Strange News From Another Star

Hey everyone.

Well, this 3rd quarter is wrapping up, and already exams are here! I'm liking this only having courses for 2 months deal. I have a course, American Modernism starting up next week, and Digital Art and Culture in a couple weeks after that. And, am equally excited to finish my gender theories and equality policies course. I have learned quite a bit in it, but will not miss it too much.

And, it sounds like I'll know quite a few people in my digital art and culture course coming up...the good and bad about being an international in a smaller school...we all basically take the same courses (the english ones) and so at least know one other person in each course we take. Good because of course you already know someone. Bad because you tend to stay in your comfort zone...and then must go out of your way to meet and befriend locals.The staircase in the M.C. Escher building

I'm planning on going to Den Haag (The Hague) this saturday to see Madurodam (miniature scale version of the Nederlands), and also to the beach...but I haven't gotten my ticket yet, I'm crossing my fingers hoping they still have some left. I have a lot to do tomorrow, today I slacked off too much. I need to meet with an advisor to approve some paperwork, buy my ticket to Den Haag, get groceries, and go to class. I really need to start buckling down and not getting distracted with these two exams in next couple weeks.Today was my last Gender Theories and Equality Policies course...the whole time I was just thinking about how it was an absolutely beautiful day outside. The sun was shining, it was warm enough not to wear a scarf or gloves, and I saw some very daring girl wearing a sleeveless shirt. If only the wind weren't blowing it would've been perfect. Let's hope for more days like this one.At the University we have a glass walkway that connects the Erasmus (biggest course building on campus) to De Refter (the cafeteria) to the Library. On this walkway, the art students have carefully put strips of tape (the slightly yellow kind) on the windows, completely covering the entire windows. Somehow they've cut into the strips and transformed drawings into 3D outlines. I'll take pictures and put them up tomorrow so you can see what I mean, but it's such a unique and clever idea...and must've taken such patience!
Oh, a little while ago, I got a letter from immigration, I think I got the jist of what it's saying, but I should probably get it translated just in case they're trying to boot me out of this lovely, flat country. I just keep forgetting, and it's a pain in you know what to type a whole letter into google translator...maybe I'll just take it to the international office and have them figure it out for me! : )

Till Then...

Tot Zo

p.s. title song by Blur

Let's Take A Trip Together

A little assortment of my adventures with Sam and Jace...check Picasa for the rest. We went to Gouda, Amsterdam, Den Haag (all in the Netherlands), and Berlin.

Sam and Jace getting the full Dutch experience...stroopwafels and licorice sticks!
At our Hostel in Berlin
Freezing waiting in line to get inside the Reichstag Parliament Building in Berlin
Figuring out how to get to Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin
Fries with Mayo!
At the M.C. Escher Museum...ya, i'm not the best actor
At the Heineken Experience Brewery in Amsterdam

On the way to Nijmegen from the airport in Dusseldorf
At the Berlin Wall
At the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin
At my University eating lunch...in the SUN!
On the way to Nijmegen
Dag!
p.s. title song by Audioslave

What Are Friends For

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!!!

Just last week, tons of tulips started popping up all around the city. All of a sudden one day there were flowers lining the strip in the middle of the street on the way to my University, i love it!
So, I'm kind of thinking that the whole dressing up in green is an American thing, because we've talked to some locals and internationals, who don't know what we're talking about...interesting.

Sam and Jace, friends from slc, are visiting this week, but are in Ireland (Dublin) until wednesday through St. Patrick's Day. They arrived on friday, I took a train to Dusseldorf to go pick them up, and I'm really glad I remembered to bring my passport, because it was checked on the ice, international train, it was a last minute thought.
On friday we all went into the city, nijmegen, and did a little tour, saw most of the sights. On saturday we spent the day in Amsterdam, we found a free tour and learned some more about Amsterdam's history and the big sights. I didn't know about squatters, apparently it's legal to to break in and live in a building if it's been vacant for at least a year and you have a bed, a chair, and a table. There's a squatter's organization and a number you can call to have someone who knows how to break in, and another, legal mind, to talk with the owners of the building and make sure it's legal.
We also went and saw the most famous coffeeshop in the world...it's in ocean's twelve (movie) at the beginning where clooney, damon, and pitt, meet with the eccentric man (it was just on t.v. last night). It doesn't show the sign, so you don't know it's a coffeeshop, but it is!
I think I've put up pictures of the urinals all over the city. The urinals were put up because there was a problem with men peeing in the canals, and people complaining about the smell in the streets. For a while they put up the things below... that obviously would discourage any further peeage. At one time they even made poles with an electric current that would shock if any liquids came in contact. But, after an injury and a lawsuit they got rid of those...and put up urinals. Can you see the sign with the peeing man?And I think it's unfair there aren't free restrooms for women. But, apparently back when, women in Amsterdam were also upset and formed a massive group and on one sunday all the women got together and peed on a bridge in Amsterdam. They said every sunday following they'd pee on a different bridge...but of course that's a pretty big statement to make...and they got their free restrooms. But, since those toilets had to be covered (they just look like tiny plastic towers), people would go in them to do drugs and left needles inside, and others slept inside them, and it got to be such a problem that they were closed down. Now they're just used as sign posts.
Oh, we also went to the Heineken Experience, and got to try the barley and water, pretty sweet. We went through this 'ride' on a platform...where we were 'made into beer.'
Sunday we were on our way to Den Haag (The Hague)...when Jace decided she wanted to go get cheese in Gouda. So, we made an impromptu stop and checked out Gouda, a very small city,
a lot more canals, much like venice (so i hear). We also got to see a windmill, my friends were very excited about that. Unfortunately the cheese shop wasn't open so we didn't get to buy any, but just being in Gouda was apparently good enough.

The smallest named street I've ever seen.

The Hague was very confusing, and very big. Just out of the train station a woman approached us to help while we were staring at a map. We told her we wanted to go to the M.C. Escher museum, she told us what tram to get onto and it would tell us our stop.
It did not.
She must've just heard us say museum...but it did not let us off where we wanted. We ended up following it to the end of the line and back. And payed a pretty penny to take an unneccesary little tour of the city. Eventually we made it to the museum. It was great. Probably one of the best I've been to, but I had no idea Escher was Dutch! The museum was housed in a former royal palace, Queen Emma's.
We also saw the current royal palace where the royal family lives. Along with some other governmental buildings.
Today I have my first course for Egyptian Religious Texts, I'm pretty excited about it!
But, I'm still sick, tired all the time. It's been nice to just relax for a few days.

Dag!
p.s. title song by Reel Big Fish

Old Country

So, my computer is still not working, but amazingly right now it is...so I thought I'd take advantage of it.

Brussels was a lot of fun, I went with the excursion university group, and walked around with a group of 9 people. Towards the middle of the day some people wanted to go to the delirium pub (won in 2004 for having the world's most varieties of beer) and for a while all we did was wait around and look for people who knew where this pub was. But me and a couple other girls got sick of just waiting around and wanted to see the Manneken Pis (little boy peeing statue), so we went off to find it.
We also visited the European Parliament and Commission Building,
we did find the Manneken Pis statue,
and came across the Jeanneken Pis (little girl peeing statue), the beautiful center of the city,
the Atomium, the Triumphant Arch (yes in Brussels, some pub guy gave us a weird look when we asked where to take the metro and informed us it was in Paris. I really wanted to start crying and say how we got off on the wrong train...but I refrained. And we found it.), and much more.
I've posted the pictures on picasa so you can take a look.
So, since I've last written, I've finished my lab test I've been doing. I was shocked (not really, more like pulses) for 20 mins on the top of my head, and then had to perform a task, and then went back later that day and had the same thing happen for 20 mins. on the side of my face with a higher pulse that was pretty uncomfortable since it contracted my muscles and then did another task.
The thing that looks like its hanging down is where the pulse came from.
Oh, and before that she attached dealios to the major muscles on one of my hands and then the pulses on different parts of my head until she found the part that made the muscles in my hand contract. Meanwhile I was watching a screen theat showed the activity of my hand muscles, so I saw when they moved. It was very interesting.
Tonight I went to a lecture called "the Culture of War." The man on the left was my Professor for my Netherlands History course, and was also moderator for the conversation. The man on the far right is the author, and the man in the middle is the pacifist.
The book was translated in Dutch...the author, Martin van Creveld was born in the Netherlands, but raised and lives in Israel. It was a very interesting talk, with a Dutch Pacifist, Mient jan Faber debating the topic. I actually have a lot to say on the topic, and some things I really disagree with, but I'm sick, and sleepy. So it'll have to wait till next time.
Doei!
p.s. title song by Mark Chesnutt

Everything Is Broken

Hello Everyone.

Right now my laptop isn't working, so it may be a while before I write again.

Not sure what to do about that right now.

Saturday I'm going to Brussels for the day.

Hopefully I can get everything fixed quickly...

Tot Ziens!

p.s. title song by Bob Dylan

Cuts Like a Knife

I made it back from Amsterdam after a VERY long day, well, two days.

I left for Utrecht on friday, my train ticket is from Nijmegen Heyendaal (right across from my place), transfer in Nijmegen Centraal, then on to Utrecht. But, for some reason the train I was supposed to take to Utrecht was blocked off, luckily I found someone to explain in english what was going on, and it turns out I had to detour to Den Bosch (s'-hertogenbosch)....Well, after I got settled on that train, an announcer came on said something in dutch and everyone started leaving the train. I found out it was just because the train behind was going to the same destination but leaving earlier.

So...I made it to Utrecht just to have it drizzle all day. I got a locker for my bag at the train station, but had left my umbrella in it, so had to deal with the rain all day. I decided since it was rainy and foggy, it would be a waste to climb up the Dom Kerk Tower, and go to the Kasteel del Haar, the oldest castle in the Netherlands, since it's a 15 min. walk from the bus stop to get there. I'll have to save those for another day. I did manage to do a tour of the water tower museum in Utrecht, with a personal guide since I was the only one in the 'museum' (actually a working water tower) at the time. Was a very cool museum, I found out about the evolution of how the dutch have gotten and used their abundance of water...or, i guess added to since just being here I've learned so much.
I checked into a hostel not far from the red light district in Amsterdam friday night. A Christian hostel that had bibles and educational computer programs and prayer groups. My bunkbed was right next to the window facing outside where there was an outside deck and cafe and people partying all night. The girl on the bunk below me kept coming in and out of the room slamming her luggage and arranging her things at 2 am. In a room with 12 bunk beds at 2 am, you would think a person just might take into consideration all the people sleeping, but apparently not this girl. The one good thing about the hostel was the breakfast. They offered a hot meal (which i haven't gotten anywhere else). I woke up early and went around sight seeing. It was amazing to me how there was no one on the streets of Amsterdam on a Saturday until around 11:30am.
Actually that's one thing I love about the Netherlands, parades don't start until 1 pm, shops don't open until later in the day, no need to get up before 9 am!
So, I then had an appointment to get a tattoo at 2pm. I got there and my artist was running late and told me to come back in an hour and a half. An hour after that I gave him my design and he had to flip it, make it perfectly symetrical, draw it up, and set up the machines. Around 7pm is when we actually started tattooing, it lasted a little over an hour. Yes, it hurt. The top and the arms hurt the most. He tattooed the outline, then the lettering and bottom, then went over the outline with thicker lines, and then did the shadowing. The hardest parts for me to take is when he stayed in one place for a few seconds, I think thats the middle section, the three lines. Anyway, I'll post a picture below so you can see. This is right after, the next day I was very very sore, slowly it's feeling better. I'm just applying some ointment and waiting for it to be healed. Right now it's still raised and hurts when i put on a jacket.
So, I should explain the meaning a little so you all know. The basic design I wanted was an ankh, the egyptian sign for life. I looked at a lot of designs and found one from the 18th century in lapis lazuli they found that had the extended arms that my tattoo has that I really like the modern, sharp look. I added the anchor part, because I really like the (christian) idea of being anchored in your beliefs and/or faith when the time comes. The f-holes are of course from the violin, where the sound comes out. The three lines, are because most things in life seem to come in threes, and it looks cool. The serendip is a bit longer story. So, sarandib or serendip is arabic, and used to be the name for Sri Lanka. There is a persian fable called 'the three princes of serendip' that's about a King who kicked his three sons out on a quest of wisdom in the hopes that one day one would be ready to become King. Along the way they came across/stumbled upon forunate acidents and lucky discoveries. Leading to an englishman not too long ago coining the word 'serendipity' based on this fable. I believe that there are some things meant to be, many things in life that are just supposed to happen. I also really like the idea of a quest for wisdom as a goal in life.
Anyway, here's the picture, I've also put up my pictures from Utrecht and Amsterdam, of what I saw on my website.

Doei!

p.s. title song by Bryan Adams

Carnival Town

My flowers in full bloom

So I went to Maastricht on Saturday, turns out the big parade was on sunday, so too bad i missed that. But, what i did see was a lot of fun. Lots of bands, and the Prince (someone in the city is selected to be prince and/or princess) and what i've gathered, not sure if it's correct, is the prince starts the carnaval by placing a vegetable wreath on a statue. You can go to my picasa website to see the pictures from the Maastricht Carnaval.

Well, tomorrow I'm heading off to Utrecht for the day, and spending the night in Amsterdam to wake up and explore. Also, I made an appointment to get a tattoo in Amsterdam saturday in the afternoon so I'm super excited about that! I checked out a few places in Nijmegen, and actually made an appointment with one, but it turned out they didn't have any available until April, and I would've waited, but I figured since I was planning on going to Amsterdam anyway I'd check and see if they had an appointment available.
Well, today I did another lab rat test, but this one is a little more involved than any others I've done. It takes 9 appointments, 30-1 hr. tests each time. Today's took 2 hours and involved an MRI scan. They didn't mention seeing any tumors or anything, so I assume I'm healthy. But, at the end I get 70 euros (89$), which is very very exciting! Oh, I almost forgot the part where they told me before I did the test, how there was a chance the wire behind my teeth could heat up during the MRI...and that's what the panic button they gave me was for.

On sunday was the 65 commemoration of when the U.S. dropped the bomb on Nijmegen thinking it was Germany. On an elementary school, in the center of the city. I forgot to mark the date on my calendar and so missed the prayer, silent walk, and commemoration. But, on monday, the next day I went and took some pictures of the wreaths placed around the statue of the swing set to remember the bombing. Those pictures I'll post below and also on my picasa account. I hear some people are having difficulties with finding my picasa, so just in case, click here and it will lead you to that website so you can see all my pictures. In the future, there's a link if you scroll down and on the left side of the page there's a few links, one says 'my pictures' if you click on that, it will take you straight there as well.

Not too much else has been going on around here. The weather is dreary, it hasn't rained in a couple of days, but always threatens to.

This is the start of the carnaval in nijmegen, i kid you not, i lost count of how many police vans after counting 20, not cars, vans full of politie shuffled out to patrol the city the friday before carnaval began. Many of the police were undercover, dressed in regular clothes and blended in with everyone else.

All the best!

p.s. title song by Norah Jones

Carnival of Sorts

Just a quick update...I have a break starting this friday lasting till March 1st, it's technically spring break for us, but really it's two weekends and a week of carnaval. Huge parties, and festivities that lead up to Ash Wednesday, where on that wednesday the Dutch eat bread and herrings (fish). I've found out that one of the best and biggest carnavals is in Maastrict, and it kicks off on Saturday. So, I'm planning on heading down there (furthest down south in the netherlands you can get). Maybe go to Den Bosch (they have a pretty big carnaval too) on Monday. It's pretty much isolated to the southern part of the Netherlands since that's the Catholic part of the country.

My tulips are coming along nicely. You can't tell, but the third one is starting to bloom.

I made pop-ups, and boy did they pop.

Goede Nacht!
p.s. title song by R.E.M.

Love Like Winter

Happy Valentines Day!

So, I went to the market today, it was super crowded, probably because it was valentines day, of course it's always pretty crowded, so who knows. Of course the flower shops and stands were all really busy, and there were some people filling heart-shaped balloons with helium (a picture of that below).
I also got some groceries in the center today, found some super glue to fix my poor teapot lid I broke...while drunk. I have a habit of breaking things when I'm not sober, like the 2 cute glasses I bought, actually bought 3 but broke 2, and my ceramic saimin spoon. There sounds like there could be a lesson here somewhere?
But anyway, not long ago I bought some soup that was on sale, and I just glanced at it, and thought the picture was of mushrooms so I bought it. The stupid part is, I know what mushroom is in Dutch (champignon) and could've checked, but just grabbed it...anyway, I brought it home and translated it, it's oxtail soup. Yuck. So, from now on, I'm very careful what I buy and make sure to read it before I buy it.
Also bought a really cute scarf (picture below), they finally got new ones! Or maybe it's just because I've been going to the market on monday afternoon, and this time I went saturday mid-day. I finally got some gebaken bananen met suiker poeder (fried bananas with powdered sugar), I've been wanting to try them every time I go to market, but I haven't had the change, or whatever, but this time I did. Soo worth it.
I typed in 'love' to come up with a name for this post (for Valentines Day) in my itunes, filtered to only look at songs and it came up with 387 items. Wow. So, I picked one of the top 5 I saw, and it seems to fit. Especially since I hear Utah has snow right now, and I'm sure that's where most of the people who're reading this are.
Anyway, here's some pictures of my day so far!

Anyone need any paraphanelia?
Bike Locks Galore
Celebrating Valentines Day, balloons for everyone!
Oooo, these are dangerous--not sure what they are, Roomboter (butter) somethings (from a bakery). Very creamy, just melt in your mouth, but named butter somethings, you know they can't be good for you, & I feel very guilty afterwards : /My new scarf!
A wall hanging I got for 1 euro...made in Maastricht

Doei!

p.s. title song by A.F.I.

Long Way Home

Me and Alice, before she left back home for Taiwan

I booked my ticket back home!
I'll be back July 16th at 10:35 pm. Unfortunately I couldn't find a ticket for a decent price the same way I came, and had to add another stop. So, I'm flying from Amsterdam to Munich, Munich to Chicago, and then Chicago to Salt Lake. It'll be a long flight, but the layovers are pretty good, and I'm leaving in the afternoon (1:20pm) from Amsterdam, and since it takes 2 hrs to get there, it's a pretty good time for me.
Classes have been going really well for me, I only have three this quarter, and then 3 more added on for next quarter. I changed a few courses around, so now I'm taking: Gender Theories and Equality Policies, The Interaction between Science and Religion, Multiculturalism in North America, Egyptian Religious Texts, American Modernism, and Digital Art and Culture.
I love the Science and Religion course, if I could I'd major in Theology at the U, but they don't offer it, I'm glad I can take that and Egyptian Religion here. It's interesting being here and hearing about the different majors that are available in Europe. You can get a bachelors, or masters in American Studies, also Spanish Studies. You can get a masters in Science and Religion, studying in depth religion combined with whatever branch of Science (physics, biology, etc.) There seem to be a lot more options here.
I've written a little bit about how most people here know at least two languages, many know more. Dutch people know English and Dutch of course, but also some know German and French. It's amazing to me how many languages the average person knows, one of my exchange student friends was telling me how she wants/and needs to learn another language for her masters study. She's Hungarian (her native language) and is very good with English, and knows enough French to get by, but to her this wasn't very much. I tried to remind her that she knows two more languages than most people I know, but I don't think I convinced her. But also, I noticed how a lot of the courses you can take are in different languages. There are classes in Spanish, German, French, English, and Flemish (Belgian-Dutch), and that's not including language courses.
I bought a ticket to go to Brussels, Belgium for March 7th, just for the day. There looks like there's a lot to see in Belgium, I've been before to Brussels, but it's been a while.
Well, I've included a couple of my favorite pixar shorts (I do not own the rights), just for fun!






Tot Zo!

p.s. title song by Bruce Springsteen