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.

Rainy and Cold in Praha

So after Berlin, I spent about two days in Prague. Hannah took me to Prague Castle and through Malestrana (Old Town) or something along those lines. We walked around the city and wandered into the town square which houses the Old Town Hall that has the famous astronomical clock (which apparently strikes at every hour, but is really not that exciting so I didn't take the time to watch). Prague is known for its Bohemian glass but I knew I wouldn't be able to carry it home without it breaking, so I didn't buy any. We saw the Peeing Man statue, which is a graphic fountain. We also walked across Charles Bridge, which was my favorite thing to do while I was there. It's a bridge with religious statues going down it. Here's a good picture of Charles Bridge with part of Prague in the background.

Here I also touched the St. Stephen (the Czechs love this man, statues of him EVERYWHERE!) statue for good luck!

We saw the infant of Prague, a baby Jesus doll that sits inside the Church of Our Lady Victorious. Found from Wiki: One day, while praying before the statue, Father Cyrillus heard a voice say, "Have pity on me, and I will have pity on you. Give me my hands, and I will give you peace. The more you honor me, the more I will bless you." We also went to the John Lennon wall, where John Lennon once wrote peace and now there is writing that usually relates to John Lennon all over the wall. We also saw the Dancing House building by famed architect Frank Gehry and a million and one other churches (yes, there are just that many churches in Prague). Funny thing is, you would think the Czechs are religious with all of the religious statues and churches at literally every corner, but surprise! according to Hannah, the Czechs are not religious at all (I guess this makes sense seeing as how they used to be Communist). We also went to Charles University which is the where Vysehrad - another beautiful Church/Castle building is. There, I walked through the National Cemetery and got to see more pretty views of Prague.

So I'll end this blog with some things I enjoyed about Prague:

1. Cheap cheap food (the cost of living in Prague is relatively low compared to the Netherlands).
2. Beautiful views of the city, EVERYWHERE!
3. Catholic Churches, everywhere
4. Metros and Trams where you technically don't even need a ticket (Hannah and I were too lazy to walk to the metro to buy me a ticket, shhh! don't tell the Czechs!)

Before I leave you, here's some creepy art from a famous artist in Prague.


I went to Antwerp this past weekend, I'll write about it soon.

Pictures from Berlin

Victory Column where Obama spoke last summer

Protestant Cathedral Built in 1905 to Look Very Old

Top of the Reichstag Dome

Largest Remaining Piece of the Berlin Wall

Charlottesburg Palace, It was ridiculously large


Tiergarten

My Favorite Site in Berlin: Brandenburg Gate

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.