Hi! Miss you.

Hey Everyone,

I am sorry that I have become lazy with the blogging, so much has happened its hard to keep track! The first few weeks (now almost 2 months! ah!) have been amazing. We've done some short trips to other cities in Holland-such as the Den Haag, where the seat of the government is, I went to a small town Dordrecht-the oldest city in Holland, and few other random stops on the way to pick up a residence permit in Rijswijk. Holland is beautiful! and very flat! It's such a change from the mountains I am used to back in Asheville. It's a definitely a densely populated city type of country. I am in a "town" technically, and literally 5 minutes from me you can find cows, horses, sheep-farming basically, while on the train to go into the next city. The trains are actually pretty easy to use, a huge relief, and contrary to what would make sense "sneltrein" actually means the fast train-so, you don't have to stop in every city along the way. Dutch people are beautiful-it's ridiculous I never thought I would be considered short in height, but here the women are all at least 5'9, it's great for buying shoes-they all have big feet too! Everyone is extremely friendly and will help if you just ask. Unlike home, random people will very rarely stop and say hi to you on the street in passing, but they are willing to help and I have been stopped a few times by people on the street asking me directions in Dutch-I can only imagine what my face must look like to them *deer in headlights*

The "true" Holland weather, rain rain and more rain, has yet to really begin, but from talking to other international students (dutch too!) it's not too far away. Recently, it's been about in the 60s and mostly sunny-great for all the walking and biking they do around here. That's another thing, for all the crappy sugar-heavy, fried foods they eat there are really NO fat dutch people-at all, no where! I don't get it! Granted, they do a lot of biking, but after awhile you would think it doesn't do much for you. I have been learning a lot from the other international students here-we have people from all over the world. It's amazing to hear their stories about home, friends, school it just makes me realize how small of a world we really live in.

So, for all of the traveling done within Holland, we have had our fair share of going to other countries as well. Our first stop was Belgium-we went to Brussels and Leuven both amazing places. The history here is so rich and they have incredibly buildings it's hard to really see all of a place, or get a feel for it without spending a few days there. We saw the Mannequin Pis, the statue of the little boy peeing, we happened to be in Brussels on the 60th anniversary of its liberation-so, the dressed up the Mannequin in a sailor outfit, and crazy Belgians, they pumped beer through the statue and were handing it out in the streets-truly weird and awesome. In Leuven, we met up with one of my friends, friends from home-does that make any sense? A girl from Leiden-her friends from UCLA are studying in Strasbourg, France and happened to be in Belgium- there we go. We toured the Stella factory-lots of fun. And walked around the town where there was a carnival.

So, this has become incredibly long, I apologize for the length-the next entry will be about our Oktoberfest adventures and the liberation of Leiden festival. I miss you all so much! I wish I could transport all of you here with me and let you experience this place-it truly is incredibly.

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