How Time Flies

It's hard to believe this is already day 6 overseas. The people we've met and experiences we've had so far have simply blown me away.

I guess it only makes sense to start at the beginning.

The Longest Plane Ride Ever


We left last Wednesday, June 29th. We flew out of Detroit and the flight was supposed to be 8 hours but ended up being the longest 7 and 1/2 I've ever lived. There were multiple children on the flight and nothing but bad movies (Jane Ayre may have been the first one, everyone was asleep for the Adam Sandler one, and some Katherine Heigl nonsense). The babies seemed to be synchronizing their efforts to keep everyone on the plane awake, which was aided by the sun rising at 2 a.m. CST. We did talk to a very nice young man in the military on his way to the Netherlands to board a ship for 6 months.

Eventually, 11:30 a.m. Netherlands time rolled around, and we took our first steps into this strange new world.

Our First Day - Thursday, June 30th


We began our adventure by seeking out our first hostel, which ended up being located in a small suburban beach town called Noordwijk. Thanks to the online directions, we managed a train and bus ride with little difficulty.

The hostel was small, and my favorite description of it was that it was a bar that happened to have a hostel, not the other way around. After less than two hours of sleep on the plane, Jenna and I mutually agreed to stay up all day in an attempt to combat the jet lag. So we checked in and started exploring the small town around us.

We went to a local sandwich shop and got our first taste of the Netherlands. The food was good but the waitresses didn't speak much English.

After that shop, we proceeded to wander. The beach ended up being right across the street from our hostel. It was gorgeous, but the temperatures here are in the 60's as the high, so even taking off our shoes was questionable.

We saw a children's race one of the times we stopped by the beach, which was cool. We also discovered that the sun comes up around 5:30 a.m. and doesn't set until right around 10:45 p.m. So it would seem this country rarely sleeps. Or is that just us?

We ended up going to dinner that night with another guy staying at the hostel, Ryan. He's from New Zealand and has been traveling around Europe for a while on his 2 month vacation. I think we'd both love to go to New Zealand sometime since apparently it's basically ALL beaches.

After attempting to watch the sun set on the beach and ultimately giving up once we realized it was never going to happen, we went back to the hostel. After minimal prodding, Jenna agreed to check out the bar and hang out with the other travelers and staff.

Out of the few days we've been here, that first night is definitely in the top 2 nights of the trip so far. We met SO many amazing people. We made new friends from New Zealand, Holland (obviously), Australia, Finland, Turkey, England, and of course the US.

My only regret so far is not having more pictures from that night. But in an effort not to be those touristy, picture-taking Americans, and since no one else was taking pictures, we kind of just followed suit. I do have one picture with me and a couple of Finnish girls that we met, who were so awesome. We talked about movies and music and language and it was just so cool.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not so much), the only people who we had problems with were the Americans. Very obnoxious. By the end of the night, the bartender Leo and other staff members were giving everyone free drinks. We ended up partying until around 3 a.m., meaning we were awake for roughly 48 hours (at least). Talk about rallying.

Friday, July 1st - Amsterdam Take 1


The next morning we barely got up in time to catch the tail end of breakfast, which meant toast just before we checked out. Another bus and train ride later, we arrived at hostel number 2 in a small Turkish suburb closer to Amsterdam's city center.

This room was much smaller, with only four beds in total. We shared it with two other girls who came in from France. We only met them once as we ended up with opposite schedules that second night.

After checking in, we wandered the small town for a while. We ate at a small Turkish deli nearby, which was cheap and actually very good. Except for this weird yogurt drink I got, which was completely disgusting:

I also saw my first accident ever. Do NOT mess with busses in the Netherlands. Their public transportation system is very advanced and convenient, but those busses get lots of momentum going that you don't want to be on the receiving end of.

After lunch we realized it was only about 3:30 in the afternoon and we did have time to head into the heart of Amsterdam, so that's exactly what we did.

Although we didn't take any pictures, we went to the Anne Frank house that day. It's remarkable how well kept the house is, and how truly heartbreaking her story is. It's much more real actually seeing it than just hearing stories about it. One thing we noticed was how incredibly narrow the stairs were. I have no idea how people didn't break their necks regularly. That's a subtle difference we've noticed all over.

The walk to the Anne Frank house gave us an opportunity to really walk some of Amsterdam. The bike system here is really amazing. There are separate bike stoplights at intersections, and they have their own roads. One thing we learned very quickly was that you don't get in the way of the bikers.

The architecture here is astounding. Everything is so old-fashioned and impressive.

Jenna aptly described the motion of the city as a ballet. The city almost seems to move and breathe, and the people on bikes are absolute experts. I've never seen anything like it. I'm convinced it's the reason everyone here is so skinny. I'm hoping Jenna has some pictures of the rush hour that we ran into...it was a sight to behold, but the full effect may not be accomplished without actual video and only pictures.

The canals are also beautiful, and everywhere.

We ate at a small bakery in the city that night, with the most delicious-looking pastries ever. They weren't just good-looking, either. The one we ate had the richest cream filling I've ever had.

After dinner we went back to the hotel for an early night. Going to bed before the sun sets has new meaning when it's up seemingly all night, haha.

Saturday, July 2nd


The next morning we got up early and ate a decent free breakfast, where I also discovered that the Dutch have the richest butter ever, too.

The third night we stayed in an actual hotel since I literally couldn't find any hostels to book. We got a pretty good deal though. We had to go back to the airport and took a free shuttle, which was nice. On the train we met a guy from Dubai who recently graduated from Purdue. The world gets smaller every day, I swear.

There were also some guys running in a huge hamster wheel to support cancer research when we got back to the airport. That was entertaining.

We had our own room which meant we didn't have to tiptoe or anything.

After checking in, we went back into Amsterdam. We bought tickets for the Heineken Experience and a pub crawl through the Red Light District that night.

Walking to the Heineken Experience was an experience in and of itself. We wandered into the city center and saw all kinds of street performers, and there was a concert or show of some kind going on at the Royal Palace.

Palace:

We basically hiked to the Heineken Experience (and I mean hiked). It was pretty fun, like a brewery plus. There was a cute little ride and a lot of touristy stuff. It came with two free drinks (two and a half, really), and we met an older English couple who we ended up having a very illuminating and in-depth conversation with regarding the differences in laws, particularly crime prevention and enforcement. Apparently there are virtually no guns in England (except for criminals), and being burglarized is a common experience. They are in no way allowed to defend their property, either. Absurd.

From the Heineken Experience we headed straight to the pub crawl. We met some very, very cool people there. There was a group of Australians that were fun, and we met a couple of South Africans (which are apparently very common in Holland) who were completely awesome as well.
The Australians:

Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take any pictures in the Red Light District, because the pimps will throw cups of piss on you if you do. Wanting to avoid that situation at all costs, Jenna only chanced a picture from an upstairs window in one of the pubs.

After free shots at every bar, we managed to catch the last train home and took a taxi from the airport. Very successful and fun night, and a great way to get a first look at the Red Light District. As it turns out, most people seem to keep to themselves. It's very odd being in a place where both prostitution and marijuana are legal, I'll say that much. Everyone is pretty easygoing, that's for sure.

Sunday, July 3rd - Travels to The Hague


Sunday was mainly a travel day. The train to The Hague takes a half hour, and we checked into our dorm as soon as we got here. Despite the promise otherwise, the internet was completely down on Sunday. Everything shuts down on Sundays so we couldn't get it fixed, which isn't surprising, just inconvenient.

The dorms are ok, they're big and we all have our own rooms so that's different after staying in not very secure hostels.

We walked around The Hague on Sunday since apparently the only thing to do is shop. The Hague is much, much smaller and more condensed than Amsterdam, and we quickly realized how much more we stood out. In Amsterdam there are a lot of tourists, so no one paid much attention to us. In The Hague, everyone is  more "high fashion."

So we went shopping. We got awesome jackets and more efficient purses at very reasonable prices. So now we're hoping we blend in more, although the whole speaking English thing doesn't help.

We've already seen the Peace Palace, which we get to tour next week, as well as another royal palace.

Royal Palace:

Cool statue outside it:

Peace Palace:

I believe the International Court of Justice is there, and we'll get to visit that so expect more awesome pics to come.

We also saw something called the World Peace Flame, which we weren't particularly happy that we didn't previously know about.

So we mainly just settled in that night after eating at a local pizzeria.

Monday, July 4th - Meeting our fellow classmates


Yesterday morning was our first class. We have class Monday-Thursday from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. with some tours and field trips on random days. Three hour classes are long, but still having all day to do things is awesome. Our first class is International Human Rights, and our professor is very experienced in the area.

After class we went shopping again with one of our classmates, Maureen. We walked the streets of The Hague and found some cute stuff. We're trying to save a lot of the shopping for Italy, but it's difficult feeling like we have money.

There's also really random things in and around these shops. We liked the name of this restaurant:

And there's strange art everywhere:

Last night was hysterical. Our program met at the bar inside the school around 6 p.m. and they had an open bar for us for about 3-4 hours. You can imagine how well that went, a group of 30ish law students with free reign over alcohol for an extended period of time.

Needless to say we started getting to know our fellow classmates very quickly. Most of them are from either Stetson down in Florida or from Macon, Georgia going to Mercer. There are a couple people from South Carolina, and I think that covers everyone.

After they closed the campus bar, a big group of us hit the local bars. We all had a great time and did our best to celebrate Fourth of July from afar.

Campus bar:

Real bar:

So that's about right up to this minute for an update. A lot of people were supposed to go into Amsterdam today, but in an effort to conserve our money, Jenna and I declined (turns out everyone was too hungover anyway!). Instead we took a nap and continued our recovery from last night. We're going with a couple people from the program for a casual drink here shortly.

I'm sorry it took so long to update!! But now that we have consistent internet, good access and a bit of free time I should be able to keep up better.

We miss everyone, but must admit we're having a BLAST!!!!