Au revoir Amsterdamn

Breakfast in Amsterdam, lunch in Bruges, dinner in Paris. It has been a long day. Eight more hours on a bus with a few stops in between. But first things first. Amsterdam was fun but you really can see it all in one day. If we hadn’t had lectures in the mornings we could have gone to both of the art museums in one day. I’m not saying it wasn’t a lot of fun, but during the day there aren’t as many things to do. Other than the Rijkenstat and Van Gogh museums there was also a “Sex Museum”. Turns out even the ancient minds were just as perverted as today haha. I really liked the paintings we looked at for class, though. Van Gogh’s style was just amazing. You can see in the museum how it evolves throughout his life. Amsterdam had the greatest pancakes! Bacon pancakes at that! And the cheese. We went to a cheese shop and got to eat samples of everything. I got some smoked cheese that is simply delicious. Everyone had fun at Amsterdam. But it was high time to get out of there. On the way today, we stopped in Bruges. It was just a beautiful city with a couple of old churches and a river running through it. I got ripped off by some restaurant and spent 30 euros (about $53) on two crappy waffles and two crappy beers. Then we went by the church and got some awesome Belgian fries with special sauce and mayonnaise. I always thought I was weird to eat mayonnaise with fries, but apparently the Dutch and Belgians love it. Those were great! Wish I had found that place sooner because by then we had run out of time and couldn’t even stop for Belgian Chocolate :(. On the bus we all just enjoyed the scenery and had some fun singing karaoke. We arrived in Paris and already felt like tourists when our bus stopped in the middle of the street to unload us for our hotel. The rooms are great, like mini-apartments. You can actually open windows here too. I guess nobody is too worried about jumpers. The plan of the night was find a grocery store and cook in someones room, but plans often go awry. Everything was closed so we just ate paninis. We then all decided that we should just go to bed because it was a long day. I stated to get disappointed because my goal is to have a new story to tell about every night. Then something happened. We all tried to get on the same elevator (11 of us) and the sign said max 8 people. WE GOT STUCK! Stuck for 2 hours. It got hot, and was already cramped but we were all laughing about it. The guy that got us out said it happens every year and always with Americans. We broke the old hotel record of 9 people too. I guess sometimes you get what you wish for. 

Dam City

Left London yesterday and I am now in Amsterdam! My last night in London I just had to go hear Big Ben chime. Then we got slightly lost again finding the hotel. Then Yesterday we spent 11 hours by bus and ferry. It was worth the trip. A funny thing happened to me when the ferry landed in Rotterdam. I saw we were in Rotterdam so I thought of the Holland America Rotterdam I went to Alaska in and behove, thar she was in the same port! The wind turbines are all over the place in Rotterdam and they are lined up rather artistically in a row. Everything in The Netherlands is green. We saw many acres of farmland on the bus ride. We even saw cows. It made me homesick lol jk. Even here by the hotel there's an alleyway that is nothing but flower market. They have Tulips, Tulip bulbs, bamboo, even a Cannabis Starter set lmao. Amsterdam has a LOT of canals. The water in them look a lot like a Texas beach does too... And I saw what is sure to be Amsterdam's version of a trailerhouseboat. For those of you wondering about the Red light district; it isn't that big or great. Just like a lot of things most guys brag about. It's only along one canal and not for very far. Today I spent half the day walking around finding a cash exchange with a friend. By then we were both really hungry and went for some gigantic pancakes. I had a cheese pancake and my friend had, get this, a bacon pancake. They were both just delicious! Then later I went to one of the art gallery museums and wouldn't you know thew wouldn't let me take any pictures. There was a piece I was particularly attracted to that was painted by Aert van der Neer. It was a landscape at night with the moon full and in the middle of the sky. Later on I went on the tour of Anne Frank's house. It cost 8,50 euros and it was really sad. No pictures either :(. Amsterdam has sure got a lot of bikes. Just everywhere! Parked up and down the sidewalks, chained on anything and everything possible. Then there's so many people riding bikes that they actually have the right of way here. And there's so many people that show off while riding. No hands, texting, listening to an ipod while smoking, walking a dog, holding on another bike, even one with a girl on the back kissing. It's ridiculous. They all try to run you over too. It actually is getting kind of warm here, unlike London when I was freezing. As far as daytime goes, this is a one-day city. Everything is pretty laid back here. Maybe the coffeeshops have something to do with that lol.

Catching up

Wow I have been doing a lot of stuff lately and haven't been able to update. I don't even remember where I left off last time. Didn't do much Wednesday night, looked at the pictures and saw a really nice cop car. Did anyone know that they are all BMWs here? Shouldn't expect less with all the Ferraris, Aston Martins, and Porsches driving around this place. Then I went to Hyde park and gawked at the swans in the lake. They really sound like Dinosaurs! I wanted to touch one but I remembered a video I saw of a swan chasing a newly wed bride around and thought better of it. Then we went to a student bar on a campus of all places. Apparently they can serve and sell alcohol on school property. It was the cheapest of anywhere so far too. I almost want to see if I could do something like that at A&M...
Thursday we all got up early and toured around St. Paul's cathedral. It was massive! I think I liked it even better than Westminster Abbey. Like most of the good places around here, I couldn't take pictures inside of it either. Then we went on a guided tour walking around the financial district of the city and saw some  skyscrapers. Didn't have any time in between before we had to go to our lecture. After lecture, I took a much needed nap. Then it was time to go. That night was really fun because all of the AIFS students got tickets to ride a boat down the Thames river. We went past the London Eye, Big Ben, Tower of London, and I was scared as we went under the London Bridge. Luckily, it didn't fall down. The drinks on board were very expensive and watered down to boot. But where else was there to go? It was a really fun 'Booze Cruise' as everyone called it. A great indication of how gone people were was when the boat swayed you could see just how many would stumble. Nobody fell overboard... that I know of. There was even a dance floor and a DJ. It really pissed me off that they only played American music! I came to London to hear British music, not the crap I can get back home! Although, everyone went crazy when he played "I'm on a Boat". It was great overall.
Yesterday, I was pretty museum-ed out. My feet were just killing me at the end of the day. We went out early to the Tate Modern which has many modern paintings, mostly abstract ones with a lot of distortioned styles. Really impressionist works. They had Picasso and that style, they had paintings, sculptures, and even a light show that reminded me a lot of Tron.  My head hurt looking at all of it, or maybe it was from the night before haha. There really were some amazing pieces, though. After that, we went to the Victoria and Albert museum which had Reliquaries, old furniture, sculptures, pieces of walls and old staircases, swords, shields, gold and silver serving dishes and cutlery, and the whole place looked like a huge estate anyway. It was so big that we got lost several times trying to find the scavenger hunt style rooms that were on our homework assignment. The size of the collection was phenomenal. By that time I had my fill of looking at anything else, but I just had to go next door and check out the Natural Science museum. They had some of Darwin's original specimens and writings there. In fact, they had a Lincoln memorial style sculpture of him at the top of the main staircase. To think, earlier this week I walked over his grave. They had many exhibits of animals, dinosaurs, and the biggest collection of rocks I have ever seen. They must have had every known kind of rock in that place. They also had a great gem vault. We wanted to explore more but they were starting to close the museum one section at a time. I feel like they literally kicked us out. We then rode a very crowded subway under London back to the hotel. Last thing I did was meet up at a pub called the Greyhound with my professor of all people. Earlier he had invited us all out for a great English tradition. "A pint on a Friday night". What a great place! Only half of us showed up there, however because some people actually managed to swing tickets to the Killers concert at Hyde Park. That would have been great to go to, they said there were thousands of people there and it lasted most of the night. From the pub we went to the bar at the college again. We were thinking about going to a club since nobody had really gone yet. We started heading that way through the streets, but me and two others got separated from the two leading the way. So we just went back to the hotel.
I had a great sleep and woke up at 11 this morning. Today I have got a lot of catching up to do. I have laundry and homework that are in desperate need of doing. Homework is due tomorrow morning before we take our two bus rides and an eight hour ferry so I've got to get after it. That's all for now. Might not be until Monday that I post anything else but stay tuned.

Monumental City

Everywhere I look, there are different architectural styles in all the buildings. They differ even from street to street in some places. It seems like it would be easy to get lost around here. Everywhere you look there is a monument of some sort, or a statue or even a regular building that still looks just grand. Just walking down the street with nobody around there was a sign on the building dedicated to T.S. Elliot where he was born and died. There are quite a few differences here than at home. I keep thinking to myself "There isn't anyone driving that car!" then I remember the wheel is on the wrong side, or rather the right. I almost get run over every time too because I look the wrong way. I can sometimes barely keep up with some of the accents around here. I enjoy them overall though and reeeally want to imitate them but I don't know if they would get mad or not... For a city with 7 million people, the buildings sure are small. I don't see many taller than five stories, but the bottom floors in all of them are underground. It is large but there's a lot of public transportation around. All of the busses are double-deckers and the "tube" train is very efficient with maps posted everywhere. Good tip though, don't lose your Oysters! That's what they call the public transport pass cards. You would think they would have a pearl in them for what they cost. So far I have gone on a bus tour taking us around the tourist area to see all the good stuff.We just drove by Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, New Scotland Yard, really a lot of places, then we got to tour Westminster Abbey! No pictures allowed on the inside however :(. There was a square in there that looked just like a corridor in Harry Potter! Then there were dead people everywhere too. Kings and queens had their own caskets in their own areas, many other shrines of other aristocrats too. There were also many others buried right beneath our feet too. I have walked over the bodies of Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Charles Dickens. Then today we went to the National Art Gallery where pictures also were not allowed. Beautiful pieces of work from all over Europe. On the way in, we saw a really cool square with a tall monument and two fountains on the side. Captain Morgan was there taking pictures at the fountain for some reason. I am having a great time here, theres many things to do, drink, shop and go see. Everything is so expensive though. London should really market to America weight watchers to come and lose their pounds. Surprisingly I have not yet jet-lagged. I haven't gone to bed early yet since I've been here. The Double-Deckers actually run throughout the night too. Yet I get the feeling most of the passengers would be the kind to drool on your shoulder asleep. The class doesn't look terribly difficult. I got an assignment today to look at certain works at the National Gallery and answer some questions in 100 words. 9 questions due by the day we leave. Not bad. I'll continue to post and you continue to read and spread word because I can see my stats and it looks like almost nobody cares about me :(

London at Last

 I have finally arrived in London! Nine hour flight and only one hour of sleep. Even after two sleeping pills only one hour. I should be exhausted yet somehow I am not. It really reminds me of stock shows when I would stay up all night and two days merged into one really long one. It is hard to believe that 6 pm here is barely lunch at home. If you want to know what it looks like, just watch scenes from Mary Poppins or 101 Dalmatians. I haven't done very much yet, just trying to meet people and tag along where I may. So far all I've done is get lost within a block of my hotel trying to find the Richmond Campus building with free wi-fi. Me and my roommate also ate lunch at a French bakery. We had cold gaspacho soup. It wasn't very good. I am trying my best to meet all the people I can but there is not anything scheduled today with the program. I would like to do some more stuff today, but everyone is crashed out completely and now it is raining. I love the rain! But, I don't have a jacket. Oh well, I still enjoy it. I think later on everyone is getting together at the hotel and going out somewhere. There's no telling where the night may go. Just kidding, everyone will want to be asleep tonight.

The Journey Begins

Day one
I have had to get dressed three times today after going through security twice. Wouldn't you know they couldn't transfer my luggage. That's ok though, I still am having to wait six hours in Houston. I have walked a long, long way in this airport and only covered two terminals. After security, my first priority was food. After walking about an hour to find my gate I finally got to eat a bite. Last meal in America: Barbecue sandwich (Something that is definitely not in Europe). I have stocked up on plenty of snacks and a useful guidebook, some Starbucks was also essential, and now I only have 45 minutes of free wi-fi. I still have four hours to go!! :( I get the feeling that none of my colleagues will arrive until much later. I must find a way to survive! Then there's the nine hour flight. I have a plan for that, though, say hello sleeping pills and I'm on the fast track to London. Other than that the anticipation is killing me slowly. Oh ever so slowly...

Off on another whirlwind adventure

About a week ago, I got the call I have been waiting for for two months. I am going to be in Europe for four whole weeks! And I'm getting school credit while I'm there. I am so ecstatic! I'll keep everyone updated and possibly post a few pictures of some of the places I go. You'll want to subscribe below.