Confessions Part 1

I listen to dubstep, techno, and trance. All the time.

Dancing at a club consists of bobbing my head and shaking awkwardly, the very European dance I made fun of upon arrival.

 

But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Mijn Computer

Thank god I have my computer back finally. It has been incognito since September 19th. Which in case you weren't aware is a very long time ago for someone to be going without a computer.

This past weekend I went to Belgium with my program - it was maybe the most fun ever. I had such a great time, we went to both Ghent and Bruges. They were both quaint little European towns with castles and canals. I've found that every city in Northern Europe with canals refers to themselves as the "Venice of the North" someone needs to claim the title, because I have too many fucking pictures of canals. They are so pretty - but essentially they are all the same. It's a little redundant to have half of your pictures be of canals. I've learned the Belgium is pretty much good for 4 things - bier, waffles, fries, and chocolate. All of which I love, so you can imagine this weekend went well for me. Since I was traveling with my program I was with 30 or so other college kids. On saturday night we stayed the night in Ghent, which is known as a college town. We were trying to make it down to the student bars but got side tracked by this weird club which we quickly took over with our yelling and cheap beer-buying. It was so much fun there were only middle aged people and us. There was this one middle-aged women who was getting DOWN! She was hilarious and wonderful and everything I strive to be.

Bruges was also really, really great. It was beautiful but unbelievably touristy. It was one of those places that rich old European couples visit because they are too old to be able to travel anywhere else. If you have ever seen the movie In Bruges you might appreciate the fairytale attraction of Bruges, but you might also think it is a shithole. Watch the movie - you will understand.

Basically - Ghent and Bruges were pretty. I had fun.

Alright, well I have class soon. I'll post more later...maybe.

Kaas Maken

Yesterday I went on a day trip with my program all throughout the south of Holland (everyone is always confused about what to call the Netherlands/Holland so here it is. The Netherlands is the country, Nederlands/Dutch is the language, the people are all Dutch, Holland is a province in the Netherlands where Amsterdam is).

We began by getting on a big coach bus and starting going south, the Dutch countryside is so beautiful. There are cows EVERYWHERE! I was so excited. I took so many of pictures of cows on the drive that I ran out of camera battery for the rest of the day, but I was so excited, cows are so great.

We went to a traditional family-run Dutch cheese farm. It was sooooooooooooooo smelly, but so delicious. There were also cows everywhere here, including a baby calf just over a week old. We learned how they make the traditional cheese from Holland (which they are famous for) they basically take really hot milk and add some stuff and then wait for it to curdle and then cut it. We tried some cheese in the middle stages of being made out of this giant vat of milk and fat and slimy cheese before it is actually cheesy, it didn't taste like anything. But they had free samples of ACTUAL cheese everywhere and they were so delicious, I feel like Holland has made me discover cheese for the VERY first time. There was also a small Dutch girl named Deborah (who was probably two) running around the farm during the whole tour yelling "Kaas Maken, Kaas Maken"which means cheese making.

After the cheese farm we went to Delft, which is a small town in the south where Willem van Oranje is buried (the hero of the Dutch). It was so great, before we went into the actual town we took a tour of the porcelin factory where all of the blue china is handpainted. That was also really cool, but we didn't get endless free samples of cheese. Nothing may ever compare to that cheese farm.

Delft was an incredible little town, we went on a tour on these bike/scooter things that we see tourists on all over Amsterdam (and we always make fun of them, because they look ridiculous). But I have newfound respect for the groups of 60 year old tourists I see on these scooter things, they are really difficult to maneuver. I love Delft, I think it may be my favorite place (aside from Amsterdam) that I have been in the Netherlands (although I haven't been to many places).

As I write this I should be reading about women in the domestic workforce for my gender, migration and development class. I should probably take care of that.

Fun Dutch Fact of the Day - Carrots are originally a purply color but in the 16th century the Dutch chemically changed the color to orange to have more national pride (the national color is orange because of Willem van Oranje, which means William of Orange) therefore we have orange carrots.

9/23

I know it has been an extremely long time since I have posted anything on the blog. You should probably know that the only reason is because of my exquisite study habits. Obviously.

I have been having the most incredible time whilst I've been here. I think I might just have to stay here forever. Seriously. It's unbelievably beautiful and the lifestyle is so wonderful. I feel like everything is easier here, the way things work - they just make sense.

A couple days ago I went to Den Haag (The Hague) which is where the seat of government is for the Netherlands. I saw the queen! She was wearing purple and in a golden carriage. That's pretty much all I know about her, but nonetheless I saw her. Den Haag was really cool, it was nice to be in a place that wasn't as touristy as Amsterdam. I also saw the Vermeer painting Girl with the Pearl Earring, it was in this old parliament building/palace type thing that had been turned into a museum, it was so cool.

One of the things that I like best about the Dutch is how sensible they are. No one here goes to church, but everyone here goes to clubs. Therefore, a lot of the old churches and synagogues have been turned into clubs and restaurants. It's all very practical.

Yesterday I had one of the best days since I've been here. It was unbelievably beautiful and my friends and I went for a bike ride in Vondel Park, which is absolutely amazing. It's starting to feel like Fall here and I LOVE IT! The trees are starting to turn and I have started spending all of my time sitting in my windowsill people watching (Amsterdam has great people watching). It's so beautiful!

I'm going to try and post pictures soon but my computer is broken so until that is fixed you'll have to trust your imagination and my impecible ability to describe things.

Sarah and Jules destroy Amsty

So. I for the past 8 days, I've had 2 of my best friends, Sarah and Julia, staying with me in Amsterdam. It was probably the most fun thing in the entire world. We had the BEST time. The last week has just been a complete whirlwind so I'm trying to remember the more important details to share with you.

For instance, I experienced my first lesbian bar. It was called Dirty Disco Dykes. The name explains it all. It was wonderful.

On a more sophisticated note we went to the Foam Photography Museum and saw this weird exhibit that was fashion using photoshop, it was really strange. We also went to the Van Gogh Museum (which I can get into for free with my student card) and it was so great! They had some really GREAT exhibits and I'm going to start going there all the time!

I started classes yesterday, I have about 4 hours of class a day, which is really nice. I'm trying to change my schedule around so I'll let you know my classes when I figure them out, I know, it's riveting.

08/26/10

Today there were open classes at the gym for all the international students. So I biked down there to check it out, everyone bikes everywhere here. It's so great, and so easy! There are over 500,000 bikes in the city, and the population is less than 700,000! I took a martial arts class at the gym from the craziest man ever. He was so intense, but I thought he was so hilarious. He kept yelling at us in dutch and was wearing a black satin suit. He kept picking on me (probably because I was laughed everytime he yelled) and making me do push ups, and then he made fun of me for kicking like a ballerina, and made me do more push ups. It was wonderful, my arms are exhausted

Borrels are really fun. They pretty much mean just going to a bar and being Dutch. I also had my first clubbing experience last night. I went out with some Italians, a Dane, a Norwegian, and some Dutch kids. It was also great, except that...

European people do not dance.

European people bob there heads to the beat, with the occasional fist pump.

I'm not okay with it.

I've been failing at taking pictures, because I thought I lost my camera for 2 days, but now that I found it in my purse (yes the one I use everyday) I will try and get better!

08/25/10

First of all - shout out to my little bro HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY JACK, don't crash the jeep.

Amsterdam is absolutely incredible. It's so beautiful, my dorm is overlooking a canal and a little bridge that leads down all of these quintessentially dutch streets. There are people on bikes zooming past my window all the time it is great!

I've met a lot of people from all over the world in the last 3 days. The international student network (ISN) has a two week orientation for all of the international students. There are over 1000 of us from all over the world! I am the only person from North America in my group (we were all split into groups to do activities in), everyone else is either from Europe or Asia.

There are bikes everywhere! I had one but it broke within the first 15 minutes of riding it and so I am getting a new one tomorrow. So far I have gotten lost twice and ended up wandering around Amsterdam for over an hour each time, I need to start carrying a map around with me.

Tonight they are holding a Borrel, which is a traditional Dutch party for the International Students (last night they rented out an old warehouse on the river and held a crazy dance party). I'll let you know what exactly a Borrel entails once I find out, but they give everyone a lot of free drinks at every event so it'll probably be wonderful.

I don't know how to say write more later in Dutch.

But it's probably a really long word that looks something like this prizengglidkchetjke