One month in Dutch-land!!!

Its been exactly one month having left home (needless to say, missing home a lot!), and also implies successful survival for an entire month in this awesome, yet difficult environment (I can confidently say now that I can adapt anywhere in the world! (well, anywhere excluding Alaska!))

This week didn't really bring about much excitement! [:P] Classes(sometimes boring), assignments(always hard), my first written exam here(Piece of cake! MCQs -PU people will love it here :D) and a lot of running around(getting habitual now) consumed the entire week. The reconfigurable computing Lab which I am so crazy about, also didn't bring any respite. Contrary to my expectation, not many groups turned up with the solution for the component we had to design(yes, we did have our solution!! Me and my dutch-partner (Ath), spent the entire Sunday morning in the Library(the most amazing place to study) to wrap up the design and coding in flat 4 hrs!! Talk about efficiency! :)) The TAs spent most of the time checking our codes (so very pointless). At the end of the Lab, I walked out disappointed, again with the burden of homework to be 'expected complete' next Wednesday!

Since today is a special day (1 month completion, remember?), I thought I would pen down *my* view of Holland, University and life in general here.. So, heres 13 points which I felt were unique about this place! (why 13??, well my b'day is on the 13th!) 

1) You can forget your laptop in class, lab, anywhere and still expect it to be there! If you forget to lock your bicycle, even God can't help you. 

2) The cars wait for the bicycles to pass by. The bicycles wait for the pedestrians!

3) Everyone is honest and hardworking. They wont lie and would never mislead you. Whatever is the fact, they tell you on your face!  

4) The air is clean, the winds are strong and the weather changes every moment. Luckily it hasn't rained heavily yet! :)

5) In our apartments, we have taps with two knobs. One for hot water and the other for cold water, available 24 x 7. But the moment you step out of your house, forget the concept of *free* water. You actually have to go to the bathroom to refill your water bottle. (Even dutch students do that! and its potable water) 

6) Mobile-landline calling is way way cheaper than mobile-mobile calling!! 

7) Internet bandwidth is damn awesome!! However, breakdowns are common! Esp. DNS server breakdowns. (happened twice till today :( )

8) Fruits, dairy products and food in general, is of the highest quality, though a little costly.. Potatoes are really cheap and available in plenty.

9) Even the birds here (pigeons and crows) are healthier :P. The crows don't crow! (atleast I haven't heard them crow!) and pigeons are not at all scared of people.. 

10) You can talk with your professor like you talk with your friends.

11) Dutch girls are quite tall and physically well built (could beat the hell out of anyone :P), but everyone here is very friendly. More number of women smoke cigarettes, than men. 

12) They said, "You will fall in love with bikes when you come to the Netherlands!". I didn't.

13) EWI (23 stored, my department building), has 4 awesome lifts, which accelerate at > 10m/s squared. So, you can actually feel the G-force when the lift starts/stops. :) 

A complete month has gone by! My food habits have drastically changed (No more tea, snacks or chapati (we did find rotis here) - bhaji) Its been bread and rice all the way (thanks to my roomie - Surya), with only God knowing what all ingredients we add!! :) The next week will be a long one, with me expecting the assignments to get tougher and deadlines approaching faster than expected.. So pray for me! (I am serious!) 

My best regards to all!

Enjoy Life!!

Anand Khot