EUROPE
Hihi. New Years' Resolution (a bit early, but what the hey): update more often. For real this time.
As some of you know, I am currently in the Netherlands right now! Yay! :D I'm having a lot of fun so far, except for being narcoleptic and falling asleep every time I sit down. Hooray jet lag. I should be good now, though, since I accidentally slept for 12 hours last night... Oops.
So I got here Saturday morning and hung out with Claudia and her family all day. They are sooo nice. On Sunday Claudia and I took the bus to Amsterdam and walked around. It was very crowded! We went into every tourist shop in the city (or so it felt like) and I found a few things for my cross country girls (haha, penis-shaped candy, yes!). We went through the infamous Red Light District, which just made me kind of sad. The women in the windows looked like animals in a zoo. Plus the lights shining on them made their skin look plastic or something. It was weird. And OMG so many damn sex shops. I saw waaaay too many penises. Guh-ross. I fulfilled a promise to my sister by going into one of the coffee shops and taking a deep breath and thinking about her. Haha. Man, it reeked, though.
After that we walked over to the train station and got some french fries (frites!) from a little chain called Smullers. Holy cow amazing! We got the "special" with mayonnaise, curry ketchup, and onions. So delicious. I am considering opening a stand on campus. I bet I'd make a killing. Then we got a "Turkish Pizza" from a falafel place and this random old guy sat down and chatted with us. I think he had an Irish accent? It was amusing. Then we walked back up through the main shopping street and went through a five-floor department store. Wait. Six-floor. I forget that they count the ground floor as "0" and the second floor as "1". Also I had to pay to go to the bathroom. Oh, Europe. We had to book it back to the bus stop to catch our train, but we made it. I totally passed out on the hour-long bus trip back to Claudia's little town.
The weather has been freezing cold, but at least it's not that windy. Today when I went out to run there were kids playing on the half-frozen canals, which made me nervous, but apparently they do it all the time. Also, there are canals EVERYWHERE. You have no idea. It's kind of weird but also cool. And it really is completely flat here. The Netherlands seem like a very... manicured country. Does that make sense? Everything is very well-ordered and in its place. It all makes sense, but I wish I could see some natural forests or something. All the trees are planted in rows. All of them.
Okay, I need to start cleaning up my clothes because Claudia will be home soon and it looks like my suitcases exploded. More later!
As some of you know, I am currently in the Netherlands right now! Yay! :D I'm having a lot of fun so far, except for being narcoleptic and falling asleep every time I sit down. Hooray jet lag. I should be good now, though, since I accidentally slept for 12 hours last night... Oops.
So I got here Saturday morning and hung out with Claudia and her family all day. They are sooo nice. On Sunday Claudia and I took the bus to Amsterdam and walked around. It was very crowded! We went into every tourist shop in the city (or so it felt like) and I found a few things for my cross country girls (haha, penis-shaped candy, yes!). We went through the infamous Red Light District, which just made me kind of sad. The women in the windows looked like animals in a zoo. Plus the lights shining on them made their skin look plastic or something. It was weird. And OMG so many damn sex shops. I saw waaaay too many penises. Guh-ross. I fulfilled a promise to my sister by going into one of the coffee shops and taking a deep breath and thinking about her. Haha. Man, it reeked, though.
After that we walked over to the train station and got some french fries (frites!) from a little chain called Smullers. Holy cow amazing! We got the "special" with mayonnaise, curry ketchup, and onions. So delicious. I am considering opening a stand on campus. I bet I'd make a killing. Then we got a "Turkish Pizza" from a falafel place and this random old guy sat down and chatted with us. I think he had an Irish accent? It was amusing. Then we walked back up through the main shopping street and went through a five-floor department store. Wait. Six-floor. I forget that they count the ground floor as "0" and the second floor as "1". Also I had to pay to go to the bathroom. Oh, Europe. We had to book it back to the bus stop to catch our train, but we made it. I totally passed out on the hour-long bus trip back to Claudia's little town.
The weather has been freezing cold, but at least it's not that windy. Today when I went out to run there were kids playing on the half-frozen canals, which made me nervous, but apparently they do it all the time. Also, there are canals EVERYWHERE. You have no idea. It's kind of weird but also cool. And it really is completely flat here. The Netherlands seem like a very... manicured country. Does that make sense? Everything is very well-ordered and in its place. It all makes sense, but I wish I could see some natural forests or something. All the trees are planted in rows. All of them.
Okay, I need to start cleaning up my clothes because Claudia will be home soon and it looks like my suitcases exploded. More later!