We Are Now Officially Exiting the Realm Know as Reality

Sunday, July 17th - Mad Race to Switzerland


Picking up where I left off, the time has come to relay our tale of easily the MOST stressful experience of my life.

After partying in Paris until upwards of 5 a.m., my measly phone alarm was not sufficient to rouse us at 10 a.m. on Sunday. Let me preface this by saying that our train from Paris to Switzerland was at 12:58 p.m. on Sunday.

After hitting my snooze several times and potentially even turning off the alarm all together, I awoke at 11:15 a.m. I remember that moment distinctly. "Jenna." "Yeah?" "It's 11:15." Awkward silence. "WHAT?"

Jenna got the worst of the hangover and was sick all morning. Due to our brilliant planning skills, we hadn't even packed yet. So it was in a half drunk half hungover state that we had to get all our stuff together and get going.

Around noon we had finally put everything (including numerous bottles of wine) into some kind of bag and went to the lobby to try to get the concierge to call us a cab. For whatever reason, he refused. Unable to hardly stand on her own, Jenna waited in the lobby (still unsuccessfully trying to convince him to just call one) while I risked my life in traffic.

After countless failed attempts at hailing a cab, I found one (a van no less) around 12:05. He didn't speak English very well but I thought he was just going to turn around to come back for us. What I didn't understand was that his intent was to get gas then come back and get us. So after speaking to him, I ran inside and dragged Jenna and all our luggage out in front of the hotel.

Ten minutes after he hadn't come back, things were looking grim. Jenna gave up and went back inside for a last attempt at convincing the concierge. At 12:20, my van cabbie pulled back up. We hopped into the cab and even though this guy didn't understand us very well, he was amazing. He even gave Jenna the greatest hangover cure pill of all time. He got us to a train station with time to spare.

Unfortunately, it was the wrong train station. We realized this at about 12:35. Panicked, we grabbed another cab and had a very scary and efficient cab ride to the correct station.

We arrived at probably 12:52. After running into the station (with approximately 70 lbs of luggage apiece, mind you) and Jenna finding our platform number, I spotted the way and we ran full speed ahead through the train station.

At 12:55 we were on the platform when a full bottle of red wine tumbled out of one of my bags. It shattered all over the platform, causing us to pause in shock for a split second. After a moment of hesitation, I yelled apologies in the best French I could manage at the conductor (who was yelling at us), turned back to Jenna and yelled "GO!" and we continued our sprint.

At 12:56, we got on the damn train. We hadn't finished putting up our luggage before it started moving. I had exerted myself so much that for a solid 10 minutes all I could do was breathe heavily in my seat, drink water, and mutter, "We're on the train."

Once things calmed down, we tried to go back to sleep, but this was impossible for several reasons: one, our adrenaline was pumping too hard to have even an ounce of exhaustion left, and two, we were in the car with a massive school field trip.

We did get a beautiful (albeit rainy) view of the countryside though:

Of course once we got there, we went to the wrong dorms due to a miscommunication. Thanks to a very helpful guy who lived there, we got a cab to the correct ones. We dropped our stuff off and hiked to a nearby McDonald's...mistake. The cheapest value menu was somewhere around $17 for no apparent reason. It was still a novelty though, so not a total loss...

Pulp Fiction metric system comes to life!:

We also got our first look at the Swiss Alps just outside our windows:

After that we went back to check out our dorms. Maureen and I were in the same suite and we briefly met our suite-mates before going to bed.

And although I guess people were complaining, I actually like our dorms here:

Turns out our suite-mates were awesome, but I'll elaborate on that where more appropriate.

Monday, July 18th - What Up, Swans?

Monday morning we had our first day of Global Economic Governance, followed by a picnic at Lake Geneva with our classmates and professors, which was really fun!

We said goodbye to our awesome RA/professor, Professor Vaughan, which was sad cause she was really awesome. 

There was lots of good food, tons of beer and wine, and opportunities to get to know our classmates better. It was a really fun little trip, with a beautiful view and lots of swans on the lake:

It was also extremely windy, even by Oklahoma standards!

After the lake, I had some things to take care of regarding on-campus interviews. So we went back to the dorms for a while so I could try to hammer out some cover letters.

With the assistance of Jenna, Maureen and Harris, I managed to get everything done and we continued the wine-fest that evening. As we sat around discussing several law-school related and job-related topics, Maureen and I's suite-mate Mahmut came home. He's a really awesome guy from Turkey who's been living here in Switzerland for about 10 months, studying, working, and finishing up his degree.

We hung out with him for a while and then left to attempt to meet up with Professor Vaughan. So off we went to the bar on the very efficient metro:

Upon exiting the metro (around midnight, mind you), we actually ran into our French RA, Luc, who was a hot mess. He was wandering around the metro station and was pretty excited to see us. Without hesitation, he turned around with us and proceeded back to the bar, Great Escape. 

Unfortunately, Luc had just come from the bar with the professors and (unbeknownst to us at the time) they had already moved on.

We all ended up hanging out that night until obscene hours, but it was beyond awesome getting to know both Mahmut and Luc. Happily, this was only the beginning.

Tuesday, July 19th - Naps, et les Reliques de la Mort

In the interest of doing nothing halfway, we partied too hard Monday night. So after class and a presentation from a member of the Olympic Committee, we made a short grocery trip and headed back to relax for a while.

Jenna took a nap and Maureen and I chatted for a bit. A few people from Stetson who we ran into at the grocery store were going to see Harry Potter that evening, so I quickly jumped on board with that.

We tried to leave for the movie early, but due to not knowing exactly where on earth we were, it took a little longer than anticipated (and even at a discounted rate was still 15.50 franc!). As stated in my last entry, I could give an extensive review of HP, but this is not the proper platform. Suffice it to say that I was in tears for a significant portion of the movie and that some Stetson kids got to know me a lot better because of it, haha. My nerdiness was revealed!

That night we took it semi-easy and hung out in my dorm upon my return from HP. Another late night and quality time spent with Mahmut finished off our second full day in Switzerland.

Wednesday, July 20th - Blogging and Laundry Day

Wednesday we really slowed down...at least during the day, anyway. We got a new professor for the remaining two days of Global Economic Governance and I worked mostly on the blog. Jenna and I managed to do laundry thanks to Mahmut's laundry card (the system here is confusing - you have to put down a deposit and use the card and get money back...it's ridiculous). 

Another ridiculous side note: they have 1000 franc bills here. So every time we went to the ATM, we would end up getting money in 100 or 200 franc bills. Completely absurd!

Still having a healthy stock of wine to our names, we wasted no time in cracking into it that evening. We had already planned on meeting up with Luc that night, and managed to catch him and some of our Stetson friends on their way out of the complex (this ended up being a main mode of communication throughout our stay with lack of cell phones). We went to a bar called King's Cross...or something...and met up with some Mercer people as well. That was yet another late night of fun partying...

Thursday, July 21st - Van Gogh Exhibit

After class on Thursday, a bunch of us gathered to venture to the local Van Gogh exhibit. It was fun adventuring around town while Luc pursued his goal of getting me lost on public transit...

Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures at the actual exhibit, but we got lots of pictures in the garden afterwards, and found a cool little alcove in which to climb some trees!

Van Gogh house:

Garden:

We went back to Lausanne and walked around the main square a little bit. We got some genuine Swiss chocolate:

And found a cool little garden area:

After that we went back to the dorm and met up with Mahmut, who had taken off work in anticipation of his trip on Friday to the US! He saved the day by getting Maureen's accidentally locked luggage open, thereby freeing her passport which we needed for our trip to the UN and WTO on Friday. We spent that last evening with Mahmut basically watching YouTube marathons. We of course introduced him to the Bed Intruder Song, and he showed us videos of a Sensation White show he went to in Amsterdam (which we now desperately need in our lives). It was a fun, chill evening.

Friday, July 22nd - Geneva, Switzlerand - the UN and WTO

Friday morning we had to get up even earlier than normal so we could travel to Geneva to visit the UN and WTO. So we suited up and went on our merry way. After a couple train rides (where Luc consistently tried to get me to exit at the wrong stops) and a few bus stops, we arrived at the UN:

They let us in 5 at a time, but security seemed to be mostly for show. In any case, the UN was similar to the Peace Palace in that there were a lot of gifts from several different countries all around. We did get an actual tour, and the tour guide was very nice and informative. 

Some donated gifts (including the not so impressive carpet...):

The actual building and courtyard:

The General Assembly:

Donated murals (I think from Spain) depicting war and its effects:

German donated art:

A cool ceiling from another Spanish-speaking country in the Human Rights negotiating room:

After the UN, we walked to a courtyard, passing some interesting sights along the way. There is a three-legged chair that symbolizes the impact of an activated mine severing a limb:

There was also a political protest marching by, which is the first thing like that we've seen on the trip.

We went to a small plaza for lunch, and Jenna (much to my disdain) kept feeding the stupid birds:

We passed a very upscale Alfa Romeo on our way to the WTO:

We entered the WTO one by one and they traded our passports for a plastic card, which none of us were feeling, but oh well. We didn't get an actual tour (it's more an administrative building than anything). The main conference room did have a really cool ceiling though:

And we had too much fun playing with the microphones they use for translations:

And making other things into props:

After an informative presentation, we decided to hit the city of Geneva.

After a short (and rainy) shopping trip, Jenna Maureen and I found a pizzeria with some great people-watching.

World's largest fountain:

That night we came back and ended up, once again, at the Great Escape.

Adventures on the metro:

We all hung out late that night, having fun still getting to know each other and just hanging out.

I have to stop here for several reasons. We're wrapping up our last class and Jenna and I have a train to Venice to catch in two hours. Plus, we ran out of room in our Europe album that's currently on here, so soon I'm gonna run out of pictures to go with the stories.

Not sure how internet is gonna go in Italy. We should definitely have it in Rome, but I'm not 100% sure about Venice, where we'll be until August 1st. We had a crazy last night with everyone in our program and we're sad to say goodbye!!

More updates soon, I hope.

The Good, the Bad, and the Extensive Learning Experiences

Thursday, July 7th - Back to Amsterdam

As indicated in a previous post, we did make our way back to Amsterdam almost a week and a half ago, where we did the pub crawl in the Red Light District again.

Given the fact that we have made several friends in our program, this crawl had a different feel to it. Maureen and I met some amazing Swiss Germans and Jenna engaged in some unique business dealings for a friend who shall remain anonymous. No one made it back to Den Haag before 3 a.m. One of our friends got on the wrong train. I can only imagine what other people on the trains must have had to put up with.

Friday, July 8th - Adventures in Den Haag

It was around this time that we really started getting into the local establishments. We actually ended up making quite a few Dutch friends during our time in the Hague. It's a fairly small town, so not hard to meet locals when you frequent the same establishments pretty often. We tried to take some pictures of some of our daily sights, which were quaint and really nice.

Our way to the Duck and the circle:

The view from the rooftop of one of the dorm buildings was gorgeous also:

Lots of alleys:

Epic bridge in town:

We also got directions from our friend at the Duck to an ATM. He said it was across from the Alfa Romeo, and by God...it was.

Thanks to a recommendation from Aussie John (our IT guy/badass) by yelling up at my window, we found a fantastic beachside restaurant to eat at with Jon, Maureen and a professor from Stetson. We had a lot of wine (some of it from plastic bottles), a lot of food and a sensational waiter from New Zealand. We got to watch the sunset from our table, it was absolutely perfect.

There was a palace, and bungee jumping. It was unbelievable at night.

We got back from the beach and wandered around Den Haag looking for a bar that looked like fun. We walked by one that was playing loud alternative music and thought it looked like a good idea. Turns out, it was a great idea. We got an older British bartender who hooked us up on all kinds of beers and wine while we were there, and then charged us practically nothing for all of it. We also met the owner, and there were a bunch of late teens/early twenties just straight headbanging. It was pretty cool.

The British bartender, Martin, told us about a bunch of cool stuff going on around The Hague during our stay. We hung out there for a bit then Maureen, Professor Vaughan and I headed back (I wasn't feeling too well - had a cold coming on). So Jon and Jenna went to another local bar (and the only one open late at night), Cremers. They met some locals there and had their first Siberian Tiger experience...followed by a twenties' movie moment on a bridge. Truthfully it does feel like another era here; all the buildings are so old it's sometimes hard to remember where we are...

Saturday, July 9th - Delft

After realizing on Wednesday that we could no longer afford to go to London, we resigned ourselves to having fun all weekend around Den Haag. So Saturday we started out early at a local place that knew us pretty well - the Duck. We met a lot of local people there and hung out with people from school as well.

After finally getting our first batch of laundry done, Jenna, Jon and I ventured down to Delft - a small university town about 20 minutes (by tram) outside of Den Haag. We had heard good things and decided to check it out.

How I usually hailed Jon from his room, since no one has phones around here: "Jon! Are you awake?"

We wandered the small city and admired the architecture and justice buildings for a while. 

After that, we found a Mexican restaurant to have dinner. We had a few margaritas and enjoyed the ever-entertaining people watching. While we were there, we ran into some other classmates who had decided to join us instead of seeing a movie as they originally planned. After dinner, we decided to check out the night life.

We found a couple of fun dancing club bars as soon as we arrived. We ended up at one called Speakers for a while before we found a really crowded one.

Sadly the only picture I have of Speakers is the chandelier above the dance floor. Better than nothing, I suppose.

After a short time at the way-too-crowded club, we decided to head back (our fellow classmates had peaced out long before this). We ran into some locals on our way out though and ended up hanging out with a guy named Joey, who showed us some historical attractions around Delft. We wandered around for a while and went to William the Lion's former mansion and took some pictures. They may not have turned out too well since it was so dark, but we tried!

We also got the huge clock tower all lit up. It was breathtaking.

Sometime around maybe 3-4 a.m., we made our way back to Den Haag for the night.

Sunday, July 10th - Belgium for dinner? Why not?

Predictably, we had a late start after our late night in Delft on Saturday. After rallying everyone together (Maureen, her classmate from SC Harris, Jon, Jenna and I) last minute, we decided to go to Antwerp, Belgium for dinner. Thanks to Jon's perseverance and a delayed train, we made it.

On our way, Jon diligently studying:

While we mess around:

Arrival: 

Belgium was, of course, beautiful and full of historic architecture:

We stopped at an italian pizzeria and wasted no time ordering large beers. 

We walked around the city center, bought some souvenirs, and drank some Stella Artois since it originates in Belgium! (Another aside: something I really enjoy is that most beer glasses in Europe have the actual beer logo. Baller!)

And doing some work:

On our way back to the train station we had to try some world-famous Belgian fries. They were pretty good, but some of the sauces were not so much...

After another brisk walk, we made our way back to the train station for an hour ride back to Den Haag around 11 p.m. Then we took to the streets and Maureen had our first of many brilliant planking ideas:

Double plank:

Monday, July 11th - Harborside Dinner

After our first Law of Armed Conflict class, Maureen, Jon, Jenna and I decided to hit the town for the day and just wander our fair city of Den Haag. We managed to find an awesome bakery and go to town on some yummy desserts.

Before:

After:

On our way around (and in an attempt to see the Escher exhibit), we also took pictures of some local (and very strange) art.

While at the bakery, we ran into our friend from the local bar, Martin. We were originally planning on Korean barbeque that night but then he suggested a restaurant in a harbor area of The Hague, so we decided to check that out instead.

The harbor:

So we got a huge group together for dinner! 

Cool sink in bathroom:

The dinner was great (we had lobster soup, YUM), but the wine was better!

Upon our arrival back in town, we hit up Cremers (Siberian Tiger) and partied for a while.

Tuesday, July 12th - Peace Palace

Tuesday was very eventful. Instead of class, we went on a tour of the Peace Palace and heard a judge speak. We got to take tons of cool pictures while we were there (which apparently isn't usually allowed, so we got really lucky). 

Most of the palace is built up with gifts from different countries. For instance, Germany gave them the gate, the US built a ceiling, England some stained glass...there was a lot from Holland since obviously that's where it's located. Unlike the ICC, the Peace Palace isn't international territory (with the exception of the International Court of Justice which, when in session, is considered international). That misconception actually prevented the Germans from attacking during WWII to avoid the political mess that would otherwise be caused.

Here are a few of my favs:

Entrance:

International Court of Justice:

Belgian Fountain out back:

The manliest Lady Justice ever:

Our tour guide was great, and she was Dutch so that was cool too.

After the Peace Palace we hit the Duck (for cheese) and witnessed a straight up (potentially bank) robbery when we got back. These guys were trying to get on the second floor of what looked like a commercial building. None of us knew what to do. We all just walked by silently, open-mouthed, and stared. One of the guys said something to us about "losing his key" up there while the other guy climbed the drain pipe. It was completely absurd!

We decided to check out the Korean barbeque after all, and I cannot accurately describe the deliciousness of that meal. It was all you can eat, and man did I eat!

It ended up just being me and our classmate Manley at the end. We ate something between 15-20 courses, including spring rolls and dumplings. I have never eaten so much in my life. I had never had Korean before, so the others assured me that this was particularly good and not something I could find in the states.

Afterwards we may have hit up Cremers or that local bar again...all the days unfortunately blend together slightly at this point....(hence the extensive update).

Wednesday, July 13th - MC Escher

On Wednesday, we went to class, had a volcanic experience, and went to see an MC Escher exhibit at a local museum (after my first European McDonald's - Rolo McFlurry = winning). It was really fun. Most of his artwork is really trippy, so of course we took pics. It was recommended by everyone in our class and we were not disappointed.

There were awesome chandeliers: 

This was one of my fav pics:

Jenna liked this:

And an endless tower:

After that we wandered the streets of Den Haag looking for Jon, whose lovely girlfriend Kassie came into town that day. We were heading in the direction of our usual hangouts when we ran into them on the street! We all went to Cremers for some drinks and hung out until God only knows what hour...

Random aside: My beer of choice in Noordwijk was Palm, and we were drinking a lot of Hertog Jan in The Hague. It was all pretty good though! Trying to stay away from American products.

Thursday, July 14th - Chess and a Rainy Farewell to Den Haag - Bonjour Paris

Thursday we had our last day of class in Den Haag. It was kinda sad because we all really enjoyed the class and the professor. I made sure to thank him at lunch (he was retired military and showed us the most unique war videos in class) before we left.

Jenna and I took some time to pack before going to the Duck for the last time to say goodbye to our local friends. She and a classmate had an epic game of chess before we were on our way.

Unfortunately, Den Haag was about as upset as we were about our departure, and chose to make it as difficult as possible. This was the worst, rainiest day we had in two weeks, by far.

After the coldest transit and the rudest cabby ever, we hit the train for Rotterdam then on to Paris, which was only like 2 and 1/2 hours I believe. 

We got to Paris relatively late. Maureen and Maria (from OCU) were staying in a separate hotel, so we dropped her off first (Maria's train was delayed and came later) and then went to our hotel.

Maureen's staircase:

Thinking it wasn't too far, we decided to walk back to Maureen's hotel to get her. It turned out that it was a 20 minute walk in a not-so-great area of town. So that should give you an idea of how our weekend went right off the bat.

Ghetto, but still oddly pretty, streets:

I took a pic outside our hotel window at sunset:

We met Maureen and went to a bar on the corner for a beer before calling it a night.

What we stupidly didn't realize was that it was Bastille Day...so we barely got any sleep due to the explosions going on outside our window. Confused and annoyed, we tried to watch some French TV while I lamented the US release of Harry Potter and missing The Netherlands already...

Friday, July 15th - Bike Tours in Paris!

Friday morning we got up bright and early for our scheduled (recommended) bike tour through Fat Tire! It's an American run tour, so it was nice talking to everyone in English comfortably for the day.

Our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower:

We started off at the Eiffel Tower and went to the park to take some fun pics!

Police force around Eiffel Tower:

Funny, awesome, and true shirt:

We found out that basically all the tour guides are frat boys from Texas A&M. The company was started by a graduate from there, and word of mouth kept being passed down so that they all moved to Paris for like 6 months to a year to run bike tours. They were all pretty cool, despite their Texas roots =P. 

The day tour was from 11-3ish and was amazing! We hit all the major sights and took a ton of pics!

The main theme of the tour was domination, haha. We were all a little nervous about getting on bikes since it's been literally years since I rode one - but the saying proved true. You can never, ever forget how to ride a bike.

We started with the Peace Wall and the park behind the Eiffel Tower, which is all directly across from the military school that Napoleon attended. There are still bullet holes from WWII in the side of the building, and apparently these bullet holes exist all over the city (we spotted a few others!).

From there we went to a Palace/Napoleon's Tomb:

We also went by the Louvre for the first time:

And we upped our planking game....TRIPLE PLANK!:

And we went to a small cafe where I had crepes and Jenna and Maureen shared a french hot dog (yum to both!):

We were not the weak gazelles in the domination pack! Our tour guide wouldn't tell us his name, either. He went by "Peaches." I maintain my belief that Texans are odd people...anyway.

After the tour we met up w/some classmates and did a little shopping! Jenna and I bought cute skirts to go out in and Maureen got a kickass fall jacket (that has served her well in Switzerland, but I'm getting to that). 

We also walked down to the Arc de Triumph:

After much debate and deliberation, we ultimately decided to do the night bike tour with the promise of ice cream and a booze cruise instead of going out that night!

Highlights were Notre Dame:

The bridge where Big told Carrie she's the one!!!!:

There were also locks on all the bridges. What you do is two people write their names on it, then you lock it to the bridge and throw the key in the river, and it's supposed to symbolize everlasting love or something...haha. Anyway, it was cute. Although the padlocks kinda defeat the purpose...

We also rode all around the extensive courtyard of the Louvre, which was just...breathtaking.

We also stopped by an island where a lot of celebrities (including Johnny Depp!) have expensive flats:

And last but certainly not least, the booze cruise!!:

We made friends with some really cool Aussies (see above) who were super fun. And although the "booze cruise" ended up being on a huge boat and involved only one bottle of wine per three people, our tour guide Ben hooked us up with some extra and we were feeling pretty good by the end. We were also sitting by some New Yorkers on the cruise, who were pretty stereotypical, to say the least.

The best part was them expecting us to successfully ride bikes home after the cruise. They took us back by the Eiffel Tower before the end, and we took amazing pics of it lit up as well as some video.

After that, things got a little dicey.

This was the point at which Jenna and I realized that we cannot like Parisians.

Admittedly, we were a large group of mostly Americans with a wine buzz going, so we were being loud, sure. We were all taking pictures and gazing at the lovely Eiffel Tower (a tourist attraction, btw). So we all have our bikes parked in this parking lot when a car pulls out, narrowly missing some of us. Thinking little of it we continue our merriment until a second car starts to pull out and physically HITS Jenna's bike. 

What happened next was utter chaos. Jenna started yelling at him to stop while grabbing the bike, the driver pretended not to hear her, and the rest of the tour group moved around uncertainly. Finally he pulled forward away from her and the bike, and our tour guide flipped out (which made us quite happy). He banged on the driver's window and yelled at him that he knew she was there and shouldn't have kept going. After a lovely show of pretending not to speak English, Ben told him that just b/c we don't speak the language doesn't mean we aren't allowed in the country.

From out of nowhere behind us, the lady who pulled out first starts yelling at us about how "France has laws." I chime in and yell that they cannot involve hitting tourists on bikes. After a few minutes we all tried to calm down and just told them to drive away, which they did shortly after. It was completely absurd and soured us on the French for the remainder of Paris, anyway. 

After we got back from the tour, we promptly tried to get some sleep.

Saturday, July 16th - Museums and Clubs - Doing Paris up with a bang

After another night of seemingly unsuccessful attempts at sleep, we got up as early as we could manage to go to the Louvre (which wasn't too hard considering our curtains were a joke and kept out zero light).

Jenna was, of course, very excited for Winged Victory:

Other "highlights" were Mona Lisa (totally not worth the wait or the chaos or the shoving, but a must-see):

Venus de Milo of course:

The Hammurabi Code (oldest written law):

And there were lots of amazing sculptures, paintings, etc. We posed like a few of them:

After that, we tried to go to the Catacombs...but it was already 3 p.m. and apparently there was a 3 hour wait, and it closed at 4. So unfortunately that didn't pan out.

We went back by Notre Dame and took some more pictures before heading back to the hotel to go out on the town for the night!

So we went back to the hotel and put on our skirts and heels and went to Maureen's hotel.

Originally, we got this idea to go to the only skyscraper in Paris to take pics of the entire city at sunset (and getting the Eiffel Tower in them), but that didn't end up panning out either for one very important reason: JON CAME TO PARIS!!! After much prodding and convincing, we got him and his girlfriend out there with us!

But before they arrived we had dance parties and heart-to-hearts in Maureen's hotel room:

Finally Jon and Kassie arrived at the hotel, and after three small bottles of wine, we were already feeling pretty good...

We made our way to the Eiffel Tower since Kassie has never been to Paris. They did a different kind of light show that night which was amazing:

Then we accidentally found some cute French boys who we thought were coming to the Discoteque, but that didn't pan out. We got refused from a club for no apparent reason (we suspect it was either b/c we were being loud or b/c we were speaking English - hard to say).

But we made it to another one anyway.

After several more hours and way more champagne than necessary, we realized in disbelief that it was 5 a.m., and the club was still open. We said goodbye to Jon and Kassie and went our separate ways for the night (or at least what remained of it).

Sunday, July 17th - Mad Race to Switzerland

Unfortunately my blogging patience has reached its limit. In the interest of this NOT being the longest post of all time, I'm going to stop here and not continue on into Switzerland just yet. I'll find time this weekend hopefully to post about Switzerland so far!!

My Personal Insights

Last but not least, I have to inject my purely subjective feelings toward the entire trip so far, which is precisely half over as of Monday. If you'd like to avoid rambling and stick to the objective facts (and those directly involving Jenna as well), feel free to stop here.

In a very short time, I feel as though I have learned an immense amount about human nature and how small the world truly is. I've also learned a lot about myself.

I thought this whole trip would be extremely difficult for me. I'm very much a creature of habit and routine, and typically when I'm without these things, I'm completely miserable. I'm pleasantly surprised to find the exact opposite to be effortlessly true here. I did manage to catch a cold while in Den Haag (the jet lag, lack of sleep, constant partying and 40 degree colder climate caught up with me), but even that didn't slow me down as it otherwise would.

I thought I would be homesick. I was sure I would be desperately searching for internet to connect back home every chance I got. Instead I seek internet only to update things and vainly try to attempt to chronicle every experience, good and bad.

Honestly, in a perfect world, the #1 thing I would love to do is get off the plane back in Amsterdam on August 5th and go back to Den Haag for an indeterminate amount of time. Of course this is impossible and the real world is calling me home, but I do not answer the call eagerly. Moving around and meeting new people has been more fulfilling than I could ever have imagined. It's hard to tell whether I want to stay mostly because I just don't want to go back...I admit that the thought of OKC makes my stomach turn a bit, and I'm running full speed away from it. I think it's more than that though. Even if I were going home to Indy, east to DC or elsewhere in the US, every fiber of my being would fight it. Every part of this experience has been...indescribable. It's been fulfilling, amazing, wonderful, irreplaceable, eye-opening, miraculous...etc. It's going by way, way too quickly.

My only regret when I started writing this was not having seen Harry Potter...and now I have...but that's a post for another day, and only for those interested. Suffice it to say that although I already feel like a completely different person, I will always be me. How deeply I was affected by that movie...was in no way surprising.

French HP poster in the metros of Paris:

One thing I know for sure is that this is not the last trip abroad that I'll be taking. I will also be making every effort to learn new languages in the coming years. Dutch and French are at the top of the list. Places I have yet to visit but will definitely do sometime include the UK, Ireland, Prague, Berlin, and anywhere in Spain.

Jenna and I also agreed that it's the people we've been meeting that really make this experience worthwhile. The best nights we've spent have been exchanging stories, opinions, traditions, slang, and customs with people from other countries. Listening to their music, learning their language, communicating on different levels, down to the most basic possible levels inherent in all human nature.

I cannot put words in her mouth, but I am forever changed. I'm not who I was when I left the US almost a month ago, and I never will be again. It's refreshing. I never, ever want this to end. Every day is precious, every hour important. Every experience is bittersweet in its brevity; every encounter fleeting.

All in all, every moment here is priceless, and I've never felt luckier.