I am going to Prague for the weekend... leaving for the airport in an hour.


Fun Fact:  Have yet to pack.


(Mom, if you are reading this... don't worry, I will give myself enough time!!)


Not sure if I will be able to post while I am there but I return on Monday night (my time!) and will promptly tell you all about Praha. For now, I must go shower, eat lunch, pack a suitcase, organize, and leave my apartment to catch the bus to get to the train station to take a train to get to the airport to catch my plane to Prague. Oh how I miss the 15 minute drive to the St. Louis Airport right about now.

By the way, on our walk to the Jewish Historical Museum (see below) we ran into the happiest children ever. I swear, when I have kids I am going to give them these bubbles to play with... they will be entertained all day.

How fun does this look?!? I may or may not have stared for a good ten minutes... wishing I could join in... 

The world through a bubble...

A few hours in Amsterdam

Believe it or not, there is A LOT more to do in Amsterdam than just go to coffee shops all day. In fact, this whole coffee shop thing is definitely more of an international phenomenon than a local one, a fact that has been reinforced in my class that focuses on Dutch Present Day Society. Yesterday, Rachel and I decided to visit the Jewish Historical Museum which is about a 15 minute walk from Amsterdam Central Station making it a very accessible destination. While I would argue that the first room in the exhibit may be a bit redundant for those who are Jewish and celebrate the Jewish holidays, the rest of the exhibit is fascinating as it takes you through the history of Jews in the Netherlands from 1600 until today. Over the past few centuries, the relationship that the Jewish people have had with the Dutch has certainly fluctuated, dictated both by the national climate as well as the international climate, as seen by the way in which the Jews were treated during WWII, upon the German invasion of the Netherlands on May 10, 1940. Yet, despite the hardships that the Jews have faced, they are very much a part of Dutch Society today, with almost 43,000 Jews living in the Netherlands, with about half living in the city of Amsterdam. The photos below are part of a collection of photographs representing present-day Jewish life in Amsterdam so I thought I would share some of my favorite ones... 

COOL 

I love the hippies in the top row of this. 

"Hey Mom, I got a lip-ring!! But don't worry, its a Jewish star...." ha ha ha

OH, and if you do visit the museum, make sure to get the head-set... it is free and very helpful. And for all the ladies out there, odds are they will ask you to put your handbag in a locker. Luckily though, before I could protest, I was told that the locker and key is provided free of charge. The Jews know how to do it right. 

Wrong Basket..

This afternoon I was unlocking my bike to get ready to bike into town when I looked inside my basket and found a note that said "For Anastasia". While I am well aware that my name is not Anastasia, I decided that maybe someone drunkenly met me, forgot my name is Arielle, and then thought it might be Anastasia. I mean, they both start with an "A"... 


Anyways, I opened it up only to find a hand-written note to some girl named Anastasia from someone named Octavian. At that point I realized this note was most definitely not intended for me as I know no Octavian. If only bikes had license plates, then this Octavian guy would have been able to find the right basket. Yet, Anastasia or no Anastasia, I now had a love letter to read and how could I not share it with all of you...


and I quote:


Anastasia, 
I wanted to give you this on Tuesday when we first met, but I kind of got lost when searching for flowers, so I abandoned the idea. I also wanted to get you 2 tickets for the International Masquerade for you and your roommate, but the ESN guys closed the office early today. It seems that the Universe is conspiring against me, so who knows what will happen next :) 
Have a nice weekend and do come to the party!
xx Octavian 


I do feel bad that the real Anastasia will never see this but I'm just going to pretend that I am a world-famous blogger and that this would be the best way for her to potentially stumble across the note that was meant to end up in her bike basket and not mine. Until then, it looks like Octavian will be left to wonder just what will happen next (no, I will not insert a smiley face here). 

snow + bikes = misery

Okay, I officially just experienced bike riding in the snow... and it is even worse than I imagined. What may look like a picturesque snowfall feels like ice pellets being thrown at your face on an angle, that somehow perfectly lines up with your eyes, making it rather difficult to see. Pleasant? I think not. As I was biking home in this misery just now, I began to think about why in hell the Dutch do not abandon this whole biking thing when the weather is bad outside. I mean, Long Island Jewish Retiree's give up on the state of New York all together when winter strikes, moving all the way to Florida for a few months to avoid the bad weather. But no, the Dutch keep on biking. And then every once in a while you will see the person who is biking while holding an umbrella over their head which as you can imagine doesn't make me any happier to know that that person is nice and dry while I am not. I mean, I can barely hold an umbrella and walk without it somehow flipping inside out... 

Surprise, surprise... my tuesday and thursday class was cancelled once again! Out of 6 total classes that we should have had by this coming thursday, 4 have now officially been cancelled. If only this happened at WashU where I actually want my classes to be cancelled... i know its a little nerdy of me to want class here but it is only an hour and 45 minutes of my day so I might as well have it. Apparently, the teacher has other priorities though so I am not going to argue!


Today I sat in my bed till about 1, made myself brunch as I can't actually call it breakfast at that point, got back into bed to write my earlier post, and then decided if I did not get off my bed I was never going to, hence my decision to go into the city to buy nothing other than a much needed extension cord. Now, I can sit in my bed and have my computer properly charge without the cord nearly suffocating me. Definitely worth the bike ride in. 


Speaking of which, I got laughed at today while I was riding in by a Dutch woman who was crossing the street as I was trying to start riding again. As the light turned green, I began to have some footing issues which caused her to go into hysterics right in front of my face. No offense to her, but its not THAT funny... it is harder than it looks. Obviously I gave a little chuckle back but if I were in New York and it was in the car, it totally would have been a "give her the finger" situation. Like I said, it is harder than it looks. You have no idea how genuinely happy I am when I see the little green biker symbol (see below) telling me I can go since I then know once I get to the light that I don't have to do the whole lets slow down, stop, and start up again thing. The whole stopping and going thing is just so overrated. 

:) on my face when I see this in the distance. (and yes, this is actually a picture of a traffic light from a place in the Netherlands. When I first googled it I chose one that was located in Minnesota but I felt that would be a bit unauthentic to say the least.)

should I be worried?

Okay, so for those of you who don't already know (aka were not lucky enough for me to complain to you) I swear I arrived in Utrecht mid tornado-season. I know I tend to exaggerate, but the wind here was literally out of control. And being that I live on the 14th floor of a building that is somewhat connected by bridge like structures, I felt it every single time the wind blew. And when I say "felt", I literally mean my apartment would start shaking and the glass pane on the windows would start trembling. No, this is still not an exaggeration.

The apartment that clearly was not built with strong winds in mind!! I personally think the architects should fund my sleeping pill collection that I am soon going to need to take if my bed does not stop shaking. 

Any-who, tornado season has come to an end (or so it seems...) yet my bed still shakes every few hours or so. I'll be laying in bed, as I am doing now, and all of a sudden I start swaying back and forth. I guess the only reason why I am not too concerned is that its not accompanied by the wind banging against my window while the floor shakes below me. But still, like can my bed please stop shaking?? 

I can officially leave Utrecht a happy person: the really good looking barista who speaks perfect English and looks like he is from anywhere but the Netherlands said hi to me on my bike yesterday. For anyone who doesn't already know, I a) love coffee and b) love becoming friends with the baristas (Kaldis anyone?).  He probably has zero clue what my name is but hey thats okay because I don't know his either. Luckily I am here until July 1 so I think I can manage to get on a first name basis by then. 


There is just one problem... word on the street is he's married. 

Okay, now that I have my computer I guess I don't have much of an excuse not to post, especially once you add up the fact that I barely have 2 hours of class a day (excluding Mondays and the weekends) and an extremely little amount of work. Believe it or not, I actually get bored! Who would have thought that I wouldn't know how to use up all this time... I think I got way too used to CONSTANTLY working at school that all of a sudden I am at a loss. A girl can only go on so many bike rides. That being said, does anyone have any good tv recommendations for me? It might be the only time ever that I can watch as much tv as I want so I figure I might as well take advantage of it. Who knows when it will happen again.

Today I am actually going into Amsterdam to meet one of my friends from school to hang out and walk around. Its so bizarre to me how I can just casually go to Amsterdam for lunch quicker than I could go from my house at home into NYC for lunch. "Bye, just running out the door to Amsterdam. See ya later." (Although, I guess technically speaking I would be biking not running but you get the picture).

These past few days have been quite the roller coaster when it comes to the weather; one day its sunny and 45 and then yesterday its high 30's and the sun was no where to be found. I have yet to open my curtains but I think there is some hope for the sun today. I have to say, having the sun out here makes a HUGE difference. For one, it is way nicer to ride your bike on a sunny day, no matter what the temperature, than on a cloudy/rainy/tornado day. At least if its sunny, you don't entirely want to kill yourself biking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth....

Speaking of needing to know Dutch...

I desperately need to do my laundry but the machine in my apartment is in Dutch. As is the detergent I bought. Houston, we have a problem. 

Woooooaaaaahh

On Tuesday I had my introductory lesson at the Olympos Sports Center, which is ultimately the campus athletic complex. You would think that when I wanted to spend my 80 euro to join the gym, I would graciously be handed the forms to sign and be on my way. Well, you and I both are wrong on that one. Instead, I had to sign up for an introductory lesson so that I could "learn how to use the gym". Of course, I couldn't even get into one of these lessons until a week after I first inquired about signing up for the gym, thus leaving me to wonder what exactly was going to go down.

Enter Johan. Johan is the 50-something skinny Dutch man who was in charge of introducing me to the gym. Johan's english wasn't exactly perfect, to say the least, which made it all the more hysterical as I followed him from machine to machine to machine so that he could show me how to use them. It really didn't matter that I knew how to use the dumbbells, and run on the treadmill, because Johan was set on making sure he reminded me. If something were hard, he would look me in the eye and say "Wooooooaaaah, sdat es Haard" and then proceed to demonstrate. Rachel and I could barely keep our laughter in. He also caught on quickly that Rachel was the strong athletic one of the two of us since every time he made her demonstrate how to use a machine, he would look down at me (he was very tall... obviously) and say, "Wooooooaaaah, sheee es stroong". There was a lot of head nodding going on since I didn't really know what he was saying half the time. Side note, I think that by the time I leave here I am going to have mastered the head-nodding/pretending you know what is going on movement. I have to use it way too often. Whoever said you could come to the Netherlands and know no Dutch was a bit mistaken (cough, cough WashU Abroad Department cough). 

Regardless, I passed my introductory lesson and can now pay my 80 euro. Sigh. 

1st weekend adventure to Amsterdam

Almost exciting as getting a bike....


I FINALLY have a computer! And even better... My dad hand delivered it to me in Utrecht (No, he didn't come all the way to Europe to give me my computer but I am going to just go with that...)! But first, I must tell you about my weekend in Amsterdam.


This weekend Rachel and I left on Friday afternoon and took the train to Amsterdam. Thinking we had at least an hour train ride in front of us, we both bought some snacks for the train and were ready to sit back, relax, and enjoy the train, so to speak, only to pull up in Amsterdam Central Train Station about 25 minutes after we pulled out of Utrecht Central Train Station. So much for that relaxing train ride! Regardless, our weekend trip to Amsterdam had officially begun, and we had little time to waste as we were meeting up with our friends from school who are studying abroad in Paris. Without any convincing, we immediately became tourists in Amsterdam.... Lets just say it was a highlarious weekend.


We went to the Red Light District, the coffee shops (both coffee shops and coffee shops, if you know what I mean), the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank museum, the Reijks museum, and of course, a pancake house called "The Pancake Bakery". The Pancake Bakery was reccommended to me for both their pancakes and their omelettes and it was even better than I was told-- a must if you are intending to eat your way around Amsterdam, as we did. In fact, the candy man across from the Marriott probably deserves a shout-out since we visited his stand ever few hours; Thanks so much for getting us fat!!!!

one of the many delicious pancakes that we ordered at The Pancake Bakery. YUM.

The funny thing about being in Amsterdam was that there were bikes everywhere (obviously) but the girls I was with were coming from Paris, as I said, and found the bikes to be annoying/ they almost got run over or caused someone else to get run over multiple times. Regardless, while I did agree that the bikers speeding at us were unnecessarily in our way at times, I couldn't help but sympathize-- I AM ONE OF THOSE BIKERS! eeeeeeeeeek. Its like if you are a skier on a mountain where snowboarders think they have the right of the way... No one ever likes the snowboarders. Well, tourists in Amsterdam don't really like the bikers. Can I blame them? No. But still, I figured I should at least try to stand up for my fellow bikers! 

Pimp Your Bike

Last night we went to an activity that was planned for the international kids called "Pimp Your Bike"... yes, you can laugh at me. Anyways, I spray-painted some gold on my bike and then got bored of decorating but as you can see from the picture below some of my friends bikes are now neon and beautiful.

Just Pimping our Bikes.. 

Although, if you look closely you will see that I have a new basket on my bike and that is because my other one completely broke off mid-bikeride. It was a bit traumatic to say the least but luckily it was only Rachel who was around so when I screamed "FUCK" on the top of my lungs and came to a screeching halt, no one gave me dirty looks! And, now I have a new and improved basket. The funny thing is that when I went to the Bike King to have him fix my basket, he told me he also put air in my front tire since it was almost flat... Who knew? Not I.

Ari, where are you going?

You know how you will often hear someone trying to speak in a British accent or an Australian accent or really any other accent than an American one? Well, my world was flipped upside down last night when I was waiting to cross the street with some of the Aussies and they started mimicking what I was saying. "Oh my God, at college, I was dying when..." was said about 5 different times by the three girls I was with. I never ever thought anyone would want/try to sound like a New Yorker, or a Long Islander for that matter but apparently it is quite an entertaining accent to try out. I personally think the Australian accent wins any day, but for now, its pretty amusing to hear the girls speak the way I do.


And by the way, I am ''Ari'' to all of the Aussies. Haven't heard that nickname in a while, but whatever works!

My Butt Hurts

I made it back at night on my bike (I know, I know, you all must have been dying to hear from me today). It is actually easier to ride at night as there are less people around which means less chance of me running into someone or something. I also don't think there is much of a difference in my riding skills when I have a couple of drinks or none at all as I pretty much have issues stopping and going no matter what the case is...

I definitely already dislike the fact that cars are even allowed on the streets as it just makes for much more of a potential dissaster. Rachel gracefully rode into a parked Mercedes Benz today and the owner of the car was unfortunately still in it. Lucky for all parties involved, Rae was totally fine and his car did not have a scratch on it. In her defense, she was biking while on the phone... baby steps I guess!

It was a beautiful day today-- our first sunny day actually since we arrived. I don't actually know what I will do when it gets hot here though because I sweat even in the 40 degree weather while I am riding. You pretty much sweat no matter what the temperature is when you are on your bike. Deodorent is hands-down a must have. OH and my butt could not hurt more. You would think that someone would think of selling those super-comfortable seat covers in Utrecht. But no. So instead, I woke up this morning wondering why I felt so bruised...

Dont worry though, I was reminded right away once I got back onto my bike to go into the center. Ouch.

For any of my friends who are Soul-Cylce devotees-- if you want to mail me a nice comfortable seat cover, feel free.

My Bike!

I got a bike! I can't decide if this is a good thing or not because I feel bad for those who are near me... but it can't get any worse so thats good (unless I fall or hit/get hit by a car but I am going to try to avoid doing all three)! Although, I think I feel the worst for the owners of the cars that are parked on the side of the roads that I bike on; I am a bit wobbly to say the least. 

Rachel and I went to a second-hand shop called "Bike King" (that is the English translation) and we got sized for our bikes. However, this was easier said than done due to the fact that there are not many bikes for people my size as I learned today. Luckily, they managed to find one bike that fits someone who is barely 5 feet 1 in. AND, I managed to not get a child's bike as someone had said might happen, just one for "smaller people" as the Bike King himself said to me (aka the owner of the store who referred to himself only as the King of Bikes... whatever works I guess). 


My bike, as I learned, is a Classic Dutch Bike that was used years and years ago by the Nannies and thus is nicknamed the Nanny Bike. The Dutch loved the bike so much that they discarded the tradition of only Nannies using them and now "normal folk" can often be seen riding them. Of course, my bike wouldn't be complete without a basket and a bell. And, most importantly, my ridiculously heavy lock. 


I will keep you all updated on how the bike riding goes. The actual ride into the center of town, where most classes are/bars/clubs/restaurants etc, is 15-25 minutes depending on the speed that you are riding. For now, I have decided that I am going to try to completely avoid rush-hour (on bikes!) as there is no way I won't kill myself, or someone around me for that matter. If I get brave enough, I will let you know. Reference the video below to understand why. 


OH and our first class, and only one for tomorrow, just got cancelled! Time to go out... which means I must ride my bike into town... check back to find out if I made it there and back in one piece. 

Fun Facts

Things I have learned about Utrecht in my first 72 hours:


1. The Dutch do not believe in credit cards. 
2. Utrecht is not pronounced YOU-TREK as I have been telling all of you. But then again, I was never good at languages... 
3. The Aussies are great. In my next life, I will go abroad to Australia.
4. Dutch people cycle while listening to their ipod, usually eating a sandwich and/or having a drink, while someone sits on the back of their bike to go along for the ride which the Australians refer to as "dinking", or giving someone a lift. You could say, for example, "I can dink you if you'd like". 
5. NO ONE IS ON THEIR PHONES AS MUCH AS AMERICANS, and by Americans I mean all of us who have blackberries, more specifically all jewish girls who have bbm (I am of course guilty of this)! The other night Rachel and I were at a party and we took out our blackberries for a hot second and were immediately asked if we were having a bad time. Imagine if every time anyone took out their phone at WashU you were assumed to be having a bad time; it would get awkward real fast. 
6. The International kids call the Spanish kids the Spanish Mafia. Apparently, the Aussies are next to gain Mafia status as there are so many of them. Maybe one day Rachel and I will be privileged enough to be referred to as the American Mafia... but until then we are merely known as being from "the States". One can dream. 

In Utrecht!

Finally got to Utrecht! A day late thanks to the endless storms in New York but I am finally here. Although  landing in Amsterdam at 5 am (an hour early due to 100 mph tail-wind..) was a bit jolting. Lucky for me, Rachel was already here and saved the day so that when my old cigarette-smoking cab driver dropped me off, I actually knew I was at the right place. 


We are staying in a building called Cambridgelaan which is where a TON of international students are. Our apartment has 7 people in it total: two Americans (guess who...), 1 girl from the UK who we have yet to meet, a girl from Belgium, and then 3 awesome girls from Finland with bleach blonde hair. If you can imagine, I stick out as the Finnish girls think Rachel is practically brunette. For those of you who know Rachel, in America we most definitely would consider her a blonde!


We've been having orientation and we have one more day of it in front of us which is good because it gives us more opportunities to meet people. We have definitely met really nice people its just such a culture shock being here-- we are DEFINITELY in the minority as Americans. Although people think its so cool to hear us speak. Whoever thought my Long Island accent would be considered cool?! 


We have yet to purchase a bike although that shall get done sooner than later as it is quite obvious bikes are the way to go here. I just don't really see how I will be biking in the tornado-like winds that have been going on at nighttime here... but I will save that post for another day. 


Pictures to come! (once I take some...) And get a computer... as mine crashed the night before I got here. Once again, good thing for Rachel!