Pausing Utrecht

Before going to bed last night I had one of those 'Oh, that's good, I'll blog about that' thoughts. Of course, I've now completely forgotten what it was going to be about, but it was really good. Alas. But something else odd just happened that I can write about instead. I was walking back to Parnassos from spending an afternoon in town having a drink and trying to book a bus ride on a non-existent route, wondering how to make something exciting from spinach, potatoes and onions, when I became aware that I was being flagged down by the girl in front of me. Now, this doesn't happen that often. But she seemed very pleased to see me and asked me, in English, if I could help her with her bag. Now, I have no recollection of talking to, or even meeting, this person before, but I didn't feel I could deny her request seeing as she apparently knew me. So, I took the bag and had one of those awkward '(I don't know who you are, but) how are you?' conversations all the way back to Parnassos. I am still no closer to knowing who she was, but she apparently lives downstairs. How very odd.

On Tuesday I handed in my final assessment of the first semester and at the same time officially started the second semester. That means I'm halfway through my time here, which is a pretty scary thought when I think about how much has happened already, but also how much there's still left to do. Annie was right on her blog when she mentioned how odd it seems to think that some people only get to do this sort of thing for six-months. Worryingly, the 30th June is only 4 1/2 months away, and I can well imagine the time running by at breakneck speed, but the sun has shone for two consecutive days now, so that must be a good sign. Shamefully though, still ik spreek slechts een beetje Nederlands...

On Tuesday I also went to the Hague to do some research at the Peace Palace library. Law people will know the building from the front of Shaw's International Law book. I must say, from the picture I'd expected a grand palace in the middle of nowhere, so we settled down for a long haul on the tram, only to find it nestled in between normal buildings about 5 minutes from the centre of the Hague, so that was a surprise. We had to go through security to get in to the library and then we had to pay €10 for the privilege of using the library, which didn't have what we wanted anyway. Humph. So we spent three hours trying to make the most of our €10 before giving up and spending the rest of the afternoon wandering around the Hague where most things were oddly closed, but I do now know a rather nice cafe there, somewhere. I even had the good fortune to find an English-language Dutch newspaper which informed me that if I ate something from a fast-food outlet in the Netherlands, there was a rather disconcerting 30% chance that I would end up eating horse meat. The Febo fastfood automat vending machines have never seemed so unappealing.

I'm coming back to the UK tomorrow for a week to spend a few days in London on a mini-pupillage at One Essex Court and to visit friends I haven't seen for too long, before heading up to Cambridge for a few more days to do exactly the same (and get in the way). So I'm really looking forward to that, although I'm somewhat less looking forward to getting to Schipol airport at 6am tomorrow morning.