Dank u, Sinterklaasje!

Today is a special day in both the Netherlands and Belgium, for this evening is Saint Nicholas' Eve, the evening when Sinterklaas visits every house in the Netherlands and Belgium and sends his Zwarte Piets down chimneys to deliver presents to those children who have been good throughout the year. What happens to the bad children is frankly scary, for they are taken away to work in his factories in Spain for a year. If I were a five-year old I would have been terrified at the prospect, but maybe that's the idea. That today is Saint Nicholas' Eve also had an unexpected side benefit. I had intended to spend the afternoon in the library and was naturally devastated when I got there to find it closed. Sinterklaas, I owe you one.

Thankfully I have been good this year, and hence, this evening after being forced to sing traditional Dutch songs, I, along with about 30 others, was visited by Sinterklaas himself:


(Un)fortunately, I, unlike Richard, did not get to sit on his knee and have my yearly exploits recounted. Although I did later learn that had I been so lucky stories of my alter ego 'Bucks', from one of my vacation schemes, would have been told. So, my thanks to Sabs for that one!

The theme of the evening was quite simple, but fun. We all had to buy three presents totalling €5. These were distributed out to everyone, with people then taking turns in throwing a dice with potential outcomes such as stealing a present off someone else, exchanging a present, or (horror) giving one away. Alas, the dice did not swing my way and no sooner had I had a present stolen off me (the hat below) then I had to give one away. Thankfully I managed to recover and ended the evening with a bag of flumps, a little zebra shaped paper holder, and a little bottle of shower gel swiped from the NH hotel by someone who seemed to miss the point somewhat. Still, at least I shower for free tomorrow. I was very sad to lose the hat though, with a little black face paint I could have been a true Zwarte Piet:


I've now eaten far to many flumps and pepernoten than can possibly be good for me. It's traditional to write a poem to go with the gifts, but what little poetic skills I had left me for good after year 11, so instead, I'll quote the song that Dutch children are supposed to sing to get Sinterklaas to come along. Who knows, maybe this year if enough of you sing it, he'll find his way across the English Channel? In a capitalist society it's hardly far that Santa Clause has a monopoly, is it?

Sinterklaas kapoentje,
gooi wat in mijn schoentje,
gooi wat in mijn laarsje,
dank u, Sinterklaasje.
Sinterklaasje bonne, bonne, bonne,
gooi wat in mijn regen-, regentonne,
gooi wat in mijn laarsje,
dank u, Sinterklaasje!

I'm working on the translation.

The end of an Era

Today marked the official ending of the first three months in Utrecht with the departure of Emma and Laura for the green pastures of England. They've been almost constant companions, and it's not overstating things to say that the past three months have been tremendous fun and it's going to be very strange without them both being around. Things already seem a little quiet and less lively on the corridor.

It was good last night to have a corridor drink in the local Irish pub to say 'goodbye', and I think I speak for everyone on the corridor when I say that a return visit is not only anticipated, but positively demanded. So here's to our Nothern lasses;


Unfortunately I no longer have any excuse to spend my time baking/chatting/watching Friends and hence might actually have to get some work done.

You know it's Christmas when...

If I thought it felt like Christmas after Sinterklaas arrived in Utrecht, then I was wrong. For having had what was in effect a Christmas dinner, and having spent two days in Maastricht and Valkenburg visiting several Christmas markets I feel that only now can I say it really feels like Christmas.

On Sunday, Emma and I embarked on the task of cooking a Sunday/Christmas roast. I've never done it before, so stuffing the chicken was a faintly interesting experience and I now have tremendous respect for what Mum does each Sunday! Thankfully the chickens juices ran clear, the Yorkshire pudding's rose, the mash was creamy and the vegetables tender. So that was a success with the only thing missing being Christmas crackers and their party hats.

On Monday we caught the train to Maastricht in the far south east of Holland, sandwiched between Belgium and Germany. I've been before, but only briefly late in the evening on my way back from Luxembourg, so it was good to see it in the daylight:


It really is a nice place, but like a lot of places I've been to, there's nothing really to see or do beyond seeing the city itself. But it's a pretty city with lots of old and quaint passages such that you don't notice they're filled with big name stores. But still, we went for the Christmas market, and it wasn't quite what we were expecting:


It was more of a fair with stalls, but it had an ice-skating rink which provided too good an opportunity to miss, so I donned a pair of skates for the first time in two years and slithered around the rink. Fortunately we had two hours for it all to come back to us and by the end we were more of less skating. But why is that these places are always full of four year old children who can skate perfectly as if they were born doing it? I'm sure I never skated like that when I was younger. Still, we had fun finding time to form a conga line and for me to have an unplanned attempt at doing the splits:



I'm proud to say that the only time I almost fell over was in fact nothing to do with me, rather one of the aforementioned children being slightly less perfect than he thought. The star of the evening award though has to go to Emma who found a stall selling waffles covered in Caramac! It's a long way back to Maastricht, but I think that might just be worth the trip! We stayed in a really nice B&B right in the centre with complimentary DVDs, so I corrected the fact that Laura, Emma, and Rachel had never seen Four Weddings and Funeral.

On Tuesday we made the short train ride to Valkenburg and here things were slightly different. Valkenburg's markets are actually underground in cave networks and are hence quite famous:


The amount of English people there should not therefore have come as a surprise, but still, it did. Among the priceless tidbits of conversation I picked up were "I've got stitches in me teeth" said to a sweet stall owner, "My hands are all sticky" said to God-knows who, and the rather abrupt "Fish?" said to a bemused restaurant owner. Ah, makes me proud to be English. We spent most of the afternoon exploring the labyrinth of passages and stalls, but shamefully I only bought three things, and all for myself. My excuse being that I've still a month until Christmas, and a trips to Paris and Cologne in which to buy things, so I didn't want to splurge just yet.

So a really fun two days, and it's only a week until the Dutch celebrate Christmas, and under a month until the English do. It was a really good way to spend some time with Emma and Laura before they leave for England tomorrow as well. It's been a fantastic three months and their potential room-replacements have an awful lot to live up to.


Still, we didn't feel as if we could leave it at that, today, Javi, Amadeo, Rita and myself decided to make a farewell lunch for the two of them. With Javi and Amadeo on savoury and Rita and I on sweet we ended up with quite a menu consisting of:

Spanish Tortilla, Roquefort Pasta, Pastel de Carne (Meet Cake), Vanilla Cupcakes, Chocolate Mousse, Meringues and a Cheesecake



Everything went down very well indeed and it was nice to have a good turn out for the sending off. We're going out for pancakes this evening as well, but after such a big lunch, I think everyone will be reaching for the children's menu!

Back to Brussels - Part 2

I have a feeling that this triology might be rather like Back to the Future. The first will be good, the second less so, and the third the best. Still, trends are there to be bucked, so here's my attempt.

Over the three days I was in Brussels I attended presentations by the Parliament, Commission and Council of the EU, and one by the Dutch Embassy as well. I can't pretend to know that much about the functioning of the EU but I'd always been rather sceptical about the whole thing.

All of the people we spoke to were interesting and most were good at speaking, which was a good start, but even when they professed to speaking off the record, or wanted to give off the impression that they were being controversial, I couldn't help but feeling they weren't. 'Revelations' about the EU Constitution, the French being stubborn and the English selfish are hardly earth shattering but they were dressed up that way. The fact that two people in different institutions told the same joke just further suggested they were towing the same time. Still, the presentations weren't just full of the usual brochure material and for the most part our questions were answered.

I heard some worrying things though. The first relates to the way the Council works. For instance, Austria has no coastline, so it offers its votes on maritime policy to countries with coastlines in return for their support in matters of importance to Austria. This was sold to us as negotiation, but it strikes me as being little better than bartering, and that can hardly be a suitable way to run a union of 25 states. Secondly, it was openly admitted that getting Switzerland to join the EU would be a 'good catch' as the EU 'needs a rich state'. No mention of the benefits to Switzerland from membership. Thirdly, I cannot for the life of me comprehend the need of the EU Parliament to move to Strasbourg once every month 'all expenses paid'. The main chamber in Brussels is used for a total of six days a year. Apparently this set up is mandated by a treaty, but to me its symptomatic of the public perception of waste and inefficiency at the EU level. By all means have the Parliament in Strasbourg, or Brussels or even Warsaw, but don't move it around. Fourthly the Commission seemed proud to have over 60 buildings to its name. 60 buildings for 25 Commissioners. Right. Fifthly, did you know that Morocco enquired about the possibility of joining? I didn't because the EU didn't want to publicise the fact. The fact that an African nation wanted to join the European Union is something that should be debated in public, but by burying it the EU prevented this. For a Union that constantly talks about how it needs to communicate with the public, this seems inexcusable and smacks of hypocrisy. Sixthly, the attitude towards the Constitution was worrying. Most people seemed to think the biggest problem was calling it a constitution instead of a treaty. Of course, the 'no' votes in France and the Netherlands were more of a protest against everything instead of the contents of the constitution in particular, but to take the approach that the name was the biggest problem seems slightly patronising.

We heard something interesting about the future of Belgium at the Dutch Embassy. Although it was just an opinion, I hadn't realised quite how federal Belgium was - it has 6 different governments, and then different hierarchies within these governments. It all stems from the fact that there are three official languages and that people strongly associate with their region over the country. There are serious political moves to make Belgium confederal, rather like Switzerland, but crucially there's no strong bond between the different people, rather unlike Switzerland. It was suggested that this could well lead to Belgium breaking up into four different countries as aside from federal regions, namely; the French speaking, the Flemish speaking, the German speaking, and Brussels. If this happened, then it's likely that Brussels could become the capital of the EU outside of a member country, in the much same way as Washington DC isn't in a state in the USA. I know how feasible the whole thing is, but I thought the whole possibility was interesting and could herald quite a big change for the identity of the EU if it gets its own official capital city. Perhaps it'll give me a reason to go back to Brussels in 20 or 30 years.

If Brussels were to become the designated capital of the EU then it might solve another problem, namely the apparent ambivalence of the EU to the situation in Brussels itself. It was striking how well developed the EU quarter is compared to the rest of the city. There were an appalling number of homeless people for a place where so much money is washing around ,and too many places just had a feeling of being completely run down. One person admitted how the EU had pushed up prices, but then remarked that they had expenses, including rent, paid for. So I guess that means it's not a problem that needs addressing. Part of this can be attributed to the fact that at the moment, Brussels is Belgium's problem, with the EU just being a resident guest. If Brussels became the EU's responsibility then perhaps this would change and it might actually take more care of its surroundings.

I don't know. That's all very sceptical, but I came away with one overwhelming positive about the EU. Th EU was the reason I was there. Not only was I visiting it, but I'm only on an Erasmus scheme because it's administered and run by the EU itself. That's what I think the EU excels at, namely bringing different European countries and peoples together. I met some great people, and I'm constantly meeting great people. I was surprised by how many people wrapped themselves in the EU flag to be photographed over their national flags. There is a sense of belonging on the Continent that just doesn't exist in the UK, and I don't know why that is. Living here I feel as if I belong to Europe, just not to the European Union. To me, geography, culture and friendship provide a greater bond than economics and politics. The EU may help facilitate the former, but I don't think it exclusively provides it.

As it currently stands I can't deny that the EU does good and I think for it to fail now would cause much greater hardship than could ever be justified and I don't think the UK pulling out would solve anything. What it needs is reform. Either it downsizes in size and role, or it democratises itself and becomes more transparent. I have trouble explaining how the EU works. Until it has an easily recognisable legislature and executive, modelled on the systems in member states that can be understood by the people, the EU is forever going to be seen as remote and aloof. Only when the institutions become truly open and people are fully involved by the direct election of executive members and the President, will I feel justified in defending it.

High in Utrecht

Getting high in Utrecht is exceedingly easy, and I'm not referring to the large number of Coffieshops. Instead I'm referring to climbing up 112 meters in 465 steps to the top of Utrecht's Dom Tower:


Shamefully we only got around to climbing said tower today, but although my thighs are now seeking a pay rise, it was worth it. Apparently it's the tallest church spire in the Netherlands, and before the world had skyscrapers, it was the tallest building in the Netherlands. The stairs started out rather gently, but soon became rather less generous as they got steeper, narrower and tighter, but I guess it wouldn't have felt like such an achievement if they had been a lift.

Unfortunately it wasn't great weather wise. The rain held off but it was exceedingly windy at the top and the cloud meant we couldn't see Amsterdam like you can on a clear day. It's strange seeing Utrecht from 112 meters up and it made me realise how little of it I've actually seen these past three months. Here's a selection of photos of the view from the top:





On the way back home we cam across the following scene, it's far from unusual, but I guess it's a good way to keep your bike relatively thief-proof!

Back to Brussels - Part 1

Two blog entries in one day, right after each other? Who says I don't spoil you?

I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday feeling faintly uncomfortable visiting Brussels wearing a suit on a trip organised by the student association URIOS, whereupon we visited various institutions related to the European Union. This is despite the fact that in my previous entry on my trip to Brussels a weekend ago I said something along the lines of: "I won't be going back in a hurry". Well, I take some of that back.

I don't know why, but Brussels appealed more this time than it has before. Perhaps it's because we had an itinerary that kept us busy, or perhaps it's because we travelled quite far from the touristy centre. But whatever, I now don't dislike Brussels as much I once did. I still think that that Grand Place looks garish by day, but by night, I fully admit that it's pretty stunning:



There were 30 of us in total and it was nice that exchange students were, for a change, in the minority, so I got to meet and talk to some really great Dutch students as well as getting to know other people better. I'll save my observations on the EU and the people and places we went for Part 2 (so people can skip that boring bit), but suffice to say, I came away slightly more contented about the work of the EU than I was when I went in - I'm now the owner of a EU flag lapel brooch - but I still have major reservations about the European Project.

The trip itself was fun and it was good to travel with a group of people instead of individually. There's a street in Brussels where all of the tourist restaurants are located, and knowing we had a group of 30 people gave us quite a bargaining chip, so we had a great time playing the different restaurants off against each other trying to get the best bargain. We settled on a 20% discount in the end, and the following evening we got free drinks, so if you're going to Brussels, and plan to eat, group together, it'll pay off! There's also a bar that listed in the Guiness Book of Records as having the most types of beer available, with a massive 2400+ varieties! Suffice to say, no-one managed them all, but judging by the numerous hangovers, I think some tried!

We stayed in two different hostels and both were decent enough. We were slightly perturbed by the fact that upon asking a police officer for directions to the second one we were told that it was in a 'dangerous neighbourhood' and that 'women shouldn't walk around alone'. Luckily it turned out to be fine and we had no problems, but we all felt a little conspicuous as a group of 30 suited people.

So, a really fun trip. Unfortunately I continually forgot my came lra so I have only the two above photos to show. A lot of the time though was spent lining up photos of the group, so hopefully I'll have access to them in the near future (discreet hint to Sophie). Some of the EU buildings were pretty amazing as well. Hopefully they'll appear, along with more, in Part 3.

Definitely Den Haag

Today, I along with Emma, Laura and Rachel finally got around to visiting Den Haag, or as it's known in English, The Hague. It's in a strange position as it's home to the Dutch Government, Parliament and Royal House, but it's not the capital as that falls to Amsterdam, so I was curious as to what we'd fine. We had a small problem on the way with my Dutch translation skills only telling me that we were on a splitting train after said train had split and hence found ourselves instead heading to Rotterdam. But still, we regrouped and made it to Den Haag.

I had a feeling that I'd like it, and I did. Parts of it seemed a lot more developed than Amsterdam, there seems to be more money splashing around, but it didn't seem to stop the city from retaining some old charm. The shopping districts were much like any other city, but away from this there was some great architecture, especially the Parliament building which avoided the all-out grandeur of Westminster, but still felt suitably austere:


We bought a walking tour from the Tourist Information Office that took us to all sorts of places which I doubt can be considered 'essential viewing' but at least we got off the beaten track. We also got lost on the way back to the train station, managing to end up at the wrong train station, but it did give us an excuse to sample not one, but two, Dutch oliebollen. They're like doughnuts, but better. They aren't as sweet, the outside is faintly crunchy, they can have raisins in, and they're cheap. So that was a good find. On our meanders around the back streets we also came across the following rather picture-perfect scene:


Den Haag is host to the Escher art gallery, famous for all of the graphical, bind bending works involving staircases going everywhere, but nowhere etc. I hadn't realised how many pieces he'd done, so it was great to see them all under one roof, and it gave us occasion to have this photo (of a photo) taken:


I shall leave you all to work out how it works, and yes, it did hurt hoisting my leg up that high onto the sill.

Back to Brussels: An Epic Adventure Story

Well, that might be overstating things a little, but I've just got back from a three-day trip to Brussels visiting various European institutions and meeting various European people. I've decided that my report of said trip needs to be broken up into segments, so I'm intending that the instalments will be:

Part 1: General Trip Information
Part 2: EU Observations
Part 3: Photos and bits I forgot from Parts 1 and 2

I'm now rather tired, and tomorrow I'm finally visiting The Hague so I don't know when these instalments will reach your screens, but I urge you to keep your news feeds peeled so as to be aware the instant they do.

Christmas Cometh?

I'm told that my blog is at it's best when it's full of pictures. What that says about the content of my writing I'll not ask, but on that measure hopefully this entry should be good.

Today marked a very special day in the Netherlands, the arrival of Sinterklaas! Now, I should imagine that most of you aren't familiar with the story of Sinterklaas so if I may, I'll direct you to this Wikipedia article which explains all. Today Sinterklaas arrived throughout the Netherlands and Belgium on his boat from Spain with his hopelessly political incorrect Zwarte Pieten.

Traditionally from today until the 5th December Dutch children place little shoes by their chimneys in the hope of getting sweets from his helpers. Therefore it's not incorrect to say that Christmas has started already, five months before the day! Well, actually, it is incorrect to say that, for Christmas and Sinterklaas Eve are two separate events here with gifts being given mainly on the latter. The upshot of this state of affairs is that I'll be in the Netherlands when people give gifts here, and I'll be in the UK when people give gifts there! Result, as they say.

So today I've been out and about exploring the festivities. Things started off with Sinterklaas arriving among a flotilla of little boats on the river:



I must say that I felt quite out of place being a lone 20 year old in a crowd here most people were accompanied by a four year old child, but still, I guess I can claim to be a child at heart. After the river festivities had finished things moved onto land with a procession through the town centre with a band, dancers, clowns and lots of people in fancy dress:



Of course though all of this was just for one man, Sinterklaas, and here's the man himself:


I really wasn't expecting such a show, especially seeing how the actual day isn't for another three weeks, but it all had a really lovely atmosphere. The town centre really was buzzing. All of the children seemed to be having such a great time and it felt blissfully non-commercial throughout. The only thing that made it all slightly surreal was the fact that the Netherlands is currently engaged in the build up to a general election next week and the town was full of election workers and stalls. I wouldn't say that Christmas and politics usually mix that well, but the stalls for the different parties were all lined up next to each other in a highly convivial way. All of the children had balloons, but it was only on closer inspection that I noticed the balloons had come from the election stalls. Talk about getting them young!

A Benelux Expedition

On Friday I woke up not knowing what I was going to do with my weekend. On Monday evening I was sitting on a train from Maastricht to Utrecht recovering from a frantic weekend spent exploring the Benelux countries. Who says I lack spontaneity?

What started as a modest trip to Brussels in Belgium become a grand tour resembling the following:


I got a train to Brussels with a friend called Yu. On the way we had to change at Rotterdam and had about forty minutes to look around. The Beautiful South lyric 'This could be Rotterdam or anywhere...' sprung instantly to mind and we moved swiftly on to Brussels.

I've been to Brussels before, and I didn't really like it that much so I was a little bit unsure of what to expect the second time around. I still think that it feels very much like any other city with little individual character, but I did see it in a better light than last time. I think it's going through quite a period of change; there are building works everywhere, so perhaps it'll be interesting to see again in five or ten years. I don't think I'll go out of my way to go back in the meantime. We did find a lovely little bakery to have lunch in though. We all sat around a single big table and got to taste some of the best soup and bread I've had in a while:


As for Brussels itself. The chocolate museum was an undoubted highlight. The Coudenberg archaeological site was quite something as well. Everyone raves about the Grand Place, but personally I think it's quite garish. Still, there are places that are really picturesque. It's just a shame that there aren't more of them:


That evening we found a nice restaurant for dinner. I set upon a decidedly French/Belgian menu, and had my first tasting of frog's legs and mussels, topped off with a crème brulee. The mussels were really nice, the frog's legs somewhat less so. They came swimming in garlic butter which probably didn't help, but I think I'll give them a miss in future. We found a guy selling snails in the street, but unfortunately I had a hand full of waffle at the time, and I didn't think the two would go together that well! So I'll save snails until next time.

We stayed in a decent hostel on Saturday evening and met some interesting people from Hungary, Belgium and Australia. On Sunday morning we parted ways, with Yu heading to Brugges and me to Luxembourg. On the train I met an English lawyer of all people, so it was good to have someone to chat to. Luxembourg itself is stunning. I don't know why, but I've always wanted to go, perhaps just because it's so small, but it's a fantastic place. There's nothing to do there other then walk around, but that's what makes it so good. There were so few people around as well. The city itself is built in a valley, so part of the city is at the top and the other part on the valley floor, providing for some fabulous views:



I was amazed to hear that only 40% of the population are actually born in Luxembourg. I think that probably contributes to the only downside; the lack of identity. There are three official languages in Luxembourg; French, German and Luxembourgish, but there's also a lot of English. I don't know if any country can maintain a national identity when it's so small and it's people are so diverse, but it didn't stop me loving the place. I'd have liked to have stayed longer to walk around a bit more and to see what it's like in the week when I imagine it's a bit more lively, but unfortunately I had to move on. I stayed the night in Luxembourg's only hostel and shared a room with a few people all looking for work at the EU there.

On Monday morning I caught a train north, back to Belgium to the city of Liege. The train ride was stunning up through the Ardennes and I'd have liked to get off to explore each little visit that it stopped at. Even the train was quaint, and I had a compartment to myself the whole way. After Luxembourg Liege would have to have been good, and unfortunately it wasn't. In fact, it was pretty horrible. The historical centre took some finding and when I found it I was surprised to see it full of chain stores and boarded by a 1960s era shopping centre. It was all pretty miserable and I wasn't that sad to leave for Masstricht.

By the time I got there it was already dark, so I didn't stay that long, but I had time to walk around. They call Maastricht the 'Paris of the North' and from the little I saw it really did seem quite nice:


There's a famous Christmas market in the main square later this year, so hopefully I'll go back them and see a little more. By the time I left though I was severely confused about my languages. I'd started off with Dutch, then Flemish, then French, then a little German before going back to Dutch. Quite what the train station clerk thought of my attempts to communicate I'll never know, but I doubt it was favourable.

So that was my weekend. I'd have loved to have carried on travelling for a while longer. I met a Canadian on a six week trip around Europe, I asked him here he was headed next and he told me that he was just going to the strain station to see what appealed to him. I'd love to do to the same.

Bus Lanes

I have finally been caught out by Utrecht's mass system of interconnected bus, cycle and car lanes. While riding back with Javi and Amadeo from doing some food shopping in Utrecht's Turkish neighbourhood we were innocently trying to fathom out the junction, when Javi started shouting something in Spanish. I turned around to see what it was and was confronted with the sight of a double-bendy bus bearing down on him. Unfortunately, the said bus lane was an underpass and was about one centimetre wider than the bus itself, so in short, it wasn't going anywhere without getting us first.

In a rather Indiana Jones 'boulder in the mine' type of way we, while frantically jabbering about the fact that there was a bus barrelling along behind us, peddled like we'd never peddled before finally being able to pull in and get out of its way. All that was missing was some suitably dramatic music supporting the 'will they, wont they' feeling.

So it appears that I got sightly over confident of the road junctions here, I've apparently not quite adapted to the whole bikes/cars/buses/pedestrians conflict and the fact that it all takes places on the right! Just wish I had a video camera - now that would have gone up on YouTube!

It's over! Almost.

I've now had two exams here in Utrecht. The first one yesterday was for Comparative Constitutional and Administrative Law. It had one bad question, but the third question went some way to making up for it by asking:

Pick one case from outside your jurisdiction studied on this course that you found interesting. What happened in the case and why did you find it interesting?

Now that's a nice question if ever I heard one. I had my second exam earlier today for Principles of Good Governance, and that was slightly (read: a lot) less nice than the former. Fingers crossed that I'll have done enough to pass but I hadn't got a clue for some of the questions. Apparently if I fail I need to resit in December, but the resit would be an oral exam, which we all agreed might be worth failing for! But I guess that's not the correct attitude.

I only have one more exam now which I got on Monday and doesn't have to be in until Friday, the plan is to get it done today, but good intentions and all that springs to mind!

I thought I'd mention a little bit about exam procedure here. Forget everything you thought you knew. Firstly, there's no designated seating as you can sit where you want. You don't have any official identifying form and you're not checked off on any list. You can bring everything into the exam, bags, coats etc, no need for see through pencil cases here. You can get up to go to the toilet without telling anyone. You don't get told to start, you just do. And finally, you can leave whenever you want. I finished about 15 minutes before the end of my first exam, but didn't leave until just before the end as it felt wrong! I came round to the idea a bit more today and after finishing with 30 minutes still to go I decided to be daring and leave. So I did.

I'm now having to deal with a severe lack of motivation to do anything else. This usually doesn't matter when exams are at the end of the year, but feeling this way in November with the majority of the year still to run must be a bad sign.

Postal Problems

On Friday I got a note in postbox informing me that I had a parcel that I needed to collect from the local post office. Unfortunately, I had to wait until the next working day to pick it up. That day was today, and hence, I am now the proud owner of 9 (or rather, now 8) Caramac KitKat bars!


So horray for that. What that story doesn't tell though is the sorry story of how long they've taken to come. I ordered them on the 23rd October and they were posted the following day, so it took them two weeks to arrive from the UK.

This is not a rare occurrence. I also sent a postcard to Clare back in the UK and it took two and a half weeks to arrive. A similar one to Cecily in Greece took only three days. I sent something to Lotti in Paris about two weeks ago and it still hasn't arrived, and I'm still expecting another parcel from the UK that's been in the system for over a week now. That's mad, the post actually worked when I first got here, and I can't even blame it in the Royal Mail. I believe the moral of this rant (if indeed there is one) is that postal privatisation doesn't work!

I also received my first exam today. I have until Friday to hand it in and it contains some great questions such as the significance of the Spanish King in the Dutch national anthem - if only Constitutional exams back home had questions like that! I have one more tomorrow, and then one on Wednesday. I fear that it's going to be a case of saving the worst for last.

Prolonging the Blackout

I woke up this morning and was mildly perturbed when the lights didn't turn on. I was then even more intrigued when the corridor was in pitch darkness. As I hadn't woken up properly I thought that maybe I'd got up in the middle of the night, until it dawned that we were in fact in the middle of a power cut. What fun.

Only it wasn't any normal power cut. Thankfully the kitchen seemed to still be electrified, or at least the appliances were. Laura and Emma had one socket that still worked, Javi and Amadeo's room was unaffected while mine was dead in all respects. That's one highly targetted power cut. Common consensus was that a fuse had blown somewhere, but I didn't think our keys opened the fuse box, so one call to the 'Emergency Callout' number later and an electrician arrived only to need my key to open the fusebox after all!

After getting our electricity back I noticed that the BBC is reporting that the whole of western Europe is apparently suffering similar problems as a few people in Germany got a bit cold. So here's hoping that they fix that slight problem before Winter starts in earnest.

So, the moral of the story being that after 9 hours basking in the darkness we could have fixed it ourselves, a point not lost on Javi who pointed out that it was me who said our keys didn't open the fusebox. Ah, yes, he might have a point there. Time to make myself a bit inconspicuous I think.

Trick or Treat?

It's Halloween! And what Halloween would be complete without the obligatory household pumpkin? Here's my effort for the year:


I'd forgotten quite how difficult it was to cut out a pumpkin, a task not made any easier by our total lack of sharp knifes. But after 20 or so minutes we were left with that scary chap on our kitchen table. Might even make him into pumpkin soup tomorrow. So it's a multi-purpose pumpkin in the truest sense of the word.

I've made a rather fantastic discovery. The Sports Centre here is running gliding classes! For €90 you get a complete course in gliding in a nearby town. That strikes me as fantastic value, and to say I'm keen would be an understatement, Amadeo and Javi are up for it as well. Just need to find out whether they run the courses in English and we'll hopefully be away, or up-up and away as the case might be.

We had a rather funny moment in the supermarket earlier today. Determined to finally recycle all of the glass jars and bottles in our house we took them to what we thought was the glass recycling machine in the shop. We tried to put the bottles in, but it wouldn't take them, and only after several attempts did it swallow one. We settled down for a long haul only for a guy to come out from behind holding the three bottles we'd coaxed down it. Apparently it was only for plastic bottles, which I guess might go some way to explaining why we were having trouble. Still, they seemed to think that it was funny, and we did get €0.75 in coupons for our efforts.

The Mooting Fallacy

This morning I had a meeting concerning the moot that I'm working on, and during said meeting something hit me. We were talking about whether a fictional international organisation, subjected to fictional treatment by a fictional state could bring a fictional action against the fictional state. This is all very well and good, but what real practical good does it do?

I'm going to spend the best part of four months working on this fictional scenario so that I can go and present a convincing argument. Yes, it's tremendous experience, a challenge and a big competition, but wouldn't it be better if people mooting put that amount of effort into a real free representation case concerning real people who perhaps don't have the means or the inclination to seek legal advice?

I guess the question comes down to; Four months of free representation, or four months of fictional representation? To use the words of Dick Cheney, it seems like a no-brainer to me.

Back to Basics

Well, it's been a while since I posted on here, and that's mainly because not much has been happening since I got back. I've been mainly working on finishing my first dissertation, and it was a great relief to hand it in, all 8800 words of it, on Friday. So I've been enjoying a somewhat lazy extended weekend, made all the better by the realisation that the clocks went back this morning thus giving me an extra hour to be lazy in!

Aside from all that... Um. Well, Emma and I seem to have struck up a relationship of sorts with a market stall owner. We went last week to buy some vegetables and seemed to annoy him by (a) not being able to speak to him in Dutch, and (b) by not being sure of what we wanted anyway. So we weren't sure about going back to him again, but he had the best selection, so off we trotted and this time he was very pleasant and even tried to learn what things were in English. We even got a parting joke, or at least I think that's what it was. It's my somewhat sad hope that by the end of the year I'll be able to go up to him and for him to say "Just the usual?".

Armed with the produce from said stall I made a leek and potato soup last night which was surprisingly nice, if a little bland. Still, I made up for that with a brioche bread and butter pudding for dessert. I had intended to take a photo of the pudding, but I couldn't wait to try it, which I figures provides a nice excuse to make another one.

On the work front, I have my first exam in eight days, but it's a take-home exam that I have five days to do and only counts for 50%. So my first real exam is in nine days, but it only counts for 50% of my final grade as well. So my first really important exam is in ten days, and seeing as it counts for 100% of my grade and I've not a clue what the subject is all about, perhaps I should be a little concerned. Roll on the 9th November!

Friends

This weekend I went a bit further afield than normal, and went back to London and Cambridge. Things got off to a bad start when I woke up a whole hour later than I had planned to and had to run to catch my train to Amsterdam Schipol. Still, despite the unwelcome rush I still made it on to and a few hours later was in London for a talk by the Government Legal Service. I had a few hours to spend in Westminster and like a true tourist I ensured that I was equipped with my camera:


I didn't get much further than Victoria, but there are parts of London that are really quite beautiful, it's just a shame that often they're hidden away from general view.

The GLS talk was actually very good and was worth coming back for. It managed to set itself apart from usual recruitment talks by city law firms and after talking to several people in the GLS I have to say that I'm very keen to apply.

I spent the rest of the weekend back in Cambridge. My public thanks to Stuart for the kind use of a corner of his room and his rug as a surprisingly effective makeshift bedroom and mattress! It was lovely to be back at Selwyn. You don't realise how much you miss people until you're with them for only a short period of time. I'm having a great time in Holland, and I don't regret signing up for Erasmus, but I've got to know some fantastic friends in my two years at Selwyn who I really miss, and I don't think I fully appreciated that until I went back. It's a shame that I can't be here and there at the same time. I wasn't planning on going back to the UK that often this year, both because it's quite expensive and because I wanted to try and explore Europe a bit more, but I'm now really keen to go back more to stay in touch with people. The fact that Cambridge now has its own outlet of the 'best' Cornish pasty shop is merely an added bonus, but they did have to build it the year I was away didn't they?



Unfortunately my trip back to Utrecht wasn't much better than my one out. I left in what I thought would be plenty of time, but the queue at Stansted to get through security was huge. I checked in at about 5:50 and I didn't get through security until around 6:45, giving me 15 mins to get through departures to my boarding gate. Cue mad dash through departures without my shoes as I'd taken them off to be scanned. Luckily despite having to get a shuttle to my gate I made the flight with about two minutes to go being one of the last people to board the plane. I'd never even considered that there would be security hold-ups at that time in the morning, but I guess I'll know in future! Not only that though, at 20,000 feet over the English Channel I suddenly remembered that I'd left the cheese I'd been waiting so long for in Stuart's fridge. Upon arriving at Schipol I was surprised to see a customs sign pronouncing that cheese is apparently a prohibited item, so I guess either way I wasn't destined to get it.

Now I'm back I've got to get to work. My first dissertation comparing the UK and Canada is due to be handed in for 17:00 on Friday so I'm working for that at the moment. I did some speed-photocopying for it on Saturday morning and reading through it, it seems like I managed to pick out the relevant bits. Will be glad to get it over with.

On a more upbeat note, I'm now equipped with a Delia Smith recipe book and a 'learn Spanish' course so hopefully they should both prove nicely diverting over the coming months!

Bizarrities

Today's been slightly odd so far. I was waiting for my Principles of Good Governance lecture to start when a girl I didn't think I knew started talking to me. I figured that she must have been in the same class and that I was suffering from temporary amnesia. This continued for about five minutes until she said that she thought I was Dutch. I asked why she'd thought that and she said she must have mixed me up with someone else. Odd I thought, but all became clear when it turned out she wasn't in my class at all. Must have been equally bizarre for her to talk to someone she didn't mean to and for them to talk back as if they knew them. A kind of double-mistaken identity. Anyway, I'll see if history repeats itself same time next week.

Still trying to figure out what had just happened another guy came out of the classroom and asked me if I knew where he could find an Erasmus student. I informed him that I was such a said student and it transpired that he's only just arrived in Utrecht, six weeks after courses have started and is consequently a little bit, well, lost. He asked if I wouldn't mind hanging around after my lecture so he could ask me some questions. I agreed. Sure enough after the lecture he was there armed with questions relating to buying bicycles, the student network, student bars/clubs (I was good with that one) etc. He can't buy any of the course materials anymore as it's so late, and I've agreed to let him photocopy by co use book, but at 600-odd pages that's going to be one hell of a lot of photocopying.

I've also managed to drop my Legal Ethics course next period with the consequence that I don't have scheduled courses from the 8th November until at least the 8th January. Two months with nothing to do! Well, not quite. I've got to work on the moot but it'll be great to have the freedom of not having anything concretely scheduled during the week. I don't know if anyone's hoping to, but it would be lovely for people to come over and visit before Christmas :). The oddest thing though was that the International Office practically advised me to drop the course as I've done so many courses this period. I certainly wasn't going to argue with that.

The Irish, and War Crimes

An interesting mix. Yesterday evening we ventured out in search of Utrecht's best fish & chips. We'd mentioned to Amadeo and Javi that there was little better in the way of British cuisine so we thought we'd try and prove it. There are two Irish pubs around here and they both seemed like a natural starting place. The first one, Florin, was packed by virtue of it being their €5 student menu night. So we went onto Mick O'Connells which was substantially less busy, and to our delight, was having a quiz night as well. They took ages to get our dinner to us, and in two parts, with Emma and Richard having to wait about 15 minutes after we got ours before theirs turned up. The upshot being that the landlord gave us a round of drinks on the house. As for the fish & chips, well, for €9 I think we were all expecting a little more, both size and taste wise. It wasn't bad by any means, just not as good as the local chippy back home. So I'm afraid that Amadeo and Javi left feeling a little short-changed. We'll have to give Florin's attempt a try later.

As for the pub quiz, it was fiendishly difficult. Anyone know who came runner-up in the 10m freestyle diving in the Sydney Olympics? Thought not. Still, we didn't come last and scored more points than some of the other teams had done in the past three rounds combined. Whether it'll become a regular Monday night event remains to be seen.

Today things got slightly more sombre as I went on a visit to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Or rather, Voorburg, a place just outside The Hague, so why it's supposed to be in The Hague I've no idea. To be honest, it was something of a let down. The place was deserted (probably as they've nothing really to do, despite them trying to convince us otherwise), and we spent two hours being talked to in a press conference room. We couldn't see into the Chamber as they were preparing for a 'closed session' - in November... But at least the trip introduced me to another new place in the Netherlands, albeit an area where I primarily saw nothing but four very magnolia walls.

Discovering Holland

This weekend we embarked on a faintly optimistically titled tour that promised we would 'Discover Holland', and that we did. We set off at 8:30 on Saturday morning and then coached it around northern Holland. My art skills aren't up to much, but here's a rough approximation of what we did:


So we covered quite a bit of ground (and sea according to my drawing!). Here's a little bit about each place we visited:

• Elburg

Elburg is an old fishing village that doesn't fish anymore now that they've dammed off the sea. They have though found a novel use for their fishing nets - they adorn the houses as outdoor decorations. It was really picturesque and old-worldly, if a little bit touristy. We were only there for an hour or so, but in that time I managed to partake of a particularly Dutch past time, the raw herring as this picture so gracefully demonstrates:


My first reaction was that it wasn't that bad, and I almost went back for seconds. However, five hours later when I could still taste that lovely taste of raw fish my initial enthusiasm had somewhat rescinded.

• Giethoorn

Giethoorn is described as Holland's version of Venice, albeit only in village form. The whole village is built around a canal network and you can't reach it by car, so the only way to explore is by boat, and that's what we did. Nine of us piled into a boat and almost immediately went the wrong way cue much confusion about where we actually were on the Dutch directions we were given. Still, despite a few wrong turns and some great reversion by Yu, it was good fun, if a little cold.


The village itself was nice, but was certainly geared up for tourists with most of the houses having 'for rent' signs displayed rather predominantly, but despite that it was actually quite charming and I wouldn't mind going back again for a slightly longer visit next time.

• Groningen

This was the headline of the tour and our official destination. To be honest, it was a monumental let down. We got there when everything was closing and it was getting dark. Our city tour was about 15 minutes long and consisted of two market squares, the town hall and the university. We had a meal and a drink before retiring to hostel for the evening, and this was about the best scene presented:



Shall not be making an effort to go there again. But at last I've been to one of Holland's most northerly cities. I think it said quite a lot that the depression rate there is so high that they've laid yellow bricks in the pavements to raise peoples' spirits...!

• Afsluitdijk

This is quite amazing. A dyke that's 40km long. You can see it in the map above (the red road with the red blob in the middle. It's not actually much other than a straight road with water on either side when you're driving along it, but from a satellite picture it's stunning. An amazing achievement, so much so that it has a monument to itself in the middle.

• Enkhuizen (Zuiderzee Museum)

This was good too. The Zuiderzee Museum is an outdoor historical museum preserving an old Dutch village, and you can only get to it via boat again. Unfortunately we didn't have that much time there to look around, but it was lovely:


There were plenty of old shops and I partook of an apple pie and some booterbrot which is like shortbread, but about 90% butter. Delicious. I also had the opportunity to try out walking on stilts, which wasn't quite as difficult as I thought it would be. No pictures of this unfortunately, but there is a movie that might find its way onto YouTube if I come under enough persuasion! A group of us have said that we'd like to go back again one day, so hopefully that'll come off.

All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend and was good value. It was good to get away from Utrecht for a while and see some parts of Holland that I'd never have seen on my own. The group that organised it are running a weekend to Maastricht in November, so hopefully that'll be just as good.

When we got back to Utrecht we saw this sign at the bus station:


Based on the success of the weekend, then if that doesn't present an incentive to travel around more, then I don't know what will!

It was the best of times...

This week's been pretty slow with not much going on. I've pretty much finished one of my papers looking at the (non)availability of 'constitutional review of statutes' under the Dutch Constitution, but I'm struggling a bit with my other one comparing notions of deference in English and American administrative law. I've two weeks to finish it in so I'm going to have to work pretty hard the next two weeks to get it done.

I'm hoping to deregister for one of my courses in the next period to give me more time to work on my moot. If they'll let me it would mean that I wouldn't have any scheduled classes from the start of November until I come back in January which would be a huge boon. I don't know if the International Office will OK it, but I hope they will - would go some way to redressing my self-imposed workload this period.

Sarah and Simone are leaving us tomorrow, so that provided another opportunity to bake an event cake. I was a bit more adventurous this time going for a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and a shaved white chocolate topping. It turned out quite well, as shown by my rather self-satisfied pose in this photo:


Tomorrow we're setting off on the 'Discover Holland' tour where we'll visit; Elburg, Giethoorn, Groningen, the Afsluitdijk, and Enkhuizen. So that's quite an action packed weekend then. Hope to blog again on Monday with some photos.

Amsterdam and Activities

The past few days have been interesting. On Friday, Laura, Emma and I decided to venture out to Lydls on our bike to do so cheap shopping. It's about a 15 minute cycle away, but when we got there the savings more than made up for the distance. Unfortunately though the good times didn't last long. I got on my bike to cycle back and was slightly intrigued when my peddles just span around freely without moving the wheels. I then did the typical, yet pointless, "Let's try that again" approach several times before conceding that I wasn't going anywhere fast. The problem you see is that my bicycle chain is encased in a box which is great for not getting your trousers caught in the cogs, but bad when it comes to things like this. Alas, minus a screwdriver to get it off there was nothing I could do, so I had to walk back home, conscious all the time that my prawns were quietly defrosting in my bag. I managed to unscrew the box when I got back home, and after half-an-hour of pulling and prying I managed to get it off my bike enough to see that my chain had inexplicably fallen off inside. My hands and clothes were caked in oil by the time I'd finished, but at least I've got my €55+€60 bike working again - and that's what counts!

Yesterday was slightly less hands on, and we went to Amsterdam as a belated celebration of Antye's and Emma's birthdays. The weather more or less held, although, when it didn't hold, it didn't hold:


We went as a group of 8, but split into a 5, 2 and 1 when we got there after lunch. So that left Amadeo, Javi, Emma, Laura and I to wander around Amsterdam. Firstly we went to the Anna Frank House. It's an amazing place, it's so small and understated, yet incredibly powerful and humbling at the same time. It's in such a nondescript area that it's hard to believe how it could have happened. Well worth a visit. Absent a map we then wandered aimlessly a bit and took a canal boat cruise around the city's canals and port area:


I know I've blogged about Amsterdam before, but it's quite a nice place. Having said that, it's very hard to get a feel for as it's split up by the canals. The canals are bigger and more utilised than they are in Utrecht, and they're much more numerous. It's pretty picturesque as well:


After dinner in an unashamedly tourist restaurant we took the train back home. On arriving back in Utrecht we noticed something slightly odd. Holland may have a reputation of being a liberal country, but this took us by surprise:


A red bunny on traffic lights? Answers on a postcard please.

This morning I was supposed to get up at 7am to watch the Japanese Grand Prix with Javi and Emma, unfortunately, the first thing I was aware of this morning was it being 9am and me having a missed call from Javi. It's all this excitement I tell you!

Marshmallows

What do you get when you put three bored students, cornflakes, marshmallows, bread, a toaster and a microwave together in a kitchen at 1:30am? Well, to tell you the truth I'm not quite sure just what to name the result. Needless to say, this was the position I found myself in after being subjected to Legally Blonde 2 last night - a memorably unpleasent experience. After the movie had robbed me of all my senses I ended up toasting marshmallows over a toaster, spreading them on bread and trying to make a marshmallow-and-cornflake, well, mush, in the microwave. The marshmallow on toast was actually a roaring success, the cornflake concoction somewhat less so. Yes, as you can see, it's all fun and games here!

It's Antje's birthday today, and it was Emma's on Wednesday, so we're in something of a birthday mode at the moment. I'm beginning to feel quite young, or I was until one of the guys I play badminton with let us know that it was his 18th birthday.

Unfortunately the weather here is now living up to its reputation, and it's raining. Actually it's been raining for about a week now. We had a couple of spectacular thunderstorms a few days ago, but now it's just wet. I'm going to have to swallow what little pride I have and buy a poncho that covers you in your entirity when riding a bike. Whether a picture of that particular scene will find its way into cyberspace remains to be seen!

Many thanks Stuart for picking up Brownlie's book, it's much appreciated! In case anyone is wondering why I've got another International Law book, it's for my moot over here. Interestingly the Professor supervising us seems to like changing my surname, it's gone from 'Connah' to 'Cannah' and now it's hovering around 'McKanna' quite what I'll be by the time I've finished I don't know, perhaps 'Smith'.

Tomorrow is Amsterdam for Emma's birthday, so hopefully I'll be able to post with some pictures when we get back. Until then.

Corridor views

It dawned on me today while I was doing nothing at all and cleaning the showers that I haven't posted a picture of my room, or a picture of more corridor members, so here's a quick post to address that fault of mine. First up, my room:


The picture doesn't quite do it justice, and there's a little bit room by the window that you can't see. Mine is the desk and bed on the right. As for corridor members, it was Amadeo's birthday last week and Javi wanted a picture of us all to give to him. It's still not complete, but the result improves on the previous picture by adding Rita, Antje and Marta on the left: