Misadventure Adventures

Yesterday, I had to travel to s'Hertogenbosch (the locals call it Den Bosch) to pick up my residence permit (finally).  Before going, I researched what I wanted to see and how to get there.  My plan was to pick up my residence permit, go to the Hieronymus Bosch museum, have lunch, go shopping, and finish my day at a famous bakery known for their Bossche bol.  

Well, I planned to get on the train at 11:09...I just barely made the 11:39 train.  I had an assignment to turn in by 5, so I went to the library to print it out at 10:45.  They have changed the printing system.  I just barely knew how to print with the old system, and now they've changed it on me.  After trying to figure it out on my own, switching computers, and asking several students for help I was ready to cal it quits.  I finally went to ask a librarian for help.  She couldn't figure out why I couldn't print either ( go figure ).  Thankfully, she let me email her my assignment and she printed it out for me.  Finally, someone at this school helped me (due to cultural differences and sheer size of this school, I often feel like a number.  This is okay, I have learned to appreciate Hendrix so much more).  Assignment in hand, I ran to turn it in.  Then, I ran to my parked bike and pedaled as fast as I could to the train station.  I ran onto the train as the doors were closing - talk about luck!  

I made to Den Bosch without any complications, and found the place to pick up my residence card without any trouble.  Then, I started walking to the Bosch museum.  You know how they say that "not all who wander are lost"?  Yeah, well I was very lost.  After taking a few (about 3) wrong turns, I realized that there were signs on the lampposts pointing me to the museum..go figure.  I would have enjoyed wandering more if it had not been damp and very very cold.  Before making it to the museum I decided I was very hungry.  I stopped in a bakery and got a chicken salad sandwich...it was very different from my normal chicken salad.  This one had a peanut based sauce that the chicken was in.  It was really good, but a bit on the messy side.  I ate my lunch while continuing to walk to the museum..I'm also not the best at eating and walking.  When I made it to the museum I was so excited.  I had researched it earlier, and was prepared to whip out my student card for the student discount.  Unfortunately, I didn't research enough...the museum is closed on Mondays.  

Outside of the Hieronymus  Bosch museum...all that I got to see.

 I was pretty disappointed a) because I did a project on Bosch in highschool and was excited to see his paintings in real life and b) because it was really really cold outside and I just wanted to wander around in a warm museum c) because the museum was really the only thing I had planned for the day....
Thankfully, when researching, I read about a church that is supposed to be really pretty.  On my way to the museum I had kind of seen it (which was good, because otherwise I wouldn't have tried to find it - it could have resulted in me becoming super lost).  I wandered slowly around the church on the outside of the fence that enclosed it.  The front of the church isn't very exciting, but man, the sides and back are gorgeous.  Here, rising out of the ground in small Den Bosch is a huge gothic cathedral.  They started building it in the 1400s...that was all I learned...everything else was in Dutch.  I came in a side door to the church.  At first I thought I was the only one there.  It was breathtaking.  I wish I had taken more pictures, but I felt wrong doing that...I just couldn't capture how grand everything was.  Statues, paintings, carvings in the floor, a huge organ, you name it it was there.

They even had a Bosch painting!

Look at the ceiling - so beautifully painted.  And the chandelier is huge...the organ is in the middle in the back.

After I wandered around the cathedral a bit, I decided to do some shopping.  I didn't make any extraordinary purchases.  It started to rain a bit, so I did a lot of store hopping to stay out of the weather.  Finally, I made it to the bakery and ordered a cup of hot chocolate and a Bossche bol.  It is essentially a very large cream puff.  SO GOOD.  After my snack, I boarded the train and headed home.  Overall it was a good day...but filled with a few too many misadventures for my taste.

letters of love

Hello friends!  Sorry it has been a while since my last post, but things have been busy.  I'm not doing much, but somehow I find that I never have time!  Tomorrow, I am going to Den Bosch (that's what the locals call it) to get my residence permit.  I just wanted to take a quick minute to say thank you for all of the letters that have been sent my way - they really make my day!

weekend adventure: eindhoven

Hello all!  This weekend, I was feeling rather lazy and not excited about planning a trip.  Thankfully, my friend Rani invited me to join her and some other girls for a Saturday day trip to Eindhoven.  Eindhoven is not the most cultural place to visit - it's biggest claim to fame is that it is home to Philips (the electronic company).  Before going, I did a bit of research and found an outdoor market to go to.

flowers at the outdoor market - quite cheap!

Rani and I with our purchases.  Also, notice that we aren't wearing hats - it was "warm" around the low 40s!

Our meal was mainly classy...strawberries, brie, and bread from the market...and then fries.

We had a good time in Eindhoven.  There was a great shopping area, of course I only ended up buying a necklace, ha ha.  On Sunday, I had some spare time and decided to have a cooking adventure.  I made biscuits and gravy from scratch to share with my floor.  We don't have a real oven (only a microwave oven) so, I made the biscuits in a skillet.  Everyone liked them!

 

Weekend Adventure: Carnaval Adventure

Hello all!  Southern Holland, like many other countries, celebrated Carnaval this Friday-Tuesday.  Almost every storefront in Tilburg was decorated in the town colors, bright green and orange.  The city center becomes the new home of food trucks, multiple small marching bands, and colorfully costumed people.  The street with all of the bars/clubs/pubs (whatever you call them) is crazy.  From Friday-Tuesday people drink all day long outside the bars, which have newly added on outdoor space and decorations.  They have special carnaval wooden boards that they put up, as well as special bars outside of the bars so you don't even have to go inside.  The craziest thing though, is that entire families - I'm talking strollers to wheelchairs - go in to the bars.  Being American, this was probably the biggest shock to me.  While the party goes on all weekend, each city has a special day where they put on a big parade.  Me and "the lads" from my floor took a daytrip to Breda to see their parade.  Now, Breda is a small city like Tilburg that had a small (I thought it was a pretty large parade compared to Rome, GA) parade, butttttt the ticket price to Breda was much smaller than to other cities.  All in all, it was a great weekend!

Approaching the bar street in Tilburg.  Everyone dresses up here.  Also, Carnaval during the day time (at least where I went) seemed to be very popular with the 35+ crowd.

A pastry from a food truck.

Small parade in Tilburg.  This is their town mascot...it's a man carrying a jug of urine.  Tilburg used to be a very large textile producing city...and they cleaned the textiles with ammonia, and a cheap way to get ammonia is from urine..yeah.

Day trip to Breda:  when Emily becomes semi-inducted as "one of the lads"

much bigger floats than in the Rome Christmas parade ;)

all kinds of costumes

also, all kinds of things in the parade!

even drums in wheelchairs?

These are what the storefronts look like with added decorations.

learning dutch...

Today, I decided to get a head start on my Dutch homework.  It's a good thing I did...I have spent an hour working on it and I'm not even half way done.  Also, do you know how difficult learning Dutch is?  Very difficult.  Do you know how difficult it is learning Dutch using an online program and book that are only in Dutch?  Way more difficult than very difficult.  I am so thankful for Google Translate.

Weekend Adventure Take Two: Amsterdam

No seats left on the train (in second class at least)!

The adventure this weekend was a group trip to Amsterdam.  We left Tilburg around 10 on Friday and returned at 2 on Sunday.  What a weekend.  Friday was spent wandering around the city.  I did a lot of following, and have decided that the free maps of Amsterdam are not that helpful..and also I wasn't great at reading the maps.  So, Friday was centered around Dam Square, Red Light District, and general wandering about the city center.  On Friday, I met up with a Hendrix friend's friend from Holland (did you follow that?) which was wonderful - a translator for our group!  I also got a "beautiful" dutch phone.

In the Red Light District, alleys are interesting places. They are not really shortcuts to the next road over.  It was an interesting liberal area to walk through - full of many idiosyncrasies, like a scarf shop between a coffeeshop and a sex shop.  Always an exciting walk through...felt similar to Bourbon St. 

Palace at Dam Square

Friday was really rainy, but we walked around anyway.  I was very thankful for my raincoat!  Luckily, it wasn't too cold on Friday.  When we got the chance, we took refuge inside.  We found a really great bakery, where I ordered a slice of warm chocolate mud cake.  Perfect!

Group photo - there were lots of us!

The city at night!

Saturday morning, I woke up and headed to Dam Square on the tram.  There, I met my camp friend Katherine who was in town with college orchestra.  We wandered around Amsterdam the whole day - it was so surreal!  Our first stop was Amsterdam's largest outdoor market.  There, we bought fresh fruit smoothies, a hot stroopwaffle (think two flat ice cream cones with hot caramel in the middle), fancy bread, and a small block of cheese.  I also bought a new scarf - it was really cold and windy!

After the market, we started walking to the Hermitage, which is where the Van Gogh exhibit is currently located.  On the way though, we stopped in a small cafe to warm up with hot chocomel (basically the same as hot chocolate).  Then, we headed off to the museum!  I enjoyed the museum, but I'm not sure it was worth the 15 euros.  After that, I met up with my fellow international friends at the Anne Frank museum.  Now, that was worth the price of 9 euros.  I didn't take any pictures there..it just didn't seem right.  Great great museum.  

After the Anne Frank museum, I went off with a smaller group in search of some dinner.  We ended up in an Italian/Argentinian restaurant which was nice.  Then, I went to Katherine's orchestra concert...that was an adventure.  I made it there eventually, but my direction following skills paired with multiple wrong directions from others resulted in a big adventure of walking about Amsterdam.  No fears though, I am alive!

On Sunday, some of the group stayed behind to explore the city more, but I was ready to go home.  Also I stayed up to watch half of the super bowl last night.  Well done, Beyonce.