So it's been a while since I last wrote, which is mostly indicative of the fact that school is cracking down and starting to become a reality. The constraints of my program 
makes it difficult to organize coursework with the french universities: we need three grades compared to the two that the french students get, and we miss the final examination since our semester ends in December instead of January. Trying to communicate this with my french professors has been difficult, which means that for the majority of my classes, I still have no idea what work I have to hand in, which means I'm looking forward to what will most likely be a very difficult December.
makes it difficult to organize coursework with the french universities: we need three grades compared to the two that the french students get, and we miss the final examination since our semester ends in December instead of January. Trying to communicate this with my french professors has been difficult, which means that for the majority of my classes, I still have no idea what work I have to hand in, which means I'm looking forward to what will most likely be a very difficult December. That being said, I tried to pack in some trips into the remaining time before I get too bogged down. This past weekend, I went to Amsterdam for three da
ys. I went with two other girls from my program. We went the cheap way, which meant taking a bus from Paris leaving at 11pm and arriving in Amsterdam at 6am, which was great because it meant that we didn't have to waste a whole day on travel. After dropping our bags off at our hotel, it was still dark outside, so we decided to walk to another part of town hoping that a breakfast place would be open by the time we got there.
One thing I noticed immediately and just could not get over is how crooked the houses are! (See picture above) The city is built on canals, like Venice, and the canals are flanked by rows of townhouses. From house to house, there's almost a 15degree angle between the building
s sometimes! It almost looks like the whole city is about to topple over, so there were lots of jokes during the trip about whether people walk crooked because their whole lives are on a slant, or wondering how they put furniture against the walls in the houses. It's funny that it's the small things like that that you always remember about a certain city. Crooked houses, and the most delicious waffles ever!
Amsterdam is a really small city and by the first afternoon, we had basically figured out where we were and how to get around everywhere. We saw the Van Gogh museum and the Rijks
museum. It's funny to think about what a superpower Holland used to be, at least important enough to make up ten different names for themselves (it's Holland...and the Netherlands...but they speak Dutch?) A lot of the Rijks museum was about bringing Dutch art, like works by Rembrandt and Vermeer, back to the Netherlands after basically selling them to other countries. Amsterdam is also a big diamond center, and one of the big attractions going on right is the exhibition of a human skull encrusted with diamonds, called "For the Love of God" by Damien Hirst. The way they decided to display it was awesome: they let about 10 people into a pitch black room at a time and the diamonds basically glowed enough to light up the entire space. It was truly an experience, and we were really lucky to see it since the exhibit only arrived in Amsterdam November 1.
Everyone who had already been to Amsterdam told us that three days would be more than enough, and I was kind of surprised to find that it was true. While it's pretty, Amsterdam is really small compared to most European cities I've visited, and less packed with touristy attractions. We saw the two museums, went to some coffee shops and walked through the red light district. The red light district is a cool novelty for about 2 minutes, and then it gets really sad. You hear that it's prostitutes in windows and then, it's, well, prostitutes in windows. As much as they talk about these girls being in control and these being the best conditions they can work under in this "field," I couldn't help but feel a little bit of Boston Puritanism rise up as I was walking through.
All of the pictures from my trip can be seen by clicking the following link:
This week, I'm basically staying in to work work work because in two weekends I'm going to Dublin with Jessalyn, one of my best friends from high school who's studying in Madrid. Over Thanksgiving vacation, some of my friends are visiting as well, so I want to make sure to get ahead before they come.
Again, feel free to e-mail me! When I'm not travelling, I'm usually really on top of getting back to people.
Until next time!
xo
Stephanie
ys. I went with two other girls from my program. We went the cheap way, which meant taking a bus from Paris leaving at 11pm and arriving in Amsterdam at 6am, which was great because it meant that we didn't have to waste a whole day on travel. After dropping our bags off at our hotel, it was still dark outside, so we decided to walk to another part of town hoping that a breakfast place would be open by the time we got there.One thing I noticed immediately and just could not get over is how crooked the houses are! (See picture above) The city is built on canals, like Venice, and the canals are flanked by rows of townhouses. From house to house, there's almost a 15degree angle between the building
s sometimes! It almost looks like the whole city is about to topple over, so there were lots of jokes during the trip about whether people walk crooked because their whole lives are on a slant, or wondering how they put furniture against the walls in the houses. It's funny that it's the small things like that that you always remember about a certain city. Crooked houses, and the most delicious waffles ever!Amsterdam is a really small city and by the first afternoon, we had basically figured out where we were and how to get around everywhere. We saw the Van Gogh museum and the Rijks
museum. It's funny to think about what a superpower Holland used to be, at least important enough to make up ten different names for themselves (it's Holland...and the Netherlands...but they speak Dutch?) A lot of the Rijks museum was about bringing Dutch art, like works by Rembrandt and Vermeer, back to the Netherlands after basically selling them to other countries. Amsterdam is also a big diamond center, and one of the big attractions going on right is the exhibition of a human skull encrusted with diamonds, called "For the Love of God" by Damien Hirst. The way they decided to display it was awesome: they let about 10 people into a pitch black room at a time and the diamonds basically glowed enough to light up the entire space. It was truly an experience, and we were really lucky to see it since the exhibit only arrived in Amsterdam November 1.Everyone who had already been to Amsterdam told us that three days would be more than enough, and I was kind of surprised to find that it was true. While it's pretty, Amsterdam is really small compared to most European cities I've visited, and less packed with touristy attractions. We saw the two museums, went to some coffee shops and walked through the red light district. The red light district is a cool novelty for about 2 minutes, and then it gets really sad. You hear that it's prostitutes in windows and then, it's, well, prostitutes in windows. As much as they talk about these girls being in control and these being the best conditions they can work under in this "field," I couldn't help but feel a little bit of Boston Puritanism rise up as I was walking through.
All of the pictures from my trip can be seen by clicking the following link:
 |
| Amsterdam |
This week, I'm basically staying in to work work work because in two weekends I'm going to Dublin with Jessalyn, one of my best friends from high school who's studying in Madrid. Over Thanksgiving vacation, some of my friends are visiting as well, so I want to make sure to get ahead before they come.
Again, feel free to e-mail me! When I'm not travelling, I'm usually really on top of getting back to people.
Until next time!
xo
Stephanie
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