A meandering miscellany

Last night was an emotional one for I said a final 'goodbye' to my old corridor. Actually, that's slightly over-dramatic as it's still less than ten metres away and relatively easy to get to. So perhaps better to see it as a farewell. I had promised that I would bake a cake for the event, so I racked my brain for something a little different and came up with a chocolate cake (not different) covered with baked meringue (different). It was a seat of the pants exercise, and the meringue was slightly marshmallowey, but it was a success and seeing how it all got eaten, I'm rather sad I didn't bake another one. So here's the final picture of the people (other than me) who constituted corridor 153-163 for the first semester:


Both Antje and Sabrina are leaving this week for pastures new, but the first lot of University mail for the people who'll be arriving on Friday has already come, and it looks like the corridor will be repopulated by Spanish and Portuguese, so it's going to have quite an Iberian flavour!

I was sitting on the train today for the first time in a while, and while watching the scenery passing by I was intrigued by the fact that every so often the train line becomes bordered by these translucent barriers. I've seen these before on highways, usually on bridges, but I hadn't really noticed them on the railway before. I had always assumed they were crash protection, but trains usually stay on the rails. Were they there to stop people jumping off? Or perhaps even to punish (rather severely) those who did? Or maybe even to stop people jumping on? Lacking a person sitting opposite to ask, and not being that intrigued at the time I had to wait to find out, but now I know. They're acoustic barriers to keep the noise in. What a fantastic idea. People always moan about the noise from the road and rail, so why not build a barrier to reflect it back? Seems like a pretty sensible idea to me, which is probably why I've never seen them in the UK.

This discovery got me thinking further about sound in the Netherlands generally and I've realised that this is a very musical country. Take church bells. In the UK, they are certainly tuneful, but here, they're positively musical and they often have little interludes between the quarter-hours. Even the Dutch language sounds musical from a non-speaker's perspective. I'd sing "The hills are alive with the sound of music", but there aren't any hills here to be alive, although I hope you get the point.

Something else that's also very Dutch are pancakes. English pancakes are generally rather thin and to be honest, a little wimpy. French crepes are light and delicate. American pancakes are puffy. Dutch pancakes on the other hand are essentially an omelette - with added flour. Yum. Nonetheless, this evening, armed with a couple of left over egg yolks (see meringue above), I decided to try and make my own Dutch Pannekoeken. Surprisingly it actually worked out quite well, although it wasn't quite as bright yellow as the real thing. The real highlight though was dessert. I finally made the blueberry and pear sponge from a few nights ago. When it came out of the oven it was one of those 'I really should take a picture' moments, but temptation got the better of me and now there's nothing to take a photo of. Alas, but I still have plenty of pears and blueberries, so I wonder how best to rectify that one...?

Given the content of recent posts I reckon that I should transform this into a food blog, especially seeing as tomorrow night I get to sample the Dutch speciality Boerenkool, which, politely, seems to resemble a green mush. Perhaps a food blog isn't such a good idea.

Jack Frost

I have very little to write about, so I'll start with something simple. It's pretty cold here at the moment. So cold in fact that the other day, not only did I, for the first time since I got here, change back into trousers to cycle back from badminton, but by the time I arrived home I had two patches of ice crystals on my gloves where I'd been holding the handle bars. The numerous digital thermometers lining the route gleefully informed me that it was anything from 0C to -5C. Either way, it was decidedly nippy. I'm curious as to why there are three such things on my way to the University, it's not really as if the temperature here is anything to boast about!

Unfortunately, although it has been cold, there has been a marked absence of the one thing that makes the cold fun: snow. I was momentarily excited this morning when I was caught in a little brief flurry, but it quickly become little more than cold rain, which I guess is better than hail, but nowhere near as good as snow.

The cold though means that I'm appreciating hot food more and more, and recently I've done pretty well on that count. Tonight I cooked two pizzas for Amadeo, Jeff and myself and contrary to my expectations they both turned out rather well. So much so that I didn't need to bake the dessert I had planned as well, so the pear and blueberry sponge with custard will just have to until breakfast tomorrow! Actually, after writing it, that doesn't sound like such a bad plan...

I had my final practice moot today. We have a dress rehearsal next week before the Dutch final on the 3rd February. I'm now feeling better about the whole thing than I've ever done, things just seem to have come together recently and we're all gelling well as a team. I'd be surprised if we win in February, but I'd be more surprised if we bombed badly. Either way though, it'll be nice to be able to put it away afterwards and get on with the rest of the year.

New surroundings

The past few days have been rather hectic and for the first-time since I got here my ad-hoc 'to do' list stretched over a monstrous two postic notes. But still, it has all been worth it and I'm now writing this entry from my own room! The silly thing is that its bigger than my old shared room, so someone in the Housing Department missed an opportunity here, not that I'm complaining mind! I also effectively have my own kitchen in which to let my creative juices (if any) run free. I took a photo of my new surroundings, but it looks exactly the same my old room did in the photo I posted of that, so just imagine my old room, but with a 100W light bulb, one bed, a TV, and a little more space.

Now that I have a lot more space it'll be easy for me to put up anyone who would like to come and visit, and I should hopefully be able to borrow back my old mattress, so please treat this as an open invitation to come to Holland and say 'Hello'!

In time honoured tradition here's a photo of Jeoff, an American masters student and my new flatmate, with me and Amadeo at the (slightly disappointing) Italian dinner we went to the other evening:


It's certainly going to be a change living with someone more than twice my own age, but the early signs are that we'll get along fine and I'm really looking forward to the next five months here.

Although the final semester doesn't start until the 12th of February, I guess that for me, in a way 'Utrecht: Part 2' starts now!

Swept away

It's been a little windy here recently. So windy in fact that Utrecht made the BBC News! I've had a few emails asking if I'm alright after it was reported that a crane crashed into a University building here injuring six. Thanks to everyone who asked; I'm fine. I'm hardly ever at the University campus as I don't have any lectures there, but by coincidence I was there yesterday, although I didn't see the crane incident. In fact, the most exciting things I saw were a sheet of iron being torn off a roof and two portaloos toppling over (presumably unoccupied at the time). For those that haven't seen, this was the damage to the building the crane connected with:


The police were stopping cyclists and ordering them off their bikes and I've heard reports of people being blown backwards on their bikes in Amsterdam. There's a huge number of branches and roof-tiles smashed on the pavements as well. Strangely it's very calm today, almost as if nothing happened!

Last night, despite the official advice to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary, we ventured to a restaurant for dinner. And it turned out to be well worth battling the gusts. The essential concept of said restaurant was that everyone got a little mini frying pan and stove, a supply of meat and vegetables, chips and bread, and was left to it. Great fun! The fact that it was all you can eat with unlimited drinks was naturally a bonus:


Thankfully, despite some rather pink looking chicken, I don't seem to be suffering any ill-effects from the venture and in fact I'm looking forward to my next visit! In the meantime I've signed up for an Italian dinner on Sunday evening arranged by the student network here, and on Monday I might be lucky enough to sample a Dutch dish that's been highly recommended and goes by the name of 'Farmer Cabbage', courtesy of Emma, a member of my mooting team. I imagine there's more to it than the name suggests, but I'll be interested to find out!

Analysing Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a city that constantly alludes me, a little like Brussels. As with Brussels, I've now been there three times, and I'm still not quite sure what I make of it.

Today it was very different than the other times I'd been. It's no longer Summer and it's no longer filled to bursting point with tourists who only go there, to put it politely, for the 'typical' Amsterdam things. Instead, the streets were almost empty and most of the people I passed were speaking Dutch rather than English. Everything felt much more relaxed and less rushed and I had a proper chance to just walk around the city. The main streets are much like any others, aside from being overly filled with conspicuous, loud and brash tourist shops. You don't have to go far though to walk into a completely different place. The canals in Amsterdam are, from my point of view, both a huge bonus and drawback for the city. Their advantage is that they largely keep the touristy bit confined to the very centre of the city. Their disadvantage is that they break up the city and everywhere becomes too small to fit into a whole. When walking around some of the farther out canals I was struck by how lovely and open it all was. And I think that's the thing, a lot of Dutch cities are simply lovely to walk around - I would go to see the city, not necessarily something in the city.

Amsterdam is also an amazingly multicultural place. Although today it wasn't so evident, I don't think I've ever been to a place where such a multitude of languages are spoken. Not only this, but there's an incredible amount of bilingualism as well, with many speaking a language with an accent which betrays their true nationality. It's all incredibly eye-opening.

So, where does this little ramble lead? I think I was a little hard on Amsterdam before and I certainly didn't give it a proper shot before - it has more to offer than I gave it credit for. It won't become my favourite Dutch city (that honour currently being held by Maastricht,), but I don't think its the worst.

Catching up with Cambridge

Today I increased the number of Dutch cities that I've visited by one, by getting on a train to Leiden to meet up with everyone on the yearly Cambridge-Leiden exchange. After a busy week it was nice to have to get up early for a social event for a change!

I didn't get a chance to see that much of Leiden, but it felt a lot more open than a lot of Dutch cities, with the streets being wider than they are here in Utrecht and Amsterdam. In fact, I really liked what I saw and I'll probably go back again for a better look when the weather's improved and the temperature is rising slightly!

It was really good to meet up with some of the people from back at Selwyn. Max, Jaron and Joe were all there, and I also increased the number of first-year lawyers I know by one as well. So that's two +1's in one day:


We started the day with an extended coffee and breakfast stop before I visiting a Leiden fraternity house, and then joined up with the rest of the exchange group for a lecture on Dutch politics. The lecture was quite interesting, if a little bit statistical, but it was good to get some more information on the politics of the country that I'm living in and to hear how it's likely that Holland will get less liberal in the next couple of years, so, as the lecturer solemnly told us "make the most of it now"!

The lecture hall itself took quite a lot of finding, but inside it had perhaps the most spectacular water feature I've seen:


The picture doesn't do it any justice, but the water flowed down wires from the ceiling into the bit at the bottom. The whole thing was really quite hypnotic. I believe that Joe was kind enough to film me gawking at it if anyone's interested in seeing more!

This seems like a convenient place to mention that I'm coming back to Cambridge in February to do some proper catching up with everyone. I have a mini-pupillage in London on the 19th and 20th of February, so I'm coming up to Cambridge after that for a few days before flying back to Holland on the 23rd. That'll mean that I'll be there on a Thursday evening, so need I ask: formal hall anyone?!

Teaching the Undutchables

Wednesday marked the start as my (to-be short lived) role as a teacher. This month I'm teaching a course to a group of 23 first and second-year Dutch students introducing them to the basic outlines and concepts in English law. Perhaps unfortunately I didn't have time to be nervous due to the mooting work, but I'm now one lesson down.

I've never done anything like this before and it was quite a strange experience to find me writing my own name and email on the whiteboard in front of 23 students. Things went pretty much to plan, but I was impressed with how boring I made everything sound. I was talking about some basic concepts like Parliamentary sovereignty and the difference between common and civil law systems, before I got bogged down (heavily) in trying to explain what Equity was all about. So it didn't end on that high-a-note. There was class participation though which was encouraging and I was asked quite a few questions.

I did enjoy myself though, but there's certainly room for improvement. I have though learnt from the first week and I know what needs to be changed. I've always preferred lecturers who do just that, and lecture, so that's the style I adopted, and it didn't really work. Next week I'm talking about the English legal education system and the legal profession which hopefully I can make a little more interesting and involving. If anyone has any funny video clips or multimedia involving Barristers, Solicitors or Judges, or even just some teaching tips (Annie?!), then you know where to find me!

The whole thing is leading up to the students themselves running a mock-trial set in an English court room. There was a general look of bemusement when I explained a little about it, but I'm hoping that it'll be something good fun and give them all a better impression of what English law and our legal system is like in practice. It'll also be a good excuse to dress up - Judge John Deed anyone?

Back to the Future?

Does the EU have a Future? That's the title of the course I've started this year - my first since November last year. It's a condensed course, so it's going to finish in February and it consists of two four-hour sessions each week which are essentially a combination of lectures, seminars and question and answer sessions. It's also being taught by a visiting Professor from Harvard who isn't a lawyer. One of my previous lecturers here joins us in the class as a student himself. So, in short, it's quite unlike anything else I've done. And it's also rather good fun.

The sessions themselves are pretty intense, and the lecturer, John Gillingham, seems to have boundless levels of energy and a real passion for what he's teaching. If anything, it's too condensed as there clearly isn't enough time for him to say everything in as much detail as he'd like. It's really interesting to hear so many different views on the EU from all the people in the class from so many different countries. I don't think you really appreciate how much some countries benefit from the EU until you speak to someone from there. British Euro-scepticism is all very good, but it does risk missing the bigger picture. Having an interested and lively class, and a lecturer who's keen to get people involved in debate is great as well. It really opens you up to other viewpoints and considerations that otherwise I wouldn't have thought of. I actually think that this sort of thing is sadly missing from the Cambridge system. Naturally you can't have debates in lectures, and ones in supervisions are necessarily only between three or so people. There are about 35 people in this class with widely different backgrounds and opinions and it makes for a really lively atmosphere. Perhaps it works because it's not really law, it's more political science, but its stimulating and something I'm determined to make the most of while it lasts.

But it doesn't end there. After the class he asked if anyone wanted to take advantages of his 'office hours' in a nearby bar. Seven of us did so and spent the next two hours carrying on the conversion and discussing everything from bicycles to EU enlargement. He even paid for a round of drinks for us all!

At the end of the course I have to have produced a paper outlining what I believe should be in any future EU Constitution. I'll be quite interested myself to see what I come up with there! So, does the EU have a future? My best politician-style answer: Yes, I think (and generally hope) that it does, just not as the EU we know.

Mooting Madness

This past week has been pretty odd. I'd expected that I'd have quite a little bit of work to do, but I hadn't anticipated quite how said work would come about.

I entered last weekend with the knowledge that the deadline for submitting our finished mooting submissions was Sunday 14th, which, although they weren't near being finished, was plenty of time to get things in order. So naturally I wasn't pushing that hard to get them finished.

Unfortunately, on Monday afternoon my knowledge was 'updated to '. The deadline wasn't Sunday the 14th, it was instead Wednesday 10th. Panic. So cursing my rather laid back attitude of the days before I had a manic couple of days trying to get everything finished in time; concluding, proof-reading, footnoting, formatting, cross referencing, indexing etc. Thankfully my team got everything done with about two and a half hours left to go. Unfortunately the other team did not, and it was actions stations right up to the deadline to get theirs done. In fact it was action stations until \after the deadline, with us finally being two minutes late. I don't think I've ever worked so hard in a few hours to get them all finished. I summed it up at the end by commenting "That was rather fun, in a sort of sadistic 'I don't want to ever have to that again' kind of way."

The fantastic thing about the whole thing is that I've now finished the written work for my moot a whole weekend before I thought I would, which given my general loathing of the whole thing, is brilliant! They are now all printed and stapled and they look quite professional if nothing else. Unfortunately I had to pay €135 for the privilege because the University isn't sure if it's going to pay for them. As far as I'm concerned though, it is.

After all of this we had to take our printed submissions and march off to The Hague to 'present ourselves' to the competition organisers. So, suited and booted off we trotted expecting something quite formal. Alas, not only were we the only team in suits, our submissions also looked the shabbiest, there was no 'presenting' in any shape or form, and the whole thing lasted less than an hour. We were told what we already knew, had to endue a painful 'lottery' system to determine who we were to moot against, and weren't really given the chance to talk to each other properly as we can't know which University each team is representing. They didn't even give us lunch, to everyone's disappointment. And it was raining and blowing a hooley. Not that positive an experience really!

So, that was essentially my week up until yesterday, and consequently provides my excuse for not writing a blog entry before now. I have several other things to mention as well, but to boost my post count, I shall post these separately!

Carpe Diem. Cotidie

After a landing that I'd rather forget and a Christmas holiday that I'd rather not, I'm now back in residence in Utrecht, and everything is much as I left it two weeks ago. I now have an Internet connection again, although seeing how I had to guess an IP number to get it work, I'm not holding out much hope of it lasting for any length of time. Unfortunately work started right away with a three-hour meeting regarding my moot this morning, and I've got to get my lesson plans finalised for the 'English Legal Reasoning' course that I'm teaching this month. I'm going to have to get used to having lectures again as well after not having had any since November. All in all I think it's going to be a rather hectic January.

But it's not all work. I'm hopefully going to manage to meet up with the people from Cambridge on the Leiden exchange in the coming week, I may return to The Hague (albeit for work reasons), I have a dinner party invite for this weekend as well and I'll be back at Selwyn around the 19th and 20th of February. I've also returned equipped with a mental list of the places that I'd like to have been and some things I'd like to have done before I leave for good in July, so that's giving me something to aim for.

So it's now 2007 and everyone is in the habit of making New Years Resolutions. I've never gone a bundle on making my own, but in light of the above, this year, I fully intend to seize the day. Everyday. I don't want to look back and wish I'd done something I didn't, and I look forward to letting you know the outcome.