Welcome to Utrecht

I love my city, Utrecht. It is around 300,000 people. You can find all shops you need here, and at the same time, the city seems provincial (in a good way.) The only thing difficult to find in Utrecht is bubble wrap… There are brick streets. A series of canals run parallel to the road. My city boasts flower sellers, boutiques, bookstores, cafes. A haberdashery. The old shares space with the new: one sees modern stores like Apple and McDonalds beside buildings like my favorite tea shop, which is built below ground in an ancient stone cellar lit by lamps. Your tea is served in non-matching antique porcelain tea cups and your carrot cake is served on elegantly-painted saucers. Nestled in the heart of the city are some academic buildings. They mostly house the law faculty, and some of the humanities masters programs, like mine, “cultural history.” There are a few caveats. For example, everything closes at 5 or 6. This reflects the Dutch norm of working less hours than Americans. All in all, however, it is a charming place to live. I am a bit removed from the city. Most of my classmates live a stone’s throw from our classes. I bike twenty-five minutes one way to class. Everything is relative, however, and by this point in the year, the bike ride feels like nothing(even though my gear is currently locked on the highest setting…)I took these photographs yesterday, early afternoon. Though my fingers were cold enough to be wearing mittens, the sun radiated.