122 Days in Europe

Thursday, May 10, 2012

When In Rome!

Day 112: Wining and Dining with Rats!

Well this morning started off with me finishing packing then we headed off to Schipol. It didn't feel like I was going on a trip really, maybe I am imune to traveling now. The flight was so so, of course I had a seat in the very back of the plane, but oh well KLM is great and gives us really good snacks and drinks! I think that I have said it before, but I highly recommend flying with them if you have the chance! Then we got to Rome and the real adventure begins. We have to find a way into the city, which is really hard. We ended up taking a private shuttle to our hotel, which ended up being great because one we got to see the city and two we didn't have to try and find our hotel. After this we got food as all of us were starving. Brittany and I did the typical travler thing and split our meals so I had lasagna and mushroom shrimp fettuccine, SO GOOD! During dinner I had a white wine which was also really good, but the best part of dinner was when a rat who was sitting under the table next to us showed up. Jazmyn didn't like this of course and said she was going to punt him. Me on the other hand was ready to defend him. Oh I forgot to tell you about who we met in Rome....a person from Des Moines! How crazy is that! Then we also had a nice talk with the people from Oklahoma that sat at the table next to us. The rest of the night was awesome. We hit up Trevi fountain and saw the Colloseum all lit up at night, I drank out of one of the public fountains and had amazing Gelato....after all of this excitement we hit the hay.

Mr. Rattatoei!

My feet in Rome! Check out the lock on my bag to prevent sneaky sneaks from getting all my money!

Trevi Fountain.

The moon was really cool.

Roma!

Colosseum at night!

Another Colosseum picture.

Photography Finals and Some Other Final....

Day 111: Goodbyes!

I started the day off with a mochachino from Bagels and Beans and man was that good! Well today is my last final here in Leiden and it is weird. It is really kind of bitter sweet. I was the first to present my final and almost started crying when Tyler reflected on it. Here is my final.... I am.... (copy right Kristin Shaw)

Lotte really liked it.

Then everyone presented their's. I almost started crying during Jazmyn's and Brittany's. While they presented Lotte gave us tea and chocolate which made the day better. After our final Brittany, Jazmyn and I just hung out waiting for the final dinner to start. Finally we headed off to the school and met with all the professors for dinner at a chinese restaurant and then for drinks afterwards. The food was amazing! We had three courses and I had wine and a diet coke, odd combo I know, but it sounded good and I wasn't paying for it. For dinner we had everything from duck to chicken and then we had lots of candy for dessert. I of course stole a bunch of it, but so did Lotte so I don't feel bad. After dinner we headed back to Central and had drinks. We hung out and said goodbye to everyone as it was the last time that we were going to see some of these people for awhile. Then we left and Brittany and I watched the fourth Underworld movie before we packed our bags for Rome and got some sleep.

Some of the food from dinner!

Loved the big mirror on the ceiling.

Globalization and Netherland's final

Day 110: My brain is really Kapot!

Well I woke up early this morning to study and I don't think that it helped too much, at least for my globalization final. The Netherlands one I rocked and got an A on, but I got a B on the other one. After this final that was super early I walked back to Hugo by myself, which was weird, then started my photography final. It is a final all about me, well entitled I am....I didn't finish it tonight as us girls sat around and talked about going home and well girl stuff for a little bit. My pictures are below, but I won't share what each of the photos symbolizes so that the final is a surprise!

History Final!

Day 109: Khrushchev, Brezhnev.....Dang it!

Today was not very exciting at all....I spent the entire day studying for my history final that was at 7 pm. I think that I did pretty well, except for the question that required we put the leaders of the S.U. in order, even though I really knew the right answer, I put the wrong one! So mad about that, but I did learn some of the U.S. presidents in order for the final and put those on there! After my final I ended up studying for my Netherlands final that is tomorrow then hit the hay. The high light of the day was when we (Frazzy, Brit, Mom, Mac Daddy, and Lea) all went to McDonalds and got our last stroopwaffel Mcflurries. Of course they were amazing like always.

Happy Queen's Day!

Day 108: Blah Finals Ruin All the Fun!

Well today is Queen's Day and I have to wear orange. I don't particularly like to wear orange as I feel like a pumpkin in it and like I should be going door to door asking for candy, but I will wear it as it is a part of the Dutch culture. Today is the Queen's "Birthday", not really, it is her mom's but they celebrate it this day anyway, and everyone goes crazy! Not just like a little crazy, but I mean full out crazy. You spend all day completely decked out in orange attire including, but not limited to, tiaras, fake orange hair, body paint, etc. I only wore an orange tank top necklace and headband, but it is ok because all I did was attend the city wide garage sale. Oh I didn't explain that. In the morning before the really heavy drinking and partying starts (3 pm) there is a city wide garage sale in which people take all the stuff they don't need and sell it by the canals. Little kids sell lemonade and dance, sing, and play their instruments for money. It was quite interesting to watch. But we ended up just walking around and observing people until about 2 and then we got Turkish food, or course! We got back and I found out that I had gotten sunburnt! What I know! The weather was beautiful! We ended up coming back and studying in the afternoon because we have a final tomorrow evening and all want to do well on it. We studied outside though so it made it bearable.

my awesome queen's day outfit!

The flag of the Netherlands....and orange!

We are FAMILY!

An example of the canal sales!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Missing Home!

Day 107: Gotta Get Outside.

Today was the first day I actually was really really homesick, like to the point of crying. Now don't feel bad for me because I made it through the day just fine, but it was still kind of rough. I think that it came on because the crappy weather steered us all clear of doing what we had originally planned on doing, shopping, and kept us cooped up inside all day. I spent the day doing absolutely nothing, trying to keep my mind of going home and the reverse culture shock I am dreading. It started out by watching youtube videos of recent releases/summer releases I have to see, and then I watched a movie that made me cry my eyes out. Probably a bad choice considering the already teary mood. Then I decided I had to get out of my dorm room before I went insane, so I made Brittany get ready and Jazmyn knocked on my door while I was getting ready. Turns out we were all in the same boat, so we went out to do what we had intended to do earlier, shop. Of course everything in the Netherlands closes really early so we didn't get much shopping in, but it was nice to get out of the stuff dorm. After this we came back and made dinner. You all should be really proud of me because I made potato soup from scratch all by myself! Yep I am officially a cook. Then Brittany went to bed before we could have family movie night, and Freddy went downstairs to skype his brother. This left me and Jazmyn to watch Friday night lights. I of course teared up. After this Jazmyn, Caryn, Freddy, and I went downstairs to meet Lea's brother and ended up leaving maybe an hour in because we were tired. I know we are so lame! But after that I came upstairs and fell asleep!

Back in Nature!

Day 106: Het Loo & Museum Kröller-Müller

Today I woke up pretty early to get showered and ready to go on another adventure. I am going to be honest, I wasn't very excited about this trip, but it turned out to be one of my favorite outings as a group. We got our own private bus and all of us slept on the hour and a half bus ride and I woke up to see trees all around me. I was really excited about this, but that wasn't the main reason we were there, and that was to see the palace. This wasn't my favorite, but the symmetrical english gardens were pretty. Brittany and I ran around the place taking model pictures and then after this we headed to the Kroller-Muller museum that was surrounded by a ton of wilderness. In fact this was the best part. We went outside to see the statues that were in the back of this museum, but then Brittany and I went on a hike, as modern sculptures really are not our favorite thing. After this we rode bikes around the place for about 10 kilometers or so. We really got a workout in! We went through all different kinds of ecosystems from prairie, to desert! My favorite thing about this place was the wide open spaces. It was like being at home. After we got done with biking Brittany and I had about a half hour before it was time to get back on the bus so we ran through the museum and saw as many Van Goghs as possible. Brittany got to see her favorite and I was just excited to see all of them. This museum has the second largest collection of his paintings in the world. After running though the place we headed to the bus and rode home, passing out again. Finally we got back and Brittany, Steph and I went to get kapsalons for dinner and then hung out and ate those. Man am I gonna miss kapsalons. After dinner it was time for settling down and hitting the hay.

These are not in any order sorry!