Classes, guests and Rotterdam

Hi Hi! What up?

The story on the last couple of days...

I met with Leonor and Catarina in the morning of the 8th of September. It was pretty fun and comforting to have guests here. We went to have dinner at Hugo's and everybody enjoyed themselves.This is at Hugo's.
Left to right: Pavel, Catarina, Hugo, Leonor.

I'm still descovering lots of places in Delft. Some more coffee shops, the faculty, the grass-rooftop library, etc...

It was curious to see the weather changing dramatically when the girls were in town. Seemed like they brought the sunny days. And it did started to rain when they left. (This is one for the superstitious fellows ^^)
This is a picture of the main square in delft, and you can see the funny looking tourists car.

The tourists car :)

I'm also trying to fix a bicycle that was in the basement (I still haven't bought one) but the chain is a serious problem to fix! I'm trying to find an old guy who sell cheap bicycles.

I've been having some meetings and classes as well. Let me clear you people on on these 'meetings'.

The faculty divided the exchange students into groups and assigned one mentor for each group. The mentors are generally students who have been in Delft and the (TU Delft) for quite some time. And we meet and talk about any problem about living and studying in Delft. It's really helpful because there's lots of bureaucracy in here!! (I mean: Lots)

I had the strangest night till now waiting up for Leonor and Catarina when they went to Amsterdam for the first night. But it ended up ok. (note: cellphone communication can be a problem when ur leaving abroad - Ricardo and Daniel were quite helpful though :] )

We were back to De Ruif this last wednesday but because we got there so late (around 1:30 a.m.) we couldn't hang there for long. it closes around 2 or 2:30!

That wednesday was also the first time who attended a class (Enterprise Ontology). It was fun but we started to realize it's time to get to work. We already did one assignement and are suppose to start the second anytime now!

I was also at the bank to schedule an appointment to open a dutch bank account. it's free and it is very important so that we can use to chipknip (a little eletronic card to pay for stuff in vending machines in the faculty and lots of other places in Delft)

Bought and umbrella because of the nasty weather, though today is quite sunny :)

Yesterday I redesigned the room and now it seems bigger. the little table went into the kitchen because we could use a place to put a big table in order to have some more space to cook!

By the way... cooking is beeing funny so far but haven't managed to eat fish! I'm very suspicious of the fish here in the supermarket. It's not very common to eat fish in the Netherlands culture... they tend to eat a lot a fried stuff... It's incredible the ammount of stuff they fry!

Definitly not a healthy solution but it tastes very good :)

Yesterday night we were supposed to go to the Hague to a street jazz festival but instead ended up in Rotterdam. The city is completely different the Delft and there is a bigger variety of options for the night. Pubs, bars, disco... etc.

It's a really big city and we noticed the difference right away. but it was a cool night. Despite walking for what seemed like miles :x the company of very nice. We were a big group, mostly spanish but also some portuguese guys.

After Rotterdam we came back to Delft for the Marcushof.

Marcushof is similar to the Poptahof area, but it's smaller and there's only students living there. There are no appartments. They share the kitchen are and bathroom with the roomates of the floor. It's very nice because there are lots a parties there and it's really close to the place i live.

This morning i met some more people from my building including some portuguese and german. And since it's so sunny outside i think i'll going for a walk... try to find the old man's place ^^

I'm posting some more random pictures in here as well as the descriptions!!

Wish you all well and hope everything is going sweet in Portugal.

(I hadn't to much time to see Portuguese tv, but i saw highlights from Portugal-Denmark... what a shame)

The first thing I saw after leaving the train in Delft: bicycles!!

We went to the Delft's IKEA for some stuff useful to the kitchen.

A couple of ducks by the kanaal (channel)

One of many channels...

The new church. (As tall as Clérigos I guess)

Other view of the same church

The square

'T Keldertje - It's the best coffee shop in Delft (as we were told). Leonor and Catarina were being chase by the number 22 all over the place they've been... so that was funny. The bar 'De Ruif' is also the number 22! :)

A cool looking house near the centrum!

Big kanaal late night with Leonor :)

The porcelain shop! Perhaps my grandfather has been here when he was he Delft...

TU Delft EWI - My department is the large tall building. Most of the rest of the Faculty is behond site! It's huge. Just TU Delft is the size of FEUP FMUP FADEUP FEP and all that area around the Hospital all toghether!

The grass-rooftop of the library!

On the train to Rotterdam!

Everybody in Rotterdam...


Well I guess that's it for now... hope you guys enjoyed the pictures and now... go enjoy the rest of your Sunday :)

Love,

Diogo