little bit of utrecht as well.

Eurotrip!

This trip has had many different imagined routes and company but I finally worked out the trip 2 months prior to leaving the US.  My dear friend Jodie wasn't able to join me galavanting around europe so I decided to visit cities where I also knew someone there.  Here is my route:
         London-->Edinburgh-->Zurich-->Paris-->Utrecht(final destination!)