Americans in Paris Rome

Yay for friends!!! This weekend, one of my very close friends from Baylor, Jennifer joined me in Rome! She's been working this summer as an au pair for an Italian family, so after some planning we got out schedules together so we could "do" Rome. I met her yesterday at the train station and it was just like something out of a movie. I mean slow motion running, bags falling everywhere... I"m pretty sure there was orchestral accompaniment somewhere inteh background.

This morning we hit the road early in an attempt to beat the lines at the Vatican Museum, which we were fairly successful at doing. Here are some of the highlights of our visit with our added commentary: free of charge.

Crappy chariot: we were wondering why no one was in this room and realized the answer when we noticed the only original part of the chariot was the little green around the edge.

Painting titled, "Strange Bird Contemplating Doom of Man," depression, much?

Creepy Pope...

Creepy Pope...

Creepy dead Pope...

But with all of our sightseeing and traveling here and there the best part of the evening by far was after the day was over. We got back to the room having walked straight from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm, straight. (Ok we sat for 30 minutes at dinner). Our entire body ached and we just wanted a bath. We knew that as soon as we sat down we weren't going out for dinner so we made our own Italian dinner and a movie!



We found a website to stream "Roman Holiday," which neither of us had seen before. (Crappy ending, I think, but that's just me). It was fun to sit and point out all the places in the movie we had been earlier that day.

Jennifer's "Italian family" has this for dinner alot of nights apparently: bread,
salami, pecorino cheese, and grapes (the grapes were our addition). And it was fantastic! Tomorrow Jennifer and I go our separate ways. I'm heading to the UK to see England, Ireland, and Scotland, and she's heading back to her "Italian family" for another week. "What about us?... Well, we'll always have Rome."

P.S. I Love You

What to get the girl spending her summer in Europe?

It's pretty much America in a box.

There's a scarf, some lotions, foot cream (Heaven Bless you, Mom), some fruit snacks, sour patch kids gummies (Originally that container was full of popcorn from one of mom and dad's late night trips to the movie theater. It was ssssoooo good!), and best of all, American Magazines!!! (I don't read magazines as much as I used to, but just being over here and seeing them in every store butin Dutch or whatever the language is of the country I happen to be in at the time has been killing me. Luckily after I got through these I found an American Bookstore in De Haag and stocked up on magazines for my long trip this weekend!)


So, what to mail the family in America who mails the girl in Europe her home country in a box?

Food!

Enjoy ;)

One last weekend...

I'm wrapping up my final weekend in Maastricht and wanted to take the time to reflect on the past few days. Really, this weekend has been exactly what I was looking forward to most when I came over here, a chance to get to live normally in Europe. Today was mostly devoted to editing papers that are due this week, and Friday I did a bit of reading and enjoyed a long bike ride along the Albert Canal in the afternoon. But it was yesterday that take the cake.

About noon, Amy, Erin, and I headed down to the river for some lunch. The destination? A little place we see every weekend on our bus ride to the train station. The Burrito Bar.

Really it fulfills within us the only complaint I've heard out of anyone's mouth since we've been over here, "I miss Tex Mex" (please don't forget the fact that I'm traveling with a bunch of Texans!) So, we headed down to the burrito bar to enjoy chips and guacamole, chicken quesadillas, and steak burritos. My, and was it tasty. I'd heard that it was alright, not the best food of the kind, but can you expect much more than this when you're eating burritos in Holland? I thought it was delicious, and I was amused by the fact that the menu said that the restaurant did workshops to teach you how to make guacamole, salsa, burritos, and quesadillas. I'm sort of sad that I didn't get to learn the Dutch tradition of guacamole making.

After a five hour break in which I finally finished my last book of the semester (yay! lets see how many fun books I can read before school starts!) the three of us hopped on our bikes, this time to cross the river to the movie theater. This was something that I had really wanted to do, go see a movie. I was interested to see if there were any cultural differences, and lucky me. Remember what I told you about Dutch television? If it isn't a children's show, it isn't dubbed. The same goes for movies over here. This unfortunately ended our desire to go see Toy Story 3. We had to come up with something else.

The first difference you'll notice at the movie theater is the food (of course!)
1. alcoholic beverages are not only allowed but sold in the theater, including but not limited to beer, wine, and other fruity mixed drinks.
2. There are plenty other options to drink
3. They do have popcorn, but it is unsalted and unbuttered and therefore has no point in its existence. Anyways, this isn't the movie snacking food anyway.
4. There's an entire fill your own bag candy section.

So what does one eat when they go to the movies? Back at the beginning of June, when we were on our group trip me and several other girls sat down at lunch with out sandwiches and potato chips when Maaike, our program coordinator, commented on how odd it is that we eat chips with sandwiches. "When do you guys eat chips?" we asked her, and she just shrugged, "when your sitting on the couch late at night watching tv." We all exchanged a look between each other, "well, that's what we do with popcorn." So there you have the answer. When you go to the movies in Europe you eat Potato chips! Really whatever kind out want. I had a brand called Nibb-its which reminded me of the fried french fries you can buy. They had a little spice seasoning to it, I think it was paprika.

Oh, and another interesting thing about the movie, about an hour and a half into the show the lights went up and the screen went black. Now, I'd been to the movies in Clinton enough to immediately think "malfunction", but when no one else seemed concerned I suddenly realized it was an intermission. Our movie wasn't exceptionally long, 2 and a half hours tops and still they paused for a snack refill/ bathroom break. It was kind of nice.


Our movie let out about 23:00 and we started to ride back into town with a short detour to the city center. For the past two weekends Andre Reiu has been giving a concert in the Vrijthof (the name of the area next to the most prominent cathedral in town. It means graveyard because, obviously that's where the cemetery was. Today, however it's a below ground parking garage and the surface level is a large square filled with little cafes.) Reiu is apparently a well known violinist. I had never heard of him before coming here, but Amy said that he always appears on TV around Christmas time. He was born in Maastricht and comes back (annually I think) to give concert. The Vrijthof was blocked off so we couldn't see in, but we found a little cafe around the corner that had a television sitting outside so you could see what was happening on stage and still hear the music from the square. We parked our bikes against the building and listen for a good hour. It was amusing actually because nearly every song had words that everyone knew and people were singing along at the top of their lungs. Oh, and they were dancing. My personal favorite was when the orchestra and a visiting singer broke into a version of "Sweet Caroline," and you could hear everyone in the square yelling "So good! so good, so good, so good!"

By the time we were done roaming the streets it was one o'clock. How's that for a night on the town?

The Dutch Cheff

Several weeks ago, I decided I would hang around Maastricht this weekend and tie up all of my little loose ends. Most people followed my lead, staying close to home and taking day trips. My roommate however left for a couple of days on the beaches at Normandy so it's home alone, baby! It's party time!!! for those of you who don't know my style of partying, lets just say its pretty much synonymous with "cooking." And when I say cooking I don't mean "pop it into the microwave and hit defrost." So, after a trip to the grocery store yesterday morning I was all ready to go.

The Ingredients:



"Gekruide Speklap"= spiced pork

(great for the BBQ)

"Knoflooksaus"= garlic sauce














"Griekse olijven met deense kaas"= Greek olives with Danish Cheese.

(Apparently Feta cheese is called Danish cheese)

Are you ready? Meat pops in the skillet and off we go.

Icannot even tell you how wonderful this smelled, all the spices (heavy on the paprika, I think) and the meat. Oh, it was delicious. Before I knew it, it was done!




Garnish with a Kiwi for a little fruit (and a chocolate truffle for dessert) and your good to go. I'm no Martha Stuart, but I'd consider this party a success.

Pilgrimage

So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided that I would head to Brussels on my weekend in Maastricht. It only takes two hours to get there and its virtually a straight shot by train, with the exception of one switch at the ever popular Liege station.

I had an absolutely wonderful time. I think perhaps because I was by myself and so the stress of having five or six other personalities with different interest and needs wasn't present. I got to be relatively spontaneous, as spontaneous as I get which just means walking into a random store or plaza on my way from point a to point b. Nonetheless, I was a restful sort of day, and I got to do some really neat stuff, all while heading toward my main goal: the Musee des Beaux Arts.

I started my morning, with a different type of art:


It's the Belgium museum for Comic Strip art! I don't believe I've spent much time thinking about Comic Strips being art work, but they most certainly are, and there is so much more into it that what we see in the funnies every Sunday morning. Here's the highlights: One of the most famous Belgian comic characters is a detective by the name of Tintin. Tintin was created around the 1930s by an artist known as Jijé.Together, the two of them basically revolutionized the comic strip world and made it possible for other artists to come forward into the art form. Among these artists was
a Belgian man named Pierre Gulliford aka "Peyo." Peyo's debut into the comic words was with a series called Johan et Pirout. In 1958, Peyo's most famous characters debuted within this comic strip gaining such popularity that they earned their own strip, tv show, toys, etc. The Smurfs!

Have you guys ever heard of the Manneken Pis? Well, then you haven't taken French at Baylor University. I've been hearing about this fountain for the last four semesters, and by george if you didn't think I was going to go check this thing out. When I got there I found what is quite possibly the most pointless tourist attraction known to humanity.Ok, so I knew that the fountain was of a little boy peeing into the fountain (why I do not know) but I didn't expect him to be so small. For some reason I was envisioning a fountain with a life size state in the middle of some square, not tucked into the corner of a little alley way. It didn't seem to matter where he was though because people came in waves to this little alley, 20, 30 at a time to stand and take pictures of this little guy. I stood back and watched while I savored my first tasty treat of the day.

That my friends is a piping hot Belgian waffle with crème and kiwi. You could get these thing with anything, syrup, sugar, fruit, chocolate, or plain and believe me plain would have been just as tasty as anything else. I'm still mystified as to have a waffle can taste so amazing!

I had tooled around Brussels enough already, it was time to complete the pilgrimage. You see the purpose for this trip was to see a painting, not just any painting but my favorite painting ever (circa 7th grade). Last week we were talking about it in history class and I happened to Wikipedia it when I got home and found out it was just two hours away! I couldn't not go see it!
The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David

"Ew, it's a picture of some dead guy in a bathtub." How astute you sound, but this just isn't any dead guy in a bathtub, this guy is Jean-Paul Marat. As with most things that I love beyond measure, there is a story. In 1793, France was in turmoil. It was still suffering the throws of Revolution that began in 1789. Now, 4 years later, there was a power struggle going on in the midst of the National Assembly. This struggle was between the Conservatives, the people who wanted to conserve the monarchy and governmental institute, (this is actually the origin of the word Conservative within the context of politics today) and the Jacobins, the leftist group that wanted to overthrow it all and start new with a system where everyone was equal. The leaders of this group were Maximilian Robspierre, Saint-Just, and Jean-Paul Marat. (Eventually the Jacobs won this struggle and it was the period under their power known as The Terror that most think of when the French Revolution is mentioned. That was the time when all of the "traitors" to France and her cause were taken to the guillotine and, in the words of Dr. Rust, made a head shorter). Marat had a very important role within the Jacobin cause, and that was as editor of "The Friend of the People," a leftist newspaper that he used to spur the political cause. Marat also had a skin condition that required him to spend nearly 10 hours in bath every day, and it was from here that he would do the most work for his paper.

On July 13, 1793 a young woman from Normandy by the name of Charlotte Corday appeared at Marat's flat wishing to see him. She was invited in to speak to him while he was in bath, and they had nearly a 15 minute conversation before Corday withdrew from her corset an 8 inch knife and plunged it into Marat's chest. There was no chance of Survival. Later at her trail, Corday simply said that she'd "killed one man to same 100,000."

Marat's death, however had the opposite affect than what Corday intended. Instantly he became a martyr, and this was spurred on by David's dramatic representation of Marat's last breath in his famous painting. David, who was a close friend of Marat's and a Jacobin himself, designed his painting to be the representation of a hero's demise and virtually launched France further into the Great Terror as people became more convinced that traitors, like Corday were trying to undermind the country.( If you want more details about it, please feel free to ask, did I mention I love this painting?!)

Let me just say that for a good ten minutes I got to stand nose to nose with this painting and look at every last detail. It was so cool. Oh, and I hope you like the painting Amanda because I sort of got a print of it to add to the collection!

After my trip to the museum my day was pretty much over, but I couldn't leave without having one last thing!
Belgian frites, in a cone with Andalouse sauce (a mixture of ketchup, mayonnaise, and pepper). The Belgians invented the fries, so I don't suppose I need to tell you how amazing they were!

Alright, that's all for now! Have a safe and happy fourth!

"There's no place like London"

Good morning one and all! Well, good morning to you, good afternoon to me. I am back in Maastricht now, bathed, shaved, and smelling all together rather nicely after my jaunt into the English land of hostels and fuzzy showers. (All right that is an exaggeration, but those of you who travel know that showering anywhere other than home is difficult and not much of a pleasurable experience.) Now that I'm well rested I'm ready to write about my week.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to tell you of London without writing a thesis on the week. I by no means want to bore you so I'll tell you of the highlights.

Living in London

Quite honestly our hostel on the first night was a flop. It was new, in a residential part of town, and while it was safe, the over crowding of sleeping 15 people in a room coupled with the wonderful European sense that clothing can be optional lead to extreme cases of culture shock. We moved the next day.

St. Christopher's is a wonderful hostel in London. They're motto is "Party hard, sleep easy," yea. Well the first part of that aside, the hostel is surrounded by little cafes and restaurants and only three doors down from the London Bridge Tube station (I now consider myself an expert on the London Tube as I have been on nearly every line and in every borrough of the city). It's also within walking distance of many tourist areas including the Globe and Tower of London.


Of course there are some things you need to know of England/ Europe in general. There seems to be some sort of strike against top sheets here. Every bed I've slept in since I've left America has a fitted sheet and a covered duvet. Also, if it is not advertised, there is no air conditioning. You, my friend will have to sleep with the window open like everyone else. Therefore you must not be concerned of bugs flying in while you are asleep as this worry makes you a germophobic (or instectaphobic?) American.

Eating in London

I love food. That is no secret, and the quickest way to get me to eat something odd it to tell me its a cultural thing. Our first night in London, we found a little restaurant that serves Fish and Chips under the gaze of the London eye. Of course, you've got to eat it like a true Brit, swear off ketchup, it's malt vinegar all the way. There was a chain restaurant just across the street from our hostel that we ate at a couple of times called "The Slug and Lettuce." It seemed to be the gathering place for many a business person or dating couple. Here I got to try Steak and Mushroom pie ( never could find the steak and kidney) with my friends and we sat for four hours just eating and talking. (This is around the time we noticed that no one sat around with their cell phones out but chose to communicate with other humans). On my last morning in town Erin and I walked to a little cafe to have a "Full English Breakfast," but I backed out when I realized that they served Bubble and Squeak on the menu. Bubble and Squeak is one of those things that you've spent your entire life hearing about- perhaps in that Dickens book you had to read as a freshman or in some random movie- but never knew what it was. Apparently it's some sort of a potato/cabbage/ anything else you have laying around the house thing (like hash I suppose). Anyway, I had that instead, but the Bubble and Squeak took a back seat to the fact that the dish came with, among other things, something very similar to baked beans- for breakfast.





Our most interesting finds, however came from the grocery story just down the street from the hostel where we bought lunch on most days. Tuna and Sweet corn seemed to be a recurring theme, was proved tasty as well. The crunchiness of the corn added a unique texture. Also, prawns (tiny shrimp like things) were everywhere as well. Including the potato chips. I found a bag of potato chips that was prawn cocktail flavored- it wasn't as bad as it sounds. Also I found a German Bratwurst flavor, but didn't get the chance to try it.

My very favorite thing, however is a piece of candy called "Flake." It's a thick ribbon of folded chocolate and I believe is made by the Cadbury company, so think Cadbury eggs, but more amazing then that. The popular thing is to stick it down into the side of soft serve ice cream. I first discovered this tasty little treat at a food stand just outside of Westminster. We'd just walked down from the Art Gallery for Evening Song (which we were too late for) and drowned our sorrows in an ice cream cone (complete with Flake) in the shade of the sanctuary.

Sightseeing in London

On to what this post should actually be about, I suppose.


I won't lie. I'd been to London once before and met the idea of going back with a little disappointment. I wanted to see something new... Oxford, Stratford Upon Avon, Canterbury, something. When I realized all we would have time for was London I was somewhat afraid that I would regret not going somewhere else. I had no idea how little I had seen in London the first time.

We spent the entire first day at the British Museum mingling with Ancient Egyptian kings, and staring at the original Rosetta Stone (no, it isn't just a computer program). At the tower of London we saw the Crown Jewels (except for the current crown because the Queen happened to be wearing it at the time. Also, they were running a new exhibit on the armor of the Kings and had the full metal armor of Henry VIII (big dude). We saw original Monet and Van Gogh (who is Dutch by the way) at the National Gallery. I was able to search out the Broad Street water pump (one of those "worlds' biggest ball of twine" moments, my mother would say) and the Evelyn Tables at the Hunterian museum in the Royal College of Surgeons.

We even searched out Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station (and found about ten other people [ read: college students] doing the same!)

I do have a confession however, I've never read Harry Potter. I've seen the movies when someone wants to go with me, but I've never been that big of a fan. I couldn't resist the picture though!




Out of everything we saw I had two favorites. One was a 19th century operating theater that had been attached to St. Thomas Hospital between 1820-1860. The theater was for female patients only and is the only operating theater left in England, perhaps Europe as the others have been converted or torn down. It was an amazing room, like the ones I've seen in pictures many times over. It was fascinating to stand on the floor and look up at the seats where medical students would have sat watching such and such procedure and to think of the surgeries that occured in the room, as the theater predates the use of Anesthesia.

My other favorite wasn't even a selection of mine, but Erin's. It was the Cabinet War rooms where Winston Churchill ran the British government during the bombing raids of London. They were deep underground, underneath White Hall and when peace was declared everyone working in the rooms straightened their papers but them in the desk drawers and cut out the lights (apparently it was the firs time the lights had been cut out in years!). They simply left and everything stayed as it was until a few years ago. The rooms themselves are in immaculate condition and the Churchill museum that is attached inside is the most state of the art museum that I've been in. Part of me would say it even surpassed the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. It's an excellent piece of Interprative History.

So that was my week in a nutshell. Of course there are many things I haven't mentioned here, perhaps they'll appear sometime in the future. In all it was a wonderful trip full of learning experiences, and beautiful scenery.

Cheers!

I've posted the rest of my pictures at this link. Feel free to look around!

Culture Shock

Pop quiz: You arrive in a country that officially makes your language the non majority. You brought no food or toilettries so the first order of business is grocery shopping. Fortunately you're with someone who has been to this country before and can show you where said store is. After that you're on your own. Cereal sounds like a decent thing to have around so you go in search of the most important ingredient: milk. Suddenly you find yourself standing in front of half a wall of milk. You assume that it's milk, because the "melk" looks similar to the English word, but there are so many choices! How do you make a educated decision on what to buy?

Answer: You don't. You go for what's ever cheapest because that's the only thing you can judge (unfortunately the amount is in Euros so you can't even compare that amount to the American price you would pay) or you pick the carton that expires on 5/6/10 (if you remember that in Europe this means the fifth of June and not the sixth of May, which was two weeks ago). So the "melk" you choose expires after all the others. Is that normal? I don't know, you might have just purchased yourself some soy "melk."

I'd forgotten the culture shock we experience when we went to Paris some five years ago now, but it has all come rushing back to me in many ways, the most prevalent being my trip to the grocery store yesterday. It's intimidating being in a different country and not speaking the native language, even when everyone knows how to speak your language.

Then of course there are more cultural things than lack of knowledge of language. I personally believe the way a society eats is revealing of it's culture. If you can master the culinary rituals, you can master just about anything and look like a pro, even if you're speaking English while doing it. Unfortunately many times we must fall and bump our heads before we take those first steps. So it's ok to loiter in front of a restaurant to see if people just sit down randomly at the outdoor cafes, all the while knowing everyone has spotted you as an American, and try to enjoy sitting at your table and talking with your friends even though you finished your meal half an hour ago. We rush too much anyway.

Today has been a day with many cultural bobbles, but I've learned a lot too, like people don't start to eat dinner until 6 even though they start drinking at noon, don't try and smile at people you meet in the street (they won't respond), don't be afraid to ask for the English menu at a restaurant, and best of all the steps of the St. Servaas Basilica is the best place to sit and eat pistachio ice cream. I have three months here and I'm going to fake it until I make it. Until then, yes I'll eat my french fries with the mayonnase the waiter brought instead of asking for ketchup. Who comes to Europe to be an American?