Up until this point, I had been living here mainly as an outsider. My typical day was something like the following. Morning: wake up leisurely around 8:30, make myself breakfast, do some necessary errand such as buying groceries or do something fun like explore the market that happens twice a week in the town center. […]
Update: turns out I made a common mistake in thinking that this was the scene of Vermeer’s View of Delft. The gate in Vermeer’s painting is actually the Rotterdam Gate, which was torn down in 1836. Oops. While Em was here, she provided a quick crash course in Dutch art history that included many field […]
An eclectic assortment of objects that each reminded me of someone. Kristin Noah, a.k.a. Noo Noo Kira Matthew Nancy Burlap Jack Smooth
I had an amazing time visiting Mike in The Netherlands for the past ten days. We spent the first few days in Amsterdam and then traveled to Delft where we took a few day trips to The Hague, Utrecht and Scheveningen. There is so much to see and do in […]
“Fiets” is one of the first Dutch words that I learned after I got here. It means “bicycle”. I sought out the Amsterdam fietsmuseum for obvious reasons, and Em went along with it graciously. I saw an interesting vehicle on the walk to the place – a beefy-looking electric assist tricycle. We got to the […]
Em is here for ten days! We spent three nights in Amsterdam right when she arrived, and we packed the days full of museum visits and putzing around the canals. We had arranged (through airbnb) a somewhat swanky Scandinavian modern styled apartment for our stay, but the owner was not in town, so we were […]
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking aimlessly into town and passed by this decommissioned water tower. It looked like it usually does except that there were crafty signs and decorations made out of pallets and people wandering about. Turns out it was part of the Blikopener (literally “can opener”) festival. The main attraction […]
I bought a bike to ride around town. Someone I met here told me that once I got a bike, my life here would improve so much. My life here did improve somewhat – not nearly to the extent that it improved when I found an apartment for the rest of my stay, but having […]
My friend, Aya, had been working in Paris for a few weeks. I knew this because: 1. she mentioned it a while back when she had us over for dinner at her apartment. 2. she asked Em to water her plants while she was there. It had slipped my mind until Em mentioned it, but […]
On the first of August, I moved in to an apartment near the north edge of Delft (on the border with Rijswijk). I’m renting the room for the remainder of my stay, and it’s a huge relief to not have to worry about housing for the rest of my time here. I feel as though […]