i can’t stand up right now…
there is a brown-haired-kitten napping on my feet.
accio-a-life said: kick it
ISAAC I CANNOT KICK MITCHELL.
so I was just cycling away from the library after an afternoon of studying, when I heard something quite unexpected, and that I hadn’t heard in awhile:
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“Hey, Sas!”
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‘Twas my drink-buying, Los-Chaos dance partner, rugby teammate and Rowan’s best friend, Phil, who I haven’t seen since the start of summer, cycling in the opposite direction.
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Anyway, for a split second there, a simple “hi!” in the middle of the day made me feel like this was really college again. Even better, my college.
Completely made my day :)
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… I just hope he doesn’t tell Aidan that I stole his jacket ;)
Sunday in London
was rainy and quite dreary, but Anna and I are troopers and we marched through it.
First up, a “Harry Potter tour”— of many of the film’s shooting locations in downtown London. Here’s some highlights:
Okay, so that’s Anna and I on the night of July 12th, right before the DH2 premiere. But it felt appropriate to include it here.
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They shot a scene for PoA here where the Knight Bus spins around in the middle of the square. They had to build a giant turntable and literally spin the bus around to do it— I suppose they could have just used CGI, but seriously, when given the option of building a giant turntable, you take it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear in the actual movie— just in the deleted scenes :/
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Anna standing in front of the original Leaky Cauldron shooting location— this is actually an apartment building which was, until recently, owned by none other than Colonel Gaddafi.
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The Bank of London. Note the dragons and snakes “guarding” the doors. JK Rowling lived in London for 6 months before she wrote HP, so she would have known all these buildings really well.
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The following are a bunch of skyscrapers that the Death Eaters circled when they attacked London in HP6
That last monument (the London memorial for the great fire of 1666) has a Goblet of Fire on top. Ahem.
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The second Leaky Cauldron filming location, with my umbrella at the top because it was absolutely pouring rain for the majority of our tour. Woo, London!
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the Tower Bridge, viewed from the London bridge. Harry & members of the Order of the Phoenix fly over and through these bridges in HP5.
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Apparently the crest of London is two silver dragons. Hmmmm.
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Sirius’ motorbike. JK, I just thought it was cool XD
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And now, for the most excellent diversion following our tour, Anna and I went to a market on Brick Lane.
It was essentially my own personal hippie/ethnic heaven on Earth. Here’s a bit of a sampling…
Malaysian pancakes. The peanutty sample ones were especially tasty.
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Discount thrift shopping heaven.
I still bargained with some Asian sales lady to knock down a 20 pound dress to 15. Not much, but I’m still proud :D
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2 pounds. That’s right, 2 pounds for this full plate of delicious dinner— couscous, chickpeas, sorghum/parsley/idkwhatelse green stuff, and red cabbage salad. This is what you get when you visit the ethnic food stalls at 7 pm, the market’s closing time, and everyone needs to get rid of their food XD
and Anna got a free cupcake! Chocolate and chili spice flavored, ‘twas tasty.
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Seriously, I could not get over that tasty Ethiopian food and how nice the ladies that made it were. They put up with all my annoying touristy photo-taking XD
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Oh, and Anna and I spotted this:
but really the last two lines are most important:
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Oh, and our train to the airport departed from King’s Cross. Could have taken us to Hogwarts instead. NBD.
Much Ado About Nothing
was so, so, so incredibly…. everything.
Okay, that was lame. But seriously, I’m having a hard time describing just how much I enjoyed that show.
You’d really have to know me well as a person to understand why I loved this show so much. Because I absolutely adore David Tennant and Catherine Tate, especially on stage together, because I had loved two seasons of their incredible wit on Doctor Who together. Also 3,5 hours of Tennant eye candy did not hurt.
Because I really don’t take much stock in theatrical talent, I had friends who did a lot of shows in high school and whenever I saw them practicing and turn on the “drama character” I just thought it was much too much and so overdone and so irritatingly dramatic. I’d much rather myself have a sweet note, or a hug, or a wake-up call than an overt public declaration of undying affection (although really Isaac, your 2008 Valentine’s Day marriage proposal shall never be forgotten :D).
But really, Tennant and Tate managed to capture the nuances of their characters impeccably well. You could tell that Beatrice had been hurt by Benedick before, that Benedick was outwardly a boastful bachelor, but inwardly focused on every word and glance that Beatrice directed at him. The way they spoke Shakespeare’s words and brought them to life— I purchased a copy of the play’s script, and rereading it I can still hear their lilt on certain phrases, the slow, Rickman-esque way they spoke certain lines.
And whoah, the dynamic that Shakespeare created between Beatrice and Benedick. I’ve seen many— and once even had— a relationship with that strong love/hate component, and it’s fiery and exhausting and absolutely fantastic. And their absolutely brilliant wit— how they constantly teased each other, even when a couple. Those unforgettable lines, that I’ll keep replaying in my mind. Their faces when eavesdropping and “discovering” each other’s love— the obviously long, long drawn out tension between them, and sudden cathartic relief upon that discovery. So. Incredible.
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I haven’t gushed nearly enough, and perhaps I’ll think of more words to say later. But right now I’m just going to upload a bunch of pictures. I fangirled so, so hardcore after this show.
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West Ham stadium
was conveniently on the way to the Who Shop.
Otherwise I would not have gone there.
‘Twas a pretty sketch place for me to be wandering about alone.
So hello sweetie, I won’t go next time unless you’re coming with me.
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But I did snap a ton of pictures. Just in case we ever do go back. Also because I’m an awful tease and need to show off these photos somewhere.
I’m assuming the last one is from when England still had decent soccer players? : P
België
*had Nutella jars as big as your head
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*Anna and I took a wrong turn and stumbled upon the “Buik van Brussels” (“Stomach of Brussels”). Note the restaurant called Le Moulin, reminded me of “Moulin Rouge” XD. Also, now that I know that moulin in French means “mill”, I understand that movie’s title even less…
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*has adorably shaped chocolates. And lots and lots of free samples in chocolatier shops. But those disappeared too quickly for me to take a picture ;)
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*has awesome hilarious French folksy bands playing on streetcorners
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*translates everything into at least 4 languages
“Welcome home”
- customs/immigration guy when I walked back through passport control at Schiphol tonight.
It sounded good :)
two weeks, on the brink.
“still waters run deep”, said a blonde boy in my class to describe me, soon after we started this McDermott program adventure together. And without making things too overly dramatic, his first impression was remarkably correct.
Because in Texas, I do frequently feel like I tuck away a huge part of myself deep beneath the surface. No one ever asks about it, so I never talk about it, but it’s always on the back of my mind. When I wake up, when I grocery shop, when I’m walking outside…. I think about a life I know that’s not radically different, but completely separate. It’s like carrying a secret around that I really want to tell, but I know nobody will understand, or relate, or really want to share it with me.
I’ve been planning this summer ever since I accepted the scholarship. Maybe even earlier. My parents said that this was just a trial run, and we could always return after a few years… but we just kept drifting further and further away (there’s irony here in that any geophysicist can tell you that the Atlantic Ocean is literally diverging and growing wider each year). I watched my faraway family’s birthdays and weddings pass by in the form of greeting cards and e-mailed photos. My culture seemed forced, through grade school presentations and holidays that only my family celebrated and my friends didn’t understand. I began to think in English.
Most students dive into Europe to explore a new world (hehe, the old world), try new things, feel uncertain and uncomfortable and gain strength in their journey. I dove in, well, to see if I could remember how to swim. Or float. But just to test if the water was to my liking, if I was interested in coming back someday.
I didn’t think it would work out so well. I thought that the university wouldn’t be as engaging as those in Texas, that Dutch classes would be simpler and that the professors would be stern and uninteresting. I figured that I would hate the rain, and wearing jeans and sweaters all the time. My family barely knows who I am, and I assumed that they would set me apart as the American cousin for good.
I knew that I would never have another summer like this, three months to return to a life I recognized from dreams and childhood memories, to reflect on my past and speculate on the person I want to become. So maybe, in a way, I was planning on making this a long goodbye. Summers in the Netherlands had become part of my life as a teenager in Texas, and this would be the last one, and I would make the most of it.
Lieve lieve hemel, I was wrong.
This doesn’t feel like a goodbye. At all.
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This feels like, I stay at the campus library until I’m kicked out in surprise, because I’ve fallen into online class lectures for 5 hours straight. Making jokes in Dutch with my professors, about research and Belgians and each other. Loading my backpack with 5 new books from work to pore over every night. Cycling the long route home, because the sun is shining and my legs are fresh and strong and because I can. My younger girl cousins— my Eugenie, Aor, Rita, and Elbe— remember me from their dreams, the faraway cousin, and hug my waist and ask me to sleep over every time I visit. My accent is fading, my Winkels humor is returning (oh dear), I’m dancing with my uncle in the kitchen while setting morning coffee. I fall asleep happy and jump out of bed in the morning, wide awake.
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And today, I realized that I really could do it. I could stay here. I could register at the TU, live with my family until I find a nearby flat, come over in the morning to make coffee. I fit here, in a way I never have in Texas. I could give up everything— I would give up everything— just to feel this way for good.
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And I would. And I want to. The choice is so close, I could reach out and take it. Just take it, for myself.
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That’s just it, though. I’m not that selfish. I have people, friends, brothers and sisters, back in Texas that I think about every day, on the hour. I see things we would laugh about, want to text them, am much too far away and much too lonely and need that gezelligheid back. Strangely enough, that word, gezellig, which I connect so fiercely with my memories of the Netherlands, has come to describe my home in San Antonio and at my friends’ apartments at UTD.
So I’ll go back. I can truly be myself here, but I can’t be by myself much longer.
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Two years, though, and they’ll be gone, and I’ll be looking to move on, move forward. And then I’ll have this choice again, I’ll be standing on this brink again.
“De stormvloedkering is gesloten.
De Deltawerken zijn voltooid.
Zeeland is veilig.”
- Koningin Beatrix, 1986
“The Oosterscheldekering is closed.
The Deltaworks are finished.
Zeeland is safe.”
-Queen Beatrix, 1986
1953-present
This is the modern age of Dutch coastal engineering, a reaction to the fear and shock of the 1953 Flood that has evolved into a symbol of national scientific pride. We claim to be known the world ‘round for our civil engineering innovations and accomplishments.
Before 1953, yes, we were unique as a “land below water”, made of individual “waterschappen” (water governments— remember, “elc sinen dijk”), a collection of individual workers stubbornly fighting against tides and surges and floods. But this was a weak state— no military, no federal government, no collective funds for protection. The 1953 disaster transformed this nation— now, every citizen is in some part aware of the Deltaworks and the amount of work put in to preserve this nation. We all know the Rijkswaterstaat, the national oversight board for watermanagement which keeps track of everything from storm surges, to freshwater supply, to dredging out new shipping routes into our ports. Here’s the progress:
1953- Watersnoodwedstrijd voetbal
a soccer match played to bring attention to the victims of the 1953 floods and raise funds for reconstruction, this was the first professional soccer match played in the Netherlands and laid the foundation for the later Eredivisie
1957- first Deltaproject finished over the Hollandse IJssel. This is also the first moveable storm surge barrier in the world.
1958- Deltawet established, which includes the advice of the 1st Deltacommission (a group of scientists and politicians tasked with making an “action plan” to protect Zeeland) and officially implements the Deltaplan to construct the Deltaworks.
1959- Zandkreekdam between North & South Beveland built
1961- Veerse Gat dam creates the Veerse Meer
1964- The Haringvlietbrug, Hellegatsdam, and Grevelingsdam are finished
1965- the Zeelandbrug is completed, which stretches 5 kilometers and was at the time the longest bridge in the Netherlands.
1969- Volkerakdam connects North-Brabant with South Holland
1971- Haringvlietdam and sluice cross 4.5 kilometers of water and include 17 openable sluices to allow some water to pass through
1972- Brouwersdam, which also creates the Grevelingsmeer
1976- canal dug between the Schelde and the Rijn allows for internal water navigation between the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany
1977- Rivercommission Becht publishes advice over the protection against riverfloods
the Sigmaplan goes into effect, which is the Flemish (Belgian) equivalent of the Dutch Deltaplan
Volkerakwerken and sluices are completed
30 april, 1980- coronation of Queen Beatrix
1986- Oosterscheldekering is opened, marking the completion of the Deltaworks
1988- the Netherlands is the 1st European nation connected to the NSFnet, a precursor to the Internet
1992- Rivercommission Boertien publishes advice concerning riverdyke strengthening
1993- Rivers flood in the southern province of Limburg
1995- Deltaplan Large Rivers established, to provide a fast solution to the need for riverdyke strengthening across the nation
1996- Wet op de Waterkering, which requires that Dutch regional water governments have daily responsibility for the upkeep of primary dykes, and establishes consistent safety requirements the coast, estuaries, and rivers (which are to be tested every 5 years)
1997- Maeslantkering is finished
2003- Westerscheldetunnel (6.5 km long) is completed between Zuid Beveland and Zeeuws Vlaanderen
Oh, and to concretely show that the “elc sinen dijk” concept is forever gone—
In 1955, there were 2480 regional waterboards in the Netherlands. In 2005, they had consolidated into 26.
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