So it's been a while since I've written anything. I'm sorry! I haven't had a ton of time, and I feel like I've spoken to a lot of people about most of the things I would write anyway so I just haven't written.
First off, the other field trip. On Sunday, Feb. 14 (yes, it was Valentine's Day), we went to visit polders and windmills. Polders are areas of land that have to have their water level maintained by pumps. In some rare cases, this means pumping water into the polder, but most times, it means pumping water out. We visited a few polders, which were kind of cool, but there isn't a ton to see. Basically, around each lake that was drained, a ring canal was put in. All of the water from the lake passes into this canal. Pumping stations are set up in strategic locations around the lake, bringing the water up from the lake into the ring canal. In the early days of land reclamation, these pumps were...you guessed it, WINDMILLS! so exciting. They were sometimes set in series in order to make their pumping capacity higher as well. As the lake became less full, drainage ditches were cut into the bottom to make the drainage more systematic. These ditches were also used to divide the newly formed land into plots for people to farm on. And when, you may ask, was all of this done? The 17th century, of course! Now, the polders must still be maintained using electric pumps (which, ironically, are actually less efficient than windmill technology).
After we were done seeing a bunch of polders, we came to the best part: visiting a real windmill. It was so impressive. First of all, windmills are massive. The pictures that you see don't really capture their size that well. The inside of the windmill, however, is still a small place for large families to live. I would get super claustrophobic living in one. Above the living space are the gears and shaft that power the pump below. Again, I was struck by how immense every piece of the windmill was. The main gears were wider than I am tall. The shaft reaches from the top of the windmill all the way down to the bottom. The Archimedean screw, the device that actually pumps the water, is attached to another gear system, which was not actually running at the time because the canal was frozen. Overall, the windmill was a super cool experience. If you are ever in Noord-Holland, it's worth a visit.
Okay, that was from forever ago. Now on to more recent things. On Thursday, Bonnie (my friend from our group) and I visited the Rijksmuseum, which is a huge art/artifacts museum near downtown. Right now, it is undergoing a major renovation, so only the best 400 pieces were on display. I was very impressed. A few of my favorites....First, I liked this doll house that was tall enough for them to put two staircases up in order for you to see inside. The detail was incredible--real, miniature Delftware hanging on the wallpapered walls, tiny toys in the nursery, silver dishes in the dining room, etc. It was crazy. There were also several painting by Rembrandt and Vermeer. My favorite Rembrandt was "The Night Watch" (here's a pic of it at the Rijksmuseum itself...http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://i1.trekearth.com/photos/1887/nightwatch800.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Netherlands/South/Noord-Holland/Amsterdam/photo339541.htm&usg=__qkZ58Y7qEZbx8c_uKn1qtf7QjYM=&h=562&w=800&sz=145&hl=en&start=9&itbs=1&tbnid=2aTzTdbO_dsA7M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bnight%2Bwatch%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1) Wow, super long link. Anyway, the painting is much more impressive in person. As you can see from the picture, it is HUGE! It is a painting of 18 men who formed some militia...I don't really remember the details, but I was very impressed. My next favorite painting was one by Vermeer (he's the guy that did "Girl with a Pearl Earring"). It's called "The Little Street". It's not quite what he's known for, but it was my favorite by far. (pic at...http://images.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://www.daimi.au.dk/~doina/blog/dmaterial/vermeer-little_street.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.daimi.au.dk/~doina/blog/%3Fp%3D37&usg=__-JpJyDOfbNcaVzXxYOgjFtcDXKY=&h=1600&w=1311&sz=399&hl=en&start=89&itbs=1&tbnid=KFf-Pc6Wd7xuQM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=123&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvermeer%26start%3D72%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1) I wish that you could all see in person; the colors are so much brighter and more vibrant than the picture here shows. But that's okay. Maybe you'll all just have to visit me in Amsterdam! :D
After the Rijksmuseum, Bonnie and I met up with the rest of the girls from our group to go out to lunch for Katie's birthday. We had some Indonesian food. It was...pretty good. I wasn't a huge fan of peanut sauce, but now I know that for next time. After lunch, we wandered over to the Bijbelmuseum (Bible Museum) for a quick tour. It was a really funny place, actually. I felt like the focus was more on Jewish history than the Bible itself. There was a model of the Tabernacle that was pretty good, a room full of Egyptian relics, and an exhibit all about Jerusalem as a holy city for three different religious groups. To be quite honest, I was kind of sick of museums by this point so I didn't get that much out of the experience. The highlight came when we visited the "vaulted cellar", where they keep hundreds of old Bibles. They were interesting, but the best part was a certain picture. On this picture, all of the attendees of the Synod of Dordt were displayed, along with their names. AND GUESS WHO I FOUND?! "Wigbold Homeri", who came from Groningen, and who is my great-great-great-(I don't know how many generations back)-grandpa! I took a picture of his name, which I will have to post soon. I'm so glad I'm a Wigboldy. :D
I think that's all of the exciting stuff I've done lately. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write about this stuff! Have a great day, everybody.
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