Guess I should update this before I head off to 3 cities in 2 beautiful countries for 10 days. #solucky
So the plan for spring break is:
Friday 3/2 - Monday 3/5 Excursion to MADRID with some professors and Castle Faculty for some learning and fun. And Flamenco lessons! (I am SO excited)
Monday 3/5 - Thursday 3/8 BARCELONA! Basically partying and clubbing and drinking. I'll be safe I promise! And seeing the gorgeous sights, obviously.
Thursday 3/8 - Sunday 3/11 ROME. I am going to Rome. I cannot process this currently. Seeing the Vatican. And other things. Staying in a cute Bed and Breakfast. And oh yeah I'm going to be in Rome. Super excited for Italian food and gelato :)
Exciting plans in the works! This past week was really chill and relaxing. I stayed back at the Castle, which was nice seeing as midterms are this week and I have one in 16 minutes....
Friday a bunch of us went to the Pancake House.. these pancakes were awesome. They were thin, a little thicker than crepes and had different combinations of bacon, ham, cheese, apples, bananas and other things on them. Delicious! Then at night the World Drama class saw a production of Rain Man in Utrecht, a town about 2 hours away. It was in Dutch, and the production was really interesting. It was cool to see a story that we knew (we'd read the script and watched the film) cut down and put onstage in another language. I found myself watching how the actors watched and listened to each other, since I wasn't focusing on what was actually being said. I thoroughly enjoyed the production, though other students had different reactions. We even got to talk with the actors who played Charlie, Susan and Raymond (for a bit). That was pretty cool.
Ok, midterm in 10. Send smart World History vibes!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Carnaval!
Whew. Carnaval weekend was crazy. And mine was wayyy less crazier than some others I've heard about!
Saturday I ventured to the Amusement park with 4 other Castle-dwellers. It was ... interesting. IT was geared mainly to a younger audience, we found out once we'd finally gotten there after 2.5 hours and 20ish euro. There were 3 roller coasters suitable for anyone over the age of 14, so we did those and then wondered what we'd occupy ourselves with until the cab got us 3 hours later. We found a ropes course that wound up actually being challenging, and, for me, very terrifying. I had the chance to back out during the first exercise and I didn't, so I'm proud of that. But it was still terrifying. So we were up probably 50ish feet in the air, hooked up to this cable with different courses suspended between telephone poles in a big circle... in the cold, wind and rain. Christina and I were exhausted after that and walking around a lot, so we decided to stay in Saturday night instead of going out.
Sunday was the big Well parade! The theme of the Castle was Around Europe in 90 Days, so Christina went as Croatia, and I went as Scotland... or, the Scotland flag anyway.
The morning started off sunny and reasonably warm, but as we walked to the destination where all the people and floats were gathered, it started HAILING on us! It came in literally under 3 seconds, and they were huge! I'm talking Dippin' Dot sized hail. That was not a fun experience. I'm pretty sure we were all squealing/yelling/whining.
It was crazy. And that was at the very beginning of our 90 minute wait for the parade to start. So we were freezing... and many of us ditched the parade as it passed the Castle. No shame. I couldn't feel my hands. But the costumes and floats of the Well-ers were so colorful and creative. They go all out for Carnaval. Check out the kids' float below!
Sunday night was aonther night of partying at de Buun, the cultural center of Well. Christina and I dressed up as Peacocks and headed over to the craziest party ever. Carnaval can best be described as a mix of Halloween, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day and 4th of July: crazy costumes, so much drinking, dancing, fireworks and parades. Here's us in our Peacock costumes!
Saturday I ventured to the Amusement park with 4 other Castle-dwellers. It was ... interesting. IT was geared mainly to a younger audience, we found out once we'd finally gotten there after 2.5 hours and 20ish euro. There were 3 roller coasters suitable for anyone over the age of 14, so we did those and then wondered what we'd occupy ourselves with until the cab got us 3 hours later. We found a ropes course that wound up actually being challenging, and, for me, very terrifying. I had the chance to back out during the first exercise and I didn't, so I'm proud of that. But it was still terrifying. So we were up probably 50ish feet in the air, hooked up to this cable with different courses suspended between telephone poles in a big circle... in the cold, wind and rain. Christina and I were exhausted after that and walking around a lot, so we decided to stay in Saturday night instead of going out.
Sunday was the big Well parade! The theme of the Castle was Around Europe in 90 Days, so Christina went as Croatia, and I went as Scotland... or, the Scotland flag anyway.
The morning started off sunny and reasonably warm, but as we walked to the destination where all the people and floats were gathered, it started HAILING on us! It came in literally under 3 seconds, and they were huge! I'm talking Dippin' Dot sized hail. That was not a fun experience. I'm pretty sure we were all squealing/yelling/whining.
It was crazy. And that was at the very beginning of our 90 minute wait for the parade to start. So we were freezing... and many of us ditched the parade as it passed the Castle. No shame. I couldn't feel my hands. But the costumes and floats of the Well-ers were so colorful and creative. They go all out for Carnaval. Check out the kids' float below!
Sunday night was aonther night of partying at de Buun, the cultural center of Well. Christina and I dressed up as Peacocks and headed over to the craziest party ever. Carnaval can best be described as a mix of Halloween, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day and 4th of July: crazy costumes, so much drinking, dancing, fireworks and parades. Here's us in our Peacock costumes!
Monday night concludes the main Carnaval festivities, with a Light parade at night, consisting of Sunday's floats all decked out in crazy neon lights! Didn't get any pictures, but it was general festivities and colorful lights and floats on a freezing night. This week is finally starting to get warmer though... yay!
Friday, February 17, 2012
Friday Night Update
Hello all!
Nice to give an update not on my traditional Monday-post-traveling. This weekend I'm staying back at the Castle to celebrate a HUGE festival here in the Netherlands - Carnaval! It's basically Mardi Gras, except everyone gets dressed up in ridiculous costumes with three main elements: a colorful costume, face paint, and a musical intrument of somekind. It's a week-long celebration, with the main activities taking place on Saturday, Sunday and Monday night before beginning the long fast for Lent. The Castle students and staff are participating in the Parade this year! The theme that was chosen is "around Europe in 90 days" since that's basically what we do while we're at the Castle. So each student picked a country to represent in the parade. I'm being Scotland, sort of in homage to my most recent trip to Europe previous to this one. For the parties Saturday and Sunday night though, we're expected to go all out. So, Christina and I ventured into the (sort of) nearby town of Venlo today. We came across a decked out version if iParty and started the costume search. I'd gone through a few ideas of what to be... a caterpillar, a stop light, grapes. No real luck. Then I found this awesome mask with peacock feathers... done. Peacock. It was decided. After finding only expensive costumes, Christina decided to join me. So we got the masks, green, teal and purple huge plume feathers to stick in our black skirts over our black sequened shirts, colorful rights and heels. Bam! Peacock. I'm fairly proud of this. And I totally have a Halloween costume for next year :)
I also finally bought new boots to replace my sad broken ones!
And Christina and I pushed our beds together and watched Juno while snacking on pretzels, celery and gummies. Good night.
Off to an amusement park tomorrow during the day, then the first Carnaval party tomorrow night!
Nice to give an update not on my traditional Monday-post-traveling. This weekend I'm staying back at the Castle to celebrate a HUGE festival here in the Netherlands - Carnaval! It's basically Mardi Gras, except everyone gets dressed up in ridiculous costumes with three main elements: a colorful costume, face paint, and a musical intrument of somekind. It's a week-long celebration, with the main activities taking place on Saturday, Sunday and Monday night before beginning the long fast for Lent. The Castle students and staff are participating in the Parade this year! The theme that was chosen is "around Europe in 90 days" since that's basically what we do while we're at the Castle. So each student picked a country to represent in the parade. I'm being Scotland, sort of in homage to my most recent trip to Europe previous to this one. For the parties Saturday and Sunday night though, we're expected to go all out. So, Christina and I ventured into the (sort of) nearby town of Venlo today. We came across a decked out version if iParty and started the costume search. I'd gone through a few ideas of what to be... a caterpillar, a stop light, grapes. No real luck. Then I found this awesome mask with peacock feathers... done. Peacock. It was decided. After finding only expensive costumes, Christina decided to join me. So we got the masks, green, teal and purple huge plume feathers to stick in our black skirts over our black sequened shirts, colorful rights and heels. Bam! Peacock. I'm fairly proud of this. And I totally have a Halloween costume for next year :)
I also finally bought new boots to replace my sad broken ones!
And Christina and I pushed our beds together and watched Juno while snacking on pretzels, celery and gummies. Good night.
Off to an amusement park tomorrow during the day, then the first Carnaval party tomorrow night!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
London: Quick, Cheap and Easy
Except London was none of those things... but that's alright because it was still magical and absolutely wonderful! Christina, Emily, Pat and I spent 4 whole days in London this weekend. And it was long, expensive and difficult.
Thursday morning at 4:30 a taxi picked us up from the Kasteel, and we had a 6:45am flight that landed us in London by 7:00am. After breakfast of crepes, we wandered and made our way to Harrods for some shopping and gawking. Bought someone's present there! We learned that the Tube system is fairly easy to navigate, and that our hostel was cold and the staff wasn't that smart. We also met up with 2 of Pat and my friends from high school- Kara and Sandie. It was really great seeing them for dinner and drinks at a Irish restaurant/pub/club smack in the middle of Chinatown.
Friday we did the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abby and shopped at the Forever21 of the UK: Primack. Then.... I SAW SINGIN' IN THE RAIN ON THE WEST END!!! That was one of the best productions I've ever seen... And I just saw my idol/crush perform as J. Pierrepont Finch on Broadway so that's saying something! But I was absolutely blown away- I loved every second of it. Squealing and crying through the whole show.
Saturday morning we walked around Kensington Garden, and saw the Crossing of the Guard. Then we headed to the London Tower and London Bridge. Saw the Crown Jewels! Then we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, where Occupy London has apparently set up camp next to. Dinner was an absolute DISASTER Saturday night. Curtain for the 2nd West End show we're seeing is at 8. We find an Italian place near the theater at 6:15. They tell us 5 minute wait. Then 10 minute wait. It's all okay, they bring us up to the waiting room and offer us wine. 20 minutes goes by, they seat us, then saw just kidding and bring us abck upstairs to the waiting room. At around 7:00 we ask if we can order our food anway, so it'll be ready when we're sat. Sure. So we order. We get sat about 10 minutes later. Come 7:25ish I've called the waitress (who did nothing) over and told her that we were leaving in 20 minutes for a show and if we don't have our food in the next 5 that we're leaving. She brings us bread and olives, then our food shows up exactly 5 minutes later. So we all scarf down what would have been delicious food in 15 minutes before scrambling to the theater. The wine and bread was free, but we paid full price for our food AND a 12.5% gratuity. I was not happy.
The show was great though! "The 39 Steps". Parody and physical comedy to the extreme! Woo!
Sunday we awoke SUPER early to get everything done on our lists that we wanted to. First stop was Shakespeare's Globe Theatre where we got a private tour and got to go up to both levels of seats. So cool. Then onto the National Gallery, where we saw the Impressionists and them promptly left for some yummy food and last minute postcard shopping. Then to the British Museum which wasn't that cool, except that we saw the Rosetta Stone.
And what would a trip to London be without a visit to Platform 9 3/4! We all got pictures there before running to grab our bus to the airport. Security at the airport was a disaster but at least the people were really nice about it.
Whew! What a weekend. As fun and exciting as travelling is, I'm looking forward to the next 2 weekends staying back. Carnivale is this weekend!
Friday we did the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abby and shopped at the Forever21 of the UK: Primack. Then.... I SAW SINGIN' IN THE RAIN ON THE WEST END!!! That was one of the best productions I've ever seen... And I just saw my idol/crush perform as J. Pierrepont Finch on Broadway so that's saying something! But I was absolutely blown away- I loved every second of it. Squealing and crying through the whole show.
Saturday morning we walked around Kensington Garden, and saw the Crossing of the Guard. Then we headed to the London Tower and London Bridge. Saw the Crown Jewels! Then we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, where Occupy London has apparently set up camp next to. Dinner was an absolute DISASTER Saturday night. Curtain for the 2nd West End show we're seeing is at 8. We find an Italian place near the theater at 6:15. They tell us 5 minute wait. Then 10 minute wait. It's all okay, they bring us up to the waiting room and offer us wine. 20 minutes goes by, they seat us, then saw just kidding and bring us abck upstairs to the waiting room. At around 7:00 we ask if we can order our food anway, so it'll be ready when we're sat. Sure. So we order. We get sat about 10 minutes later. Come 7:25ish I've called the waitress (who did nothing) over and told her that we were leaving in 20 minutes for a show and if we don't have our food in the next 5 that we're leaving. She brings us bread and olives, then our food shows up exactly 5 minutes later. So we all scarf down what would have been delicious food in 15 minutes before scrambling to the theater. The wine and bread was free, but we paid full price for our food AND a 12.5% gratuity. I was not happy.
The show was great though! "The 39 Steps". Parody and physical comedy to the extreme! Woo!
Sunday we awoke SUPER early to get everything done on our lists that we wanted to. First stop was Shakespeare's Globe Theatre where we got a private tour and got to go up to both levels of seats. So cool. Then onto the National Gallery, where we saw the Impressionists and them promptly left for some yummy food and last minute postcard shopping. Then to the British Museum which wasn't that cool, except that we saw the Rosetta Stone.
And what would a trip to London be without a visit to Platform 9 3/4! We all got pictures there before running to grab our bus to the airport. Security at the airport was a disaster but at least the people were really nice about it.
Whew! What a weekend. As fun and exciting as travelling is, I'm looking forward to the next 2 weekends staying back. Carnivale is this weekend!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Brugge: Waffles and Chocolate and Fries, Oh My!
I was in the beautiful city of Brugge this weekend. After a tiring, lengthly and cold trip there (8 1/2 hours. Not fun.), we arrived to a light dusting of snow starting to cover the city in the afternoon. We disposed of our bags in our (janky) hostel and began to explore when a mini blizzard commenced. Emily, Christina and I were hunched over, walking straight into the heavy, fast-falling snow before taking refuge in a small restaurant, where we each had our first Belgian waffles. (These would turn out to be the least delicious of the 4 I ate this weekend, in my opinion). After the snow lightened a bit, we continued walking down one of the main roads to check out the little shops. Dinner in a quiet little pub, drinks with the group at 2 bars... the 2nd of which was a biker bar called Crash.
The next day we awoke early and started our long day with a delicous breakfast of waffles and chocoalte. Literally the best thing I have ever eaten. Mine had bananas as well, Emily got hers with ice cream. That, paired with the richest hot chocolate - they serve you steamed milk, then you pour in the chocolate syrup, delicous! - was the perfect start to our day. The next 10 hours was spend seeing multiple churches, shopping, and generally walking a lot. The city is absolutely gorgeous at any time of day, but I happened to get some great shots with some left over morning light, as well as some cool night ones as well. We found an outdoor market just as it was closing where I found a gift for someone... won't say who though! One down, 5 to go :) Christina and I wandered on our own for a little bit and came across some beautiful watercolors of different parts of Brugge. We each bought a small piece and got a postcard-sized one thrown in for free from the artists' girlfriend who was selling his work. Mine is of the oldest bridge in Brugge and the chocolate shop we'd just gone into minnutes before. I'm so happy I got it, and I can't wait to put it up in my apartment next year! (eeeekk!!) Nighttime consisted of a bar and walking around in the freezing cold.
This morning we went to an art museum before visiting another chocolate shop (one box for me, one to save and bring home! you're welcome, family!) and grabbing some post cards. The trip home was significantly less stressful and shorter than the journey to Brugge. Uploading the 160ish pictures now! Here's a taste
The next day we awoke early and started our long day with a delicous breakfast of waffles and chocoalte. Literally the best thing I have ever eaten. Mine had bananas as well, Emily got hers with ice cream. That, paired with the richest hot chocolate - they serve you steamed milk, then you pour in the chocolate syrup, delicous! - was the perfect start to our day. The next 10 hours was spend seeing multiple churches, shopping, and generally walking a lot. The city is absolutely gorgeous at any time of day, but I happened to get some great shots with some left over morning light, as well as some cool night ones as well. We found an outdoor market just as it was closing where I found a gift for someone... won't say who though! One down, 5 to go :) Christina and I wandered on our own for a little bit and came across some beautiful watercolors of different parts of Brugge. We each bought a small piece and got a postcard-sized one thrown in for free from the artists' girlfriend who was selling his work. Mine is of the oldest bridge in Brugge and the chocolate shop we'd just gone into minnutes before. I'm so happy I got it, and I can't wait to put it up in my apartment next year! (eeeekk!!) Nighttime consisted of a bar and walking around in the freezing cold.
This morning we went to an art museum before visiting another chocolate shop (one box for me, one to save and bring home! you're welcome, family!) and grabbing some post cards. The trip home was significantly less stressful and shorter than the journey to Brugge. Uploading the 160ish pictures now! Here's a taste
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