Thanksgiving and Snow!

First of all since I am bursting with excitement, there was actual snow today!!! Snow that stuck to the ground and I cannot get over how excited I am. This picture is once again the view from my room, you guys must be getting sick of it! Also I took it at night which is why it looks weird.

It started snowing while I was in the IND office picking up my resident permit with my friend Julia. Then when we walked outside it started snowing, which is the second time since Saturday. But to our delight we noticed the flakes sticking to the ground. By the time we were done with some other errands Utrecht was starting to take on a white and sparkly feel. Bikes parked all along the streets were covered in a soft dusting of snow, and so were the bike paths. By the time we got home to campus it looked adorable. It is blanketed in about an inch of snow all over. I have my fingers crossed that the snow keeps coming during the night so we can have a snowball fight tomorrow! However the first snow was just as exciting. After a wonderful night on Friday, I woke up Saturday to snow falling outside my window. I immediately jumped up and grabbed my sweatshirt to run outside. I ran across campus to my friend's unit and rang her doorbell. Skipping and jumping up and down with excitement. All my friends from the Netherlands and the East Coast are very amused by my continual excitement of the snow.

I just mentioned that Friday was wonderful, and I will now explain why. On Friday a few Americans and I decided to show our friends what American Thanksgiving is like, despite the fact that dinning hall provided one Wednesday. The thing was we had already planned this Thanksgiving. We asked people to bring food, that way we wouldn't have to do all the cooking. But no one really knew what to bring so two of us biked to the grocery store to get busy. I found an American store where I could get pumpkin pie filling and evaporated milk for pumpkin pie. We also got marshmallows for yams. In the end we made two chickens, roasted vegetables, yams with marshmallows, rice, carrots and we had bread and salad of course. The crust we bought for the pie came in square pieces, since it was not actually intended for pie. So I sort of quilted together a pie crust, inside a cake pan. In the end the pie was delicious and everyone, especially a few skeptical Brits, was in love with the pie. We all had pretty small slices because seventeen people ended up coming! It ended up including 5 Americans, 4 Dutch, 2 British, 1 Argentinean, 2 Italians, 1 Swede, 1 Australian and 1 Brazilian. Of course those are loose national descriptions because 2 of the Americans have European parents and one of the Dutch girls has American Parents. And the mixed nationality goes for a lot of the others too. It was just so fun to have a home cooked meal, to cook with other people while everyone else is sitting around chatting and after the dinner to just sit and talk over coffee for hours. I was really surprised by how nice the whole evening was. It was pretty unconventional though, seeing as how the Americans were outnumbered, we had no turkey and we made our pie in a cake pan. Oh also the pie was accompanied by stroopwafel ice-cream, just to Dutchify it a little bit.

Sinterklaas

First of all the picture is about a month old, but I just thought the tree was pretty. It is the one right outside my window. It is now bare, which is appropriate considering it is supposed to SNOW this week!!!

Okay, on the the main even, Sinterklaas. So a much more entertaining way to learn about Sinterklaas would probably be to read the David Sedaris story "Six to Eight Black Men." So I really suggest you do that, or you can just youtube it and listen to him read it.

Anyways here goes my explanation. Sinterklaas is the Dutch version of Santa. He is a Turkish Bishop who lives in Madrid with his friends, the Piets. The Piets used to be his slaves, but now they are just his friends. There is some controversy about the fact they are black so now the story is that they are covered in chimney soot. Apparently one year on their way to Holland Sint and the Piets sailed through a rainbow and all of them were different colors. However, it is not uncommon to see people in blackface dressed as Piets around now.

Sinterklaas arrives on a boat from Spain in an event that is televised nationally. There is a Sinterklaas news show every night at 7 leading up to the day. Every year there is some doubt whether he will make it in time because the Piets mess things up. All the Piets have different roles, there is Listening Piet who hangs out around rooftops all year making sure the children are good. But there is also navigation Piet who never fails to get them lost each year. The city the "real" Sinterklaas comes into is changed each year, but on the same day helper Sinterklaases go through each city. All my Dutch friends have assured me that they were always able to tell the difference between the real Sinterklaas and the fake ones.

After Sinterklaas comes into the country Dutch children leave their shoes by the fire place, but now more often the radiator, and sing Sinterklaas songs before bed. They also often leave him a poem and a bowl of water and a carrot for the horse. Some mornings they will wake up to find candy in their shoes! I have already gotten candy in my shoes twice!! Once in Eindhoven and then also in my unit on Monday night. On Monday Sint and Piet even left us a poem. All of this continues until December 5, which is the feast day of Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas). On Sinterklaas, Sinterklaas shows up in the afternoon with a bag of gifts. Some families actually hire a Sinterklaas to show up, and others distract the kids while a giant pile of gifts gets left outside the door. If you are bad though, you get taken back to Spain. Apparently Sinterklaas and Piet used to beat bad children, but now they only pretend to.

For the adults December 5 is also very nice. Families exchange gifts, make eachother something that has to do with that person. It can be something teasing them about their personality or something nice and they also write each other poems. Groups of friends also do this, it is much like a Secret Santa. I am doing this with a group of people on campus, maybe half of whom are actually Dutch.

Sinterklaas season has been really fun because all the Dutch students are so enthusiastic about spreading the love of Sinterklaas. They even found out where the real Sinterklaas was coming this year for us. I could not go because of rehearsal, but some of my friends went and brought me a Sinterklaas beard and hat! There are also sweets that are typical of Sinterklaas season. Mostly pepernoten, which are like mini gingersnap cookies.

Long story short Sinterklaas season is really fun and exciting. It definitely makes up for the lack of Thanksgiving season. It also makes Christmas just about the Christmas story and family instead of gift giving.

It's been funny to explain Santa to Dutch people when they ask. They are completely baffled by the fact he lives on the North Pole and that he just knows if children have been good and bad. Its made for some amusing conversations. I've also had to explain Thanksgiving a few times lately, which has been a little amusing. They made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner in dinning hall tonight. They had turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, mashed potatoes, green beans and really deluxe ice cream cakes for dessert! I did not know it was happening and it was a really nice surprise! So not to worry, I still had Thanksgiving, all the way over in Europe. I will actually get two, because I am making dinner with some friends on Friday. Not on Thursday because we are going to a concert!

Anyways to finish this thing off,

I am thankful for the chance to live in another country (even if it means being away from so many people I love for such a long time).

I am also thankful that I have found such great friends here to keep me company and take me in during the holiday season. I feel really blessed. I also miss everyone back in the states and my friends spread out all over the world right now! So I hope where ever you are that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of good food and even better people.

Keep Calm and Carry On

Much to the exasperation or envy or many of my friends I went to London last weekend! My friend Sarah and I caught one of those beautiful discount airline flights Thursday evening from the Dutch city of Eindhoven to head to London with the plan of seeing Harry Potter. We ended up not being able to see it Thursday, we didn't get tickets fast enough. So instead we explored the area around our hostel, which was off of the London Bridge tube stop for any one who is wondering. We decided to make it an early night though so we could get up and go in the morning!

After a delicious breakfast of toast, fruit and cereal provided by the hostel we went on one of the New Europe free walking tours. Luckily for us out guide was an actual Londoner, so he knew some funny anecdotes about some famous places. We saw Buckingham Palace, and this time I actually saw the changing of the guards. We then walked to St. James and after we went down Pall Mall, to Trafalgar Square and made our way on to Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Our tour ended with the story of Guy Fawkes. It was fun since I ended up seeing most of the main sites I missed on my last tour of London!

After that Sarah and I decided to head to Camden for lunch! After getting some delicious sandwiches involving goat cheese we explored record shops and other funky places for a while. After we had gotten our fill of Camden we went to go find Platform 9 & 3/4 in true spirit of the weekend. Sadly though they are currently renovating part of King's Cross Station and it is blocked off. Or at least that is what we think...

By the time we walked out of Kings Cross (around 4:30) it was already dark! So we decided to grab some coffee and just walk around and explore. We ended up at St. Paul's and walked across the Millennium Bridge to the Globe and the Tate Modern. After that we decided to go see how much the London Eye would cost - almost 20 pounds! eek! So we decided to walk around the Christmas fair that was happening around the area. It was really nice, and it was fun to hear familiar Christmas carols.

Then we grabbed a quick dinner and went to pick up our stuff from our hostel! We were seeing Harry Potter at midnight and had a 7am flight so we went straight from the movie to the air port! We saw the movie in Leicester Square which was pretty exciting! The movie was fantastic and all of you should see it :) After the movie it was so cool to walk out into the streets of London, since parts of the movie were shot there! We then caught a night bus and made the surprisingly long journey to Stansted airport.

After convincing the man in Eindhoven airport to let me back in the country despite my lack of residence permit (grrrr College Hall grrr) Sarah and I were in Eindhoven with some time to kill. A fire in Utrecht Central Station had prevented our friend we were staying with from getting there the day before. So he was still in Utrecht waiting for his brother to pick him up since no trains were running. Sarah and I wandered into a cafe and had some wonderful coffee. After which we explored downtown. Eindhoven is cute, it is certainly not very pretty, but it has a nice atmosphere. It is the town Phillips electronics' headquarters is located it. So even the football team is named after Phillips electronics (PSV)After our friend Erwin and his dad picked us upwe spent a really nice day at Erwin's house. Where there were non-dorm showers, constant fresh coffee and a home cooked meal. I am not sure if the Dutch students understand how wonderful it is when they take us home for the weekend. While I do love UCU and consider it home, there is something irreplaceable about home cooked food and a family atmosphere. After dinner we watched a movie, and then we watched a PSV v Ajax football match. Ajax is the Amsterdam team and there is a pretty big North-South rivalry in the country so everyone was pretty involved in the game. It ended up being 0-0, so a pretty stressful but unexciting game. Although at the very end one of the players bit another one, which was very weird. After the football game we all put our shoes in front of the radiator and sang a Sinterklaas song. The next morning we all had a chocolate S in our shoes!( I will explain all the wonderful Sinterklaas traditions soon I promise! ) After singing songs Erwin took us to see some of the Eindhoven night life. We ended up trying mango beer which was served in a half of a coconut. I was not really a fan, it tasted mostly like mango juice. But the night was really nice, and going to sleep after almost 40 hours awake felt wonderful!

It was a really nice weekend, and coming back to UC felt wonderful! Especially since Sinterklaas also came to my unit last night. So this means I must explain Sinterklaas tomorrow!

Typical Dutch, Typical Dutch

My Dutch professor and some Dutchies are fond of saying "typical Dutch" to explain things. I love this phrase.So I am going to tell you two very quick, very typical Dutch things that happened today.

The first is that I went to the humanities library downtown with my art class to work on my research paper. While we were in the library it started raining and the wind started blowing. The ride home was very intense. I feel as though I have been officially baptised into living here, that or the weather just slapped me in the face. At times the wind was blowing so hard that itfelt like I was peddling and going nowhere. Add to that the the rain being whipped into my face in 40 degree weather and the sticks and leaves that also managed to find my face. By the end of the ride my friend Bella and I were laughing about the insanity of the weather but also could not believe that our faces were stinging as if we had just been slapped. Apparentlly this is "typical Dutch"

The second thing is much nicer. Today is Sint Maarten's Day (Saint Martin). The most famous story of this Saint is one of him cutting his cloak in half to give to a dying beggar and that night he dreamed of Jesus wearing his cloak. He is a big deal in Utrecht and the emblem of the half cloak is on the seal of the University here. On this day Dutch children walk around with lanterns and sing songs at houses. They also get candy in exchange for this sometimes. They do not really do Halloween here and I think this may be their version. I was lucky enough to witness some of this because I biked off campus to get coffee with a friend at a cafe after dinner. On the way we passed groups of children with gorgeous lanterns. Also while we were sitting in the cafe groups would come in and a sing in exchange for candy from the workers. It was really nice to see and brightened up my night!

Also SINTERKLAAS COMES THIS WEEKEND!!! It's televised nationally and everything. I will explain all the wonder and hilarity that is Dutch Christmas celebrations soon.

Paris, Je t'aime

Paris seems to have stolen my heart. According to my friend Wincy who is currently living there it happens to everyone, she says they put something in the water. The city has this nostalgic quality to it and it really couldn't be more different from Berlin. It is all white stones, tree lined streets, churches and of course the cafes. Walking around was pretty much a recap of my art history class between the Gothic churches and our visit to the Louvre where I got to come across as very knowledgeable by regurgitating everything I had studied before my midterm the week before. So that I don't forget anything I will go about this chronologically:

Thursday:

We caught an early flight from Berlin to Paris and thankfully despite the strikes we made it there and found our hostel all by 1 pm. We immediatly left our hostel, which was named OOPS! for some unknown reason, to get some french food. I had a croque monsieur and my friends had crepes. The task of ordering fell to me and my friend Sarah who are the only ones who speak any French. I managed to mix up my languages and threw some Dutch words in there by accident. Oops, but in the end we got our food and headed out. We were staying in the 13th district quite close to the 5th, which is the student district. So we decided to walk to Notre Dame since it isn't too far. After wandering down Rue Moufftard, an adorable street that is a student hang out, we ended up at Notre Dame. We first went inside to admire the windows and architecture. Then we decided we would brave the stairs despite how our feet were feeling after all of the walking we had been doing in. So we got in line, the time ended up flying by when we realized we were standing in front of a Dutch family. It turns out they live quite close to Utrecht. We practiced a little Dutch on them and the little boy practiced his Engish on us. It was pretty adorable. I am very glad we decided to brave the Notre Dame stairs because the view was incredible and the gargoyles were awesome! I have no idea how the sculptors thought some of them up, but they are so cool! After we had had our fill of flying buttresses and gargoyles we meandered back to our hostel to shower and unwind a little. Then we headed out and found a really good sandwich shop run by a very sweet older French woman. We all got this special she had where you could buy a sandwich, dessert and drink for very cheap. My sandwich had sun-dried tomatoes in it and tasted like heaven. I also got some delicious custard and berry thing. After we had filled our stomachs to our heart's content we went to see the Eiffel Tower! At night it is all lit up and every so often it flashes like a giant disco globe. It is one of those really touristy, but really exciting things. We got in this giant el elevator and went all the way to the top. This time we got to see the entire city all lit up at night. We had to switch elevators a few times and the last elevator to get all the way up was a little unnerving for me, but in the end it was worth it. It made a really lovely first day in Paris.

Friday

On Friday we decided to go see the Arc de Triumphe and wander down Champs-Elysees, so of course Sarah and I sang the song all morning. It was sort of amusing because in French class we learn about typical French breakfast and that they drink Orngina and we sing songs like Champs-Elysees. So Sarah and I both felt like we were in our French book a little. After we had looked at all the high priced stores we could stand we jumped on the Metro to go to Cimetiere Père Lachaise. It is the place Oscar Wilde, Proust and Jim Morrison are buried along with a bunch of other famous people. It sounds a bit morbid to go visit graves but the cemetery is really cool. There are huge tombs and winding streets lined with trees in fall colors. Also it is on a hill, it is not a place I would want to be after dark. If you think of a cemetery in your mind, this is it. Really it was very beautiful. After that we grabbed some food and headed home to change really quickly. Before we headed to the Louvre. The Louvre has a special deal on Wednesday and Friday evenings it is open late and if you are under 26 you can get in free after 6 pm. So we wandered into the Louvre and explored for a few hours running around the whole museum to make sure we saw all our favorite paintings. The nice thing about going so late is it actually was not too crowded, and I have decided I really like being in museums at night, there is something almost magical about it. After the Louvre we jumped on the Metro to go meet Marine and her boyfriend. Marine stayed with me and my family about 5 years ago for a month and I hadn't seen her since. We met up at a wine and cheese bar, which is very French according to Marine. However we were too late for cheese so we ended up leaving. We went to the only place open and serving food, Hippopataums. This was very embarassing for Marine and her boyfriend because apparently it is somthing like Denny's in America. It is a chain with very late hours, execept they food is actually alright. The waiter was very amused by us and made everyone order in French. Marine and Arnaud taught us the correct way of tasting wine and when it is correct to say "It has leg." It ended up being a very nice evening.

Saturday

This was our first relaxing day since we left Utrecht. On Saturday morning I went with my friend Alisha to help her buy French perfume. Since she doesn't speak any French I got to translate for her the whole time. It ended up being really fun and I got a few perfume samples for helping out. When we left the store we were probably flooding the street with flowery smells. We met up with my friend from Santa Cruz Wincy who is currently studying in Paris. We all went to a mosque where they have a bath house. The mosque is completely gorgeous, they also serve tea and food there. It was pretty cheap to get in and we were able to lay on warm tiles in a steam room for hours and wash ourselves with amazing smelling soap. It was a very non touristy place, I only heard people speaking French there. It was a much needed break from all the running around and it was so nice to see Wincy. After the spa we wandered across a park to find a cafe where we all got croque monsieur. After that Alisha and I went home to relax a little and do some reading. We got home just in time, as soon as we got inside we heard thunder and it started POURING outside. We sat in our hostel room and watched people on the street being blow in the wind and counting the seconds between lightning in thunder. We met back up with our two other friends and went next door for dinner. It was our treat to ourselves to eat a delicious more expensive meal. I had risotto that still makes my mouth water to think about and some amazing melon sorbet. After dinner we went to a jazz club that is in an old dungeon. We ended up not being able to sit where we could see the musicians, but they had a screen next to us where they were broadcasting the performance and we could still here them perfectly. It was a tribute to Dizzy Gillespie and I really liked it.

Sunday

Sunday is the day to go the La Maire, the 4th district. That is what every single person told me when giving me advice about Paris. It has the best falafel in the world apparently. Also most stores are closed Sundays, but the Jewish quarter in La Maire is very busy Sunday mornings. We decided to wander around and look at the buildings before we ate to build up our appetite. I had shoarma in a pita sandwhich and it is the best shoarma I have had. After La Maire we went to check out the catacombs. I was a little unsure if I would do this. First of all, I do not think people have any business wandering around underground. The idea of being underground just freaks me out a little. Add to that the fact that the catacombs take you through a mass grave. For some reason I did not realize they actually let you walk around next to the bones, but you do. You walk through lots and lots of bones. It ended up being a cool experience, mostly because of all the inscriptions. When you first enter the part that is the mass grave there is a sign that says "Stop. This is the empire of the dead." The grave is down there because bodies of plague victims were infecting people in surrounding areas. So they put them down in the quarry below the city. There are inscriptions all around saying famous quotes about death in French and Latin. Between Gabi's knowledge of Latin and mine and Sarah's French we could figure most of them out. I was pretty glad to get to the stairs at the end though, it was pretty creepy down there. After the catacombs we took the metro up to Montmartre. I really like it up there. We took a tour starting at the Moulin Rouge. From there we saw the cafe and vegetable market from Amèlie which was really exciting! A lot of Montmartre is pretty familiar looking from scenes in the movie. Amèlie is one of my favorite movies so I really liked seeing all of it. We also saw some hang outs of Van Gogh's and Picasso's. We also went to Sacre Coeur. I think it might be a little bigger than the one in Hollister. It is a gorgeous church, from there we got another gorgeous view of Paris at night.

Monday

I only mention Monday because I got to see one of my friends from high school on Monday! My friend D who was a foreign exchange student my junior year of high school happened to be in Paris for work the weekend I was there. We had tried to meet up but I ran out of phone credit so I couldn't call him or receive calls or texts. In the end he caught me on facebook and we grabbed a very quick cup of coffee. It was really fun to see him and was a nice end to the trip! At about 3 we said goodbye to Paris and boarded a train home to Utrecht. It was nice coming home, because campus felt like home. It was also easier to come back from vacation since I am not leaving Europe yet.

Brrrrrlin

The best way I can think of to describe the city of Berlin is cool. The general atmosphere of the city is modern. It is the current center of the alternative scene in Europe. When I talk to my friends on campus overwhelmingly everyone loves Berlin. In our trip we got a pretty good mix of the historical half of the city as well as the new city.

Our first day we took a free 3 hour walking tour with this company called New Europe. They provide free tours in most major European cities in English and Spanish, and they are really good! On that we saw most of what used to be East Berlin. Including the Brandenburg gate, Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, Nazi buildings, Holocaust memorial, museum Island, opera buildings and much more. The one negative thing I can say about it is that it was soooo cold!! It was about 6 or 7 Celsius the entire time with rain. My friends and I all did my mom proud and dressed in layers though. That night we made dinner with people in our hostel which was pretty cool and then a group of us from the hostel went to go dance in one of Berlin's famous night clubs. The had animated screens inside and played lots of techno, it was pretty cool.

Sunday we met up with a friend from school who used to live in Berlin and went to a giant flea market. It was way in the North of the city, we were lucky and had sun that day. It was so cool walking around seeing the random stuff people were selling and the really amazing things people had made. The market was next to a park and a amphitheater. The amphitheater was entirely covered in street art. When we left there were tons of people gathered there for karaoke that happens on Sundays. After a quick stop off for boba tea (Sarah and I were ridiculously excited to find Boba in Europe) we went to the East Side Gallery. This was my favorite tourist attraction/museum in Berlin. The East Side Gallery is the longest standing stretch of the Berlin Wall and it is entirely painted over by street artists. It is a little over a kilometer in length, and its gorgeous. All the paintings remember the wall, give messages of hope and capture the spirt of the change that took place with the wall coming down. After the wall we decided to try the schnitzel, which was about what you would expect fried chicken to taste like.

Monday we decided to hit all the free attractions which ended up being a little depressing. We went to the Mauer Memorial which documented the evolution of the wall with descriptions of individual escape attempts. The really unnerving thing about the history of the wall is that it came down around the time me and the people I was traveling with were born. It's unbelievable how recent the devision of the city was and how in what is basically our lifetime it has developed so much. It is also interesting to wonder about people who can freely walk into previously forbidden parts of the city and how seeing remnants of the wall makes them feel. We also went to The Topography of Terror, an exhibit on the SS which stands on the land that used to be their headquarters. We soon realized that most of the free exhibits were free because Berlin wants people to remember things like the Wall and the SS so that they do not come about again. We also saw Checkpoint Charlie, and while we were walking away we ran straight into a group of people from our school! Which just shows that I can never escape the Bubble.

On Tuesday we went to a concentration camp. We debated going because it seems weird to go and take a tour of somewhere so full of horror, but came to the conclusion that it is a necessary experience to really understand what happened.

Wednesday, which was supposed to be our last day we went to the Pergamon museum. However because of the strikes in France our flight was "disrupted" and we couldn't leave until Thursday morning at about 8am. The Pergamon was really cool though, especially because we had learned about a lot of the exhibits in my art history class this semester! Between that and the Louvre I felt like I had just rehashed the first half of the semester.

I really enjoyed Berlin, I would love to go back sometime, hopefully when it's warmer! I want to just explore the real city next time. We had fun walking around the neighborhood around the flea market and just looking at houses and restaurants. I also loved all the pretzels I ate in Berlin. The depressing sounding exhibits were offset by the amazing people I was with, the general atmosphere of the city, and the dancing at night. We also ended up with some entertaining hostel mates, including two very smelly older German men, one very drunk man from Mexico, a really nice singer from South Africa and a nice very quiet German guy. I really can't pick between Berlin and Paris, they are complete opposite cities and I enjoyed them both. I will write about Paris in the next day or so.

Epic Blogging Fail (Ik faal in het leven)

It has been far too long since I updated this, partly because living here has felt more and more like regular life at school. It is interesting comparing study abroad experiences with my friends in other countries because our programs are very different. After comparing notes it appears my experience is something like being at boarding school, which is actually pretty fun.

Since I last posted I have been to the Hague and Amsterdam. I have also gotten my hair cut from a woman who didn't speak English, joined some clubs and had a wonderful birthday. Also I have eaten a lot of delicious food. So I will go over the highlights of the more interesting things. This is what I get for waiting three weeks to update this.

Our trip to the Hague was really nice, I went with two other Americans. We just wandered around the central part of the city looking at buildings and hopping into stores. We found a really large square with many cafes and decided to grab and early dinner there, when we were about finished it started to rain. So we decided we would sit under our umbrella until the rain lightened up because we were pretty unprepared apparel-wise for the rain. After an hour of the rain only getting worse and worse we decided to make a break for it and walk to the train station. After about a five minute walk I could actually wring my pants out, they were soaked. The rain storm was followed by a movie night in with lots of hot tea.

Last weekend my friend who is studying in Paris came to stay, which was a lot of fun! It felt strangely natural to have a friend from Santa Cruz staying with me in Utrecht. On Friday I took her around the downtown area of the city and fed her dutch cuisine such as stroopwafels. We tried to make Dutch pancakes and completely failed, I blame the hot plates and instructions in Dutch. On Saturday we went into Amsterdam. After finding the right train and right tram we arrived at the Van Gogh museum, where we walked right in because we had planned ahead with our tickets. The museum features not only Van Gogh but works by some of his contemporaries. I really enjoyed it, some of the floors were so full of color. We then took a tram to the ferries so we could hop on a ferry to Amsterdam North to my friend Shira's house. There we took a wonderful nap. Then we got some delicious indonesian take out and went out dancing. Sunday after my friend returned to Paris I spent the whole day studying in Shira's house with her and her sister. This week is midterms week, so that is where much of my time has been going. It was so nice to be able to relax in an actual house; I left for Utrecht with a very happy heart and a little homesick for my own parents and sister, but in the best way possible.

I have also been getting more involved on campus. I somehow ended up in a production of Arsenic and Old Lace which should be fun. They needed a minor roll filled and my friend asked me if I wanted to join. I have also become involved with UCTV, our campus tv station. I did UCTV Sunday a week ago last Sunday. We spent the day writing making and editing a short film. At the end of the day we had a screening with the other groups. It was pretty fun, after the midterms break I am going to help make another one for the series called Beyond the Gates. This is a series where we show students that life outside the bubble exists.

I have also started going to a student led yoga class on Wednesday nights, she calls the routine goodnight yoga. It is from 10-1130pm and by the end I am so relaxed that I can just fall straight asleep.

I also celebrated my birthday last week and was shocked by how incredible my friends here are. My unitmates taped balloons with Dutch and English Happy Birthday phrases on them all over, I had some friends show up at midnight with cards and cookies and two of my girlfriends banned together to give me gorgeous boots and flowers. As well as that everywhere on campus I had people stopping me to give me the traditional Dutch three kisses. It was a really nice birthday, I had friends over that night too.

Apart from the actually eventful things that have gone on I have really settled in here, I have been here about two months. I feel relatively comfortable biking in traffic, I understand most of the ins and outs of UC, I am running into less and less moments with Dutch friends where I feel entirely clueless and I can reliably order food without getting thrown by questions such as "for here or to go?" or "would you like cinnamon on that?" I also realized that being in the "bubble" all the time can be stressful, so one of my new favorite things is going off campus to a cafe and just reading a book for fun for an hour or two.

On Friday I am leaving for Berlin where we will stay until Wednesday when we leave for Paris. So expect some pretty exciting news!

Waffles, Chocolate, Beer, Fries- This could only be Belgium

This weekend I finally left the Netherlands. After 6 wonderful weeks in the country, I hopped over to Belgium with my friend Alisha. Belgium is incredible,Antwerp. We stayed with our new Belgian friend Jelle and his family in their home right outside the city. Staying with someone from the city is so much better than a hostel ever could be. First of all you have your very own tour guide who is extremely proud of their city and wants to show it off. Upon arriving at about 930 pm we were taken to a restaurant with DELICIOUS hamburgers (at Alisha's request). At the restaurant, called the Lunchbox, we indulged in amazing hamburgers made with very fresh ingredients, Belgian fries with mayonnaise and of course Belgian beer. Burgers and beer in Belguim, yummmmm. Then after stuffing ourselves to the last possible fry Jelle took us on a tour of the city at night. It was such a cool way to first see the city because a) we are the only tourists so it's easy to get close to everything b) things look magical at night c) we were newly arrived and very enthusiastic about everything. I think Europeans find our enthusiasm for any semi-old building amusing since they are so used to it. Jelle explained the reason behind the name of the city of Antwerp at the statue of the man throwing the hand. According to an old legend there was a giant that used to ask for a toll to cross the river and if people didn't pay he would cut off one of their hands and throw it in the river. Then one day Barbo (the guy in the statue) slew the giant and cut off his hand and threw it in the river. So Antwerp is derived from hand thrown. Something I really loved about the city was how diverse it was, apparently it has the 2nd most nationalities in the world after New York.

On Saturday after a loverly breakfast provided by Jelle's mom we went to the city with her. She took us the the Market of the Foreigners, which was really cool. There were Turkish booths with olives and bread to sample, Italians with pasta, Spaniards with churros and Belgians with waffles. Alisha and I got our first Belgian waffles which were delicious! Also the waffle man and Jelle's mom were surprised by my Dutch which was funny. After that Alisha and I headed out to see the Maire, which is a gorgeous shopping street. It has all these nice stores in really old buildings. The two that stand out in particular are the Festival Hall which is a mall with gold ceilings and the old palace that now has a Belgian chocolate store. So of course Alisha and I sampled the chocolate!

After that we toured the Cathedral of Our Lady, which is completely stunning. It was also really cool to see because we were talking about that type of architecture in my art history class last week. Also the Gothic style goes along with my Gothic class. After that we met back up with Jelle and he took us to see his favorite parts of the city including a pedestrian tunnel that goes under the river. In Antwerp they have tunnels instead of bridges for crossing the river. It was really cool, the escalators had wood on them and we read that the tunnel was made in 1931. From that part of the river we had an amazing panoramic view of the city. That night we went to a typical Belgian night out called de afreckening. This was basically a ton of people dancing to rock and techno music in a tent outside and it was a lot of fun. Most of the music was American so Alisha and I knew it and had a lot of fun singing and dancing.

Sunday after another delicious breakfast we went into the city to have some gelato and take the train home. Antwerp Central Station is gorgeous, its the 3rd most beautiful train station in the world. It was a really good way to come and go in the city because it's a nice place to be and it's very impressive so you leave with a really good last impression. Overall the weekend was fantastic and Alisha is a great travel companion. Jelle was also a wonderful host along with his family. This was defiantly a weekend I will never forget. Even reading Frankenstein on the train could not bring me down, if you do not already know Frankenstein is one of my least favorite books ever.Upon arriving in Utrecht two of our friends rode to the station on their bikes to pick us up and save us the walk so we rode the Dutch way on the back of the bike. I am getting very used to this and it is a really fun way to travel because you get to see the street zoom by and feel the air without worrying about anything except keeping balanced. It is nice to be back in the bubble though, the break from it has made me love it. Also I decorated my room and rearanged it a littl before I left so when I came home it felt very cozy, very gezellig.

Gezellig

On Saturday night I had a dream that I was in Santa Cruz wandering down Pacific Ave with some of my favorite people and it was actually a little strage waking up to the misty Dutch Sunday. It was very disconcerting to wake up believing I was in Santa Cruz and realize I am nine time zones away.

The semester truly has started, I had my first quiz today and I turned in my first essay on Friday. The nice thing is all the papers and assignments are pretty spread out since there are about 5 more weeks in the semester. I just finished reading my first novel for my Gothic Literature class. The novel is called A Heart of Stone. It is by a Dutch author named Renate Dorrestein and it was a really engrossing and quick read. It is one of those novels that you go into knowing nothing about and become completely pulled in to find out the backstory of the plot. It is a very depressing story, but what story in a Gothic Literature class isn't? If you come across a copy I definitely recommend it. I have also learned a ton about Dutch politics from articles I've been assigned for journalism class, I don't think I will go into it here but if you really want a Dutch civics lesson you can always just ask! Also as far as Dutch need to know things go if you [whoever you are] ever go to the Netherlands you need to know the word gezellig. This is a word that is impossible to translate but loosely means cozy. But that's not right because it's much more than that it can mean a cozy time with friends. It has a very friendly, warm and happy connotation.

My departure from the bubble this week came in the form of a trip to the Dick Bruna House. On Friday Cherry, Sarah and I went to see the exhibit that showcases the work of cartoonist Dick Bruna. He is the creator of Miffy, the main character in a series of children's books. The museum was a fun way to unwind after a week of classes because it mostly involves looking at adorable drawings and playing around with things on the wall. We stopped for coffee in the museum cafe of the adjoining Centraal Museum to wait out the rain before we rode home. I really like the format of the Centraal Museum because they have exhibits continuing into the cafe as well as the locker storage.

This weekend I learned how to bar-tend for the campus bar. A lot of the activities were bonding ones with our team for the weekend. For instance on Saturday we raced through an inflatable obstacle course that was covered in water and soap. Then we had time to dry off in the sun, which was a delicious treat. My first shift is in about 2 weeks and I hope it's fun.

Also this weekend I might *fingers crossed* get to Brussels!

Croqette Day

Monday is croquette day. Croquettes are a mysterious fried food that are strangely delicious. They are also served every Monday in the dining hall, and I enjoy my Monday croquette.

Savoring the Sun

Four weeks in the Netherlands and I have learned to enjoy every moment of sunshine I can, so today I read in the sun and then took a delicious nap on this wooden platform outside of my unit. I have decided to take each sunny day as if it will be my last chance to wear shorts until who knows when. Since arriving here most of the Dutch people I know have been constantly asking "Do you hate the weather yet?" followed by, "Does it rain in California?" No one ever believes me when I tell them how much it rains in Santa Cruz, I think they think I don't know what real rain is. I might agree with them since when last week when the sky unleased it's fury in the form of pouring rain on me and I was informed that the rain that day "wasn't that bad."

After the first week of classes I am pretty excited about the semester. My Beginner Dutch class is pretty standard for a language class. It's odd what you learn at the start of taking a language because really what are the first things you should learn? So we have learned how to introduce ourselves and say what time of year we enjoy vacationing. My professor is pretty cool though he is very energetic and runs from person to person demanding things in Dutch. My Contours and Colors class is fantastic. I really love how small the classes are because a real discussion of the works starts up. Its a nice change from just lectures. Not to say that no one ever discusses things in lectures at Santa Cruz, but it is much more personal here. My International Journalism class is so cool. My professor is British and used to work in the AP office in Amsterdam. We are learning how to do all different styles of journalistic writing from features, to beats, to reviews, to straight news coverage. We use our second class of the week to edit each others work and meet with the professor. I haven't actually had a class for Gothic Literature yet but the reading list looks pretty good. It is a lot of stuff I read in high school, Jane Eyre, Rebecca, Frankenstein, Beloved and some others. We are also reading some short stories which I am excited about. We also get to watch some films and listen to opera. Judging from the background reading the class has a feminist slant which will be really interesting. The only thing I am not too excited about is Frankenstein, it has never been one of my favorites. Other than classes life here has been good. I went to Amsterdam yesterday with my friend who grew up there and she showed me around her home neighborhood. It made me like the city a lot more seeing actual neighborhoods and places from her childhood, it makes it feel more like a real place. We also went by the flower market which was very exciting! Since classes have started life here has started to become much more routine. I am trying to not to fall into the trap that many people who go to UCU do of staying inside the bubble. My goal is to do at least one thing each week that is worth of writing home about so to speak. I know I am here to study abroad first and foremost but it seems a waste if I never leave my campus! So now I will have to have something exciting by next Saturday. Also on Tuesday I will have been here for a month, I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by.

Intro Week Madness

So it is the first sunny day in about a week and I am inside writing this blog because intro week wore me out so much. It was indescribable in some ways, but it really made me feel at home here. Initially I had some worry about being the only California exchange student here for a year but now all that is gone because I have seen how amazing "the bubble" is. On Monday we were assigned our "families." I was the only exchange student in my family, but there were lots of people with international backgrounds. One German guy, a Romanian girl, and all my parents have international backgrounds. We played typical ice breaker games and then sat around getting to know each other. Every day we had various activities like sports day or the fox hunt. And they took us out dancing every night. So by now everyone is exhausted.

In between all the fun I also met with my tutor and found out my classes. I am taking an Art History class called Contours and Colors, International Journalism, Beginning Dutch, and Gothic Literature. It should be a fun semester. Going back to the semester system will definitely be odd but we start on Monday so I will be able to report back on how the classes look by Wednesday.

I have had a few amusing mishaps over the week, and have come out of it a little banged up. On sports day we competed in various sports like football, lacrosse, obstacle courses, bike relay races, and tug of war with other families. While I was practicing going through the inflatable obstacle course a hook on the back of my bra that can connect the straps caught onto the net and made a hole in the back of my shirt. I was completely stuck and had to get my friend Shira to unhook me, it was pretty amusing in the end. The next day, Thursday, we had the fox hunt. Basically we had to go on a scavenger hunt around the city in pouring rain to "save" the UCSA chair. At the various stations we were given assignments and one of them was to do a skit on our family and involve a stranger. While we were sitting at some tables under some umbrellas planning it out it started raining really hard and one of the umbrellas moved a little bit and dumped water all over me. Which was a little shocking at first and then very funny. Yesterday was the Committee trail so we could sign up for various clubs,

I signed up for LitCom, UCTV, a magazine called Scope, TripCo, HumanitarianCo, and DJCO. We'll see how many I stick with but it should be fun.

A little bit about UCU. UCU is a liberal arts and sciences university within the greater Utrecht University. The ability to take classes outside of your major department is actually pretty rare, so a lot of people at this school have very diverse interests. The school only has about 7-800 people in it, and they all live on campus. The reason it is know as the bubble is because since everyone lives on campus, goes to class on campus, eats on campus, and even goes to the campus bar on weekends you don't really leave that often. So far it feels like all the good parts of high school with college aged people. The upside about such a small school is you get to know everyone very fast, and so far people are super friendly. Also the class sizes are very small, for instance I have a 8 person class which means I HAVE to keep up with the reading. My unit is almost full now, 7 of the 9 rooms are full which is nice. Sorry for this rambly flood of information but I really don't know how to explain everything all at once, especially because I waited over a week to do it. Long story short I am falling in love with this school just as much as I have been with this country. OH and I get to put sprinkles on my bread at breakfast everyday, how cool is that?!?! Since I did not take pictures intro week, I let others do the work, here is a long promised kayaking photo as well as some from the Utrecht Cenrtaal Museum.

So happy starting out (it's about 8:30 pm in that picture, can you believe how bright it is?)

Viking ship from 1007

Amazing gelato, blood orange and strawberry :) Also I ordered in Dutch

The Bells, The Bells, The Bells

Today has been a long one, we moved into our UCU housing this morning so I am in my official room for the rest of the year! It is a cross between and apartment and a suite. There are 8 single rooms, a living room with 3 couches, a fridge, a hot plate, and a microwave. There is one bathroom and one shower for every two rooms. There are tons of windows in all the rooms so I am going to enjoy the natural light while I can! I so far only have one roommate, she is Dutch and seems very nice.After dropping stuff off in my room I headed over for our final summer school activity, climbing the Dom Tower with our professors. It was amazing, it is the old bell tower for the church in Utrecht. It used to be part of the church but half the church fell down in a tornado hundreds of years ago. They decided not to clean up the church in the end. The tower has almost 500 steps and amazing panoramic views. Today was a beautiful day - in the 80s - and very clear so we could see all the way to Amsterdam! The bell man also played the bells for us while we were up there because it was 1230, which was incredible. There were some trials though,

for instance we did not get here in time to get bedding and they do not supply us with dishes or hangers or other things useful to people who flew here from 9 time

zones. Getting here also involved walking our luggage here from the bus stop and then speed-walking 20 mins to get to our tour on time. We are about to set off on a bike ride along the canal to get some Dutch pancakes :) This weekend promises to be sunny and full of biking. Oh also the entrance to my apartment is virtually hidden and very hard to find, but I really like the apartment.

Anise Sprinkles

I realized that I have been pretty much keeping a travel journal on here and not really informing you guys about Dutch culture. So before I go to sleep here are some quick things I have learned in the last week or so.

-According to my Professor running red lights on bikes is a national sport. Every time I am stopped at a red light, mind you one SPECIFICALLY for bikes, Dutch people zoom by me I feel like a fool.

-They have liability insurance to cover accidents on their bikes or if they walk through a glass door as well as car and home insurance.

-They insult using words for diseases and the worst one you can use is cancer.

-They are not to nationalistic until it comes to soccer, Queen's Day, and Remembrance Day.

-They love anise flavored things, you can even buy anise flavored warm milk. When someone has a baby they eat anise sprinkles on pieces of hard bread. They are blue and white for a boy or pink and white for a girl.

-The sky here is HUGE, there is nothing breaking the horizon once you leave the city center.

Bear in mind these are generalizations and I will give more details about them as I move in with Dutch people (on Friday!!!!).

Here is a picture of the building I live in now. I was really hoping for thunder today so I could watch the storm from my 13th floor apartment.

I will upload photos of Delft in the next day or so.

Goodnight blog reader whomever you may be.

Maura the Explora - Utrecht Edition

The last two

days I have done a good amount of exploring in Utrecht. Part of it was for an assignment. For my Dutch culture class we had to head into a Turkish and Moroccan neighborhood called Lombok and observe the differences from downtown. It was really fun to explore all the fruit stands and Turkish bakeries. I got a giant loaf of bread for less than 2 Euro! And I have been devouring it. I also treated myself to some baklava. Today I went exploring the central area with Sarah and Nicki. We went to the market that happens a few times a week and made complete touristy fools of ourselves with our cameras. There was so

much there. My personal favorites were the cheese stands because many of them had free samples! But there were also candy sta

lls, spice stalls, and much more. After trying Surinamese food for the first time ever and getting some fresh squeezed orange juice Sarah and I decided to try and find a grocery shop museum. On our way there we ended up at the Domkerk. The Domkerk is a giant Church in a central location of Utrecht. The Domtower is visible in much of the city and is an icon of Utrecht. We found a garden located within the boundaries of the church that was completely gorgeous. It was also full of punk/goth people h

aving professional photographers follow them around. In the courtyard next door there were booths full of goth gear, it appeared to be a sort of hang out or convention. After stopping for directions and some more wandering we finally f

ound it. By museum they meant that it is a candy store that look like an old style grocery shop. I decided to buy some nougat while I was there, which is pretty tasty. I even [sort of] was able to order in Dutch! The woman working in the shop was very sweet and even let me photograph her. After that we got walked back to our bikes and rode home. On the way we got separated, and lost. I have been here for a week and I still get lost all the time. However, I am much better about figuring out the general direction I need to be going. On the way home I stopped in Wilhelmina park for a while to relax by the water and update my journal. Apart from it being nice to get some alone time it is a great place to people watch. There was some sort of event going on with live music and booths. I can't believe it has already been a week, so much has happened so it feels like so long ago that I landed. At the same time it really flew by.

Flying Grape Soda

So for once this is coming online hot off the press so to speak. Having working electricity in my room is doing wonders for my productivity at night. Tonight a group of us UC kids signed up for a canoe trip through the canals of Utrecht. The price included boats, guides, a snack, and a drink. The description said we would be stopping at a cafe...key word stop. When we arrived we met another Californian but also people from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and England. There were about 100 people there, or at least far too many for a kayaking trip. When they said canoes apparently they meant kayaks. I partnered up with a girl named Alana who goes to Berkeley. We were at the front of the pack and floated around for a while in a huge floatila waiting for everyone to get in boats. Then we all set off. Once we started to get into residential neighborhoods it was gorgeous, but on the way in there were many willow tress that Alana and I got pretty excited about. While we were first setting out a moth decided to fly down my shirt, which was very amusing for the boys in the next kayak over while I freaked out trying to get it out of my shirt. After it was gone we returned to the tricky business of paddling in a giant group. About an hour after setting out we came to the promised cafe, where women were handing sodas to people in kayaks who had pulled to the side of the canal. We along with most of the group didn't get the memo soon enough and floated by too fast so they threw us our drinks. My boatmate had not realized what was going on and was hit in the face by a grape soda, she hates grape soda. After the initial pain it was fairly amusing to joke about. They were also throwing us packs of stroopwafels but the general inertia of the group had pushed us too far away. Some of our apartment mates shared their stroopwafels with us, a kind of very popular Dutch dessert. After that we kayaked through the canals in the city center passing by gardens of homes along the canal as well as houses and cafes along the canal. The farther we went the more the group spread out which was much nicer. It was an amazing way to see the city, especially because I am just getting my bearings there. I am really enjoying exploring and finding out how to get around because I really did not have that experience in Santa Cruz since I had already spent so much time there. As twilight set in we went deeper into the city, passing under bridges lit by blue light or from below the water. We could also see bikes that had fallen on the wrong side of the fence along the canal and were hanging by their chain. However by the time it was actually dark I was ready to go home. We were pretty soaked and in the end kayaked for about 3 hours. The night overall was ridiculously amusing between the bug, the grape soda, and the general bumper boats that went on. After we got back on shore we walked back home and all warmed up with some delicious tea, all in all a fantastic night. I didn't bring my camera along because I was worried about it getting soaked so I posted a better picture of my bike. The other one is the entrance to Wilhelmina park, named for the Queen of the Netherlands during WWII and part of my bike ride to school. Other people had cameras so when I get ahold of canal pictures I will share them.

Red Lights, Canals, and Bikes Oh My!

The last two days have been incredibly eventful!

Sunday I went to Amsterdam for the first time apart from the airport of course! I went into the city in a group of twelve other students. We split off into smaller groups and the group I was with decided to go on a canal tour which was a lot of fun. It also got us oriented in the city. After that we met back up with everyone else and grabbed dinner. We later decided to roam around the Red Light District. It was very strange to see them in their boxes on display but it was definitely an experience. Next time I go to Amsterdam I think I will bike in along the Vecht river, it's supposed to be gorgeous.

On Monday we were supposed to start class but to our confusion no one had told us where we were supposed to go. A group of us decided to go to the summer school office in the morning and find out. It turns out it was a huge mistake and they didn't know that we had not been told where to go. So at first only four of us showed up to class but everyone else trickled in as the morning went on. Our class has three parts: Language, Culture & History, and Seminar. During seminar we discuss things while the other part is more of a lecture. So far it's pretty interesting. The best part about Monday was that I bought my bike! During our lunch break I went with another student in the program to get our bikes! It is used and a little rusty in some spots but I am totally in love with it! Riding around Utrecht on my bike is by far my favorite thing I have done. After class there was a movie free to summer school students at a theatre and then we ran some errands before heading home. At about 8:30 I headed out to explore the city with the other girl who got her bike. We rode into the center of the city and just explored canals and bike paths around the center. At about 10 we stopped and ate some amazing cheesecake. It was melt in your mouth wonderful. It was just getting dark at 10 so we rode home and hit the books.

Today I had my first experience of riding my bike in the rain, which was not that bad. The weather is fairly warm and its fun to see the rain on the canals while I ride by them. I am sure I will have a different opinion of the rain once the novelty wears off, but for today it was nice!

I also had my first language class today and I forgot how hard it is learning a new language at the very beginning when you are figuring out how to move your mouth for the new words. Its a little hilarious speaking Dutch though.

My bike is the one on the outside! I will take a better picture later

The cheesecake had passion fruit on top it was so amazing

if you look through this bride you can see a ton of other bridges...supposedly seven. I took this during our canal cruise

Me and Cherry in front of the Amsterdam train station

David buying one of the ridiculous vending machine hamburgers.

Hello Utrecht

It has been a long 24 hours since we touched down in the Netherlands. I met up with 3 other students in the program during my flights and we stuck together to find our way to the summer school office. We ended up taking the train from Amsterdam where we sat in first class [oops] and had a very nice ticket man explain our mistake to us, but he let us stay there. After arriving in Utrecht we split a cab with another student we ran into to the summer school office. When we arrived we had no idea where to go and wandered around for a while until a student from Montreal who was looking for the office too flagged us down. It turns out our information was wrong and the office didn't open until 12. So we grabbed some food at a bakery and sat down on the cobblestones outside. Everyone started to show up so we quickly got to know the other UC kids. After they finally opened they gave us keys directions and bedding that is completly ridiculous. We jumped on a bus to our apartments just as it started raining. After much trial and error we found our building. We are on the 12th floor in an apartment that is suspended over the ground [the picture above is a view looking down]. Strangely enough there are sheep in the field next to us. We cleaned up and headed back out to buy groceries and things we forgot such as towels. After coming home for a quick nap we headed back out. So far Utrecht is really gorgeous city with pretty friendly people.