Amsterdammin'

I can officially proclaim that our first excursion was a success! Amsterdam was so much fun, and I definitely learned a lot about European travel. We left very early on Friday, and arrived in the city around 10. We had to walk to our hostel, which was a pretty nice place, and then get into groups for our official walking tour of the city. The tours lasted about two hours each, and while our instructor was very nice, there were just...better things to pay attention to? Such as the scenery!

What a lovely, beautiful city - the canals add a kind of atmosphere that I've never encountered before. More relaxed, maybe? And all the bikers! I came close to an ugly demise a few times when I didn't step out of the way fast enough, but you learn very quick to stay out of the bike lanes. I was so jealous that people were biking while I was stuck walking around with a giant group. What's cool is that bikes are such a way of life in this city that they have become another form of expression:

On our walking tour we visited a famous courtyard that is surrounded by a church and the oldest house in the Netherlands (which is the black one in the second picture). 

My friend Sarah enjoying the garden

Unfortunately I don't have pictures from the museums that I visited because a) most don't allow photography and b) I tended to forget my camera at the most inconvienient times. We went to the Amsterdam Historical Museum and the Hermitage; both were really interesting, especially the Hermitage because it featured Russian fashion from the days of the czars. After the museum, Pat and Kendra and I walked around and found some amazing little stores and stuff. 

The next day, Sarah and Ruben and Pat and I all walked around the city after going to the Reijksmuseum. We went to our first coffeeshop and got some....coffee? 

In the alley outside the coffeeshop there were some very photographic moments:

That night we went clubbing at Paradisio, which used to be an old church but is now a venue. It was so much fun and SO HOT IN THERE. We danced from midnight to 3am, came back to the hostel, chatted with some dudes from New Zealand, took showers, climbed into bed at 6am, got up at 9, and then continued on with our program!

On the last day we went to the Anne Frank House, which was a remarkably well set-up museum. They've built a modern building around the old house in order to preserve it, so when you go through the museum you are walking back and forth through modern and original. The most intense moment was probably when you walk into the annex through the opening behind the bookcase - actually touching the bookcase was surreal. This is the outside of the house as it is now:

The museum was a very moving experience and I'm really glad we went, I just wish we had had more time.

We had a train to catch that day so we decided to stop somewhere to eat on the way to the station. The place we chose couldn't have been better - LOTS OF CHEESE!!

After our wonderful cheese meal we caught our train back home. We thought. Turns out there were technical difficulties along the way, so a trip that should have been two hours long ended up being five. Not a good night. But let's keep this blog positive, shall we? I learned how to navigate train stations, bus stations, ticket machines, and Dutch help desk workers. We arrived home dead tired with sore feet, but it was completely worth it! 

I think I would definitely go back to Amsterdam; I feel like there's a lot of stuff I didn't get to accomplish. Maybe soon! This weekend we are going to Stockholm, so now I'm looking forward to that. All I have to do is get my homework done and go to class and whatever. Who needs school anyway?

"Tour" of the Castle and a Foray Into Venray

Lovely, lovely morning today. I got up at the crack of dawn (8:20am) and waited around until the light was juuuuuust right (about 9:10) for taking pictures. Now that I have my results, I will share them with you! Consider this your tour of Kasteel Well: 

A view over the bridge - everyone bikes!

One corner of the moat

My darling horses having their breakfast

This is the walking path that leads to another path between the moat and the river

Even the ivy turns color for fall

The ruins

My windows are the top two on the left. This is the back of the main castle, with a bridge over the moat that takes you to the bank of the river.

View from Pat's window; the first courtyard

View from the first courtyard

That is my home! Every night I sit in my window or I walk around and watch the swans and I think about how fortunate I am to live here. My mom would love it - it's like living in one of the Great Houses from her book! Anyway, I'm sure there will be more pictures of the castle itself, since I am often inspired to photograph everything around here. The beauty is just amazing.

Today Pat and I had an adventure into a nearby town called Venray. He needed to buy tights and shoes for his ballet class, and I just wanted to see what kind of towns are around Well. Turns out, most Dutch villages around here look the same! Same brown homes, same kind of architecture, same bike lanes and pubs and gardens. We got off the bus and tried to follow the map that Johnny gave us, but of course we got lost. The people that we flagged down were unfailingly nice; they all spoke English and they all tried to help us as best as possible. We finally made it to Thetru, the store we had been looking for.

It was a novelty shop that sold clothes for all sorts of things, including some sports. Best of all, they had crazy costumes!!

The tights-finding mission was successful, and we came back to Well and bought some amazing chocolate to end our wonderful day. 

Now I am off to start in on my Essential Homer, which I am excited to read! My literature class looks like it will be really good, and I love my art history professor. More on classes later though. For now, I have to read and then we have our first travel meeting since Amsterdam is this weekend! First guided trip...everyone's getting excited.

Arrival and First Weekend

Hello everyone! My first blog entry...sorry it's taken so long - the other program I had planned to use ended up not cooperating. So here I am on Blogger instead! It's Sunday night and the end of my first Dutch weekend. I have finally found the time to sit down and write. Ever since arriving at the castle, things have even better than I could have thought. Sometimes I can't believe the beauty of this place... it's got a moat that's home to birds and swans, a cobbled courtyard, grey granite roofs, ruins filled with fallen leaves, and just an incredible feeling of peace. I'm going to try to get some pictures of the grounds up soon, but I haven't had the time to take pictures when I really want to - that is, at the beginning or end of the day. Classes start tomorrow, but I will wake up extra-early to get out there with my camera.

When we first arrived at Schiphol,

we were all tired and hungry (and in my case really relieved to be away from the crying baby) and we got on our bus and most of us fell asleep. Jenna even took a wonderful picture of me with my mouth wide open, "snoring like a wildebeest." That's not getting posted. So I missed most of the bus ride, but it wasn't all that great anyway. Plus it's not like I would have known where we were going anyway.

All my energy came back as soon as we arrived - the first walk over the bridge, where you look through the archways through the two courtyards, was amazing. We got our luggage together, and then it was off for a whirlwind of meetings and tours and activities. Kate and Jenna and Lexi and I got shown to our room, which is HUGE. Here is the view out of one of our windows:

It's absolutely GORGEOUS. Especially at sundown, and sunup, and all the time... It felt a little silly having to follow this really precise schedule that they made for us. "Be here then, be there later, don't eat for too long, don't miss attendance." But it was still great to be introduced to everyone and shown around the castle, town and grounds, so I really can't complain. The first night after everything, we weren't even that tired, so we visited Under den Linden, the local pub, for the first time. The drinks are cheap, it was a beautiful night, half of Emerson was there. Mostly we sat around and talked about how surreal the whole situation was - even now, I'm not sure we all believe that we really get to be here.

On Saturday we did more meetings and stuff during the day, but then I got to go for a walk around the grounds for a while. Pictures soon, I promise!!! I even went and spent some time with the horses that live next door - two gorgeous mares that loved the attention. That night at the pub was made very interesting by the arrival the Dutch boys in a barrage of hair gel and skinny jeans. Kate and I talked to a few of them and were invited to a "carnival party." Not sure what that is. Among other things, we found out that they all really love Michael Jackson?

Today was absolutely lovely - a late breakfast, some easy academic meetings during the day, a wonderful choir from Amsterdam that my mom would have loved, dinner, and then a boat ride. This I do have pictures of, so here they are!

View from the boat

Netherlands!!

Our noble vessel

My beautiful roommates before we left

View of Well from the boat

Pat and Lexi on the boat

Jenna taking pictures

Pat and I before we left

Emerson kids!

The inside of the boat, near the bar

Classily enjoying my wine

I think we were trying to be a snooty British couple commenting on the Dutch countryside?

This is all I have for now! Wish me luck for classes tomorrow, more pictures and information will be coming soon. Goodnight!