The randomness that is my life...

So, apologies for being MIA recently. Life has been busy for sure...I've been doing some intense traveling recently.

Picking up from last week, I flew to Prague on Wednesday night, thus missing my Thursday class. Fortunately for me, Thursday class was canceled anyways due to my professor getting into a bicycle accident (really unfortunate for him...no worries, he is okay). So I met up with Hannah in Prague and from Prague, we took a train straight to Berlin the next morning. Berlin was absolutely amazing. We went to Museum Island and inside the National History Museum where we saw that famous picture of Martin Luther. We also walked down Idiot's Mile (currently a fabulously expensive street called Unter Den Linden), named this because during the Cold War, it was all that visitors to the East saw and this gave them little idea of the city. We saw statues of Frederick the Great and Bismarck amongst plenty other statues. We went into St Hedwig's Cathedral, which wasn't that majestic inside. We also saw Berlin Cathedral, a Protestant Church that was built in 1905 to look like it was built in the 1600s or so! We learned a lot about Karl Friedrich Schinkel, a very famous architect in Berlin who designed many of the famous sites we saw. Of course we also walked through Brandenburg Gate on many occasions. It's my favorite site in Berlin because of the history behind the gate. Legend is that every army that's occupied Berlin since (1800s?) has walked through the gate. It's beautiful and sits in Pariser Platz along with the U.S. Embassy (Hooray!).

Aside from those sites, my favorite story of the trip is Hannah and I went to take a walking tour of Berlin last Friday where I (randomly) run into Colleen, Lauren's hallmate who I met a couple of weeks ago in London! She happened to be meeting a couple of friends in Berlin for the weekend but they weren't arriving until later in the night, so she ended up spending the day on the tour and hangin' out with us. We met up for drinks later that night and drank some Berlinerwis (some strawberry or green apple beer). Seriously, what a small world!

Okay, so more things we did in Berlin was to go walk to the top of the Reichstag, where German Parliament resides. We also walked over the bunker where Hitler shot himself and walked through the Jewish Memorial as well as several other WWII/WWI and probably some other war memorials. Of course we also saw the Berlin wall and straddled the line where the Berlin Wall once stood between East and West Berlin. We walked through Tiergarten and saw the Victory Column where Obama spoke at last summer. We saw the famous Hotel Adlon where Michael Jackson dangled that blanket outside of the balcony. We saw Checkpoint Charlie where there was a pretend guard by day and male stripper by night (no joke). We also went to Potsdamer Platz and Alexander Platz (both not very exciting, so skip it if you're in Berlin). Finally, we wrapped it up by seeing Charlottesburg Palace, which had a backyard the size of Tiergarten (imagine a smaller version of Central Park in NYC) and a lake. All of this would have been much more enjoyable had the weather not been snowy, rainy, or cold as it was when we were there. However, the food was pretty cheap and the cost of living in Berlin seemed pretty low. Even though rarely anybody spoke any English, I still had a great experience. I would definitely recommend Berlin as a city to see one day. The history behind the city is so incredible and the architecture was so cool, somewhat different from the rest of Europe.

I'll write on Prague and post pictures a little later. I just wanted to go ahead and get this up.

As a side note, Wharton just informed me that I do have to take another class at Erasmus (even though this class wouldn't really fulfill any necessary requirements for me), thus completely ruining my plans to end class on March 5th and travel extensively through Europe. Darn! No worries, I still found a class that only meets once a week on Wednesdays.

Life in Rotterdam

So what have I been up to lately? Not too much, I love my life here in Europe. I hang out and travel...A LOT! I went to a Euro night/dance club last week called Club Watt where dancing on the dance floor(s) generates electricity for the club. how cool is that?! By the way, one thing I learned is that you just wear SNEAKERS to clubs...I realized why after 5 hours of dancing in heels! I also went to Utrecht, another picturesque town in Holland. This is a picture in front of one of the many beautiful churches in Holland. In Utrecht, there are a ton of second-hand shops. You could find old clothes (I even thought of buying some clothes/shoes but it didn't fit), old movies, old electronics, teapots, and whatever else you could possibly ever need! I realized Dutch people are VERY thrifty.

So other than Utrecht, I went on a boat tour through the Rotterdam harbor (the second busiest port in the world! used to be busiest but Shanghai took its spot several years ago). It was a pretty classy affair...there was a mini-bar inside the boat! I think I may try and go on an extended tour to get more insight into the shipping industry here in Rotterdam.

Anyways, moving on, this weekend I went to a tennis tournament here in Rotterdam. It was the ABN-AMRO (a Dutch Bank) Tennis Tournament. I watched the quarterfinals where Rafael Nadal (currently #1 ranked tennis player) played against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga. It was a rather good match, a very tight game. Nadal wins (but to my delight, loses the tournament in the finals...I'm not a very big Nadal fan, he's constantly pulling at his underpants in games amongst other things).

Another thing I did this weekend was to throw a Valentine's Day Party for the exchange students. It was good times; I turned my common room into a mini dance floor. I even decorated my apartment, which explains why my roommate and I are sitting with heart-shaped pillows in the picture below. Lastly, I don't think I ever gave you an idea of my life here in Rotterdam. I live in the middle of a shopping center, an entire shopping mall is right outside my door.
I have my own room and share an apartment with my roommate. Here's a picture of me with my roommate. As mentioned in an earlier post, we get along really well. We cook together pretty often, and I feel have gotten to know her very well. She's from the island of Curacao and I am already planning to go visit one day. Anyways, life is good, for sure. I hope all is well with you.

Lots of love from abroad! Stay tuned for Prague and Berlin...

A place where I can understand, well, kind of....

Picking up where I left off, it's been a rather insane past week.

Last Thursday, right after class ended around 4p.m., I took two trains, a bus, and then a plane to London airport only to take yet another train to get into the city of London. After finally arriving, I met up with Lauren (a friend from Penn).
I dragged Lauren all around London and did the usual touristy things. We took the usual "phone booth" pictures and we went to Covent Garden and witnessed several magic shows and ate the sweetest cupcake I had ever had! Afterwards, we walked to Trafalgar Square where I successfully climbed (read a stranger pulled me up) onto a lion statue.

Here's the fantastic picture of me actually on the lion.
So aside from statue climbing, we went to see Big Ben/Parliament and of course Westminster Abbey, where I took this awesome photo without cars even though the street was insanely busy! Of course we also went to Buckingham Palace and took a picture with one of those no fun guards. We went to Notting Hill and saw the travel bookshop (YES, like the movie!). We walked through Portobello Market (with the best dessert shop ever, Hummingbird Bakery!) and picked up fresh food to cook later that night. We even saw some dogs driving a car, yes right there in the market. haha Yes, awesome, I know!

On Sunday, we went to East London and ate some fantastic Indian food (yes, I think London probably has better Indian food than India!). We went to the bar where Jack the Ripper met all of his victims; it's still a bustling bar regardless of that fact! We went to another market and then it started snowing in London. I happened to be in London for the worst snowstorm it has had in 18 years! We had a snowball fight and made a miniature snowman. Also, despite the snow, Lauren and I still schlepped around the city and went to the British National Museum. That was the last fun thing I did because I ended up having to spend the night in the London Stansted Airport. It was disgusting, but due to the snow, a lot of busses/trains/planes were delayed or canceled. I wanted to make sure I was there in time for my 7a.m. flight out so I could make it to my Tuesday class, so spending the night in the airport was my solution.

To end my post, I arrived back in Rotterdam in time for a nice shower and my Tuesday class. And here I am, on a Thursday night, resting up instead of going out and finally realizing that I actually do have classes and an abundance of homework to do.

Cheers!!

Silliness

I just wanted to post this, because I figured you all would enjoy it.

So I have class usually on Tuesdays-Thursdays. Coupled with the fact that I have a group meeting on Wednesday in a different city right after my Wednesday class, I was flipping out. I ate breakfast/lunch in record speed (since as most of you know, I never wake up early enough to do anything) and then rushed to class, just to realize that my Wednesday class doesn't start until NEXT WEDNESDAY!! Haha...I'm an idiot...I showed up to a completely empty class.

Hope this gave you a chuckle.

Integrating...

Hey everybody!

Sorry my update is coming a couple of days late this week. Things are getting busier and busier here, so I'm not sure how frequent my updates will be, but I'll try and keep them coming.So my Dutch class ended last Tuesday and my exam was this past Monday. Here's a picture of my class and our teacher.

On Wednesday thru Friday, I had an "integration" trip with other students from the exchange program. These students came from all around the world, one from Austrailia, others from Brazil, a few from the US and Canada, etc. I was a bit skeptical of the trip at first, but it turned out to be a lot more fun than expected. We started with several acrobatic tricks/trust exercises. It was the FIRST TIME EVER that I was considered "light" and asked to be the "flier" rather than the base. I did many things ranging from standing on top of someone's shoulders while he himself was also standing to doing a headstand, etc. Here's a good picture of the group, I am on the top left side.

Aside from the acrobatic tricks, we ate A LOT of bread and cheese (typical Dutch food) for lunch and for breakfast and sometimes for dinner, too. We did some team-building workshops and exercises and played some silly games. The best part was there was a bar in the place that we stayed...I think you get the idea that drinking is a big part of the social life here. It was even included in our fee, I imagine, to have several drinks paid for by the school. All in all, we had a great time getting to know one another. I made a lot of friends and was even introduced to my team for our International Business Project. I found out I'll be consulting, along with four team members (one from Brazil, one from Netherlands, one from Canada/India, and one from Taiwan), for a company that provides a platform for carbon-emissions trading.

For the weekend, I decided to stay in Rotterdam and see a bit more of the city, especially since I had the exam on Monday. I went to the Euromast, the highest point of Rotterdam, and took some great pictures. There were some crazies even repelling on the side of the building. I also met a random student from Ireland and had coffee with her (I know, I meet a lot of people randomly!). Here's a great picture of Rotterdam, with the Erasmus bridge, a famous site in Rotterdam. Aside from site-seeing in Rotterdam, I didn't do much else. I go to a market here on a weekly basis, it has everything from old washing machines to bikes to tons of different fresh fruits/vegetables/fish/etc. I also finally figured out that I was biking on two very deflated tires; I love biking now that I fixed that problem! Lastly, I started normal classes today (Tuesday) and it's very different from the US. I realized there's A LOT of interaction here between professor and students during class. So yeah, I think that wraps up my latest news.

I leave for London on Thursday so stay tuned for some exciting updates and pictures!

Legality is Amazing...

So I've now officially been in Holland (also known as the Netherlands) for over two weeks. It's cloudly all the time in Holland...here's a goofy picture for you.

For week #2, I finally figured out how to ride my bike. I've been dropping pounds since riding a bike here is more exercise than I have ever done in the States. haha. While on the subject of bike-riding...apparently, people here bike to the clubs/bars (sober or not sober?) and then bike back home (probably not sober this time)! I had my first experience with this the other night, while biking home from a jazz club. I have to admit, it was a pretty interesting experience. Try it for yourself sometime (actually, don't do it, there aren't enough bike lanes in the U.S.).

So other than biking, my dutch class is going well. I don't do any homework or studying for it, so I doubt I'll learn any real dutch. It doesn't help that everyone here speaks english so there's really no need to learn dutch. Class has been fun, we (the students) went on a field trip and then had a drink with our teacher on Wednesday (he bought me a beer, no worries, I'm legal here!). Then we had een feest (a party in Dutch) on Friday and he brought wine and each of us brought a food to share. Hah, I know, I'm clearly not taking any real classes in Holland.

Alright, I've saved the best for last. On Saturday, I went to Delft, a town about a 15 minute train ride from Rotterdam. It's known for it's lovely blue-patterned Delftware (plates, vases, etc.). Here's a picture of Emma and me on a large Delft chair outside of the Het Prinsenhof museum. We did some whirlwind museum touring since I'm an uncultured non-museum liking person. haha.
We saw the "Olde Kurk" and "Niewe Kurk" (yes that means Old and New Church), which look the exact same to me. We went to a street market and then walked around the city a little more. The city is known as "Baby Amsterdam," same scenery with smaller canals and less notorious, of course. It's beautiful, so if you ever get the chance, definitely go.

On Sunday, I went to Den Haag (The Hague), which houses the International Court of Justice. Here is a picture of the ICJ and then me with the World Peace Flame.


Aside from the ICJ, I saw the house of the Netherlands Parliament. On one side of the building is a beautiful refection pool/small pond and on the other side is a grand square. I have pictures from both, but here is a neat picture of the building with the reflection pool.
Another neat thing about Den Haag is the Mauritshuis Museum. It houses many works of Johann Vermeer, including "Girl with Pearl Earring," which I think is considered the Netherlands Mona Lisa. The museum is connected to the buildings of Parliament and is also connected to the reflection pool. It's definitely an amazing museum and would highly recommend it (I enjoyed it, and I don't even usually like museums!).

That wraps up the highlights from my weekend trips. Stay tuned for more...

Wishing you all the best!

Fun First Stories...

So a few things that would of course only happen to me...

I arrived in Amsterdam last Friday, and of course, my phone that I bought for Europe doesn't work. Of course, me being me, I also didn't have the phone number of the person I needed to reach to get my keys....that person was supposed to call me. Well, with a broken phone, I began walking cluelessly around Rotterdam Center (aka downtown Rotterdam) with two suitcases, a backpack, and a large totebag (yeah i don't know how I survived or didn't get mugged either). By the way, to be clear, I do have a working phone now and you can reach me by any of those many numbers I gave you.

Anyways, so lucky me, a stranger, who looked friendly enough, offered to help me with my suitcases and find the internet slash get to my keys. Don't worry, I only agreed b/c she was a female in her early thirties. Turns out, she is the nicest person in the entire world, a dutch teacher to foreigners so she spoke fluent english...told me about the movie "Pay it Forward" and helped me get internet and reach the person with my keys.

I must have some good karma b/c the person who had my keys is a really nice guy who helped me find my way around for the next couple of days. I'm also convinced he has a crush on me, but I'll leave that for another story.

I have dutch class five days a week for five hours each day...yeah, rough I know!

I went to Amsterdam on Saturday and almost got run over by a bus...not even kidding, it was like several inches from my face.

I got a bike and ran into a pole because I hadn't ridden a bike since I was less than 10 yrs old.

Oh, and remember random stranger who helped me...yeah she invited to to her house for dinner with her and her family...and I went (because she seemed nice enough, I know, I trust easily)...so I had a homemade real dutch meal. (although they usually never cook dutch food b/c they don't like it).

Finally, my room/roommate are both amazing. (this is a hint for you to come visit me!) My roommate is from Curacao, very very sweet, silly and ditzy. I think I got super lucky!

Attached are a few random pics...click on them to make the pictures bigger.