weekend warrioring in Europe

Overwhelmed is an understatement. It was a dream come true indeed.

I am still here in Wageningen Netherlands. I will write more about my trip to Paris and Milan in future post. I just want to share that it was a fantastic weekend.

Cheese

One of the things that get better with age. I love cheese. I was so excited to see them at the open market last Saturday here at Wageningen, Netherlands.

Some things do get better after allowing the process to take place. Letting things age. Learning, contemplating and ponder. I also discovered that indeed this is my learning style. I need space and time to reflect.

journey

The past two months of the year was one of the many turning points in my journey. Events went by too fast that I can hardly reflect on what has taken shape. The other day when we were assigned to be the critical thinking group doing reflection in a sense propelled me to ponder on my own realizations as well.

"An unexamined life is not worth living" as Socrates and many others before me have valued the exercise of learning from lifes lessons. Traveling and being away from family and routine has in a way made my spirit restless but I believe this is meant to be in a good way. An awareness that seeks to be acknowledged.

Everyday we evolve into a new person albeit in the outside everything seems to be the same. Being away from the people closest to your heart is a challenge. The beauty in this is that one is reminded that they are your treasures in life.

Thank you for all the blessings indeed.

love love love love!

missing Isay and tatay Amats...

Unity in Diversity

This is the class getting ready for the group picture. Actually there are 3 groups of 22 people each doing simultaneous PPME. I only remember my group's name Pomona the others I cannot hard spell or even pronounce. Almost all of the developing countries are there but more than half of the class are from Africa.

The Philippine Delegation

There are only four of us from the Philippines. There are only 3 women representing the 3 sectors. The three women are from the government, NGO and the private sector. The lone male is a representative of Mindanao also from an NGO.

Batsheba in green terno, Ian in barong and Laarni in modernized barong. I love the Ifugao traditional tribal dress. Thank you Maye!

the old and the new

a traditional house. the photo was taken during dusk that is why it was a bit dark but I still like this picture
These are cafes I think because I saw some people dining inside there. Initially I thought is was something like a modern gallery or something. There are a mix of the old and the new in this university town.

There are students cycling up and down to get to their classes very similar to the set up of UPLB. This last photo is the main shopping area which is about 2 blocks away from where we are staying.

Guided Tour

Gon Van Laar is our guide-- you cant miss her she is the one in red

bicycle in the Netherlands

It is the most interesting site. I've never seen so many bikes parked outside a train station. Around town, you can see the diversity of bikes. The most interesting ones are the ones with provision for the babies and kids. Hopefully I can catch those in the coming weeks.

Also saw the smallest car ever.

Hof van Wageningen

This is where we are having our fellowship training on Participatory Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.

This is the very first time that I was able to see a "moat" as in a really moat like the ones you have in the fairytale castles. Amazing! I can see that moat everytime I look out my window from my very small room (I am guessing because we need to conserve the heat--save energy). It was 7 degrees the other day when I went out for a quick walk to the store to buy a adaptor plug.

The town is like a fortress or a walled city like Intramuros in Manila. The walls have come down but the beautiful moats are still here.

Wageningen pronounced as with matching wahhk of the throat. It is a University town here in NL. It reminded me of my days in UPLB.

10degrees

This is the view from the 7th floor here at Hof van Wageningen hotel where we are having our training on Participatory Planning Monitoring and Evaluation.

It is cold outside about ~10degrees celcius. I watched BBC weather ang it is snowing in the UK about 5cm of snow expected. But there is no snow here. We are warm here inside. But it is cold outside. We have a walking schedule late today at 5pm. Grrrrr

Ok time for tea

Breakfast Day 2

I ate a huge breakfast of scrambled eggs and lots of kiwi!

more later

Amsterdam Train System

We arrived at around 7 pm at the Schipol Aiport in Amsterdam. I am with Batshe from Dept of Agri,, Laarni from a consultancy firm then Ian from MinCode in Mindanao.

We got out train tickets direct to Wageningen for 8 pm just in time. The photo above is at platform 3 ( not 3/4 like Harry) I was half expecting to run trhough walls but nahh.

Good thing it was a direct trip we were still going to catch bus 88 at Ede-Wageningen.

The Netherlands

I am here at Wagenngen Netherlands. Arrived here yesterday evening after a 14 hour direct flight to Amsterdam. Then an hour train ride via Utrech to Ede Wageningen worth 14.50 euros and then bus to here for 2.40 euros.

There are 4 Pinoys here attending this 3 week fellowship. Mostly African, other countries include Brazil, Nepal, India, etc. will tell you all more about it later.

Yehey!!! finally in Europe for free!!! :)

Many many things happened this past two months that I was not able to share to all of you. Many great beginings!

I will try to give daily updates here.

I am back to blogging!