… levi and i landed in the netherlands for our erasmus semester. my first plane ride, the first time outside my tiny country, and the first step towards so many adventures around the world! :)
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Tag: groningen
i’m having a hard time keeping my focus today, because paulo discovered something completely and totally awesome: GOOGLE MAPS HAS STREET VIEW IN THE NETHERLANDS*!! :D
sounds random, but if you, like me, have spent some time abroad, the temptation of checking out all the familiar places is irresistible and very likely to send you on a nostalgic roller-coaster all day long. for my groningen peeps, here are some familiar sights. i’m sure some of these will make you go awwwwww as well :)
our student house, in van houtenlaan, the first place i checked for :) it looks the same and i can almost see my room here…
the albert heijn we used to go to!
mamma mini, my favourite thrift store!! how i’ve missed you!
the zernikeborg!
the gasunie building where i used to work!
grote markt, vismarkt, sally o’brien… *happy sigh*
oh, the nostalgia of happy times with friends in all of these places… and now if you excuse me, i’m going to peruse the other million spots in this beautiful city…
(*well not in the whole of the netherlands – just amsterdam, rotterdam.. and groningen!)
like my grand grandpa used to say, “sweet things never made me bitter!” :D
(from our xmas party, 2 years ago in groningen. more sweetness and nostalgie, on flickr).
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eyes on the walls.
on the follow-up of the previous post:
* i remember reading an(other) interview at lecool about amsterdam based artist laser 3.14 (pi), who writes sentences in containers and other temporary surfaces. i spotted a few phrases when i was there – he’s hard to miss if you get a bit away of the main streets. take a look at his huge gallery.
* which on second thoughts, remembers me of the “wall poems” in leiden.
hipolito, l’écrivain raté from amélie‘s movie should have gone to the netherlands. they would have understood him. :)
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los angeles style, man!
i know one shouldn’t judge a country by its stereotype, but sometimes, you find a specimen so typical, so ironically representative, that you forget all about impartiality.
as i was leaving the netherlands, i met an american guy from los angeles, arriving for a small exchange period. he asked us to use the internet on your computers every once in a while and we got the chance to talk on one of those “visits”.
him – you know…the dutch people… they’re so…
me – what?
him – like… not technologically advanced.
me – hum? what do you mean?
him – bicycles. who uses bikes these days? that’s so… backwards. i gotta get a car here.
i was shocked and speechless and then i laughed inside, secretly wondering if he knew about the dutch gas prices (only the highest in the world), and, let’s be honest, of how stupid he was, really.
the dutch are backwards because they use bicycles? ever heard of environmental friendly way of transportation which is also cheap and good for you? … i thought so. forget the car, try to find some brains instead.
ps – luckily, this stereotype was changed by another student i met later that week, from seattle, which was polite, moved normally and was nice to talk to. but then again, someone told me seattle was not a exactly a typical city… :)
ps2 – i’m back! no more exams for now! :D