Utrecht

Goede avond everyone,

Just got back from Utrecht about an hour ago, so I'm completely exhausted from everything and wet from biking back from Centraal Station in the rain. That happens so often though that I'm kind of getting used to it. The only bad thing was that I have night blindness (all of you who have experienced Big Rhonda know that pretty well), so biking at night was probably stupid, but hey I'm safe. Utrecht was pretty cool, a kind of quirky and very livable city. As usual I forgot my film camera. I went with my friends Nora and Danielle and spent most of the day hanging out with them in a cafe. Tried to see the sites but most of them (most disappointingly the dome which the city is famous for) were closed. We did see a cool exhibit at the Centraal Museum on Alexander van Slobbe the fashion designer and went into a few churches and walked through the park. We also went over to the Dick Bruna museum- he is famous for creating the kids book on the bunny rabbit Miffy- the whole place was like a big playhouse with some graphic design thrown in. I am definitely going back sometime to check out the Utrecht underground and jazz music scenes. Overall a really nice Sunday.

I had a pretty good weekend- a lot of people were gone to Belgium or the International Student Organization sponsored trip to the south. My hall was quiet for the first time ever, which was weird, but it gave me the chance to hang out with some people I don't see a lot- some Scottish, Irish and more Canadian people. The Canadians as a whole have pretty much convinced me to apply to grad school at McGill, so it looks like I'll be even colder but fluent in French in a few years. Other than that I practiced my (very bad) Dutch (no seriously, really bad) at the market, where everyone eventually reverted back into English. And I read so much and wrote two papers on born-again Christians that I had to watch Saved! for another perspective. I love that movie. I'm sure Jerry Falwell would too.

I'll put some pictures up from Carnival in Den Bosch in Brabant. It was completely insane. There were thousands of people in costume running around this tiny Dutch town all day. I was a prince, fighting in the crusades (aka against my heathen pirate friends). The whole day was spent running around getting lost in the craziness (and losing my sword). So much fun. A fantastic way to spend Valentines Day.

On Wednesday I went to Den Hague with some people to check out the city (it's really really close). We were freezing so we just walked around a bit and went to the M C Escher Museum in Het Palais where the royal family used to live. The palace was incredible and Escher's work is really cool. There were some chandeliers there too that I loved. Definitely go if you get the chance.

The other night I was skyping with my parents and found out I was 1/16 Dutch! I had no idea. I knew that my grandmother's maiden name was Haag, but I guess never connected it. So that's pretty cool, I guess my coming here wasn't completely random then. The Dutch people make a lot of sense to me, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I finally booked my trips to Spain and to France. I am going to Madrid in April with my friend Alicia from Clark who is studying in Dijon, and then taking a detour back up through Northern Spain to Leiden for the weekend when she goes off to Berlin. I'll be in France in May staying with people in Paris, Dijon and then going to the South with my friend Elias. So incredibly excited for that, it's kind of surreal that I'll actually be able to go into the Louvre and the Prado. And I'm leaving for Berlin on Friday!

Ashley

Here are some pictures from the Hague, Carnival and Utrecht, hope you like them