Sunday, February 26, 2012

New World Travels to the Old World

I know that it has been awhile since last writing. I have traveled to Chicago, Boise (3 times) and Washington, D.C. along with getting things done. Oh, Christmas and New Years was in there as well.

Right now I am on another adventure in my Fellowship life. I and the other 2011 Eisenhower Ag Fellow (Rhett Proctor) were invited to attend the Nuffield Scholars Contemporary Scholars Conference in Holland and the UK.

I left home Friday morning from Lewiston (5:30am flight) via Salt Lake, Detroit, and then Amsterdam, Netherlands (Holland). I arrived at 6am (9 pm home) and sailed through customs. I was also lucky enough to have my suitcase be one of the first 10 onto the carousel.

Schipol airport is home to the largest Burger King in the world. I also knew I was in Holland when I saw a large bronze sculpture of a clog. From he airport I took the train to Rotterdam and a cab to the hotel. I checked in, unpacked some, Skyped home, and tried to sleep. It felt good to get horizontal for a little. I was just getting to sleep when my roomate from Tasmania walked in.

We chatted for awhile and got to know each other a little. We both changed to get ready for our tour of Holland with the other Scholars from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, and Holland. We hopped on the bus and headed to the aiport to pick up the ones that were coming in at noon.

After picking them up we toured through Holland and stopped at a little fishing/tourist village for some pickled herring. I was able to take some good picts and see a shop where you stick your feet into a tank and have fish "kiss" them.

From there we went to a 150 head dairy. It also produces energy with large windmills and biofuel from dairy waste. A housed generator produced the energy for the dairy. They also had a settling pond and extracted the water from the solids, which were dropped into a pile for future use as compost.

That night we had a dinner with all sitting at tables. It was informal, but a good chance to get to know each other. I left there around 9:30 (been up 33 hours with just a 1/2 hour of nap in that time) and went to bed.

With our schedule I don't know when I can write again and have to cut this short to head for lunch and today's functions. Take care and keep it in the fence rows!

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