Enjoying Leiden on foot

We did a lot of walking around on the last few days we were in Leiden, for a couple reasons:

• We had to transport several large objects (including four suitcases and a couch) across the city, which meant lots of walking to and fro.
• On our last day, we sold our bikes as one of our earlier errands, so everywhere else we went that day (Hortus Botanicus, De Valk, etc.) we visited on foot.

These were reasons of necessity, but I really appreciated having the opportunity to notice new things about Leiden that I never had before. For example, over many front doors there there are rectangles of glass spanned by arcing dividers, and I made it a project during these walking adventures to photograph as many as I could spot. Here are a few of my favorites:

I love the way every one is different, but they are all stylistically unified. And all so beautiful.

How about you? Have you ever made a happy discovery because you were forced to go at a slower pace than you were used to?

Habits of Variety

I noticed recently that I've been trying to live my life according to two conflicting principles. On the one hand, I am always trying to give my life the structure of good habits. I journal every day, I write a blog post once a week, and I am currently working on the habit of washing my glasses every morning. I like not having to make the decision every day; instead, I made the decision once and act on it again and again, preferably without having to think about it.

On the other hand, I want to fill my life with a variety of different experiences. I suspect that life seems to go by faster the more each day is filled with familiar things one can experience without noticing: unlike our first few months here in Leiden, when everything was new, the last year has flown by at a terrifying rate. And sometimes a lack of variety can be dangerous: eating the same thing all the time can lead to vitamin deficiencies, and exercising only some muscle groups can lead to imbalances.

I haven't yet fully sorted through how much I want to do intentionally and how much I would like to mentally automate. But it occurred to me that it's also possible for a habit to promote variety in one's life. For example, a friend of Clara's planned her meals around whatever organic produce was on sale that week. That simple rule allowed her to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables from week to week without having to specifically plan out a rotation.

photo by Carol Moshier

Then I realized that I had developed some habits of variety myself without realizing it. There are several ways to bike from our apartment to the opposite side of Leiden, and instead of going the same way every time, I fell into the rhythm of going one way when on my way to work, another way on my way to Dutch class, and a third way for Bible Study, even though it didn't make much difference to the travel time. That way I'd keep visiting different parts of our beautiful city without having to plan it.

I also exercise using an ipad app that takes you through a different combination of exercises every time you use it, and which is designed to gradually ramp up in overall difficulty as you get stronger. In the past I've gotten bored by exercise routines that are basically the same week after week, but this method has let me practice both consistency and variety in my physical fitness.

In each case, the habit is tied to a regular trigger that varies: which produce is on sale, or what day of the week it is, or what exercise the app tells me to do next. I think that's the key to making the behavior both habitual and varied.

Here are some other areas of my life into which I'm thinking of incorporating more habitual variety. Suggestions are welcome!

Fun spending:

It's inefficient to spend money on the same fun activities every week if the fun gradually diminishes. What are some ways I can make sure my money goes toward a variety of experiences, while still keeping to a tight budget?

Chores:

I would love for chores to be one of those habits I do without thinking. I wash the dishes every day, but how often am I supposed to dust behind the refrigerator or clean out the junk drawer? It's hard to make a habit out of things that are only necessary once in a while, so how can I make sure I'm getting to everything regularly without thinking about it too hard?

Relationships:

At this point in my life I've accrued a lot of friends from all over the world, but it takes more effort to keep in touch with the ones who are farther away. (This is especially relevant to me now, as I prepare to move to a new home over four thousand miles away.) What are some ways to habitually reach out to more of my friends, and not just the ones it's easiest to talk to?

What are your ideas? Do you have any habits of variety you've found helpful?

Leiden in June: News and Snapshots

This blog post is going to be pictures and short descriptions, because some of you still want to hear how things are and what we've been doing and discovering.

Hofjes

In Leiden there are dozens of tiny garden courtyards that used to be associated with almshouses, but are now simply open to the public. However, they're not particularly well publicized, and I had never been inside of more than one or two of them until this Spring when I went with a friend on a self-guided tour, and found the doors to the secret gardens everywhere.

This isn't even the prettiest one.

Waterlilies

In June it gets warm enough that some canals turn green with algee, and some are covered with lilypads.

I like to think the ducks enjoy the lilypads

Butterfly installation

We had been wanting to do some sort of origami installation for a long time, but this May before my parents came to visit we put it together. You can see it here in the dark, as it took us a long time to put it up, but the night is a rare sight these days. This far north in June the sun doesn't set until well after 10, and it stays light a good while after. We have hardly used our bike lights in ages, and sometimes we still wake up confused very early in the morning, because at 4 am it is already light again. It reminds me of nothing so much as a chorale we sang in college choir which ended with a triumphant phrase about heaven: "and there we shall walk in endless light."

They're made from tracing paper

Neighborhood Party

Our neighborhood had a party this weekend, complete with a band, lots of free food, information about a community garden starting up, a place to sign up for helping out elderly neighbors (which we successfully negotiated in Dutch!) and arts and crafts. There were photographs of our park from previous decades, and prints of paintings from before then all on display. There was even an association handing out beautiful gift bags of looseleaf tea to everyone from the neighborhood. Often at festivals I get a little overwhelmed by the crowd and the noise, but this was nothing like a typical festival. We bumped into our Dutch teacher, our friends from church, and walked around with them, and painted some mugs, we felt like this is our home. The girl singing and playing guitar was doing a lovely cover of "fix you" by Coldplay, and we walked around the park, happy and content.

We painted these mugs!

Teaching violin--sometimes in Dutch!

On a more practical side, I'm now registered with a music lesson association and have found several more students, many of which I am teaching almost entirely in Dutch. The children have very understanding parents, and they help me translate when I need help with a few words, but for the most part it's been going really well.

I have no pictures of my violin students but here is our orchid!

Knitting

Because so many of our good friends are having babies (last count it was more than 30 friends in the last two years), Owen and I have decided that knitting some baby hats is an order, and have gone on a trip to the yarn shop accordingly. It's really nice to be knitting again, as both Owen and I had taken a bit of a break, and find that we've missed it.

Let there be baby hats!

Summer plans

This Summer Owen will spend four weeks in Utah at the 2015 Summer Institute on Algebraic Geometry, and I'll be traveling around Europe for some of that time, visiting friends in London and Paris, and having friends visit me as well. It will be an exciting time.

The park near our flat

Plans for the Future

Some of you have asked what we've decided about staying in the Netherlands, and here is our answer for now. We're staying one more year, so we plan on leaving in August 2016, which is three years total. That means this year I'll be applying to PhD programs, and Owen will be looking for jobs, and we'll do what we can to land ourselves in a place that's reasonable for both of us, and hopefully not so far away from family.

Here we are, married for two years already!

That's the news from Leiden.

Video Blogging - video letters?

Dear Friends,

One of the projects that Owen and I have been doing is trading video letters online with a dear friend of ours. We thought the most recent video might be of interest to all of you readers as well, as it tells about 3 October, a big holiday here in Leiden, and our experiences this year. It contains footage of children zipped into inflatable balls and squirming around in a swimming pool, in case you're needing some encouragement to press the play button.



In case you loved this video and want to see all of them there's not a proper playlist set up (one where you can just watch them all without effort) but if you search YouTube for "5014 Miles" we should be the first half dozen or so to pop up.

Love,
Clara and Owen

A Year in Leiden: Effort and Beauty

In Jeanette Winterson's incredible novel, The Powerbook, one of her characters writes, 

“There's no such thing as effortless beauty - you should know that. There's no effort which is not beautiful - lifting a heavy stone or loving you. Loving you is like lifting a heavy stone. It would be easier not to do it and I'm not quite sure why I am doing it.”

As I’ve thought about how to sum up our experiences here in Leiden this year, this quote came to mind again and again. There has been a lot of effort over things that don’t seem important or deeply meaningful, but there’s also been so much beauty that the effort itself (perhaps only in the haze of hindsight) can seem beautiful.

A lot of stuff this past year was really hard. Family sorrows, world sorrows, academic struggles, unemployment, loneliness. Some of it has been usual moving/adjusting difficulties, (the effort of filling out job application after job application, setting up the various things with town hall, unpacking a house, getting to know your way around your new city) but some of it hasn’t been. Watching new friends make the move had made us realise our transition was unusually difficult. Some of our new friends waited for a shipment for weeks, we waited for months. Bank accounts--which took us four trips to the bank, an additional trip to town hall, a seven-email conversation, a missed form, a delay because of vacation time and over 5 weeks total--took other people just one appointment to the local branch. We had to move within three months of coming. We were without internet for three months. It’s normal for these things to be difficult, but it’s not normal for them to be this difficult. I’ve gone to expat meetups that turn into pity-parties. “I’ve been miserable here for thirty years” is not the encouragement you’re looking for when you confess you’re really struggling to not feel sad.

The Hyperbole and a Half comic about depression started feeling really appropriate. But I’m not miles deep in the sadness either. I cry about as easily as the toddlers I babysit, but I laugh as easily too. And no, I am not pregnant, I am just Clara-the-easily-moved. I think I’ve always been this way, but I usually have feet a bit more solidly in my comfort zone.

Leiden in the late afternoon, in December

So now that I’ve shared a little of the effort, let me share a little of its beauty.

Board game nights: when the Italians bring Bang and then are totally shocked when we already know how to play.

Learning to Speak Dutch: Watching familiar kids movies like “The Emperor’s New Grove” dubbed in Dutch, and having it be something we can actually understand!

In the Escher Museum

Breakfasts: We sit down to pancakes pretty much every morning.

Babysitting: I’ve been able to help two children grow and learn. When we came little J wasn’t even born yet, but now I’ve seen him crawl and take some of his first steps.

Nights at home: We’ve read books out loud together (Villette, Ella Enchanted, To Kill a Mockingbird, What's so Amazing about Grace , to name a few), and watched a lot of Sci-fi (Dr. Who, Stargate, and Firefly, most of which I had never seen, but loved).

Making my mom's Greek Easter bread

Traveling: One of the greatest joys here is just being able to say, “Hey Owen, want to go to Belgium this weekend?” and have the answer be “sure!”

Museums: We have been to so many that even new museums in new places are starting to feel like friends we're only just now getting to meet.

Violin Lessons: I’ve started teaching two children once a week, and it’s been a blast.

King's Day!

Most of a first year of marriage: So much learning how to communicate, learning to be a team, learning to take care of each other, laughing, dancing, learning to love each other and this world better every day.

The Gym: We joined a super cheap gym and love remembering how good it feels to challenge one’s body.

Taking Owen’s calculus class: I’m in it again this fall and at more than half way through the course my average is an A-. Last year I wouldn’t have thought it was possible.

The Keukenhof: If you missed that post it’s worth it to go back for the pictures.

Owen’s work at the University: It’s great. He really likes his colleagues, his duties, the atmosphere and feels like he’s accomplishing more in less time than he ever did in graduate school.

Biking: Has begun to feel so normal, I already feel how much I will miss the biking when we return to the states.

Making Friends: Nothing makes you feel more at home than this. 

Cultural celebrations: This week I saw a parade with the royalty in their golden carriages, various military groups in gorgeous formal attire and dozens of children dressed in traditional dutch clothing, complete with little hats, bonnets and wooden shoes.

Houseplants: our "boompje" (little tree) is now taller than me!

Learning together: Besides learning Dutch, and learning from all the museums we go to, over dinner or breakfast sometimes we take part in online courses, the best of which was Barbara Oakley’s Learning How to Learn. We’re looking forward to a lifetime of learning together.

Our plan had been to stay in Leiden two years, and if we stick with that plan we have less than 12 months before we’ll need to move on. Owen recently was given the word that the University will happily extend his contract for up to five years total, so we could stay here much longer than we had planned. We’re not sure what we think about that, and we have a few months to think it over, but it’s made us do a lot of thinking about our time here. Do we want to stay? Is it the right choice for both of us? It's a real adventure learning to trust God, and trust each tother, but we know one thing for sure. If it's for just this next year or if it's for longer, we love it here, and it’s getting better all the time.

I didn't include it in the list, but I will say it here. Visits have been some of the best parts. Some of you are already planning trips, and we can't wait to see you. But if you’ve been thinking of coming to Europe, we’d love to show you around. We’ll share a little of the effort and the beauty of life here in The Netherlands.  

A love letter to the bicycle.

The times I've written about biking on this blog, it's been mostly negative. When I started I was really scared, and then I had some very minor accidents, which scared me some more. These things made it onto the blog, and so sometimes when I talk to my friends back home about biking, the mental image they still have of me is of me crashing and being so terrified my knuckles are white on the handlebars. So I am writing today to amend that image because over the last eleven months my feelings have changed, changed utterly.

So here is the love letter to the bicycle, to mine in particular, and to biking in the Netherlands.

At home in Leiden

I love that now I bike so frequently that when Owen and I walk somewhere we get annoyed and confused with our legs for how slowly they walk. "How are we still going past this narrow building? If we were biking we'd be two blocks down by now."

The skies here are incredible

I love all the financial benefits! I love not needing to put gas in the tank. I love that our most expensive bike repair has been 60 euro. I love that when my bike breaks down I can carry it or walk it without any problem.

Biking with Owen to the Hague

I love how strong and free biking makes me feel. On days when I teach violin lessons in Leiderdorp, I bike for about a half hour through town and then through the fields for a bit. On nice days, especially when the wind is fighting me a bit I let out my hair and the speed of biking and the gusts of the breeze blow it out behind me, and I feel like I am life itself.

My first long bike trip alone, in November

I love that biking has given me the Netherlands. The huge skies swooping down on all sides to kiss the perfectly flat ground. The silver canals shimmering in the sunlight. The flowers blooming everywhere. The streets of the Hague, or the giant garden in Lisse, the shores of the North Sea, I can get to them all with the force of my legs and the two wheels they power.

here is a week's groceries on my bike.

I love carrying things on my bike. My violin, the week's groceries, a backpack or a bike bag full of sundries, are just the everyday things I've transported with my bike. I've also biked with dining room chairs, vacuum cleaners, luggage and a small tree on my bike, and love that it's become no big deal.













I love that biking has brought me intimately close to the weather. Characters in books are always talking about the weather, because it mattered so much more when people didn't go from temperature regulated houses to temperature regulated cars and back again, with shelter along most every step of the way. Here all those weather conversations make sense. I love that everyone looks out for the weather, watches and listens, plans their errends so that they miss the rain. And when the weather is good? You know those perfect days when you have a kind of long drive and you decide to open all the windows and just let the weather in? On a bike you get all that whoosh of speed and wind but without any car obstructing that experience. You smell the lilacs, you hear the birds, you feel the little sprinkles of rain as the start to fall. It's a full bodied experience and it's wonderful.

When Owen asked what I wanted to do for our anniversary, I said, "Let's go on a bike trip." So we went to the Hague, just a couple hours each way, and we rented a place to stay so the whole weekend we could bike around the city and wouldn't need to rely on public transportation... we'd just be free! It's been a big adventure, but I should stop writing now... I'm biking with a friend to the seaside.

Bike paths are a big deal here. 

Speaking like a four year old.

One of the biggest adventures of moving to this country has been learning to speak Dutch. I've mentioned it on this blog mostly as a struggle, but I should say that it is also becoming a joy. Here are some examples.

While nearly all adults in the Netherlands speak a bit of English, and most are fluent, the children are another story. In our church there is sunday school during the service and there's a big rotation of who helps out with teaching the children. At the start of the service, sometimes they'll ask for someone to help with the kids (not to teach, just to help), so I have twice now joined the "Kingdom Kids" aged 4-6 with their Bible Lesson. I figured I knew a little Dutch, I would be able to help walk the kids to the bathroom or whatever else needed doing. The kids spoke no English, and though the teacher was fluent in both, the class was conducted entirely in Dutch.

I was delighted both by how much I could understand and by the excitement children can put in little activities. When telling of their weekends, the kids were bright with stories of "oma en opa," (grandparents), "ijs met hagelslag" (ice cream and sprinkles) and "pannenkoeken" (pancakes! often eaten as a meal any time of the day). I felt silly that if I had been able to cram together sentences they would have been dull and lacking interest after such a string of treats. What would I have said? "I have now a dehumidifier. Now is my apartment not wet. I find this nice." So boring! And what kid cares about the humidity?

At one point however I was astonished to discover secret English lurking in one of the children's storehouse of knowledge. After coming back from the bathroom with two of the kids, I saw another waiting. I tried in Dutch, "Wil je ook te ga naar de WC?" or "want you also to go to the bathroom?" to which she blinked, smushed her knees together and blurted out in perfect English, "I need to pee!"

When asked what they were going to do for their "krokus vakantie" or spring break, one of the boys mentioned he was going to England with his family. So they had a whole discussion about how were they going to get there? Because England is an island you can fly over the water (complete with whizzing hand motions), go under the water in a tunnel,  or go on the water in a boat! They were very disappointed that I didn't come from England. The teacher tried to make it sound amazing that I came "uit Amerika!" but they were having none of it. When having these conversations, I am continually struck with fun things to say if I had the words for it. I could have made a joke about there still being boats that go across the ocean, and that I came on a plane, but that there's no tunnel to go all the way to the US. Instead I contemplated saying that I had lived in England for a bit in college, which I could nearly say, but I'm just now getting a firmer grasp of past tense, so I held off and said nothing. Don't worry. I soon won them over with my papercrafting.

It has been a real joy to learn a language with a friend. And learning with Owen has been like having an in with the TA. Although Owen professes to know "not that much" German, he has been top of this Dutch class since we began, despite the other members of the class knowing so many more languages than we do. I do fine most of the time, and both my pronunciation and grammar are improving. Early on, it was a bit overwhelming to have a complicated grammar rule laid out for us entirely in Dutch, as I watched completely not understanding what was being said she looked around and asked in Dutch if we understood, followed by the only English sentence she'd uttered the whole class, "It's very important." So Owen has helped explain the grammar a great deal, and after I had struggled on one of the tests, Marleen (our teacher) came to our house to tutor me on the grammar. We recently had our end of first course exam, and I passed just fine. Owen scored a perfect 10.

We laugh a lot, sometimes over choosing the wrong words and sometimes because we mispronounce them. Recently at the end of a long day I said, "I am very tired," only to have Owen laugh out loud, kiss me and agree. My attempt at "Ik ben heel moe," had sounded more like, "Ik ben heel mooi." I had announced not that I was very tired but that I was very "beautiful." And so it goes.

Note: If you go to the Netherlands and think that people are calling you a "whore" all the time, don't freak out! When it first came up in Dutch class, someone asked what "hoor" meant and our teacher said, "It's just a thing you say to put someone at ease." So "gaat u gang, hoor!" means "oh, go ahead" in the grocery line or whatever. There were some snickers from the Italians at the table. But now, I use this phrase all the time. See how much I've acclimated.

Let me conclude with some Dutch words and phrases that I love.

"gezellig" - This is a wonderful word. It means something like cozy, but also means happy, intimate, and is perhaps best translated as full of "WARM FUZZIES." A class can be gezellig. An old shop. The bustle of the market. Being reunited with friends. A party. A chair with an afghan and a mug of tea nearby. Pronounce it: he-SELL-ik. But those Gs are pretty tough, and sound a little throat-clear-y if you're not careful.

"graag gedaan" - This is the best of all possible responses to "thank you." It means literally, "happily done."

"alstublieft/alsjeblieft" - It's like "please" except you can also use it as a "you're welcome" or "here you go." I think it means something like "as you wish."

"winkelwagen" - grocery cart.

"cacaopoeder" - It sounds really cute pronounced. And it means cocoa power. Win-win.

Tour of our Apartment

I promise a more interesting post soon, but people have been asking for actual pictures of our apartment. Wish we could just have you over for dinner, a weeklong visit, or even just some tea, but in the mean time, I hope this little video will give you a taste for our new home. 

This is my first attempt at both shooting and editing film. I trust my skills will improve with practice.

Leiden's Hortus Botanicus

—guest post by Owen

Last weekend, Clara and I went to see Leiden's Hortus Botanicus, the botanical gardens located in the heart of the city center.  We had tried to visit twice before, but only now had we dedicated enough of our Saturday to make a tour possible.

The Hortus Botanicus

Our museumkaarts got us in for free, and the ticketing area opened right into the first greenhouse.  We walked down an aisle, flanked by trees in square containers, to a metal spiral staircase that let us see above the foliage:

The catwalk at the roof of the greenhouse held the garden's "Gallery of Carnivorous Plants", and from there we descended through other exhibits back to the ground floor.

At the far end of the greenhouse was an exterior door.  It still being early spring in Leiden, there isn't a lot blooming outside excepting crocuses and snowdrops (of which, though, there are many), so visiting Hortus isn't yet on most people's radar, and there were no crowds to follow to the next point.  But after trying a couple locked doors (Hortus is also an active research facility), we found the second public greenhouse and entered.

I'd never seen a banana tree flowering.

The leaves of the banana tree are so huge!

These ginkgo leaves remind me of a Calder mobile.

This aquarium contains exotic underwater plants.

Adjoining this second greenhouse were several additional rooms of orchids, ferns, and carnivorous pitcher plants.

A large part of the botanical gardens are outside; we were impressed by the taxonomical organization of the plots, but they will probably be more spectacular after a few more weeks of warm weather.  But we still had fun roaming the grounds on this beautiful day:

Definitely worth another visit later this spring.  Thanks for reading!