Journal 4

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Wow so much time has passed since Rome. Classes started and in between that and having the time of my life I have not had much time.

Luckily I only had to take 2 classes that met 4 days a week. Other friends that I have take 4 classes that meet all 5 days and are up to their ears in homework. I took an Introduction to Celtic Studies course which took aspects of linguistics and archeology and classical literature rolled up into one stupendously hard final exam. My second class was called Present Day Dutch Society, which was basically entirely made up of foreign exchange students. It dealt with different aspects of the Dutch culture ranging from the typical stereotypes of the Netherlands to the actual drug laws, to political history, to government make up and everything in between. On the first day of class, she had a list of every single country represented in the class and we were required to write words that we first think of when we think of the country. She printed up our answers and we discussed them in the next class, and to me, the only thing that this assignment accomplished was make you hate everyone not from your country. Under the American box were adjectives like 'lazy' 'fat' 'stupid' ect. I guess I can’t say I’m not surprised nor can I complain because one German girl started to cry because she was labeled with words like 'nazi' and 'Hitler'. I don’t think that this was the intention of the professor, and the class got better after that.

It is fun knowing people all over Europe. The friends who I went to visit in Rome can to Utrecht on a couple weekends. I like showing off Holland, but everyone automatically wants to go to Amsterdam. It is fun, but they don’t even want to see Utrecht. I was able to convince one of my friends to stay behind while her friends went into Amsterdam and we had the most fun that I have had in Utrecht. We rented a paddleboat and did a canal tour through parts of Utrecht that I had never seen before. After that we climbed the Dom Tower and it was new to me because I had never been to the top with sunny weather.

By the time I had a free weekend I was ready to get out of Utrecht. One of my best friends since kindergarten is studying in Leiden, about 20 miles west of Utrecht. Leiden is a smaller town and has a totally different feel than Utrecht. Matt said that Leiden has the longest shopping street in Western Europe, but that cant be right. On that weekend there was a huge festival celebrating the successful perseverance of the Spanish Siege in 1576. Apparently as a reward, the King at the time offered the city a choice of rewards: either a university or the abolition of taxes. Matt now studies at the oldest university in the Netherlands.
Anyway, this festival was like nothing I had ever seen before. Leiden in a small European city with narrow streets and they were packed with midway booths, rides, good food, shopping, bars, farmers markets and people. The festival was huge. We would just walk around the corner and find a small square that is occupied by a Ferris wheel, falafel stand, 4 beer tents, and petting zoo. And it was like that for about 1 square mile. Once we got through everyone in the square, we got on a street and found ourselves in between a marching band a float. There were about 11 of us and we all had whistles, so we decided to become part of the parade for a good 10 blocks. It was cold and pouring the entire night, but we had so much fun.

I didn’t think that anything could be better than LeidenFest, but the next weekend we went way up north to the West Frisland Islands. Unfortunately we could only stay one night, but I will never forget it. West Terschelling is a tiny fishing village on Terschelling island and the hostel where we stayed was right on the water about 1 kilometer outside of the town. There were 4 of us and it didn’t take us long to walk around the city. We sat down at a restaurant and decided to go all out for dinner and it was well worth it. The 4 course meal consisting of soup, salad, the most amazing fish I have ever had, dessert and coffee was vastly superior to the pasta with pesto sauce that I usually make for myself in Utrecht. We walked to the point of the harbor where the lighthouse was and it was so windy we could stand at a 60 degree angle and still be supported by the wind. There were no lights besides the completely full moon on the way back to our hostel. The next day we rented bikes and went to explore the island. We rode to the north sea and completely around the island.

Weekends have been low key since then. We tried to go to a soccer game which is within spitting distance of my dorm room, but it runs out that they don’t sell tickets the day of the game. Apparently everyone that has a ticket goes to the game, because we couldn’t even find any scalpers. It just gives me something to look forward to when I finally go. The other week a couple friends and I put together some songs and performed them and an open mic on campus. I thought that only a couple kids would show up, but there was a good 50 people there. The other acts were good and I thought that there was no way that we could continue the trend. We held our own, however, and the people were getting into our songs. I have now been identified as the guy who plays either the ‘mini-guitar’ or the ‘ukulele’, depending on who you ask. Finals finished yesterday, so I’m taking my mandolin to Ireland for 10 days. When I get back, Jean will be here and we have plans for Berlin and smaller trips to other cities in Holland. It occurred to us one night over dinner that we have less than 2 months and we started freaking out because we haven’t come close to seeing everything that we wanted to see. Right then and there, a long weekend was set for Prague on the first weekend in December.

Needless to say, things are going great. More pictures have been posted at http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n216/whoaday07/.

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