May 28 - Fri at The W

After class, Dan and I went to L' Illa mall to have lunch in the food court. We must have ended up in the middle of a convention for the deaf because the tables around us were all filled with people using sign language. We both ordered the "menu," which is the restaurants choice of specials for a lower price. The "menu" price at restaurants usually includes two dishes, a drink, and dessert. I ate a cheese salad and fish with orange foam for dessert.

We took a nap once we got home and then headed out to meet Fernanda, a classmate in the Study Abroad program, at Diagonal Metro station before we stopped by Dave and Gerrell's to go out for drinks. Fernanda doesn't have a phone so we planned on meeting her at the intersection of two streets near the metro. We waited almost an hour and Fernanda was nowhere to be seen! I got really worried because it was around 10pm and she was by herself. I called Dave to check to see if she got back on facebook. After an hour of waiting, we decided that we would go to Dave and Gerrells apt to check my facebook messages. Fernanda says she waited too but didn't see us so she went back home. We think there was confusion because the metro has 6 or so exits to street level that span a few blocks and the street corner we were going to meet at was not clearly marked.

Then we left the apt and went to Las Ramblas, a district of Barcelona for drinks. We ended up at a little spot called Guru (I think that is the name). The lighting was cool and they had 3 djs. I met two French girls who were on holiday and talked with them for a while. Apparently, Barcelona is to Europe as Florida is to the US. Everyone comes here for vacation at one point or another.

[Eclipse Club at the W Hotel.]

After the four of us shared a couple bottles of wine and beers, we headed out to attempt access into the W Hotel's club, Eclipse. Its free cover, but the drinks are pricey. Apparently, it is supposed to be difficult to get in to the W's club--when we got there we had to wait in a long line. While we were waiting, I talked with three middle-aged women who were behind us. We had a complete conversation in Spanglish. The people in front of us gave up and left so the line got shorter, then the middle-aged women left too. As soon as we got up to the front, the lady let us in! (I did not keep track of time, so who knows how long we were in line...) The lady accompanied us on the elevator to the 26th floor--where the club was located. The doors opened, and instantly we were surrounded with strange ambient lighting, tribal-like dance music and a view of the city that was unbeatable. There was a guy standing on the bar, playing a big drum along with the club music and taking shots of tequila. The entire feel of Eclipse was unlike any place I had been before. There was an exciting, carefree, "I've got plenty of money to spend and I'm going to use it to have fun" feel to it. (although I spent NOTHING to go)

We shared a taxi home at the end of the night because the metro stops running at 2am on Friday nights.

May 27 (Thurs) - 1st week Barcelona

[Paella mixta - mixed seafood with rice]



Whew. What a week!

Tuesday, Dan and I woke up and were at the beach in the morning before we had to go to class. The Barceloneta beach was way less crowded than it was on Sunday and on Monday (there was a holiday on monday). Once again, there are always topless women in sight, as toplessness is openly accepted on Spain's beaches. My classmates even say that there were nude men walking around in on the beach that was not the customary "nude beach." It is so weird to us, but no one else seems to notice there are people without their clothes on!

There are people walking around on the beach constantly trying to make a buck (Euro). There is a pack of Asian women who ask ("massa-he, massa-hey, massage!?") several times an hour if we want a 5Euro massage on the beach; theres some guys who sell snacks; theres guys who sell beer---and we were approached several times to buy some marijuana! The beer guy said "cerveza, beer...(then he whispered when he was beside us) hashish?" I couldn't help but laugh. No, gracias.

We were out there in the sun for 3 hrs and although it was warm, it was windy enough that we could not feel the usual burning sensation that accompanies overexposure. We really did not think we were getting any sun even though there was not a cloud in the sky. I couldn't tell that I was turning red. Three days later, my back is barely red anymore--and luckily, I don't think I'll peel!

Orientation for school was in the evening. We had a short introductory session about the rules etc and then we had a little get together on one of the school's patios afterward. They served tapas (small bite-sized foods) and drinks (soda, water and beer--and maybe wine?). Yesterday, I saw the school dining area serves wine for lunch. Incredibly, the vending machine outside the cafeteria serves not only soda and water, but also BEER! The drinking age is 18, but I don't think it is really much of a problem here for younger people to get it on their own.

I have bought a local Spain prepaid phone plan from the "Macy's" of Barcelona, called El Corte Ingles. Many people here do know quite a bit of English, but still, I try to continue practicing my Spanish as much as I get a chance to. It has been 2 years since I last used my Spanish skills, but slowly I am getting back into it again. :)

Our 2 classes run from 9:30-12:50 Mon-Fri. I really like my first class in European Union law because we are learning the basic framework of the EU and its laws. I've never learned, until now, the details of EU law. I also like EU law class because the professor is Spanish and is knowledgeable from practicing law throughout the European Union. My International Contracts class is so-so...it seems like we are doing excessive reading and not covering that much during the class. Still, I am interested in learning about at least the basic points of the law behind doing international business.

Tonight, the school program reserved a tapas bar so the students could meet each other a little and get a taste of Spanish wine and tapas(the snacks). I was suprised that we have so many international students in our law program. We have law students from Italy, Germany, Canada, and Mexico as well as the United States. I am interested to learn more from them about the differences in their law programs from those in the United States.

After the meet and greet, Dan and I walked through las Ramblas district with some of our classmates. We stopped at an Italian ice cream place and I bought a scoop of banana and a scoop of chocolate ice cream. The chocolate tasted amazing, it was like eating an ice cream chocolate bar...

Some people I talked to before coming to Spain said that the people here don't like tourists--but who likes any visitors who come to your town to party and be obnoxious?! The interactions I've had with the locals so far have been good. The younger and older people are very nice and try to help if I ask. I enjoy going to the small shops around my neighborhood and looking around and asking the shop owners random questions... This whole trip is a learning experience.

Finally, I think I should get to my reading for tomorrow's classes so I can be prepared. I'm excited for the weekend because I plan on actually getting my camera out again to take some more pictures! I haven't been carrying it because I dont want to take it with me on the Metro with the chance of getting it stolen on the way to class. Yesterday, Dan and I witnessed a pickpocket trying to snatch someones wallet, but he ended up dropping it on the ground on the subway. I am definitely keeping my valuables out of my back pockets and only carrying a small amount unless necessary. I do still feel safe, though. And I don't think the pickpockets hurt people usually...people say the "good" pickpockets do it so you don't realize until 5 mins later that your wallet is missing.

Good night!

Sun 30- Arrival in Barcelona

[above is what it looks like walking out of the front door of my building]


Today, I woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel and then caught a cab with Mom and Tom to the Amsterdam Centraal train station. We took the next train to Schippol airport where I boarded my flight to Barcelona, Spain. Mom and Tom took a train to another part of Belgium.

My flight was 2hrs from The Netherlands to Barcelona. Once I got here, Dan and Jennifer were waiting for me after baggage claim. I ran into a slight issue with withdrawing the whole amount of euros from the ATM that I needed for the remainder of my apartment rent, but I will have that problem taken care of by tomorrow.

Dan, Jennifer, and I took a taxi to where our apartment is located and when the driver asked if it was the right place, we shrugged our shoulders and got out.... It did look familiar from the street-level view on google maps that we had seen earlier. The leasing agent met us soon after and we got the keys. Most of the little shops on our block were closed down for Sunday and we learned that they will remain so for tomorrow because it is a holiday on Monday.

Two other guys from IU met us at our apartment and we decided to get something to eat. We stopped by a church called the Sagrada Familia on our walk. The Sagrada Familia is a famous tourist attraction and it is only one block from our apartment. The church has been under construction for over 100 years and its architect was Antoni Gaudí. It is amazingly detailed and unbelievably gigantic. I only took a picture of one side, the other side is older and even more interesting...new pictures in the days to come!

After passing numerous closed shops, we ended up going to the beach for dinner. It was a nice, sunny day and there were hundreds of people on the beach. It was nice to have our first dinner together in Barcelona.

On our way back to the apartment, we stopped by a little grocery and bought some water and food for the morning. I'm going to wait until the larger retailer opens back up to stock up on supplies.

Tomorrow, I will try to get a local cell number and then actually spend some time on the beach since school is closed until Tuesday for the holiday :). The forecast for tomorrow is 77° and sunny! Perfect.

Sat 22 - Rosendaal, Netherlands and Antwerp, Belgium

Today, we took a day trip by train to Antwerp, Belgium and stopped on our way there to visit Tom's coworker, Ed , who lives in Rosendaal, The Netherlands.

We had a nice lunch with Ed's family on his back patio. Rosendaal is a "village" of about 50,000 people and Ed lives on the outside of the city, so country fields greet his backyard. It was a beautiful day, about 73 degrees and sunny. Ed's wife drove to Belgium (5mi from their house) in the morning to shop at a bakery for bread that she said was better than The Netherlands'. We started off our meal with a delicious fruit dessert plate (it was a bunch of fruit artistically placed on a pastry crust---it looked like it was out of a magazine). Then we had wine and sandwiches. We used the Belgian rolls for the bun and then Ed said that here in The Netherlands, it was customary to only put one item on each roll (a piece of ham OR cheese) and not stack them like we are used to in the US. Other options included a crab salad and a raw meat spread that was actually really really good because it was seasoned well. We ended the meal with cinnamon rolls.

We hopped on the next train to Antwerp, Belgium and I was a little upset because I learned from Ed that you only get your passport stamped one time once you enter the European union.

We made it to the huge train station in Antwerp, Belgium and then walked to the old part of the city to see buildings built in the 1500's. I stopped at H&M to shop (where people were trying on clothes in the aisles!), then we ate lunch (I ate steak tar tar on toast for lunch) and had beers (mom had tea). We saw a carriage pulled by actual Belgian Horses.

Once we got back to Amsterdam, we noticed a weird plastic thing that turned out to be a urinal that was completely open to the public. (See pic on facebook). Guys just walked up, whipped it out, and went on their merry way! They're so open about that stuff.
So many sites to describe, but I've got to go to bed now because I'm flying out for Barcelona in the morning!

Fri 21 - Amsterdam

Today we waited around the hotel room until Tom was finished with his work and then went to the botanical garden called Hortus Botanicus. It has existed since 1638 and holds some of the worlds rarest specimens. Included in the collection is an evergreen which is so rare that only 60 trees are known to exist in the wild in only a single valley somewhere. Other interesting sights were the butterfly house and giant rhubarb plants. As Grandpa would say, that must be a "pithy" plant--so I don't know if it is edible or not. They also had a 3-climate greenhouse (dessert, rainforest, and temperate?). The 3-climate greenhouse was interesting because it had a catwalk where you could look from above if you wished.

Then we walked around a little more before finding a place to eat lunch. We stopped by a market to buy Tom's coworker a plant for his garden for when we go to visit him tomorrow in Roosendaal for lunch. We found an Argentinian restaurant and Tom told the waitress (like he tells EVERYBODY) that I speak Spanish (which I will not be practicing until I have to next week)... I just pretend I don't know what he's talking about.

Then we came back to the hotel and then went out on a "candlelight canal cruise." The boat ride was an hour long and we saw and heard about much of the history of Amsterdam. Did you know that amsterdam was once only built around the amstel river, which really no longer exists in its natural state? Also, the Amsterdam airport is located 5meters below sea level...they have to constantly pump the water out of the city to maintain the dry land. People also live on houseboats which line the canals. Interestingly, some of the houseboats are really nice on the inside--you can see inside at night because many do not have curtains. Over 100,000 people travel through centraal station everyday in their commute. And there is an underwater tunnel for vehicular traffic that goes underwater! There is even a floating Chinese restaurant that can seat 700 people!

Such a learning experience!

Thurs 20th - Amsterdam

We started out the day with a mission - to 1. visit Madame Tussauds' wax museum and 2. visit Anne Frank's house.

The whole day we used the hotel's freebie map which does not label most of the streets, so we just guessed which way to walk most of the time.

We love wax museums--and Madame Tussauds was great! The first figures were depictions of historical figures of The Netherlands (I didn't recognize any of them). The rest of the figures were famous people and celebrities from around the world. The great thing about Madame Tussauds is that you are allowed to get right up next to the figures so you can get in pictures with them. Most other wax museums we've been to prohibit crossing behind a rope so you have to admire them from a distance. I've uploaded several pictures to facebook, but I took way too many pictures in there!

We then searched for the Anne Frank House, the secret annex where Anne Frank and her family lived in hiding during the war. We had to wait in a short line to get in, but once we were in, there are postings from her journal written on the walls and there are several short film clips describing the history of the place and people. I read Anne Frank's Diary a long time for school and my mental image of the place was much different. I always imagined the bookcase being on the first floor and then the hiding place being on the second. Actually, the bookcase which hides the stairway to the upper floor is on the second (or third?) floor of the building. Once we were in the area where the family hid, I read that all the furniture was removed and that Anne's father requested that it forever be left empty.

The blacked-out windows created an eerie atmosphere and I can't even imagine what it would be like to be locked up there and not even be able to leave the room, run water, or flush the toilet during the whole day while there were workers present in the warehouse below.

I learned a lot more about the Franks' history from the short time we were there.

-----

After that, Mom and I walked around looking for little shops in the 9 streets area. We found an excellent ice-cream place next to the houseboat museum. Then we started looking for the china town area for lunch. Completely on accident (the map we had did not have it marked) I think we passed through the edge of the red light district (whoops..:). We did make it to the china town area and ate some delicious thai food.

Our final destination was the botanical gardens, but we never reached it before our feet gave up on us. We were gone from the hotel about 7hrs, spending most of the time walking. We found a whole canal lined with houseboats (and these things are like actual houses that someone decided to put on boats). I saw one houseboat with a garden onboard. In the distance, we saw a ship that looked like one from Pirates of the Carribean, but it turned out to be an actual battleship from back in the day. (it was huge! picture on fb).

We made it back to the hotel and we are pooped. Gotta rest up for tomorrow!

Wed. 19th, Rotterdam

Today, Mom and I woke up and decided to take the Waterbus to Rotterdam. First we stopped by the hotel bakery and grabbed a brownie and a pastry for breakfast. When we got to the dock, the waterbus was about to leave in a minute, so we just got on real fast after buying a ticket from the dock attendant. (I think it was 2 euros). After the waterbus pulled away from the dock we learned that the boat we were on only went to the other side of the canal and back. WHOOPS! So once we returned, we made sure we got on the right boat in about 15mins.

The trip to Rotterdam was about an hour on the waterbus, which made about 5 or 6 stops along the way at different towns. It was interesting to see the enormous barges loaded with coal, steel, or gravel. Its amazing ships that big are able to 1)float and 2) be safely transported through the canals past each other. Oh, and everyone but us took had their bikes along on the boat with them because everyone rides a bike everywhere and the waterbus is like a ferry for bikes. After 2 full days of watching and avoiding being ran over by bicycles I still find it amusing to watch all the people with their bikes. We saw several men in suits and nicely dressed women riding their bikes through Rotterdam.

Once we arrived at Rotterdam, I wanted to exchange my USD to euros so we looked for a bank. Once we got the bank, the employee told me that I can not exchange money in banks. I thought she was kidding but I guess she wasn't because she told me to take the metro to the "centraal" station where there was one booth for exchanging money.

We took the correct Metro train by luck after playing charades with a women who did not know english. After exhanging money, Mom and I walked around the center of the city and found a nice stretch of restaurants with outdoor seating. It was nice and sunny, so we sat down at a place called "coconuts." We both ordered club sandwiches, which had the most flavor of any club sandwich I've ever had...mmmm. And they were huge.

On the way back to the dock, we accidentally took the wrong metro and ended up on the opposite side of the canal than where we needed to be. We just had to catch another to get back to the stop that we missed, but it took us a little while to figure out which one to take.

Once we were back in Dordrecht, Mom and I had sorbet at the restaurant while we waited for Tom to get off of work. Tom's coworker then drove us all to Amsterdam, where we will stay for the remainder of the trip. We just had dinner at the hotel's restaurant and are now ready for bed.

I'm excited to start sight-seeing in Amsterdam tomorrow morning!

Tues, May 18 - Dordrecht, The Netherlands

We left Detroit around 6pm on Monday and about 7hrs later, arrived in Amsterdam, The Netherlands around 8:30am (local time). I noticed there were a lot of tall people on the plane. The guy who sat beside me was nearly 7ft tall (it seemed!) His legs were so long that he had to squeeze his knees into each side of the seat in front of him. I couldnt even put my tray table down because his leg was right under the hinge! Thankfully, I'm short so I don't really need all the room in front of me, plus I had an aisle seat.

We then took a train to Dordrecht where we checked into our hotel. The hotel was created in an old water treatment facility. There are beautiful gardens surrounding the hotel and the vegetables are served in the restaurant.

Today, Mom and I walked around for a few hours to look at the city center of Dordrecht. It seems that most people here travel by bicycle and we even saw one lady who was pedaling a bike with 5 kids on board (she had some type of contraption up front). I also saw a fishing store that sold fishing poles that were two stories tall. While on the street, I smelled chocolate coming from a store, so we went in and bought a small piece of milk chocolate with hazelnuts. They make the chocolate right there in the store and they use a chocolate fountain wheel-thingy to mix it.

In a restaurant's bathroom, I had my first experience with a self-cleaning toilet. After you flush, the toilet seat spins completely around as an electric squeegee thing washes it as it turns. I also found that many of the faucet handles are different than what I am used to so it takes me a few seconds to figure out how to turn them on...

The Dutch language sounds like complete jibberish to me. Most of the signs are written in Dutch, but some of the words resemble some similar English words. (automatic toilet= toilet automatisch). The government building is on a road called "steegoversloot."