Logan Goes to the Market

Some of the most famous parts of Groningen are the Grote Markt and the Vismarkt, which, according to Google, translate to the Great Market and Fish Market. If you know me, you know I LOVE farmer's markets, and the Fish Market is basically a large farmer's market that happens 4 times a week. Today I decided to go for the second time and take some pictures. As you will see they have a little bit of everything, it's pretty great.

Just entering the great market, city hall is on the right...

... and Martini Tower on the left.

Behind city hall is where the fish market, where the good is sold.
That tall building in the background is the  Korenbeurs.

There are lots of fruits and veggies.

They even have fancy teas and jellies

There are swaths of fabric being sold (even more in the grote markt)

Fresh meat

And, of course, fish

There are actually a lot of seagulls that hang around.

They even have my favorite kind of Broccoflower, Romanesca!

Lots of fresh bread

So much cheese, they say the Dutch make some of the best in the world.

Delicious olives.

Pasta and pickled goods

This lady sells different nut/trail mixes,

these kinds of mixes seem pretty popular

Potatoes

Here's some whitefish I got with tartar sauce.

Pretty standard, but notice the little fork that comes with it!

Flowers, the Dutch love their flowers.

I got 4 mangoes for a dollar... unfortunately haven't been the greatest.

Now we enter the Great Market. Here's some jewelry being sold.

Lots of clothes.

So many hand bags

And hats!

The fish market seems to have a lot of fancy food (even some of it prepared and ready to eat), whereas the great market is more about clothing and materials to make clothing (and crafts). Today I got bread, gouda cheese, mangoes, grapes, olives, lychee, and romanesca. So much yummy food!

So that's my trip to the market, I'm sure I'll be going there a lot, especially now that I have a bike. Tomorrow should be interesting, it's the first welcoming day!

First Impression

It's been a week since I got here and I feel like I've actually had enough experience to give a proper first impression. My strongest feeling is that the Dutch are a lot like Americans. They listen to American music, they watch American shows (I even saw a billboard for Elementary), and they even know English (for the most part). So, here are some of the biggest differences between the land of the free and the lowlands.

Bicycles
The biggest, most noticeable difference is the bikes. Yes, bicycles, they are EVERYWHERE. The Netherlands are basically like a huge version of Cycling Road from the original Pokemon, except instead of being a constant hill it's completely flat. That's probably one of the reasons why the Dutch love their bikes so much, you NEVER have to pedal up hill. Just to get a taste of how many bikes are in Groningen here's a picture I took in front of my new university. Bikes as far as the eye can see...

They even clear the bike path when it snows , pedestrians get no such luxury.

Street Art
The second most noticeable difference is street art. No, I am not talking about gangsta's tags scribbled on walls, although there are a few of those. Nor do I mean official instillation put in by the city, even though there are some of those too. I mean murals found on the sides of buildings and in alleys, ones that took time and care. I love it, they're great! Here are some examples I snapped while walking around Groningen.

I noticed the street art first on my journey from Amsterdam to Groningen but it was either on the side of something moving or while I was in a moving train so I couldn't get any clear pictures. I'm sure I'll be seeing more as I travel around, I'll be sure to post them here.

Architecture

If you've ever walked around Troy, NY you know it has some pretty lovely architecture. Heck, there's even a castle ;). But the architecture in Troy isn't NEARLY as old as that in Groningen. Heck, one of the most famous buildings, the Martini Tower, is more than twice as old as the United States. Here are some examples I snapped:

The Martini Tower is in the center. I'm sure Google has better photos of it.

The Grote Markt

Even the train station is pretty!

Outside of Groningen Station

Inside of Groningen Station

Even when the architecture isn't old, it can be very interesting:

Groninger Museum

I'm not sure what this is (maybe a water tower), but it looks cool!

The new and the old 

There's more stuff too, like the birds and the cars, but I'll talk about that later, when I'm a little better informed and have some cool photos. So far everything is going really well and I'm getting settled in quickly. It's been kind of tough to meet new people because this week is final exams for most people so everyone's busy preparing. One thing I do need to work on though is my Dutch. Pretty much everyone can speak English, but it would be nice to be able to understand a Dutch person without asking them to switch languages. Well, back to adventuring! Until next time!

First Day

I have successfully made it through my first day abroad! There are a lot of things to talk about, I'll try to cover all the important stuff. It might get a little wordy so I'll put a recap at the bottom.

Hell of a Trip
Literally. My trip was composed of two flights, one from Syracuse to Newark, then one from Newark to Amsterdam. My parents dropped me off at the airport and after a lot of hugging and saying 'good bye' I made my way on my solo journey. I got though security fine, I was waiting a few minutes and then I hear an announcement that my flight will be delayed. Great. So, after waiting a couple hours I board the plane. Finally getting somewhere, right? Wrong. We wait about another half hour on the tarmac because who doesn't love waiting around? Anyway, we finally get in the air and it's a really short flight to Newark, about 2 hours. It's okay though, I make it just barely on time, good thing I told the pilot to wait up. No, seriously, I called him.

The pilot was one of my relatives. We had planned this since I had reserved the flight. This was one of his frequently flown routes and he put in effort to make sure he was flying this specific flight. I met up with him right after I got off the plane to Newark. Once I boarded he showed me around the cockpit and introduced me to some of the steward/stewardesses. Because of how late I was by the time I got on everyone else was seated already. Unfortunately I didn't get bumped up to first class, but I did get a sundae!
Here I am flying the plane:

My face when I land the plane perfectly my first try. Just kidding!

And here's a picture of us together after the flight:

To his credit, the boots I was wearing added an inch or two.

The flight went well, it was very long though, about 8 hours. I had another wait on the tarmac for about half an hour, but this time it was because we were too early. Apparently there's a noise restriction in Amserdam until 7 AM, so planes can't land until after that time. There were these touch screens built in to the back of the headrests that you could watch movies and shows on. They offered movies that were actually new and had a pretty good selection, I ended up watching one that I had never heard of before called "Robot & Frank". It wasn't movie of the year material, but I liked it. In the headrest screen you could also view the info about the flight like how fast you were going and your ETA. Here's the map as we were flying over England:

Cheerio!

Once I actually arrived in Amsterdam's Schophol airport I had to start the confusing journey of traveling alone in a place that used a language I did not understand. If any of you have ever done this before you know how confusing it can be. I managed to get a ticket to Groningen Noord (the closest station to where I'll be living) via Groningen (where I'm meeting a friend). Actually getting on the train proved more difficult than I thought though...

Every hour, 3 minutes past the hour, a train straight to Groningen from Schiphol departs, 'Great!' I thought to myself, exactly what I need. So, I go down to the proper platform and begin to wait. Up on the screen for the trains I see Groningen, 9:03, perfect. So, I wait, which takes the better part of an hour, and I see all the trains showing up, most of which seem to be going to Amsterdam Centraal, the time comes along and no Groningen. I keep waiting for another 10 minutes or so in case it's late, and I even ask a couple conductors if their train is going to Groningen. Eventually I figure that it  was cancelled. I take a look back up at the screen and realize that the places I saw the name was where they listed the canceled trains. Not a huge deal, they come every hour. So, I facebook message my friend who I am to meet and let him know I'm going to be late.

I wait around for the next train, this time it's actually on the list for trains arriving soon. I wait for it, but all I see at the time is another "Amsterdam Centraal" train. It comes off the expected trains list once the time passes and I figure that the train I thought was going to Amsterdam was just mislabeled on the screen and I missed my Groningen train. Damn, well, here we go again. Lucky try number three!

After about 45 minutes Groningen pops up as one of the trains that isn't going to make it. What the heck! I finally decide to look in to the matter at the information booth. Turns out the Groningen train was canceled all day due to weather. -_- It sure would have been useful if the ticket lady I bought the ticket from told me that. I ask about an alternate route and I'm told to go to Amersfoort. After the better part of 4 hours of trying to get on the Groningen train I finally get on to a train headed to Amersfoort. Once I get there I have a short wait for another train then I'm finally on my way to Groningen!

Spending Time with the Locals

At Groningen I met up with this guy named Robin. My Dad set us up to meet through someone he knew, so I'd never met him face to face before. It turns out he's a really cool guy. He surfs and longboards and he's been all around the world. Once we got to Groningen Noord (that's North, in case you couldn't figure it out) Robin helped me get to my building using his iPhone. After I met the student manager and set all my things down we went back to Groningen and he showed me around. The first thing I got was a SIM card for my cell phone so I could makes calls without a ridiculously expensive roaming fee. He showed me some places where I'd be able to get what I need, like food and clothes. We hung out for a bit, then I headed back to my place.

By the time I got back and the student manager showed me around the building it was just past 8. I asked my student manager where I could eat that night and, unfortunately, the local grocery store AH (it stands for Albert Heijn but the sign just says AH) closes at 8. There weren't any restaurants open within walking distance, but I could order something, Dominoes he suggested. So, once I got my internet set up (which required borrowing an ethernet cord from a friendly hall mate) I ordered some pizza. And thus concludes my first day. I ended up sleeping 14 hours after that, to be fair one of my alarms was broken and the other one was set to mute.

I won't be making a day 2 post because all I really did was sleep and go grocery shopping. Hamburgers for dinner! Yes, so far I have eaten only pizza, hamburgers, and snacks, you can't call me un-American :P. I will be making a blog post about grocery shopping at some point though, once I figure out what the heck the products actually are (I am quickly realizing I need to learn more Dutch). There are a lot of little differences, which are giving me a healthy dose of culture shock, but I'll address that some time later too.

It's almost 2:30 here so I'm going to sleep. I haven't edited this post yet, I'll do that tomorrow, or when I find some time; I'm too sleepy now.

TL;DR - Almost missed my International flight, but being related to the pilot helps. Waited 4 hours for a train that never showed up. Hung out with a surfer bro. Ate Pizza. Slept 14 hours.

P.S. I'm 6 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern Time.

Where I'm Going and What I'll Be Doing

Two days left until I leave! I feel like procrastinating a bit so I'm going to go ahead and post my second blog entry. This entry is meant to give a little bit of info about where I'm going, what I'll be studying, and what I intend to do after classes.

As for where, I'm going to the University of Groningen, which is in the city of Groningen, which is in the providence of Groningen in the Netherlands. Now, I will not be in Holland except for when arriving in the country and whatever trips I decide to take there. I know the Holland/Netherlands difference can be a bit confusing, but here's a video explaining it, as well explaining the other wacky technicalities of The Kingdom of The Netherlands.

Specifically, I will be staying in the international house Kornoeljestraat 2 (I'm pretty sure the 2 is the street address). This house (more like a hotel, it's 13 stories tall!) is located closer to my classes than the city center, but it still looks like I can get there by bike in under half an hour. I'm pretty excited to be living in an international house, this will expose me to all sorts of different cultures from people around the world! Language might be a slight barrier, but it seems that everyone will know at least a basic amount of English as it is required by the university for acceptance in to the exchange program.

What I'll be doing is studying (during the semester). I'm enrolled as an Artificial Intelligence major, my curriculum most closely resembles a 3rd year AI major focusing on Cognitive Science (Note: the entire undergrad degree for this program only takes 3 years). The RUG semesters are split in to quarters and for each quarter I'm currently going to take 1 undergrad class, 1 grad class, and research. Those classes are: Quarter 1: Cognition and Attention (undergrad), User Models (grad). Quarter 2: Cognitive Neuroscience (undergrad), Neuro-Ergonomics (grad). Now, I'm signed up for these classes but they aren't set in stone, so we'll see if that's what I actually end up taking. For my research it should mostly be cognitive testing and modeling, much like what I do at RPI.

Now for "when". I'm leaving the states on the afternoon of Monday, January 14th. I'll be arriving in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Tuesday morning. Why so much time? Well, I'll be losing 6 hours due to time zones. That's right, the Netherlands are 6 hours ahead of the US eastern coast, fortunately that makes the math relatively easy when trying to figure out the relative time at both locations.

Right now I'm not sure when I'm coming back. I currently want to travel around Europe once the semester is over (mid June), but I still have to figure out where to go and who to go with. I will definitely be back in the states by the time classes start at RPI for the Fall 2013 semester, that is Monday, August 26th. That's 7 months! Right now I'm only planning to be over there for 6 months so I'll have some time in the states over summer, but we'll see how plans work out. I'll update here as I develop plans.

That should cover everything. Thanks for reading, now it's time for me to go finish packing!

An Introduction

Hello all!

Finally, I've started my travel blog. I'm leaving in less than a week, 5 days to be exact, and I wanted to kick off this blog by talking a little bit about where I come from, where I'm going, and what I've done to prepare.

First off, I am Logan and I come from a little town in central New York, the nearest city being Syracuse. I know many of my readers will be people I am close with already but I'm hoping this blog might help strangers who are in a similar situation or give my new friends in Europe some insight on where I come from.

Anyway, let's continue the introduction. I've completed 2 and a half years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY and I plan on completing my final year there too, after this grand adventure. I study Cognitive Science and Computer Science; I'm very much interested in everything related to the brain, the mind, and computers.

Back in October there was a request at my lab for a researcher over at the University of Groningen (RUG). The work was very similar to what I'm doing now plus I would get to do it in the Netherlands, so I figured why not! I've been hard at work preparing ever since, and thanks to help of many professors and administrative staff at both schools this trip will soon become a reality.

Well, that's how it all started. I'll be updating soon with how I prepared and after I get there I'll keep a steady update on what I'm up to. Stay tuned for the adventures of Logan!