Today we decided to actually get up and arrive early for the cultural sessions of our ESN tour to make up for the failure of the previous day. Afterall, we did shell out a princely sum to be involved in all the activities and, thus far, we had made little to no effort to get involved.
The sun was shining once again. I feel very lucky with this weather. Especially as I still need to buy a raincoat. I fear I will leave it too late and wake up one day to find that it's monsoon season.
We met our group in the Grote Markt and took more pictures of City Hall in the sunshine.
This is one of the biggest Frat houses in Groningen and it always looks insane! All the people are wasted and normally in fancy dress which is awesome. For lunch we headed to Bagels and Beans again and I had the salmon with tomato and pesto cream cheese on a sesame seed bun. I don't think pictures can quite convey how insanely delicious these things are but I took one anyway.
Anyway, we carried on to the Culture Centre and signed up for various activities including Dutch History and Egyptian belly dancing. Because...well, why not, right?
The Dutch History session was really interesting and funny but also had some really quite dark moments included. But it was informative and the guys delivering the presentation were very good. We learnt about the 'Man Who Missed Australia'. He was looking for the hidden, mythical southern continent and sailed right around it.
(I knew we shoulda taken a left at Albuquerque.)
Then we went out for dinner and a comedy show which was done by students of the University in a society called 'Stranger Things Have Happpened'. It was very similar in design to 'Whose Line Is It Anyway' which I love so I was cracking up. They were really very funny and I felt guilty that I was almost expecting them to be rubbish. But it was a very good evening.
After dinner we were about to head home and one of my friends had her bike stolen which sucked because she thinks they got her house keys too. It was horrible and I offered her my bike to ride home but she found someone from her house to walk with so she went to sort that out.
I went home and changed into a dress for going out later that evening. My friend and I went to catch the bus and missed it by about 6 seconds. Then we called a taxi. Then another bus turned up so we cancelled the taxi.
It was all very stressful.
When we reached the town one of my mentors texted me saying he had left the University organised party because the prices were really high so we ended up going to join him in the bar. It was tiny and called Kasteel and I think I'm in love. It might be better than The Castle of Comfort and that's hard for me to admit.
We got there and got free shots and drinks given to us by the bar tender. Ended up talking to some Dutch guys that taught us a dice game. It was awesome.
We then went out for pizza and exchanged numbers so that we could hang out again. We also promised the bar tender that we would come back and make it our regular hang out place. We went to get pizza and then figured we should probably head home because we did have lectures in the morning.
On the way to the taxi rank we walked past this club and heard an English song playing. My friend still wanted to dance so we agreed that we'd stop just for a couple of songs.
Turns out it was a private frat party and we were let in because they thought we belonged to a sorority. We ended up dancing and doing more shots and just having a brilliant time. They played Whitney Houston 'I will always love you' even though I asked for 'I wanna dance with somebody' but it was cool because about 20 Dutch guys ended up bellowing the words at me and my friend.
(Although with a friend that looks like this, I'm fairly sure they were just singing to her and I happened to be there as well. Going out with this girl is not such a boost for the old self-esteem, let me tell you.)
We left when fights broke out and glasses started smashing.
But still, it was a good night. And we amused the taxi driver so everyone had a good time.
Life is good in the Netherlands.
&& Fin.
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