Days 334 to 340 - Last hop across the pond

(I realise I have been VERY slack updating of late... I've been kind of busy :P ... but I'm endeavouring to catch up! so here goes...)

Day 334 – Two days into the final study block at UCM I finally twigged to the wonders of the Eurostar and enjoyed a smooth, four-hour journey to London (as opposed to the about 7 hours it takes to fly a crappy budget airline with luggage restrictions!). My reasons for heading West were many and varied this time, a mixture of family and business. I had promised myself while in Europe I would visit some foreign newsrooms, given I have only ever worked in one. So with the much appreciated help of a former Advertiser colleague (who some of you long-time readers may remember I visited at the Telegraph newspaper offices last July when I was fresh off the plane) I was able to line up a visit to two of London’s most exciting newsrooms; The Guardian and The Times. Around the same time there was also an influx of Shore family members descending on London so I was able to catch up with long lost cousins, aunties and uncles – a welcome treat at the end of a long year away from family. And finally, ALSO around this time, two good friends from Maastricht had headed over to London (one returning home, another to start an internship). So it was to be a packed 6 days.

After the delight of the Eurostar trip (involving a normal train from Maastricht to Brussels and the Eurostar from there to London) I arrived in the centre of London in late afternoon, in time to catch cousin Kelly Shore (of Adelaide/Bunburry origin) for dinner and a quick squiz at the Westfeild shopping centre (haven’t seen on of them in a while!).

Day 335 – After a good chin wag with Kel the night before, it was down to more serious business the next day, meeting her for my first visit to the infamous Harrod’s department store. I had every intention on this trip of trying to see a wider area of London than I had previously and there were some specific things on my to do list, of which Harrod’s was right at the top. It truly is an amazing concept; doormen with tophats and tails, old fashioned candy stores inside, almost a whole floor devoted to merchandise for the department store (can you imagine the same in Myer or DJs?!), a milk bar, pizza restaurant, bakery and more downstairs, another floor converted into an art gallery and a centre-piece Egyptian themed escalator-well rising through the guts of the builing. Of course everything was exhorbitantly priced so I shopped shrewdly, but did treat myself to some Harrod’s choccies Kelly insisted were worth the about $6AU for a small box (and indeed they were).

Egyptian themed excalators

crazy ceiling of the escalator-well

Harrod's dogs in the merchandise section (they're Westies!!)

The lolly section

The rest of the day was filled with lunch (a pie – at last!!), a quick visit to the portrait gallery where I stood in front of an award-winning wall-length portrait of people bathing at a nude beach in Corfu (including a full frontal of an old man!) and then spent about an hour in a bookstore… filled with book in English! (In fact, I delighted in the opportunities to read publications in English, spending one night in bed surrounded by newspapers and magazines). That night was spent having a good catch up over wine and nibblies with Uncle Pete and Aunty Di, swapping travel stories and plans.

Day 336 – Friday was newspaper day – the main reason I was there. The diary showed a visit to The Guardian in the morning and The Times in the afternoon. I realise how privileged I was to even get in the door (it really is who you know) and it was one of the most exciting and interesting days of my whole exchange year. First up, The Guardian was colourful, funky and busy. It had a really good vibe about the place and is clearly all about the digital age (massive Mac screens everywhere as just one example). The building was open and light and interestingly designed and the newsfloor about 4 times the size of the one I am used to, and with way more staff (one generous member of whom gave me a private tour). The real treat of the morning was being able to sit in on morning conference (a snappy affair through which I sat quietly in the corner trying to keep the smile off my face!) Its an open door policy for conference - two sliding doors on either end of the room, lots of glass, a canary yellow couch arranged in a square around the room and anyone can come in, ask questions and toss around story ideas, opinons etc. As we left the conference room the absolute highlight of the morning occurred … a casual chat with the editor Alan Rusbridger (“Ah, this must be our Australian friend”).

In the afternoon it was over to another side of town to The Times, with a view of London Bridge. First impressions – an impressive building housing more newspapers in one place than I’ve ever seen. The vibe here, being a News Ltd paper, was much more what I’m used to and reminded me a lot of The Advertiser, but of course on a much larger scale. Inside, again a larger newsroom and very organised, with signs above sections of desks detailing the rounds being covered by those below (my favourite was Real Estate = “Bricks & Mortar”). As mentioned, the view was spectacular over the Thames and London Bridge. Again I was privileged enough to be able to sit in on conference, lasting longer in the afternoon. It was fascinating to sit (quietly again of course) and watch these powerful newspaper people decide the fate of the next day’s paper; who else will have that yarn, how could they make a story better, which was the best pic for page three, and of course, what to splash with. To be privy to that process felt like being let backstage somewhere I shouldn’t be!

The day was finished with a visit to the Hammersmith neighbourhood to meet up with a mate from back home (loyal blog readers will remember Matty, from Victoria, coming to visit me in Maastricht late last year). I met Matty and some of his Aussie (house)mates at the Southern Belle pub (interestingly named for that part of the world I thought) and we drank Swedish cider and watch an AFL match on a big screen (it was even my team!).

Matty and I enjoying a beverage

Day 337 – Another lovely thing about being back in London (for the fifth time!) was being able to check some things off the to-do list that I still hadn’t managed to do. So this morning I set off for the Portobello Rd Markets (not put off by the usual tube disruptions!). After a solo wander I headed back to South Kensington to meet the old Advertiser colleague who helped me set up the previous day’s newspaper excursions. Over lunch we discussed a) my gratitude! b) living abroad c) how hard it is to get a media job in London and (among other things of course) d) how it is to go home.

No rest for the wicked – that night brought an opportunity to catch up with a friend from Maastricht, Andra (and a friend of hers also living in London) for a Chinese food fix (to redress the lack of a Chinatown in Maastricht) and some drinky poohs. But it STILL wasn’t a final goodbye for Andra… I would see her again on Monday…

Day 338 – European Father’s Day apparently so it was off to brunch around the corner with Uncle Pete, Aunty Di, cousin Sam and his girlfriend Lexi – quite the nice little family catch up, hearing tales of their visits to the Royal Ascot Races and other fun London things. Afterwards, it was time to leave the comfort of a faux-home with family and head to a hotel near the train station in preparation for my leaving London on Monday. After getting more than a little lost (I turned left out of the station instead of right) I finally found the place, dumped my gear and headed to Covent Garden for a wandering afternoon with a spot of gift shopping and boutique cuisine. Tonight was the aforementioned night spent surrounded by newspapers (and watching English shows on TV).

Day 339 – Last day… time for the final catch up with Andra – high tea at the Grosvenor Victoria Hotel to celebrate yet another Maastricht mate Leah’s birthday. In the fancy surrounds of this classic old English hotel (think chandeliers, plush couches, marble floors, cupcake stands and champagne) we had a celebrity spot – Elle MacPherson was lunching in the dining room. I found out later she was hosting UK Next Top Model at the time. At the end of this pink-in-the-air affaif it was finally time to say goodbye to both Andra and Leah, dash for a quick shop on Oxford St and then back to the hotel to pack.

Leah and Andra enjoying high tea

Day 340 – On the road again – after a truly satisfying trip it was time to head “home”, thankfully on the Eurostar again, not a budget airline! And I made it in plenty of time for my afternoon class!

Day 350 (can you believe it?!?!?!)

A week from today I leave Maastricht.  A bit over a week after that I leave Europe. Man has that come around fast. I mean, not really of course, it has been almost a year, but it feels like particularly the last few weeks here have been set to warp speed. I remember achingly counting down weeks and days for other milestones (Brett coming, 100 days til I get home, the start of the last study block etc.) but now it seems I can't keep up. It feels like just minutes ago I was saying "one month left"!

My last post went up as the first of my friends began the slow dribble out of this bath-town with the student plug pulled out. Now the bathwater is almost completely gone and the drain is making that weird squeaking noise as the air tries to escape down the plumbing! There is literally NO-ONE here this weekend. I went for a walk around the guesthouse perimeter the other day (on my way to throw out the first few of MANY more bags to come of rubbish, old clothes and collected crap that needs to be excavated from my room before leaving) and of the 80 or so flats in these large buildings (which house 2 people each) there are about 5 occupied. And walking past an empty flat where friends used to live and knowing they're not inside is a surprisingly lonely feeling. I feel a bit like Will Smith in that movie "I am Legend", the only person left on the planet it seems sometimes, like some airborne disease wiped out all the people here while I was on my last holiday and I've come home to find the landscape unaffected, but EMPTY!

The only two people left in the guesthouse whom I know (Nakita and my roomie Emma) are away on last-ditch weekend trips. Nakita and I technically leave on the same day - next Friday, a week from today - but she goes home while I make my own last-ditch attempt at a "Summer" with 8 nights in Croatia. While I'm there Emma leaves and then its all over. I'll come back to Maastricht for just a couple of hours to check out of the guesthouse and grab any extra packing and then the looooong journey home begins. Catching that last bus from the guesthouse to the train station is going to be an odd combination of excited butterflies, melancholy and mild panic I think!

After all this jetting around Europe the past year I'm rather used to one or, at a pinch, two hour flights to most places. I have become spoilt. And now I'm facing about 20 hours in the air, separated by a 16 hour lay over in Kuala Lumpur (a far inferior airport to waste time in than say Singapore, which has a free movie theatre!). And before I even think about getting on the flight home I have to fly from Croatia to Germany and then get a train from there to Maastricht. That's about 6 hours travelling, plus a train from Maastricht to Amsterdam airport is another 3 or so... which means over four days I'm looking at about 40 hours traveling time and a whoooole lotta waiting.... The upside though is saying goodbye to budget airlines. If I MUST be trapped on a plane for so long, at least Malaysia Airlines is going to feed me, entertain me, attend to me and provide me with all sorts of unpaid for extras :D

In the meantime, this last week is going to be a mad rush of:

• finishing study (which I have come to describe as an annoying mosquito near the back of my ear - not exactly hard but annoying and I wish it would just go away)
• the continued dismantling of the flat (which I began a few days ago but can't yet bring myself to put away all the things that make this place home and face staring at 4 white walls and empty cupboards again like it was when I arrived)
• last minute catch ups with friends (I said "doei!" to my dear Dutch friend Iris last night, with an open invite to Australia)
• dealing with bureaucracy (I apparently have to deregister with the city administration, give back my ID card, close my bank account, check out of my accommodation... etc etc)
• and general panic attacks (have I packed everything, have I seen everyone, have I been everywhere i want to?!?!)

And then, like that, it will all be over....

Day 330 - The Maas exodus begins...

Today I said goodbye two the first two of my good friends in Maastricht to leave – forever. The mass exodus of Maas has begun. One by one, over the next 6 weeks or so, we’ll drop like flies, at least until I head home in 39 days. We all knew this time was coming, but it comes with mixed feelings now. There’s not a single one of us I’m sure who isn’t excited for some reason or other to be heading home soon (some are looking forward to seeing boyfriends or girlfriends [maybe even Mum and Dad!], visiting a favourite restaurant again, hearing TV ads in English once more or regaining easy access to vegemite). But I’d wager there’s also a part of all of us that kind of wishes we could stay here forever (our friends and family could all move here right… we could import Vegemite right?). Not just physically (because the weather would eventually drive me mad) but in some metaphysical way I’m sure most of us have at least one moment from our time in Maastricht that we could “be in” forever. Some of mine may be soaking up the sun on my roommate’s balcony and finally feeling “at home” here, watching snow fall for the first time outside a classroom window or racing along in a posse of fietsers (cyclists) to a party in town. Of course these moments are different for all of us, but I’m sure a lot of them are also shared memories.


In the coming weeks people will leave, almost every day, and the guesthouse will begin to empty again. In a strange way, for those of us here for the past year, this place is starting to revert back to how it was when we first arrived. The weather is getting back to those late August days, there are just as many bugs in the air and flowers in the ground, there’s people moving in and out of the guesthouse and every last experience of something reminds us of the first time … but instead of buying bikes and toasters and bed pillows everyone is trying to get rid of them. Instead of  “hi, my name is … and I’m from… where are you from?… what room are you in?” the talk around the guesthouse is now “how do you think I can get all my crap home?”, “who wants my flour when I leave?”, “where do you fly out from?” and of course “what day do you go?”.

Every day I have a little panic attack about something I still haven’t done here – quintessentially Maastricht things that I’ve always said I would do but have put off in favour of some buitenland (or other land) adventure because Maastricht would “always be here”. But now, like sands through the hourglass… Maastricht’s days are numbered and there’s still so much more to be discovered. Just tonight we walked past two bars that looked really cool and I’d never either seen or thought about going to before. Every time I cycle past the vrijtof square in the centre of town I’m reminded that I must climb to the top of that church and see the view everyone is talking about. It’s similar with people. Despite being in the same guesthouse for the whole year (or even half a year), there are plenty of people I’m only just starting to get to know better. And now of course I don’t want them to go!

And when everyone is gone (and they all pretty much will be by the time I’m packing my bags) this place will literally feel empty. For at least a couple of weeks right at the end of my stay there will only be one or two friends left with whom to do all these things still on my Maastricht bucket list. I fear it will be a tad lonely … especially as the homesickness increases. Tonight, some of us were debating the merits or otherwise of going early vs being the last one standing. Those who go early might feel like they’re missing out, or a pang of jealousy or nostalgia at hearing what we’re still getting up to over here, but those of us who go last have to go through so many goodbyes and the unsettling feeling that something is missing. We had a goodbye celebration for one friend tonight, but by the time I leave it's looking like an intimate dinner for just two as Nakita and I say au revoir before leaving on the same day.

For me, in the meantime, I spend a little more time each day thinking about home as it gets closer and closer. Sometimes I imagine what it will be like to emerge at the airport, looking like the black “luggage turtle” who left last year, into the no doubt cold Adelaide morning and be “home”. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll bring my children to Maastricht one day, like how my parents showed me where they lived in their 20s in London. Other times I dream about the day I can chuck out all the crap in my flat here, pull down all the photos, pack up all the clothes, strip that God awful mattress/block of foam and jump on the first train to Amsterdam airport! However, I imagine it will be a weird sensation, to say the least, when all that is done and I look at my flat and it appears just as I found it – four white walls, a bare bed and a hotch-potch assortment of IKEA furniture.

When I left Adelaide for this big scary adventure my biggest fear actually was not missing home, the language barrier or losing my passport – it was worrying I wouldn’t make good friends. Reliable friends. Real friends. Thankfully, as usual, I worried for nothing. While no-one can replace the people in my life back home, I was lucky enough to meet a group of people here who have made it just that little bit less horrendous to be away from everyone else. And as skype/facebook/TNT post have helped maintain the relationships on hold back home, when they resume, I have no doubt we Maastricht Alumni will put those methods of communication to use in reverse. From long-distance relationships to Australia to ‘doing long-distance’ with friends scattered all over the world. (And of course, knowing I always have a bed for the night in Scotland, Canada and Sydney at the very least :P)

This post has clearly been my most “mushy” so far – and this blog is not intended as a personal diary – but I wanted to record (and share) these thoughts because I believe they are a crucial part of the “exchange experience”. Let's see how things pan out over the next 38 days...

Day 325 - Wandelen in Maastricht

Last post I complained about the unpredictable weather.... and it has continued. At the moment the sun and rain seem to alternate one day on, one day off! Nonetheless, on the sunny days, I've taken to exploring our surroundings. Each day I'm reminded of how little time I have left here, relatively speaking (the first of my year-long friends leaves in a week and then they drop like flies about once a week from there until in 6 weeks I'll be gone myself! - last (wo)man standing!). So, I'm trying to make the most of the sunny weather and explore parts of our neighbourhood previously unaccessible due to snow!

It really is a wonderful little part of the world we live in here; a neighbourhood of cute rows of identitcal little houses with manicured front gardens, parks and playgrounds dotted in amongst big conrete 70s looking apartment blocks (the Dutch are particularly good at creating useable open space but particularly bad at making mass housing look good), sprinklings of shops (or winkels in dutch - love that word!) and then BANG ... cow fields! it's so weird, you walk up the street and then at the end it might open up into a corn field, or a horse in someone's front yard, or cows just chilling in a paddock by the river. The dog walking continues as people traipse out into fields with their dogs... and everywhere you go you can see either a church spire or a wind turbine on the horizon. It really is a mix of suburbia and farm life in such a small area. It's a wonderful feeling to have so much open space around but also be so close to the cosmopolitan centre of town.

While cycling is definitely the preferred mode of transport here there is something nice about walking, which we tend to forget as we hurtle off on two wheels to uni most days. Being able to tromp through a field or find a little dirt path behind some Belgian houses that opens into an expanse of daisies... it's very easy to explore but almost impossible to get lost! The only downside... NO ONE picks up their dog poop here! so its EVERYWHERE :(

Some of the more memorable things I've seen/experieced on recent walks include being asked what country we were in (standing on the Dutch side of a river that divides Maastricht from Belgium) - never had that one before, the surprise of coming round a corner and being confronted with a rolling field ending in a majestic group of four huge white wind turbines (I honestly think they're quite graceful, just spinning round and round, but never frantically, just big and slow and quiet), seeing a mother cow and calf in a field I found down a little farmers lane ... and generally, the fact that there are flowers all around, be it poppies, little daisies or rose bushes :)

I guess this is bit of an effort to explain to those of you back home who are interested,what it's like to live in Maastricht. So, to help paint a better picture... here are some pictures :P


Emmaplein roundabout and church - a central point between our guesthouse and town/uni


the street leading up to our guesthouse


our local Jumbo supermarket - closed for a public holiday, just like Adelaide!


the little rows of white houses, so cute :)


the most awesome houses in Maastricht - like little canal/caravan houses but on a proper street ... elcectic might be the word to describe them...?


wind turbines :D


church spire


HORSE! (note the wind turbine in the distance :P)


the river-border between netherlands and belgium, photo taken on the dutch side and obviously the bridge is the "border crossing"


COWS! - makes me miss the MooMobile

one of the many playgrounds

park in town, next to the river, behind uni - where the cool kids hang out in the nice weather :P

old cobbled pedestrian bridge over the Maas river in town at dusk - with the obligatory church spire in the background!

Day 319 - Honestly, this country....

.... never ceases to amaze me.

Yesterday I sat in the sun in the garden out the back of our guesthouse flat studying. The mercury hit 30C at some point during the day (truly amazing for the Netherlands and about bloody time!). At some points I even broke a sweat (although I wasn't quite to the point of wanting air-conditioning like some of the other foreigners here!). Nonetheless, the point was it was hot... Today I wake up ... and it's RAINING! and I mean really raining. So far the maximum temp has been 14C and I got absolutely drenched cycling home.

                              
Felt like this was me on the way home today! 


<= Me yesterday in the garden (happy snap by the housemate Emma)


I honestly can't believe it - a 16C turnaround in less than 24 hours. And we're not talking a 'cool change' like we get back home. This was literally "Netherlands: summer one day, winter the next". And remember this is one day from the official start of Summer. It did get me thinking though about other things that surprise/amaze/dumbfound/disappoint/confuse me about the Netherlands, so here's a few:

• People here walk their dogs ALL the time - seriously, day or night - and in whatever weather. So of course I saw people in ponchos walking their dogs today as I was cycling home against gale force rain. And the other night Emma (my housemate, Sydney) and I came home from the pub about 1.30am and a young girl was walking her dog!
• No fly-screens on the windows: even though they have just as many bugs as the next country here it seems the Dutch haven't heard of fly-screens :( which means no opening windows on muggy nights (its MUCH more humid here than back home) or playing mozzie hunter before bed
• Non-poisonous spiders: even if they get inside, apparently none of the insects here are poisonous. I really found this hard to believe when I was first told - that their spiders aren't poisonous. But enough people have told me now that I suppose I have to believe it. Coming from Oz though it just doesn't seem possible!
• Pre-cut food: it seems the Dutch are as time-poor as any other western nation but what really gets me is the staggering variety of pre-cut, pre-washed, pre-flavoured food you can get at the supermarket. In addition to the usual freezer pre-cut chips or pizza, there is a literal WALL of refrigerated peeled, cut potatoes at our supermarket in EVERY shape, size, flavour and filling.Our Dutch teacher said most Dutch families don't like to spend a lot of time cooking during the week. "Choose and cook" fridges like this are common:
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• Dairy products: there's also about a bajillion types of yoghurt/drinking youghurt/cream/milk etc variations in the dairy section. Lot's i've never heard of obviously, like Vla, Slagroom, just plain Room or Kwark... (whatever that is)!
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• Missing words: language-wise, one of the funniest things is the missing words. For example an English speaker would say "I play tennis" or "I use the computer", but in an effort, perhaps, to be efficient the Dutch simply turn the activity into a verb. So, one "tennisses" or "computers", or my favourite, "I internet" - sounds like Apple's next venture.
• Mutant words: the Dutch also have the LONGEST words I've ever seen (except maybe in German). Apparently, in many cases it is okay to join a number of words together in the Dutch language to describe something, and there's really no limit to the length of the combination. Perhaps they were the true inventors of 'supercalafrajilisticexpialadocious' (or however you spell it!)
• One word for too many words!: one last thing about language, it seems the English have a lot more words for things compared to the Dutch. There are a number of little words in Dutch that cover so many meanings, depending on context, which can make it really hard to make sense of a sentence. For example, the word 'nog' can mean yet, still, besides, further etc etc.

And this brings me to a brief piece of other news - my narrowly passed Dutch course. I'm sure I complained to a number of you that I was surely going to fail my Dutch course... but I managed to scrape through. While I now feel after 28 weeks of lessons once a week (and admittedly VERY little homework in between) I can understand about 60/70% of everything I read and hear (ie. government letters, announcements at the train station, speaking to the lady at the supermarket counter) my speaking and writing is not so flash. My grammar in particularly is atrocious, which was pretty embarrassing to discover given my profession of choice! The problem is I tend to think in English and then put Dutch words into the English grammatical structre - which is COMPLETELY different to Dutch. For example, the verb always comes at the end so when in English you say "I went to the beach with my friends", in Dutch you would say "I to the beach with my friends went". Hence I messed it up a lot!

However I saw the classes as much as a cultural experience as anything else - a chance to ask our Dutch teacher questions about the country and lifestyle as well as the language, and figure out some of the oddities of this place. As a result I feel a little bit more like a resident and less like a tourist. It's also a humbling experience to realise how hard it is to learn another language, let alone become fluent - and therefore makes me appreciate the across-the-board English skills of almost Dutch person!

So before I go, some funny Dutch words or phrases from our last few classes:

• Kater = hangover (NB: overgeven = vomit!)
• de voedselvergifiging (yes, that's a real word!! an example of those combination-long-as-you-like words) = food poisoning
• magnetron = microwave (i just love this one cos it sounds so futuristic :P)
• Jeetje = aw geez! or oh gosh!
• borsten = breasts!, or elleboog = elbow, or billen = bottom :P
• Trouwens = "by the way"
• handschoenen = gloves (literally, handshoes)
• beha = bra
• ontzettende = very, very, very, very, very, very, very .... you get the point, it's a very emphatic word!
• ging = going, which isn't anything very interesting but I just think its a cute dutch word, only missing one letter and it could be English
• zadelpijn = saddle pain, as in when one rides one's bike !!!
• zonde van de tijd = "waste of time"
• paars = purple & geel = yellow

So, a very random selection, but some of the quirkier things that came up in class in the last few weeks.
For now though, it's back to the study of "theorising terrorism" - the course that got me excited about coming to UCM in the first place. Only about one and a half months til I'm home now! I hope the weather gets its act together - I need to get a tan to make you all jealous on my return!