With the arrival spring, also comes the arrival of new baby lambs and baby ducks. One of the few times of the day when I can sort of relax is the 20 minute train ride from Utrecht to Amsterdam. It is so nice to see the little baby lambs running around in the green fields, and the little baby ducks struggling to keep up with momma duck, and the scattering of white dots in the green fields: swans! It is nesting time, and there are several nests in the ditches along the tracks- every day I try to get a quick look as we pass by, if there are any new little ducklings. But I have yet to see any baby swans, just momma sitting on her nest. There are two duck families near my apartment that I have been keeping my eye on. It is sad when I see only one left, when I knew at one time the family had 8 little babies. But it is still so cute to see the little fuzzies!
My work situation is still mostly the same. However, in the last month or two, I've become more talkative and better friends with 3 or 4 people that I work with. This has helped me out a lot, not only at work (to vent with people who feel the same way as me, have lunch with some people) but also outside of work. We have been out for drinks several times after work. This is good for my social life, as I did not really have one before! ;-) I'm meeting new people, and we can commiserate together while drinking our pain away. They are also fellow international people, no native dutch. Besides basketball, I have not really tried to make Dutch friends. The situation I am in just does not allow me to meet other Dutchies. All my Dutch connections are through M.
A week ago, M and I went on an extended 3-day weekend trip to Prague. I had never been there before and it is really a beautiful city. It is so much more 3-dimensional than the Netherlands. There are many more colors and hilly terrain. The Prague castle is the largest castle in the world (apparently), and there is a quite famous bridge crossing the Vltava River, the Charles Bridge. This would be tourist central. Its a circus full of people during the day, taking pictures and others selling stuff. The weather was nice on Friday and Sunday, but it rained most of Saturday...but of course we continued to wander around. Unfortunately I got sick on Friday after lunch: food poisoning. For lunch I ate a typical Czech meal: pork roast, dumplings, and sauerkraut. A few hours later I was searching for a bathroom. All day Saturday I was intense pain, all my stomach/digestive organs were pretty painful. Only sitting down would help, laying down at the hotel was best. But we stayed outside of the city center in a hotel accessible by metro & bus, so it wasn't like we could just go back for a few hours in the afternoon and lay down, and then go out later. But Sunday was a bit better luckily. This trip was for our 6 year anniversary (which was this past Feb). Good thing there are budget airlines in Europe. It was only a 1 hr 20min flight there.
Yesterday we rode our bikes again through the flower fields north of Leiden. From there we went to the sea and laid on the beach for an hour, and then rode to Zandvoort aan Zee and then Haarlem. It was quite nice, and I got a bit red from the sun. The tulips were out and were beautiful!
As far as the every day stuff-- my classes are still going on twice a week, but for the next 2 weeks there is a school vacation. Basketball is over until fall, so that should free up my weekends and also not make me so crazy on Wednesdays. Wednesdays are usually my break-down day, where things just get to be too much for me and I get overwhelmed. I hope that can be less now that it is spring/summer. And in a month and a half, I'll be back in the States on 'vacation'- for my wedding and for some traveling. I'm greatly looking forward to that.
