Last night, I hung out with the hall residents as they held a small party. The people I socialized with included (but were not limited to) Rudolph, Reuben, David, and Klaas. Reuben was displeased to hear that he shares his name with a famous American corned beef sandwich. Interestingly, I watched an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm on the plane over about this exact situation (Larry David gets a sandwich named after him but can’t stop complaining that it’s a whitefish sandwich).

At the party, I observed a couple Dutch drinking games:

The first was a card game. The rules are kind of long so feel free to skim this.

“The Bus” (Actual title unknown):

• One player is the dealer.
• All players must make guesses about cards drawn for the dealer’s hand, with incorrect guesses penalized by sips of beer. The first guess is whether the card drawn will be red or black. From this, everyone (including the dealer) gets a card.
• Then, everyone guesses whether the next card drawn is higher or lower than the one card already in their hand.
• Then, whether the next card will lie in between the two cards in their hand. (Ace is the highest card.)
• Then, whether the next card drawn will be a suit they already have.

• At this point, the dealer lays out cards face-down in a pyramid shape. As the cards are turned over, players stack any cards in their hand that match and can then assign sips to another player.
• The card at the top of the pyramid allows players to assign a full drink.

• At the end of this process, the player with the most cards remaining in her hand is “on the bus” and must go through a gauntlet. She is dealt a sequence of six cards — three face-up, three face-down. To get “off” the bus, she must correctly guess “higher or lower” on all 6 in a row. Any incorrect guess means she must take sips and start over from card #1. The dealer may look at the deck and screw with the bus rider by saying things like “Ohhh, are you sure?” or “Choose whether to pick from the top or the bottom.”

“Stress Pong”:

• Setup involves placing ~30 plastic Solo cups in the center of the table. All Solo cups are filled 1/3 full with beer, save for two. Two ping-pong balls are also needed.
• The goal is to bounce the ping-pong ball off the table and into the Solo cup, then pass the ball + cup to the player on your left. Two players on opposite sides of the table will begin.
• If a player sinks his ball, and the person on his left is still trying to bounce a ball in, Player 1 stacks his cup onto Player 2’s. Player 2 passes the stacked cup to the left. He must drink from one of the cups in the center of the table and use that to restart trying to sink the ball.
• If a player accidentally bounces his ball into a cup full of beer, she must drink the beer. (Gross.)
• If a player sinks the ball on the first try, he can pass the cup to any other player at the table.
• Game continues until all cups are used.

This morning, I went to a museum called Het Depot and the neighboring Arboretum. The Arboretum is a sort of botanical / sculpture garden, while the Het Depot is a museum (and foundation to sponsor sculptors) full of sculptures inspired by the human body. Unfortunately, like in most of Wageningen, all of the signs are in Dutch with no English translation. However, I still enjoyed the art. Some of it was beautiful, and a lot of it was unsettling.

I don’t know if it’s a Dutch thing or a Het Depot thing, but the Waga locals weren’t shy about touching the sculptures. I first saw a man rapping on a metal statue with his knuckle and thought he was an anomaly, but in fact, I kept seeing both children and adults go up and feel the art.

For the rest of the day, I decided to borrow Audrey’s bike again and take a scenic cycling route. I overestimated my energy and wanted to quit 15 minutes in (I was sore from biking yesterday) but I persevered for a couple hours. I didn’t complete anywhere near the full trip, but I did get to experience cycling from one small town to another.

I passed horses, sheep, and farms. At one point an older man casually licking a large ice cream cone while steering a bike with his other hand zipped by. It felt slightly dicey, as I can’t understand most of the street signs or warnings, and hadn’t learned the etiquette of the road, but fortunately I survived. I think I’m done cycling for now though (I’m going to be even more sore tomorrow).