chasing mindmills

today, we chased windmills.

(or, as alex likes to call them, mindmills.)

so, this week has been... kind of rough. (at least for me.) it started out with internets being gone, and very difficult to find... anywhere. we've had more classes than we're used to, we're in this new city that i'm not really used to or comfortable in yet, i'm kind of getting sick... and i miss home. i've been gone for 2 1/2 weeks now, and i'm kind of done with this traveling thing. it's been fun. but i'm tired.

we've been riding to class at erasmus university the last couple days, which has been awesome on the fietspads! yay for real, actual, distinctly separate bike lanes. and little bike traffic lights. they're adorable.

on the way home from class yesterday, gary and i checked out the fantabulous cube houses (which we ride under on the way to class). apparently piet bloom started designing them in the 70s, and eventually made this whole little village in downtown rotterdam (next to the library - aka book mall) - they're pretty crazy. one of them is open for viewing - and while you'd think they're all wasted space? they do a pretty amazing job with the interior design. kind of space-ship-like, but pretty awesome.

yup. cubes.


i really liked that i could see myself in the window reflections.

look! it's neighborcat! on a motorcycle? superawesome cat, clearly.

superawesome cat returns! she was in awe of me and ruby. we're a good team.

and then last night, of course, i crashed. badly. so tired. but i refuse to get sick, and i was soooooo looking forward to our kinderdijk adventure today! about 14 of us have bikes at this point, and wanted to ride to the molens - kinderdijk is a world heritage site about 16km from rotterdam, and goooooorgeous. lots of windmills from the 1730s-40s, pretty much looking exactly like how you would expect windmills to look in 1740. and you get to ride your bike around. and go into a windmill. and watch the sheeps and cows and pigs. it's almost too much.

except it's totally not.

molen!

molen!

molen molen molen!

molen molen molen molen!

i really just can't get enough of the flatness of that horizon. omg.

although maddie and i are parted, ruby is doing her darndest to try and take her place. we're a good team.

:)

clearly, this post has been much more about posting awesome pictures than sharing adventures... but i think that is important too. maybe i've been chasing windmills (mindmills) this whole week, trying to make rotterdam comfortable and happy and what i want it to be, when i really just need to take it easy and let it do its thing... and let me do mine. our weekend starts again tomorrow... i'll try to start this adventurous weekend with a better attitude. (and i will totally do my readings this weekend. totally totally will.)

time to go chase those sleepy mindmills... till the weekend ahead of den bosch ('s hertsgodenbosch, officially. wtf.), then dutch national football game, then the great dutch inland desert, then delft? this is going to be a very. busy. weekend. mindmills, get ready.