There was more than a little serendipity in getting together - we were back from Italy, I had an off-week from teaching (basically, no classes), it is the week before Amina arrives, and Werner, well, he's retired and has time. Groningen is only two hours away. You can't pass up chances like this to meet up with old friends.
We had hoped to not only meet up with Sharon - which was enough! - but visit the wonderful Groningen Markt. We've been there time and again - a sprawling lively market with more fish than I know the names of, spices of every color of the rainbow, beans three yards long, and so much more. Unfortunately, we were there on an off-day for the market (see France, 2010) but there was plenty catching up to do, so we hardly noticed. Really, the market would have been a distraction.
Do notice that Werner and Sharon are color-coordinated. Cute!
Sharon is clearly SO MUCH YOUNGER (:-)))) than Werner, but she was in charge of the language/grad assistants when Werner was at UF and so they got to know each other pretty well. She let slip that Werner is still the best-dressed language assistant she's ever had. Are we surprised? Not! For confirmation, check out that hat.
We caught up on all the awful economic cut-backs at the all the universities in Florida, the lack of general support for foreign language training, the wonderful research she's doing now, and the great, fun folks we knew in common at UF. That, and amusing encounters in Europe.
We walked around Groningen. We lucked onto a charming old pilgrim hostel that has been turned into apartments with an interior garden that makes it private and quiet and calm.
And then we found another garden, a former royal summer residence that is filled with aromatic roses, luscious begonias and wonderfully trimmed hedges and arbors. There was an arbor the royal ladies enjoyed to be outside but still out of the sun so their creamy skin wouldn't be tinted - information we got thanks to the gardener who was happy to share lots of history of the place where he was simply hoeing weeds from the paths.
Sharon was travelling with Olga, a native of Russia. One of the things I love about living here is learning about other cultures and other ways of living. It was a real eye-opener taking to Olga and hearing about her family who live outside Moscow. Olga doesn't want to move back, but her descriptions of it made me want to visit her home!
You can't really see it from this low angle, but the boxwood were planted to represent crowns and the monograms of the royals (here an "A")
And the University. Campuses here aren't as cloistered as in the US, but you can't say they don't have the same impression of tradition.
No comments:
Post a Comment