Woke up with a terrible headache this morning, and still feel a bit sick. I don't know if it was that glass of Heineken I drank yesterday, the nuts, olives or airline sandwiches, but ever since this morning I've been having this terrible feeling of dizzyness and like there's air in my chest I can't get rid of. When I breathe hard, the back of my neck hurts and my chest feels compressed.
I blame it on the beer. Frankly I don't like beer, and it's been years since my last 'pint', until yesterday that is. I don't know what posessed me to drink something that makes me want to throw up and pee all the time, and feel all gasy and nauseous afterwards...I guess when all the guys were drinking it, I sort of 'had' to too.
Since today's programme didn't start until noon, I could lie in a bit, which helped get rid of the nauseating feeling, if only a little bit. Picked up our 'packed lunch', packaged in a green paper bag, the contents of which look like they managed to skim off the left-overs of KLM's (Royal Dutch Airlines) on-board catering service.
Met some more people, all on the same course I'll be doing. And that was pretty nice, since for the day I basically had company and people to talk to. We did a boat trip, cruising around the canals and lakes around Leiden. This ancient city is shaped like a star and surrounded by moats. It was here that resistance against the Spanish (Catholics) was staunchest. For the sake of religious freedom and freedom of expression, the citizens of the town refused to cave into a siege in 1574. As a token of appreciation was rewarded with a university in that very year by William of Orange ('Father of the Netherlands'). That university is Leiden University, with the motto Praesidium Libertatis, (‘bastion of freedom’) on the emblem. And I'm now a member of that bastion.
Old(er) students and professors of Leiden include Rembrandt van Rijn (painter), who never actually graduatlly and registered for the sake of getting cheap beer as a student (believe me beer is definitely not the reason why I'm studying here). The Dutch Royal family has traditionally gone to this university too. Rumour has it that during the years when our Crown Prince William Alexander, who is reputed for being a bit...slow, the tradition of publishing everyone's grades in public disappeared. Einstein taught here a while (there's a pub named after him), while Kamerlign Onnes was won the Nobel Prize for Physics for achieving the lowest temperate possible (absolute zero). My law faculty buidling is named after him, and located in the very building where he conducted the experiment. Then there's Huygens, who invented the telescope, and has a space probe named after him. Then there's the likes of Spinoza and Descarte, who escaped to Leiden on account of its libertarian values and freedom of expression. I doubt I'd come close to what these great people have achieved in my lifetime, but it's something to mention when people ask me in the future why I chose this uni as my own. I guess.
A museum visit was also part of the tour, and we were taken to Boerhave Museum, named after the physician who introduced natural sciences as key to the study of medicine in Europe. Besides the famous Huygen telescopes and clocks, the sight of numerous 'pickled' feotuses, ovaries with a fertilised egg, fingers of young children, skinned snakes, inner ear of a dog, drawings of a disected woman carrying a baby, real skeletons of human beings, cats, elephants, horses and a turkey were not all that appealing. Especially when I was already feeling like throwing up the whole day. Dinner was immediate after the museum. I waited at least an hour before I could take a bite and swallow.
It was a bit silly how they organised the programme. By five we were ushered into the canteen and fed. The next event was the party at 10pm. Five hours to kill, in a town, in a country where shops are few and close at 6pm sharp. A bunch of us, three guys and two girls, all on the same course, sat around, got to know each other better, lurked around the empty streets a bit more, sat at a cafe and chatted the hours away. It was surprisingly relaxing, and we were pretty much on similiar wave lenghts, so I had a really good time. Plus that cute Finnish guy was part of the group too : )
To be honest I wasn't really feeling all that well for the party, and the Finnish guy has a severe flu. But the girls insisted we at least go for a while. So we did. The disco was empty when we got there. People started arrives in small droves, amid the loud din and lazer lights, but everyone was just standing around wondering whether anything was going to happen. Huge screens showed girls engaged in a wet-T-shirt competiton, the aim being who can push the other off of a horizontal they were on. Exciting. Nobody danced, and I wouldn't actually dance unless someone else did the same. People suggested I be the one to get the bodies moving, but no thanks.
After less than an hour, the Finnish guy and I decided to go. And we did. A little embarassing meeting people we know in the corridors who were just arriving. Even more so when we turned out to be the first ones leaving. But he put it best when he said to the bouncer: "Clubbing is just not my thing."
Not mine either. A little tipsy, but glad to have gotten away from the crowd and party, we made our way to the station. We talked a bit more, about how we both just don't like those kind of places, and would rather be somewhere quiet where you could actually hear what the other one is saying. He can be a little nervous around people, and tends to mumble a littel at times, but once he loosens up, he's fun and funny to be around with. I didn't realise he was so similiar to me in that sense.
I mean today he didn't make it for lunch and by the time we were all heading for the boat he kept on calling me and asking where I was so he could join me. He could have very well gone on another tour, but he said he didn't want to. When we did finally manage to meet in the museum, he came in quietly as the guide was explaining things. I was on the other side of the room, but as soon as he saw me gave me this smile as if he was so glad to see me. I smiled back. Now and then, there were some funny bits as the guide was explaining things. He'd start to giggle and look in my direction to see if I found it just as funny. And we'd try to hide our giggles, like sharing a secret laugh no one else understood.
At the station just before he disappeared up the stairs in a hurry to catch the train I turned around to him and said: "Take care, and get well soon."
And I meant it.
No comments:
Post a Comment