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.