Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
This should be dated Nov. 2, 2010..
Haat-cha-meius it's been quite some time since I have written anything, which unfortunately means that there won't be many details but more so an overall idea of what my past month has been like. While the weather was still nice, Zach and I cycled to a small fishing village called Elburg. This village used to be a major fishing port but after being bombed during WWII and lacking funds to reconstruct the city and train station, it has devoted it's funds to conserving the historical riches found within the village. It was nothing short of the tourist center that I expected it to be. Fortunately, we arrived during a weekend that was promoting a new area close to the village that lately became an area of wildlife conservation, so we were able to watch several people dressed in old traditional dutch clothes read off scrolls and encounter several local artists performing in side coffee shops. We spent the day wandering around the village, entering several shops and pointing out phrases we understood or products we have become familiar with as well as touring through the harbour and laughing at the comical names people give their boats (such as Replacement). For supper we found a cozy Pannekoeken Huis (pancake house) where the waitress was more than happy to explain the menu to us and put up with my awful pronunciations. The pancake I got was apple walnut, which upon reflection I don't know why I ordered since I'm not a fan of walnut, but tasted very similar to the giant flat apple pancakes that the Pancake House in Winnipeg serves. After supper we couldn't muster the courage to start our 18 km back home so we attempted to give ourselves another dutch lesson.
Before continuing on I must explain the increasing complications in riding back to Mennorode. Because of the time change, it becomes dark here around 5 pm. I don't mean it gets dusky, it's dusky all day long here, what I mean is that it's pitch black shortly after 5. The rotation of your bike tire powers your light, which in turn illuminates the path. This in theory is smart, until you ride with Zach or I. I don't think we have ever taken a trip where both of our lights have functioned properly, so we're forced to ride extremely close together. Along with this, the paths are now completely covered in leaves so you cannot tell were the drop off of the edge of the path is. There have been a few close calls, either hitting each other or the trees, but needless to say the bike home is always an adventure and each time we swear not to do it again.
My next adventure was an International Youth Congress (I think they use the word Congress in place of Conference) in the northern city of Groningen. I must admit that I absolutely was not looking forward to this. We arrived in Groningen on a Thursday afternoon, and after wandering through the streets, unfortunately including the red light district, and stopping at a quaint Italian eatery, we proceeded to the Doopsgezinde Kerk for the opening of the congress. When we entered the church we were shocked to find Eminem playing and that an activity for the evening was a pub quiz. The name was a tad misleading, apparently often in pubs they have quizzes about almost anything on the face of the earth and the winners are given a prize so we were quizzed on both general and specific information that didn't necessarily relate to pubs. And of course since this was a Mennonite youth gathering there had to be a speed dating game, during which I spent the entire minute attempting to convert who I was, where I came from, and what I was doing into either German or Dutch instead of learning anything about the person I was paired with. After all the activities had concluded our host (a single 34 year old man) met us at the church and walked us back to his house. Friday was a day of excursions. We traveled over an hour to the small village of Ter Apel where we toured a monastery (but only after being served cake and coffee, it was 9 in the morning after all), and then traveled to a Mennonite church in another town where they served us lunch. The monastery was interesting although the information was mostly about the history of the building and not so much about anyone who may have occupied it in the last decades, nevertheless it was still interesting. In the afternoon we toured the Hunebeds in Borger, which are ancient graves created, during the Neolithic period I believe, by setting massive boulders up similar to what was done at Stonehenge. Saturday was filled with workshops and speakers giving their experiences of time flying, the theme of the conference, as the waited for a heart transplant, or spent years in prison as a result of drug addictions. Heated debates and discussions followed each of these speakers forcing us to actively participate in forming opinions and questioning the speakers. The day was ended with a large buffet feast, which all participants in the conference for the past 25 years were invited to as it was both their 25th anniversary and their final operating year. A costume/dance party followed and to my extreme delight our translator was dressed as Mary Poppins. At 12:30 we were forced to leave as a result of noise rules in the city so we relocated to a very small pub a few blocks away. The singing and dancing did not end once we got there, to my surprise they moved the tables to create a bit of space for people to dance around while singing traditional Dutch music. The entire evening was rather a surprise but a welcome one. Some people spent all evening sitting beside me yelling in my ear wanting to learn things about me which is something completely surprising after being neglected of that type of contact for two months. It was what the Dutch call 'gezellig'. Unfortunately there is no translation for this word and you only know it once you are experiencing it.
That was my busy Groningen weekend. Sunday before training out of the city Zach and I visited the Strip Museum (it claims to be the most enjoyable museum in the Netherlands), which is a museum of comic books/strips. I don't think our experience there could be replicated, since we were extremely over tired the gimmicks throughout the museum were much more terrifying and funny than I imagine they intended them to be. Either way, we got in free (handy dandy museum cards!) and got to watch Donald Duck and Pluto cartoons for a long time, I'd call it a success.
- comments