Hallo! Bon Jour! Guten Tag! Goeiendag! Hello!
I've made it!! I thought I would greet you the same way that I was greeted when I arrived in Holland, which obviously shows how diverse the culture is here.
After a 4 hour delay in Washington, DC, I finally arrived in Brussels, Belguim. It made more sense for me to fly into Brussels rather than Amsterdam since the Belgian border is a quick 5 minute bike ride from my new town of MAASTRICHT! After gathering my two (very large) bags, I hopped on a train headed to Maastricht. Unfortunately, I couldn't get off the train with my huge bags in time, and I missed the connecting train stop. Eventually, I found a nice tourist office where the man directed me on what train to take directly to Maastricht. Once I hopped on the train and got situated, keeping an eye on my bags that were barely fitting on the train, I was able to relax. I met two young men headed to Maastricht from Germany to study at the same university as me. They were very helpful in translating the French loudspeaker on the train and offering me some good tips on the town. An hour train ride later and I was on foot in Maastricht. At approximately 16:30 (4:30pm) I arrived at the University Guesthouse...29 hours after I had left Denver. A stressful, yet adventure filled experience to say the least.
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| The River Maas and the town of Maastricht! |
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| One of the many 'straats' |
The University Guesthouse is actually part of a hospital, but the student section takes up all of the Hospital's old wing. My room is not terribly small for a single, and better than expected! I live on a hall full of lacrosse players from Muhlenburg College and the rest is international students, from Europe and beyond. We all share a kitchen, which too was better than I expected! We enjoy taste testing the interesting meals we put together, as well as toasting to a great semester, since we can have wine and beer in the guesthouse. The grocery store is always an adventure: deciding what type of meat we are about to buy, bringing our own bags, and bagging for ourselves. You definitely watch what you buy here, since we don't have cars that fit loads and loads of food!
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| My humble abode |
I met up with 4 girls from DU, and 2 more from colleges in the United States and we have been attempting (and succeeding) on tackling the town of Maastricht.
The first night we went to the main square to have dinner and explore. It was our first outing and we didn't get too lost!! Not bad for our first day! Our waitress was extremely nice, which gave us a reassuring feeling about everyone else in this country.
It's going to be a great semester, keep in touch!!
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