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Month: September 2007

Two years in Norwich

Two years in Norwich

I’ve been living in Norwich for exactly two years today! It seems like yesterday I arrived here, not knowing what to expect but excited to start a new life in the UK…

Of course I am still Dutch “to the klokhuis” as Paul puts it (he once tried to say “to the core” in Dutch but didn’t realize that “klokhuis” is just the core of an apple, not of anything else!), but I did take over some English habits: toast and marmite for breakfast (while Paul eats hagelslag on his toast!), tea with milk (which my family thinks is ridiculous), baked potato for dinner, trifle for dessert, driving on the left (would be a bit dangerous if I didn’t do that… hehe… but I mean I now get confused in the Netherlands!)… and much much more.

Oh I think I should mention The Beautiful South, a music group that seems to be famous everywhere except in the Netherlands so I didn’t discover them till I got here… just in time for them to split up after 20 years! I absolutely LOVE their music and have listened to hardly anything else for the past year. Their lyrics are just brilliant, as Wikipedia puts it: The band’s music was bubbly, catchy, lightweight pop but Heaton’s sour, savage and amusing worldview on everything and anything (alcoholism, religion, sex, politics and, mostly, the down side of relationships) is always lurking beneath the surface of the quirky melodies.

Some things you’ll never see me doing though: eating English breakfast, follow football/rugby/cricket/horse races/dog races etc, laugh at the typical British humour (but I do like Mr Bean!!! And Gromit from Wallace and Gromit), drink as much alcohol as some people here, wear my skirts as short as the girls here… hehe.

Some things about the food here: they think SPRUITJES (Brussels sprouts) are a delicacy… and serve it even for Christmas dinner. Speaking about Christmas dinner, their idea of a Christmas dessert is also a mystery to me – Christmas pudding is weeks old when you eat it and soaked in rum. Fish and chips will never be a favourite (the chips are always dripping with fat and tasteless) – and I will also never put VINEGAR on my chips (who thought that was a good idea??), or cheese for that matter. And they eat WAY too many beans here… If you mention Heinz, they think “baked beans” and not “ketchup”, I thought that was quite bizarre.

They make up for this all by being the best at making cakes and desserts, so I’m not complaining!!

The English language is rarely a problem for me, I am still learning and improving though. My main problems are when we use 1 Dutch word for 2 English words… like “als” is both “if” and “when” – not knowing the difference sometimes gets me in embarrassing problems. And I still can’t do the proper pronunciation of the “th” without spitting šŸ˜‰ I also can’t hear and therefore pronounce the differences between words like: bad/bed/bat or pan/pen. All the same to me… A while ago Paul said something about “debt” and I understood “death” – quite confusing!!

Ok that was enough text, here are some nice photos of Norwich! These are all taken in late July, but never made it to my blog.

The church in the centre with an amazing sky! And the market next to the church.

Norwich Norwich

More photos of the market. This market is open 6 days a week and has lots of good stalls! These photos show some of the typical English customers, see for yourself šŸ˜‰

Norwich Norwich

Norwich Norwich

This is Elm Hill, a cute old cobbled street in the city centre.

Norwich Norwich

Near the river that runs through the centre:

Norwich Norwich

The oldest pub in Norwich – Adam and Eve, and a colourful garden:

Norwich Norwich

And the cathedral:

Norwich Norwich

Norwich is beautiful, and I love living here! People often ask me if (when? hehe) I am going back to the Netherlands after my PhD. To be honest, I don’t think so. I don’t have plans to return to the Netherlands at all. Not that I don’t like it there, I love going back but I don’t feel the urge to go back for good. I wouldn’t mind staying in England! We’ll see what happens. At the moment Paul is finishing his PhD and he is applying for jobs in the UK as well as abroad, I’m curious where he will end up as it will no doubt influence my future plans as well!

Ok, that’s all, I should do some more work now!! šŸ™‚

Hanneke

Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Hello!

Here are the rest of the photos of my week in Edinburgh!

On Tuesday morning I skipped some talks and went into Edinburgh with Stephen. Edinburgh is such an impressive city!

There was an exhibition about Andy Warhol, and they changed the pillars of the buildings in his soup cans, fun! In the other photo you can see the castle high on the hill.

Edinburgh Edinburgh

This is the castle as seen from the park, and the park as seen from the castle šŸ™‚ I love how you can see the river/ocean from all high points in the city.

Edinburgh Edinburgh

We walked up Calton Hill, with many monuments on the top. The view over the city is great! This is the Dugald Stewart Monument.

Edinburgh Edinburgh

This funny building is unfinished, it was meant to become a model of the parthenon in Athens, but money ran out while building it (in 1822!) and even now nobody wants to spend money on finishing it! Next to it a panorama of Arthurs Seat (the name of the mountain) taken from Calton Hill.

Edinburgh Edinburgh

These two photos are taken on the Heriot Watt Campus:

Edinburgh Edinburgh

On Wednesday evening there was a Scottish Evening at the conference: whiskey tasting and a ceilidh! A ceilidh is a dance evening, where they teach you the group dances, good fun!

Patama and me as serious whiskey tasters, and a girl dancing over swords!

Edinburgh Edinburgh

And a photo of the dancing, it was a fun evening! I danced with one of the dancers from the group, a “real” Scottish guy in kilt and all… I thought that was really cool, but the reason I say “real” is because I later found out he was actually Dutch!! Cheating!!

Edinburgh

On the last evening there was a formal conference dinner, in Dynamic Earth. Great place to have a dinner! It was right next to the Scottish Parliament (cool building!) and Arthurs Seat is just behind it. Just before dinner it was colored red by the sunset and it looked more like Ayrs Rock šŸ˜‰

Edinburgh Edinburgh Edinburgh Edinburgh

I took the train back to Norwich the next morning, it takes nearly 6 hours. But it’s very beautiful, especially the first part when it follows the coast. Look at this place, I would love to live there!

Edinburgh Edinburgh

Unfortunately I took a bad cold back from Edinburgh and I spent some days on the couch feeling sorry for myself šŸ˜‰ Celia was here for a few days though, so that was fun!

And now it’s time for weekend šŸ™‚

Hanneke

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn!

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn!

Hello!

I’m at the Heriot Watt University just outside Edinburgh, at the Royal Meteorological Society Conference. There was the student conference during the weekend, and the main conference started today.

It’s very busy but good fun! I’ve given a talk yesterday and am presenting a poster tomorrow. Lots of nice people here, I even met a Dutch guy today so I got to practice my Dutch, it’s been a long time!!

Anyway, I should really go to bed but I wanted to share some photos I took around campus here. The campus is really nice, out in the fields with lots of green. Autumn is clearly arriving, it’s sunny but cool and all the signs are there, even though I’ve also found the last of the Summer colors.

This morning I skipped a session (I don’t care much about chemistry, hehe) and went for a walk and took some photos….

Heriot Watt Heriot Watt

Heriot Watt Heriot Watt

Heriot Watt Heriot Watt

Heriot Watt Heriot Watt

Heriot Watt Heriot Watt

Heriot Watt Heriot Watt

Heriot Watt Heriot Watt

Heriot Watt Heriot Watt

That’s all šŸ™‚ I won’t write more cause it really is bedtime now!!

Hanneke