Life in Netherlands- Part 5- Peakaabooo... the sun is out!

The smell of fresh grass,bright sunlight kissing gently on the the back of my neck, faint wind playing with my hair, tiny winged insects crawling up my aeroelasticity notes and lustrous ducks walking past me, all of these betokened the mighty onset of spring and the peril of winter. Even though spring started quite early and many talked about it as the Dutch would do, it was only today that I really felt the dainty season through my veins.

I had proceeded up the library roof top around 6 pm when the library shut down on a fine April Saturday. If you think I am a geek to sit with books on a day like this, don't you dare! If you bore my work load, you would condemn me for not working harder! Anyway, there were hardly few people up there and the weather was perfect. Not windy, not cold, not hot, not humid and definitely no clouds! I sat at the top of the slope and opened by notes and started pouring my brain cells into it.  I gradually leaned on my back still muttering the notes under my breath with my backpack acting as a pillow.It was so relaxing and soothing, just like my bed back home! :D That was comfortable. Owing to the sub standard bed and "cot" that was provided by the housing department, I had never felt like climbing onto it with my books. And there I was on the soft grass reading away like it was a novel. The warmth was just too apt in magnitude and I could actually feel my skin smiling broadly on the rendezvous with the sun after months! 

And just as I was absorbed into the surroundings as with myself, there came along a couple of ducks quacking along, may be something funny cos I felt like laughing too! May be they crack(quack)ed up seeing so many papers strewn all over me. Still on the ground, I could see the deep orange of their webbed feet like never before. Do all ducks have orange limbs? Now, I am confused cos I don't remember seeing such a beautiful orange on any animal. Or may be they were highly patriotic ducks, they just had to wear their country's colour all the time! :P Wait, did they think I was lifeless, cos the minute I got up to grab my phone camera, they almost flew from there! I had to literally run around the library dome to get a picture of those cute companions. they just refused to be photographed showing their tail all the while and keeping a grim face! hmph! x(

I just let them be and walked back to my books. Seeing that I meant no harm, they came back to my study spot and kept me company. They probably sensed I needed quiet and so they maintained it. With ocassionally a few swans soaring over,lot of light and air and not a human to disturb, I did a lot more than I would have done locked up inside! 

After a while, I snapped up my belongings and walked down the only slope in Delft as the sun decided it was time to call it a day! The winds were picking up now determined to defeat my hair in all good spirit and the ducks were heading back to their nests on the edge of the canal opposite the library that was posing like a shy damsel letting the last of the ducks wade through her. It still felt perfect letting Newtons gravity and inertia laws prove themselves while I had to just put one step forward....:D 

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Back on the ground and near the EWI building, which strangely was standing still (every time I pass by it, I have the feeling that, all its 20+ floors sway to Holland's aeonian winds! :D ) was when I saw the planes flying into the evening sun with contrails trailing meters behind. Was glad to see the metal birds back in action after the Iceland volcano puked ashes at the skies and stopped the very thing from moving that would feed me bread and butter next! This global warming reduction technique is not only effective but also a spectacle to behold, especially if you do not know why! If you haven't seen it before (your kidding!) or you wanna see it again, here is a page of some photos I clicked. 

One of the good things about Holland is that you can look up at the skies and walk your ground without the fear of falling into a pothole! And so did I utilize the benefit fully today. It looked like as though the pilots were as eager as me to reach out and hold on to the sun for a long time as they flew directly into it.. If you can enlarge the photo, in one of the pics, it actually looks as if the plane is ramming into the sun, causing a solar flare ring outwards. Just as I wanted to lower my gaze, few gulls soared by across the contrails crooning in unison the song of spring and the lightness of hearts. A panorama that let my face relax in a smile and my mind perch on the tallest of the greenest trees! 

It was time to get back to my nemesis as the weight on my shoulders prodded me hard. As opposed to the winter and the autmn, my mind though loaded with a million worries, seems blissfully light and the confidence hops back slowly just like the ladybird skipping on the bark of the young tree right beside me. All of the flora were sprouting leaves and colorful flowers in full force. I would again be able to pluck those apples from the nearby tree in few days and there will be golden daffodils waving out to me wherever I go. Some air in the wind that said things would get better now....

 A flame of warmth, happiness and expectation surged through me leaving me smiling more than ever outside my humble dwelling.... Spring, as I have never before seen, is definitely rolling on its fastest wheel... :) 

aeroyogi

Life in Netherlands-Part 4-Studying differences...

Somewhere in the early dawn, still lying on my bed, I groggily parted my window blinds to see the wet road, multi coloured spaceboxes and the little glowing stars from the lamp posts and other buildings. Of course you can attribute the "star effect" to my poor uncorrected vision! Its become an usual ritual of mine to get a glimpse of the blurry morning outside the window before I get out of bed. I dunno why but I just do it!

Its also another ritual of mine to curse under my breath (I dont want that to be the first word I utter every morning) seeing my alarm clock showing 8:00 am when it just looked like 5 am outside!

Welkom bij Holland!

But this quarter, I had decided I wouldn't repeat what I did in my first quarter. Learnt few valuable lessons that will shortly come across you. I decided, rain or snow(forget sun) I would go to all my morning classes that started at 8:45 am. And so am I following my decision very tediously.

Back in India I'd wake up comfortably at 6, catch the bus at 7 :30 and sit happily in the bus till the traffic was conquered and then go about the day like a happy soul. That was so easy. The fact that I had to travel about 25 km just one way now seems like a child's play!

I hurried through my morning activities and got down to see my cycle lock totally disappointed with me and refused to open in the cold! Seeing that my faculty is on the other end of the campus,(about a kilometre) I had to hurry now. It had snowed the previous night and the temperature was pathetic enough to just freeze it all over. I hate walking or biking on ice owing to the fact that I have hurt quite a few "sensitive" parts of my body slipping over. I must have made a mistake in fulfilling my karmic duties somewhere along the line. The vengeance is appalling! But still undeterred I tread carefully as fast as possible literally frightened of the viciousness beneath me. Nature decides to push its clairvoyances further in trying my grit and starts showering some snow flowers and tugs the winds to crusade past me almost pushing me back to my room.

Frozen canal on the left and the icy-salted road!

My conscience thinks of me as a woman with fortitude and yes I wouldn't betray my conscience any day. With a deep frown between my brows I squint up to look at the sky that was still lapping all the different colours. It looked like one of the modern art paintings where in only the artist himself can decipher its meaning. Pondering over the pink, blue, grey and orange and dreaming of the clear blue skies back in India, I just pushed myself against the winds and after what felt like an hour of this drudgery, finally! lo behold! I reached the faculty. What a relief it was!

My faculty lobby.

I was so glad for the warmth inside there. I was already 5 minutes late but you know what? the teachers here couldn't care any lesser as to what time you walk in or out of the class. Unlike in India where the teachers (albeit a few) stop their teaching, look at you like a piece of smelly toe-rag and question you- "What I-say?? No time sense? You think this is your in-laws house to enter whenever you want??" and that which evokes an equally adept answer from the student if the teacher can be played around with. A million of which I am sure you can think of. And walking out of a class in between meant you would either end up in HOD's room or/and screw up your internals marks next time!

This professor did not bother to look away from his presentation slides and went on about the effects of flutter on different components connected to the wings. I sat down and started taking notes while the guy behind me bites off noisily on his apple. I have got used to this now but initially this struck very strange in fact offensive too! In India I was once told off by my harassed lecturer in a noisy class that did not listen to him, for drinking water "Swathi, I am an old man standing for 2 hours and lecturing and you are drinking water!" Like I denied him the privilege! Like any student could deny any privilege to any teacher!! That was for water. I couldn't imagine anyone in any class bringing anything that even smelt good. Forget eating except probably in my former HODs class 'cos he had real thick glasses and he could hardly make out what the front benchers did! May be some of the teachers took it as an offense too.

Through out school and college life, we have followed the custom of not eating inside classroom religiously even though no hoardings were put up. Guess its sort of inbred into us. Until and unless we decided to get naughty in the class, hardly could we set up a lunch table when the teacher is chalking out equations once derived by "noble" men that solved complicated questions for which, answers weren't even requested!

But here, I still remember the first day vividly. I was out of my wits. This guy walks in half an hour after the class, sits in the front row, pulls out his new coke bottle and uncorks it. It makes an unusually loud gurgling sound in the silent room with the gas trying to escape. I look around and no one is least perturbed by it. Its like they hadn't noticed this guy at all. The professor declares a break of 15 minutes while people go out, get coffees and chocolate bars. I did take a coffee too, but I hastened to finish it before the break was over. Back in the class again, I was taken for a surprise.. All around people started ripping open their packets and sipping drinks even after the professor had resumed the lecture. In India, only the notorious lot or those who wanted to get out of class did that! And to a bigger surprise, the prof himself was sipping coffee while changing slides. Now thats something I hadn't seen at all! Soon another guy just stood up in between the class, picked up his coat and walked out silently. I was waiting for the professor to say something. I didn't know how they abused students in Holland and I wanted to hear it! But the prof couldn't have been more impervious to the situation. I was dumbstruck. I then realised may be this is all common here.

Oh, students are never abused by teachers here whatsoever! Students are respected and treated as equals just like the teachers, may be not in terms of knowledge but in every other human way you can think of. Of course you have no hitting businesses here and the situations and people you deal with seem so sensible and full of maturity. I wonder why is it mostly never like that in India.

But you cannot deny teachers hitting you meant they cared for your development. You wouldn't realise it when your getting beaten up but atleast you'd realise it some day that some teacher cared for you so much and because he/she beat you, you have learnt something really worthwhile and good! I cannot see how you would realise if a teacher cared for you here. Actually I'm not sure they do!

As days passed by, I realised my previous realisation was true but I still couldn't take a coffee cup inside the classroom forget eating when the lecture is being delivered. But today, in the break, I zip up a coffee from the vending machine right outside my class and sip it slowly- as slowly as the lecture was going. I still cannot bring myself to eat something in midst of a class! I think after coming here, I am addicted to coffee! With huge books, monotonous lectures and hours in front of laptop, I need caffeine now. Oh! Hollanders are coffee lovers as well..

The coffee, chocolate and drinks vending machines outside the class in the corridor.

There are other changes too.. Hardly any professors used lecture slides to teach students in India. It was just chalk and board. But here along with those two, everything was in a presentation format. Its later put up on a portal where one can access the class notes online. The teacher-student relationship is much better in India where we get to speak more often! Here everything goes online. From schedules to meetings to assignments. One mail to all in the group and the job is done. No professor would ever know your name or your existence until you are acquainted with them for a good reason. And then students print out every single thing- slides, lectures, assignments-even those which can be read from the net!! I kinda feel the westerners waste too much paper.

My coffee mug and my nemesis! :-o

But one really likeable aspect of the faculty is its brilliant classrooms! Well decorated, well lit, well equipped for both students and teachers, its got space and the aura for learning. They have something called the smart boards- you can see to the left of this picture. You mark on it, you have it marked on the presentation slides! So the profs need't use long sticks or laser beams to point out above their heads!

One of the classrooms.

Anyways, after 4 different courses at the finish line of the day, I am again at the bottom of my well brooding that I may never end up getting my degree! For one though its not all that difficult to understand he subjects, its just bad enough to give answers in the exam which is never related to the text! Everything here is application based. Students are bred in such environments from their early bachelors. They are used to it. But me coming from VTU, where a question like- Derive Euler's equations- can be found in Pg 150 of one particular text book, its difficult to answer a question such as-Derive the condition for Euler's equation-the condition unfortunately pops out of nowhere in all the books! You are given a hint and the rest is left upto you to use your brains! These guys are terrific in math. I mean real math! not mere arithmetic. Series functions, PDE, ODE, are all second nature to most of them here. We hardly used them back in India. We were only aware of its existence!

You could say because of this factor and also me underestimating the exam standards, I have done hopelessly here. the main reason I have transformed to a new leaf in the 3rd quarter!

Hopefully it goes better from here. Got so many more differences to list, but I need out now. I will continue this post soon enough!

aeroyogi

4/2/2010

Life in Netherlands-Part 3-Hoi Mr.Weather!

Moving towards the north pole didn't come across as a threat when I was basking in the tropical sun.. Little did I know of the effects the temperate zone climate would create on my happy little brain..

Here seasons are so well defined unlike in India. You realise you are breezing through summer or falling through autumn very explicitly.. You see the vivid colors in fall and leaves strewn all over, lest fall on you while your biking on the road unlike in India. Atleast in Bangalore you could hardly make out when the rain sets in and when the heat decides its his turn!. Forget winter,..you have the sun blazing all day long,.

When I first reached here, I was taken aback with the phenomenon of cold winds rushing past your face during summer! I braced my jacket then and always hoped the wind would die down.. The temperature in summers do not cross 20-23 degrees! And that was maximum in winter back home for me..People are so ecstatic about the summers here that everyone is outdoors and dressed as minimum as possible.. I did not understand when I landed here why people were so freaky about summers like they'd never seen sun before..Only when autumn set in I agonised on not enjoying the sun more couple of months back.

Happy , sunny initial days...

This is kinda a fair in the square set up during summer..

Lots of events, outdoor activities and parties are held and people make it a point to attend them. Now that I have witnessed the autumn and winter here I am sure I too will during the summers.. Sunlight is precious here..a rare commodity! I had a very short time with summer here though.. Hope I get to enjoy full summer next time.. I wanna go visit places too as they say summers are the best to tour around Europe..May be I can write more about it then....

Once autumn started setting in, the sun slowly faded away.. so much so that we live here without seeing the sun for weeks! No exaggeration. I never was a big fan of sunny days in India. I loved the showers there, had made it a point to get drenched every single time.. but here, a million efforts to like the rain here went futile.. Rains in India meant hot saucy Chinese Bhel puri at the near by chat shop and a hot cup of granny's coffee. While rains here only bring so much fog, chill, dampness and make you relive your past...its like the dementor effect!! You do not feel like cycling out to get a bite of your favourite hot Vietnamese Loempia even though every cell in your body is begging you to have mercy on them!

Rains in India always had a soothing effect.. it would clear your brain and ease the frown on our face but here it just did the opposite. Cold drops of rain that sting you all over sending shivers in the oddest of places especially if you are not in gear.

Nothing stops life here unlike in India where you get a holiday for heavy rains or where your allowed to skip classes when the weather is too bad.. everything works as normal as ever. When the weather was bad, it meant you were allowed to wake up late.. Still unaccustomed here I have woken up late so many days that there is one course that I have missed altogether because of the early timing. Not that the teacher was great and would have instilled "knowledge" in me if I did attend.

But come on.. you don't wake up when it still looks like morning 4 or 5 just because it is indeed 7 or 8 am! ;D

Trust me when I say the flash has added a lot to these pictures!

(You could also check my Amsterdam pictures)

Even after turning your clocks one hour back to save day light you see "light" only for 5-6 hours a day. Note I am not talking about sunlight.. Its just the left over light reflecting from the sun shining in some other part of the world!

Biking during the rains is anguish in its own right.. A terrible pain in the wrong place.. And as nature always conspires against me, it rained worst when I had to bike the most. Fridays!! darned fridays...I had to bike to and fro to attend classes at different faculties and there I had Mr.R(P)ain Casanova feeling me all over even with my protective gear on..

And don't even get me started about the profound effects the gloom has on your psyche.. I as for one suffered home sickness in varied forms, hallucinations, desired for things/people that never existed in that form, depression, self pity, self hatred so on and so forth..

Just a week back when the sun showed up all of a sudden full and bright with no clouds along the horizon, I was so sure I was still asleep. I had only expected it to the gloom to grow worse for winters. But lo! I was in for a surprise...I opened the door and the sun was standing right outside my door with a mischievous grin something that said- "You there lassy.. did ya miss me??" Yes Yes Yes!! Only the light years stopped me from kissing the sun! ;) I stood outside for half hour doing nothing but soaking in all the vitamin D that I possibly could..

See... The sun in my room! :):):) Yeah I have kinda grown romantic about the sunlight...;)

Couple of days, it started getting colder.. The small canals around started freezing and soon even before we realised it, it started snowing. All my neighbours here and me celebrated the first snowfall in Delft with so much enthu in the middle of the night..It was F.U.N. period.

I love the snow..Absolutely! After a all night session of playing in the snow, building a snow man the next night, and walking quite a distance in the snow at around -10 degrees; I am satiated.. :) A peculiar oxymoron in this weather is that its so damn bright when it is snowing. The sun is out in all splendour and yet it shows minus degrees on the temperature scale. Its comparatively less windy too.. I really like it.. Its all white around you and you have the sun adding on to the brightness too...

I fulfilled mychildhood dream of building a snow man too along with my Dutch friend Anouk.. Building snow man is quite a task. Not as easy as I thought. I suffered from a muscle pull in the night and a bad backache the next day.. But it was worth it all. I finally built a snow man and yeah he looked good for a rookie! ;)

Today there is heavy snow fall and its few inches deep on the ground. Its utterly fantastic to see this color waking you up.

Outside my doorstep.

View from my window that I woke up to in the morning today.

And the cycles covered in the snow are so beautiful. Its quite a task to recognise your bike amidst those many, all covered by the white fairy..:)

To avoid this confusion and to de-freeze my cycle locks , I have had to accommodate my bike as a guest for few days in my room! sigh...

But I am perfectly loving this weather..Though it requires layers of clothing and yet sometimes gives you the chills, its much better than the rains.

Waiting for the canals to freeze a little more so that I can go walking/skating over them!

That's the effect when you throw a snowball on the frozen canal.. Isn't it sort of spectacular as though shot in split second of a blast?? Its actually taken almost a minute after the snowball was dropped on the ice!

Spring is yet to come..but when it does, I'll be all ready to let you know about the beauty of Europe!

As of now, I'm getting a call for a snow fight.. ;)

Tot ziens!

aeroyogi

20/12/09