HBO, Brussels, Den Haag, and Kinderdijk

September 25, 2013

It's amazing how fast time is going by here. I swear that I wrote my last blog entry a few days ago but it's been three weeks! Now that school and traveling are kicking into gear I forgot to blog! Anywho, now that I am here writing I'll give an update. On September 12th Breda had this HBO Intro Festival (no relation to the TV channel, I checked). It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. There were thousands of people in the streets, mainly my age, bouncing around between the four stages they had set up throughout the City Centre. And with no strict law about drinking in public you could buy beer at little stands or in a bar then carry it out on the street. It was so cool to see all these people on a Thursday night enjoying a lot of diverse music and having such a good time. However with so many people the streets became trashed real quick, but the next day I biked through town and it was all cleaned up. At the end of the night I was with Megan and Alexis and we headed to the main stage. We pushed our way through literally hundreds of people to make it to the front third of the crowd. Once we got there the artists on stage told us all to sit down so they could get a sick picture of us when the bass drops and we all start jumping. However this process took forever and we were half-sitting for a few minutes and it was really uncomfortable so we just stood up and waited to start jumping.

The next day we traveled to Brussels, Belgium. This was my first time traveling outside of the Netherlands. Brussels was amazing, the architecture was phenomenal and the little shops and restaurants in between where great. We found this place called Delirium. If you ever go to Brussels I HIGHLY recommend spending a few hours at this bar. This bar has over 2,000 beers you can choose from. I had beers from Belgium, Turkey, Lithuania, and Thailand. The bar itself is covered in beer memorabilia from wall to wall (literally beer bottles make up one of the walls) and even the ceiling in covered in beer memorabilia. We also stopped to visit the famous Mannequin Pis (a statue of a little boy peeing, it's suppose to be one of the top sites to see in Brussels). When we found it, we were a little disappointed. It is maybe two feet tall and is a part of a fountain. I was expecting some life size statue that was on top of a building overlooking the city. Regardless, we took some pictures of it then found more amusement taking pictures with a life size one that was next to it which was advertising a waffle stand. We stayed at the Vincent Van Gogh Hostel which was nicer than any other hostel I've ever been to and they had a bar in the lobby. It was a really really nice place to stay for two nights.

On September 17th, I traveled with some students to Den Haag (pronounced The Hey-g) to visit a meeting company called Regardz. We are suppose to be helping them come up with solutions to better their business. Overall none of the group members were impressed with the company, overall we thought that the company wouldn't last much longer. But regardless it is up to us to help this company in anyway possible. Den Haag is right next to the beach, which I tend to forget that the Netherlands has a lot of beaches due to it's geographic location. I hope to go back on a Dutch Excursion trip there so I can visit the beach!

This past weekend I visited Kinderdijk which is where 19 old windmills are still standing and functioning. It was a great experience because I learned so much about how important these windmills are to help keep the Netherlands from flooding. I also got to go up in one and it was amazing to see that people used to (and some still do) live in these so that they can keep them working at all times. We also visited Zeelandveilig which is where you can go into one of the columns of a dam like system. It also doubles as a water park (not like the ones in the States). This was like an actual park that had playground toys that taught kids about how the dam systems work. It was really cool, all of us exchange students were playing more than the kids were. And there was this awesome water slide where you and another person sat on an inflated raft and went down a 50ft (approximately) slide, laughing all the way.

So that's been pretty much it, I also read a book called Beach Babylon, which I recommend to anyone, especially people in the hospitality industry.

Til next time!

To Breda, Amsterdam, back to Rotterdam, Amsterdam again and home

August 19th-September 4th

I apologize for the slow upkeep of this blog (if anyone actually reads it). I have been so caught up with the start of school that blogging completely slipped my brain! However I have had an interesting few weeks here in the Netherlands.

First off, I moved into my apartment which is called Easy Street or Vijfhagen (which means Five Street). I live with another girl who goes to NAU, Megan, and two Austrian guys, Alex and Gerhard. The boys are great! I thought we would have trouble with the language barrier and not ever talk but they have decent English and are really funny! Our apartment is bigger than I anticipated, which I can't complain about! However they do not have air conditioning like we do in Arizona so when it gets hot (which it has a lot lately) our rooms get unbearably hot so we leave the windows open which cause A LOT of nats and flies to hang out in our apartment. That might be the only thing wrong with this apartment.

So after moving in we all had "Introduction Days" at NHTV (the name of the university I am attending). In all honesty, the Introduction Days gave me more questions than answers but I did get to meet a lot of international students which was great! That weekend a lot of them went on a camping trip and Megan and I decided to go to Amsterdam with our roommates and one of their girlfriends. We had a blast in Amsterdam. I couldn't believe I was finally in Amsterdam! I have wanted to travel here for years and to actually walk the streets and see the sights was amazing. And to answer your question, yes I did walk through the Red Light District. It was honestly a little sad. So many women are forced into prostitution and promised "dancing careers" but are stuck being prostitutes. I didn't enjoy that part of Amsterdam but the rest was great! I've been there twice now and hope to go again and see some of their museums. The second time I went to Amsterdam I joined a "Pub Crawl". I paid 17 euros for a free shirt and a "crawl" to six pubs throughout Amsterdam. At each bar we got a free shot and free entrance into the pubs. It was fun, something that I wouldn't do again but it is cool to say that I have done one in Amsterdam! We got into Amsterdam at 5pm that night and left the bars at 2am to catch a train back to Breda. When we finally got back to Breda (at 4:30am) we looked for our bikes to bike home. Turns out someone had stolen my bike so I was bike-less for the day. Only after getting my bike stolen did I realize how dependent I had become on it. Biking is the main transportation in the Netherlands. Cars are common but rarely used and buses are great but expensive. So the next day I had to walk to the bike store to buy my second bike. My second bike is alright, it is a little bit rusty which will hopefully deter people from stealing it!

Finally classes started this week (September 1st) and they are quite different from NAU or any other American class I have taken. It seems like all we have is a small exam half way through the semester and one project at the end of the semester with some lectures in between. I can't tell if this is going to be a breeze compared to NAU or extremely difficult. I'm hoping for the first option because I would love more time to travel and explore the Netherlands and Europe.

I took my first Dutch class today and learned this:
Wie Ben jy? (Who are you?)
Ik ben Tiffany en ik kom uit Amerika. (I am Tiffany and I come from America).

That's all for now! I promise I will try to actually update this blog more often :)

Phoenix to Breda: How I Almost Was Not Allowed Into the Netherlands

August 14-18, 2013

Sitting at Sky Harbor in Phoenix waiting for my plane I started to think back on why I wanted to go to Europe. I thought about all my history classes and my Humanities class from high school. I remember studying these countries that have had so much history and amazing cultures. I also thought about every cheesy teen movie where the kids go off to Europe and have the time of their life. Sitting in Sky Harbor I realized that this is my time. I am lucky enough to spend the next four and a half months learning, traveling and living in Europe.

Once I got onto the plane I realized that no one was sitting next to me, I had the window seat. There was only one guy in the aisle seat, not too bad seeing as the flight is almost ten hours, I got to have some extra leg room. I usually have no problem sleeping on planes but this time I was too excited and nervous to sleep. I would wake up thinking hours had past when really it was five minutes. It was the longest ten hours of my life! Luckily I got to see the movie “42” about Jackie Robinson and they even fed us dinner and breakfast. Overall I couldn’t complain about the flight, especially when you get free drinks!

When we landed in London I had a few hours to get to my next terminal for my flight to Rotterdam. I wasn’t entirely sure where to go so I followed the crowd off the plane and onto the bus to Terminal 1. After waiting awhile in the security line I made it into the main terminal. London’s airport is like Rodeo Drive, they had all the designer stores right there! Of course I didn’t even tempt myself so I sat down did some Sudoku puzzles. When it was time to proceed to the gate I started wondering when they would stamp my passport. I have a brand new passport and was eager to get my first stamp. I went to the gate, got on the plane, and off to Rotterdam I went. It was a short 45 minute flight to Rotterdam and we flew over the channel which was pretty neat.

When we landed in Rotterdam we had to have our passport checked. I walked up to the immigration officer and he looked at my passport, then at me, then at my passport again. He started asking me questions like, “How did you get here? How long are you staying? Do you have proof of you staying here?” Turns out somewhere in the London airport they were suppose to stamp my passport. Since they didn’t, it looked very suspicious for me to just show up all the way from the United States with an empty passport. After answering all of his questions he stamped by passport and let me into the Netherlands. Whew! I was definitely panicking, my study abroad was almost ended and it hadn’t even begun!

             I took a taxi to my hotel in Rotterdam and by the time I got into my room I was beyond exhausted. It’s been four days now and my body still hasn’t caught up with the jetlag. My first full day in Rotterdam I explored the city and saw some of their local landmarks. I went all the way to the top of the Euromast, which is the highest point in the Netherlands. From the top you can see for miles in every direction! Then I went to the Boijmans Van Beuningen where I saw some amazing pieces of art from artists like Dali, Picasso, Cezanne, Monet and more. Then I wandered into the museum’s modern art and exhibition section…it was hands down the most bizarre things I have ever seen. I love art, I appreciate art, but some of those exhibits were barely art in my opinion. They had one piece of art that was just some chairs, nothing special, probably the type you would find at your grandmother’s house. One thing that was pretty cool was the piece about the ridiculous high heel shoes, watch this video of them! Backwards High Heels

I had seen the video online last year but this museum actually had the pair on display! It was cool to see them up close but also painful to watch the demonstration films.

            After spending the whole morning and part of the afternoon walking around I headed back to the hotel (Holiday Inn Express) to rest my feet. I started getting blisters on my feet because I didn’t break my new boots in before I left. Laying down was a huge mistake, my jetlag kicked in and my muscles were too sore to let me get out of day. Sad to admit but I slept most of the day and just lounged around the rest of the night. When it was time to actually sleep I had an awful time going to sleep. Stupid jetlag, stupid boots. Eventually I fell asleep, waking up every few hours hoping it was morning. I woke up around 8 am and packed my things, showered, ate an amazing breakfast at the hotel (they eat sandwiches for breakfast, how cool is that? And they also eat delicious chocolate croissants) then left for the train station.

            Luckily the Holiday Inn Express was extremely close to the Rotterdam train station so I walked my TWO 50 pound luggage pieces and myself to the station. Wheeling 100 pounds around and carrying a 15-pound backpack is no easy feat. Not to mention they have a lot of cobblestone-like sidewalks and ramps. But I made it to the station and was ready to head to Breda. I got to the platform and realized this was the first time I had ever taken a train (besides the one you take with your family to the Grand Canyon as a kid). I was watching what other people were doing to make sure I didn’t look silly.

Turns out carrying this much luggage on a train makes you look silly regardless. I boarded the train and thankfully there weren’t many people on it so when it took me a few minutes to get my luggage on the train I wasn’t holding anyone up. The most embarrassing part of the trip (so far) happened when I realized I had no place to put my luggage, the aisles were too narrow and the seats were too narrow to put them next to me. A Dutch man (around my age) saw me struggling and the train was about to start moving so he offered to put one of my suitcases on the rack above the seats (I’m only 5’5’’ so there was no way I could lift my bag up there). The man struggled, I felt bad, here he was lifting 50 pounds above his head for me and I couldn’t help him in any way. So I lifted my other suitcase to the seat next to me and settled with it staying there. We started to talk and turns out he is from Breda. He was extremely nice and we chatted the whole way to Breda. He had visited Arizona before, he stayed in Scottsdale and talked about the heat.

Once we arrived in Breda he helped me get my luggage off the train, up the stairs and even walked me across the street to my hostel. He carried my suitcases up the stairs to the hostel entrance. He helped me so much and I completely forgot to ask him what his name was! I am very thankful for his help and giving me such a warm welcome to Breda.

My blisters were acting up again so I decided to take a quick nap, which of course turned into a three hour nap. When I woke up I convinced myself that I needed to explore Breda a little bit before it got too dark out. Turns out that the tourist center closed while I was taking my nap and they are closed (gesloten in Dutch) on Sundays so I will be without a map until Monday. I walked through a gorgeous park where wild roosters roam, never thought I’d see that! Then when I got back to the hostel I decided to relax in the lobby. The TV was on Comedy Central and it was in English with Dutch subtitles so I watch “Community” for awhile.

I still can’t believe that I am in the Netherlands right now. It all feels so surreal. To be honest it is strange not understanding other people when they walk by or if they talk to you. I blush a little and apologetically reply “Sorry, English” and they smile and start talking in English. I knew for awhile that I would be coming to the Netherlands. I wish I would’ve made the effort to learn Dutch so I could at least make basic conversation. Hopefully I will pick some up while I am here. I am excited for my friends Megan and Karlie to get into Breda because traveling alone can get a little lonely. It is nice because I am on my own schedule but it will be nice to share these experiences with others and have people to talk to.