Summary of the Week

As I'm hours away from leaving for the weekend, wanted to get a blog post in before I left. Thought I could do a brief little summary about each of the last few days and the eventful things that occured:

Friday (19th): Cantus! What is this you may ask? It's a traditional beer drinking and singing event, and apparently there are other areas in Europe that have Cantus as well, so it's not solely a Dutch thing. It was one of the highlights of my trip so far, hands down. Picture a room of 50 people, singing LOUDLY to songs like Piano Man and Wonderwall (and if you didn't sing, you were punished)...while consuming beer. Also - there are multiple rules about how your beer must be consume, and any rules that are broken also require a punishment. Punishments usually entail being called up to the front and having to consume beer in a strange way or perhaps with other ingredients mixed in. I followed the rules, no worries! There is another Cantus in May, and all my friends and I are already excited to go back! It was a great time!

Saturday (20th): My new roommate and I had a fun, lazy day. I made us pototo salad (Mom's recipe) for dinner, and we both hung out in our jammies all day. It was wonderful! We both got a little studying in, but it was mainly about just relaxation. (sigh)

Sunday (21st): My Canadian friend Ben was on a skiing trip in the Swiss Alps all weekend, and unfortunately broke a bone in his hand. His trip was cut short, and his dad (who had been on this trip with him) came back to Maastricht to get his hand looked at. His dad wasn't planning on coming to Maastricht at all, so it was kind of a silver lining for Ben. But - his dad took Carolyn, Ryan (the other Canadian) and I out for dinner! We went to an Indonesian restaurant and had rijsttafel. This is a Dutch word for 'rice table'. The whole table shares many small dishes of spiced meat, spiced vegetables, different sauces and different kinds of rice. You can make whatever concoction you want out of the different options. It was one of the best meals I've ever had, in my 21 years. So filling, and had so many wonderful flavors...from curry to the spicy peanut sauce, to coconut on the chicken...oh MAN! So good! It was a wonderful night and we were all extremely thankful to Ben's dad for his generosity.

Monday (22nd): Monday was mainly school focused, as I've been trying to study as much in advance for my accounting final (on April 1st) because I'll be gone this whole weekend. I got quite a few chapters looked through on Monday. I also was finally able to stock up at the grocery store! Stores here are closed on Sundays, and they don't open on Monday's until noon. I just had a little misc food left, so bringing home new food from the grocery store was a good feeling. Plus - I enjoy grocery shopping. :)

Tuesday (23rd): Tuesday didn't start off that great, but did end on a good note. I had forgotten about a load of laundry I had put in the washer the night before, and remembered moments before I had to walk out the door that morning. Had to hurry and lay everything out to try to get the wrinkles out. But - my coat had been in this load, so walking to class in it was a bit damp and uncomfortable.

Gave a presentation that day, which went well. But, in my Consumer Behavior class we got back a group paper from our tutor. He basically had ripped it apart, and told us that we could redo it. He did allow other groups to redo theirs as well, but his issues with our paper were so nit-picky. Also, a few of the words we had used, he misinterpreted to mean other things. I was frustrated, because as English is my native and ONLY language, the way a word is used in the paper is true to how it's used normally. BUT - there are many words that are used differently in 'European English' and we had to struggle to figure out how to change the words in our paper. The rest of the afternoon I was in the library on campus, studying Accounting.

Afterward, Carolyn and I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few ingredients to make bruschetta! Some friends of ours, who all live on the same corridor, take turns cooking every night. We had been invited, for the second time, to eat with this hallway. We felt like we should bring something along, and bruschetta it was! Theresia came to help us cook it...and if I do say so myself, it was amazing! :) Dinner that night was a creamy pasta dish with chicken and mushrooms, cooked by our new friend Chris (who is from Manchester, England). Delicious!

Wednesday (24th): Looking back, a lot happened yesterday. First, started off the BEAUTIFUL DAY (close to 70 degrees here) by going shopping down in the market square area with Carolyn and Theresia. I was in need of some flats, as the ones I had brought give me bloody heels. I was successful! I found some cheap but comfortable knock-off boat shoes at HM. WIN! I'm wearing them on the trip today in fact! After shopping, we sat outside one of the many restaurants surrounding the Vrijhof Square, sipping Fanta and sharing a big ice cream between the three of us. It was lovely to just sit and feel the sun on you (no coat or fleece required) and taste the ice cream on your tongue. It was wonderful!

We split up from there, and I headed to go pick up my residence visa. This little plastic card required so much stress and money. There was a huge amount of paperwork that was required to be sent in last Fall, and I've never been more excited to see a little plastic card in my life. I've also never had my passport inspected as thoroughly as it was before they gave me the little plastic card. What a relief! In the same building, there's also the University gift shop. I'd been eying one of the sweatshirts since the day I got here...and gave in finally. I bought a greenish/turquoise one and am also wearing that today on my trip. With my new red shoes. :)

The rest of the afternoon was spent either working on the group paper for Consumer Behavior - which is 98.2% completed at this point, or working on Accounting. Then, last night I hosted the dinner club (Ben, Ryan and Carolyn), but it was just for dessert. We ate a tasty tiramisu-like cake with jam inside. This we did purchase at the store...can't take credit for making it. But, it was delicious and the perfect size (a half-cake) to share between the four of us! Then, back to studying Accounting for a bit - and then time to pack!!

So today, Thursday (25th): I'm headed to Dublin, Ireland!!! I'm SO excited, not only to see this beautiful country, which has been at the top of my list of must-see's...but my parents are meeting me there! I know I've already mentioned this fact, but I'm SO excited to see them. Even with being an hour and a half away from them normally at the U, I still see them at least every month. This is the longest I've ever gone without seeing them, and although Skype helps, it'll be wonderful to actually see them in person. I leave today in about two hours, take a bus to the Maastricht train station, the a train to Eindhoven, then a bus to the Eindhoven airport, then a plane to Dublin, and then a bus to my hostel in Dublin! Shall be a crazy day of travel!! I'll be in Ireland all by myself tonight, staying at a hostel, and then will meet up with Mom and Dad tomorrow morning. Their flight gets in around 8:30 AM, so I'm going to simply meet them at their hotel, only a short walk from my hostel. Then, the three of us will explore Dublin for the next two days!! I fly home on Sunday around 4:30, and will get back to Maastricht around 9 probably, with all the trains and buses required. I've been looking forward to this trip since Christmas...when the trip was announced. YAY!!

I'll write up a FULL report about the awesome-ness that is Ireland. I'm sure you'll see multiple pictures as well. :) Hope everyone is enjoying the Spring weather, wherever you may be! I'll be back people...Sunday night!

Life and Times around Maastricht

I've been just blogging about my trips lately, and figured I should touch on the cool stuff we've been doing here in Maastricht the last two weeks!

Last week was a LOT of homework and projects etc., but we did make time for some fun. Last Tuesday, the 9th, was my Dad's 50th birthday!! We had planned out ahead of time to skype for birthday cake, which we indeed did! It was fun to still feel like I was there, celebrating etc. Doug even called while the Mankato crew was skyping me, so all five of us were kind of 'there' at the same time. That was cool!!

That same night, I was invited, last minute, to an International Dinner. It was hosted by an organization at the University that's for International students, and different from the Exchange Student Network (ESN) that puts on most events we've attended as exchange students. We were able to eat food from Africa, Argentina, Turkey and more! It was ALL delicious!!! We each took a little of everything, and it was much more filling than I anticipated. Afterward, we did a wine tasting, of five different wines from five different countries. We learned how to rate the color, smell and taste of the wine. As anyone that's ever done a wine tasting or is already wine connoisseur knows - you must swirl the wine to get the effect. Well, I found out I'm a bit too enthusiastic of a swirler, and spilled multiple times to the entertainment of my friends. My score sheet for the wines was a masterpiece by the end of the evening with red and purple dried splotches. I kept it! :) We met a lot of fun people that night!!

This week, the homework load has been extremely light, so I've been more social at night than usual! :) Every week on Tuesday, the ESN (mentioned above) hosts a themed party at a local student bar, the Twee Herren. This Tuesday, which I THOUGHT would have been about St. Patrick's Day, was a 'Pirate' themed party. Only about 10% of people dress up, so it's always humorous to see what people end up wearing. We were in the other 90% that evening. But we had a great night dancing, as they finally were playing American music more than European disco/techno. American music is just a bit more exciting to dance too, and everyone in Europe knows the lyrics just like we do! Very fun.

Tonight I'm going to a big dinner cooked by a friend of ours, Brandon, who's from Purdue. His hallway rotates who cooks for everyone, and tonight he's doing the cooking and invited us to join! Should be fun!

Thinking of all the U of M'ers who are on Spring Break right now...been seeing their comments or status on Facebook about what fun location they're enjoying for the week. It's getting me excited for my next two big trips upcoming...

The weekend of March 26th-29th, I'll be in Ireland! And not with the usual group - I will be meeting up with my parents!!!!! It was Dad's Christmas present to Mom, and they'll be enjoying an entire week in Dublin and other small towns close by. I'm joining them for the first few days of their trip. Getting VERY excited, as Ireland was at the VERY top of my list of places to see, and I also get to see Mom and Dad!! :) More details to come about that trip as it gets closer.

And - for OUR Spring Break, we're going to Spain!!! We JUST booked the trip this week, and will be gone from April 2-April 10. We'll be flying to Barcelona first, then taking the train/bus to Valencia, then again to Seville, and finally to Malaga. We'll then fly home from Malaga. Our group is going to be Carolyn, Theresia, me and then our Canadian friend, Ryan. It'll be fun to have a boy on our trips again, as James made things fun back on the Paris trip. Keeps all the estrogen in check. :) As THAT trip gets closer, more details will come. It's RIGHT after exams end, so we'll all be free from homework/exam stress and can really enjoy the trip. The weather is supposed to be about 60 degrees and I can't wait to be sitting outside in the sunshine!!

That's all the fun tidbits for now! Hope everyone is enjoying the Spring weather back home! I'll be updating Shutterfly with ALL of the Luxembourg pictures tonight. So feel free to take a look through them!! :)

Luxembourg Top Five

Alright, so there wasn't enough material to make a top ten, but hopefully the top five will still be entertaining for you to read.

1) In Luxembourg, it is necessary to live up to the expectation of having a great car. I saw more BMW's, Lexus, Mercedes etc. than I've ever seen in my life. And they'd just cruise past, at a bit higher speed than I would ever drive on a narrow street with curves. We discovered how fast they drive early on, and whenever we'd hear an engine we'd jump to the side, as you usually couldn't see the car coming - just could hear it. Picture to the left is one of the many streets we passed with the nice cars all lined up.

2) The birds in Luxembourg had something out for Carolyn. Day one she somehow got bird poop all over her glove, hand and coat. We laughed for quite awhile as she would discover more spots on her coat etc. Theresia and I found it quite humorous. Day two, we were taking pictures with our camera's sitting on top of this wall. Carolyn was lining up her shot and a bird popped up from the other side of the wall, literally inches from her camera lens. The bird shrieked. Carolyn yelled. Theresia and I laughed hysterically. As things come in threes...we expected one more bird experience, but were disappointed.

3) If you would walk everywhere in Luxembourg - which distance wise would be completely feasible - you would have fantastic looking legs. Everywhere you walk it's either uphill or downhill, and most aren't gradual inclines either. We started to figure out that we only saw tourists walking around, and everyone that actually lived there drove in cars to wherever they were going. They knew about the pains of the hills. We, unfortunately, had no choice but to walk. It all worked out though - got in a nice workout all weekend!! Picture to the left is one of the MANY hills we climbed up throughout the weekend.

4) I found my name/initial in a couple of fun and unexpected places that weekend. We had ice cream on Saturday, and got plenty of weird looks for wearing winter coats and eating ice cream! My ice cream bar (chocolate brownie flavor...YES) was shaped like a 'B'! Only I would find that cool. And then...as we were out shopping and looking in stores, came across the "Boo" store! Took a picture, as you could see in the last post. :) And finally, we came across a plastic cow outside of our restaurant on Sunday. I've gotten the 'Betsy the Cow' joke more than once, so also took a picture. :) (I also thought of Doug and Laura's dog Molly, who is petrified of plastic cows.)

5) Weird groups of tourists...as we were waiting to check in at the hostel, this HUGE group of people, all ages, walked in. They were all wearing matching red winter jackets and didn't seem to be related or look alike at all. We couldn't figure out how they all had these matching coats. We felt like we were at the Olympics and were watching a team walk by. It was VERY strange. There were infants and even elderly people in this group...all sporting the same coat. We never did figure this one out...any ideas??

Well, as you can see, not a whole lot happened in Luxembourg - which was actually the point. We all enjoyed the laid back weekend, walking and picture taking. This coming weekend I'll be in staying in Maastricht, prepping for exam week which is quickly approaching and enjoying the weather, hopefully with some time outside in the sun!

Luxembourgish Luxembourg

It's been awhile since my last post - for which I can only blame school. :) I will catch up this week with blogging, as I finally have material to write about, other than trips, and homework isn't overwhelming for once. First though - Luxembourg!

This trip was very fun...and the least touristy we've been on a trip. We set out early on Saturday morning and took the train to Luxembourg. We again had our own compartment on the train, so we all got some good naps in. We arrived right before noon, and after grabbing some sandwiches in the train station (which were actually DELICIOUS!) we headed out in search of our hostel.

The first thing I noticed was how hilly Luxembourg was. And by hilly, I mean hills and valleys, and bridges everywhere to connect the parts of the city. The city was so charming, and everywhere you looked was a great view. Our hostel was in the older area of town, so we mainly saw that area...the big glass buildings of the Luxembourg financial district weren't near where we were. :)

We got a bit turned around, as the streets are all so windy and hard to follow on the map. Finally though, from the top of one of the many bridges, we spotted our hostel down below the hill. We walked down this long path (which we realized we'd have to walk up everyday, joy) and checked it. This hostel was a cross between a hostel and hotel. The rooms were bunk beds and typical of our other hostels, but there were SO many people staying at this place, including families with small children. It wasn't bad for one night, but was my least favorite hostel we've stayed in up to this point. Oh well.

We set out that day to see the buildings in town and then Sunday would be for wandering in the valley areas of town...which was more parks. Saturday we took lots of pictures, and discovered how cute, small and relaxed Luxembourg was. We did a lot of walking around the edges of the hills. This is hard to explain, but along the top of the hills were walkways which had great views of below. Perhaps pictures will help to explain. Either way, we walked around these walkways quite a bit. We walked around the little city streets for the duration of the afternoon, eating some ice cream (it was finally not TOO cold for ice cream!) and did a little shopping. It's fun to see some of the same European stores in all of the cities we visit...it makes things a little more familiar. We've already found the European clothes store chains we like the most...which is also a bit dangerous! ;)

We were in the mood for a filling, causal sit-down dinner on Sat night, and found this restaurant, "Bananas" which was a nice burger place. I had this HUGE fish sandwich, which was impossible to finish. But, VERY tasty nonetheless. Our waiter laughed at us when we ordered pops to drink with our meals instead of beer. Apparently that's unheard of! It was the first time I've ordered pop while out at a restaurant instead of a beer (except at the traditional Dutch meal my first week, but that was ordered FOR me). Oh well, it was refreshing to drink something other than beer for once. We were exhausted after a long day so we went to bed SUPER early Saturday night.

Sunday was exploration day...and it was so quiet and peaceful as we walked around that morning. We weren't even out that early, around ten maybe. No one was out! We found how to get down the paths to the valley below and wandered down to the river. We took SO many pictures, haha. I also got extremely turned around. My sense of direction usually is good-to-go once we've been in a city for a day, but in Luxembourg, I never knew where we were walking. I just blindly followed! :)

We grabbed lunch at what we thought was a cheap restaurant, to find it was not! A normal lunch was around 15 euros, so Carolyn and I decided to split. We had a really tasty warm goat cheese salad (don't think I've ever had goat cheese before, but I really liked it!) and then a steak for lunch. And actually, with the lunch options available, the steak was just as expensive as the chicken or any of the other meats. So steak it was - and it was wonderful. I haven't had grilled meat for awhile, so that was the perfect lunch.

After lunch, we headed to the train station. We had planned on leaving later in the day, but due to running out of things to do, we ended up leaving mid afternoon. Our train trip took a bit longer coming home, and the trains were a bit more packed with people. But, we made it back to our rooms in Maastricht by about 7:00. All in all, Luxembourg was wonderfully relaxing, even though there wasn't a whole lot to do other than walk around. Glad we made it a short weekend trip; though I would definitely go back again!!

Cologne's Top Ten!!

1) Random meetings are a fun part of life. Remember I mentioned we bumped into someone from the U of M while inside the Dom?? Well, later on during the day, Carolyn and I had a bit of a close call with a double decker bus (he did not slow down as we crossed the street....and we almost died. Not really, but it was closer than I would have liked!), this same person was on the top deck of this bus watching us dash across the street. He later informed us of this on facebook. So strange to run into him the first time, and even funnier that he witnessed our near 'one-with-the-pavement' incident.

2) We must have a thing for rivers. Every city we've visited thus far, and even including Maastricht, has a river running through it. I suppose this can go back to when civilizations sprung up...around rivers for the transportation ease...but still I think it's fun that we always get to walk by a river in every city we visit. In Cologne it was the very wide Rhine.

3) If you get really excited about a food, even if you don't necessarily care to eat it, the food will indeed taste good! Nougatbrezels, which I briefly mentioned in my post about Cologne, was one of these such examples. We were hungry after our train ride, and really wanted some fun snack...and Nougatbrezels was not only a fun word to say, but also a strange food item we had never before seen. We were suddenly extremely excited to consume some, and well, I think I enjoyed the taste of my Nougatbrezel more because of this particular excitement. Note the picture. :)

4) Chocolate, while being my favorite food, is also something that can be overwhelming at times. In the chocolate museum, every room we entered had some scent that would overpower you, whether it be the spices that can be mixed into the chocolate, or simply the scent of the chocolate being mixed up and poured down to the next machine (see picture). I felt like I had chocolate seeping into my pores (which I was very much okay with) but due to this overwhelming smell, I felt like I had already eaten my fill of it. A bit strange, but by smelling so much of the chocolate, it gave the same feeling as if you had already eaten a lot of chocolate. Not sure if I'm just really strange and over-analyzed this smell vs. eating thing (probably, yes) but I found this to be rather interesting. Moving on...

5) A beer isn't a beer unless you can drink it in a stein! Carolyn and I really wanted to find ourselves some steins while in Cologne, and I was very excited to find the perfect one! Every store imaginable sells them, and they're all different shapes and sizes and colors. It took awhile to select the perfect one (and the most affordable one) but my shelf in Maastricht is much happier with the stein on it. I have yet to try it out - but will inform you of the wondrous experience that it is, when it does happen.

6) Organs are beautiful to look at when in the huge cathedrals we've seen so far on our travels...but when the organ is actually PLAYED = AWESOME! We were lucky enough to be inside the Dom when the organ started playing, as there was some sort of service going on at the time. It was a beautiful, full sound that bounced off of all the walls and gave you the illusion that you were surrounded with sound. It was wonderful, and I now wish we could have had the same experience in the other huge cathedrals we've seen - especially Notre Dame. Either way, hearing music played inside that church was truly awesome.

7) When one owns a camera, it might be to one's advantage to fully learn everything that the camera is capable of! I found out while in Cologne that my camera takes video...and audio. Cool. So glad to have discovered this after Paris and all the other cities I've been to!!! Argh...so currently researching EVERYTHING my camera can do, so that perhaps I can take some neat videos while I'm here. I will keep you posted on the success of said videos.

8) Running through a train station is actually a good time. We've done this a fair amount, at least once in every city we've visited, and we discovered it's like claiming how important you are to everyone in the station. Not in a boastful way; but when you see someone running, you move out of the way and stare at them as they run past, wondering about what they're late for and how important it is. So, even though we knew we'd missed our train home, we decided to run through the train station just in case, and mainly for the hell of it. We both were laughing as we ran, dodging people, small children and dogs, holding our shopping bags and running as fast as we were able. Good times. (We indeed missed the train...but running in the station was worth it.) So - if you ever want to feel really cool, take a run through the train station. People will stop and stare and wonder about where you're dashing off to. :)

9) I have discovered it's quite fun to take pictures of as many dogs as I can in the different countries we go to. I think I may compile a book when I'm home about the 'Dogs of the World' and I'll give it to Ellie. Either way, I always try to grab my camera when we pass a puppy on the street, and Carolyn has dubbed me the "PETaphile." I've passed this awesome Basset Hound twice while out walking in Maastricht and have yet to take it's picture. I'm tempted to bring my camera whenever I leave my room now, just in case I run into this Basset Hound. At any rate, it's fun to look at all the different breeds that are common in the different countries. And here, the dogs can come on the buses and trains (as long as they're behaved)...which is fun! Picture above is from Cologne...and of a very furry Dachshund, which is appropriate as the name Dachshund is German in origin!

10) Dunkin' Donuts is the cool place to be in Cologne. It was attached to Subway (our cheap, quick dinner) and we were amazed at how many people were waiting in line for donuts. It was also the first Dunkin' Donuts I've seen in Europe. Apparently donuts are a rarity, which actually makes sense, as donuts like bagels, contain the hole in the middle - and neither are easily found in Europe. This Dunkin' Donuts was only the second place that I've seen that was selling bagels (along with donuts), the other being in Prague. Apparently Europeans don't find the hole in the middle of their bread or pastries that necessary. I like my bagels and donuts. But, I have come to appreciate the pastry that doesn't have that hole in the middle...as usually that means a good filling is inside!! So...bagels...are an American thing I've come to realize. Fun fact of the day.

Eau de Cologne

Cologne, Germany was the destination for the day - one Carolyn and I set out for early. We left the Guesthouse at about 7:30 AM as we headed down to the train station. It was quite brisk outside, which was a bummer as it's been gorgeous weather all week! No big deal - we just dressed in layers, and the walking warmed us up a bit too. We got to the train station at the perfect time - our bus arrived within 5 minutes. We then rode the bus to Aachen, Germany. This was supposed to take a little under an hour, but we accidentally rode the bus a few stops too far, OOPS, and so had to get off and wait for a bus to take us BACK to the original stop. We both had a good laugh about that one!! Once we successfully got to the Aachen train station, we realized we had time to kill until the next train, so we grabbed some lunch and just relaxed.

Our train pulled in and I was excited to see it was a double decker train! We rode a similar one in France when we went out to Versailles, and I thought it was so cool. We, of course, took seats on the top level! The train ride went pretty fast and before we knew it - we were in Cologne!

We had both decided that the Cologne Cathedral (called the Dom in Germany) and the Chocolate Museum were a main sites to hit for the day. We grabbed a map and headed out to explore the city! As we neared the doors to exit the train station we both started laughing. Looming right outside was the Dom. No exploring necessary. We could have taken pictures, and good close ones at that, from inside the train station. Ha - of course, we didn't, but that we could made it quite amusing. We went out to catch a closer glimpse and take pictures. We wandered inside to escape the wind and found a VERY tall ceiling and wonderful architecture. The outside is extremely ornate, and the inside is the opposite - gorgeous in it's simplicity. We were just turning to head back outside when this guy stopped us and asked if we went to the U (University of Minnesota). We said yes (confused) and he said he recognized us, as he went there too! What a coincidence! We all started to recognize one another from classes and chatted with him and his family for a bit. What a small, small, SMALL world!

After the Dom we headed down into the main shopping streets. We saw a display of pretzels, one that was covered in wonderful little goodies and the other in the normal salt. I OBVIOUSLY picked the good one - with the little goodies all over it! It was called a Nougatbrezel, which became the insult for the rest of trip for anything and everything. :)

With our snacks giving us a little boost of energy, we continued on walking towards the Chocolate Museum. We walked along the Rhine (which is HUGE) until we spotted the Museum in the distance! It's on it's own little island, and looks like a mixture of a modern day factory and an ancient stone house. We were both extremely excited - as we both have quite a lot of affection for chocolate.

The 'tour' starts with a little history of the cocoa bean, and what ancient cultures used it. The process of how the cocoa bean came to modern society as well as how chocolate is actually made were explained as well. My favorite part was when you actually get to go up to the machines that are making the chocolate, and get see what's happening through little windows. You get to walk along the whole little assembly line of chocolate making as well as the assembly of the chocolate into little wrapped bags that get sold in stores. I felt like I was watching an old Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood episode, where they explain how different things are made. There was also a wonderful view across the Rhine in this part of the museum as well, so we stopped to take in the gorgeous view! We even got to eat some wafers dipped in chocolate from their infamous chocolate fountain - and yes, we got seconds! :)


The WHOLE museum smelled like chocolate, which almost got overwhelming. We needed something to eat/drink to quench the chocolate need, and we both decided hot chocolate would be the perfect thing. It was indeed delicious and extremely rich. Rich enough that the chocolate gift shop really didn't seem all that appealing afterward, and we both bought nothing. We had already had our chocolate fix for the day!

We headed back into the city, and the sunlight now, for a walk around Cologne. We found lots of neat churches and shops that we explored. We even were able to take the picture we'd been planning out all trip - one of "Eau de Cologne". Cologne, a city with a 'scent' all it's own! Ha!

We both wanted to look for some gifts for family and were indeed successful. After some cheap dinner and more pictures in front of the Dom, we needed to do something 'German' before we left. Beer! We found a beer hall right by the the Dom and sat and enjoyed the fun atmosphere while sipping on some Kölsch beer, the Cologne specialty brew. (Picture on the right). Feeling like our Cologne experience was now complete, we left on the next train.

It was a great city to wander around in, with great shopping and great food wherever you went. We didn't walk around the WHOLE city as much of the main sites are more churches and museums, and we've decided the BIG churches are wonderful and if we happen upon a smaller, neat church, that's enough for us. It's just fun to walk around and take in the atmosphere and the people, not to mention the food as well! A real fun trip; Carolyn and I both enjoyed ourselves and got some unique gifts as well! :)

Chocolate makes EVERYTHING better!

Hello again!

I haven't had much to report on this week...so I thought I'd just give you a short overview tonight.

School has really kicked in this week and will be a bit busier for the next few weeks. If feels like the three week stretch in the middle of the semester back home that's filled with papers, presentations, projects and (usually) midterms. But here I don't have midterms, but do have all the other "p's", and at the end of the next three weeks are my final exams! AH! That will be strange, and then to start another block in April as well. Will be different!

I'm currently in the midst of two projects, one for each class. My Consumer Behavior project is a marketing research one, which hasn't been too bad thus far, but does require a group paper. We're testing to see if there's a correlation between seeing images/words and possibly causing actions/thoughts to be triggered about particular products. That project is due on Monday, the 15th and we present our results to the tutorial group on the 23rd.

In Accounting, we were given a case study and are expected to do lots of financial analysis/regression and then give an 'assessment' to our 'manager'. This also requires a paper, Excel work and then a POSSIBLE presentation. There are three groups in our class, and our tutor just picks one group to present the day it's due. So we all must come prepared and we'll have no idea if we're actually presenting or not. Not sure how I feel about that...but if you're already doing the work to prepare everything, might as well present I suppose! This is all due Wednesday, the 10th.

One more group presentation to go in Consumer Behavior, on just a text chapter and discussion (like the one I've already done) - which will be the 16th of March...and we also have something called 'Company Day' for Accounting on the 17th of March. Apparently, an actual Dutch company comes in, gives us a case study, and we work in groups that day to try to come up with the best solution. It's a five hour long day, so I hope that it's interesting!!

Needless to say, the next few weeks will be BUSY, but I'm hoping to still find time to travel here and there when possible. Speaking of THAT - I'm traveling to Cologne, Germany tomorrow, for a day trip with Carolyn. We'll be leaving early in the morning and traveling by bus & train. We'll hang out there for the whole day, walk around, and of course, EAT! I'm especially excited about seeing and eating in the Chocolate Museum! No worries - I'll take LOTS of food pictures. Like always. :) We'll be coming back to Maastricht tomorrow night, probably arriving back at the Guesthouse around midnight. Should be fun! Feels like forever since we traveled, when in fact it's been only a week and a half! Funny how that happens. Either way, it'll be fun to be out walking around in a new city/country again!

Was feeling a little under the weather at the beginning of this week, and so tried out a recipe Miss Karen Toft sent my way to cheer myself up. Nutella, peanut-butter hot chocolate!!! Was a wonderful way to turn my day around and I've been raving about it to anyone who would listen. If anyone else wants to send some great tasting recipes, even those without chocolate, my way - I'll for SURE give them a try!!

Hope everyone is adjusting to March, and that it 'came in like a lamb' for you all as it did here! Hopefully it also goes OUT like a lamb as well, I've had enough of snow and freezing rain. I'm sure everyone back in Minnesota feels even more in need of some Spring weather, though according to weather.com, you all have had quite a lot of sunshine this past week! :) YAY!

Sending FAST SWIMMING vibes out to the Mankato West swim team as they compete at the State Meet today and tomorrow! Greg - swim fast and soak in your last swim meet, I'll be thinking of you!!

Love to all from my small kitchen table in Maastricht!