Episode 17: In which Andy spends saturday night listening to melodramatic music and feeling sorry for himself

Spotify, quite possibly one of the world's greatest inventions (take that sliced bread/electricity/the bicycle), works here in the Netherlands - a fact which pleases me greatly. Tonight, being Saturday, I am of course out with all my friends having a good time. Oh wait...

In reality, I am sitting at home scanning through what passes for television in the Netherlands and listening to melodramatic music by the likes of Sigur Rós and Radiohead - generally not conducive to a good mood. The never ending rain generally limits what you can do, especially if you don't fancy spending your hard earnt euros on sitting in a café. I seem to only leave the house these days to go to work, go the gym and on a friday to go to the TGIF drinks at school. On every single one of those occasions I end up soaked right through, which is a real dampener on your mood, believe me!

I am really craving a bit of Sheffield at the moment. Granted I'm looking at all the photos of final year on alpine:penguin's facebook through rose-tinted glasses, but I really miss that place and its people. Still, fingers crossed and thumbs pressed for me getting accepted onto my MA for next year. The application has been submitted, now I just have to wait 4 weeks to find out...

Episode 16: In which Andy becomes a fully-fledged European

There are many things about being European of which we should be proud. White men's trousers do not belong in this group. These trousers, whilst seemingly worn by every second woman in the UK during the summer months, are also sported quite willingly by men on the continent. 

An example of the monstrosities

However, the longer I spend here, the more and more I am beginning to think that this is an acceptable fashion item. Just like I have been informed by an American that it's acceptable for me, as a European, to wear cut-off jeans, white jeans are moving into my "I'd wear that" zone. That and stonewash denim jackets. 

Imagine those trousers topped off with a denim jacket. That's what the Daily Mail should be worrying about, not the bends in bananas!

For an audio-visual example of what I shall have become come July...

Episode 15: In which Andy remembers he owns a blog

Sorry for the lack of updates, hoor! I must confess that I didn't exactly forget that I owned a blog, per se, I just never got round to writing more than a few sentences of an update before losing interest and going off to work on my dutch knowledge/inventing a cure for the common cold/facebook. But worry not, loyal blog-reading fans, for here is what you've probably (not) been hankering after since Episode 14 way back in October: Episode 15.

So, we've entered November now and autumn has well and truly hit. It's still unseasonably warm, but all the leaves are nearly off the trees now. It's around 14° or so, which is really pretty good for this time of year. There are, of course, exceptions: monday morning, for instance. In the 15 minute cycle to work I managed to get soaked right through, to the point that I dripped when I got off my bike. "Was it raining?" I hear all of my 3 blog readers ask! No, it was fog. Freezing fog. Freezing fog that was so dense even my oh-so-pathetic generator light was bouncing back off it. I looked goooood at school that day! Still, it was nice to be there - surprisingly so after a 10 day break which went far too quickly. Week 1/7 until Christmas is almost over and I'm actually looking forwards to visiting the UK, if only briefly. If you weren't yet up to speed with the fact that I miss the UK this time around, please see other whiny posts (Episodes 1 - 14).

Over the Herfstvakantie (that's autumn holiday for you non-Nederlands sprekers out there) I wisited Tschermany where I am staying in a house of a friend. It was nice to speak German again, many were impressed by my german (especially my housemate as we never really speak in Tcherman to each other), but I must say I wasn't a fan of the accent. It wasn't hard to understand; no, after having lived in Austria I could probably take on any accent the german language has to throw at me (*runs away from schwiizer düütsch*), it was more unpleasant with all it's 'shhhhh'ings. I'm an 'ich' not an 'isch' man and so this displeased me. Though, (and this is aimed at you dear Parents, should you be reading this) I actually managed to bring my Luxemburgish knowledge into play as some of their dialect is similar to L. as are some of their words. We went on a tour of the vinyards surrounding housemate's village, for her father's birthday. It all started off so civilised, with standard tscherman restraint but then come wine bottle 42 they were all trying to teach me ever ruder drinking songs. I learnt a few, but felt a bit wrong singing them in front of the elderly germans assembled. They were singing the loudest mind...

Great-Aunt who was ecstatic when she realised I spoke German

After a few days spent there, I headed south to Heidelberg to visit 50% of the Dream Team, Bella and Cyd. Sadly the other 25% was in Basel and was coming up the following weekend: so close and yet so far. Heidelberg is far too pretty for its own good: hills, how I've missed thee! I wandered around a bit on my own as Cyd had uni and Bella had work, so I got to find my own way round the city which I always like. 

View from the castle onto the Neckar river and the Old Bridge

We spent most of the time either drinking coffee in cafés, mocking german fashion sense or expressing our disgust at german banana-flavoured Weissbier, before ordering more. It was great to see them, a nice break from the Netherlands and great to see some friends. The journey home was uneventful, long and boring. I was hungover, hungry and tired. All in all, NOT the best travel companion. Schade, eigentlich.

Episode 14: In which I get into the swing of things

So I've been here a month-and-a-half and I've been at work for four weeks now and I think I'm finally into the swing of things. My days are slowly developing a routine: work, gym (some days), food, sleep, work. This is how non-students live and it's surprising how quickly the days go before it's the weekend all over again. Sadly, the past two weekends I've had the plans have fallen through last minute which has meant I didn't really have anything to do, but last week a BBQ popped up to keep me entertained and tonight a student houseparty has been muted, which is always something! I'd envisaged doing a lot more travelling, but what with not really having anyone with whom to just go somewhere for the day (like back in Austria, where I was surrounded by fellow TAs) and being rather skint, I've not really been anywhere apart from Antwerp. Still, once I start getting paid regularly come december I should be able to start daytripping around Holland. Speaking of other TAs, I was rather under the impression that the only others here in NL amounted to one person, whom I knew from Uni. But, I received a letter from the Department for Internationalisation of Education or something like that and it turns out there is an introduction day, with a guided tour of Haaaaaarlem and high tea! I am envisaging it actually being just a meeting for me and Nic, the other TA, still it's a chance to venture out of Breda! Seems a bit silly having an 'Introductory' meeting 3 months after starting work, mind...

This week, I got invited out for a drink with a few people from work. A drink turned into many drinks, pizza and then more drinks and I really enjoyed it. It was nice to see people from work outside of the work environment and it was also a good way to find out where was good to go bar-wise. I also am apparently eligible for membership of an exclusive club at school called the 'Twintigers' (the Twentyers), all the teachers under 20 go out for a meal and then head out into town together. The guy who started it up turned 30 this year so has been expelled from his own organisation! Nice

Tonight, there are some Belgians coming to stay so I am cooking up a curry of epic proportions, I should really go stir it...

Episode 13: In which ze Germans came and ate all my scones...

So, I taught German. I actually taught German. It was fine, I was surprised by how quickly I got back into it seeing as how I haven't spoken any german (bar the odd word) since my finals. I also got told how natural I sounded, which was nice, even if I don't believe it. I had my first english tutee as well, for which I had to use quite a lot of dutch as he's only young, bless. But it went fine, and I used my tutoring money to buy a duvet (pronounce, jewvet), so I am no longer huddling under blankets like some throwback to the war. Sadly, the only duvet covers that were in my price range were hideous and garish, so I am currently averting my gaze from the blindingly-patterned monstrosity on the other side of my room.

Yesterday, I went to an international dinner party so made some scones. Well, I tried to make some scones. I carefully metricified my grandma's scone recipe and headed off to the supermarket where fail was heaped upon fail as not only did they not sell caster sugar, but I got caught singing along to Gareth Gates by a suitably-amused shop assistant. I don't know what's worse, the fact that I got caught, or the fact that I knew all the lyrics to "Anyone of us". Appropriately red-faced, I headed home and successfully concocted a gloopy mass of dough resembling nothing like what scone dough should but I whacked it in the oven and hoped for the best, all the while receiving helpful messages from my mum such as "Eek", "Why are you making something you don't know how to make?" and finally, when the results turned out better than expected "Huzzah!". The scones (with jam and freshly whipped cream) were by far the most popular thing at the party, being wolfed down in a matter of minutes. All in all, tres successful.

Episode 12: In which ze germans are coming

So tomorrow is my first day of tutoring, I have three tutees. 2 whom I are tutoring in English (see, I'm such a good teacher I can use 'whom') and the other auf Deutsch. This is rather nerve-racking for me as I haven't spoken any german since the Oral exam and even then it was entirely about television in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and I'm not sure that's the angle my pupil is wanting to go down. Even worse, is the fact that this pupil is my teacher! This could go very badly, or ok. Seeing as I've had 9 years of german at school and university (granted I learnt next to nowt at school) I should be able to impart some wisdom, right?

Episode 11: In which I venture across the border

There's a photo exhibition going on in Breda right now all to do with perspectives. I had an appointment to go to at lunchtime on Friday and, after waking up to a gorgeous sky, I decided to head into town early to have a gander at the exhibition and post a few letters to friends back in the UK. En route, I started to notice my front light was wobbling quite severely and the cobbled roads weren't exactly making it better, so I stopped off at my favourite bike shop to get it fixed. It's all free if you've bought your bike there, the staff are really friendly and the best thing?

It's one of the owner's and everyday it gets carried to work in the owner's basket!

Light fixed, I took a stroll through town getting a few obligatory tourist shots and visiting the Breda shop to buy a Breda-themed present for Cooper, whose house I spent the weekend at in Antwerp. The photo exhibition is partly outdoors and I the weather was perfect for it, sadly I didn't have enough time to see all of it, but I'm hoping to go again next weekend when Cooper comes to visit Breda.

I arrived in Antwerp and Cooper and I grabbed a bite to eat before heading out to a bar, where we met one of his colleagues and his boyfriend. The bar laid on quite possibly THE best free barbecue ever. This was no students' union free burger, this was the whole shebang: salads, pasta, kebabs, breads. It was lekker and really filled a hole, which we'd been planning to fill with frieten so this worked out better for us! The next day we went and did a bit of shopping in Antwerp and generally just chilled out. I bought a new scarf, as the weather's most definitely drawing in (ignores fact that today was the hottest day in weeks) and a new wallet. We were feeling quite tired from the night before so stopped off for a healthy smoothie before heading home for a disco nap and some food to prepare us for the night ahead. 

We woke up to another beautiful day, and the view from Cooper's window is quite lovely. However, after having rather over-indulged on the vodka the night before, Sunday mornings in a catholic country aren't exactly peaceful.