Short Week

So, I wrote this post on Thursday, so I HAVE been writing, but I just hadn't bothered to post it until now because I have been travelling. So this pretty much summarizes the 3 day week I had, so it is a rather boring post. My next one will be more exciting because it will be about Belgium!


Sunday

 On Sunday I went to the Floriade (a horticulture expo that happens once every 10 years in holland), it was pretty impressive, and I've started a blog post talking just about that. So that will be posted... eventually.

Monday
this very short week has been a pretty busy one and quite exciting too. On Monday I ended up leaving the office pretty late, and pretty hungry, so, as I had been craving subway I decided to search for the only one they had in Venlo -which, I now know, is pretty much on my way home-. So I got myself a meatball sub and one cookie (they only give you one in a combo here!) and ate it and read for a bit in a nice park that I hadn't been to before. It's just north of the centrum and it was quite nice.

I was in a little bit of a dissapointed mood Monday night as well, because the bike I had gotten from work for the night was a sad little thing. It makes a lot of noise - creaky sounds when I am biking. So wanting to take advantage of the nice weather (which you need to do here) and not wanting to ride my bike, I decided to go for a run. A first since being here.

It was lovely. I was so happy that I went. I ran along the river. I got to go on paths that I had never seen before because bikers aren't allowed. And the change in perspective was amazing. You really see a place differently when you slow down, and take things in a different angle. I went running at about 9, and I think that is the perfect time, it is around dusk and you can see the sun set on the other side of the river. Definately going to do that again.

Tuesday
was also a very busy day. We went on a "field trip" to a tradeshow, and for some of us, it proved a good resource for our projects, and for others, just a fantastic way to get a sense of the industry. It was in Germany and the Student HR office planned it. There were about 40 students in total, some were currently doing an internship (like me!) or others were planning on doing their graduation project with the company.

It was super awesome. I wish I had pictures, and I might get some later (there was not suppose to be photography, but some of my co-workers took pictures). But the trade show was massive, so huge. There were like 14 different halls, and we were there all day and only saw 4 of them. For lunch I also had a sausage in a bun, because that's what you are supposed to eat in Germany. Pretty awesome.

When I got home, Felix, my roommate from Nigeria was cooking something with a very strong aroma. When I went to go check it out, he asked if I had ever had African food before,  and I was instructed to make sure I was hungry so that I could try it. Apparently he was cooking a very traditional Nigerian beef soup/stew. Being slightly skeptical, I still agreed that I would try it. I really wish I remembered the name of it.

So the stew is served with yam (made from a powder, it looks like mashed potatoes, but with a very different texture). And what you do is take some yam, and then dip the it into the stew. Felix told me that there were two different ways to eat it, you can either eat it with a fork,  almost like fondue dipping the yam into the stew, or you can wash your hands and with your hands make balls of yam and dip them. Being me, I decided to try using a fork, but after watching Felix and his friend Candy use their hands I realized my method wasn't as effective. What you are supposed to do, is take the yam, and roll it into a ball, flatten it a bit, and it acts more like a scoop. It took me about 3 bites to abandon my fork. My only complaint was that there were chunks of beef, and I wasn't as good at eating those without the aid of a knife, very chewy. Oh and I really didn't like the texture of yam.

Wednesday
was a little less exciting. I needed to actually go to work, no field trips :( . After work, the students in my department, there are four of us, went to go for a bite to eat. One co-worker was trying to get me to eat a frikendel (after telling me all the wonderful types of meat there are in it). So we went to enjoy some dutch traditional favourites (junk food!). I thought it was quite interesting, because when we were talking about Canadian food, I explained was poutine was. And they made fun of how bad that would be for you. But then I found out what they eat on their fries is, apparently Frites 'WAR' is fries  with (soaked in) peanut sauce, mayonaise and onions. Not any better, if you ask me. In the end I didn't eat a frikendel, I had a kroquet, which probably wasn't much better for me. Oh, and they made fun of my fries with tomato ketchup.