Swiss Alps - high in the sky

Ok so I didn't really go to the Swiss Alps ... but one can dream, right? Anyway on our flight to Barcelona, Friday afternoon, we had the most incredible view of the Alps as we flew over Switzerland.

At the time we were flying over Switzerland, I just so happened to be reading the chapter about the Swiss in book that I take with me on every trip, The Geography of Bliss. It is an amazing story about a journalist's search to find the happiest places in the world (as listed in the World Database of Happiness kept in Rotterdam, Netherlands) and all about his travels along the way.

A quote from the book: "Our fondue comes in a large bowl, not orange, and it's good. After a few helpings, the euphoria is gone, but I'm feeling, I think, very Swiss. Satisfied. Neutral. Maybe this explains Swiss neutrality. Maybe it's not based on a deep-seated morality but a more practical reason. Fondue and war don't mix."

I love fondue and after seeing the Alps and reading this particular chapter, Switzerland has soared to the top of my list for places to go on my next trip to Europe.

London, Day 5 – Market Day

I found out while hurriedly checking my email and facebook at an internet café that my friend Charlie has been studying in England for this past semester. After a delicious full English Breakfast of beans, bacon, sausage, a egg, a mushroom, toast and tea and a trip to the amazing discout clothing store Primark and cadbury McFlurries (where else in the world could we get those?), we meet up with him at Notting Hill Gate.

It is always interesting to hear about other people’s study abroad programs. Charlie is living with a host family and gets a whole month off to travel but shorter weekends. He also lives near a huge city so he has the benefit of going into London several nights a week to see shows for class or explore the many things that I have to cram into just one week.

With Charlie we went to two different markets, Portabello Road and Camdon Town. Portabello Road was filled with stalls upon stalls of clothes, scarves, jewelry, trinkets, food, and everything else you could imagine.




There was a short Tube ride between the two markets so we stoped at the Paddington stop to buy a Paddington bear along the way. Camdon Town was crazy – a completely different market scene. Camdon Town seemed to be just as much about seeing the people as it was about seeing the market.





We said goodbye to Charlie at the Kings Cross Station after a quick picture for the BDC newsletter. Unfortunately I didn’t realize till later that I should have checked out Platform 9¾ , ah well it will have to happen on my next trip.



Cate and I said goodbye to Laura the next morning as she had to catch her flight back to Boston and we got an early train to the airport unexpectedly meeting up with Stephen and Rachel who had a layover and we ended up catching the same flight back to Weeze. I wore my Joey hat on the walk back to the castle, London will be deeply missed.

London, Day 4 - Pretty parks and amazing theatre

By the time Friday rolled around we had London down pat. First stop was the Peter Pan statue in Kinsington Gardens. It took us a little while to find the statue itself, but we enjoyed the lovely stroll around the park.




We then met up with Laura’s friend Alex who lives in Liverpool and he took us to a local fish ‘n chips place. It was one of those eat-once-a-month meals that was very delicious and greasy, but also so bad for you that you could feel your arteries protesting. We then checked out the nearby History and Science museums. I think both of these museums are geared slightly toward children but we had a blast, the dinosaur exhibit is a must see.

We then walked through Hyde park and saw the Princess Diana Memorial, which was very different than I expected it to be. It was a large circular stone fountain, but other than the sign at the front gate it seemed to have very little to do with Princess Diana.



Along the side of Hyde Park is the location of the first Hard Rock Café as well as the Hard Rock Vault, which is basically a small museum of artifacts that have been collected over the years.




We then went to a small pub and had a pint of London’s Pride Ale, successfully checking off one more item on our food list in London. To finish off our time with Alex we had traditional English pasties with beef and potatoes and a night walk along the water for a beautiful view of Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, and Thames River.



After saying a quick goodbye to Alex we headed to the Victoria Place Theatre and saw a fantastic showing of Billy Elliot. It was one of the best shows I have seen, that little boy can dance!

London, Day 3 - Harrods has it all

As day three began we officially felt like residents of Earls Court Studios (our apartment building) and so started the day with errands including the internet cafe, post office, and the bank.

We then proceeded to Buckingham Palace, but unfortunately there was no changing of the guards ☹. We still had fun walking through the gardens and taking pictures as we made our way to Westminster Abbey and Parliament. We had lunch at a slightly touristy pub near Big Ben called the Red Lion where we tried traditional British dishes such as bangers n’ mash and fish ‘n chips. Everything was absolutely delicious.

Next we headed a little farther out on the Tube and took a look at Abbey Road and wrote our names on the wall outside of Abbey Road studios just to prove we had been there. We didn’t take our picture on the crosswalk but did watch a musician with his guitar walk back and forth multiple times trying to get the perfect shot.

After Abbey Road we took the Tube to Harrods – the amazing department store with everything from a bookstore to clothes to food to pianos to fossils. We had cream tea (afternoon tea with scones, delicious cream butter, jam, and of course cream for the tea itself) next to the chandelier room and it was seriously one of the best things we did all week. It was really nice to just sit and talk and enjoy an English tradition.

After a quick stop at the Harrods souvenir shop, yes they really have everything; we headed out again this time in search of Primark a discount store that my friend Laura had told us about, we found it but it was so crowded that we decided to come back the next day early. Along the way we found “Joey hats” the large top hat that Joey wears in friends on their trip to London, we of course bought three of them immediately for four pounds each. It might have been a little touristy but it was just one of those things that I had to do.

After a short trip home we then made our way to the Jack the Ripper walking tour but unfortunately got stuck on the Tube in between two stations for 55 mins! The time actually passed relatively quickly and everyone on the train stayed very calm but we did miss our tour. We ended up just walking around for a little while and seeing the city all lit up, I even started skipping at one point – I mean how many people can say that they went skipping through London at night, well now I can.

London, Day 2 – Perfect timing

We started out early on our second day of London with plans to do the millennium mile (a mile long walk that covers all of the biggest attractions in London). First stop was the Tower of London, home of the crown jewels and all of our guide books strongly suggested getting there early to ensure that we would not be in a long line. 

Luckily we followed that advice. We arrived at promptly 9 am, met up with my friend Laura Shelton who is studying abroad in London, and were four of the first visitors through the gate. Our first stop was of course the beautiful crown jewels. We walked through three huge rooms separated into rows and rows of waiting lines, but given the time they were all empty. Soon afterward we arrived at the most secure room in the Tower of London. Beautiful crowns gleamed at us from all angles, and aside from several tower guards we had the room to ourselves! We were able to see each one from every angle and to take our time to read their descriptions and even ask the guards questions, several other tourists trickled in as we headed off to see the other exhibits. We had lots of fun playing in the interactive sections of the tower and got a beautiful view of the tower bridge. 

When we left the tower about a hour later as we left we passed seven huge school groups waiting at the gate to enter the tower and quickly view the rooms we had all to ourselves. We walked across the Tower Bridge and had a delicious lunch at a pub called Skankers on the other side. On our way to the Tate Modern we took at quick peak at Shakespeare’s beautiful Globe Theatre. At the Tate Modern there was a huge nightmare display in the turbine room. The nightmare was depicted by larger-than-life spiders over rows and rows of bunk beds. 

Many of the other exhibits were just as impressive. A exhibit called “thirty pieces of silver” was comprised of thousands of pieced of discarded silver plates, cups, trinkets, and even musical instruments crushed flat by a bulldozer and suspended by clear string in thirty circles filling an entire room. By the time we had seen three floors of modern art we sat down to watch a movie about the making of the nightmare exhibit and all four of us fell into a light sleep awaking several minutes later realizing that we really need a pick-me-up. We traveled up to the 7th floor where a café overlooked the river and London skyline. 

After leaving the Tate we headed towards the London Eye to pick up our tickets for later that afternoon. Along the way we passed a grafiti skateboard park. book market, and very strange car statue. 

Here we said goodbye to my Laura who headed back to her apartment and we continued to the Eye, a huge Ferris wheel that provides a spectacular view of the city. 

We wanted to get on at sunset to give us the best view possible and so while waiting for the sun tos et we sat at a small outdoor café and met Blaise, an employee of the London Eye, who was as much entertained by our American mannerisms as we were by his reactions to them. 

Luckily for us Blaise’s friend Matt was in charge of assigning people the pods of the London Eye, a simple mention that we knew Blaise got us a pod all to ourselves and we couldn’t have picked a better time to mouth the huge wheel, the sun had just disappeared and we soared into the sky as it changed from a brilliant bright blue to the dark navy of night.

Big Ben gleamed brightly up at us as we darted from side to side taking millions of photographs. We are very lucky that we had our own pod, we probably would have driven everyone else crazy with our multi-angle picture taking obsession. 

At the top we had a dance party and the people from other pods looked over at us very amused. It was definitely a highlight of the trip.

London, Day 1 – A little rain makes it all about museums

The plan was to do a bike tour and London Walks: Jack the Ripper tour, however a little rain quickly changed that plan.We started the day at the British Museum, which is huge and very clear on the map but unusually hard to find in real life. We wondered around the same area for quite some time following the unmarked (on our map) side streets that may or may not actually be the way to the museum while the rain did it’s London thing and kept starting and stopping. Finally after being asked directions by another American tourist looking for the same museum and becoming properly soaked, we found it. Once inside, our first stop was the famous Rosetta Stone in the ancient Egyptian rooms. It was cool to see something that is so famous in real life, but after a quick look at the stone, I realized that the whole room was filled with amazing artifacts. We saw a large stone arm that was at least three times my size as well as some beautiful Egyptian pharaoh statues. One of the nicest things about this particular museum was that they let us take pictures, oh and the fact that there was free admission. 

After Egypt we checked out the Ancient Greek rooms, I have never seem more headless statues in one place. But even without heads they were absolutely beautiful. There was also a beautiful Library at this museum that reminded me of the one in Prague and a second Rosetta Stone (this one was a fake replica) that you could actually touch and stand next to. 

Our next stop was the National Portrait Gallery, which was three beautiful levels of painted portraits as well as a few photographs as you got into the more modern sections. There were huge group portraits, which took the artists 10 years to complete and then after all of that 15 years to find someone to buy it. There was also a painting that looked like a black and white photograph when you stood far enough away. The portraits ranged from very modern to century’s old. There was another one that changed colors but it was so slow that you couldn’t tell unless you looked away for a second and then looked back. 

The last museum we went to was the National Gallery and it seemed like everything was there. We saw everything for Picasso to Monet to Van Gogh. I was also able to see quite a few of the self-portraits that we have been talking about in my History of Photography class including the very famous one by Rembrant that was on my mid-term. 

After our busy museum day we headed back to our apartment to make dinner. Our plan (which we actually stuck to quite well) was to eat two meals a day at the apartment and only eat out for lunch to save money we also made sure to eat a fruit or vegetable with every meal. So for dinner we made pasta, salad with balsamic vinaigrette and carrots, the most delicious garlic bread I have ever had in my life, and rocky road ice cream. It was amazing. 

Prague – walking in a strange land

We walked so much in Prague. 

Prague was one of our required excursions, which means the entire castle goes. So we all woke up around 5:30 to get together last minute things, ate breakfast at 6, and were on the buses by 7. For one of our normal weekend travel groups that would have taken about 30 minutes, but for all of us it was quite a process. We flew out of the Calone airport (about two hours away) on Germanwings and arrived in Prague around 2 PM.

After a city walking tour through the historical center and quick introduction to the city, we were free for the rest of the day. Jeannie, Liz, Courtney, and I had dinner at the Sphinx, which was a beautiful little restaurant filled with hanging lit gourds. We also tried out a casino that night each walking in with 100 CZK (so a little less than 5 American dollars) with the agreement that that was all we would spend just for the experience. After quickly learning that we had no idea how to play fruit poker, we used up the rest of our credits. Somehow I walked out with about 400 CKZ, I have no idea how that happened. 

The next morning we were split into little groups each with a professor-guide. First stop was the Prague Castle. We then had some free time for lunch before meeting up with different groups. I went to the Jesuit College with Chester Lee and it was absolutely incredible. The library was filled with beautiful old books and huge globes and after a tour of the inside we walked up a long winding staircase to look out over the city of Prague. 

On the third day I traveled with my World since 1914 class to Terezin the former concentration camp. We were able to visit the Fortress, Ghetto Museum, Magdeburg Barracks and the former Crematorium. It was very unsettling to see everything in real life. I guess the holocaust is something that I always knew happened, but the reality of how it happened didn’t sink in until I was standing in a tiny room imagining myself surrounded by 40 other people without showers or proper facilities or even full meals. 

In the afternoon we visited the Licia Gallery with my History of Photography class. The gallery was behind a small café and had three rooms of highly computer-edited photographs, which were quite amazing. Afterwards our small class sat down with the professors who attended the exhibit with us and talked about our impressions, we also made notes so that we could write a paper about the exhibit when we returned to the castle.

On the last day we visited the Jewish Quarter, which included a tour of seven synagogues. The synagogues were untouched by the Nazis in order to have a memory of the Jews when the Holocaust was over. After the Jewish Quarter Cate and I went to the grocery store to buy food for London and checked out the John Lennon Wall. 

The Prague airport was probably the strangest experience that I have had thus far. Cate and I arrived at the check-in with plenty of time to spare, checked our bags and headed to customs. After an easy check-in and new stamp on our passports we entered the terminal and started looking for a place to eat. But something was off … we never went through security? We looked all around us and re-traced our steps in our heads, nope nothing. We began to walk towards our gate, getting a little worried about the fact that no one had checked us to see if we had liquids or ran up and down every inch of our bodies with a medal detector but shrugged it off. It is eastern Europe after all. As we walked through the airport Cate pointed out no one is sitting at any of the gates, well that is strange too. Then we reached our gate, 7A, and sighed with relief the security was individual for each gate.

We then back tracked to look for food and decided on KFC, yep that is right I ate American fast food while studying abroad in Europe. But it was one of two options and as delicious as sushi sounded I have always heard don’t buy Chinese/Japanese off a menu you can’t understand, and fast food was also cheaper. We used our remaining 250 CKZ (just over $10) to buy two “menus” the European word for combo. And apparently at the Czech KFC it is very normal to get two drinks with each menu. So the guy at the counter asked us which bottled drink we wanted as well as a fountain soda from the machine, needless to say we were really confused by this. We quickly chugged these before going through the at-the-gate-security and boarded our short flight to London.

Well - Watch out your Emersonian is showing

A common saying among castle dwellers is “watch out, your American is showing.” We do our best to blend in as much as we can and try to be more of a traveler than a tourist, but there is only so much you can do when you can’t speak the language, take pictures of everything, and travel in large groups. Over the past few weeks I have noticed that it is not only about watching out for our American, but also our Emerson-ness or inner Emersonian.

Emersonians are a different type of student when it comes to just about anything and that definitely includes study abroad. I mean what kind of student lives and takes classes in a castle with 82 other students from their same school in a tiny town in the Netherlands? We take classes and have hands on experiences that I am sure some people would not even consider being something you could get credit for, but they are amazing life experiences that you can’t get anywhere else.

This past week I completed by project for Portrait Well, a photography assignment for History of Photography. We were assigned a local Dutch student to work with and were asked to call their house, make an appointment, and take a picture of them surrounded by natural setting that highlighted things about their culture and things they liked to do. It was an amazing experience. I only talked to Amy for a little while before taking a picture of her, but we exchanged contact info and now I actually know someone in the town I am studying. I finally feel like I fit into the life of a castle student.

Just before travel break we had an interesting week at the castle. Not only was it mid-terms week but it also turned into a very pro-active week as far as extra-curricular go.

We had an Open-Mic night followed by Jazz Night at the Lindon (our local pub). I was amazed by the turn out of talent. We had a slam-poet, a stand-up comedian, two singers, an improv troupe, and an amazing rendition of the popular song Single Ladies, which has taken over the castle.
There is not much to do at the castle other than class, travel, recover from travel, and plan for more travel. We are moving non-stop and actually spend very little time at the castle doing nothing. But being Emersonians, we couldn’t just be busy, we had to be busy with extra projects and events to go to and work shops to take. So we did just that.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I have been going to dance rehearsal (I believe we are also the first and only group of castle dwellers to have regular yoga classes, because one of the students is a licensed yoga instructor). Our dance rehearsals started because three students taught themselves the Single Ladies – Put a Ring on it dance by Beyonce, and of course everyone else wanted to learn it. Within a matter of days Rachel found a music video competition for us to enter and the fun began. The majority of the castle showed up for the three night rehearsals, if I had to guess I would say 60-70 students were up till about 11 PM learning as much of the fast paced dance as they could so we could begin shooting. 

Which brings us to 6:45 AM on the Monday of finals. About 40 students showed up, give or take, as well as a decent sized crew (6-10 students I would guess). That is about half the castle (83 students) in total. We filmed out in the inner courtyard and then the three dancers that had taught the rest of us the dance, Justin, Rosie, and Kirin had two more shoots and then the crew had a full day of editing and the music video was in the mail about a week and a half after we heard about the competition, just making the postmark deadline and moments before we all left on the required excursion for Prague.

Brussels/Brugge - Waffles and Chocolate and Friets, oh my!

I just returned from the most phenomenal weekend of my trip thus far! Jeannie and I started off in Brussels - about a four hour train ride from the Castle. We arrived in the afternoon and checked into the surprisingly nice 2GO4 Quality Hostel. We then just walked around the city getting used to the cobblestone streets and trying to avoid the enormous temptation to go into every single chocolate shop we saw. We stopped for dinner and had a traditional Belgian meal of steak and friets (or fries, which the Belgians actually invented) and then continued our walk quickly finding the beautiful central square and arriving at dusk. That night we tried a Belgian beer sampler at a local bar that does its own brewing and also went to a really fun karaoke place.

Jeannie and I turned out to be perfect travel partners. We have very similar interests and both LOVE to bike, that being said we signed up for a Brussels bike tour on our second morning. We traveled through the streets of Brussels with a Swedish guy named Patrick and our Argentenian guide, Cesar. It was the most amazing tour I have ever taken of any city, anywhere. Being on bikes I was not as tempted to pull out my camera and so I truly saw the city with my eyes rather than through a camera lens. Cesar was just the right mix of funny and smart to make the tour interesting and adventurous. I felt like a strange mix between tourist, traveler, student, and local all at the same time. 

On the tour we stoped for the best friets in Belgium, which were delicious! In Europe fries are served in a large white cone and then the sauce is squeezed on top and you eat them with a little fork as you walk down the street. The sauces range from mayo (the traditional) to samurai (spicy) to my personal favorite: garlic. 

We enjoyed the first tour so much that we did a second tour in Brugge. By that point Teal, Zach, and Justin had joined us. The five of us were able to travel together perfectly and see all the high points of the medieval  belgian city quickly and efficiently. 

We saw beautiful sights all over the city from our bikes and also checked out Belfry tower climbing the 366 steps to the top for a spectacular view of the city. We walked inside of the Basilica of Holy blood, ate delicious beignets from a street cart, and stopped inside of way too many chocolate shops.

After a souvenir shop or two we started the journey back to the Netherlands, missing out train by less than a minute we had to improvise and create a new route back. 

Unfortunately we realized that we would not be able to make it back to the castle in time for our dance rehearsal. But Justin is one of the dance captains so we practiced in the parking lot waiting for our bus home. Needless to say we received some very strange looks, but the important thing was we arrived home safe and were able to have a few hours of sleep before our 6:45 a.m. call for filming the music video the next morning.