PRE-DEPARTURE & ARRIVAL:
Gert Vlok Nel sings: “Ek het gesien hoe Nijmegen deur my trane lyk / Goud bly die oggend soos God se guns / die dag pragtig soos ‘n voeltjie in jou handjie.” He sings about the Waal River which flows past Nijmegen (“blou bote op die blou rivier, ek skryf ‘ek het jou lief’ met wit woorde op wit paper”) with a melancholy I certainly felt during my first few weeks here. I’ll be honest: it was hard greeting everyone in South Africa. I know 6 months isn’t a long time, I knew then that I will be okay, but I still cried until I dried up like a raisin. I still cry regularly (it makes you feel better and relieves tension, okay). If you are at all like me, I suggest your first investment for Nijmegen is a box of tissues. But, as GVN sings, Nijmegen is beautiful. The weather is unpredictable – more so than the weather in Cape Town – but whether it’s raining or the sun is shining, it looks like a fairy-tale place. Everything is tiny here. You know how they say Dutch people are so tall? I wonder if that is not an illusion caused by the teeny-tiny-ness of everything around them. It’s not that the buildings are smaller, but they are all built with bricks that can’t be described with any other word than ‘adorable’. Beers generally come in 200ml glasses (for about 2€), so you feel like a fairy drinking them (prepare yourself!). Coffee comes in small cups. Everyone drives small cars. Etcetera.