Oops...

Since I seem to have started some kind of confusion among my family I thought I might add a little correction notice. I started this log waaaayyy back in August last year and thought that the title "Another Year in Europe" would be great since I had all kinds of intentions to keep everyone updated regularly. I clearly don't know myself very well since this was obviously a goal that fell rather short of the intended target... But the title still stood and no, another year has not been put on my agenda as yet. I'm truly a bit uncertain as to exactly what I'm going to be doing after I finish my thesis and graduate...

On to more interesting bits- my brother Kyle is coming to visit! In May for a week. Its a pretty short visit, but hey company from home is always welcome. I like playing tour guide and showing people around Leiden. Its a remarkably interesting little town even though it's pretty tiny. But I should clarify that. Officially Leiden has over 100 000 citizens, but I honestly couldn't tell you where most of these people actually are... You can walk across the centrum area in less than 15 minutes. The Dutch are highly skilled at cramming people into small areas and utilizing every possible inch of space. The Randstad (the area between Utrecht, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, wherein Leiden is situated almost dead centre) is one of the most densely populated areas in Europe. The Netherlands actually is the most densely populated country in Europe for that matter (if you need numbers, the pop. density of NL is somewhere around 130 people per sq km while Canada's density is just below 3 people in the same area). So needless to say, you get used to living in strangely close proximity to a large number of complete strangers.

Well, enough demographics. Hopefully I can figure out how to load pictures on this thing soon or on some other similar site- I have loads! Dave had a football game in Lelystad last Sunday so we drove there on Saturday and stayed overnight. There are some interesting things about Lelystad, like that its the capital of the newest province in the Netherlands. And I don't mean that its "new-just-joined-the-confederation" kind of thing. The province was actually dredged out of the sea since the Dutch decided that they needed more space (see above for why). So they created a giant area of farmland and built a couple small cities and bingo! New province! There were some interesting things to see (a replica 17th century galleon: the "Batavia", the sea highway connecting the provinces of North Holland to Flevoland, and a giant outlet mall in true "American" style) and hopefully I'll be able to post some pics.

Its also Dave's birthday (30!) this weekend so hopefully we'll be going into Amsterdam on Friday night with friends for... well, you know... I may have some good stories next week! Happy Easter everyone!

Endeavouring to develop discipline

Wow, no matter how often I promise myself I'll keep these sorts of things updated, I obviously just don't. Once more I will vow to keep updates. Really it will save me time since I really would like to write to everyone about things that are happening, but I have yet to find the discipline. This is sort of a cop-out, but hey, if it works... (Thus meaning if I make it work...)

Enough self-castigating. To be honest, I find it difficult to create interesting stories from what has become my regular daily routine, but I shall try. It's heartening since the weather is finally starting to turn. Yesterday was great, sunny and warm. We had a freak snowstorm a few weeks ago that nearly shut the entire country down. Watching people try to ride their bikes in six inches of snow was somewhat entertaining. I probably would have attempted it myself except that my brake cable snapped in the cold and I wasn't quite daring enough to attempt a snow expedition sans brakes. It was a good excuse to stay home with hot chocolate, not that excuses are usually required for that sort of thing.

But spring is coming, yay! And the timely discovery of a small park across the street from my house right along the Rhine is very welcome. Yes, it took quite awhile to "discover" this park and yes it really is right across the street from my house. There are large buildings that are kind of blocking it from the street thus making it hard to find, but its a nice little spot. There is also a volleyball and basketball court near my place in the other direction. I think I'm going to buy a basketball today and go play around. These little bursts of whimsy are popping out more frequently lately. I've been told that its because of the changing weather. I think its probably a vitamin deficiency, but any excuse to get outside is more than welcome.

Will write more soon, possibly planning a bit of an excursion for the weekend, but I'll let everyone know. Thus I place the guilt trip on myself ahead of time to ensure that I must update this page!