Overall Reflection

These two weeks have been a roller coaster ride, but it has been one of the best roller coaster rides of my life. To be able to go to totally new places and experience totally new cultures with fifteen awesome people was nothing short of spectacular.

            Before last semester, I had never really thought of education as something I was interested in. And while my career plans of being a journalist have not changed, education is in the back of my brain as a curiosity of mine. I took a course on educational policy history last semester and I saw how outdated and inefficient our system in the US can be. Now that I have seen other systems firsthand, I know that to be true and the system in America can certainly use some of the lessons we learned overseas.

            Amsterdam was my favorite city. Not only was it beautiful between the architecture and the water, the culture was something unlike anything I had ever seen. It was both fun and educational.

            Still, I loved each and every city I visited and I hope to come back sometime soon. Maybe I won’t have to stay in a hostel in Brussels next time.

January 18th and 19th - Brussels

We left for Belgium early on the 18^th (Happy Birthday Mom!) to visit a primary school in Genk, Belgium. The highlight of the school, and perhaps the trip, is what they call a schnoozle room. It is a room in the school that teachers can take kids if they’re having a bad day, just to rest. But the best part is that it had a heated waterbed. Lord knows how much I would have misbehaved if I had that at Greenwood. The school also had a Chuckie Cheese-esque ball pit and play place. My dream school.

            It was then off to Brussels on the coach bus, which I slept on yet again. I woke up when we arrived at the hostel and my stay there was, well, interesting. I am sitting in the airport now, showerless for two days because I didn’t have a towel, not to mention how repulsive the showers were. The beds were okay, but the security was horrible. My friend Dana had his phone and computer stolen while he was asleep and of course they weren’t found. It was just an uncomfortable situation that I wish was not the last stop of the trip. The city was very nice and the food was great but the lodging made the trip end on a sour note.           

            But speaking of the food, I had mussels which was my goal in the city. And yes, they were amazing. I also had waffles, bought chocolate and ate frites, so I covered all the necessary bases.

            I didn’t get to see the Mannequin Pis which was the only thing I knew about the city coming in. It certainly wasn’t my favorite city but I would not be opposed to coming back.  

January 17th

We got to sleep in again on the 17^th before presenting our projects to the class. David and I did ours on food and drink and we used Prezi which is a presentation tool. It’s kind of hard to explain but I highly recommend using it (prezi.com). We “toured” each city in our presentation and discussed what was good, what wasn’t, what was cheap and what was worthwhile. All of my classmates’ projects were very good and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them.

            We went directly to dinner after the presentations and had, yet again, a five-course meal at the hotel. For as little as I like fish, this meal was delicious. Two of the courses were fish courses yet it was one of the best meals I had all trip.

            I packed up that night because the following day was going to be a long one.

January 16th

We finally got a chance to sleep in on the 16^th before going to our last school, Porta Mosana College which was a high school. Somehow I was still tired at the school despite actually getting a good night’s sleep the night before. This school was the closest thing I saw to an “American” high school. Our guide, Guido, was super funny and showed us some cool video clips to go along with his brief lecture.

            The rest of the day was free time and we did some more exploring in Maastricht. I probably had a million frites throughout the trip but the best ones were at Friture in the heart of Maastricht. We checked out some local shops and stuff. Really, it was an uneventful day but, in retrospect, that’s not a bad thing.

January 15th

We gathered early to leave for Germany on the beloved charter bus. As an aside, I think I was awake for a combined total of 30 minutes for all of the bus rides. I consistently got refreshing sleep on that bus. Anyway, Aachen is a city right near the Dutch border and it is a medium sized German town. We got off the bus and went to the EGS Annaschule which was a Protestant Primary school but would be considered a public school in America despite its religious affiliation. The lady at the school reminded me of Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter. I don’t know why.

After the school we went to an amazing lunch of soup and sandwiches before briefly walking the city. We went into a large, ornate church and some local stores before heading off to the Three Country Point.

We were only at the Three Country Point for about ten minutes but it was cool to be in three countries (Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands) at the same time. After, we went to the only American WWII cemetery in Holland. It was really moving and cool to see in the snow and our guide was informative and engaging.

We then headed back to Maastricht and all the guys ordered in that night and we just chilled the night away.

Monday, January 14th

We got back to our castle, sweet castle late last night and got assigned new rooms. David and I now have a really modern looking room that has a hidden bathroom and an awesome view of the grand entrance of the castle. I woke up early this morning to go to Maastricht University where a few of us attended a lecture. Most of the group went to another primary school but the liberal arts majors went to this program that was mostly political science based. It was long and I was tired but it was cool to experience a college lecture at another school, especially one in Europe. We mostly talked about democracy and how the principles of democracy play out in the EU. After, we checked out the business school and walked around Maastricht a bit. We are back at the hotel now and I am about to nap before we go to Rene's home for his birthday party.

We are going to Aachen, Germany tomorrow which is just over the border, about thirty minutes away, I believe. I am eager to go to Germany for the first time because that it where much of my ancestry lies. For now, I am going to get some shuteye.

Paris - January 11th-13th

(We were not obligated to write about Paris in our blogs but because I am such a diligent student, I will anyway.)

We got in to our hotel around 4pm on Friday the 11th and quickly unpacked before heading out into the city. Our hotel was situated at the end of the Gold Metro line, about 25 minutes away from the city center. As this was my first time in Paris, I was blown away with how beautiful the city was. In fact, it was so pretty that they didn't feel the need to keep it clean because the ornate buildings and monuments made up for it.

Here are some of the pictures I took from the trip:

We went to the Louvre on Saturday just to see the highlights. None of the guys are real art buffs but I'm glad I went and saw the unimpressive Mona Lisa.

We went into Notre Dame on Friday night and it was really cool to see mass going on while tourists filed in and out. They were burning incense and playing the organ. I did not expect them to let us in but I'm sure glad they did.

Obviously, we went to the Eiffel Tower and took all sorts of pictures like the one below.

The language barrier in France was much greater than in Holland. After seeing the Eiffel Tower on Saturday, we got lunch at a nearby cafe. A few people in our group ordered a single order of escargot but the waitress misunderstood and brought three orders which would have been 36 euros. After a ton of awkward laughing, we finally got one of the orders knocked off the bill, but still, the situation showed the language barrier at its finest. It was okay because the croque madame sandwich at this cafe was out of this world good. 

The French people were definitely not as patient with us as the Dutch have been. Not even two minutes after we arrived at the hotel we were told to quiet down. Granted, we are very loud as a group in general, but this time I did not think we were too boisterous. 

The nightlife in Paris was excellent. There are a ton of bars and pubs to choose from and we found one we liked so we went back a second time although everywhere in Paris was expensive. Then again, Europe has been expensive in general. 

Although the trip was short, I am very satisfied with the amount of Paris that we saw. I cannot wait to go back sometime in the future.