Ghent and Bruges

Another weekend and another trip!! This time to our neighboring country, Belgium, which to be honest just really wants to be the Netherlands. Don't tell anyone Belgian I said that, of course. The weekend was arranged by my American program, CIEE, and was only overnight, at maximum four hours by car from center city Amsterdam. But, it was a lovely, lovely trip with so much to do and to see. We spent the first day in Bruges, a tiny city with a medieval castle, a 400 year old bar, a meat market with cured hanging hams, a beautiful cathedral, and the most romantic looking weeping willows trees. We ate a meal at a hilarious restaurant, where we drank with the bus driver and had unlimited veggie burger platters. This was a very strange thing to have unlimited, in my opinion. For the night we went out on the town, finally ending up in an empty bar, which we took over as our own American student bar (we rarely do this) and danced until very, very late.

As a result we woke up very, very tired in our little hostel, so appreciative of the free breakfast (and unlimited coffee!!). Everyone got back on the bus and we took a short drive to the city of Ghent, which was quite a bit larger but just as charming as Bruges. The bus ride was just long enough to take care of our tradition of making ridiculous puns about the places we visit. For example, from my roommate Kristen, "We are looking for Ghent-lemen." Or, from my friend Drew, "You are just cruising for a Bruges-ing." When we arrived, we had two back to back tours, one of chocolate-related sites and one of a brewery. The chocolate tour told us that there are 51 chocolate shops in Ghent- which is so many considering that it is a very small city!! There was one chocolate shop at least for everyone on my program! I tried a Belgian waffle and some chocolates, but they were actually a bit too gourmet for my taste. Some were fried onion flavored or wasabi flavored. Yikes! I came home not wanting any more chocolate for a while, but of course that soon went away!!

Recovering from trips is the best and the worst. Of course, I have just seen something incredible and am refreshed for the coming week, but also there is so much to take care of and so many people to catch up with. Which is why I spent last weekend, my birthday weekend, in Amsterdam. On Friday we made a small party at my friend Alberto's house, and they baked me a spice cake which was very delicious. We never made it out out, but that was good because the next night I attended the Amsterdam Dance Event at a club called Panama. We stayed from eleven until five in the morning dancing to the different sets from all of the DJs. There were light shows and air guns and it was just ridiculous, but I had a very good time. I LOVED all of the birthday cards and boxes from the States. It felt so, so good to receive something I knew had been found in a familiar shop and packaged by familiar hands. And, now I am twenty. Which means not much except that I am no longer a teenager. I guess I have to stop being so childish! Ja ja ja. That is how Spanish people type laughter (see the next blog post).

PS- for anyone who is disoriented with my blogging progress- I am as well. And I apologize, but I figure getting it down is the important thing, not so much consistency or chronology.

Sending lots of love. Julie

Madrid con mi madre.

I have gotten into the bad habit it seems of blogging only after weekend trips, if even that frequently. I will try to improve. But in the meantime, these are very important things to recall!

This weekend I took an early flight out of Amsterdam (some of my friends were just getting home from the clubs!) to meet Mom in Madrid, Spain!! And I know I say this a lot, but it was the most lovely weekend. We went to the Prado and Reina Sofia museums, where we saw the most incredible collections of paintings by Goya, Picasso, Rembrandt, Miro, Dali, Velasquez, Bosch and so many others. At times we were very lost because signs in Madrid suggest the general direction you will be heading in, but apparently do not mark turns! Navigating the city, though, was much easier than this. Me and mom actually have very good senses of direction we think! We always made it back to the hotel, sometimes after asking a few times for landmarks and orientation. These were good opportunities to practice our Spanish.

On Sunday we went shopping at the famous El Rastro market, where Mom bought for me my two new favorite articles of clothing: a jacket and a little rose print dress. I love them. Together they look very, very Spanish. They told us the market often has 2000 visitors on a given weekend, tourists and residents alike. We also walked through the Salamanca neighborhood, the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol, the Huertas streets near our hotel, the Atocha station area, and the beautiful El Retiro park with a lake full of rowboats and people sunbathing on the steps. It was such a bright, festive atmosphere in the park- everyone was out rollerblading and kissing and watching puppet shows. On Sunday night we went out to a flamenco dance, even though we knew it was a tourist-like thing to do. I very much enjoyed the performance, especially the flamboyant male dancer with the shiny suit.

The food in Spain I could write about for quite some time, and we only had a handful of meals. Thanks to Betsy and Alberto's recommendations, we went to two of the best restaurants I have ever been to. The first was a dinner of endless surprises, including two small rose plants at the end! They just kept bringing us things. And there were a lot of celebrities in the restaurant but we had no idea who they were! The second meal was a lunch of incredible, incredible flavors. Some of the things we tried were: smoked broad beans soup, morcillas (iberian blood pudding), paella, lamb cubes stuffed with vegetables, jamon tapas, olives, spinach empanadas, good good wine, after dinner sorbet drink, and other things I can't even think of. I did miss trying the notorious Callos, but I came home very full and very happy. It was just so nice to eat good food and sleep in a comfy bed and most of all be in the absolute best company.

Really it was a dream weekend (thank you thank you thank you!!) and way too short. But I am happy in Amsterdam and am looking forward to this week of classes and catching up with friends. The next entry will be more about daily life, I promise!!

Love love love Julie

Koselig (cozy) with Emma in Norway

Last weekend I took a trip to Oslo, Norway to visit Emma! She is studying at the University of Oslo and living in the "student village" there, so I went for the weekend to catch up with a close friend and visit Scandinavia for the first time ever. In fact, I have never been farther north than this city! Oslo is such an interesting city. Emma told me that a lot of the architecture was razed to replace with more Utilitarian, almost Soviet, structures, so there is quite a mix. The harbor on the fjord was so beautiful, and we stumbled upon a food festival right by the water, where we tried some smoked Norwegian salmon, moose and reindeer burgers, wheat soup, and delicious lefse pancakes with berry sauce and cream.

In general the weekend was full of relaxing and lovely trips. We visited the Edward Munch museum as well as the National Gallery art museum. Both were full of incredible work- one of my favorite artists being Harald Sohlberg, who paints cluttered rooms (are we surprised this is my aesthetic?). We also went to the top of the mountain near the famous ski jump to have a hot chocolate and see the view, although it was so foggy it almost looked like we were in the middle of the sky. And we saw the movie "Eat, Pray, Love" in English with Norwegian subtitles while eating lots of Norwegian chocolate. I really enjoyed the film because she is a youngish woman traveling and being alone, so I could identify quite a lot with her sentiments.

I tried to speak Norwegian some, but it actually turns out I have managed to pick up a Dutch accent, at least when speaking Norwegian. Although many of the words are similar, my pronunciation was a constant struggle. Emma was so patient with my experimentation with reading street signs and advertisements. We also went to Emma's Norwegian friend's house for dinner one night. She made a thai salmon soup with lemongrass and vegetables- it was so, so good. And we watched another film about drag queens in the Australian desert!! It was very strange but hilarious. Other than that we just explored the city, did a bit of shopping (not buying much of anything because of the exchange rate!), had a lot of coffee, baked a peach cobbler with a crust mix that made no sense at all, and were generally so happy to be together again since the summer. It was the most wonderful weekend. It also proved to me how easy traveling is (knock on wood). Now, work to catch up with and sleep time. Good night everyone. Oxo Julie

One month already

I can't believe that one month of my stay in Amsterdam has passed already! Of course, I am fully assimilated into Dutch practices by now. And I definitely did not fall off my bicycle yesterday and do a face plant in front of an upscale Mediterranean restaurant (I only bruised my elbow and hip- nothing at all serious!!). No, actually, in the past week I've been thinking a lot that the more I learn about this city and this country the more I realize all of the subtleties and specifics that I need to also learn to move from being a guest and a tourist to being a resident. I hope some measure of this is possible in four months.

This weekend was lovely. On Thursday after class I used my newly purchased colored pencils to make a cactus drawing while I skyped with the family. Later I added a self portrait into it. I've decided to do a series of drawings in the style of Frida Kahlo, but much less bloody and sad. My colour theory class actually required the colored pencils and a sketch notebook. And everyone knows how much I hate buying art supplies, just like Dad, so it was a real pain to have to do that!! In Amsterdam!!

I had my documentary class on Friday morning, and then I met up with my friends Esther, Lauren and Tim to shop for a birthday present in the Kalverstraat, the big tourist filled shopping street. It was our other friend Judith's birthday on Friday night, so we chose a nice plant and some chocolates for her, which we later presented at her apartment in the Amstel. The trip to the Amstel was when I fell off my bicycle. It was somewhat comical because Lauren, who I was traveling with, also fell off of her bicycle. When we arrived we seemed as though we had been through quite a lot!! It was a really nice party, though, with many of my international friends and I got to try German meatballs.

Today I woke up very early to take a field trip with the CIEE American program. It was the most incredible program of events. We first went to Gouda to take a tour of a small family cheese farm. We got to go through all of the rooms where the various steps are performed, and to hold a 17 kilo wheel of cheese, which is very, very heavy. The building smelled quite horrible inside but the cheese was so fresh and delicious. We tried pepper, mustard, herb, aged, medium, and young cheeses! We also met cows and a toddler named Debbie, who I suppose is heiress of the family farm!

We then took our bus to the Delft pottery center, where original Delftware is hand-painted by Delftware master artists. We got to see the pieces as they came out of the mold, and watch the masters paint them. Each one is identical with the design canon, otherwise it can't have the Delft seal! Real Delftware is so expensive- oh my goodness! Then we took a kick scooter tour of the city of Delft. I would not recommend this because only tourists ever use scooters also they are inefficient. I think we could have walked faster. However, Delft was incredibly charming and full of history- home of William of Orange, origin of Vermeer, and site of major trade activity in the Golden Age!! We saw a beautiful church, went to the Vermeer center, and looked around in the market a bit.

Tonight my roommate and I went out for a girls' night with some friends, but had a series of unfortunate encounters, including our coats being involuntarily coat checked without numbers at a club and being demanded to speak in Dutch by a man with french fry gravy on his face. And then he threw his pizza crust on my plate. But the owners of the restaurant intervened. In general Amsterdam just seemed rowdier tonight than usual- maybe there was a soccer loss! Anyway, tomorrow I plan to buckle down and do a lot of homework, so look for me on the skype as well. Much, much love, Julie

PS- Mom and I are officially going to Madrid next, next weekend!! I really couldn't be more excited. The tapas will be good, but the company will be better!

Terrible neglect

I have been terribly neglectful of this blog over the past week and for that I am sorry. Given the assignment about sacred blue Egyptian baboons hanging over my head I am just going to list the things that have happened recently, and then fill in more later. In the past week I have visited the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum, the Allard Pierson Egyptology museum, been to a 44th birthday party for my two 22 year old friends, gone to a funk club, had a drink with a toasted marshmallow in it that I toasted on a bar, shopped at the Albert Cuyp market, gone to the Heineken museum, read 80 + pages about the mollusks that produce purple dye, read 80 + pages about Philip the Good of Burgundy who consolidated the low countries, biked with a bouquet of flowers to my friend Esther's house for dinner, bought a ticket to Istanbul for November 5-8, fixed my ticket for Oslo for October 1-4, watched a very good movie called City Island, received the MOST AMAZING package from my Grammy and Papa, AND had a visit from Joe Willens which was so, so nice. Anyway, this sort of blogging is very silly and I will not do it in the future. And I will tell stories about some of these things as soon as I make it out of the part of my week when I do homework. Which is not so much. Love always, Julie

I'm back?

It is Sunday night and Dad just left for Switzerland. We had the nicest visit, and I am feeling quite a bit better for the good company and delivery of good American medicines.

Yesterday I met Dad at his hotel, which was right near the University actually, and we walked all the way across the city to the Noordrmarkt to try apple pie from a famous bakery called the Winkel Cafe. We walked around the open air produce market and heard traditional accordian and string harp music outside the local church, then fell asleep for a bit on a bench near the canal. Everyone was out enjoying the very atypical eighty degree weather and sun.

We made our way up to the Westerpark, passing lots of lovely residential sidestreets and boat houses, and then back down to the Prinsengracht area for a very traditional Dutch dinner at the Bistro Bij Ons. We had a stamppot and a chickenschnizel. But unfortunately they were out of "Flipped Bitches" for dessert. There were two bachelor parties going on in the restaurant, so we witnessed quite a sing along later in the night.

Today Dad and I went out for pancakes, and then explored the southeast of the city, from the floating flower markets to the Russian Hermitage Museum and the area near the Hortus Botanicus and the zoo. We also stopped into the University book shop and had soup near my house- it was incredible, one of my favorite meals so far. We ended the day with a long walk across the river to central station. We stopped by the beautiful Amsterdam public library, which I studied in later in the night with my roommate. It is like a library from the future and so so beautiful. It was hard to say goodbye but I am so happy that Dad got to visit. It made me even more excited for the big family visit in November!!

Anyway, rest assured that at least now I am sleeping well and on my way to full recovery. I miss you all so much and I love you lots. Thank you so much Mom for the medicine and the moral support over the skype. It really kept me going.

Dad visits tomorrow!

It is Friday evening and I am still very sick, but Dad is coming to visit tomorrow and for that I am happy!!

This week all I have really done is roll out of bed, go to class, try not to cough while the lecturer is speaking, come home and drink lots of chocomel, which is the Dutch hot cocoa drink that comes in a juice box and you heat over the stove. I feel very sorry for myself because I am cooped up in my flat but many other students are sick I think.

My classes seem very good actually with interesting reading and paper topics. I am going to study in the beautiful public library on the water which has a cafe on the top floor! I bought my books in the Athaneum book shop and started making a schedule of my exams and my travel! My first trip will be Oslo on October 1st, and then I think I am going to Istanbul a short time after.

For all the time spent in my room I should be writing a longer entry, but there is really not much to report I guess! I just finished the movie Volver with Penelope Cruz which I liked very much. And I am going to get an early night tonight to be at Dad's hotel by noon or a bit before. I have a lot of plans for our day.

Sending much love.
Julie

Sick sick sick

I still feel very sick, and am going crazy in my apartment waiting to get out and do any of the things I have been waiting to do here. My days are short because I do not sleep well and have to sleep extra for it. But, I have mastered lentil curry soup. And I have watched three movies- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (one day after finishing the book), The Notebook, and Frida. I loved Frida. The images were so beautiful.

I went to the doctor on Monday morning. I called the doctor as soon as I woke up to make an appointment, and they told me they had nothing for me until they heard my cough, then they told me to come in right away. However, in the spirit of Dutch individualism I had to bike there, and then bike to the pharmacy to get my syrup, and then home again, so I felt pretty awful after that. The cough syrup tastes like licorice, and I can't figure out the dose because it is in Dutch. However, no hallucinations yet. I also lost the little medicine cup, but found it today in my boot. An example of how I have kind of let the room go in my illness.

I have also had two classes in the past two days. Luckily they have been just across the courtyard from my flat, so I am able to hobble over with my tissues and my tea. One was beginner dutch language, which I am not registered for yet but I think I might very much like to take. And the other is a history/ political science course on Latin America. The professor seems very interesting and expects a lot, which I didn't expect but is nice. I guess.

I also went to my apartment barbecue on Sunday night, which was funny because it was bring your own meat, and I didn't bring any meat, so I couldn't eat. But it was nice to sit out in the sun and get some air. And I did laundry last night for the first time. The machines are in Dutch so I was a bit anxious about it. And the cycles are much longer here than you would expect from the states. Maybe 1 1/2 to 2 hours. My clothes are then, the cleanest they have ever been.

I need to recover but I am very, very restless here!! At least I am a good blogger.

Under the weather

I have been feeling a little under the weather the past few days, but am hoping that some apple tea and rest will bring me back in time for classes on Tuesday. I did not purchase the five euro (!!) cough drops but I have stocked up on curry soup packets which are delicious and don't have that much sodium like in the states. I finished the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and had a good time discussing Stieg Larsson conspiracy theories with some Swedish students at the weekly international student borrel. I also tried to watch that silly movie American Pie on a Spanish website (the US websites don't stream to Europe). However, as simple as that movie's plot may be, it was still too much of a challenge to make sense of it in Spanish with no subtitles, so I went to sleep again.

Last night I went out with some friends to a neighborhood called de pijp. We enjoyed some afternoon sun and then as it became chilly huddled under an outdoor heater- the Dutch will not take anything close to good weather for granted! And tonight everyone from my international group came over to my place. I cooked a big dinner which was a bit more difficult than at home because I had no oven or microwave! I made stuffed mushrooms, chicken with chorizo, brown rice and a big salad with green apples which is my new favorite after Sonora. It was also my first time buying white wine to cook with! We had a very nice time even in my small flat with ten or more visitors!!

Sending lots of love. If you leave some comments (family cough cough) I will especially be motivated with these blogs!!

Rainy days

On Sunday it rained so much. I can't believe there is any rain left in the sky. I had a bit of a crisis relating to not being able to use the bank and running out of phone minutes, but felt better in the afternoon after warming up. That night I went to my friend Esther's house and she cooked us dinner using ingredients she brought with her from her home town, just outside Barcelona. It was an incredible meal- chorizo, potatoes, filled eggs, and a feta tomato cucumber salad. I brought dessert, and since I couldn't read the package it turned out to be marzipan, which I discovered that I like. So, this was the start of my theory that it is better, maybe, that I can't read here.

This idea continued the next day at the grocery store. After the fright of having no money and only tomatoes in the fridge, I decided to stock the flat with a few days worth of vegetables, muesli and sandwich materials. I spent almost one whole hour wandering around looking for familiar items and then finally leaving with quite a few unfamiliar items, including a very crusty bread. I also bought a basil plant, which, if it survives, is a good investment I think. That plant and a new tablecloth are brightening up my room. CIEE has been running safety and academic orientations for us the past two days. They have also taken us to an Indonesian restaurant and an abandoned wharf which has become an artist's workshop. You have to take a ferry there but it is free and just north of the city.

Last night we reunited with our international friends at the weekly borrel. It was so good to see everyone, and we had all almost recovered from last week's festivities. Tonight we are going out dancing again, I think. In the past few days I have also skyped with a few home and school friends which has been so nice. If we haven't skyped yet I'm on all the time so just check!! Much love, Julie

Sleepy day

Today I had a very sleepy day. And before I left I promised myself that even though I was going to be in a new city with so many adventures I would let myself have these sort of days if I wanted to SO...

I woke up at two o clock in the afternoon!
I put on my new super thick "I'm in Northern Europe" stockings! And some socks!
I rode "Paprika" (named after the popular potato chip flavor) to a coffee shop!
I read my book for two hours!
I cooked a stir fry dinner with some friends across town!

And then we went out for chocolate banana pancakes. It was such a good day. So good.

A quick update

I am finally back on the internet, this time with an ethernet cable! My Dutch neighbors must have caught on that all the students were using their wireless because three days ago they locked their network. I am completely exhausted but I want to give a quick update. Things have been so good. This week was the orientation for all 900 international students doing a semester or year at the university, so we have had activities all day and night to meet each other.

On Wednesday we went to the Amsterdam historical museum, took a walking tour of the red light district and some other neighborhoods, went on one more canal cruise, watched the ajax football game in a bar, sang karaoke and ended the night in a Latino club in Leidesplein. So much for one day! On Thursday I slept half the day away, but met up with my friend Esther to pick up party tickets and do some shopping before dinner. After dinner we went to a traditional Dutch borrel, and then to a club called Prime in Rembrantplein.

And today we went to the Artis zoo, then to our coach's flat for a bit before the final party at a club called Panama. We danced so much. I am being so unspecific but I promise to elaborate later with stories. It is 5:40 am. Yikes! In general, though, I am so happy. Everyone I have met is welcoming and eager to meet new people from new places. I found food I like in a close supermarket but I had raw corn with my dinner because I didn't feel like boiling water. Some things are the same overseas!

Tomorrow I aim to write a lot because I have nothing planned for the whole day. Until then, much love. Julie

Moving in

Yesterday I moved into my new apartment, or flat, or dormitory, in the morning. It is very nice, although the bathroom is a bit grungy. My roommate arrived later in the afternoon and we went to buy cleaning supplies together at the local spar, which is like a grocery store. I never realized that stores often don't have the function in the name, but are instead a brand. But this is difficult when you move to a new country! I learned today that Hema is Target like. Albert Heijn is Stop and Shop like. Lots to remember!

We met up with the forty American CIEE students and had a canal cruise with a pizza dinner. They gave us anchovy pizza, but sorry Grammy, no herring yet! The coffee is, though, incredibly good. Except that it often comes out of a vending machine and is therefore inaccessible to me because I can't read the options on the machine, so I'm not sure where the cup comes from. I can't tell whether I'm supposed to provide the cup. I must watch someone else do this! I also got my bike!! Any ideas for names? I have two bike locks, one for the front and back, and a light! It is illegal to ride at night without one.

Last night my flat mate and I (she is lovely by the way, her name is Kristen) took much needed showers and went out with some friends to a bar. We also went into a club for a bit where we had our first real exposure to house music. Dutch dancing is really amazing. There is a lot of fist pumping and arm motions and then a general pulse as well. I will have to practice.

This morning we went with the international students (900 of us!) to register with the university, get our mobile phones working, and have our welcome from the staff (in the church where Rembrant was buried!). Then they walked us literally across the whole city to a club in an old factory, where we danced more! To more house! There are students from every country. It's incredible. And my friend from Portugal showed me how a Spanish sentence sounds in Portuguese, and now I am determined to learn Portuguese. And German so I can read Dutch SO I CAN BUY COFFEE.

So sleeeeepy. Good night everyone! Love love love Julie

I'm here!

Welcome to my blog everyone. This first entry is going to be a bit quick and a bit delirious because I am very jet lagged and being timed on the hostel internet meter, but I wanted to write immediately. This afternoon at around two o clock I flew over from Dublin where I had my connection to Schiphol Amsterdam international airport. Everything was green because it was Aer Lingus, the Irish airline. I slept on my tray table and when I woke up there were lots of people staring at me.

I took a taxi to the Vondelpark stay okay hostel. I am sharing a room with five other ladies. The hostel is fine but I can't wait to move into my flat tomorrow morning. I just walked around for a while in the city center. It is crowded but everything looks strangely familiar. I saw the wagamama's and the delft store I'm pretty sure we went to when I was ten. I ate dinner on the side of the canal and I bought a passion fruit for desert because I love those and I saw one. We never have them in the states. Dutch is confusing. This computer is in Dutch so I keep clicking the wrong buttons by accident. There are a lot of other young people at this hostel but not from the US.

I am going to miss home a lot and probably miss you (if you are reading this I assume we care about each other). But, this is a good way to keep updated. I promise more exciting entries later on! Lots of love, Julie