First Weekend in Eindhoven

Friday afternoon there was a farewell function at the campus restaurant for three people that are leaving the Department of Industrial Design at TU Eindhoven. We arrived at 16h00 and I enjoyed getting to know my project team mate, supervisor and head of the department a little bit better - the beers were for the department's account, so we stayed until 21h00 :P The evening I walked around Stratumseind a bit and discovered an alternative rock bar where there was a live band playing, awesome.

The next morning I went to the Woenselse Markt, a Saturday street market very close to where I'm staying. There they sell absolutely everything - from fresh fish to computer equipment, from fruit and veggies to underwear, from meat to bicycle parts. I bought a 15m network cable to connect my laptop to the unlimited access fibre Internet access point in my room, yay! :)

After the market I travelled by bus to IKEA - the house & home shopping wonderland. I was very impressed by the place - as you walk in you grab a measuring tape, notepad and pencil and walk through the showroom. In the showroom they have different designs available, with mock-up kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms and living areas. If you like something, you write down its name, number, color and ordering code. The floor below is a self-service warehouse, where you pick up what you have written down and then pay for it. Just before you get to the exit, there is a fast food kiosk selling hot dogs and cool drink for €1 (probably the cheapest in the Netherlands)! After you've ordered, you get a cup to take to the soda fountain where it's drink-as-much-as-you-want. They really thought of everything - there are rope dispensers to make it easier to bind down your boot if your stuff won't fit inside your car.

This morning I attended a church service at 09h30- the church is only about 1.6km away, so it's still within comfortable walking distance. My grandma and aunt & uncle came to visit me this afternoon and brought with a care package from my parents! :) TU Eindhoven covers a certain amount of moving expenses, which allowed me to send a 23kg package with DHL. Some of the contents of the package:
Milo, chutney, biltong, nuts, homemade rusks, Creme Soda (!!! :), clothes and new towels. I also bought a new fridge and microwave / convection oven combo, as my uncle's car made it a little bit easier to get the stuff from the shop to my flat.