Daily Life and Duck Eggs

Recently I've settled into a nice routine in Middelburg. The schoolwork has been easy; the days getting brighter, and the weather, well, supremely warm for this time of year. Lacking any major, jaw-dropping events to explain today, this will be more of a day-to-day post. 

In the news...

Middelburg has two universities, my own HZ and the University College Roosevelt. The latter has been experiencing an unprecedented rough patch this semester; some poorly communicated cuts to staff and programs have not gone down well. To make a long story short, 25% of the professors have been fired and many students don't know what the future will look like for them. (worry not, the HZ is stable as far as I know...)

At a protest on Friday against the cuts. Around 200 students!

So in light of these uncertain times, I rode my bike out to what must be one of the only duck farms in the country, with a few friends from the UCR. What better way to distract from a bad situation than with exotic (but local!) produce? It was pouring with rain that Saturday afternoon, so we were certainly dedicated. This farm is one of the kinds where you ring the doorbell up at the house and the owners will come open the shed for you, where all the goodies are kept. 

Stock image for illustration purposes; this is very close to the actual condition. 

They were very kind and willing to hear our pidgin Dutch. "Ah, jullie zijn studenten, wat fijn!" I've come to discover that the farmstand-produce, available nearly year-round here, is only marginally more expensive than grocery stores. And they definitely won't give you an apple voor onderweg at Albert Heijn. 

In the weather...

All last week it was in the 50s and 60s here, really remarkable considering our high latitude and that it's still February. I took the opportunity to get out and explore the countryside a little bit; and take in that unmistakable smell of grass, wood, and manure that is so pervasive around here. It's quiet on warm winter days like this; were I to frequent this area in the summer I'd be surrounded by throngs and hordes of tourists. Anecdotally, I've heard that Zeeland receives as many visitors as Ibiza does. 

A very low tide on the left and my trusty bike on the right. I'm coming up on 3000 miles (recorded, many more small trips around town are forgotten) ridden on this frame!

This was also a new record for me- the earliest in the year I've been swimming! (though all the locals have me beat. There is a great tradition called the "New Year's Dip", wherein everybody charges into the sea to celebrate) The water was around 40 degrees, so not all that different to a spring-fed pond back in Minnesota. In this case, "swimming" meant about a minute-long spell in the cold, gray-blue clutches of the waves. Regardless, you will never feel so refreshed!

The beach at Vlissingen. 

In the schoolwork...

For this semester we are studying the Elbe River basin in Germany and the Czech Republic. It's our first non-Dutch project area, and come early April we'll go visit this region. For now, it's the analysis phase, understanding the area and its many challenges. Namely drought in summer, exacerbated by sandy soils, and extreme floods in spring. We're asked to do most of our work in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, the two fine pieces of software where I endlessly toil about. 

Some analysis work on Dresden, Germany, from a bird's eye view. This took about three hours to make from scratch, and a lot longer to read up on. 

Soil and elevation map of Magdeburg, Germany. Again, these take quite a while to produce. I think I will change the colors; the assignment was to do it in black and white but it doesn't look nice. (Justification: most of this study is learning to make things look nice!) 

Ideally, I'll be doing a minor this fall at Mid-Sweden University in Östersund, in the far north of that country. Already I'm hoping for a severe winter! And in the perfect world, I'll find an internship there too, paving the way for a whole year away from the low countries. So more to come on this in the near future, in another captivating post!

The Move

 

From the old habitat (above) to the new one! 

As mentioned last time out; I've moved to a new room at my student detention center apartment complex. I suspect many of you readers have been curious about my living conditions: squalor or splendor?  Freezing or frying? Gezelig or gross? In this update you'll get you answers; though probably more questions. 

Moving in my building is something of a lottery. We have two stories: the top-floor rooms are ovens (the windows only open a crack!) and the ground-floor ones are drafty. Previously I had a room with doors that opened onto a sort of patio: before this building was apartments; it was offices and light industry. So this was the loading dock! 

One of the only pictures I have of the "patio". (and not a very good one either!) Bike loaded up for my trip to England, May 2024. 

Luckily I didn't have far to move at all. I went from number 3 to number 19, right down the hall. Some people get re-assigned to Vlissingen, the next city to the south, when they request to move- that would be a lot of cold morning bike rides! Originally I was scheduled to move in at 1:00 on Friday the 31st, then 2:00, then 6:00, then 7:00... the official reason was that the cleaners took longer than expected due to some exceptionally filthy rooms. 

The tradition in the building is to leave unwanted items out in the hallway instead of delivering them to the thrift store; in this way I got a lot of nice stuff. A bookshelf, an immersion blender, 80 rooibos teabags, and an unopened jar of lemon curd. One man's trash is another man's treasure, eh? 

How the bookshelf stands in the room. Technically, I'm only watching it until the real owner returns from an internship in June... it will be a sad day when I have to say goodbye! 

The move took longer than I'd have thought; I have more stuff than I knew about! But now everything is in place, plants, books, kitchen implements, bike bags, clothes. The room is the exact same layout as the previous one, though slightly smaller. And now I can sleep when I want to sleep, unencumbered by roommates! 

One of the drawbacks is that the window (actually, the same sort of doors as the last room) is north-facing. So my plants will be starved of sunlight until April or May, when the sun begins to set in the northwest. My view is of a vast parking lot, with a solitary tree. Thankfully, there's less traffic-noise here and only disgruntled office workers passing by. 

Left: the parking lot tree. On the right, the room in the evening. It's not actually this dark, my phone just has a bad camera. The carpets really bring the place together.

So, that's my new residence. Lately it has been getting below freezing here at night, but never colder than 27-ish degrees Fahrenheit. The frigid weather means blue skies and no wind, my kind of winter weather! Your questions and comments are more than welcome, and until next time this has been the life of Aaron. 

Almost short-sleeves. Any below-freezing temperatures are reason enough for the municipality to salt the roads- now if only they seasoned their food as well as their streets! 

Sunrise by the HZ campus in Middelburg. 

Köln, Keulen, Cologne

 While I do live on a continent that is exceptionally well connected by public transport, my residence is about as isolated as you can get from the rest of Holland and Europe. Zeeland was formerly a collection of islands, peninsulas, and mudflats, so the population has never warranted more than a single rail line. Regardless, I just had to get out and travel in a break-week. 

Route from M'burg to Köln

Among various possible destinations for a short trip (Liege, Brussels, Lille, Hamburg, Duisburg, Frankfurt, etc.) I chose Köln in Germany. Also known as Cologne in English and Keulen in Dutch, this is Germany's 4th largest city and just five hours away on the train from Middelburg. So, I packed some clothes, snacks, and optimism, then rode some very inconveniently timed trains to this magical city! 

I stayed in a hostel of both low quality and price, close enough to the station to hear trains going by and announcements on the loudspeakers. I arrived just before midnight and had a bed, comfortable enough, in a room too small for five other people. Pair this with poor ventilation, and I was very glad that I only went here to sleep. 

Usually you see nice pictures on this blog... not today!

However, this tenement was exceptionally close to the city center. Köln is best known for its cathedral, one of the largest in Europe and once the world's tallest building. It's also the most visited landmark in Germany- I got there at around 9:00 AM and had the place almost to myself. Perks of travelling on a weekday in January! 

It's hard to get the whole building in one capture- it's also in a perpetual state of renovation!

An imposing facade and the interior. 

Cologne also lends its name to the fragrance Eau d' Cologne, invented here in 1709. So I toured that museum too, which was better than I'd expected! This is the Farina cologne, not the 4711 which also claims to be the original Eau. Scent mixing is a complicated business suffice to say... head notes, heart notes, undertones,  you name it. It came with free scents and samples too. (no pictures allowed within the building... strange! Must be to protect the secret recipe)

The public transport is excellent; even by Euro standards. I took a city train out to an impressive forest and walked all afternoon, in warm sun with temps in the low 50s. Not bad for midwinter at all!

Seems the locals like to build forts in the woods too!

A swimming hole appears every so often. 

I mostly found my meals at supermarkets and sausage stands; but one unique restaurant caught my eye and I had to investigate. It was build-you-own ramen bowl, delicious!

With bok choi, bean shoots, one egg, shrimp, shitake mushrooms, lotus root, and lots of chili oil. 

The next day I was up early to climb the cathedral towers, which were closed yesterday for "technical reasons". Whatever those might be were unknown to me, since there are no elevators to break down. 500 something steps to the viewing level. When the Germans say "tower climb", they mean it! 

I wouldn't want to be around at the top of the hour! 

The botanical gardens also caught my eye, since they were free and easy to get to. It was a cold morning, so once again I had them to myself. Incredibly, they have palm trees growing there! The greenhouses were all closed for construction, but the outdoor specimens were plenty impressive for me. (I can only imagine how nice the place is when it's not winter)

They keep the camellias indoors but unheated. Many rare fern-trees in here too!

Again, flawless weather conditions. This is what I've earned after enduring two weeks without sunlight.

I explored a few neighborhoods, with the eye of a spatial planner. The city has one of the highest amounts of green space per resident anywhere, and it's used quite well! There are various park rings surround the inner city, where massive defensive forts were dismantled after WWI. But the centerpiece of this trip was still to come: The Chocolate Museum!

To my knowledge this establishment exists to commemorate the invention of a new kind of chocolate-rolling device in Köln circa 1840. For €12 you get seven pieces of chocolate, a surprisingly large museum, and access to the production floor of their mini-factory. 

I was too enamored by sweets to take many pictures. 

They acknowledge the colonial and exploitive past (and present!) of the chocolate industry. In fact, this was the majority of the museum section. It's typical of Europeans to ignore their many exploits, abuses, and unfair trade practices, so I was surprised to find this here. 

On the left, a Picasso which I saw in the Museum Ludwig, and on the right some delight called Butterstreusel. Köln is an ultra-commercial city, and I spent a lot of time browsing around department store and outlet shops. 

The trip was a short one; and I crammed a lot into it. There's a solid three days of stuff to see, but I'm plenty satisfied with my experience. There was one last reward to be had: a trip on the Deutsche Bahn, a rail carrier much more interesting than Nederlandse Spoorwegen. I left from Köln Hbf. at 6:40 in the morning on a highspeed train and got back to Middelburg (after two transfers in Utrecht and Rotterdam) and 11:30. These high-speed trains always feel more like ground-level aircraft to me!

Early morning in the Hauptbahnhof. 

Now I find myself back in Middelburg, waiting to move into a new room at my apartment complex. I'm tired of life with a roommate and looking forward to some peace and quiet. That will probably be its own post, so until then! 

 

Winterbreak

 

Winter break sounds cooler as one word. Above: a nice spot on the Minnesota River.

Sadly, I write to you from the chilly and damp lowlands once again. I spent a delightful three weeks back in Minnesota for the winter holidays, and this post will be a monument to those happy days. But first, an update on Middelburg. 

I got back the night of January 7th and heard about a nice community meal; where stamppot was served. To recreate this dish, simply take a plate of mash potatoes, gravy, steamed greens, and some sort of meat, and blend it thoroughly. "Farmer's food", they call it. On the right, a sign by the cheeses at Albert Heijn: "We always report theft to the police." 

There were two weeks of schoolwork still to do when I returned. I'm very glad to be clear of my exams now- it's a cold and misty Saturday morning at the library for me. The coming two weeks look quite empty, so I'm planning a trip to Cologne in Germany. I've heard from many fourth-years that they regret not travelling more during their studies, so it's my aim to avoid this eventual feeling. 

But anyways, back across the pond...

I began the break by getting my wisdom teeth out on the 17th. This really threw things off course for 10 days or so! I may never eat pudding, smoothies, or ice cream again. But I was thankful to have these fine felines to keep me company on the couch. 

Just before Christmas I went with my Dad and brothers on a skiing trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, famous for lots of lake effect snow. While it wasn't exactly buried, it was more than I'd seen in nearly two years, so I couldn't complain at all. 

Now this was fun! Alas my skis bear many new love marks from hidden rocks and logs...

For me it was nicest just to relax, sleep in, spend time with family, and go on long walks in the unfortunately snow-free woods around Saint Peter. On Christmas Day, my occasional favorite brother Sam and I got quite the surprise: a New Year's trip to Colorado!

Left to right: myself, Sam, Aunt Karen, Uncle Dan, and the shadow of a kind passerby. 

Two family staples: more skiing and Casa Bonita. The latter, which is the world's highest volume Mexican restaurant, is a cult classic, a pilgrimage even. This was our first visit since 2020 and the $40 million remodel brought about by the new owners.

Karen and Sam at Casa Bonita. The food, once barely edible, is now pretty dang good.

We had 6" of fresh snow up in the mountains and Mr. Butters the cat to entertain us. 

It was especially hard to say goodbye after such an amazing time there. I rounded out the holiday in quite the cold spell back in Minnesota; which I welcomed with open arms. 34 degrees and rainy feels a million times colder than 10 degrees and sunny! 

Retiring the Christmas tree after six weeks of faithful service. 

I flew back to The Netherlands on Monday the 6th, a day with many delays on account of winter weather. I spent most of that time in the cozy little airport of Rochester, Minnesota- I made a flight to London from Chicago with about an hour to spare. I sat next to some Englishfolk from the Midlands and got to experience Heathrow at its busiest... interesting experiences. Until next time!