A trip down south ...

Our day started today with a leisurely 3-hour drive to the town of Oss in the south of the Netherlands.  The ROC Leijgeraaf college hosted many of the U.S. visitors and their hosts for a day of learning about the program of their college.   This means we got to see the others that visited Fresno and Reedley last October.  It was very nice to see them again.

First a little bit about the Dutch countryside: The Netherlands is very roughly the size of Fresno and Madera counties combined.  We just about drove from top to bottom.  Where I am staying is about 30 miles from the northern coast and we went to just about 35 miles from Belgium, which is to the south.  So we saw a lot of the country today.  While the houses changed just slightly in color, the design was similar.  The view changed very little.  Large green spaces, farms growing forage for animals mostly, with some small wooded areas in between, lined the highway most of the way.  Lots of small herds of dairy cow, some beef and sheep, and a horses dotted the fields also.  We crossed four rivers, the Wall, the Maas, the Ijssel, and the Rhine.  They tell me that in the winter there is nothing green because the fields are fallow and the trees are leaf-less, but now natural green is pervasive everywhere you look.  It's really quite idyllic.  Every home and farmhouse is just picture perfect and could be on a postcard.  While there are over 2000 windmills in the country, we've only seen a few so far.



Don't mention this to my wife cause she'll be a little jealous, but many of the small villages, especially the ones with older homes, some with thatched roofs, give me the sense of something from Lord of the Rings, especially a hobbit village.  It's just very quaint.  Every home is meticulously kept, with manicured bushes and a variety of flowers and foliage.  Since space is always limited, everyone keeps their own space clean and beautiful.  I asked about "slums" or areas with lessor quality homes.  I was told that there may be areas in the bigger cities, but I'm telling you, it's very few and far between.  There's not a lot of variety, but everything is so nice.

At ROC Leijgeraaf college we had presentations at different locations and programs.  The first one gave us presentations on the new technologies that students are using in their studies.  At the other, we heard from students that are studying Entrepreneurship.  Both groups gave us the opportunity to interact with students in small groups so they could more fully talk about their individual projects and ask us questions too.  This was my favorite part, interacting with the students and asking them about what they love about their programs.



Included in a great lunch was a typical Dutch food of the region.  Wurstabroodje, which is a baked bread with a type of sausage in the middle.  It was about the size of a hotdog and gave me the impression of pigs-in-a-blanket.  The taste was simple but delicious.


Remember what I said about bikes?  This is bike parking at the school we went to today ...


Tot Ziens!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saturday and Sunday ...

Image
This blog entry is going to cover the weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, and boy howdy, what a weekend it was ... We met up with a few of the other visiting colleagues and their hosts for a short drive to Bourtange, which is a very old village that started out as a fort.  Complete with a moat and drawbridges, except for modern things such as electricity, running water and nice toilettes, it's like a picture from a history book.  You can read some details about its history at Fort Bourtange  . We arrived and did a little walking around and then had coffee.  Then we did some shopping and more looking around.  The weather was amazing, and it has been mostly very good so far anyway, but it was sunny and cool.  This is a historic village, but it is also a real village where people live.  There was an old lady working in her garden, probably 85+ years old, and I just had to say hello.  With Liesbeth's help I introduced myself to her and t...
Read more

Friday holiday shopping before I leave Groningen

Image
So what happens after there's a national holiday on a Thursday?  You take Friday off of course.  This is a traditional four-day weekend in the Netherlands.  Schools, government offices and many businesses are closed both Thursday and Friday.  That means that today's Friday market in the city center of Groningen is full, like a Saturday says Liesbeth.  This is great for me because I get to see it all in action. Groningen is a great city of about 200,000.  It's a college town with lots of students, more than 50,000 college/university students.  It has a very old world feel in the city center, but of course has every modern convenience. Today we had kibbeling, which is small pieces of fried fish, very typical here.  Then I had to try poffertjes, which are a very traditional dough, made on a special cook-top, served with butter and powedered surger ... heel lekker! We really took it pretty easy today, especially since y...
Read more

Social Services in the Netherlands (an brief introduction)

Image
Refugees and asylum seekers in the Netherlands create a situation similar to the illegal immigrants in the U.S.  What is very interesting is that the sentiment towards these people is very similar to that of the US.  Surprisingly, here, the laws are very strict about who can come, stay, and seek special status as a refugee or asylum seeker.  In a nutshell, they are dealing with very similar challenges, but there are organizations that are helping with the situation, because it's more than the government can handle. Today we visited an organization that has the purpose of providing a "bed, bath and bread" to those who are waiting to hear if their application for asylum is granted by the government.  The program is called BBB+.  The director, John (in the pic above), is a very passionate man who is doing a great job leading the organization in providing dignaty and respect to people who are at a very low point in their lives. They are taking a very systema...
Read more