Amsterdamned

Ok I'm late again. But I am going to catch up now. So hang in there.
The weekend of February 1st we went to Amsterdam. Not going to lie, for all the hype around Amsterdam its lacking for sure. Not to say that it isn't a beautiful city, it's just not worth the hype. I was however rather surprised about the beauty of the architecture of the city. Also, there are canals everywhere in Amsterdam which are beautiful to walk along.
When we arrived we headed out into the city, it was night time and we hunted about for a place to eat. Everything is Amsterdam is really expensive so we settled on an adorable little Italian place, with a kitty in it, who was not friendly. It was late so after that we went to sleep.
In the morning we took quite the adventure out to Amstelveen to Clara Maria's clog and cheese factory. Aside from the fact that it was the worst smelling place I've yet to come by it was incredible to see how they make clogs and how they make cheese. We got a history lesson and learned about how the lady who owns the place stayed at it when it was a bed and breakfast and met her husband there where he was milking cows. She decided to stay and marry him and run a cheese and clog factory. Crazy!
After that delightful experience we headed back and met up with our friends Katie and Jen at the Anne Frank House. We found a little pub for dinner and I ordered dutch meatballs which are not meatballs at all but fried balls full of gravy and tiny bits of pureed meat. I was disappointed. Afterwards we just wandered around Amsterdam and experienced the night life.
In the morning we hit up The Van Gogh Museum which was nice to see, they did not have Starry Night though which was sad. Then we went to the Anne Frank House which I enjoyed even though everything in the house was a replica and it was room after empty room. I just think it's sad that real people lived like that. After that we went to the sex museum which was an experience for sure. It was rather amusing and full of 17th and 18th century sculpture of sex and sexual paintings and so on. There was also a lingere section and plastic people and a triple X room that we skipped out on. After all this fun Katie and Jen decided to meet up with their friends and Becca and Jenn (my travel buds) and I decided to head home a little early to make it in for Carnaval which was the next day!

Waffles Anyone?

Ok, so I may not be the best blogger in the world. It's been a while since I've been here so there's plenty to tell.
LAST weekend, I went to Belgium. It was quite an adventure to get there because the Belgian conductors were on strike and apparently trains were not getting into or out of Belgium. We got lucky though and eventually made it in. We arrived in Brussels in the early evening and found ourselves a cute little bar called La Mort Subite or The Sudden Death Pub. Charming as it was there was not enough room for the whole gang so we moved down a food alley (they had huge displays all over everywhere of fruit and clams) to a more accomodating restaurant.
We took pictures of the Grand Place at night and it was gloriously beautiful. Then we went in and out of a few bars, ended back at the La Mort Subite and called it a night.
In the morning we went to Brugge for traveling purposes. Burgge is a museum. A free open air city museum. The gothic architecture everywhere was more than we all could have expected. We saw The Church of Our Lady where Michaelangelo's Madonna and Child is.
Then we ate a Quickie the local equivalent to McDonald's where the burgers taste like pork. We ate fries at an infamous fry stand and went into the Church of Christ's Blood and touched a sepulchre that supposedly contained his blood. How they got it I'll never know. We saw the Belfry, and I feel like this blog post is way boring because I'm just listing the things that I saw. My apologies.
The next day we went back to Brussels to see Manneken Pis, which is their famous little boy fountain that pees.

They dress him up all the time and when we saw him he was dressed like Mozart and I was amused. Later we saw the Atomium which can only be described as an oversized atom. The we took the train back and promptly passed out.

PS The city of Brussels actually smelled like Waffles and the waffles were delicious.

Well, I live in a castle...

So it has been a whole weekend since I have arrived at the castle. Since writing this blog is just as overwhelming as being here I will break it all down and go through step by step.

I live in Well, Limburg, The Netherlands. Right in the middle is Kasteel Well, the castle that I live in with 80 other students. It has a moat, a bridge, a barn, a voorburcht (forecastle) affectionately called the VB, and a Main Castle. I live in the Main Castle with my friend Jenn Dowding and an Emerson Soccer player named Jessica. It is a very small place, very green, very wet. It is basically one road that consists of a small shopping center where you can find MeerMarkt, the supermarket, Alles Onder ein Dak (All Under one Roof) the local Wal-Mart type store. The other end of the street is residential and past that is the River Maas. The Castle in all its glory

The Castle is not very big but it is very old, a touch drafty (surprise!) and very ornate and beautiful. They keep threatening us that if we leave our computers on the castle will catch fire. They are convinced that because the whole building is wood and brick it will spontaneously combust. They are very concerned with its protection and preservation and everyone in the Netherlands is very concerned with energy preservation which I appreciate. Nothing is refrigerated, not even milk or cheese. You can buy milk in a box in the non refrigerated MeerMarkt.
Everything is on campus, dining hall, student services, a library, gym, computer lab, all our dorms, and classrooms as well as lounges like Sophie's lounge and the TV room. We have all been adapting to the small portions of shady food that they serve us. It is mostly unidentifiable to the eye but is recognizable when eaten. Usually. Lots of breads and spreadable cheeses which are DELICIOUS! Nutella (chocolate spread) is big here, same as in Japan. They have all kinds of syrup for that one time they gave us french toast for breakfast. They usually serve a hot roll and boiled egg for breakfast. In all we are getting used to things. Sophie's Lounge

Well I think I have covered everything. If you think of something you'd like to know, message me and I will consider it. ;)

PS. The Castle is not haunted as far as we know yet. :)