Olin Away
The latest posts from Olin students who are away for internships, research, studying, or fun, overseas and underseas. Hear their stories as our mere 300-student school gets spread out across the globe.
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I went grocery shopping yesterday.
If you’ve never been grocery shopping alone, in a foreign country whose language you don’t speak, and with a limited amount of money, let me tell you: it’s quite terrifying.
As of yesterday I only had 20 euro. (I should get a bank card with untold riches on it either Friday or Monday, and have no more money worries). I was also running out of food, so I went on my final-until-I-have-money shopping trip.
Shopping alone in a foreign grocery store is a bit unnerving because (a) you have no idea where anything is, (b) you have no idea what anything is, (c) you can’t ask anyone where anything is without showing that you’re a foreigner, and (d) you’re terrified that someone will ask you something and you’ll have to mumble “Ik spreek geen Nederlands” while shuffling off quickly.
Add to this the fact that I had a very limited amount of money, and it because really unnerving. When I was checking out, I asked whether or not the cashier spoke English (he did, like everyone else in this country) and this said, “I only have 20 euro…” He nodded, showing that he understood, entered something into the computer, and then continued scanning my items.
Finally, he handed me the receipt: €36. I died a little inside. I think the cashier noticed, because he saw me frozen with an outstretched €20 bill, and said “Ah.” He then typed something else into the computer, and gave me a new receipt for only €16. Apparently he thought that I wanted €20 cash-back, not that I only had €20.
Anyway, I think I can feed myself for a week on what I got. It will be a bit bland, but doable. Tonight I’m borrowing some money and going out for Indian food.
From Jackie Rose’s travel blog ‘itgetsevenbetter’.
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There is a place by Ninomiya House called Andersen, a bakery supposed to be in the English style (it has St. George’s cross flags hung all over the dining area) that I visited in hopes of finding inexpensive, wheat bread. While we did find delicious-looking bread, it certainly wasn’t cheap—-running around seven dollars for a small loaf compared to 85 yen (~$1) for 8 slices at Seiyu. So instead of buying bread, we stopped for breakfast. We chose things that looked good since we couldn’t read the signs.
I had peach juice and what turned out to be a curry-filled bun while Alex got cafe au lait and two cheesy, bread-y, rolls. One had bacon.
From Kendall Pletcher’s travel blog ‘kendeliza’.
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Here’s me with my bike at a park near our apartments in Tsukuba!
I love biking and when we arrived at the Ninomiya House (a housing facility for visiting foreigners in Tsukuba) arrangements had already been made for us to rent bikes for the summer. They are very nice silver 3-gear road bikes which come complete with with a bell, basket, and two locks.
We spent the past weekend biking around the city and exploring the many parks nearby. My favorite places so far include the lakeside park where children feed bread to enormous koi—-it reminds me of feeding geese at the park when I was a kid—-and the bike and pedestrian paths that stretch along the main route of the city. They are designed in such a way that there are significant stretches of downhill riding in either direction, meaning it is a joy to ride no matter which way you’re going!
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First sushi of the summer! The bottom right is raw octopus—-which was beautiful but chewy. My favorite was the tuna. I’m working on becoming less culinarily predictable (read: American). I will have succeeded when my favorite is the odd silver fish that almost everyone gagged at (top right).
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First Visit to NIMS
Yesterday was our first time visiting the National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS). Dressed in our formal best, the six of us walked to the Sengen campus with Nancy and Jim, the two professors representing NNiN who escorted us to Tsukuba. At Sengen, we were introduced to NIMS—-their funding, staff, objectives, results—-in excruciating detail. Many of the specifics regarding paid leave were likely for the benefit of others, but the various other minutiae could only serve to impress. Afterwards, we were whisked off to the Namiki campus and then Sakura and then Sengen again, where we were given the grand tour and saw and heard described in detail every lab that any of us could conceivably use during our 74 days here.
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Last night (Sunday night) I also went to Leuven en Scene again, for the two night performances that I missed on Saturday night. Unfortunately, I timed it exactly wrong and ended up arriving at the venue (a park) at the same time as EVERYONE else.
This meant that I waited in line for about twenty minutes. At around 23 minutes, something happened… a lady walked by, said something in Dutch to all of the people in line, then skipped the entire line. This was apparently a cue for the rest of the back of the line to skip the line. I asked a person next to me what was going on; apparently the line was for candles, and if you didn’t care about having a candle you could just go in. Since I was almost at the front of the line, I elected to get my candle, which was a tea candle in a paper bag. Once I’d gotten that, and made my way into the park, I discovered that almost everyone had just taken their bagged candles and hung them on the fence… curious.
There were also some really cool structures and lights all over the place.
The first performance was Don Q, a retelling of some sort of Don Quixote, which was really confusing because I (a) can’t speak Dutch and (b) mistook it for Don Juan. After watching a guy on fake horseback running around with a sword for a while, I realized that it was the windmill-tilting Don and not the lady-seducing Don.
The performance itself was pretty cool; there were a variety of fire-arts (poi, staff, fan, and sword) though all the spinning was simple enough that I think I could have done it. There was also a giant several-person fabric dragon, which I utterly failed trying to photograph. After it was all over, their clean-up music was the Breaking of the Fellowship, from LOTR, which was awesome.
I then tried to get to the other performance, got really confused, and left. Overall it was a pretty fun night, though.
Unfortunately, most of the pictures didn’t turn out, because my camera’s not that great for taking night photos. Also, it seems like Belgians really don’t have as much of a photo-taking culture as Americans do, so I felt a bit awkward whipping my camera out every five seconds.
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Yesterday, I skyped with my parents.
Then Chris logged on.
Apparently he was at the Toronto (I think that’s the right city?) Science Museum with NatMat and Erika.
I took screenshots.
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Calamity
Today starts off nicely. The light drizzle keeps the humid south china sea air from weighing me down. I keep to the lees on my way to Hong Kong’s famous Star Ferry for a ride across the channel that separates Hong Kong from Kowloon. The clouds are a bit dense, so I owe the crossing another ride. Besides, I’m here on business. I’m here to get my new visa for China.
I soon learn there are two ferries from Kowloon, and I got on the wrong one. No worries; a short bus ride will bring me to the consulate. Though the consulate is under construction and I went in from the wrong side, I eventually find my way to where I need to be. I fill out the form, take a number and grab a seat near the front of the room.
From Trevor Hooton’s travel blog ‘trevorstravels’.
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