Monday, January 19, 2009

Today I was finally able to test out my raincoat. I definitely needed it since it rained off and on the entire day. This morning we met at 10:30 to fill out paperwork. I signed up for classes. As of right now, I am taking Elementary Dutch 1 and 2, Art and Architecture, Art of Photography, and the Netherlands and its European Context. We start Dutch 1 on Wednesday and the other classes begin in February. We then began to fill out the lengthy and expensive Visa application. Since I will be staying in the Netherlands more than 90 days, I am required to fill this out. Just to have the application processed costs 433 Euros. After we completed most of the paperwork, we went to lunch at the same Leiden University eating place as we did on Friday. Today, I had a Panini with tomato and I think mozzarella cheese. It was very good. I also had a tomato, cucumber, and onion salad. To drink, I tried some type of fruit juice. I am not sure what it was but I know there were strawberries in it. The juice had a lot of zip. After lunch, we took an hour to discuss a brief overview of the Dutch history. The Netherlands is a small country but has a very big history. We then went on another walking tour of Leiden. We saw a section of Leiden University’s botanical garden. Of course it is winter, so it didn’t look to exciting right now, but I am sure it would be wonderful in the spring. We also went to de Burcht or the burg. A long, long time ago, the citizens of Leiden built a man made hill and then built a stone round building. It was never used, but at the time was meant to be a place of refuge should an enemy attach. I think I am getting a good idea about where everything is located, at least in our part of the city. We once again cooked our own meals for dinner. After dinner, I suggested we do something rather than just sit in our rooms all evening. We decided to go for a walk. We decided to explore and eventually came to the grocery store. We got a few things and brought them back to our residence. Since we had only been gone an hour, we decided to continue our walk. This was not a good idea. After we had been walking for about a half hour, it began to downpour. We had to walk into a very strong wind to make it back to our dorms. I am happy to say that my raincoat kept the top half of my body dry. However, the rain soaked through my jeans making my legs very cold. The next time I get a great idea to do something, I may wait for a day that doesn’t have a chance of rain.