Updateage

I don't update this blog nearly as often as I ought to. Sorry guys.

So, continuing with describing my vacation. After my visit to the Hieronymus Bosch Art Center, I hopped on the train to Venlo to go see my friend Carol from Brazil. Venlo is a pretty nice city...WAY bigger than Wageningen, but not terribly huge...and it's right on the German border. AND they have hills, which is quite special for Nederland haha. We got some coffee in town, then walked back to Carol's house. Met her host mother and host brother, then took the dog out for a walk in the woods. Dinner. Went out. Met the kid who is accompanying Carol's host brother on a four-month-long trip to southeast Asia and Australia. That's what I want to be doing one day--international hoboing. =P

The next day Carol and I got up ENTIRELY too early and caught a train to Maastricht. It was delayed at our change-trains station, so we had time for a cappuccino to wake up. Maastricht was very beautiful; supposedly it's the oldest settlement in Nederland. I will post pictures later of all the random medieval (and earlier!) stuff we encountered. Spent the day wandering around, and randomly ran into some other AFSers! Crazy, the things that happen in a small country with 57 AFSers in it. Had dinner in Maastricht, then got on the train back home. 3 HOURS LATER I arrived in Wageningen and went to bed. Waaay too tired from carrying a heavy bag all day!

Doorn, which I mentioned in my previous post, was actually nice. I went on a woods walk thing with my uncle, and there was even somewhat of a slope! ZOMG. It must have been a full, like, 5 meters vertical or something. Carayzay. Ate dinner in a very tasty Italian restaurant and was presented with a rose by the manager on the way out. Apparently they give everyone flowers after the meal. Classy! Took the bus home, slept.

School started at 12:30 Monday to allow for...I don't know. Easing back into going to school? Anyway, it was nice to sleep in. Rather unremarkable week of school last week. I can barely remember what went on. I had to turn in a HUGE project for history relating to God in Nederland; my chosen topic was God in de Politiek. I could have said much better things, but I didn't feel like being controversial at the time I wrote the project. =P

This Saturday was a nice lazy day. Slept in, read, played violin, etc. I also made some cranberry-lemon scones, which turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. Sunday we went to Amsterdam; Renee had to turn pages at a concert but Julia and I went to an Afghanistan exhibition in the Nieuwe Kerk. Very, very nice. Makes me want to go to Afghanistan, or at least learn more about it. I know where it is and a bit of its history, but that's about the extent of my Afghanistan knowledge. Anyway, that was good. We wanted to go to an Andy Warhol exhibit in the Stedelijk Museum also, but when we got there there were WAY too many people so we just turned around and left. Heh.

Today was good, besides the fact that I'm still awake. GO TO SLEEP LIZZ.

Busy

So yeah, I thought that I was not going to have much to do during the Kertvakantie, but as it turns out I have a little more than I'd really like. Today I would prefer to just stay at home (and SLEEP), hang around, maybe go biking...but I have to go see my half-uncle in Doorn. Half-uncle? He's my father's half-brother. How does one describe this relation? Saying half-uncle sounds like only half of him is my uncle, and the other half is...I dunno. A dinosaur. Exciting.

Thursday I had to pick up my residence permit in 's-Hertogenbosch--why does its name start with an apostrophe, anyway?--so I went there around 9. Yeargh, way too early. But yeah, luckily the Ministerie van Justitie was very close to the station, so I only had to walk about 300 meters. Not far. But WOO, I am now legally here, heh heh. After my little visit to the MvJ I decided to walk around Den Bosch a bit, seeing what I could see. I went to the Sint-Jan Cathedral; supposedly it has the best Christmas display in all of Europe, but I thought the one in Maastricht was nicer. The cathedral itself was nice, though...very large. Lots of stained glass. Lots of gold. Pretty much a cathedral haha. I was supposed to go to Venlo to see my friend Carol (AFSer from Brazil) after picking up my residence permit, but it was still very early even after I'd visited the cathedral. So once again I went out on the streets to try my luck at finding something cool, and boy did I succeed. HIERONYMUS BOSCH ART CENTER! For those of you who do not know, Hieronymus Bosch basically owns. 15th century painter whose stuff almost reminds me of Dalí's. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. The art center itself was really great, too. Very informative, plenty of workers anxious to answer my every question, and a crazy-nice view over the city from the top of a church tower (the museum itself is inside a church).

Hmm time for Doorn, I'll finish this later.

Holidays

So yeah, all the major holidays are over. Holland has two days of Christmas, which is pretty silly considering that they're not even into Christmas as heavily as Americans. What's better than not celebrating Christmas, gents? Why, not celebrating for two consecutive days lijkt me wel leuker! Anyway, Christmas was not too bad. Went to two church services on Christmas Eve: one at 7PM in the Wallonian Church of Arnhem (weird and in French) and a real midnight mass at the Catholic church of Wageningen (good and in Dutch). The Catholic church here is quite impressive; neo-Byzantine and all that jazz. Christmas Day involved opening packages from my parents--THANK YOU!! Awesome!--then going for a run and watching Finding Nemo. Scintillating. The SECOND day of Christmas was spent going to Het Loo (a palace in Apeldoorn) and having dinner with the Go-de Jong family in Amsterdam. Het Loo was pretty unremarkable...yeah, nice palace, okay, but nothing really stood out. It looked like just another poser Versailles, which essentially it is. Neuschwanstein remains as my favorite castle that I've visited. Dinner with the Go-de Jongs (my father's aunt, cousin, her husband, and their two daughters, so that makes themmmm...my second cousins? First cousins once removed? I never have understood this.) was very nice. The food was INCREDIBLE. And they are very nice people, and very definitely my family hahaha.

Yesterday was New Year's Eve...rather a flop, if I may say so. I was invited to go to a party hosted by a friend from school, but my host parents had other plans--visiting "Oma & Opa" in Flevoland. Julia and I went along somewhat grudgingly. Lucas then invited us to visit him in Lelystad after we'd eaten, but the busses stopped running after 8 PM. Renee said she would bring us, but when we got ready to go she retracted this offer. Sooo New Year's in Zeewolde it was. I had a mind to finish Ulysses, but Julia wanted to go on a walk instead. We went. It was cold. The police asked for my ID for NO REASON. Seriously, officer, if you're looking for disturbers of the peace, I'd suggest trying over there by the gemeentehuis where people are THROWING FIREWORKS AT BUILDINGS. But whatever, I had it, I gave it to them--there were two of them, because you know both of them had to get out of the car to keep me and my peace-disturbing under control--and they went away. Not a problem. People continued doing stupid things with fireworks...throwing them at cars, at buildings, in the water, etc. Setting them off with their kindergarten-aged children. You know. Smart. Julia and I hung out in a square because we didn't feel like going back to listen to a cabarettier on TV who was absolutely full of crap. It was insanely misty, and it just kept getting worse. By midnight it was impossible to see 20 feet away...and then the REAL fireworks started. I don't know where these people found any joy in setting off so many fireworks; it was impossible to see them and they were just loud and dangerous and unpleasant. Standing in the square, being unable to see where the noise was coming from, it really sounded like the beginning of World War Three. This went on for, well, longer than was strictly necessary, one might say. When it sounded almost safe to walk back we did. Got in the car and headed off to Wageningen, only to realize HEY! It's MISTY! No one can SEE to DRIVE! This was no surprise to me, but I kept my mouth shut. We ended up sleeping on the floor of Renee's parents' apartment. Definitely not the way I would have chosen to spend my one New Year's in the Netherlands, but it was an experience.

Tomorrow I'm going to Den Bosch to pick up my Residence Permit. Grreeeaaattt. Did I mention it's the best picture of me EVER? Yeah, it is. NOT!

Wow, that was 90's.

This blog entry contained entirely too many asides, parentheses, ellipses, etc. My apologies.