What nice weather!

It's been quite a while since I've updated this blog, my apologies. Spring is on it's way...the weather has greatly improved in just the past couple of weeks. It's made me totally disregard school and just hang out 24/7...hah, that's pretty much been the theme of my abroad "studies."

Anyways, so in the past couple of weeks, a lot has happened. I went to Antwerp with my roommate, her boyfriend and his bestfriend. That was a lot of fun; it was my first trip to Belgium. I tried Belgian chocolate, which is delicious for sure, but I can probably find the same in the Netherlands (probably not in America, though). I also tried a Belgian waffle...it was delicious. Caroline described it perfectly when she said it was like a piping hot doughnut from Krispy Kreme in the form of a waffle. Yummy! There is a lot of shopping in Antwerp, and I bought a nice Spring/Summer bag. That's a picture inside the mall where I bought the bag. We walked around, hung out, went to a pub, had a couple of Belgian beers. It was relaxing for sure.

After Antwerp, not much happened until Grace and Caroline came to visit! That was such an insane week, with some beautiful weather! We did a lot while they were here. We traveled around Amsterdam, here's a fun picture. We did typical Amsterdam stuff, Rijks and Van Gogh Museums and the Anne Frank House. We went on a quick run through of the red-light district (apparently, there's a red light district in many large cities of Europe, Amsterdam is just the most famous, I think?). We went on a boat tour and had some Holland pancakes (a little bit flatter than the ones in America, tastier, I think).

After Amsterdam, we went straight to Leuven, a student town in Belgium. We met up with a friend, Petronille, and toured the city a bit. Here's a picture of her school's main library...yeah Van Pelt just does not compare. We saw the town hall, here's a fun picture of it lit up in green!





That night, we went on a fun bike ride to a Spanish-themed bar and had one of those long thought-provoking conversations about life and beliefs, etc over a jug of sangria. Haha. It was surreal to be hanging out with Mobilians in EUROPE!

The next morning, we woke up early to head to Brussels. We saw a lot of cool things, including two peeing statues (one of a boy and the other of a girl), they seem to really like the peeing statues in Europe. Yes, he is dressed as the Dalai Lama to celebrate some anniversary? We had some Belgian beer (a little bit too much for me and Grace) at a bar that holds the Guinness record for varieties of beer, I think? We went into a gigantic Catholic Church, it's nice they don't charge to see such beautiful churches! We saw some other pretty cool things, like a great view of Brussels and a gigantic Iron Molecule called Atomium or something? We ended the day with some Belgian chocolate and waffles, mmm...yum!

After Belgium, Caroline and Grace hung out in Rotterdam for a couple of days. We met up with Caroline's former next door neighbor who happens to be from Rotterdam (I know, what a small world!). We walked across Erasmus Bridge (first time I had ever walked across the bridge, even though it's a ten minute walk from my apartment!). We rode a water taxi (never done that before!) and went on the Euromast (highest point in Rotterdam, I've discussed this before). We went to Delft, one of my favorite cities in the Netherlands and saw where they made this famous Delftware. For the most part, we just hung out in Rotterdam, took it easy. I had class the next day, but told Caroline and Grace to check out the windmill in Delfshaven. Unfortunately, I told them to take the tram going in the very opposite direction. This was pretty much a theme of the trip, go in the opposite direction that Diep says to go. Anybody who has traveled with me knows I am not very good with directions. Luckily, they found their way back, a bit frustrated with me, but that's okay. :-D We had dinner with Romy (Caroline's former neighbor) and her family later that evening; we had a traditional dutch meal: Stomppot with bacon and vla & coffee for dessert. Dutch food is really starting to grow on me. We even had bread with butter and chocolate sprinkles (yeah, try that for breakfast when you get the chance, that's what they eat here).

So that wraps up what I've been up to for the last few weeks. I had an exam the Monday after Grace and Caroline left...we'll see how I did on that. haha. Lately, I've been just hanging out. Kelly, an intern from over the summer who currently works for Coke in Madrid is coming to visit me tomorrow! I'll be on the road again soon and writing about my adventures yet again.