Europe 2001: A Travelogue
She Was a Daytripper...
Eurodiary, 6 September 2001, 08:45 (8:45 a.m.)
My key observation of the past few days is that I must speak Dutch with a German accent, because whenever I ask someone a question in Dutch (and this has happened at least three times), everyone has responded in German. I guess there are worse things...
Adam's problem is that he keeps confusing Norwegian and Dutch -- particularly the numbers. I said he'll probably "get it" eventually -- sometime around our last week here, most likely -- just as he finally "got" an Irish accent the day before we left Ireland (until then, he'd been trying to affect the accent but kept speaking like Mike Myers in a Scottish accent).
Anyway, I'm now typing this while on my morning commute. (In the evenings I generally continue to work -- might as well; it's a half hour). Yesterday and the day before, during my morning commute, I just vegged -- tried to read one of the Dutch papers, watched the scenery, etc. -- but today, not surprisingly, it's rainy and gray, so I figure I'll kill time this way.
It's a bit of a pain to have such a long commute -- 30 minutes by train, plus 30 minutes getting to and from the train stations. Twice a day. But like I said, if I feel industrious, I can work on the train, which is nice. And --when the weather's nice, at least -- where else can you enjoy a truly leisurely commute while watching green farmlands and fields, with cows, sheep, and horses grazing. I even saw a blue heron in a canal by the RAND office yesterday morning. Wish I'd had my camera... Oh well.
My coworkers are also quite friendly. Dia, the office manager, brought me a bouquet of flowers on my first day, and I've had lunch with staff members both days thus far. There's a cafeteria downstairs that's either subsidized or just plain cheap; I've had full meals for about $3 each day! (7.5 guilders) (I think it's subsidized, because a Burger King crispy chicken meal -- my dinner last night, since Adam was in class and I didn't leave work until 7:45 p.m. -- cost about the same as its American counterpart, if not a little more.)
But, generally speaking, lots of things are much cheaper than I remembered Europe to be -- perhaps the dollar is just really strong, or the Netherlands is just more subsidized. Local transit and rain travel are both cheap -- a bus or trolley ticket in Rotterdam costs $.66, and a round trip train ticket between Rotterdam and Leiden is about $8). But, as Adam reasoned, if we were to go the longest distance possible during rush hour on the DC Metro, it would also be about $4 each way. (It would just take more time to travel a shorter distance, I think.)
Back to my coworkers, though. Like I said, very nice people.
Oh -- quick aside -- I see some blue sky peeking out from behind the clouds! Maybe this won't be such a gray day after all.
That will make some of my coworkers happy. Apparently there are quite a few volleyball enthusiasts in the office, so any day that's not raining will find them outside at lunch, putting up the net and playing a game or two. Since it was actually sunny yesterday, even more folks joined them. I wasn't quite dressed the part, or I'd have joined in (and if you believe that, I have a bridge in Rotterdam to sell you...).
Seriously, though, the office is a good mix of youngish research associates (my age or so) and senior experts. More young 'uns, though, I think, which is nice. And everyone speaks English, but all the Dutch speakers appreciate my feeble efforts.
The building is about a 15 minute walk from the Leiden train station, in a bioscience park. The building itself is the Fokker Space Building, and across a small canal along the walk, in a field next to the park, is a huge engine shield for the Ariane 5, a European spaceship (I think) that was probably built by Fokker.
Also along the walk to the office I pass a natural history museum (at least, that's what I think it is). It has two parts to it, on either side of a road, with an enclosed bridge between the buildings. Occasionally I see people crossing from one building to another, and yesterday I noticed that there are also model rhinos (yes, rhinos) in the walkway. An unusual sight, to be sure. It's one thing to see ducks, swans, and herons, but I never expected to see rhinos.
Well, it's now 9:06 and the train has reached the Hague (den Haag), so Leiden is next. I'll write more later -- perhaps not until after the weekend, but maybe Adam will weigh in before then with comments on his classes or something.
Tot ziens!