. . . the Spanish Inquisition!

To paraphrase the M. Pythons, no one expected SNOW here today, least of all I! It has come down (for an hour, anyway) in great big, fat, ploppy flakes and coated the streets good and proper -- cold slush. I got good and wet. I hadn't ridden a bike through a snow storm in a city since living in Cambridge, Mass., in the early 1970s! I remember riding my slim-tired, 10-speed Peugeot across the MIT bridge to Boston to a rehearsal, in a driving, frigid storm, and I was not alone (as a biker)! Today, I rode my sturdy Dutch one-speed with foot brakes slowly and watched the cars spinning. In my neighborhood but before heading to my "shed" to park, I took a couple of pictures from the bridge over my canal, for the record. Snow is not common here, and it hasn't been cold enough, either (in high 40s and low 50s).

Today was the first class of my "History after 1800" class, taught by my "Speaking & Listening" professor of last semester. The 19th century and its literature is his field. This class, too, was crowded (about 25 people, vs. last term's norm of 8 or so), including two men who were about my age. We eyed each other knowingly! Today's class focused on Dutch and linked European histories leading up to the 19th century. While I knew that the French revolution took place in 1789, I had never linked the U.S. revolution (1776) with the French and the Dutch (against the French, in 1796). I remarked to my professor afterwards that it had been a fraught 20 years or so in the world then. It was also the beginning of modern democracies. Like my six other classes this term, this one is taught in Dutch. It was very interesting to listen to my professor speaking at a normal speed, compared to last term. Most of the class is second- and third-year students. I found myself taking notes in Dutch, too. Maybe due to having had a very restful six-week break between semesters, my brain seems ready to live in Dutch, rather than constantly translating. No dreams in Dutch yet, though (the final cross-over, in my view).

Yesterday's three new classes were great. One is more grammar and writing, but very accelerated. One is methods and techniques of preparing a thesis at the U. of Leiden -- mostly about citation, bibliography and proper form -- nothing I didn't learn a long time ago, but having not written anything remotely like a small thesis or formal paper in decades, the practice will be good. At the end, we write something, and use all the techniques. The third class, historical linguistics, was fascinating, and started with language family trees and basic terminology.

The big difference in this term's classes is that our tiny "B Group" (now shrunken to two Poles, one Russian, one Chinese, one Estonian and me) has been mixed into much larger groups of second- and third-year students. Oddly, this makes for easier comprehension so far, but classes are no longer intimate -- each one is about 25 students, which for Leiden is very large for the seminar-style courses and classrooms. The difference reminds me of my very short-lived tennis-playing as a teenager. On the rare occasions when I could persuade a decent player to play with me, I played much better than with anyone of my own level.

January and February here are BIG sales in the stores, called "cleaning up", and I've added to my long-sleeved t-shirt collection and a few other things -- prices are cut at least 50%, if not more. Since I had very few weekend clothes (read: student clothes), the sales have helped a lot. In the process, I found several boutique-type shops that have nicer things than the two department stores (C&A and V&D).

The inchworm slippers ("pantoffels" in Dutch, which always makes me think of some obscenely caloric Viennese torte stuffed with whipped cream and raspberries) are on, the coffee is freshly brewed, and I'm off to start yesterday's assignments. Life is good.

Wild swine, felled pines & Utrecht!

Sunday saw me in Hoenderloo, a very small village on the edge of the national park, "High Veluwe". It's not square, but if it were, the park would be about 30 miles square, I think. It's a very large park, the land given by a wealthy family in the 1930s, to protect it from development. A large part of it is reserved for the game that has been there a long time: wild swine (hairy, slim, dark grey/black pigs), sever al kinds of deer and several kinds of exotic sheep, as well as the usual bunnies, gamefowl and some foxes. It's higher in altitude than the rest of Holland, which one actually feels. My friend Theo and his wife Marianne had booked a tour of the park's hunting lodge for us, so the three of us biked into the heavily treed park to the hunting lodge. It was built from 1914 to 1920 by Berlage, a famous modern architect, who also did a lot of work in Amsterdam. The hunting lodge sports central heating, centralized clocks, central vacuum cleaning (no idea how this works), and an electrical elevator. In this period, none of these innovations was anywhere else, for miles around.

Like some of Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings, Berlage also designed the inner decoration of the building and all of its furnishings, down to the heat ventilation covers, vases and tea service. Granted, that it was a dark, drizzly day, but I found the architecture very heavy and stolid (unappealing). It was red brick outside, and painted, glazed bricks inside, walls and ceilings included! The view was stunning, though: the lodge, which is built in the shape of a deer's antlers, looks onto an enormous pond from the front, and is otherwise surrounded by tense pine forest. The number of bricks used in the house required the building of a railroad to the site, to haul the bricks!

I had a very relaxed visit with my friends. Monday morning, I headed back Leiden on the train from Ede, via Utrecht. On the way to Ede, on the bus, we passed huge pile after huge pile of felled pine trees, sawed into enormous logs (about 20 feet per log). This was all the result of the terribly destructive storm from last week. It looked as if a giant had stomped through the forest, for miles!

I got off the train and spent the afternoon in Utrecht, which was a wonderful surprise. It is very charming, with its own distinct flavor. I visited the Dom/cathedral, which has a 150-foot tower that's separate from the cathedral, since it's too heavy for the cathedral to support. Cars drive through the bottom of the tower. While Utrecht doesn't seem to have as many canals as Leiden, its main canal is unique. Between the water and street level is a warehouse level that now is used for cafes and boutiques, in warm weather. The canal twists and turns. There are lots of lop-sided buildings. Most of the center's streets are pedestrian-only. I was there only a few hours, but want to return soon. I loved it.

So, two more free days and then the second term begins. I will take seven courses, five of them second-year courses, as the program dictates. Things like historical linguistics (??), literature and history after 1800 (there was scant Dutch literature before 1800), and "culture and society". This term, all courses will be in Dutch. I remain convinced that this first year is designed to eliminate all students! From our original "B Group" (those students with sufficient Dutch foundation to skip a couple of courses) of about 11, we're down to seven or eight. It's a very small program! I've resolved to manage my time better, have more fun, spend time at the gym and relax more. Aside from diving into university work in a foreign language after a VERY long hiatus, the first term also included things like getting my residence permit, unpacking my household goods, and finding my way in Leiden, so there was a lot of stress and fatigue that had little to do with school. I'm hoping to have more energy for school this term. And then before long, my 340 flower bulbs will emerge from the ground!