With only one month left... Actually, with less than a month left, I have been doing some reflecting about my time here. Lately, I've been spending copious amounts of time in my room or the library writing and writing and writing. Now that one of my classes is done (with the final paper turned in), I only have two more finals and two more 12-14 page papers to write- yippee. I'm not actually worried about either of my finals and one of my papers- a group paper- but the stress of getting through them while the weather is nice and all I want to do is finish exploring this glorious city because it was much harder with torrential downpours and tornado windstorms. Thursday is my friend Caroline's birthday and one of our R.A.'s rents out his boat- I think I'm going to rent it (a small dingy) to take us around for about half an hour. I'll see how much it costs and if the weather is supposed to be nice. Besides trying to get to all the places I haven't yet, I've been thinking about how my time here has changed me. I've definitely had some really great times and some really really bad times but, without this time I would never have come to realize how much I really value the relationship I have with my friends and the relationship i have with my country. I love the U.S., I love the excitement of having a new president who I am proud of, the way people treat each other, the community I have created. I'm very excited to get back to L.A. and while I do love Amsterdam, I don't think I'd ever choose to live here permanently- unless I had a really great job opportunity. I think part of that is because I haven't really felt like I have actually lived here. I'm halfway between a tourist and a resident, I don't really get caught in tourist traps, I know cheap and good places to eat but, I haven't found a community besides the in transit international college students. I don't know any Dutch people and they haven't really reached out, or I haven't exactly found any points of entry into that life.
That's part of the whole global citizen thing that I don't quite understand. Sure, I have dual citizenship, my family travels a lot, I've been living in Amsterdam for four months but, none of it feels like home. Don't get me wrong, I am EXTREMELY grateful for all of the experiences I have had abroad and I do not at all resent any of that but, at the same time there is nothing like Paso Robles, there is nothing like Eagle Rock because those are the places where the people I love live and there is nothing better than the people I love.
On another note, I watched Rachel getting married (movie with Anne Hathaway) and I think it was one of the most beautiful movie I have seen in a long time. Anne Hathaway's character gets out of rehab and comes home to the preparations for her sister's, Rachel, wedding. She is very self absorbed, and there is this very sordid past sub-plot but, basically the whole movie is about love and family. A long section of the movie is set at the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner where everyone is telling stories about the married couple to be, and there is so much beautiful music, and so many powerful words. I was almost crying the entire movie because it was so beautiful. I want to spread all that love that this movie made me feel. gentle and strong love. I love you guys, and I miss you and I can't wait to see everyone. Spread the love!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Dublin
Slightly out of order, but I figure you might enjoy reading about my travels here in Europe. For Easter, Sara, Justin and I flew to Dublin (for 60 euros each). Dublin for Easter? I know what you are saying- closed down, quiet, etc, but actually it was one of the most amazing places I have been. We arrived on a Saturday morning, bright and early, and took the public bus from the airport to our hostel. The entire ride we were barraged by U2- how Irish, right? Day 1-Our first stop was to Trinity college where we tagged along with a (not free) tour and where we (payed to) see the book of Kells an immaculately preserved illuminated manuscript. Then off to the Guinness storehouse: seven floors of Guinness history with a 360 degree view of the city on the top floor and a complimentary Guinness. It was a b-e-a-utiful day and the view from the top was spectacular, but we never quite figured out the 5th ingredient of Guinness; is it family? tradition? who knows. Then we took another double Decker bus blasting U2 to St. Stephen's green where we tried to have a picnic, but the sun was setting so the guards kicked us out. We moved our picnic to the River Liffey; shimmering and green in polluted glory and made our way back to the hostel for an early night. We walked from St. Stephen's to our hostel by way of Grafton street (where all of the street musician scenes of Once, one of my favorite (but nobody else in my Family's favorite) movies) Day 2- Easter. We were a little worried that NOTHING would be going on, but a free tour was leaving from our hostel. There were three great things about the tour: an amazingly energetic tour guide who I actually think I want to marry, running into Christian (my Dutch friend who studied at Oxy last summer), and learning about Dublin. It was a four hour long tour, it was free but extremely tiring. Once our tour guide left us we stopped by one of the micro-breweries in town for an independently brewed beer and a giant plate of fish and chips. Day 3: Howth (can you say it?) We took the train to the quaint seaside suburb of Howth. Besides all of the Italians (who are either EVERYWHERE in Europe or just the loudest) we saw Howth castle (which is still privately owned), a rhododendron garden, an ancient grave-site, an old bunker, Hills (which don't exist in the Netherlands), and some lighthouses. It was a little rainier than we had hoped, but it was still a fantastic day! We left the next morning at 4 so we could get back for class. I strongly advise everyone and anyone to go to Ireland. I can't wait to go back and explore everything!
Queens Day/Birthday/Sunday with Alice
So, this last week has definitely been a crazy one.
April 24-26: CIEE took most of us (Americans studying in Amsterdam) to Schiermonnikoog- the smallest Island in the Netherlands which is mainly a natural reserve. They took us mudflat walking at 5 am (we all got very dirty), tours of the island, and we got to stay in a farm-turned-hostel next to a field of baby lambs. It was a weekend of summer camp-milk drinking, game playing, etc. We all soaked up a bit of sun at the beach (though I couldn't force myself to jump into the north sea) because the weather was absolutely gorgeous with highs of nearly 70 and not a cloud in the sky. It reminded me a lot of the San Juan Islands, but much flatter (in common dutch fashion).
April 28: Back in Amsterdam only one night, I hopped on the next train to Leiden to visit my dutch friend, Christian, who I met during the summer at Occidental and who I randomly ran into in Dublin a few weekends before. He picked me up at the train station and toured me around Leiden on the back of his bike. For dinner, his housing associated (Kind of like a fraternity) made us pancakes and then he took me out to see the Tuesday night crowd of Leiden- not too lively, to say the least.
April 29: I woke up the next morning (my birthday) and walked to the house of the Grandmother of my friend Caroline. She is Dutch, and came with me on the train to Leiden because her grandmother also lives there. The walk over was surprising- almost every garden had a lilac bush in full bloom. Lilacs are my birthday flower (the flowers my dad brought my mom when I was born) so I picked one and put it in my hair. Once at Caroline's, we took her g-ma's dogs out for a walk through the forest across the street. Her house was so relaxing- tea, sandwiches, comfy couches. During our lunch, she received a phone call, she picked up the phone, but didn't hold it up to her ear... She said she gets phone calls from a restricted number at least 5 times a day and she thinks they come from the boys who live next door, BUT she's been receiving them for the last 5 years!!!! She notes the exact time of each call so that she can contact the phone company so she can find out who it really is. I told her I'd write a story about it because I thought it was funny, but I think she (and Caroline) were pretty scared and creeped out by the whole situation-oops. We took the train home and began to prepare for Koningsnacht (kings night)- the biggest party in the world.
On a side note, we had dinner at the most refreshingly authentic Mexican restaurant called the Taco shop. It's in the Southern part of the city and run by an American guy. They have surprisingly spicy salsa (upon demand) and some pretty delicious chili verde...
After burritos, we headed over to our friend's apartment on the Prinsengracht where one of the many street parties was also happening. Hundreds of people were out in the street dancing to techno blasting from the dj's tent. We all squeezed through the crowd (holding hands so we wouldn't lose each other) and into my friend's apartment. Just then, I got a phone call from my friend Alice (from Oxy who is studying in Berlin) saying that the car she was traveling in would be at central station in no time. I grabbed Caroline and we rushed to the station to find her. Central Station was definitely a funny place to be- everyone coming to Amsterdam for Queensday (the next day when over 1,000,000 people come to Amsterdam doubling the population). I got called a hippie chic because I was wearing an orange headband (only acceptable for queens week) and then I saw ALICE! I was so happy to see her and so happy to have a visitor. We biked through the throngs of people making their way to the parties back to my apartment and had a pretty easy night. I had a great birthday, but it was definitely swallowed up by the nation-wide queens day celebration.
April 30, 2009- QUEENSDAY. Millions of people adorned in too much orange, rows and rows of yard sale (it's the only day that Amsterdammers can legally sell things on the street), delicious food, sitting back on the prinsengracht with an ice cold biertje. We (Alice, Caroline, Justin, Sara, and I) got a relatively late start (10 am) to our day, but made our way quickly to the prinsengracht where out friends were bbq-ing and from where we could see all the party boats cruising along the canals. We sat there for most of the day until we made the long trek to museumplein where some famous dj's were spinning (but where we couldn't see or hear them and ended up swimming in a mountain of broken glass and sweaty/drunken orange crowd. from there we walked across the ENTIRE city, back to my apartment where I made some delicious dinner with Alice and my neighbor Sean.
May 1- Recovery. Alice and I woke up sore and extremely tired from all of our walking the day before. We walked with Caroline through the Nieuwemarkt and to the Friday Boekenmarkt at Spui (the book market) where I bought Greene's the quiet American. We spent the entire afternoon in the public Library doing work (I have three giant papers looming). Quiet dinner at home+ surprise apple turnovers and cinnamon ice cream (late birthday celebration) with Sara and Justin+ leftover Heineken and cards.
May 2: TULIPS. I promised Alice I would take her to see the tulips when she was here. So we devised a plan to bike about 50 km to find some tulips for free. Unfortunately, we got incredibly lost and ended up spending the afternoon in the vondelpark and the Van Gogh museum. Later we made unintentionally extremely spice stir-fry with sara, justin, and alex and went on a tour of the red-light district (still the most depressing place I have been).
May 3: TULIPS (for real). Alice and I devised another foolproof plan to see the tulips. We biked to the Amsterdam Sloterdijk station (20 min) to find out that it would cost 6 euros each way to take our bikes on the train to Haarlem. We opted out of taking our bikes and decided that we would take the bus from Haarlem to the Keukenhof (an extremely touristy way to see the tulips). After about an hour of travel we arrived to the keukenhof, the fields behind it (normally full of tulips) were completely empty. There wasn't a tulip in sight. We walked to the entrance anyway and debated whether to pay the 13 euro entrance. We even asked a troupe of elderly Germans if it was worth it- YES YES YES they said. We paid our entrance fee and entered into a botanical Disneyland. There were tulips EVERYWHERE- every color, size, shape of tulip EVER. We even say tulips with fuzzy looking edges, deep purple tulips, giant white tulips. It was totally worth every euro cent and pushing through the touristy crowds. Alice had to be back in Amsterdam by 5 to catch her ride back so we left around 2:45. This is the best part- we ran to catch the bus and we made it, we ran to catch the train and we made it, be biked home in a fury with enough time for Alice to run to the store to buy a few extra tubs of spekuloos (gingerbready cookies turned into a nutella like spread- can you say DELICIOUS?) Now Alice is gone, but we have a great week full of memories. One of my greatest weeks.
April 24-26: CIEE took most of us (Americans studying in Amsterdam) to Schiermonnikoog- the smallest Island in the Netherlands which is mainly a natural reserve. They took us mudflat walking at 5 am (we all got very dirty), tours of the island, and we got to stay in a farm-turned-hostel next to a field of baby lambs. It was a weekend of summer camp-milk drinking, game playing, etc. We all soaked up a bit of sun at the beach (though I couldn't force myself to jump into the north sea) because the weather was absolutely gorgeous with highs of nearly 70 and not a cloud in the sky. It reminded me a lot of the San Juan Islands, but much flatter (in common dutch fashion).
April 28: Back in Amsterdam only one night, I hopped on the next train to Leiden to visit my dutch friend, Christian, who I met during the summer at Occidental and who I randomly ran into in Dublin a few weekends before. He picked me up at the train station and toured me around Leiden on the back of his bike. For dinner, his housing associated (Kind of like a fraternity) made us pancakes and then he took me out to see the Tuesday night crowd of Leiden- not too lively, to say the least.
April 29: I woke up the next morning (my birthday) and walked to the house of the Grandmother of my friend Caroline. She is Dutch, and came with me on the train to Leiden because her grandmother also lives there. The walk over was surprising- almost every garden had a lilac bush in full bloom. Lilacs are my birthday flower (the flowers my dad brought my mom when I was born) so I picked one and put it in my hair. Once at Caroline's, we took her g-ma's dogs out for a walk through the forest across the street. Her house was so relaxing- tea, sandwiches, comfy couches. During our lunch, she received a phone call, she picked up the phone, but didn't hold it up to her ear... She said she gets phone calls from a restricted number at least 5 times a day and she thinks they come from the boys who live next door, BUT she's been receiving them for the last 5 years!!!! She notes the exact time of each call so that she can contact the phone company so she can find out who it really is. I told her I'd write a story about it because I thought it was funny, but I think she (and Caroline) were pretty scared and creeped out by the whole situation-oops. We took the train home and began to prepare for Koningsnacht (kings night)- the biggest party in the world.
On a side note, we had dinner at the most refreshingly authentic Mexican restaurant called the Taco shop. It's in the Southern part of the city and run by an American guy. They have surprisingly spicy salsa (upon demand) and some pretty delicious chili verde...
After burritos, we headed over to our friend's apartment on the Prinsengracht where one of the many street parties was also happening. Hundreds of people were out in the street dancing to techno blasting from the dj's tent. We all squeezed through the crowd (holding hands so we wouldn't lose each other) and into my friend's apartment. Just then, I got a phone call from my friend Alice (from Oxy who is studying in Berlin) saying that the car she was traveling in would be at central station in no time. I grabbed Caroline and we rushed to the station to find her. Central Station was definitely a funny place to be- everyone coming to Amsterdam for Queensday (the next day when over 1,000,000 people come to Amsterdam doubling the population). I got called a hippie chic because I was wearing an orange headband (only acceptable for queens week) and then I saw ALICE! I was so happy to see her and so happy to have a visitor. We biked through the throngs of people making their way to the parties back to my apartment and had a pretty easy night. I had a great birthday, but it was definitely swallowed up by the nation-wide queens day celebration.
April 30, 2009- QUEENSDAY. Millions of people adorned in too much orange, rows and rows of yard sale (it's the only day that Amsterdammers can legally sell things on the street), delicious food, sitting back on the prinsengracht with an ice cold biertje. We (Alice, Caroline, Justin, Sara, and I) got a relatively late start (10 am) to our day, but made our way quickly to the prinsengracht where out friends were bbq-ing and from where we could see all the party boats cruising along the canals. We sat there for most of the day until we made the long trek to museumplein where some famous dj's were spinning (but where we couldn't see or hear them and ended up swimming in a mountain of broken glass and sweaty/drunken orange crowd. from there we walked across the ENTIRE city, back to my apartment where I made some delicious dinner with Alice and my neighbor Sean.
May 1- Recovery. Alice and I woke up sore and extremely tired from all of our walking the day before. We walked with Caroline through the Nieuwemarkt and to the Friday Boekenmarkt at Spui (the book market) where I bought Greene's the quiet American. We spent the entire afternoon in the public Library doing work (I have three giant papers looming). Quiet dinner at home+ surprise apple turnovers and cinnamon ice cream (late birthday celebration) with Sara and Justin+ leftover Heineken and cards.
May 2: TULIPS. I promised Alice I would take her to see the tulips when she was here. So we devised a plan to bike about 50 km to find some tulips for free. Unfortunately, we got incredibly lost and ended up spending the afternoon in the vondelpark and the Van Gogh museum. Later we made unintentionally extremely spice stir-fry with sara, justin, and alex and went on a tour of the red-light district (still the most depressing place I have been).
May 3: TULIPS (for real). Alice and I devised another foolproof plan to see the tulips. We biked to the Amsterdam Sloterdijk station (20 min) to find out that it would cost 6 euros each way to take our bikes on the train to Haarlem. We opted out of taking our bikes and decided that we would take the bus from Haarlem to the Keukenhof (an extremely touristy way to see the tulips). After about an hour of travel we arrived to the keukenhof, the fields behind it (normally full of tulips) were completely empty. There wasn't a tulip in sight. We walked to the entrance anyway and debated whether to pay the 13 euro entrance. We even asked a troupe of elderly Germans if it was worth it- YES YES YES they said. We paid our entrance fee and entered into a botanical Disneyland. There were tulips EVERYWHERE- every color, size, shape of tulip EVER. We even say tulips with fuzzy looking edges, deep purple tulips, giant white tulips. It was totally worth every euro cent and pushing through the touristy crowds. Alice had to be back in Amsterdam by 5 to catch her ride back so we left around 2:45. This is the best part- we ran to catch the bus and we made it, we ran to catch the train and we made it, be biked home in a fury with enough time for Alice to run to the store to buy a few extra tubs of spekuloos (gingerbready cookies turned into a nutella like spread- can you say DELICIOUS?) Now Alice is gone, but we have a great week full of memories. One of my greatest weeks.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Nederlands v. Macedonie
On April 1, our program took us all to a national soccer game- a qualifying match for the 2010 world cup. It wasn't going to be a great game because we were all almost 100% sure that the Netherlands was going to beat Macedonia. Our program directors were very clear about what we were supposed to wear- orange, who we were supposed to be routing for- The Netherlands, and how we were supposed to behave ourselves- like a bunch of football hooligans. We all arrived orange-clad to Amsterdam Centraal Station to board the metro to get to the stadium. Half of the students were a little drunk, but they fit in with all of the rest of the people on the metro who were also all wearing orange and singing songs in Dutch while beating on their drums and even smoking a cigarette inside the metro... Many of them were old men in their orange work jumpsuits banging on the walls of the metro. Once we finally got to the stadium we all entered with ease and watched the Netherlands flawlesssly beat Macedonia... NOT. April fools.
When we finally got to the stadium it turned out that our tickets had been blacklisted- which means they weren't valid anymore. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I had accidentally gotten into the stadium by foloowing a group of people with valid tickets. All of my friends were locked out of the stadium and I was all alone inside. I wandered about aimlessly waiting to hear news form my friends- they had bought new tickets and were sitting in a restricted area I could not access. So I decided to just look for my seat even though I wasn't even sure if there was a seat for me. Luckily, there were a large group of other ciee students who also had been mistakenly let in so I sat with them and watched the 4-0 victory of the Macedonians.
Besides the fear that the Dutch security guards were going to find me and kick me out of the stadium, the game was pretty fun. Some young boys behind us kept throwing paper planes made out of the pages of a magazine down at us, trying to get them onto the field. At half-time one of the program coordinators found our group and apologized about the whole ticket mix-up, she had absolutely no idea why it had happened. All that matters is that Nederland won, we wouldn't want a bunch of sad dutch on our hands. The weekend before, Scotland played in Amsterdam which obviously meant that thousands of scottish men paraded through Amsterdam in kilts, duh! They lost though, which then clearly meant that there were going to be thousands of Scottish men in kilts sitting solemnly in the great variety of bars throughout Amsterdam.
Tot Ziens (see you, bye!)
When we finally got to the stadium it turned out that our tickets had been blacklisted- which means they weren't valid anymore. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I had accidentally gotten into the stadium by foloowing a group of people with valid tickets. All of my friends were locked out of the stadium and I was all alone inside. I wandered about aimlessly waiting to hear news form my friends- they had bought new tickets and were sitting in a restricted area I could not access. So I decided to just look for my seat even though I wasn't even sure if there was a seat for me. Luckily, there were a large group of other ciee students who also had been mistakenly let in so I sat with them and watched the 4-0 victory of the Macedonians.
Besides the fear that the Dutch security guards were going to find me and kick me out of the stadium, the game was pretty fun. Some young boys behind us kept throwing paper planes made out of the pages of a magazine down at us, trying to get them onto the field. At half-time one of the program coordinators found our group and apologized about the whole ticket mix-up, she had absolutely no idea why it had happened. All that matters is that Nederland won, we wouldn't want a bunch of sad dutch on our hands. The weekend before, Scotland played in Amsterdam which obviously meant that thousands of scottish men paraded through Amsterdam in kilts, duh! They lost though, which then clearly meant that there were going to be thousands of Scottish men in kilts sitting solemnly in the great variety of bars throughout Amsterdam.
Tot Ziens (see you, bye!)
Monday, March 23, 2009
Room 11 & The Weather
Tonight, CIEE (the program coordinating my study abroad experience) took twenty or so of us out to a Room 11 concert. They are a Dutch band similar to/reminds me of a combination of Feist, Norah Jones, and Pink Martini. Most of the lyrics are in English, which was nice, and the lead singer was so cute- pink-tights-and-cowboy-boots-cute. The concert was actually really great, everybody seemed to have a good time clapping and dancing. Our seats were up in the very top of the theater where the grading of the seats was really steep, almost to the point where I thought I was going to fall foreward and onto the floor seats. Overall, a great night and I reccomend the band to everyone. As we all stepped out of the theater, one strike, two strikes of lightning touch the horizon followed too soon by a thick rumble of thunder. Sara, Caroline, and I RAN to our bikes to try and beat the rain. Just after our first meters of pedaling, fat drops of rain came pelting down. The bike ride from the theater is only about five or six minutes, but I can assure you that they were some of the worst minutes of my life. The rain quickly transformed into ice and hail accompanied by the slickest wind. I had hail in my eyes because it was coming straight into my face. The last four minutes of the bike-ride were an endless barrage of ice to my face, neck, and hands. I thought the whole "bad weather" phenomena had passed with last week's 54 degrees and sunny, but I guess it's as they say April showers (and late March hail storms) bring may flowers. And I can't wait to go riding in the tulip fields.
CIEE has planned a few more of these cultural outings: this weekend they are taking us the to infamous delta-werken, or the mechanism that keeps the Netherlands above sea level, where we get to learn about the Dutch fight against the sea, which is apparently their biggest enemy. Then on the first of April they are taking us to a Netherlands vs. Macedonia soccer game. And it's all for FREE!
Here's a list of things (commodities and abstract ideas) I miss about America: Chips and Salsa, vietnamese food, driving, milkshakes, the heat, the real ocean, seafood (because it's way too expensive here), ovens (because our student flats don't have them), being able to afford to live a normal life (because the dollar is so weak and growing weaker by the minute)...
Things I will miss about Amsterdam: biking everywhere (which I plan on importing), stroopwaffles (delicious cookies- a pack of 10 for 67 euro cents), free museum entrance (with my museum card), brick buildings, sapori sandwiches (but I think we can re-create those)...
CIEE has planned a few more of these cultural outings: this weekend they are taking us the to infamous delta-werken, or the mechanism that keeps the Netherlands above sea level, where we get to learn about the Dutch fight against the sea, which is apparently their biggest enemy. Then on the first of April they are taking us to a Netherlands vs. Macedonia soccer game. And it's all for FREE!
Here's a list of things (commodities and abstract ideas) I miss about America: Chips and Salsa, vietnamese food, driving, milkshakes, the heat, the real ocean, seafood (because it's way too expensive here), ovens (because our student flats don't have them), being able to afford to live a normal life (because the dollar is so weak and growing weaker by the minute)...
Things I will miss about Amsterdam: biking everywhere (which I plan on importing), stroopwaffles (delicious cookies- a pack of 10 for 67 euro cents), free museum entrance (with my museum card), brick buildings, sapori sandwiches (but I think we can re-create those)...
Monday, March 16, 2009
When in Belgium
Saturday morning I woke up around 6 am to board the bus heading to Brussels. Sara, Justin, Alex, Alex Minton, Caroline and I planned a trip to Brussels and Bruges: one night, two days in the country of chocolate, waffles, and french fries. The round-trip bus ticket was only 22 euros and it was entertaining. Our bus driver was french and only spoke french and at one point woke everybody up to make us all get off the bus because it was good for us. We arrived in Brussels around 11 am but, immediately boarded the train to bruges because that was where we found a hostel. Bruges is definitely beautiful and fairytale-esque. Mideaval brick houses, cobbled streets, canals, chiming bell towers. It was charming and expensive. Alex, Alex, and I climbed the bell tower to check out the view. We all walked around taking pictures of the cute buildings and had a manditory stop for some Belgian chocolate. On our way to Bruges we met some other American students studying in Amsterdam who were also staying in the same hostel we were and returning to Amsterdam on the same bus as us, so we met up with them in the evening to meander thy city searching for cheap eats. Everywhere we stopped either couldn't accomodate all eight of us or the menu prices soared over our college student budgets. We ended up eating fast food (bleh!) because it was the only reasonably priced meal in the whole city- we probably walked around for at least an hour and a half trying to find anything under 10 euros. After dinner, we stopped in at a bar and had some Belgian beer before we headed back to our hostel. The hostel also had a bar which was full of people and a really great DJ so we ended up hanging out down there until about 1 am. When we finally got to our room (Caroline, Alex Minton, and I shared one room), we could still hear the music from the hostel bar as loudly as if we were still in the hostel bar and none of us actually fell asleep until the music stopped playing around 4 am. I know that I only payed 15 euro for my bed, but I didn't expect to feel like I was sleeping on the dance floor. We woke up, exhausted from the previous day full of walking and also from the fact that the three of us hadn't quite slept and took the train back the Brussels- I couldn't wait to speak french!
Probably the greatest thing about Brussels is it's grandeur: everything is big and shiny, even the sky looks higher up there. The buildings are taller, there are hills and palaces, big Parisian style parks, and people speak French and there are lots of delicious and cheap waffle stands. In Brussels, I took over trip-mom duties from Sara. I took control of the map and dragged all eight of us (including new friends Arjay and Beth) across the city; we saw the gothic Hotel de Ville and the cathedral, le Palais de justice, Ste Catherine, le Palais Royale, etc., but we literally walked around the city center at least 2 times and by the end of the day our feet were really really sore. We stopped for some dinner at a thai restaurant and then walked all the way to the bus station. Brussels was really pretty and nice change from flat/brick/canal/cold/damp Amsterdam and nice to see once, but I can't say that I'm dying to go back. Next trip: Dublin for Easter, we'll see how that turns out.
Probably the greatest thing about Brussels is it's grandeur: everything is big and shiny, even the sky looks higher up there. The buildings are taller, there are hills and palaces, big Parisian style parks, and people speak French and there are lots of delicious and cheap waffle stands. In Brussels, I took over trip-mom duties from Sara. I took control of the map and dragged all eight of us (including new friends Arjay and Beth) across the city; we saw the gothic Hotel de Ville and the cathedral, le Palais de justice, Ste Catherine, le Palais Royale, etc., but we literally walked around the city center at least 2 times and by the end of the day our feet were really really sore. We stopped for some dinner at a thai restaurant and then walked all the way to the bus station. Brussels was really pretty and nice change from flat/brick/canal/cold/damp Amsterdam and nice to see once, but I can't say that I'm dying to go back. Next trip: Dublin for Easter, we'll see how that turns out.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Noordermarkt en Uitsmijters
This morning I woke up really early (around 9 am) to go to the noordermarkt with my friend Alex. I unluckily and accidentally shrunk my warm winter coat while trying to wash it and have been coatless for the last two weeks. Despite various efforts to locate a new coat, I wasn't having any luck and finally convinced myself that the Dutch stop selling coats in March in an effort to call in warmer weather or somethin. Sara also tried to convince me that I wouldn't need a new coat soon because Spring was on its way- I am not convinced that this will be true because today, March 9, the wind was literally howling and I could barely pedal my bike forward against it. As a final attempt at locating some form of a warm coat, I went to the noordermarkt- the flea market of flea markets. I found a very plain black peacoat right off the bat and a really nice shirt all for 10 euro! Unbeatable. After my success (and Alex's lack thereof), we went searching for some coffee/brunch in the neighborhood of the market. The market is located in the Jordaan which is a very trendy neighborhood with many art galleries, trendy shops, coffeeshops, the Anne Frank House, etc. We went into a farily empty cafe ordered up some coffees and remembered our program coordinator and our Dutch professor mentioning a typical Dutch breakfast dish called an uitsmijter. We ended up splitting one, but one was definitely enough. The uitsmijter was, in this case, three fried eggs atop a giant slab of ham/bacon and toast covered in melted cheese...delicious. The best breakfast I'd had in a long time. Overall, a great morning.
After brunch, I dropped off Chiara's bike (she left and we had a great time) and went to the hardware store because my adapter (american plug to european plug) broke off in the socket for the second time. So now I have one of the prongs from the male side of the adapter stuck in the socket right next to my beg- is that safe?
I also bought a ticket for Dublin tonight. Justin, Sara, and I are flying to Dublin and will be there for Easter. We're not sure that being there for the second biggest catholic holiday of the year will be amazing or not fun at all, but we're pretty sure it will be really fun.
After brunch, I dropped off Chiara's bike (she left and we had a great time) and went to the hardware store because my adapter (american plug to european plug) broke off in the socket for the second time. So now I have one of the prongs from the male side of the adapter stuck in the socket right next to my beg- is that safe?
I also bought a ticket for Dublin tonight. Justin, Sara, and I are flying to Dublin and will be there for Easter. We're not sure that being there for the second biggest catholic holiday of the year will be amazing or not fun at all, but we're pretty sure it will be really fun.
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