Amsterdam

Sorry about not posting in awhile.

The first week of classes went well. My two dutch classes are interesting, but I probably like my Intercultural Philosophy and Communication class better than my Dutch Art History class so far. The professor for Dutch Art History is a very stern Dutch woman and staying awake while she talks monotonously in the dark about slides of paintings is quite a challenge. Sorry to mother who was an art history major. The philosophy class is much smaller (both of them are all Baylor students though) and the professor is a funny Dutch guy who seems really interested in his subject matter. 

On Tuesday night they had a end of "welcome week" party for all the international students at a dance club called Kadans. It was a lot of fun, even though Europeans dance weird. We stayed out pretty late, maybe thats why Dutch Art History was so difficult to stay awake in. 

On Thursday, six of us girls rode the train to Amsterdam and got there in time to check into our hostel and meet up with my friend Mark who I know from my business fraternity at Baylor. He graduated in December and just started graduate school in Amsterdam. He did the same study abroad program in Maastricht 2 years ago and decided he wanted to go back to Europe to get his Masters in European Studies. The seven of us walked around and decided to eat at a Thai restaurant. Then Mark took a few of us to a lounge/restaurant place called Barney's. 

On Friday, we dropped our stuff off at Marks apartment because we didn't have a hostel booked for Friday night and then went to a little cafe for lunch. After that, us girls went to the Van Gogh museum, which was pretty cool. I liked the Rijksmuseum better, but more on that later. The other girls wanted to spend more time at the museum, so Christina and I went exploring we went to this park and took pictures and got Dutch waffles with powdered sugar. The best part is that there is no feeling guilty because we burn so many calories from walking :)

We then met up with the other girls  and went to Leidseplein area to buy tickets for an American comedy show called "Boom Chicago." After we bought the tickets, we were all excited because we found a Mexican restaurant nearby. We went and were thoroughly disappointed. It was extremely overpriced and not very good. Silly kids, thinking we could find good Mexican food in Europe. After dinner, we went to the show. It was a very funny "Who's Line is it Anyway?" type improv show, with a few rehearsed pieces as well. It got a little political which kind of made me mad, but overall it was fun. They made fun of Americans and Dutch people as well as some just general funny stuff. 

Afterwards, we went to Barney's again to get drinks and dessert and then went back to the hostel to go bed. 

Yesterday (Saturday), Christina and I split up from the rest of our group and had lunch with Mark and then went shopping a little. We then spent some time at the Rijksmuseum, which was really awesome. It had a better environment than the Van Gogh museum, a lot less stark and serious and more friendly to people who don't know a lot about art (giving really good descriptions and fun facts about things). They had a lot of Rembrandt's work and many other artists.  

Then we went to the Heineken Brewery which was really fun. We got to see how they make the beer and it had fun virtual reality ride and some other fun stuff. After that, we walked around and then Christina and I checked into the hostel and freshened up and then met up with the rest of our group for dinner at an Indonesian Restaurant. Amsterdam is known for their Indonesian food apparently because Indonesia was founded by the Dutch. I had some Chicken in coconut sauce..Yum!

Afterwards, Mark, Pana, Christina, and I went to walking around and saw the sights of Amsterdam nightlife in Rembrantplein and the infamous Red Light District. It was worth seeing, a little seedy, but not as dirty or scary as you would expect. After that, we went to an Australian bar whose slogan was "Lousy food and warm drinks." It was so fun, the music was so different than what were used to and everybody is dancing goofy rather than all sexy like at clubs in the United States. The bar closed around 1 or 2 and then we navigated our way back to our hostel. 

This morning we woke up and caught our train back to Maastricht. Unfortunately, they were doing construction on the tracks going to Maastricht so we had to get off in a city called Eindhoven and take a bus to another city called Roermond where we got on another train to Maastricht. It was actually kind of nice because we got an unofficial tour of another area of the Netherlands.

After we got into the train station, Brisa, Christina and I got a late lunch and then I came back to the dorm and changed into some comfortable clothes and have been trying to get some other stuff done before classes tomorrow. It's so nice how Maastricht feels like home now. Just pulling into the train station, it felt so familiar and nice to be back somewhere where I dont have to feel stressed out or lost all the time. 

Well that's all for now. Ill try to update more this week than last week. Sorry!

Miss you!

With love (and a craving for Chipotle),

Taylor