Update

Hey guys,

I just wanted to give you guys a quick update. I had a good week, two of my classes got rescheduled so I only had 4 hours of class week. However, I have been working on two papers and a 10 page proposal  so the extra time has been nice. My group has been meeting in a cafe downtown almost everyday. Apparently it is socially acceptable to drink during group meetings!

In about an hour I will be boarding a bus over to Munich for Oktoberfest. It is about an 8 hour drive. I went out today to purchase the appropriate clothing. I will post some photos when I return. This should be an awesome trip!

Hope all is well.

Hey Guys!

Hey guys...its been a while...that is, for the most part, my fault. I am truly sorry. The page counter shows me that people visit my page every day and for the past week and a half nothing has been added.

Although my adventures have been limited for the past month because of strep/mono/whatever I had, I am pleased to inform you that, after sleep and a ridiculous amount of anti-biotics, I have fully recovered. Knock on wood.

As mentioned I have not left Maastricht since I got back from Amsterdam, but I am here to go to school  as well. I am entering my fourth week of classes here at Maastricht University and it has been quite an interesting experience so far. As I mentioned in an earlier post we have a large amount of reading to do before every tuesday class. It is a seminar based class. There are 17 kids in the class and we discuss the readings for two hours. I am the only American in my class and there are so many different nationalities represented. There are people from the Netherlands, the UK, China, Korea, France, Germany and those are just the ones I can think of! It is amazing. It is a hard feeling to put into words, but as an American international studies student I really only get a one-sided view of the topics. Studying, speaking and discussing with people from all over the world is an enlightening experience. For example, on friday, we had a debate surrounding human rights violations in China. As I said, we have a kid from China in the class and it was interesting to hear his perspective on the issue.

Oh, another thing. Everyone hates on America. Unfortunately, for the most part, I have trouble disagreeing with their criticisms. It has been quite the experience.

Outside of class I have been spending a lot of time at the pub. A friend from class took me a last week to watch a soccer game and I have been hooked ever since. For any soccer fans reading this I have become a Swansea City fan. My buddy has season tickets and is taking me to see a match in Swansea in November. How cool is that? Look ma, I'm making friends!

Well thats about it for now. I promise to do a better job with the blog. I hope all is well on your side of the pond!

My Oh My How Time Does Fly

Hey guys, I hope all is well with each and everyone of you. When I last wrote you I had just finished my first week of class. I spent part of last weekend in Amsterdam. I went to Amsterdam with Granger after high school as part of our Europe trip. How could I not go back? Amsterdam is a crazy and truly strange city. It is a beehive of activity based around prostitution and marijuana intertwined with the culture represented by the Anne Frank house and Van Gogh museum. I spent most of the day inhaling the Amsterdam culture and wandering throughout the city people watching and looking at the cool architecture. We also did a canal tour which was very touristy but fun none the less. Amsterdam has to be the most diverse city I have been to. I didn't really notice it last time I was there but there are people from all over the world. It was quite interesting. Anyways, I have a study trip to Amsterdam in a month or so. I have a feeling I will be there a few times this semester.

Something I just realized yesterday was that I have already been here for a month!!! That is freakin' crazy. That means I am already 20% done with my time in this amazing city. Time has got to slow the hell down.

Just a quick update on me. I finished my meds late last week and I thought that I was all better. However on sunday I started feeling shitty again and so I went back to the doctors this morning and got another weeks worth of antibiotics. The doctor thinks that I might have mono........ yikes! She wants me to come back in if I don't get better and she will send me to a specialist. So cross your fingers guys. That would really suck. All this illness is putting a limit on my nightlife! But its really important to get back to 100%

Ive got a few more things planned in the next month. As you know I am going to Octoberfest on the 27th of this month. I have also purchased a ticket to go see the Dutch national soccer team take on Hungary in Amsterdam for World Cup Qualifiers on the 11th of October. Ive got to go buy some orange!!!

Right now I am studying in the library garden, enjoying the rare sunshine surrounded mostly by rain.

Bus ride up to Amsterdam

Mostly for Granger. This is the Hostel we stayed at last time.

My First Week

Hey everyone!!

Well I just completed my first actually school week. It was...interesting. It is very different than what I am used to. Most people take two 6 credit classes plus their core seminar. I am taking one 12 credit class and my core seminar. My core seminar starts next week. So this week I only had 6 hours of actual in-class time. Four hours are spent in tutorials which are student lead, professor guided discussion consisting of 16 students. The other two hours are spent in a lecture. It may not seem like a lot of class time, and its not, but the amount of work we have to do outside of class is ridiculous. As a student you are given a substantial amount of free time, most of which is spent working. I have been placed in a group which I will stay with for the next 8 weeks. This week was considered an easy week. We were assigned a project on tuesday to be presented friday (today) morning. Our project focused on the Millennium Development Goals for Latin America and the Caribbean regions. We spent a solid amount of time and produced what I think was a pretty good presentation this morning. For next friday my group has to write a ten page paper and do a presentation on colonization/decolonization of Zambia in addition to 300 pages of reading for tuesday! Oh well, I guess Im gonna have to find a comfy chair somewhere.

I think there will be an little bit of an adjustment period to this new style of learning and it certainly is going to be interesting. The group dynamics are very interesting. My group is great, which is always nice. My group consists of a Welshman, a girl from London, a Dutch man and women, and a French lady. The conversations are quite entertaining.

Anyways, you guys don't have to worry, I am not working too hard. I leave for Amsterdam tomorrow morning! So that should be awesome.

That is all I got for right now, thanks for reading and GO NINERS!!!!

Ups and Downs in Maastricht

Hey everyone! I hope all is going well.

Amazingly it has been over a week since I returned from my amazing trip to Berlin. First off I want to apologize for all of the type-Os in my last blog post. I was writing it at like 2am so can you blame me?

The last week has been crazy. After I returned from Berlin I felt terrible. I assumed it was just exhaustion from not really sleeping in Berlin. After sleeping all day Sunday I realized it might be more than exhaustion/Berlin hangover. But me being me I thought I could just tough it out. After a few more nights characterized by a feverish delirium and a terrible sore throat I spoke with my coordinator about seeing a doctor. She was able to get me into a doctors office that afternoon. That was quite an experience. They have a clinic at the dorm I am living in but it was booked so I had to find a building tucked away in old town Maastricht. After an eventful search for the building I arrived just in time for my appointment. However, when I got there I realized that the lovely lady at the front desk spoke no english and I, of course, speak no dutch. So after 20 minutes of hand signals, laughter, tears and help from a young man walking by the office I was able to fill out the necessary forms. When the doctor was able to see me she took my temperature and looked down my throat and prescribed me antibiotics. She didn't run any tests but she told me she thought it was strep throat (yikes!). I then had to try and go find the pharmacy. So I asked my non-english speaking friend at the front desk for directions. That did not go well. After she repeated herself ten times I nodded and pretended to understand her crazy hand waves and rudimentary drawings and went on my way. I thought that if I just walked around downtown I would eventually run into a pharmacy. Low and behold I did! (This was on thursday by the way).

Unfortunately during the time I was sick I missed a few pub crawls and other shenanigans. But hey, I'm here for four more months. Plenty of time to get into trouble.

The next few days consisted of soup, juice, ibuprofen and antibiotics.

Finally on sunday I felt better, I was able to get out of bed and go the weekly farmers market in the main square in Maastricht. It felt good to get out of my dorm.

Today, monday, was the first day of actual school at the University of Maastricht. I, however, do not have classes on mondays and wednesdays! So I spent the day obtaining a bike and buying the book I will need for my international studies class.

I have my first class of the semester tomorrow! I'm nervous and pumped! It should be interesting. Additionally, I have booked two trips so far. Next weekend will be spent in Amsterdam and the weekend of the 27th I will be in Munich for Octoberfest. How freakin' cool is that?

Ah, I almost forgot. I have another Netherland Noob (NN) moment for ya'll. Again it occurred at the grocery store. Who thought it would be that hard to buy food?!? I walk in to the store with a little swagger in my step because I was feeling better and I knew which check outline to get into this time. I grabbed a few things, some bread, cheese, salami and a couple pieces of fruit. I proceeded to the check out line and double checked to make sure that I wasn't in the "no cash line". The clerk goes to scan my fruit and starts yelling at me in Dutch. I kindly informed her that I do not speak any Dutch and she tells me that I didn't pre-weigh the fruit. I didn't really understand what she meant so the person behind me kindly explained that I have weigh my fruit and and print out a bar code before I enter the check out line using this machine.

So, yeah, heres the machine. You're supposed to put your fruit on the scale and press the corresponding picture and it prints out bar code.

Thats all I got for today. Also, if anyone is interested by best bud Granger is studying abroad in Morocco and is blogging. Here is the url: http://tripptomorocco.blogspot.nl