Secondly, I am not entirely sure why, but apparently my blog has jumped to getting about 100 readers a day. And that's everyday, including the days which I'm not writing. According to my blog stats, many of you are logging in from Slovenia...? It's pretty exciting to see the numbers jump so high so randomly, but I am also kind of wondering why. Just a random thought I suppose. But if you're one of the daily one hundred who randomly stumbled upon me, shoot me a comment to let me know how this maddness is happening. I'm fascinatined.
Thirdly..People.. take my poll! It's right over there ----->
Fourth, University has started! My language and culture courses have now finished and my free time at the end of the weeks to travel has been returned. I received an A in my language course, which made me extremely excited. Germans don't really give As; perfection is not as easily attained/believed in here. It isn't a bad thing, it's just truly a different system. Often, in university, it is said that if you receive an A, you are to be on the same level of knowledge as the professor. So, as you can imagine, not many As are given. My language course was slightly different; it wasn't true University. But still, I was proud of my little A, or should I say "1". The German grading scale is on a number system 1-5, 1 being excellent, 5 being failure. It basically is the same as our A-F scale. 1=A, 2=B, 3=C, 4=D, 5=F. However, in the elementary system, you can go as low as a 6, so like basically "super" fail. What a harsh beginning. Tough love I suppose. Ohhh Germans. How they crack me up. (actually, their whole grading scale changes depending on which level of school you're at.. but seriously, we're not going to go into all of that right now. Clearly one system from beginning to end isn't sensible enough... hmm..) But yes. University started. I only have three courses at the moment (such a hard life, I know!). Currently I'm taking American 21st century novels, Project Europe: Social, political, and economical aspects of European integration from the early Modern Age until today, and a German conversation course. Each class (except the conversation course) are 6 hours per week, and for me all on Monday through Wednesday. It sounds like I have way less than at home, but keep in mind I just finished 130 hours of German language course and then culture course as well. Don't worry, I'm doing the same if not a little more than at home. So far the courses don't seem too bad.. the Project Europe class was actually cancelled on the first day, so can't complain there. The novels class seems interesting enough, however just like all other english lit classes, slightly boring at the same time. I'm craming books into my brain for the course left and right, but at least the novels are enjoyable. I just finished thenovel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonnathan Foer.. READ IT! It was awesome. The author really has a way with words which I've never seen before, and the book is full of random little facts about the world which are seriously fascinating. Just.. read it. Ok thanks :) The next book on the list is 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs. To be
totally honest, I'm not excited to read it at all. But maybe on my next blog I'll be ranting and raving about that book and begging you all to read it. You never know. But yay for book recommendations?
Ok enough of that.
I went to the Netherlands! Friday at around 4 pm my friends and I boarded a train to the Netherlands with about five stops inbetween. Well, turns out we arrived to the most vital of those 5 stops a little late and missed our main train to Amsterdam by about 30 seconds. Due to a policy that if the train system makes you late and it is THEIR fault, they MUST give you a new train route to get you to wherever you're going. Well, by the time we arrived in Cologne and missed our train it was already 9 pm, so finding a direct train was out of the question until the next morning. So, we got a new route with about 4 new in between stops. Ughhhh. That sucked so bad. We ended up traveling for approximately 9 hours for a trip that with a car should only have taken four hours tops. We got to our hostel around 3 in the morning, and found that it was basically a total dive. In a way, I can't complain completely. It was the cheapest by far and we were the penny pinchers who weren't willing to shell out for a better place, but hot damn. Our hostel room had 20 people in it, and naturally since it was the Netherlands, half of them were smelling skunky and in their own little worlds.. and we'll leave it at that. Aka, I slept only about four hours the first night and we didn't go back until late Saturday night; avoidance of the hostel was key. It was also about 30 minutes south of the city of Amsterdam on the coast of the North sea. The beach was only about 100 meters from the hostel front door.. but it's cold out still, so it wasn't that great of a perk. But oh well. It worked, and I didn't have to sleep in a train station. This alone makes me consider it a success.
Saturday, after the crazy night of travels, we hazily climbed down from our full-sized matress bunk bed (lovingly known as the death trap) and scooted out of the hostel to the Keukenhof gardens. Ok now let's back up a year or so to room 521 in North Bergstrom dorms at my home university where my roommate and I were going through my "1,000 Places to see Before you Die" calendar. We came across a picture of the Keukenhof gardens and both were immediately engrossed in the idea of wandering through the tulip fields, frolicking a tad if the mood found us. I had always wanted to see the tulip fields even before I found the calendar photo, but this alone instilled a further drive in me. And now, flashing back to last weekend, it was fulfilled. I quite honestly am not entirely sure how to portray the garden in words, but I felt as though every sense in my body was alive and over whelmed. Maybe I was in a tulip a-coma? I'm not sure. Hold on, let me find a thesaurus to further assist me on this description.
They were..
alluring, beauteous, exquisite, fascinating, magnificent, marvelous, ravishing, splendid, statuesque, stunning, sublime, superb, taking, impressive, lavish, drop-dead, pleasing
Hmm. Well. Still not efficient to describe how I feel about them, but maybe the photos will help.
Ok, so I know that was a TON of photos.. but I couldn't resist. Here are the rest..
https://picasaweb.google.com/113919949355390501172/StephInAmsterdam?authkey=Gv1sRgCNSDts2ZisC05AE&feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/113919949355390501172/20110410?authkey=Gv1sRgCKrO9ZuoiomNYg&feat=directlink
(they're divided into two different albums this time)
But yeah! Those are the gardens. The one set of pictures is from the "inside" garden where there are thousands of different types of tulips and other flowers all growing in this huge glass hall. It was excellent. The park also had a windmill and petting zoo as you can see.. so it was a good time in many aspects. I added to my charm collection on my necklace there with a charm of a dutch clog..
Yep. So after taking a short nap on the lawns of the gardens (totally allowed, don't worry..) we headed into the city of Amsterdam via bus and train. It was already 3 pm so we didn't have a ton of time to spend in the city, but we still managed to make a tour of Anne Frank's house. The museum there is really well set up and totally worth the 8 euro entrance fee. It was really quite gripping to stand in the place which they lived in hiding for months upon months with no sunlight, no chance to witness life going on around them, and the feeling of their lost hope. I really enjoyed the fact that musuem emphasized the life of her sister, Margot, as well. She is often forgotten in the story of Anne Frank, but she also wrote a journal and was just as great of a person as Anne; only difference, her journal was never found. The walls inside the museum are also filled with quotes from the diary which are so deep and profound. The fact that such a young girl could write and feel such extreme and heavy sentances that most adults could not put together after 40 years of knowledgable life made me really understand the extent to which she was suffering. Granted, she wasn't physically tortured or hurt until she reached the concentration camps, however, she was mentally suffering months before her capture. She actually died only one month before the ending of the camps and the release of the prisoners. She gave up on life after losing both her mother and sister to the camp. It really was a tragic story. I'm glad I went to the museum, depressing as it ended up being. I learned a lot; not necessarily facts, but I gained an insight on the situation. I definitely must say, if you're going to Amsterdam, you must go to the Anne Frank Museum. And also, stand in the line. It may seem like hours long, but it moves faster than one would think, and it also is worth the wait.
So yes. Unfortunately, due to my extremely short experience of Amsterdam, I can't really give you all that much of a cultural synopsis or insight. I was literally in the netherlands for 29 hours due to the train mix up. However, from what I saw, there are a ton of canals, row houses, and bikes. There are literally bikes everywhere. Never have I ever seen so many bikes in my entire life. I really would have loved to have rented a bike (popular opportunity) if we hadn't been so short on time. It literally has to be the biker's capital of the world. Heck, my tourist tshirt has a bike on it. So clearly its a big deal. In Amsterdam if you don't have a bike, you're nothing. Nothiiiiing!! (Ok, I may be slightly dramatic, but seriously people. It's a cultural must..)
They also have a lot of canal boats, or like mini yacht things to go down the canals. It was mostly men I saw driving them, which made me wonder if there is an underlying "my boat is bigger than your boat" personality complex with the Dutch. Hmm. I did see some coffee shops throughout the city (this is were the famous legalized marijuana is sold in the Netherlands). I did not embrace that part of the culture because as we all know, drug free is the way to be! Alright! Yeah! Anyway. But hey. I saw them, so I can at least say I witnessed the culture from afar. The only thing I did not see of the typical "Amsterdam Experience" was the red light district due to me being there during the daylight hours.. but ok, let's be real.. I do not believe that the red light district would necessarily be something there to meet my, 20 year old American girl's, entertainment needs. Enough said! Ok so now that we're done with all that awkward crap.. here are the photos!
Well, there you have it folks. The update for the Netherlands. Tomorrow I'm headed off to Strasbourg, France to see the EU Parliament and whatever else there is in the near by surroundings. Until next time..
Wherever you go, go with all your heart
-Confucius
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