Farm Fresh

Lately I've been noticing the interesting mix of rural and urban space found in the Netherlands. In the US, there are towns, and then these towns sprawl out forever...from a town center, it usually takes quite a while of driving to get to any open fields or farms. Basically in the US, there are concentric circles of population density; driving outwards one goes through regions of fewer and fewer houses packed together until AT LAST there's maybe one farm before the next town. Here in Holland it is different. I live with my host family in kind of the northern reaches of our town. I say this not because it's beginning to get rural out here, but because we're out a bit from the centre. The entire town seems to be of uniform population density, though. The neighborhoods here feel about the same as the neighborhoods right next to the center. If I want to go for a bike ride in the fields, though--something I do nearly every day--I need only bike out the north end of our neighborhood and BAM there they are. Town just...ends. No concentric circles here! It's very different from the US, but I think I like it this way. I can bike to the Hoogstraat for whatever shopping needs I might have just as easily as I can go for a long bike ride in the gorgeous Dutch countryside. Conveeeeeenient.

So yesterday and today I was in Nijmegen, which was amazing. It's very, very old...I think the city might have existed before America was discovered. This is a mind-blowing thought for me, like these people had an amazing, thriving culture before my home country was even thought of. Yesterday Julia and I took the train in to meet up with Andrew and spent the day just wandering about. We saw an AMAZING old cathedral, beautiful Gothic architecture and everything, but sadly it was not open for walkthroughs that day. Today we went back with our host mom for an excellent concert of some amateur orchestra and choir. They did some really great pieces, and it was an exciting opportunity to see such a huge production--a massive orchestra and probably a 30 or 40 member choir. Also, the concert hall itself is supposed to have the best acoustics in the Netherlands aside from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Heh.

Tomorrow I have to go to school (!) at 11 AM to discuss course selections, as I believe I mentioned earlier. I think school starts on Wednesday for real. Eeek!

This evening I went for a very, very long bike ride in the fields. I saw signs for a bike route, so I followed them. The scenery was incredibly beautiful, but when the route started being more and more dirt roads and fewer paved bike paths, I decided to turn around. Dirt roads with massive potholes are NOT pleasant on bicycle, to say the least.