First Week of School

Going to school at a European university is a little different than in America.  I wasn't sure what to expect for the first few days of class, but it was a great week--a little confusing but still great.  My classes are in English, and so ironically I think it's easier for me to follow along than for the Dutch students!  I've made some friends, and the professors have been very nice and helpful.  It's amazing to walk around the city of Leiden with centuries of history seeping out of the brick houses and cobblestone roads.

 My commute to school takes me past a canal with swans!  Isn't that amazing?  We're definitely "not in Kansas anymore ..."  And speaking of The Wizard of Oz and Kansas tornadoes, the last few days have been unbelievably windy.  The wind howls around the house at night and comes billowing up the canals and over the fields.  Sometimes it is so powerful that it will almost support you if you lean into it!  I haven't experienced wind like this since I visited the Pali Lookout in Hawai'i where the wind from the sea rushes through the valley and up the cliff so quickly that the trees are twisted into the rocks.  The wind here smells like the ocean, although maybe I'm just imagining it from thinking about those Dutch seascape paintings with ships pitching back and forth on the stormy water.  You should have seen me try to ride my bike to Church today.  It was ridiculous!  I thought I was going to collapse of exhaustion from trying to peddle into the wind, and then when the wind blew the other way, I nearly careened out of the bike lane and into parked cars!

The University buildings are spread throughout the city, but a number of them are located in the square surrounding St. Peter's Church.

The International Students Center used to be a prison!  You can still see bars on the white-framed windows of the upper two stories.  Maybe the bars were left intentionally in case they decide not to let us return to our own countries!

To get to the University Library you cross a bridge over the Singel canal, and to your left you can see the Botanical Gardens.  Leiden was a tulip capital in its day, and I'm looking forward to seeing the city in the spring time.

This is one of the major market areas of the city, divided by a canal.

And you can buy pastries near by for a good price!  Inexpensive cream puffs may spell disaster for me ...

 This lion stands on top of the gateway to the Burcht, a circular fortress used to protect the city from Spanish invasions in the sixteenth century.  The lion raises a sword to defend Leiden and guards the city's coat of arms marked with St. Peter's keys.

Here is the entrance to the Burcht.  Climbing the steps, you can't help but think back on the dark days when Leiden was starving and in a last, desperate effort to drive out the Spanish, they broke the dikes and flooded the hostile armies away.  What a dramatic day that must have been!

Everything looks picturesque from the crenelated walls of the Burcht.  This is the Church of St. Pancras, also known as the Hooglandsekerk.

The exterior of St. Pancras is quite impressive, but there is not much inside.  It was gutted during the Calvinist iconoclastic riots, and today I don't think it has much of a religious function anymore.

Setting sun on the tower of Leiden's town hall.