Leaving for London in the morning. We also booked hostels for the next two weekends. Next weekend is Amsterdam and the weekend after that is Paris. 

Im too tired to post right now. Miss you.

666

After breakfast we walked to downtown Maastricht and had an orientation with the Center for European Studies (CES) people. The campus is very cool and modern, surrounded by 400 year buildings on all sides. 

They served coffee and a pie type pastry called Fly (sp?). Their coffee is so much stronger than American coffee but very good.

After that we went to the student food court at the university and got lunch. My appetite has been weird since I got here, so I didn't eat much. However, the food was very good. A tomato and cheese sandwich on a baguette and a salad that had cucumbers, onions, chinese ramen noodles, and walnuts in it. 

Funny quotes of the day:

Taylor: Did you go to the bathroom? Where was it?

Alexa: Yea, its over there by the door.

Taylor: Did they charge money? 

Alexa: I dont think so. If they did, I just stole a pee.

Christina: I don't really feel like I'm in Europe, I just feel like I can't read.

The second one is funny because all the dutch signs look like English so you can read them  and kind of know what they mean but they are spelled all funky. 

Example: beer is bier, soup is soep, wine is wijn, kalf is veal, crab is krab, and pepper is peper.

Another random fact is that instead of 911 for emergency calls, the Dutch use 666. Creepy.

After lunch, we split into two groups. One group did an above ground culture tour, and the other group, which I was in did an underground tunnel tour.

From the university, we followed a lady who worked for the university across town to the entrance to these ancient tunnels. I guess they were from the age of the musketeers, when the French and Germany were fighting over Maastricht. The tunnel systems were used as hiding and protection and they have shooting apertures out the side. d' Artagnan, one of the three musketeers died in these tunnels. The tour was designed as kind of a scavenger hunt to find your way out. If you got lost, the longest distance through the tunnels is 14 kilometers and the shortest was 6 kilometers. We got lost. It took us over 3 hours to get through the whole thing.

Our group of 6 girls only had three flashlights between us and other than that it was complete darkness. At the end of the tour, we walked about 15 or 20 minutes back to the guesthouse. My feet literally felt like they may fall off.

The good news is that I love my boots I bought, they have been plenty warm and very comfortable for walking. 

Bad news is I forgot my umbrella. Another thing I need to buy. 

We got refreshed and then went to a ESN (Erasmus Student Network) dinner. ESN is a organization that helps integrate exchange students. We walked to a restaurant in the city center, where we had yet to go. The city center was amazing. It was very lively and so many restaurants and bars all surrounding a huge square with a big pavilion thing in the middle. Apparently during Carnaval the city center is so full of people that you can hardly even walk through. I also saw my first coffee shop (marijuana bar..its legal here). Don't worry. I didn't go in.

The dinner was amazing. I had a salad with Brie cheese and a baguette. We sat with an ESN leader named Nina who grew up here. She was so nice and helped us learn a lot about the city. There were probably about 15 Baylor students that went to the dinner, some stayed back at the Guesthouse and ate there. There were also exchange students from France, Spain, Canada, and the U.S. 

They then taught us a drinking game called a Beer relay, but I, along with a lot of the other Baylor students didn't play because we were too worn out. Team France ended up dominating. 

With the Maastricht guys coming in second, and Team Texas (Baylor kids) coming up third. 

We then walked back to the dorms and met some of the other students who had just moved in to our wing. A bunch of them are from UNC-Chapel Hill and Indiana. A few are from Brandies, and Virginia. I also met a guy from Colorado College who went to Golden High School. Small world. 

We hung out in our dorm and I finished unpacking and then we headed to bed. I felt a lot more rested this morning then I did yesterday. Maybe I'm finally adjusting to the time change.

This morning we had breakfast and are leaving for some more school orientation stuff in about a half hour. Then we are going to the train station to activate our Eurorail passes before our trip to London tomorrow. 

Then we have the afternoon off, which will give us time to go into town and hopefully get those adapters and a cell phone. 

I don't know what tonight is going to look like.

Then we leave bright and early to go to London. Ill try to update before then, otherwise I'll post on Sunday night here.

Love you all. Miss you!

With luv (and Dutch Hooked on Phonics),

Taylor

1st Day in Maastricht

So I'm here!

I wrote something in the airport but it won't post to here and I haven't had time to figure how to fix it. 

We got in yesterday afternoon. Our plane was about an hour late leaving Houston due to electrical problems on the plane. We had boarded the plane already and sat their waiting to take off for what seemed like forever. We only arrived about a half hour late to Amsterdam because we made up some time due to a strong tail wind.

Originally I was seated in the very back row of the airplane at least 5 rows away from everyone else in our group. That's what happens when your last name is Zimmerman and you have to do things in alphabetical order. I moved seats to sit next to a girl named Amber from Round Rock, Texas. We watched the movie "Nights of Rodanthe", ate the airplane dinner (some weird curry stuff), and then I popped a few Tylenol PM and slept for a couple hours. I woke up for a little bit, then went back to sleep. In all, I probably only slept about 3 or 4 hours the whole flight. Oh well. 

As we descended onto the coast (The Netherlands borders the ocean), we could see hundreds of huge windmills in the water. It was really neat. Also the coastal towns are adorable from the air. Red roofs, very typical European houses. I'd like to go to the coast here if I get the chance. 

We arrived in Amsterdam at about 1:00 in the afternoon (or 13:00, they do military time here). The airport was by far the nicest and most colorful airport I've ever been in. Tons of shops, restaurants and beautiful artwork and architecture. We went through customs and were greeted by the friendly coordinator of the Maastricht program. We got our bags and used carts to wheel them outside where our coach was waiting for us. 

The drive to Maastricht was about 250 kilometers (2.5 hours). It was surprisingly very sunny and I would guess in the 40's F in temperature. Most people slept on the bus, but I stayed awake. We didn't get to see much of Amsterdam, because the airport was outside of the city. But we drove on the A2 (The highway that Dutch pronounce as something like Aht).

The countryside was beautiful. Lots of little towns with farm houses and LOTS of sheep. The architecture is amazing. It's like old European style churches with tall steeples, mixed with very modern and trendy type of buildings too. 

When we arrived at the Teikyo (the international student guesthouse where were staying), we were assigned our room keys. The rooms are extremely spacious, almost twice as big as my freshman dorm room at Baylor. We have a mini kitchen, with pots, pans, the works. We have a little kitchen table, big closets, and a tv, although we haven't tried that out yet.  I'll post pictures soon. 

My roommate's name is Jazzy and she is from Boise, Idaho and is also a business major at Baylor. 

We started to unpack, and then met downstairs for dinner in the cafeteria. We got some forms after dinner, and then ran back to our rooms and got our coats. 

Two student employees from the Netherlands were planning on showing us the way to the "mall", but because of all the paperwork we had to be given, we were running late. I had heard rumors about Dutch people being extremely blunt and saying what's on their mind, but I didn't know what to expect exactly. The two Dutch employee girls, Simone and Marlot, made it clear that since we were all late, they would show us there but we would have to find our way back because they had to be at the pub by seven. Despite their abruptness, they ended up being very nice and spoke very good English. They taught us how to say "Please" and "Thank you", but I can't remember "please" any more. Dankjewel (pronounced Donk-you-el) means thank you.

The mall was nice. Two grocey stores, a post office, and several other specialty shops. Most everything closes at 5 or 6 though, except for the grocery store which is open until 8. The walk from the guesthouse to the mall was about 10 minutes. 

We walked back and then came back to try and set up our internet. At first, I couldn't get it to work, but after some reading I finally figured it out. Also, I need to buy another adapter for my computer plug in, because the one I have doesn't work for these outlets. Bummer. 

Walking around the guesthouse, we saw an open door with some girls who looked like they had been living here for awhile. We poked in and introduced ourselves. One of the girls name was Nicole, and she was from California but has been living here since July. The other girl was from South Korea and has been here since September. They invited us to go out to the student "pub" with them, and we told them we would think about it and let them know.

At first, we thought we should get some rest but our clocks were so messed up that we didn't feel like going to bed. Plus, it was our first night here and a good chance to meet some other people. It ended up only being 8 of us Baylor kids that went. Jazzy (my roommate), Christina (from Austin), Brisa (from Ediburgh, TX), Daniel (from Chicago), Tyler (from Nacodoches), Jonathan (from Dallas), Trevis (from Dallas) and I. 

We met up with Nicole, the girl from California and we walked over to the other wing in the guesthouse where she introduced us to her friend Moira, from Canada, who has also been here since September. The other building of the guesthouse was polar opposite from our side. Our side is much more quiet (maybe because its mostly Baylor students and we just arrived). The C building (Were in P building) was full of people in the hallways smoking cigarettes and listening to music. It was a bit of a shock to us private school kids, who are used to having a curfew and girl/boy visiting hours. We went into their common room and met some more Canadians, friends of Moira who are only here for a few days. Then the big group of us headed to the Highlander (one of the two student pubs) close by.

The walk was about 15 minutes, and the whole time I wanted to pinch myself. I felt so European walking around all bundled up looking at the streetlights blurred from the fog. We got to know each other and laughed. Nicole and Moira had a disagreement about which way was the faster way to get there, so half of us went with Moira and the other half went with Nicole. As soon as Nicole's group split off, Moira looked at us and said in her adorable Canadian accent, "Uh oh, we need to walk faster, because we are racing and they definitely went the shorter route." We laughed and asked why she had insisted this way had been faster. "Because I'm competitive. Walk faster."

We got there first.

The pub was so fun. The bartender, Yogi, was so friendly and insisted that our first night in Maastricht was going to be amazing. The happy hour (10-11) was 1 Euro beers so we bought one and headed to the upstairs of the bar. We sat at a huge table, and talked and laughed and met even more people. I met people from the U.S., Australia, Ireland, etc. One girl, Lottie, from Ireland was so fun. She kissed us all on both cheeks when she met us and said "So you are from the states, love?" in her heavy accent. 

We walked home around midnight, which is apparently ridiculously early to our European friends who planned on going dancing after the pub closed at 2. 

The four of us girls (Christina, Brisa, Jazzy and I) tried to be quiet coming back up to our rooms and grabbing our shower stuff. We took a late night shower, and quite frankly, I don't think I've ever had a better shower in my life. The water was steaming hot and 2 days of traveling makes you feel pretty gross. We laughed and talked through the shower stalls and then walked back to our rooms and fell asleep. Fast.

This morning we had to be at breakfast by 7:30 am. Its mandatory for the Baylor group during the weeks here. While its hard to resist staying in bed, I think it's actually a good policy. I don't want to waste any part of the days here sleeping. Too much to see. Too much to experience.

Breakfast was decent. Turkey and cheese, bread, yogurt, and fruit. And tea. Yum.

We are leaving in about a half hour for a tour around the city and then some other orientation activities. Hopefully, Ill get a chance to go to the store and get that adapter, and get my prepaid Dutch phone. 

By the way, today is definitely not sunny like yesterday. I feel cold just looking outside. Apparently it rains 25 days out of the month in January and February. Brrrr...

Well thats all I got for now. Ill update again soon. 

Dankjewel for your prayers and well wishes.

With love (and a kiss on each cheek like my Irish friend),

Taylor

Tomorrow!

I leave tomorrow! Eek!

I'll post by Tuesday or Wednesday, if not sooner. You have my word. 

Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers!

With love (and lots of anticipation),

Taylor