Kaas Maken

Yesterday I went on a day trip with my program all throughout the south of Holland (everyone is always confused about what to call the Netherlands/Holland so here it is. The Netherlands is the country, Nederlands/Dutch is the language, the people are all Dutch, Holland is a province in the Netherlands where Amsterdam is).

We began by getting on a big coach bus and starting going south, the Dutch countryside is so beautiful. There are cows EVERYWHERE! I was so excited. I took so many of pictures of cows on the drive that I ran out of camera battery for the rest of the day, but I was so excited, cows are so great.

We went to a traditional family-run Dutch cheese farm. It was sooooooooooooooo smelly, but so delicious. There were also cows everywhere here, including a baby calf just over a week old. We learned how they make the traditional cheese from Holland (which they are famous for) they basically take really hot milk and add some stuff and then wait for it to curdle and then cut it. We tried some cheese in the middle stages of being made out of this giant vat of milk and fat and slimy cheese before it is actually cheesy, it didn't taste like anything. But they had free samples of ACTUAL cheese everywhere and they were so delicious, I feel like Holland has made me discover cheese for the VERY first time. There was also a small Dutch girl named Deborah (who was probably two) running around the farm during the whole tour yelling "Kaas Maken, Kaas Maken"which means cheese making.

After the cheese farm we went to Delft, which is a small town in the south where Willem van Oranje is buried (the hero of the Dutch). It was so great, before we went into the actual town we took a tour of the porcelin factory where all of the blue china is handpainted. That was also really cool, but we didn't get endless free samples of cheese. Nothing may ever compare to that cheese farm.

Delft was an incredible little town, we went on a tour on these bike/scooter things that we see tourists on all over Amsterdam (and we always make fun of them, because they look ridiculous). But I have newfound respect for the groups of 60 year old tourists I see on these scooter things, they are really difficult to maneuver. I love Delft, I think it may be my favorite place (aside from Amsterdam) that I have been in the Netherlands (although I haven't been to many places).

As I write this I should be reading about women in the domestic workforce for my gender, migration and development class. I should probably take care of that.

Fun Dutch Fact of the Day - Carrots are originally a purply color but in the 16th century the Dutch chemically changed the color to orange to have more national pride (the national color is orange because of Willem van Oranje, which means William of Orange) therefore we have orange carrots.