So, this was a fun filled weekend. It seems like we traveled a lot farther than we did, but we are back in Wageningen and hopefull will be starting more work this week. I mean, having the days to ourselves is nice, but I would like to learn something while I am here. There are so many pictures I want to post from the weekend. Saturday, we got up and went to the open market here in town, and we happened to come upon an international students celebration. It was like the international bazaar at Western, but it was out in the street. We tried so many foods, and I am still not sure of the things I ate that day. After watching some dances, which I have a picture of, we took off for Utrecht to discover what the small city had. It took a long time to get there by bus, but we saw a lot of the countryside. Every town really has its own windmill.
Utrecht was nice, and Saturdays are booming there. The open market was huge. Lots and lots of cheese and flower stands, and by the end of the day, the flowers were so cheap, you could buy 30 roses for $5. We walked around all day, in and out of shops, and then we decided to eat because absolutely all the stores closed at 5:00. So we found a nice pizza place right on the river and ate as boats passed by on the canal. We did see a coffee house (weed shop). That was interesting, but it was about the creepiest place I had seen. We decided to go on past, but it is still funny to me that they have those just on the street. Sex shops too.
Sunday we slept in and then took a bus to Apeldoorn to the monkey reserve. That place was really neat. Several of the monkey species are just allowed to roam around the park. We had to carry monkey proof bags so that they wouldn't steal our stuff. There were also lemurs and the orangutans are very very smart. One had found a rock and was chiseling her way out of her enclosure by knocking out the bolts.
The bus tickets were very confusing, and I think we paid too much, but now we know better. Many of the bus drivers didn't speak much English, so we were very confused.
Yesterday, we met with Rene and spoke with a couple other professors, and then we had the day to ourselves so we ran many errands. One of those was to find the cheap grocery store because the tiny one we knew of was super expensive. Also, we needed to find the Wageningen Student Organization so that Sam could get her internet fixed, but the maps we had listed it in the wrong location. We searched and searched for this builing and asked all around the area, but everyone was confused. Finally, we found some other students who told us the map was wrong and it was really all the way across town from where we were, and conveniently by our dorm. It still took a lot to find it, and once we did, they told us that they had nothing to do with the internet even though our booklets said they did. So, they sent us back across town and up a big hill to a computer tech place that pretty much just told Sam to email them and they would see if there was anything they could do. So, needless to say, we were tired and frustrated. However, we were welcomed by an invitation by our neighbor to eat with our corridor because he was cooking.
Daniel is Italian, and made the best lasagna I have ever eaten. American lasagna will never be the same. I also had the first good wine I had ever had in my life. It was Spanish. I thought I didn't like wine, but as it turns out, I had just never had a good wine. It is great if you find a good one. We all sat around watching Troy (a terrible movie) and chatting. We have people from all over in our corridor: Ecuador, Poland, Italy, France, Brazil, and the Netherlands. It is really fun.
Today, Sam had the day off, but I started shadowing in a histology lab. The grad student I worked with was staining cells using antibody recognition. It was pretty cool, but I still don't understand it completely, and I am still not sure why they are researching this particular cell because it does not seem that applicable. I am going in early again tomorrow, but Sam isn't even meeting her professor until the afternoon. I am glad to be learning something applicable to my course back home though.
We also go to tour their livestock labs. They treat their animals so much better than we do. Everything is clean, the chickens get free range pens, and the cows have big fields to roam. It was funny because the man showing us around was trying to invent stressors to get his chickens to exhibit stress behaviors, but they are too happy. Ours exhibit those behaviors all the time. To tour the facilities though we had to shower and where special white clothes. They even had special underwear for us. When we came out, we had to shower again. Sam has some good pictures, and I am hoping she will let me steal some.
Anyway, we are finally cooking real food for ourselves, which tasted so good after a week of sandwiches. We are doing well, and I think we are both having a good time.
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