Oh my goodness, this weekend has been a blast!  Where do I start?!

I'll be brief and then add more tomorrow during the day -- sorry to keep any readers waiting since it's been a few days since I've posted anything!

Friday the website did not get launched.  Sorry if you've been waiting patiently.  It is for the good though because it should all be done right and there were still a few glitches.  Anyhow, it should be done for Tuesday, but of course I will keep you posted.

We only worked until noon on Friday and then went to ESA (European Space Agency), which is like NASA in Europe, and attended a seminar and met some people who work in engineering and outreach.  They all have cool jobs of course.  The lunch was great too - they have a much better canteen - and much less expensive.  They also had a lot more 'hot' menu items.  (Dutch typically only eat one hot meal a day so it was a treat!)  Then of course we had coffee!  After we toured around a bit and then attended the talk.  It was about exoplanets.  I can elaborate more later.

For the evening, we headed to Amsterdam with Marissa, Karen and other students that have been great and letting us join in on outings.  It was a dance party and was a ton of fun.


Just some of us in Amsterdam!

On the train ride to Amsterdam, Karen had made a chocolate cake and it was sooooo delicious.  I asked her if I could get the recipe and she just whipped it out of her purse!  Too funny but awesome - then I looked at the recipe and everything wasn't in cups... it was in mL... Oh metric.  I'll just be doing some converting before cooking!

Saturday Maya and I went to the market to get stroops and took them to one of the many cafés to enjoy them with a cappuccino. 



Then we did some shopping - got some really good deals and sales - then had Greek food for lunch/dinner - just couldn't resist - and then headed home.  In the evening we went to the Museum Night in Leiden.  There were 8 participating museums in Leiden and from 8pm-1am you could tour all of them.  Each museum had different events, activities and food.  We started at the Hortus Botanicus (the botanical gardens which has an Amorphophallus titanum by the way) and they had classical music playing, tango lessons and a jazz band.  At another we did weaving arts and crafts and the Egyptian museum had a really cool light show.  To get from one to the other we biked but also rode on the canal ferry which was super pretty being at night.

  
Thank you to Maya too for having her camera because mine died of batteries!

   
Fun at the museums!
 
On Sunday, today (though now after midnight for me) Maya, Carla (another student at the University) and I went to Park Pop which is a free concert event in a park in the Hague, a city about a 15 minute train ride away from Leiden.  Jamie Cullum was performing as one of the highlighted guests.  It was a beautiful day here weather-wise too (and supposed to be getting warmer!).  It was a lot of fun too and there was a ton of people - one of the bands had said over 80,000!

We also gave in and got fries because like at all of these sorts of venues, there is no lack of 'fair' type food.  The funny thing is though, in the Netherlands, you can get mayo or peanut sauce.  I am not a fan of either and just like my ketchup!  They put the peanut sauce with everything - like people from the Midwest, especially Minnesota, do with ranch...

 
Me, Maya and Carla at ParkPop

 This weekend was fantastic but now am very tired so I can fill you in on more later! :)