{"id":1043,"date":"2017-08-18T11:21:13","date_gmt":"2017-08-18T09:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/?p=1043"},"modified":"2023-11-06T17:09:18","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T16:09:18","slug":"the-land-of-cycles-and-oranges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/2017\/08\/18\/the-land-of-cycles-and-oranges\/","title":{"rendered":"The land of cycles and oranges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pale skies and chilly nights
\nLittle nuggets of clear blue sky
\nThe world on this side is funny enough,
\nAs time seems to be passing by<\/p>\n

The roads run in wrong direction
\nBut men seem to be on the right
\nWith cheerful souls and happy thoughts
\nThey seem to be a warm sight<\/p>\n

The speeches are long and the clothes short
\nThe boots click on the gravel stones
\nThe market closes in the evenings
\nAnd everyone owns an iPhone<\/p>\n

The work is timed perfectly
\nPlanned to the last second it seems
\nThe old men ride cycles to home
\nAnd old women workout in gyms<\/p>\n

The kids play on meadows so green
\nAnd cows graze in open fields
\nThe milk comes in cartons of paper
\nAnd electricity comes from windmills<\/p>\n

The chocolates are bitter in flavor
\nBut butter and bread seem sweet
\nThe whisky is mixed with honey dew
\nWhich one must always drink neat<\/p>\n

The curtains are drawn in the morning
\nAnd windows are opened at night
\nThe dawn creeps upon the clouds
\nAnd sun always runs from a losing fight<\/p>\n

The college has a revolving door
\nThat keeps the crowd in check at times
\nAnd the whole village will call it a day
\nWhen the church bells do their usual chimes<\/p>\n

The food is a bit bland but made from heart
\nThe desserts are as beautiful as they may be
\nThe coffee is ambrosial in its flavor
\nBut there is no milk in their tea<\/p>\n

Lights will always be yellow
\nEven those who are named as warm white
\nThe beer is cheaper than water here
\nAnd frozen veggies is a sorry sight<\/p>\n

Their language is a beautiful blend of many
\nMixed into a bowl of salad
\nWith side dressings of occasional English
\nThe house music replaces the old ballad<\/p>\n

Houses are made of wood and brick
\nWith occasional molds of tin and sticks
\nRome was not built in a day maybe
\nBut these will be done efficiently in a few weeks<\/p>\n

The ponds are palettes of blue and green
\nTaking shades from van Gogh\u2019s portraits
\nOr paintings of Rembrandt and van Heer
\nOr structures of Victorian floodgates<\/p>\n

The canals run deeper than veins
\nAnd the dykes stand higher than air
\nFlatlands canvassing the meadowlands
\nNo sign of snake or a vermin snare<\/p>\n

The trains are punctual than death itself
\nThe buses run from all directions
\nThe trams have weak but joyful bells
\nThe states are cut in square sections<\/p>\n

The oaks and birch stand long and tall
\nAnd so do the pine and its lot
\nThe apples glisten in morning dew
\nAnd the honeybee looks much like a moth<\/p>\n

\"Dutch<\/a><\/p>\n

The spiders are imports of far away land
\nAnd so are the sheep and the goats
\nThe villages that were once destroyed in wars
\nNow stand proud and strong behind the\u00a0moats<\/p>\n

The rocky riverbed is covered in grass
\nMasking all the hard rules of nature
\nThis is a free country my dear
\nA handsome king sits at the top of legislature<\/p>\n

Love it, like it, hate it, leave it
\nIt is a unique, quaint, small piece of land
\nThis is the land of cycles and oranges
\nThis is what they call, Netherlands!<\/p>\n

–Pranav<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Pale skies and chilly nights Little nuggets of clear blue sky The world on this side is funny enough, As time seems to be passing by The roads run in wrong direction But men seem to be on the right With cheerful souls and happy thoughts They seem to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":5431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-life"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe land of cycles and oranges - International Students Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/2017\/08\/18\/the-land-of-cycles-and-oranges\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The land of cycles and oranges - 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I completed my bachelor\u2019s education in Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry from Maharashtra, India. I love to read a lot and at times, love to write about my own experiences. Hence, I am trying my hand at this blogging platform. The university as well as the town give me many such experiences and incidents that are food for thought. I like to write about culture, food, stories and life abroad. Hope you enjoy reading my blog!! Cheers!!!\"","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vetps","https:\/\/nl.linkedin.com\/in\/pranav-kulkarni-a076b198\ue010"],"url":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/author\/kulka002\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5879,"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions\/5879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weblog.wur.eu\/international-students\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}