Into the Neverlands

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Apologies for failing to update the blog on a more regular basis. Don't even have much time to follow other blogs either.

Here's another photo of the city in hope that I will managed to post something more substantial this week.

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Another day in Utrecht with a bit of rain and seemingly never ending autumnal moods. And another picture from the top of the Dom. I was told they rent it now and again. If the Dutch lived in Vatican, they would rent that as well I think. :)

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Since I have a paper draft due this Thursday my contribution to the blog until then will be visual. After climbing the Dom Tower today I made a few pictures, here's one of them. Utrecht looks amazing from bird's eye view. Shame my eye view here is mostly as low as frogs. :)

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Lepelenburg. After the rain.

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My friends are asking for pictures, so this is it, I'm launching a series of postcards from Utrecht.

Since I haven't met many people in person yet (only exchange a few sheepish smiles with fellow students from other programmes), I've been taking pictures of strangers and objects that don't talk: statues, houses and canals. Hopefully this will change soon.

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I was learning English as the first foreign language as of the age of 9 in my hometown Vilnius (first sentences being Hello my name is Dick and I take a rubber to school), but before that by watching the adaptation of the immortal classics of Ilf and Petrov at home on black and white screen I cracked русский язык (the year I started the school was the first the kids didn't have to learn it, thus I never mastered the handwriting and my typing in Russian is very sloooooow) although currently English words spring to my mind much faster than Russian. Then about six years of German as the second language at school (with little success as the teacher aus Deutschland was speaking better English than anybody else among the teachers), followed with Norwegian for a year in the uni (with even less success because of a similar reason, but enough to read the signs in Bergen) and French for three months - I opted for the course instead of getting a driver's license (as a result I was hitching in Minervois and my Je suis Lituanien mais j'habite au Irlande was enough to get by).

So when it comes to Dutch, I'm afraid it becomes a bit of a cross-cultural cacophony. Jeg heiße Lina. Ik spreak geen Nederlands, mais ik will studie. Wawawiwa!

On a more serious note, after discovering International Neighbour Group in my new alma mater I registered for a Dutch course there which is being introduced as informal and seems to be reasonably priced (at 25 Euro per semester plus 20 Euro for books) and starts in the end of September. Can't wait.



Chilling out: pinholed coffee break in Utrecht

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Utrecht pinholed

I did this mistake about a month ago upon my first visit to Utrecht and I did it again today. That is if you come to the Neverlands on Sunday make sure to bring some food supplies with you since the supermarkets are gesloten. Closed. Full stop. Adios amigos - hasta mañana!

So here I am with my 35 kilos of life unpacked in my bright and spacious new room which will be my home for the moment munching a bowl of tuna and sweet corn salad which in fact is just the two aforementioned items mixed sans olive oil or mayonaise and sadly sipping on orange juice (instead of 70 cent a bottle of Hoegaarden - compare that with 2.20 Euro in Dublin) which turned out to be out of date (tuna, sweet corn and juice successfully (?) spotted in one of the local let's call it Spars aka shops that sell lots of overpriced crap while the supermarkets are closed). I can sincerely confess that this was one of the few times in my life when I actually was regretting there was no Spar around. If I don't die of hunger overnight my number one destination tomorrow morning is a supermarket. Number two - a bike shop. I feel as I am the only pedestrian in here. What a looser... Especially in 26 degrees!

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