Happy Leap Day!

Day 49: Getting Crafty!

So this morning I woke up at 5:30 in the morning. Ya I know I am crazy. I had to finish my paper and once I was done I couldn't fall back asleep so I decided to do crafts! I made a really cute scarf necklace thing from a shirt Beth left here and Jaz's birthday present!

Jaz wearing her birthday present. I was too excited not to give it to her.

Me wearing my scarf necklace thing! Please excuse the no makeup look. 

After I was done making crafts I woke up Brittany because I was bored and we had to go and print off our papers. On our way to class we once again ran into construction. It doesn't change when you leave the country. Here they work on the roads just as much as we do in Iowa. We got to Central and printed off our papers and all our boarding passes because we leave for Ireland tomorrow, and then talked to Dennis about our integration activity. After this we took the long way back to Hugo and avoided the construction. Once back I interviewed Lea for my country report and Brit and I had spinach, ham and cheese quesadillas. Once full we decided that we needed to look at our to do list and picked to do our eyebrows! I no longer have a unibrow, but it was a painful hour or so of plucking. Jazmyn got home and then we decided to paint our nails and make Brittany's scarf necklace thing. I painted my nails black and my toes pink with mustaches on them!

My nails and mustache toes! 

I got to talk to my mom on skype and as for the rest of the evening I plan on talking to Taylor, actually packing my bags and also watching P.S. I Love You to prepare for Ireland. Our goal is to find a Jerry for Brittany!

Volunteering

Day 48: Pharmacy 

Well today was a late starting day, even though I wanted to get up early. I couldn't help but press snooze. I woke Brittany up at 9ish to head out into the world to find drugs. Not those kind of drugs people. She is sick so we hit up the pharmacy. From their we went to a volunteer organization to find a place to well volunteer with. There were a couple that seemed perfect the best being educating little kids about nature! How much better can you get? After that we came back and ate lunch and then I finished my part of the presentation, which was the Battle of Somme. Brittany and I had dinner after that and then headed of to history class. It was really depressing because we talked about WWII and the Holocaust. The presentation went really well, but we presented for like 45 minutes rather than 30. WHOOPS! From there a big group of us headed to McDonalds and got stroopwaffel mcflurries. SO GOOD! After that we all headed back to Hugo and did our own things. I read for globalization and hit the hay around midnight.

This is how bad my sweet tooth is! It doesn't help that it is encouraged by family and friends! Also finished off the Thanks-A-Lots! 

Money for Spring Break! First 100 Euro bill. I couldn't help but be excited. I wish that the U.S. dollar was as pretty as the Euro. It makes a rainbow! 

Jazmyn's Chucks! Practicing my black and white photography skills.

Girl Scout Cookies

Day 47: Classes and a Night of Prezi


Well all, today wasn't that exciting. I had classes like normal and they were really weird because Brittany is sick and played hooky. We learned a little more about the Eu and listened to people present about their country. I am after spring break which is unfortunate because I am a PROcrastinator and not having to present till we get back is going to probably make it something I have to do during spring break. In photography we were told our next project is going to be in black and white! I love black and white photography so that should be fun. When I got back from class I checked on Brit and she was a zombie so I let her sleep until our group met to put together our Prezi presentation. We have something like 90 paths. I think we will make the 30 minute deadline. After Prezi I attempted to work on my globalization paper but got distracted by my free reading book. I think that if all of my class reading was free reading I would actually do it. Maybe I will try and look at reading for classes like that from now often...

But anyway I digress. The best part of my day was when I finally got my box from my dad this morning. Guess what was inside?!?!?!

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 Thanks dad for helping me keep up my girlish figure and curb my sweet tooth cravings!

Catching up on Z's....

Day 46: I Feel Like All I Do Is Homework!


Well all I ended up sleeping in today because of being up so late last night with the whole ordeal of my card. When I woke up I had to wake Brittany up and we had coffee and breakfast. From there we decided to do our reading for History....It took ALL day long. We literally were reading for most of the day. We only took breaks to eat meals. By dinner time, we had mushroom soup and rice, we were done and completely homeworked out. I finished my blog and then Frazzy, Brittany and I decided to plan out some of the little details of our trip and we ran into a HUGE mistake we made. We, unfortunately, booked an extra night in London and not on in Ireland so we spent a good amount of time trying to figure out what to do. Jaz emailed the hostel in Galway to see if we could extend our stay and I attempted to call our London hotel, but have to wait until monday. It sucks, but what can you do? At least we figured it out now rather than the night we tried to get to London. After that ordeal we all decided it was time for bed at midnightish, but for some reason I couldn't fall asleep. This was probably because I slept in today. So I read my book and attempted sleep only after 4 chapters. It was really sad, but I couldn't put it down.

Den Haag

Day 45: All Caught Up! 

This morning 7:30 a.m. came way too early. I dragged myself out of bed to shower and get ready for the day. Thank goodness Brittany got coffee yesterday because that literally saved me, the only problem with that was I was hot the rest of the day. I didn't want to wear the typical winter clothes so I put on a dress and only took a sweater to Den Haag, which is always colder than Leiden. Whoops! I didn't freeze, but was a little chilled. Our first stop of the day was the Peace Palace. It was so pretty. Sorry there aren't any pictures of the inside as sometimes important people are there and they don't like their pictures taken. We got to sit in the ICJ and the Permanent Court of Arbitration and hear all about the history. I felt so bad for our tour guide because she was wearing heels and her feet were killing her. At one point she was dancing on the stairs as she told us the story about the statue of Christ made from the melt down of guns. 

This is what the Peace Palace looked like when we got there. The fog was really bad. 

This is what it looked like when we came out! 

After the Peace Palace we got a surprise.....LUNCH MONEY!!! Kidding that wasn't the surprise. We got to go this amazing Panorama from like the late 1800's. I am using that vaguely, I can't remember when it was done exactly. I imagined myself in a long dress with white gloves, hair all curled and done up with flowers in it, much like Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Man it would have been cool to live back then. Any way back to the Panorama, it was incredible, hand painted and it looked almost real. It was basically like stepping back in time. There was also paintings that were done by the same painter who had done the panorama and I fell in love. You could feel the emotion in every painting. My favorite was a sunset over the red sea. Sorry there aren't any pictures because it wasn't allowed. After that we were sent off to find lunch. I was craving chinese food, but shouldn't have been. We ate some nasty chinese food and had horrible tea. It tasted like fish water! BLAGH! It was disgusting!!!! 

FISH TEA!!!

After lunch we were shown a more modern part of Den Haag that is hidden and guess what we found??? 

SALVATORE!!!! Brittany and I were really excited. 

After this we boogied over to the Knights' Hall where we got a tour and see where the queen sits. My favorite thing was the roof, it reminded me of the movie, "How To Train Your Dragon". I kept waiting for Toothless or some Vikings to show up, but they never did. 

Here is the outside of the Knights' Hall. 

This is where the Queen gives a really important speech, that I don't remember what it is called. Whoops. Doesn't it remeind you of "How to Train Your Dragon"? 

The chandeliers underexposed. I really liked them for some reason. 

Me outside of the Knights' Hall. 

A video of us walking in Den Haag:

After we got back from Den Haag Brittany and I decided to be complete bums and got all caught up on Vampire Diaries. UGH!!!! I am so upset that we have to wait until we find out what happens. The last episode was SOO intense! There are so many things that I want answered. After we finished the rest of the season we went out and said happy birthday to Maya and then Brittany, Mom, Caryn and I escaped the craziness to get some food. We went for turkish pizzas at a new place, which were not as good as the ones from our usual guy, but I got a coke which made me feel better. We came back and I read some more of my book after getting my credit card fixed! 

Oh My Gosh I stink!!!

Day 44: Learned Some Self-Control! 

Well all this morning I woke up early and did some yoga hence the title. Then showered with Brittany, not literally, and talked about how awful our papers were and that we were gonna fail. I believe we also sang disney songs. After that we headed off to class, dressed of course and talked about Corporations and Consumption, two of my least favorite things. I was grumpy most of the class because I do like either of these, but one thing that made my day better was a late Valentine's day card from Grandma Frankie and a box from Wade and June, who if you are reading this are in deep trouble! I was so excited about my peanut butter m and m's I had to open the bag right away.

My box of goodies from Wade and June. I am glad I have new fuzzy socks too because the ones from Christmas were looking a little sad! 

After class Brittany, Caryn, Steph and I all hung out after class and discussed Religion and other topics that are typically forbidden. Then came back and watched an episode of Vampire Diaries. Then I talked to Taylor. While doing this he bet me I couldn't only watch one episode of Vampire Diaries, but I showed him. The only thing is I wasn't too productive after that one episode as Brittany and I sat around semi reading and looking at pictures of home. Telling stories and reminiscing. It was just one of those times where you needed to do that. At 12:30 we decided we should go to bed as we are going to Den Haag tomorrow, but that didn't happen. I ended up reading a couple of chapters in "Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife". It got too intense to set down.

The Vow

Day 43: Einstein's. 

So today I woke up early and finished my paper for globalization. Then after that I fell back asleep and then woke up at 9 to shower and do some yoga. Brittany and I then walked to school to print off our papers and we went to the Hoogvleit to get Rose beer and kidney beans for Chili that Freddy and Jazmyn made. Brit and I were starving when we got back so we made wraps and spaghetti with spinach, mushrooms and sausage and had a beer. After lunch Brittany, Jazmyn and I had a girls afternoon of watching The Vow. I pretty much cried the whole time. Jazmyn made fun of me but meh. It is what I do. After that I caught up on my blog and then we had dinner. It was so good! This is where you all have to promise not to get mad at me....We watched some Vampire Diaries. So much for waiting till after spring break. It was so good! We are already 5 episodes in. We took a break after the fourth episode and decided to go out to Einstein's as it is international student night and Brit and I have never gone. It wasn't much fun because it was super crowded and we weren't drunk and everyone else was. Then we came back and watched another episode and went to bed because it was one am.

Our beautiful lunch and Rose beer. 

Disney Tribute!

Day 42: Taking a Chance. 

           

            Well today I had no class, but still woke up early to look for hotels to stay in while we are in London for spring break. I of course got frustrated because everything was really expensive so I decided to take a nap and do some paperwork for stuff at home. Then Brittany and Jazmyn got back from Dutch 2 and we went grocery shopping. After grocery shopping Brit and I made amazing wraps and then I fell asleep for 3.5 hours. Guess I really needed the sleep. After that we made dinner which was rice and chicken with a chicken gravy. After dinner we did some more researching until we found a really good deal on hotwire.com. The only problem with there was with this deal was that we didn't know what hotel we were going to book as it was a secret deal. I almost had a heart attack when booking it. I had a horrible feeling we were getting ripped off, but in the end it is a really nice hotel and we got it for a steal. Then we attempted to do homework for globalization as our paper is due tomorrow but ended up spending most of our time looking up youtube videos of Disney songs and listening to acapella music. My card also got frozen as I tried to transfer money to my grandmother's account. This should make surviving interesting the next couple of days until all is squared away. 

Who needs groceries we have Kapsalons?

Day 41: Classes Just Aren’t Fun Today… End of Season 2! 

            Monday’s I have decided are officially the worst day of the week. Classes for six hours are awful even though I love the topics we are learning about. For Netherlands and its European Context we learned about the EU as an entity and current events like Turkey becoming a member and the current financial crisis. After that class Mom, Brittany, Freddy, Jazmyn and I headed out to get kapsalons because we didn’t have any groceries. Oh I forgot to talk about how when we got home there was no electricity. Ya so all the food in the fridge rotted. Disgusting, I know. Then after Kapsalons and my pineapple soda we headed back for photography class. We talked about depth of field and then played with shutter speed. Our next assignment is going to be fun. After class Brittany and I decided that we deserved to watch one episode of Vampire Diaries, which ended up being the rest of season two. Our goal though is to not start season three until after spring break. 

Biking, Baby seals, and Beaches...Oh my!

Day 40: Sad it had to end!

            Well today was the last day in Texel and it was bitter sweet. We started off the day with a long bike ride to the seal rehabilitation center and museum. The ride was a little long because the wind was ridiculous, but it was totally worth it because of who amazing the seal place was. Seals are taken here when they can no longer survive in the wild. We got to see them get fed and then ran inside to avoid getting snowed on. They were the cutest things in the world. I ended up buying my souvenir here because I figured that the money would go to help the animals. After we got done at the museum we headed to the beach. I could have stayed here the rest of the day. It was so calming. I took a video of the beach so you all can experience it. I picked up some sea shells but couldn’t find the perfect one so was a little sad, but ended up getting some cool pictures. After the beach we took a ride through a national park. I of course was super excited and felt like I was at home. That ride could have lasted a lot longer than it did. I also took a video of the bike ride as well! Then we got back to Elba and had to do some cleaning and packing. I snuck away for a little bit and took some pictures. After everything was cleaned we rode our bikes back to catch the ferry and had a few extra minutes. I ended up walking to the beach and found the perfect shell! It was a full shell of a muscle I believe. It is a little stinky, but perfect. Then we made our really long trek back to Leiden. When we got back I did the homework I had postponed and we got McDonalds to eat. I know I vowed I wouldn’t have any food from a fast food restaurant, but I was really craving a burger. Plus trying McDonalds in another country tells a lot about a culture. The burger was better then I have had in the states, probably because of all the regulations on processed food etc. 

Elba. This isn't where we stayed, but the house next to it. 

This is a really cool picture of the tree on the grounds. 

An insect hotel.  

This reminded me of the Loess Hills. 

Dolphin! 

The beach!  

A razor shell on the beach. 

We be biking fools!  

All the captions are so cute. 

On of my favorite pictures. 

This is a volleyball net in the backyard with the countryside in the background. 

My bike! 

Another picture of my bike! 

My bike through the spokes of another. 

The driveway. 

The last picture of Texel. 

Me on the Caterpillar Bus. 

Me, Mom, and Brittany on the  bus waiting to get to the train station.  The tracks were under construction. 

Me and my HUGE McDonald's cheeseburger. 

At the Beach: 

On my Bike: 

Shrimping on a Boat!

Day 39: I Have Got Some Crazy Mind Powers! 

            We got to kind of sleep in today! Our day started at 9:00 am with a breakfast of bread. No surprise there because that is all the Dutch eat, bread, bread, and more bread! After that we threw on clothes really fast to bike across the island to make it to our first stop by ten. We first went to the Maritime Museum, which was really cool. I ended up taking a million and one pictures so I will upload the ones that I liked the best. There we saw old boats, salvage WWII bomber engines, and a replica-fishing village.  On the way to the museum we stopped by two historical places of interest one being the Georgian memorial from WWII the other the well that made Texel a place of importance. After that we went on the shrimping boat. I was sad that we didn’t see any seals or whales, but we got to eat a ton of shrimp. I felt really bad shelling the little guys, but they tasted so good. We also learned about the other fish that we caught all of them were really ugly and had to be thrown back out to sea. At one point some of the girls were throwing fish in the air to the seagulls. Surprisingly we saw one catch a fish in midair. There we also a couple that got into fights over them.  After we got back from our shrimping adventure we ended up with six bags of shrimp or in other words a fortune. After shrimping we had to bike back across the island through a bitterly cold wind to do some shopping. Once there we met Steef’s wife who is a really cool lady. Then we came back to Elba and made Dutch pancakes and a shrimp bisque, worth ten euro in a restaurant, for dinner. The shrimp bisque was ok, but I would much rather eat the little shrimps, but the pancake was really good. Brittany and I also got a summer sausage at the grocery store and noomed on that all night long. After dinner I took a shower and prepared for a game of Farkle. Jaz won the first game, and I barely won the second game. This is where the mind powers comes into play. Whenever I play I usually roll off of the person before me, even if it is one die left. This time I ended up getting 5,900 points off of one roll and left three die which I told Freddy he was going to Farkle and he did. This led to an evening of finger waving and guessing the outcome of the game, which was right.  Summer could have beat me, but she ended up Farkling. That game lasted forever and we finally went to bed at midnight.

This is the WWII museum for the Georgians that were lost. This is the north of the Netherlands which was liberated last. The Georgians fought and lost a lot of men in the last efforts to reach liberation. 

Sheep Sheep and more sheep! There were sheep everywhere we went. 

A boat at the Maritime Museum. 

My new favorite underexposed picture. 

A brush on a work bench. 

The view from the shrimp boat. 

Our catch. Yum! 

The seagulls waiting in anticipation of the fish being thrown back in. 

Cooked Shrimps! Yum! 

Our Shrimping boat.  

I love this picture. 

Each province has its own type of bread. I couldn’t but help to think about hunger games. 

A picture of a chandelier in a store we went into. 

Shrimp bisque with butter in it to make it taste better. 

My Dutch Pancake. Bacon and Cheese.