These past two weeks have been jam-packed and stress-inducing with tests, projects, presentations, icky weather, cold-ness, sick-ness, etc etc etc. I have been quite stressed and sometimes homesick here due to illness and so much work, and have not been functioning properly (example A: as I was just writing this bit, my friend spilled her tea, and five minutes after I just knocked over a candle and got melted wax all over the floor. excellent.) But it has also been full of exciting adventures in Europe.
Note: this entry will be very long, rambling, and including topics and events that are quite random. You have been warned.
Last weekend, Saturday through Sunday (october 16/17) the whole CIEE gang boarded a bus and trekked down to Ghent, a beautiful city in Belgium. We first had lunch at a little restaurant that could barely fit twenty people, let alone forty plus college students and other miscellaneous adults/children in our posse. We originally thought we were just going to get bread and cheese (which would have been a very sad lunch for us...) we also got soup, so crisis averted.
our sad lunch pre-soup.
We then took a lovely tour of an old castle in Ghent, which was around since the Medieval times. It was chock-full of secret passageways, old weapons (including swords that were over 2 meters long, old muskets, etc) wells, torture chambers, guillotines, windy staircases, and stunning views of the city from the top.
View from the top.We then had ample free time to wander the city, eat food, soak up the Ghent lifestyle.
*FUN FACT: The Dutch speak Dutch. The Belgians speak Flemish. Flemish is a dialect of Dutch, so comparing the two languages is like comparing English spoken in America and English spoken in England- same language, different accent/dialect.
We also walked around and went through this cool back alley full of awesome graffiti.
That night we went out to dinner to this lovely restaurant called Amadeus where they had an assortment of delicious food. I ordered their "All you can eat" ribs. And when I say all you can eat, I MEAN all you can eat. Literally, the minute it looked like one of us was remotely close to finishing a rack, BAM a waiter would slap another rack on top of your plate. I never thought there would be any "all you can eat" options available other than in the USA. interesting... We all then, as one big CIEE gang, went out to a little bar in the sleepy city of Ghent, and danced the night away.Sunday we trekked up to Brugge/Bruges/Brugges (however you spell it, not quite sure myself!) and had a quasi-dull tour with a tour guide. We were told that we were going on a chocolate tour, but sadly we only went to a chocolate store for like ten minutes. Pretty disappointing, but at this place (and at almost all of the chocolate shops in Brugge) they had the most savory, rich, melt-in-your-mouth chocolates. I even tried one that was wasabi flavored- strange but actually quite good!
NOM NOM NOMWe also went on a cool tour of a brewery, where we got to taste malt (tasted like nothing), and learned how it was brewed. We then got yummy samples of it- such good quality. Much better than any drinks at college back in the States!
On our bus ride back to good ol' Amsterdam, we watched the Dutch film "Alles is Liefde", translated into "All is love". It is the Dutch equivalent to "Love Actually", and it takes place around Sinterklaas, not Christmas. Sinterklaas is on December 5 (I will explain more about this glorious and yet slightly controversial holiday as the date gets closer), and it was a cool movie- I recommend that everyone watches it. It definitely doesn't compare to the original, but it is a close second.
On the topic of Sinterklaas, there are already tons of Sinterklaas / Christmas decorations up all around the city! It is nuts that they are already starting to decorate for December 5. It also makes me extremely happy because I looooooooove Christmas and the whole holiday season. So I get to celebrate Sinterklaas here and then as soon as I get home I have Christmas- yahoo!
The rest of last week was fairly uneventful, aside from being sick (ew), having a stupid Dutch test (which was much more difficult than I had thought, was quite disappointing to study so much and then practically fail. Awesome.) But on Wednesday I got to do three groovy things.
1. I got to go to the Dappermarkt, which is another outdoor market with basically everything, but it was a ten-minute walk from my dorm. So convenient, right? I got an amazing assortment of olives, bread, and the best feta I've had from a nearby Turkish market. The food just keeps getting better and better here...
2. On the topic of food, I also was invited to one of my CIEE ladie's houses- Annabel's- for a home-cooked meal. While I was late and mis-managed my time to get there, I made the twenty minute train ride, the 10 minute walk to the bus stop, the fifteen minute bus ride to the random stop in the yuppy-ish area outside of Haarlem (where Annabel lives) to be met by Annabel, with bike in tow. She graciously dinked me (where I sit side-saddle on the back of the bike and hold on for dear life) down the paved road, down the narrow little dirt road, over the quaint bridge and creek, and through the luscious fields to her rustic country house. It was like an old farm house in the more rural areas of Maryland. Annabel made me and four other kids- Zach, Patti, Katie, and Mandy- a traditional Dutch meal, with a leek pie (yum), carrots and potatoes mashed together, paired with applesauce (scrumptious), sausages, and a yummy pudding thing called 'fla" which was SO good. It was so nice to have a home-cooked meal and to enjoy it with some chill people in a beautiful and more rural place in the Netherlands.
3. When I got home from this adventure, I also skyped with the one and only Erika Nacim for a little bit while she was studying in the library. She also was so kind to show me around via laptop to see everyone else who was studying. So I got to see Alyssa, Calvin, Alberto, Alex, Ashley, and SO many other people !! It was so nice to see Oxy again- I really miss everyone there so much.
Speaking of Oxy reunions, on Friday (Oct 22) Lauren Cooley and her lovely boyfriend Tyler were in Amsterdam for the weekend, so I got to go to the Anne Frank house with them. I also got to reunite with a bunch of other Oxy girls in the process as well! So much reuniting- it was a great feeling. The Anne Frank House was absolutely incredible and so moving. While we had to wait for a good thirty minutes to get inside, it was completely worth it. I had been to the house in high school, when the GFS hockey team all went to Amsterdam during Euro-Tour. I had forgotten how moving and emotional the place was. I will never do this place justice by describing it, but it is just the house where Anne Frank and her family hid during the Nazi Occupation in World War II. Many parts of the house look the same from when Anne herself was living there- magazine clippings on the wall, pictures, etc. They also had quotes from her diary all around the museum, which were just incredible. All I can say is, if you are ever in Amsterdam, you HAVE to come here. No question about it. One quote that was from Otto Frank, Anne's father, really touched me and made me think. It was "Om een toekomst op te bouwen, moet je het verleden kennen" (1967). It means "to build the future, you must know the past." One of Otto Frank's main reasons for starting the Anne Frank House was to bring awareness of not only the Holocaust and the Nazis, but also to inspire young people to understand the past. It was meant for a gathering place for young people to learn and to work together to make the world a better place.
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