My last two weeks in Maastricht were amazing. Once it really hit me that my time was almost over and I would be leaving soon, I pushed myself to get something out of every day and do as many things as I could. Sahara and I would eat lunch at the drama school cafe we discovered, which had amazing tuna, kipkerrie, and gehaktbal sandwiches…visit the Christmas market complete with ferris wheel, ice skating rink, and delicious pastries, and did Christmas shopping downtown-it was so beautifully decorated with pine garlands, lights, mistletoe…Maastricht was made to be seen in the winter. Our last two weeks we also discovered an artist co-op “squat” Landbouwbelang  in an old warehouse by the river that had vegan dinners every Monday for 5 euro. It was a totally eclectic place inside, with hippies serving the food and mismatched chairs at all the tables. Our whole group would sit at a big table and it was so cozy..an amazing experience. I only wish we had found out about it sooner. We went to Twee Heren a final time, to the hookah bar, to the Highlander and the Meta…trying to burn all these places into my memory forever.

On the final Wednesday class for my Foreign Policy class, a group of us went to coffeelovers to talk about the semester. I liked the people in that class and I really enjoyed just talking to them. 2 Germans, 1 Dutch=hilarity. And of course I can never resist talking about Dutch politics or hating on Geert Wilders, so it was fun to talk about that too. We decided we wanted to spend some more time with each other before we (me and Suchi, another exchange student) left Maastricht, so the next night we went to make dinner at Willem’s house. Really fun night, to say the least although I think the 5 of us literally went through about 5 wine bottles…not so fun to wake up to the next day. I will never forget it, I can’t honestly say if I will ever have dinner with a group of foreign students (not on exchange) in one of their houses like that ever again.

All the Guesthousers had our White Elephant holiday party on Friday night, which was a kick. We all wrapped gifts and passed them around. I ended up with a showbox full of stroopwafels. not a bad present. Someone (Jonas probably) wrapped up a huge ugly baby doll, which Matt ended up with haha. It was potluck and everyone made delicious food and we played Dutch Sinterklaas music which sounded like small children screeching out words.

The weather started to get reaaally cold-like in the 20s and 30s and I was praying that it would snow. I took one final (Roberta Haar’s class) and wrote one paper in the last week, so it wasn’t too bad (unlike my previous finals week experience). Audra came from Amsterdam on Tuesday and stayed with me until we left on Saturday, so I got to show her around Maastricht which was a lot of fun. On Wednesday as I sat inside UCM  savoring my last few days and writing my paper, it started to SNOW!!! pretty heavy snow too-a couple inches accumulated. it snows all afternoon and into the night. The beauty of it almost brought me to tears, the way the cobblestoned streets and UCM’s courtyard looked like all covered in white powder…it was a complete winter wonderland. Jenn Sahara and I were so excited…we took lots of pictures in it. It completely transformed the guesthouse too, the tennis courts were entirely white! It snowed again the last night I was in Maastricht, as we all biked to Malberg for one last dinner at Kelsey’s. Audra was complaining about that, she certainly isn’t used to biking much less in the driving snow and freezing weather! Nor am I of course, but I was so sad to be leaving Maastricht I was appreciating every snowflake that I felt land on my face and hands. My last days in Maastricht were absolutely beautiful, and I will treasure them always. Saying goodbye to Sahara was so hard, we didn’t even know what to say to each other because we had become so close. After I hugged her goodbye I came back to my room and just cried.

I had the most amazing experience in the Netherlands. I didn’t know anything I was getting myself into in this strange country when I got on the plane in August, and I left it being completely comfortable with Dutch culture, the city of Maastricht, UCM, the Guesthouse, friends from all over the world (shout out to Ruth & Julia in Australia!), and some close close friends from University of CA that I hope I will never lose touch with. The initial transition to Maastricht especially from Utrecht and the DLC was rough, but I learned a lot about myself, including some lifelong lessons, and I know I became a much stronger person because of some of the things I went through. I lived on my own, cooked my own food, did my own shopping, was in charge of my own transportation…traveled around Europe by myself, planned entire trips on my own, crisscrossed the Netherlands by train…there was nothing I couldn’t accomplish. What a feeling. I only wish I had unlimited time and resources so I would have been able to stay there for a year. I will never forget this beautiful country and the people who were so kind and made me feel welcome at all times…what an easy country to live in. One of the most interesting things I learned being in small classes with foreign students was how the United States is regarded as the international hegemon by the rest of the world. Growing up here, our hegemonic status is something I rarely ever thought about, but it is fascinating to see how it the world looks from the perspective of Dutch, Germans, Africans, Aussies, Jordanians, etc. UCM (and PBL) did tend to kick my ass scholastically, but the smallness of it (only 600 students!) and the community feeling was exactly what I was looking for in my abroad experience-by the end I recognized many faces and I felt totally comfortable in the former monastery with its big wooden doors,  common room, courtyard, and cozy reading room in the attic.

Audra and I left for Barcelona on Saturday morning from the Maastricht train station. It was icy cold, clear blue sky, and there was still snow on the ground. It pained me to think this was the last time I would be seeing the Maas river and the medieval walls and churches on its banks in a very long time. I told myself that life is full of transitions, beginnings, and endings…and this journey is just the beginning of something new. The memories are in my mind forever, and the hundreds of pictures I took will fill in the gaps.

As I am back now at UCSB (for a week already!) sometimes I feel as though I am living in a dream world. Or that Maastricht was a dream, I am not sure. No one can understand what I went through, not even Chelsey. I think about it several times a day, especially as I ride my bike on the bike path (how can that not remind me of Holland?) I wonder what the students at UCM are doing right now, what the weather is, if there is more snow, what movies are showing in the movie theater, who is living in my room in the guesthouse…

It has been great to reunite with my sorority friends-easier than I guessed, I think… but I do feel old as a junior. 15 of us  just signed our lease for Big Yellow, 6557 DP a few days ago!  Time has gone by so fast. Still no idea what I will be doing this summer or where I will be. Or what I want to do with the rest of my life, come to think of it. All I know is that the Netherlands will be a part of me forever, and I take joy in remembering the 5 months I spent there, and comfort that I tried to spend every day to its full potential. Oh, and I never once got sick while I was there! Now if that’s not a miracle, I don’t know what is

Tot ziens voor nu, vrienden!

Oh and so is the 10 page paper I am just starting that is due in 3 days…

The night before we went back to Utrecht Jenn and I went to see New Moon!! We bought tickets in advance cause we weren’t sure how crowded it was going to be, and thank god we did because it was packed with dutch people! and more guys there than I would have expected! We were almost trampled on our way into the theater. Real classy, Maastrichters. The movie was great though, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I can’t wait to see it again once I am home.

Our EAP thanksgiving dinner was over two weeks ago. They actually did a really nice job, went all out with the decorations and catering and everything. The next day we were all pretty hungover, so Jenn and I just walked around Utrecht taking it all in & eating at the pannekoeken restaurant on the canal, as that will be the last time I go to Utrecht It will always be special to me because it was my first impression of the Netherlands, and a good one at that! Such a beautiful city.

The following thursday was real Thanksgiving, and Kelsey and her roommate Karen made dinner at their house! They did a great job, it was so good and a lot of fun to celebrate thanksgiving with people from other countries. I’m glad I’m friends with people who actually know how to cook more than pasta and cous cous. haha.

On Friday, I discussion lead for my ridiculously difficult “war in world politics” class from 4-6, which was two hours of torture, thank god I will never have to lead a discussion again in my life! On Saturday morning (at 5:45!), I left for London to meet Audra! I took the Eurostar which was a great experience, despite almost missing it in Brussels. She met me at St. Pancras and it was so exciting to see her! I felt like it wasn’t real or we were in a movie or something. We immediately went to King’s Cross to find platform 9 3/4, a total highlight of my ENTIRE time abroad for sure.

We had a great time in London despite the awful rainy weather that would not let up. We did some shopping, walked on the Thames, ate delicious food & watched movies all cozy in our hostel in Russel Square..went to the British museum and had an amazing time being immature about the mummies and taking pics of them..hahah. We went ot Trafalgar Square and saw a rainbow…ate at Pret a Manger…got our shoes soaked and had to return to Primark to buy new boots! Which really turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we really nearly contracted trenchfoot after all that walking aroung in sopping shoes. not fun. We may or may not have made a stop at McDonalds but don’t criticize us because WE DON’T CARE!!! and it was delicious so there. On Monday I got to go to school with Audra! Which was really neat to see how other programs do things. Hers really seemed like a longer version of our DLC, which I definitely wouldn’t have minded. Anything is better than the slave institution that is UCM.

Although I must admit, UCM is growing on me in certain ways. I actually really like the people in both my classes this period, they are not very annoying school-wise as foreign students can often be. I’ve actually gotten to know some Dutch & German students (not exchange obviously) and although the Dutch (guys primarily) are often kind of awkward, I’m glad I am having this experience of getting to know different cultures.

Anyways, Audra took me to this amazing hummus place for lunch, which was sooo good! There are so many good eating options in London…I love it. I sat in on her class’s discussion about the media and the BBC and learned a few things…always feels good to be productive I left on the Eurostar at 4 and got back home around 10…ew. nothing to be done about trains delays but all in all the traveling went very smoothly and I am thankful for that. It was so great to see Audra and we had so much fun together as always. Some things never change

Now I am halfway through my second to last week of classes…can’t believe I will be leaving UCM and Maastricht soon. I have a 10 page paper due on Monday that I haven’t started..thus I will be staying here this weekend, probably in the library drinking coffee allll day. Sahara & everyone is going to London THIS weekend, so I’ll be alone which is perfect for getting work done ha ha. Audra will come to Maastricht in two weeks and stay with me until I check out of the Guesthouse on Dec 19 and we go to Barcelona! Fun times ahead, but gotta get through 2 papers and a final first.

I’ve been listening to Christmas music/Celtic woman a lot…so perfect for this time of year! It’s quite cold here…40 during the day usually. As long as it’s not raining (like it did all  last week + in London) I will not be complaining.

til next time, sending you chilly wintry hugs from Maastricht!

I got to use some French, turns out I haven’t lost as much of it as I previously thought and it was so nice being able to read and understand everything! On our last night we went into a souvenir shop so I could get a Universite Sorbonne shirt like the poser I am and I had a long conversation in French with the guy! It was so satisfying and I felt like all the french trauma I put myself through at SB maybe paid off. Then when i told the guy it was Sahara’s first time in Paris he gave us free Eiffel Tower keychains. what a guy, right? haha. I was so sad to come back to Maastricht, because Paris really is my favorite city in Europe. It makes me feel indescribably happy and it is so full of beauty wherever you look (except the sewers maybe).

Pere Lachaise Cemetary

Seine river cruise

HOWEVER, I do LOVE Maastricht, it is a beautiful city and it has become familiar and comfortable, and I feel very safe here.

This past weekend I took the train to Duesseldorf to meet Kiara. We stayed in a really nice hotel just outside the city and just had fun talking and relaxing and catching up with each other. She’s the first familiar face I have seen! It rained the whole time and there isn’t really a whole lot to do in Duesseldorf so we basically watched movies and went to Starbucks the whole time. Funny how there are two Starbucks in all of Holland (and I know exactly where they are) but they are on every corner in Germany like in the U.S. Also, note that Spiderman in German is equally as enjoyable as in English. Although the dubbing is quite hilarious.

I have realized I have become so independent..I think its because of the closeness of all the countries here and the transportation..they make it fairly easy for you to make big journies and go on grand adventures and do things last minute..quite the opposite of my life at home. My main goal in coming here was to get myself out of my comfort zone and I definitely accomplished that. Six months ago the idea of traveling around Europe by myself sounded intimidating and I couldn’t imagine myself accomplishing some of the things I’ve done…so yay!

I had some grade drama last week thanks to my former prof not counting my huge paper into my grade and thus failing me…knew something wasn’t right there. Thankfully I barged into his office and demanded that he treat me with some respect and change my grade RIGHT NOW! ok not really but that’s generally what happened so everything is okay now…but I had a really stressful week last week thanks to his mistakes. I love this town but I really am not a big fan of UCM.

This week…well it should be a good one. Burrito night on Thursday followed by the premiere of NEW MOON!!!! and then up to Utrecht for EAP THANKSGIVING DINNER on friday! mmm I am really looking forward to it. The time is going by so fast. Only 5 weeks left…

Au revoir, mes amis!

This past week was finals week…aagh it was so stressful and nervewracking. Mine were on thursday and friday so I had three days to make myself nervous about it…spent them sitting in UCM with my computer reading through notes, with short breaks to go get more coffee or tea from coffeelovers. just the anticipation of those tests was horrible…i hate having something looming over me, not knowing what to expect. so after many hours of studying (hopefully the right things) I took my european integration test, which went ok but not great. unfortunately i didnt manage to memmorize all the bodies of the EU and the details of how they work. I know basics but not details. who can remember all the differences between the european commission, council of ministers, european council, court of justice, or european parliament!!! Or Delors’ three steps to monetary integration of the EU…that one I am mad at myself about because I made a mental note to go over it right before and I forgot to! Ugh…I really did my best though and I know I passed but unfortunately that won’t save my gpa from taking a fatty dive… :/ Anyway that test was theoretically pretty easy because it was only in the school of biz econ’s lecture hall. My test on friday at 9 am was in this random building in the middle of the suburbs a half hour outside the city! I woke up at 650 that morning and met my friend Becca at the bus stop, hoping the bus would come when it was supposed to and not screw us for our final. We ended up getting there early, it was still dark out and freezing cold, and we were huddled around the radiator in this random ass building surrounded by apartments. When they let us in to take the exam, we walked into this huge indoor sport court, with hundreds of desks set up in the entire room. I guess they needed so much space because this UCM class was combined with a UM class, so it was mostly UM students. They had proctors (old men) walking around watching us, it was very intense and SAT like…anways the test wasn’t too bad…it was one where you could answer 4 questions out of 5 so luckily I got to skip one that I didn’t even recognize anything in the question. Hopefully my BSing skills came in handy too. they have served me well thus far in life. One thing that kind of worried me was that I finished both my finals a lot faster than most people…I am chalking it up to the Germans and other foreigners being crazy overachievers/nerds/really smart because I don’t see what the point of sitting at your desk staring at your paper is when you are clearly done…which is what I did for a while. You know what you know, sitting there for a while might only squeeze another sentence or two out of you but it isn’t really going to change anything. And I don’t waste time, so once I was done scribbling out my answers for the Friday test (which took me an hour and a half anyway!) I booked it out of there and took the nicely heated bus home.

That day I was exhausted from lack of sleep so I did grocery shopping and napped…then caught up on tv before going to bed early. Yesterday, since Jenn and I were the only ones here this weekend we had planned to do Halloween shopping downtown. We got parts for our costumes and ate lunch in the V&D cafeteria. V&D is kind of like Macy’s, and their cafeteria has a bunch of different sections of food, like make your own pizza, wok, sandwiches, salads, etc. kind of American-ish and reallly good food. It rained a little bit but overall the weather held up ok. We decided we wanted to go to the movies because neither of us had been yet during our whole time here, when there is a perfectly good movie theater right across the river! So we looked up movie times and decided to see Julie & Julia (the movies were a little outdated) which luckily was in English. Before the movie we stopped at this cafe across the river Zondag (which means Sunday) and got rum hot chocolates, which Kelsey had recommended to us. I am never taking her recommendations again! they basically tasted like a glass of hot rum, and they were so gross we forced ourselves to drink half to warm up at least. I really don’t think that’s what rum hot chocolates are supposed to taste like, I think they should be like hot chocolate with a HINT of rum. anyways, then we went to the movies which was a lot of fun, that is something I have really missed being here. we also saw New Moon posters everywhere, and found out the theater is showing it the night it comes out, Nov 19! so glad we’ll be able to see it here and I won’t be depressed hearing all about it from my friends at home.

Today I slept in and woke up to the pleasant surprise of gaining an hour from daylight savings! thanks computer, I wouldn’t have known otherwise. I start my new classes this week…but again I don’t have class on Mondays so free day again tomorrow too. Nervous to start everything new again…I hate change and don’t want to have to figure out all new teachers/classmates again. I’m also taking two 300 level class which is the top level, so I’m praying they won’t be too hard and I won’t feel as dumb in class as I did the first period, ha ha. I’m currently waiting for Sahara to get back from Venice…I don’t know what’s taking her so long, her flight got into Brussels early this morning..hm. Halloween is on Saturday and I am going to do my best to celebrate it! Ive already bought candy at the store, I have my costume, I have all the Halloweentown movies on my computer and Hocus Pocus, and hopefully it will be a good attempt. Wish me luck this week! <3

oh I guess I should also mention that I knew how to tell them where to go…

The next day, it was Sahara’s idea to visit Volendam, an old Dutch town on the sea north of Amsterdam. So Sahara, Ted, Matt, Mike, and I took a train to Amsterdam, then a bus to Volendam. We visited their museum, had coffee by the water-I was so excited to see the ocean again! and then…Sahara and I took some special pictures, that Volendam happens to be known for. Unfortunately it was a very cold, stormy, day so we were glad to get back on the bus later and make the 3-4 hour something journey home. I love the trains and I don’t mind riding on them at all, but the something bad always happens at the Eindhoven stop, I don’t know why. This time they were fixing the tracks so we had to be bussed to Weert (not to be confused with Geert Wilders, the evil politician) and then another train to Maastricht. Turned into a veryyy long day. But it was fun to get out and see a new town.

This past week I’ve just been doing a  lot of reading for class, drinking a lot of coffee, going to yoga at my new gym, (which I love!), going to class etc. It was also been raining a lot & pretty cold, I am afraid winter may be finally upon us here in Maastricht :/ On Friday night we went over to Kelsey’s for another group dinner which was delicious and lots of fun. Sahara made spinach artichoke dip again which everyone is just fascinated by, and it is so good! I can’t cook so I am usually in charge of the wine. ha ha. Unfortunately it started pouring as soon as we were about to bike back, and I got completely soaked whichw as not fun at all. My new goal is to avoid biking in the rain EVER again. I would rather walk to class with my umbrella, biking in the rain is so awful. All the Dutch bike holding an umbrella, but I have not mastered that yet and don’t think I ever will. Doesn’t help that my bike is kind of junky and I never know if it is going to quit on me or something. Got to take it into the bike shop to get it checked out once I have a moment. The past two days I have stayed inside the guesthouse working on a paper, since it has been pouring rain! Everyone went to Bruges on Saturday but I was too stressed out with work so I stayed. It is supposed to rain today (monday) too but right  now the sky is blue and the clouds are moving very fast. it is cold in my room though, brrr!!! This is the last week of classes for this half of the semester, and finals are next week! aaaagh! very nervous about that. I have a paper due tonight and a paper due on Friday, so I will be kept busy this week. This weekend=no plans again which is nice. I’m just trying to stay healthy and happy, and not think about missing home too much

volendam

the group

we're dutch now.

-Irish accents are so appealing

-the country looks beautiful and green in pictures

-I have a good chunk of Irish blood in me

-St Patrick’s day is an awesome holiday

-I love traditional Irish music

-and I LOVE Enya!

so needless to say I was very excited about this trip. We flew Ryan Air for the first time, since they are an Irish airline they actually fly into Dublin’s main airport (usually they fly into airports way outside of the town you want to go to) but we had to get all the way to random Charleroi airport outside of Brussels. a 3 something hour trip from Maastricht..and then our plane was delayed an hour. (Ryan air’s slogan is ‘the on-time airline’) Ryan air is crappyyy…but I guess you can’t beat the price. once we finally got to Dublin we took a cab to our hostel. The cab driver was super nice and had the greatest accent…he gave us some ideas for things to do. Our hostel turned out to be really nice as well…centrally located, super clean, and a really nice little room with 5 beds…perfect! no creepers to worry about this time.

so that night even though we were exhusted we figured since we gained an hour we should go walk around. this was our first inroduction to Temple Bar, the pub area. it was absolutely crazy, kind of reminded me of Isla Vista with trash everywhere and drunk people meandering around. everyone was very friendly and people would stop us on the street to talk to us and ask where we were from. and I just didn’t get that sketchy creepy vibe that you usually get when drunk people in a big city approach you. I felt totally safe. We went into a bar and ordered Irish Car Bombs, figured I had to say I did one in Dublin! It was nasty beer so i didn’t enjoy it all that much, but the pub was a crazyyy experience. people of all ages!

The next morning we got up early and took this neat little tram over to the Guinness Brewery! this is a big attraction in Dublin…they put a lot of effort into making it huge and nice and with lots of entertainment. I don’t really even like/care about beer and I really enjoyed myself. it’s basically a museum with a bunch of levels and you work your way to the top, where there is the Gravity Bar with a 360 degreee view of the city, and your free pint awaits you! I was disappointed that I literally could not drink my pint, I thought Guinness was so nasty my friends didn’t want it to go to waste, so they drank it for me. haha. after we walked back over to Temple Bar to have brunch at Elephant & Castle! We found out about this place from a NY times guide to Dublin, and it was the most amazing meal ever. I had the best oatmeal and tuna sandwich and hot chocolate. oh my gosh. all my favorite memories involve food!

We then walked over to Trinity College, which is super famous and has a gorgeous Harvard-like campus in the middle of the city. It also has a famous library that houses the Book of Kells, but you had to pay to enter and my friends didn’t want to pay so I missed seeing a beauuutiful library We were exhausted at this point, so we walked back to our hostel to take a nap. on the way i found Starbucks and got a chai latte just cause i missed it so much!

After our naps we went to get fish & chips for dinner, and then walked to city hall to meet up with our HAUNTED BUILDINGS WALKING TOUR!!! our guide was this creepy guy in a suit carrying an open umbrella, and he took us around the city and told us lots of awesome scary stories. such a highlight, I love doing stuuf like this! and there are so many old buildings in Dublin, you just know there is amazing history connected with each one. a good precursor to Halloween as well I would say. after that we met up with Jenn who was there with her parents, and we went back to the hostel to drink wine before we went out. We went to some bars that were recommended to us and it was really fun. same experience with the people, the Irish are just so friendly! Adrienne and I ended up going back early as usual, because we get tired really easily and we had a very early flight the next morning. we made it to the airport with no problems, and had an uneventful trip back home. so sad that Ireland was such a quick trip, I hardly feel like I saw anything and of course I am dying to see the countryside BUT i will go back there one day, hopefully with my mom to visit towns where my family lived.

laughing in the airport while our plane was delayed

at the guinness gravity bar

with my oatmeal!

trinity college

in the airport...that language (i don't even know it's proper name) is UNPRONOUNCEABLE

tot ziens xoxox

Road Trip to Germany-My parents rented a car and we drove over to Germany on Friday night. Our original plan was to eat dinner once we reached the town we were staying in on the Rhine, however we got sidetracked by the IKEA in Heerlen, about 20 minu from Maastricht. Ikea has a ton of things I needed, like towels and tupperware and throw rugs and BLANKETS! yes I discovered blankets do exist in Europe, but only in Ikea. Anyways I have never been to Ikea before even though we have them at home, so this was pretty exciting for me. Such a massive store! Makes Costco look small. Of course after all our shopping and running around were were hungry and guess what, Ikea has a restaurant! So we ate there, I had Dutch meatballs with fries & mayo, of course. It was a great experience and I am now obsessed with Ikea. After that was done we continued driving through Aachen and Cologne and a few other cities until several hours later and one twisty road down a canyon we reached Bacharach, a tiny town on the Rhine river. I can’t even describe this town except to say that it looked straight out of Snow White or some other Disney movie. The buildings were cute and perfect and the cobblestones were the only form of street.

For Saturday we planned to take a boat up the Rhine to see all the castles.

We got off the boat in St. Goar and hiked up the hill to tour its castle!

view from the top!

They were having a festival in St. Goar so once we got back down the mountain, Dad and I got brats and pretzels!!! sooo delicious. German food is amazing but very heavy, not unlike Dutch food.

yum!

After taking a beautiful boat ride back to Bacharach, we were exhausted and took naps, then went out for dinner in a restaurant in a very old house that looked like it belonged in Fantasyland. I love these little German towns! We had schnitzel, fries and apple crisp, and delicious riesling wine. The next day we drove to another river valley and a more traditional looking castle, which we toured. It was nestled all alone in the middle of this lush forest, with all the leaves changing color it was absolutely beautiful!

Burg Eltz...doesn't it look like a fairy tale?

fall colors!

After, we drove back to Maastricht (stopping at McDonald’s on the way, which was really thoughtful of my parents haha and I enjoyed it immensely! don’t tell anyone.) and went to dinner at an Asian restuarant near UM called ginger. it was delicious! the restaurants here are all so amazing, it feels like a crime to not be dining out every night but of course this is impossible. The next morning, it was time for mom & dad to leave for Paris, and then home. We had breakfast, I gave them a quick tour of UCM, and they left sad to see them go, but so happy they visited because I miss them a lot and now they can picture where I am spending all my time!

Well I hope pictures made this post more interesting, but it is very time consuming to put them in so I don’t know how often I will be doing that. I am back from Dublin as of yesterday and I will update about that later.

For now, a few last things:

-I have a Dutch bank account at ING now!

-I joined the Maastricht Athletic Club and am going to my first yoga class tomorrow! Gosh I have missed it.

-This weekend while Kelsey Jenn and Karen are at Oktoberfest, Adrienne Sahara and I are going to do some Dutch roadtripping, possibly to Leiden and hopefully to Volendam, a traditional (and surely touristy) town north of Amsterdam.

peace.