bag pipes

and if sheep weren't annoying enough outside my window...BAG PIPES. silly me should have known there is no such thing as sheep without bag pipes.

hola, my llamo jessie

what a night. i come to the netherlands assuming ill be learning dutch (which i will be) but now i am also perfecting my spanish! my spanish neighbor and a bunch of other spanish boys came to our floor last night. i talked spanish the whole night with them- we have now even made an agreement if i help them with english, they will help me with my spanish. sounds good to me.

first bike wipe out last night. the boys were able to buy bikes yesterday and so going out last night we tried riding on the back of them. it didn't work to say the least. naturally i ended up flat on my back on the ground. then i ended up in a cab. i don't like where this bike situation is going. all of the people here with bikes took off last night really quickly and poor Trevor was never able to catch up. we waited for him at the bar and he never arrived. we came home to find him laying in bed by himself because he got too lost. haha way too funny. 

and i finally talked to lady and big al last night! always much more fun to check in with the rents at 530 in the morning. 

and i am of course still loving every minute of it!

there is an overnight trip to brussels tonight people are making. unfourtanitly after my wild and crazy night

could ya please pass the mayo?

mayo and french fries. who would have known how great the two are together? deeeelish.

sheep

i never really knew the Baaaaaa of a sheep until I came here. there is a sheep farm right outside my window.  they are much cuter when you are counting them in your sleep.

i could get used to this....

yesterday was really nice out so we walked around center city and did some shopping. the style is a little more jazzed up than at home with boots definitely being a necessary factor. our Finish friend Pia took us around to some really great stores and of course I couldn't resist a new pair of boots (don't worry Ma they were cheap!)

then last night we went to pre-game at our Buddy's house then walk to the bar on campus. beer was only 1 euro!  i could get used to this...

lost again

last night we went to a club to celebrate the finals the other students are taking right now. it was a fun club and we had a really good time. but of course, we get separated once again! i spent last night on the curb outside of the club with two of the boys for an hour after our entire group hopped into a cab and disappeared. it didn't seem like so much of a problem and we thought we could simply hop in a cab home. we quickly realized that a cab cant take you anywhere if you have no clue where you live, what street the apartment is on, or even how to pronounce it. Luckily we found our german buddies in the club and they were able to help us out and we finally found our way back home to find the rest of our friends enjoying them selves five levels up on the Dutch floor of the apartment building. 

Oh well, after an hour long lesson of Dutch on the side of the road waiting for a cab, and after being laughed at continuously for my more than pathetic attempt at an accent, I learned how to count to ten in Dutch! Something good comes out of everything!

Welcome to the dam!

So on Friday I arrived in Amsterdam!!! The flight was fine and everything worked out well. From the airport we made full use of the transportation in Amsterdam and took a train to central station and then the free tram to Vondelpark which is an area of the city. The journey to find our hostel was an exhausting one. At the station this homeless Jamaican man began talking to us and also serenaded us with a song about angels?! Once we stopped laughing at him he ended up helping us through the city to our hostel. We each dragged our heavy suit cases over the cobble stone for at least an hour. I never thought I would find the Stay Okay Hostel but with 3 bags, 1 homeless man, and 2 euros for his help- we were able to finally set in.  The weekend was great and we traveled from pub to pub with little sleep to begin our trip in Europe.  Amsterdam was really beautiful and we had an amazing opening weekend.

Leaving Amsterdam, one of the worst things that could happen did! On our trip back to the train to travel to Maastricht, we separated into 2 different taxis. Meg, Mike and Dan hopped into a small cab and threw a majority of their luggage into the minivan taxi with me, Kate and Trevor. The plan was to meet at the train station in Central Amsterdam as opposed to the train station in the airport. With a bit of a language barrier, the first taxi went to the correct destination (central station) and our taxi ended up taking us to the airport....20 minutes from the other train station. We got dumped on the curb with the three of us and about 7 suitcases. We had no phones and absolutely no way to contact the other three who were at Central. Trevor and Kate were the only two with cell phones and they were both with me. We knew the only way for us to reconnect with the other group would be for them to call us. After about 2 hours of them waiting at Central for us we finally got a phone call from them (after they had to buy  a calling card, call home for Trevor's phone number, and then contact us) and we eventually met up. What started as a huge mess ended up working out well and we found our way to Maastricht.

Now in Maastricht I am all moved into my room (my own room with my own bathroom...not bad!). We have been assigned international students form the school to help us around the city and show us around and they have been great. I also live in an apartment for international students and everyone is really friendly here. 

Our first night we went out with some German boys who are our buddies and they took us to this amazing Italian restaurant in one of the main squares where I had amazing pizza and drank delicious wine. We then went to a pub to watch the Super Bowl...and didnt Bruce look great!? 

Yesterday, only our second day in Maastricht, although it already feels like we have been here for over a week, we went to the school to meet the dean. He seems like a really nice guy and we learned we will be taking some interesting classes about european business and we also get to take an Intro to Dutch course! I am really looking forward to picking up a few words so I can at least learn how to read some signs (how to pronounce all of these J's!?). 

I am finally settled in after doing a bit of shopping. Everything is going great so far! The people I am with are great and so is everyone we met so far. With two amazing nights under our belts already I can only imagine what the next five months will be like!