Prep for South Africa

In two days I will be flying to Johannesburg from Amsterdam, with a layover in Heathrow for a couple hours. Yesterday I paid my residence permit for the Netherlands, so when I re-enter the country in May they won't deport me back to Canada haha. I also received vaccinations yesterday, and need to pick up malaria pills either sometime today or tomorrow.

Our new project group for South Africa is working well together. I've been appointed the group leader by our professors, so I'm in charge of group meetings, creating agendas, and making sure we are staying on track. It's also a nice resume-builder!

This past week we've been writing, writing, and re-writing our research proposals for South Africa. These are basically the guidelines for the type of research that we'll carry out. After changing our problem statement about 4 times already, we're going to let it go for now and just wait until we arrive. Chances are, we'll have to change our focus when we arrive anyways. At least this is what other students have told us, who did this same trip last November.

South Africa has been in the news lately! There have been problems with the democratic voting in Zimbabwe, which is located just to the north of South Africa. President Mugabe in Zimbabwe has been accused of "fixing" the votes, so that it looks like he won. His political opposition is calling for a re-count, but Mugabe says "no way!" Mugabe's been in power now for over a decade, and he's seen Zimbabwe change from one of the most advanced countries in Africa to one of the worst, with almost a quarter of the population leaving the country due to out-of-control inflation. Local money is now almost worthless in Zimbabwe.....you are better off if you have cows or chickens, because at least farm animals don't change their value. Mugabe also kicked all the white farmers out of the country, which lead to the collapse of Zimbabwe, because the black farmers who took their place had no idea how to farm. Anyways......long story short, the South African President is now putting pressure on Zimbabwe (along with other countries in the region) to force an election recount. The U.S. has accused South Africa of not putting enough pressure on Zimbabwe. It's all very political.

Here's a link to the BBC front-page article about it.

Another news flash: there have been protests this week in Johannesburg due to rising food costs. This problem isn't just in South Africa, but it's happening world-wide. Reasons for this include the growing appetite of China's middle-class for meat and wheat.

So far, South Africa is still stable enough for us to go, although we'll be closely watching the situation. If it gets to be too much, we might have to cut our research short.

Adventures in Antwerp

Today, Jeroen and I took a day-trip to Antwerp, Belgium. The round-trip train fare from Amsterdam Centraal Station only cost about 30 euro, so we thought......why not?? We left Haarlem around 6am in the morning, and arrived in Antwerp sometime around 8:30 or 9ish. Above is the Antwerp Centraal Station, which is much bigger than Amsterdam. It seemed that the train station itself was a shopping centre, as you can see some of the shops to the right and left of the photo.


Here you can see one of the high-speed trains that we took. They are currently building/finishing a high-speed line from Amsterdam to Paris, which will only take about 3 hours of travel time between the cities.


Classy McDonalds!! We stopped for a quick breakfast when we arrived, and this is the photo I shot from our booth. The real name of Antwerp is Antwerpen, and Dutch is mostly spoken there. It is slightly different than the Dutch spoken in the Netherlands, although Jeroen said that he could understand what the people were saying.

Here's the homepage for Tourism Antwerp: http://www.antwerpen.be/eCache/BEN/52.html


Poor Jeroen standing in the rain. In the morning it was pretty wet, which is typical weather here, just like in the Netherlands. He later bought a "paraplu" (umbrella).





In this photo, it looks a little like there's a lake in front of these buildings. Actually, just wet cobblestones.


Behind me in this photo, there was a business offering 3-hour guided tours of Antwerp's sewer network below the city. Sadly we couldn't go, because there was too much water underground from the rain.


Here's a good example of the strange architectural contrasts in Antwerp. It's common to see heritage buildings dating from the 15th century built right next to modern buildings like this one.


While walking around the city, Jeroen and I came across a free boat-museum, highlighting Antwerp's maritime history.



Of course we had to stop for lunch............for FLEMISH FRIES & CROQUETS!! The fries come in huge cones, and you can choose any sauces you want to go with them. Ketchup is not so common, but my favorite is tartar sauce and mayonnaise. Croquets are very Dutch.....although I've seen them sold in McDonalds as mc-croquets. Weird. It's basically a fried mixture of meat and cheese, sometimes with vegetables and potatoes (I think) inside. Sometimes it's just a mystery. Best not to ask.


The view from outside the cafe that we stopped for lunch. Notice the building across the street selling more "paraplu's". You can't go without one in Antwerp, in the Spring.


Here's the sun!


Here I am standing in front of a garden at the Rubenshuis Museum. (http://museum.antwerpen.be/rubenshuis/index_eng.html) We paid 4 euro each, and entered the museum which is filled with paintings from famous Dutch artists, mostly from the 15th and 16th centuries. Peter Paul Rubens was a famous painter, and used to live in this huge mansion. Today it has been converted into a museum and garden.

Rubens was regularly commissioned to paint portraits for important people. I found it really interesting that there were many paintings of the Spanish nobility here. It turns out that the Spanish empire used to extend through Belgium and the Netherlands. I had no idea!


The photo above is one of the fanciest shopping centres I have ever seen. Another example of how old style is mixed with the ultra-modern in Antwerp.


This is a group that was performing in the main chamber of the shopping centre.

Our trip to Antwerp was a success, although I would have liked to spend more time checking out all the museums, cafes, and boutiques.

Now it's time to focus on studying.....I have an exam on Monday!

Things You'll See When Wandering Around Haarlem in Springtime

A Dutch cafe. NOT a coffeehouse. Coffeehouse = marijuana



Typical Dutch yard.


A water-tower that looks like a castle.


A Jewish cemetery. The gate was locked, so I couldn't actually go in.


A church steeple. One of about five thousand. Maybe less.


The first daffodils of Spring.


Hungry ducks.


A peacock??? Yes, it was strutting around the entrance to someone's house, it wasn't tied up or anything. Do you think they knew it was there?