Autumn City.

So we are rapidly approaching the end of term 1. Which means lots of coursework is due and exams are looming. Yuck.

My weekend was spent frantically preparing for a presentation, doing chores, and dealing with a few odd tasks. And I literally spent all of Sunday in the library, how disgusting! I didn't even know it was open on a Sunday... Want to hear the even sadder part? The place was absolutely mobbed - basically every computer was occupied. Apparently Erasmus students have no life...including myself. =P

Okay, I'm exaggerating. Quite a bit actually. But this university is very tough. I love it though!

After the presentation on Monday, I quickly hotfooted it to the gym to burn off all my nervous energy and frustration. It was very productive: I was an absolute machine in that gym, I even tried some of the scary weight machines. Not quite sure how I felt about those, but it wasn't too bad. Plus, I was on the treadmill for 25 minutes!! Result.

I also had a wee shopping venture this week. Decided to get myself a wee bargin jumper, shoes and a few toiletries. I desperately needed to buy myself a new pair of boots for when the winter weather decides to descend on Rotterdam. Especially since my current ones are about three years old and not even nearly watertight! But wee Mama Flem knows how much I hate shoe shopping (it's always a nightmare), so she decided to give me a little incentive by donating money towards them. Cheers mum! Personally, I think I did rather well! Although a lovely Dutch girl had to help me reach them in the shop, and we ended up bringing half the shelf down in our quest...oops. So, bedankt to that random girl; the shoes fit perfectly, and thanks for humouring my dreadful attempt to say 'size 40' in Dutch! At least I tried... =D

Quirky Rotterdam shopping centre!

Lastly, this week we have enjoyed a few beautiful, sunny days. So, to take a break from my incessant studying, I decided to whip out my camera and got some nice snaps. I hope you enjoy them!

A city during autumn. Simply beautiful.

What's Walibi?

Walibi Fright Night was on Saturday.

The day out was organized by ESN and only cost 45 euros for the whole trip: travel, ticket, lunch. It seemed like a good deal. We met on the uni campus around 12, picked up our packed lunch then promptly got on the bus. I think we arrived at Walibi at around 2 o'clock, possibly?

Anyway, I soon acquired a little team of people for the day. There was 8 of us, which was good, as it meant that we were never left abandoned on a ride by ourselves. And a got to deafen a few people with my panicked screams...

I might have stolen a few pictures from facebook for this...bad panda!

Question of the day: What is Walibi?

Dilemma: Is Walibi a Wallaby?

It didn't even occur to me to ask this question until someone enquired about it. But I have no idea what animal Walibi is. Can someone help me out here? See, now that I think about it, his ears do kind of make him look like a wallaby. And I guess that does make sense with his name. But I'm not a hundred percent convinced.

So what rides did we go on? In case you haven't figured it out yet, Walibi is a theme park! Woohoo! (P.s. That is an exclamation of excitement, not Sims getting sweaty *wink, wink*)!

First, it was the Xpress. You know that horrible feeling when you get in the cart, it moves off to the starting position, then stops? Yeah, that can only mean one thing. 0 to 90 kilometres, an hour, in 3 seconds! Gah! It was quite something! The loops were almost relaxing after such an intense start. But it was a nice way to begin the day - nothing too nerve-racking, although I was a little jittery afterwards!

Next it was off to Speed of Sound. It was quite something. The wait was over an hour long, which gave us plenty of time to over analyse, panic and desperately need to pee! Well, that's what I did anyway. Great combination for a roller coaster. Just excellent... It seemed like quite a short ride but there was a lot of build up to it. Once the cart was filled with people and ready to go it, very slowly, reversed backwards up a steep slope and into a enclosed tunnel. It was pretty intense with music blaring and lots of lights. It definitely added to the fear factor. My leg was shaking like crazy! So I'm totally freaking out at this point. And, of course, all the long pauses are making me want to jump out and run to the toilet. Much too late for that I'm afraid! Once it finally got moving, the first half was pretty good - nothing too terrifying. But it was the knowledge of what was to come that had me quivering. Once it finished all the loops and twist, we climbed up another slope and then did the whole thing in reverse. Nope. It was horrific. Fun, and a pure adrenaline rush, but horrific. It was kind of sore on your neck to go backwards as well... Anyway, once we were finally released I was laughing like a lunatic and shaking like a leaf. Amazing.

We didn't have a huge amount of time before the Fright Night was scheduled to start. But we were able to go on one more ride: G-Force, before sniffing out some food. Now don't get me wrong, compared to the others, this was almost a little kids ride. But, for me, it was the worst one yet. It was one of those ones where you don't get strapped in, but you still go upside down. Creepy. Plus, my little legs were far too short to reach the end of the compartment I was sitting in, which freaked me out! Felt rather ill and dizzy afterwards too. Reminded me too much of the teacups! Ha, me and my dad have very similar feelings about the teacups: no, just no. *vom*

But once my stomach had finally finished doing back-flips, I was quite happy to settle down to eat a waffle, smothered in melted white chocolate. Yum! Yes please!

The camera flash ruins the possibility of any atmospheric tension...

And that's when it started to rain. And oh did it rain! The heavens opened. We weren't going to let it ruin our day though! Instead, we dutifully waited in line for the Fun House of Fear, ran round it screaming and burst out the other end much too quickly. I was jumping and screaming every time I turned the corner. It was beyond ridiculous. I'm not even going to begin to describe it - I wouldn't do it justice. However, my one problem is that I have a fear of other people screaming. Yes, I know, I'm a ridiculous excuse for a human being, but I'll try to explain... So I was behind the group, they would scream at something I couldn't yet see, I would scream with them, then have a second turn at being frightened when it actually got round to being my turn... Such a dafty. 

Just picture this, with torrential rain. Wow.

The final attraction of the day was Goliath. Definitely saved the best until last. Truly amazing. Plus, the torrential rain had scared half of the crowd away - reduced waiting times! Woo! It was insane. Although, I felt bad for the guy I was sitting next to (you'll see why in a  moment). After the harnesses were released and refastened several times, the people behind us had decided to chicken out and get let off the ride at the last minute, which totally freaked me out. So as soon as it started I had decided that I was no longer up for it. Again, too late. Unfortunately, I was only able to contain my panic up until the point where we started the climb the first ascent. And, oh dear god, it was never ending! "Omg, Lewis. Lewis. No, no, no, no, no. I don't like it. Lewis help. Omg. F*cking, f*ckity f*ck f*ck. Lewis. LEWIS!!" The poor boy... I do apologise. But it was so good. Absolutely terrifying. For me, I'd give it 10 out of 10. It was seriously excellent. You should google it! 'Cause any description I come up with is, once again, not going to do it any justice. The rain was a great addition too - turned it into a water ride! Although, it also resulted in us not being able to open our eyes for most of it. Absolutely fantastic! I was soaked to the bone once it had finished though. *shivers*

Then it was toilet time. I couldn't possibly have went on another ride without wetting myself. At that point, I ventured inside, found a loo, and invested in a hot dog to warm myself up a little, while waiting for the rest of our little team to return.

Then it was home time. But even that was eventful. The bus broke down so we had to wait for a replacement. Which, thankfully, didn't take too long. It was almost fun to have a second adventure, but I was delighted to finally be on my way home at the end of the day. We didn't arrive back at uni until after midnight, and from there me and my bike pretty much swam home. Disgusting.

The ESN guys were really good though! They arranged the bus to drop people off all around Rotterdam since we had missed the public transport. They were actually dropping people of right outside my building, but I didn't fancy leaving by bike abandoned at uni!

What an amazing day! It has been, without a doubt, the best day of the week. Not that there was much competition. The remainder of my week consisted of:

• Rain, rain, and a bit more rain...
• Sitting in lectures soaking wet, for three hours.
• Finding my poor bike knocked over and lying under a pile of other bikes in the shed.
• Hurting my back while hovering. (Yes, apparently I am an 80 year old woman now. Deal with it.)
• Cutting my toe with the hover.
• Cycling in hideous weather (with a now dodgy bike and sore back).
• Having double the normal reading for our weekly class test on Friday. Ew.
• And, snapping my favourite memory stick (thank god I have a spare!)

It's been a wild one. Can't you tell?!

P.s. To whoever knocked over my bike (along with half the others in the shed), I am not a happy bunny. Seriously, just you watch, angry Nat is out and on the prowl! It's nice to know that the people I live with are so considerate *ridiculously overdone sarcasm*. Next time if you move, or knock over a bike (and, yes, it is easily done) at least make an attempt to put it back. Whenever that happens to me, I don't just abandon the bike on the floor! Clearly I've been wasting my time... *grumbles* Guess I'll be off to get my bike fixed in the next few days... *crazy eyed stare*

Okay, rant over. Calm thoughts and all that.

Tour Guide.

First of all, I stand corrected. In the list of gifts that I received from my parents last week, I accidentally missed out the most expensive one (whilst remembering to include chewing gum and chocolates). Oops...

Thanks for the perfume!!

So what have I been doing myself this week? On Monday me and my little Australian buddy decided it was time to hit the gym. At 9am... We were far too optimistic. But we were there for around 10 o'clock, so I'm still counting that as a success! And when I say gym I mean the real gym. As in, the room with the scary exercise machines. That was a little bit nerve-racking! It's been a very long time since I've set foot in there - I generally like to stick to the classes. But it was really good. And I loved the motivational quote on the wall: "Sweat it fat crying" (or something to that effect).

I ran. I ran. Running. Me. Wow.

Those of you who know me, even a little bit, will know that running is something rare. Running is usually reserved only for when the bus is trying to pull away without me. I even enjoyed it a wee bit. Mental.

Major scran.

Tuesday's event was much more up my street. It was the IBCoM International Food Evening. Yum. We were supposed to bring something from our own country, which would have been great, but buying Scottish food outside of Scotland is not a challenge for the faint hearted. So all the things I could have brought (potato scones, haggis, black pudding, square sliced sausage, Irn-Bru...) were unattainable. And any of the things that I could, technically, have made (tablet, shortbread, stovies, a roast...) were either far too complex for my, limited, skill set or impossible to make with just a hob and a microwave. Gutted. Instead, I turned up with tuna pasta. 'Cause that's dead Scottish...

Oh well! It was a good night, with some amazing food (and a couple of pretty dire dishes too). Plus, the American's rocked up with McDonald's. Excellent. 

My "masterpiece"

Then, the next day, it was time for me and Riona to become tour guides for the afternoon. One of the exchange coordinators form Glasgow Caledonian was here, in Holland, for a conference of some kind so decided to come a day early to pay us a little visit. I was a little nervous, as neither of us knew her very well, but it turned out to be a really lovely day. We gave her a short and very ill-informed tour of the campus, getting a few drinks at the Erasmus Paviljoen along the way. A little while later, once we'd all had enough of campus, it was decided that we'd go into the centre of Rotterdam for a wander and a wee bite to eat. I was introduced to Hotel Bazar. The food was amazing. And, if I remember correctly, I had the New Delhi soup. Beaut. It was a massive portion as well. Soon after we said our goodbyes and sent Fiona (the exchange coordinator) off on the metro. What a great day.

A few wee goodies from GCU!

In other news, I have decided that my room mate is a genius. Or at least less daft than I am. She re-arranged the kitchen, so that it actually makes sense now. There is more room to walk around and the kettle no longer lives on the floor! Why didn't I think of that?

But now it's Friday again...I have no idea how the week slips away so fast. Was planning another gym visit today, but the weather is disgusting. I'm also going to go a third (and probably fourth) day without milk cause cycling to the supermarket does not sound appealing right now... Oh well.

P.s. I promise next weeks post will be a little more exciting. Got a cheeky wee day trip tomorrow! =D Fingers crossed for no rain! 

Fleming Clan.

So last Friday was the my buildings first common room party of the year. It was pretty cool to meet a few new people from around the building. But for most of the night I was looking around the room thinking I have never seen 90% of these people in my life, where the hell have they all been hiding? I met a couple of new folk but mostly hung around with a lot of people who I, at least vaguely, knew already. Wish I had been in more of a party mood - was fighting the urge to leave around 12 o'clock. I ended the night at around 3am, seeking refuge in my bed.

The rest of the week I have been busy entertaining (and scrounging off of) my folks, who arrived in Holland on Tuesday evening.

On Wednesday they were checking out my turf: Rotterdam.
It took them ages to get here. Their hotel was on the outskirts of Amsterdam, in the business section - so the public transport wasn't the most intuitive. But thankfully, after one day of mishaps they managed to figure it out! Anyway, three hours after leaving the Artemis hotel, my parents stumbled off the tram in front of my house. Yay!! Mama Flem was greetin' (crying) - so cute. After a few cuddles I took them to visit my wee dorm. My dad was rather impressed with the size of my room - although, to be honest, I just see it as empty space... They brought me some clothes from home for when the winter weather descends, a cookbook (which I accidentally abandoned when I was leaving), and a few extra gifts in advance of my birthday! I got a new toiletry bag, chocolates, chewing gum, clothes, tonnes of socks and some money to buy new shoes. Once the initial greetings were all done and dusted, we decided to skype the grandparents. It was nice to have the five of us all talking together as if we were round for lunch! My parents then declared that 1) they did not want to taste my cooking and 2) it was "too warm" in my dorm to stay their any longer (I hadn't noticed...).

I took them for a stroll along the canal where we took some pictures and looked for a little pub to visit. We picked one which I have never been in before, ordered our drinks and sat outside in the sunshine. It was a beautiful day for the start of October. Nice and warm. The only problem was the size of the "large beer" - father was very unimpressed and quickly went up to "get the other half"! Haha! Soon we were off again to acquire some scran, our Scottish bellies rumbling away. I decided to take them to Very Italian Pizza since it was quite close and relatively cheap, plus everyone loves Italian food. They loved it after a disastrous meal from the night before. Unfortunately, that was where we called it a day. So we caught our respective trams and headed home.

Drinks in the sunshine

Thursday was my major study session. Was in the university for a ridiculous amount of time. Then I might have watched The Parent Trap. Love that movie!

On Friday I had a test so obviously had to go into class. Such a disappointment. But after class me and my friend Marta headed to Rotterdam Centraal to get the train. We both got a Dutch hot dog, which would have been fine, but it was smothered in mustard. Yuck. And apart from flicking a "living creature" off my forehead, the train journey went by with very little drama. Once at Amsterdam I quickly abandoned Marta (sorry about that!) to jump on a tram which would take me to Anne Frank's humble abode, where my parents were waiting.

The Anna Frank museum was amazing. I'm not sure if that's the appropriate word for it. Perhaps fascinating would be better? It was strange walking around her house. Everyone was very quiet and respectful - still with their little, individual conversations, and laughing at my mum trying to climb the stairs - but you could feel the respect in the air. All the normal day-to-day chatter and life was hushed. It wasn't the priority. I've been to Anne Frank's house before, when I was on a primary 7 school trip to Germany (and surrounding countries), but I'm glad that I visited again, as an 11 year old you can't really appreciate the experience to the same extent. There was on weird thing though, an odd rule in the museum: we were all instructed to wear our bags in front of us, rather than behind. But, what was the purpose in that? I can't figure it out.

Next, it was off to the Hard Rock Cafe. One the journey there we encountered superheroes, adult temper tantrums and a giant game of chess - very intense. As predicted the restaurant was fab, not quite the same atmosphere as the one in Rome, but the food was beautiful and the service was great. Although, how anyone manages to eat more than one course is beyond me. We even met a Scottish waiter - it's funny how quickly you can slip into the slang and the full accent as soon as you hear another one. Took me a few moments to realise that it wasn't "the norm" here! We had a little snoop in the shop next door. I really wanted a hoodie, but the stuff was a small fortune. You're really paying for the brand (even when you're just eating the food).

I didn't want to go straight back to the hotel, so we went for a wander, did some window shopping and found the Amsterdam sign. But we were soon on the tram heading for bed. Mine still had to be delivered though. Yes, I know it sounds bizarre, but my parents ordered me a bed for their hotel room. I didn't even know that was a thing! Was surprisingly comfy once it had arrived - much better than my full-time mattress back at my accommodation! Although, we had a right laugh trying to sort out the duvet. I was in the corner of the room howling with laughter as my confused mum tried to figure out how a king or queen sized duvet was going to fit on a single bed. I ended up wrapped up like a sausage roll for the night. Nice and cosy. Was a great night sleep - but I did have to deal with the lawnmower-like snores coming from Mama Flem beside me. Who would have thought? She sounded like a big heavy bloke! (Love you mum!)

They next morning I certainly made the most of the hotel breakfast. Had three plates of food. Yum. =)

Once the parents had checked out, we pretty much went straight to the airport (5 hours early). Its not a bad airport to be stranded at though. Tonnes of shops. Plus, I might have acquired a new bag courtesy of my wonderful folks. Me and Mama Flem also picked out our future engagement rings!! Mum decided on one at €1993 but I was much more reasonable in my choice at just €588. <3 I love a wee girlie bonding session with my mum. Me and my dad had a right laugh trying to figure out Starbucks as well - we are disastrous human beings!

Mr Vlaming?

Who knew that the airport could be such fun?! We eventually parted ways, I was forced to disguise a few tears at that point, otherwise the waterworks would have started. Couldn't be having that!
Was a wonderful week. Adored seeing my family! It's funny how you can fall back into the familiar pattern or relying on mum and dad once they are there. Didn't realise how much I missed them until we were together. Wish you guys had been able to stay longer, but I'm a lucky girl! We'll make the most of Christmas!