Author: Wes

Writer, runner, student.

Woensdag is schaatsdag (or: kissing the ice goodbye)

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Jaap says I skate like a prostitute — with my legs wide open. To say that I look like Bambi on ice would be more politically correct, but Jaap’s way of phrasing things is more entertaining. Some people say he’s a lompe boer, or a farmer who behaves or says things in a crude way.  (It’s a term of endearment).

And while I never really did manage to close up my legs, I’ve improved to the point where I’m no longer stumbling after after every stride. I’m no longer the foreigner on the team who can’t skate. Now I’m just the foreigner.

~

The ice rinks are closing as the weather becomes warmer.

But before you can leave the ice rink, there are two things you must do (or at least this is what the Utrecht team does):

  1. Skate in the opposite direction.

Traditionally, you skate counter-clockwise around the track. You go straight, and turn left around the corner, and that’s really about all you do. Not once did I have to make a conscious effort did I have to turn right.

So imagine what it’s like to turn right for the first time in months. I couldn’t do it, and neither could most of the team. People would hold hands and lean on each other as support.

2. Jog one lap barefoot around the ice track.

Or two, if you’re feeling particularly daring. The ice is cold to the point that it sticks to your bare feet, so there are no worries about slipping and falling on your bum.

~

Back in September when I was planning what I wanted to do during the year, I wanted to speed skate because:

  1. It’s typical Dutch. It’s the one and only sport the Dutch go nuts for during the Olympics, and the one sport they dominate. And if studying abroad is all about experiencing different cultures, why not give the national sport a shot?
  2. It’s novel, it’s cool, and it’s something I wouldn’t be able to do back home in California. I wanted to try something new, and the thought of zipping around the ice at high speeds appealed to me.
  3. And okay, maybe I wanted to see what it was like to wear those skin-tight body suits. Jaap let me borrow his for a week and I felt like the top banana. 
Vechtsebanen
De Vechtsebanen, where I would skate during the winter.

~

Woensdag is schaatsdag.

Every Wednesday at 9:30 PM, I would bike forty minutes to De Vechtsebanen for skating practice. We would skate until midnight and then go for a cup of tea, some warm Chocomel with whipped cream, or some beers to make it a brisk trip back home. I often wouldn’t be back home until 2 or 3 AM, although that’s also due to my habit of stopping by the student bar to say hello to the regulars —  a hello that often lasted for at least an hour.

I did that every week for six months. Speed skating (and the usual routine associated with it) was something I looked forward to on a regular basis, so it feels odd to have that gone now.

–

I’ll be back on the ice soon enough.

the first signs of spring in Utrecht (or: my first day of wearing shorts)

Pictured above: Julianapark, right along Amsterdamsestraatweg in Utrecht. Good picnic weather.

Spring is coming early this year. The Australians studying here (and me as well) are disappointed that the snow never came, but the locals are thrilled. 

The weather peaked at 18° Celsius (64.4° Fahrenheit), and each day for the past three days has seen a new temperature record being broken. For San Diego standards, this is a bit chilly, or at least breezy. But here in Utrecht, people are going nuts.

The parks are filled with people having picnics on the open lawns. Rollerskating is becoming more popular now that the sun is out.

Even my favorite pink ice cream truck is back in town. It disappeared some time in October, but now it’s back and parked in the same place it was before. It’s parked on the bridge leading to the Domplein and on the corner of the Coffeeshop Andersom, where mostly older men and giddy international students go.

The ice cream truck still has the same flavors. Rum raisin, strawberry, and their special “Dom Ijsplein” yogurt flavor are my personal favorites. And I think I recognize one of the guys from last year.

One thing has changed though. They raised the price for a single scoop! It’s only a quarter more, but the pseudo-Dutchman inside of me is already raising his eyebrows.

~

Some things I’m excited for this spring:

  1. The return of outdoor seating in cafes, or just lounging about on the balconies. When the weather was warmer, Neude square in the city center would be filled with tables, chairs, and people eating and drinking. Late into the night, even.
  2. This winter may have been relatively warm, but it was still cold enough to keep people inside. The good spring weather should get people to crawl out of their cozy caves.
  3. Looking forward to seeing leaves on the trees again. I have also yet to see the tulip fields, which is funny, because I used to imagine that they would be everywhere you look in the Netherlands (they’re not).

~

I found myself going through homework at a faster pace, just so I could lounge about in the sun more. I can’t tell if it’s because I’m being more efficient, or if it’s because I’m being distracted. Either way, there’s a time to study, and there’s a time to go outside.

And now is the time to go outside.

(Combining the two doesn’t seem to work well for me.)

plateaus in learning a new language (or: month seven of learning Dutch)

turtle

“You haven’t been practicing your Dutch lately, have you?”

One quality I love about Dutch culture is the notion that honest (even unsolicited) feedback is a sign of respect. It’s a sign that the other person genuinely wants to see you grow and succeed. Feedback is not seen as a passive-aggressive attempt to put you down and make you feel inferior.

Kevin from downstairs in the student bar was right. I haven’t been putting in as much heart into learning the language as I once did when I first arrived in the country. I can still conduct daily business and simple small talk, but I haven’t made any meaningful progress in the last couple months. I hit a plateau in learning Dutch, and I haven’t been able to climb out.

I watch the Jeugdjournaal (kid’s news) on a regular basis, but passively watching a television show, while great for language exposure, doesn’t do much for language retention — at least not for the short time period I’m here in the Netherlands. I copy unfamiliar words out of a Peanuts calendar, but all the words in the world wouldn’t matter if I’m not using them in daily speech.

“You know a lot of words, but now it’s time to make sentences out of them.”

–

Perhaps the issue is not that:

a) Dutch is too difficult a language

or

b) I suck at learning languages

but rather that I’ve approached language learning the wrong way. I’m still getting regular exposure to the language, which is good. But what I did in the first few months isn’t working any more.

So, when progress becomes more difficult to come by, I need to remind myself why I wanted to learn the language in the first place:

1) To immerse myself in a new culture.
2) To connect with people who identify with that culture (even if it’s not “necessary”, seeing as though most Dutch can speak English wonderfully)
3) To learn how to learn a language. Think of what I can do if I apply what I learn this year to other languages, or any other personal goal in the future.

–

“I’ll see you in about two weeks to see if you’ve progressed.”

[having other people hold you accountable, explicitly or not, can be useful in learning a new language, or in any other personal goal]

This conversation happened some time last week late at night. I remember coming out of the bar highly motivated, but that alone won’t get me out of a learning plateau.

één, twee, drie, vi-urrgggghh (TMS)

TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) uses a handheld magnetic coil to cause temporary lesions in your brain — for research and therapy, of course.

TMS
TMS in action. Image from University of Oxford.

It sounds more intimidating than it actually is. When it comes to public demonstrations, the most that (visibly) happens is a twitch of the right hand or the participant’s temporary inability to continue counting basic numbers. The sides of their mouth scrunch up, and their voice trails off into a slight grunting sound.

“één, twee, drie, vi-urrgggghh…..”

It makes for great entertainment, especially when that participant is your professor, or your willing friend.

~

“Who wants to go first?”

~

TMS feels like someone is poking your head with their finger.

“You must do a lot of pointing” says the professor, after only my right index finger twitched at 65% capacity. He mentioned something about musicians having finer motor control of each individual finger, but I don’t play any instruments.

You can even apply the TMS machine on your leg. My entire left leg jumped after the professor put it on my left thigh.

I don’t think there was any purpose for that, other than curiosity’s sake.

gezellig, not just a synonym for cozy

"Gezellig met z'n tween" by Liz.
“Gezellig met z’n tween” by the artist Liz.

Put gezellig into Google Translate and you’ll get the word “cozy” back in English.

“But it doesn’t have the same meaning!”

The Dutch have pride in explaining to foreigners how gezellig is one of those words that can’t be translated properly to any other language — or at least to English. Maja says that the Danish have a similar concept called hygge.

Cozy conveys comfort, with or without the presence of other people. You can wrap yourself in a blanket with Netflix and a tub of mint chocolate-chip ice cream in front of you, and that would be cozy. (Having someone else wrapped up in the blanket with you would be even cozier, but that’s not a necessary condition for coziness.)

Like cozy, gezellig is a feeling. An emotion. A gathering of friends at the dinner table would be gezellig. Bumping into an old friend at the grocery store would be gezellig. Riding a bicycle against 20+ kph winds with a friend by your side would be gezellig. It’s a warm feeling, even if your surroundings aren’t.

~

So what makes something gezellig, and not just cozy?

Gezellig needs the presence of people you care about.

Cozy doesn’t.

a speedskating bet

Womens_1500m_Speed_Skating_2014_1402136

Gerwin from Eindhoven made a bet with me. If I can skate 500 meters under 1 minute and 30 seconds, he´ll buy me a beer. If I skate any slower than that, I have to buy him a beer.

[Sven Kramer, the world champion, can skate 500 meters in 36 seconds.]

We shook hands and pinkie swore to make the bet official.

–

My time was 1 minute and 18 seconds, about thirty seconds faster than I was three months ago. That felt good.

And to make it even sweeter, I now have this ridiculously gigantic 1L aluminum can of beer in the fridge.

“It was the biggest one I could find!”