Train ride today: Amsterdam - Delft

As usual, every Thursday I commute to Delft, and so I did this morning. The crisp warm and sunny spring time weather was here, indeed, but only in the first couple of days. Recently, it's more rainy and windy - cold and wet. Not my favorite kind of weather.

After saying bye to Dhanu in his classroom, I hurried to the tram stop - always in doubt which one comes first, number 4 or 25 (both go to Amsterdam CS), as their stops are parted by a big intersection. I could see number 4 approaching but I would still have to cross the street twice.. better cross to where number 25 stop is, so I did. Never, (my principle is) never ever run for any public transport. Arriving at the station, put my ticket in the dating machine, bought spinach-ham and choco-nuts pastries, went up to platform 1, bought a small cup of cappucino from a Kiosk nearest to the train (a guy from Bandung attends this one), then occupied my usual seat in the train (last coach, last bench - it's the nearest to the Delft Station's exit).

I finished my breakfast well before the train departed (09:10) and started to read a book ("The Second Penguin Book of English Short Stories") but I was so sleepy. First stop, Amsterdam Sloterdijk. Then Haarlem. Here, I always look out for people I know who might get on the train.. it would be fun to meet them coincidentally in the train. But it never happens. Oh well. Then it's Heemstede-Aardenhout (Heemstede and Aardenhout are neighboring two small towns, so they share one train station) and Leiden Centraal where a big bulk of people (mostly students) went in and out the train. Oh - approaching and leaving Leiden Centraal is always refreshing nowadays, because when you look out of the window, you can see beds of flowers coloring the landscape. Here a block of blood red, there stripes of purple - white - yellow, accross a bed of blue.. So pretty! Even for me, who usually don't care much for flowers. Last stop before my destination is Den Haag HS, more students going in before the next stop: Delft.

When I got off the train, walking towards the bycicle shed, I saw some TU Delft students at the pick-up spot, two were wearing lime-green outdoor vest and one dressed up as a cheerleader(?) and the rest appeared rather official. They brought boards saying "TU Delft". I wonder what was going on. I took my bike and started peddaling to school.. wet and windy, still.. Approaching the Aula, I could see banners and balloons and could hear loud music being turned on from inside the Aula. This must be an Open Day, then. Each faculty is greeting their guests as cheerful as possible. Passing by the Maritime Faculty I had to slow down a bit to let a 'boat-cycle' drove back into its parking space. This 'boat-cylce' is a 'bike' that seats 8 people of whom two have to paddle; it's covered with boards that are cut and painted to look like a boat. Ha ha. I paddled on and heard a "Hi!" from a rider going the opposite way. I couldn't recognize him at first (because of the flap-hat he wore), but then I found out that it's Dian! The long-lost boy! Well, actually the ones that are 'long-lost' are my address and numbers at Dian's mobile phone. Therefore he couldn't get in touch with me at all. So, after having a nice chat with Dian (now don't lose my contact address again, you hear?!) I went on.. crossing the intersection at the side of the gas stop, turning right to park my bike at the usual place. Which is a bit unusual today because of the blue carpet that leads visitors to the entrance of the Civil Engineering building.

Now I'll try to go back to work again, still sneezing and coughing like everybody else. Oh, a bit of news on the side: Andrea gave me a cheesecake mix from Germany (yaay!) and I gave the "Stupid White Men" book to Rinus and I haven't asked Alex again about my overdue Christmas gift (I really want that "McSweeney's Quarterly Concern nr. 13"!)

Good day!