Amsterdam

To do this weekend to Amsterdam justice, I feel I'm going to have to either write an extremely long post, or cover it in pieces. Probably the later, because I am still recuperating from walking around that crazy city and traveling, I need sleep. I feel that the city would have been more manageable if we'd been able to go at our own pace, and hadn't been given so many set times to be places. It was a combination of not having enough free rein (being raced around), and the feeling of being abandoned and left to fend for ourselves. In the end I enjoyed walking around and exploring in small groups or by myself, more than racing from dam square to this museum or that museum as a huge group. The hurry up and wait thing is very tiring. So I will try to distill the city a little for anyone who may be reading this, and for myself. The city, when not being rushed around it, when one actually is able to stop, and pause the bustle and chaos is in a way beautiful. There are of course elements that are not.

On a bridge in Amsterdam, one of the canals

Basically it is a city made up of bikes, canals, narrow brick buildings, museums, coffee shops, and the redlight district.

What one is most in danger of walking through the city is getting hit by a bicycle. These aren't motorbikes, though I saw a few of those, so one would think the bikers would be more careful because chances are if they hit a pedestrian they're going down too. But no they ride like maniacs. If they were to swerve around, they'd end up getting hit by a car or tram on some streets.

What is amazing is that everyone gets around riding bikes. There are bikes parked everyone, it's such a busy and crowded city that it's hard to park a bike, let alone a car. (Saw one of those parked on the side walk and cars in the Netherlands are small). Catch a ride with a friend on a bike, no problem. Have three kids, no problem add seats, and not those trailer things that you pull, they'd never work in a city like this. If there's a cart on the bike it's in the front between the handlebars and the front wheel. Talk on the phone while biking, that's cool the pedestrians will jump out of the way especially when you ring the bell.




There are some very narrow houses, they were taxed by the width. This red brick one is the narrowest, it's like meter wide, talk about claustrophobic rooms. Well that is a brief introduction, I've barely looked through my photos, and barely scratched the surface of this hectic weekend, but I really do need to sleep. So later, more on Amsterdam.

Biking to Germany, and Tilting at Windmills

This entry of necessity must be very short. It is 12:05 and we leave for Amsterdam very early tomorrow morning. Needless to say I will be sleeping on the bus.

Proof that we made it to Germany

Today I biked to Germany, how often does one get the chance to say that? After class, we biked to Germany, and made it back to Well in time for dinner. We knew which direction to head, and judging by the various maps on the bike trail we made it to Germany, but we're not really sure when we crossed the border, and it looked like we went parallel to the border for a while. After one of the guys was convinced we were in Germany we came to a map that showed we were near the border on the NL side.

When we reached the windmills we were very uncertain of our location, but timing was such that we thought we should head back. However there was a steepled church we could see off to the left, and we had passed a road that headed left to we took it and arrived at the sign and map. We were in Germany. (The windmills might have still been in the NL).

We probably were still in NL

Biking, Cows, and Class

Today I went of a bike ride. After class we chose to take a different direction, through Old Well, then past the graveyard. The road wended its way along the river, then passed cornfields with small channels. We came upon a fork, and went right under a bridge. There in a pen were a couple Cows, a couple chickens, a duck, a very small ram, and very small sheep. They were all fairly adorable and meandered up to the fence to say hi. I took pictures, I thought someone back home might be interested, and really they are adorable.

There were a few more forks, we saw two black sheep, but didn't stop for photos. There were a couple more forks. Eventually we came to the main road. There are bike paths on either side of it, and it probably would have taken us back to Well, but there were cars whipping by, as much as cars whip by around here. I was more pleasant to ride back the way we'd come.

I've had all my classes now, my professors for the most part are amazing, and I will be doing a lot of reading. Yesterday evening I had my first Lit class. It went from 7-8:45pm, so I was a little concerned I'd be falling asleep. But the Professor was just so captivating, and funny that I was alert the whole class. I have this Professor for Travel Writing as well. He is the only american Professor I have, and he seems to live mostly in Europe. My World Since 1914 Professor is German, and equally interesting. This will for sure be the best history class I have taken yet. The class I'm maybe least excited about is my Honors class. It seems like we will be doing a lot of reading from this one text book. Once I start reading it, I'll know how that will go. The Professor is a Biologist, studied Human Evolution, and Evolution is the focus of the class. I'm not much for science, or if I am, I'm a physics girl. I never liked biology. So I'm reading the Iliad by Monday, and the Odyssey by Wednesday (not tomorrow), both abridged versions. I'm not so sure about the translation, I've read better (or at least parts of, well I think we read the whole Odyssey in 9th grade). Really in Homer's time, and the earlier translation there was more creativity with the swear words. No one was calling Hera a bitch, the insult would have been more clever and hidden. It is a very modern translation, which makes it a faster read, I guess, and easier to understand what was going on, but I wonder, what are the real words. Anyways I'm excited for all my classes, though a little apprehensive for honors.

Entering the Castle

These pictures were taken at different times yesterday, some were taken on a walk around the grounds, others were taken on the way to and from a walk into Old Well, and some more were taken on a later walk around the grounds. I’ve put them out of the order that they were actually taken here to try to give you an idea of what entering the Castle is like, but some of them were taken while leaving the Castle. I also noticed while assembling them that there are some pictures that I should take that would help tell the story a little better.

Here my roommate Natalie welcomes you to the bridge entering the Castle:

Across the bridge there’s a gateway:

After walking through the bridge you see on your right the ‘Tiendschuur ‘ or ten percent barn. This is where the farmers brought ten percent of their harvest to the nobles of the Castle as a tax in return for protection. It is also where we meet if the fire alarm goes off, unless the barn is on fire of course.

If you look ahead you see the entrance to the Castle:

There is a bar across it, which I should get a better picture of, it says no trespassing in dutch, but you can’t really see that here.

And here is the Main Castle

To the right is the Voorberg

And to the left is the New Wing, which I didn’t take a picture is because it isn’t as pretty. I see now that that was an over sight and will add one later.

When you walk across the second bridge (there are two moats you see, so two bridges to get into the main Castle; it is very well fortified) and under the archway you get to the inner courtyard. Enter the door straight ahead of you and turn right, walk up a set of stairs and if you turn left there is Sophie’s Lounge. To the right are the yellow room, the Barbetta room, and the stairs up to the floor where my room is.

These are the stairs, I’ve mentioned them before:

Here is the window on the landing, and there’s a neat tree outside it.

    

Second day at the Castle

I meant to write this morning, but I slept in instead. I guess I must be adjusting to the “European Rhythm” as they’ve referred to it when talking about jet lag and getting over it. Yesterday, what did I do yesterday, I kinda feel like taking a nap right now. Yesterday we learned about the computer lab and laundry, I rented a bike for the semester, walked into town with my roomies, tried and failed to use the atm machine, and there was a performance in Sophie’s Lounge. Oh and some of us started planing a trip to Bruges for the weekend after Amsterdam.

I guess I should say we walked into the small village of Well, I don’t think it is large enough to be considered a town. There is a grocery store, a bakery, a store called ‘everything under one roof.’ Across from the street ‘everything under one roof’ there is a fenced in yard with goats and chickens. On the way back from our walk I stopped to take pictures and half of the goats came up to say hi. 

This one was especially cute.

These ones too, and there's one of the chickens.

Here are my roommates standing on the corner of the major road. There are two bus stops on this road, and one can get a bus to three cities:  Venray, Venlo, or Nijmegen.

In the evening a couple hours after dinner a guitar and singer duet came and performed flamenco music in Sophie’s Lounge. They were really good, and I understood some of the spanish. I might have just made more sense out of it, because the singer told us the overall premise of each song. Towards the end of the evening they invited audience participation, showing us how to clap, someone played the piano, someone sang, everyone joined in singing La Bamba. A people started dancing. It just became a very fun atmosphere, and by the end of the day I was very tired. I thought about writing, but ending up saying oh I’ll do that in the morning them I read for a short while and went to bed. I wished I had my camera with me at Sophie’s Lounge, but I didn’t. I probably wouldn’t have been able to capture the atmosphere, it was a little bit dim and my camera likes a little light especially since I don’t really like using flash. Here are a few pictures I took today of Sophie’s Lounge.

I have some ideas I started working on for posts. Expect sometime this week hopefully, the Benches around the Castle, the Castle grounds including the old tower. Pictures from Old Well, and New Well. Tomorrow classes start my schedule is:

Monday
Breakfast @ 8:30
Lunch @ 11:30
Dinner @ 6:00
Literary Foundations @ 7:00

Tuesday
Breakfast @ 8:30
Lunch @ 11:30
Honors Seminar @ 12:30
The World Since 1914 @ 4:30
Dinner as soon as World Since 1914 lets out (6:15)
Travel Writing @ 7:00

Wednesday
Breakfast @ 8:30
The World Since 1914 @ 10:00
Lunch as soon as that gets out
Travel Writing @ 12:30
Dinner @ 6:00
Literary Foundations @ 7:00

Thursday
Breakfast @ 8:30
Lunch @ 11:30
Honors Seminar @ 2:30
Dinner @ 6:00

This is a very good schedule for travel, but as you may notice the middle of the week is very class heavy. I'm also not so sure about all the evening classes. I tend to get sleepy in the evenings, so we shall see how that works out. I guess I'll just have to adjust, and maybe take naps before class when possible. Well that's it for now.

Arrival at the Castle

I feel like I’ve lost a day. The day we left Boston, and the day we arrived in the Netherlands felt like one really long day when an unnoticed night pasted on the plane. There was a fairly long walk through the airport to get to the baggage claim, on the way someone looked at and stamped our passports. I followed the group and hoped that someone knew which way they were going, I was too tired to do any thinking myself. After we found our bags we went to the arrivals hall, after walking through some detector that only let one person through at a time and got mad and beeped at Jaci when she followed too closely behind Tess, we emerged and I was still looking for customs. Those of the group who’d already gone through were there gathering, as well as a few who had come to Europe by there own means. Then we all loaded our bags onto a truck, and climbed onto two buses.

After watching cows and sheep, separated in there fields by channels of water instead of fences, and a few windmills pass by outside the window, I decided to go to sleep. Mostly whenever I woke and looked out the window the view was fairly similar. Sometimes there where buildings with interesting architecture.

Whoever said the Castle was 10 min from Well, must have meant ten minutes for the slow and leisurely walker. After passing through a small quaint village where people looked up as the buses passed, we turned a corner, and were practically on the doorstep of the Castle. And it really is a real Castle, there’s a moat, actually it looks like there are two, but I’m not sure if both of them go all the was around, one might just be a river. We unloaded our bags and stood in the courtyard looking around at brick walls, some curved and rounded (the towers), and green grass, and trees. What I took to be a small fountain, but what might actually just be a sprinkler. There was a black swan in the moat. The inside of it feels like a mansion house. To get to my room I have to walk up this flight of wood stairs with a banister that curves around. In some of the rooms there are chandeliers. When I walked through the hall ways this morning while everyone was sleeping, the floors creaked. The Castle is a combination of really old buildings, and fresh paint, old wood floors, and new carpets. The inside still feels old fashioned, even though the plumbing is new. There is kinda an old building smell to it. I will add more details and post pictures, as I take them. I’ll try to give a tour of the Castle at some point.

(Day of Arrival before we moved into the Castle, in the middle wearing blue is one of my roomies, Melinda)

(From today while waiting to go to a meeting about the computer lab, Jaci with her camera)

The Title of This Blog

Some of you may be wondering what the title means, or maybe you already looked it up on google or wikipedia. While I am sitting in the Airport waiting for our delayed flight I will tell you. Coming up with a title held up the creation of this blog for a couple days. I was interested in including a dutch word in the title, but I don’t know any dutch. I ended up asking my mom while sitting around the kitchen table at my grandmother’s house. It was evening and we were drinking tea. My mom knows a little dutch, and she stayed with a family in the Netherlands when she was around my age. When I mentioned I was interested in using a dutch word she suggested, Gezelligheid. I honestly couldn’t tell you how to pronounce it. She said that her friend when translating Gezellig, said it meant cozy. But as my mom described it is a very dutch concept that can’t really be translated into english. She described what it meant, I don’t remember her words exactly, so I will quote from wikipedia, which corroborated her definition.

“Gezelligheid (Dutch pronunciation: [ɣə'zɛləɣɦɛit]) is a Dutch abstract noun (adjective form gezellig) which, depending on context, can be translated as convivial, cosy, fun, quaint, or nice atmosphere, but can also connote belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness. The word is considered to be an example of untranslatability, and is one of the hardest words to translate to English.[1] Some consider the word to encompass the heart of Dutch culture.[2]” ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gezelligheid

It seemed like a good word to use for the title. Well the waiting may soon be over, I hope. Probably 1/2 till boarding or something like that.

About this Blog

Dear Friends, and whoever else may stumble across this blog,

This semester I have the wonderful opportunity to spend fall semester in the Netherlands. I’ve created this blog to share my adventures, observations, thoughts, and experiences while I am there and traveling around Europe.

For anyone who I haven’t had the chance to talk to in a long time, or who just stumbled upon this blog I’ll tell you more about this opportunity. Emerson College, where I am currently a sophomore, has a few external programs. One of these programs is a semester abroad in the Netherlands, where Emerson has a satellite campus that takes around 80-100 students from all majors to study there every semester. The Campus is a Castle, ten minutes outside of the village Well, which is 2 hrs from Amsterdam and close to the German boarder. The application is lottery style, so getting in is random, and has nothing to do with the quality of an essay. I consider myself lucky to have had my name pulled from the hat, and that many of my friends are also going, but regret that not all of my friends had their names drawn.

The program in the Netherlands is set up to provide students with the maximum opportunity to travel around Europe. All of our weekends are three days long, and many of the classes on Monday don’t start until late in the day. We also have two what they call “Mandatory Excursions”, though the use of the word mandatory makes it sound like something undesirable, which is not the case. The first one is to Amsterdam, and the second is to Berlin. We also have a week long travel break in the beginning of November.

My friends and I are planning on spending the week long travel break in Italy. I am also interested in seeing parts of the British Isles, Ireland, Scotland, maybe Wales. I would like to go to Switzerland, and some friends are planning a weekend trip to Croatia. I’m also interested in Spain, because spanish is the language I studied in school. The challenge with choosing where to go is that any country I can get myself to will be gorgeous and amazing. Oh, I’ve also heard Prague is a must see. Besides traveling in other countries around Europe, I’m interested in seeing more of the Netherlands than just the Castle and getting to meet some of the locals.

If you have any suggestions of where I should visit, please tell me in the comment section. If you have already told me somewhere I should go, please comment because I probably don’t remember the name of the place, especially if it was a city or village.

Thanks for Reading,

~Heather