"Hey Mambo,,, Mambo Italiano..."

It's Italy, the land under the hot Mediterranean Sun where the languid smell of the Venetian lagoon hangs in the air and there is enough gelato to send you quite happily into diabetic shock. I have been dreaming of an Italian vacation since I left Europe five years ago and am just soaking it all in. To be completely honest for a minute though, I find Italy a rather grungy country, lots of graffitti, and the fact that the building are all brown and tan don't help the fact that the sun is smoldering outside. I am, however determined not to let this disappoint me, because IT'S ITALY!!!!

Let me fill you in on the last three days:

Venenzia (Venice for you Americans):

First of all, there weren't as many canals as you would think. The island if really accessable by foot, but that one canal that you always think about when you see Venice in the moves is called the Grand Canal and it goes straight through the center of the Island. It's the one where you see all of the buidlings that have steps leading straight down to the water where you just pull the boat up. Yup, that's Venice. The last night we were there our waterbus took us through the canal at sunset and it was beautiful.

For all of you ladies out there the best thing to do in Venice is to go shopping, and there are two things that everyone must buy. The first is a Venetian mask (which I actually did not buy because I have no idea how to get it home and I had my eye on other things) the second is Murano glass. We went out to the island of Murano our second night in town and watched them make a vase which was so cool. some of the designs are so elaborate I have no idea where to even begin. Like these ducks!



My big purchase came in the form of a ring. I had been looking for one to go with my class ring I received in May and Mom made the brilliant suggestion of waiting until Europe. I fell hopelessly in love in Venice and decided to take it home with me!

Lake Como:

I had actually never heard of this little town before, but Blake had been before and was excited to bring us. By far the best part of the day was when we rented about paddle boat to go out on the lake for an hour. Imagine 2 guys, around 6 feet 4 trying to paddle and steer with their knees shoved again their chest and Christin (my roomate) and I sitting in the back with our legs shoved into the back of these iron seats, there was no room to even breath! That wasn't going to stop Ryan and Blake from trading drivers. They do a flip flop in the middle of the lake and then the next thing I know the steering wheel is in Blake's hands!I went into panic mode with visions of us floating in a lake for

hours until someone realized that we couldn't steer. Luckily though the wheel just slid right back in and we continued on our way. No matter how clumsily we clanked along. Regardless though, Como is an absolutely beautiful city, a sight not to be missed from the mountian. Oh, and random history fact for the day: Mousolini was captures in Lake Como just before his execution in 1945.



Milano:

The fashion capital of the world! This was the first time I got to see parts of Italy that didn't have that grunge factor that I was talking about earlier. We spent a large portion of the day near the Duomo and even took a trip up to the top! Then we wandered around the shopping district for a bit, enjoyed walking through Guicci, Louis Vitton, and Prada stores and buying absolutely nothing! I enjoyed studying the mannequins in the windows for new styles though. Oh, and get this, I grabbed a Glamor magazine just before I left Holland. Guess what's coming back into style? Uh, shoulder pads. I'm not sure how I feel about this one.



So that's basically life in Italy so far. I think I've practically eaten my body weight in gelato so far, my personal favorite is a pistachio and tiramesu combination. (They're good separately, not so much together.) And this is just the beginning, tomorrow I'm heading to Roma!

P.S. Fun History fact #2. I told you the Venetian masks were all the rage, but there
are two styles of them. The first is the typical painted masquerade mask, but the other one looks like this guy. If I had gotten a mask this what it would have looked like (understand what I mean now by my saying I had no room). Ugly isn't it? And a little creepy. Well, there's story behind this one. This is exactly what a doctor would have looked like during the Bubonic Plague. They wore the black robes as a sign of their profession, but the masks came in for another reason. The noses were made super long so they doctor could put herbs and spices up there in an effort to keep the disease away. Unfortunately the best thing the herbs did was scent the smell of thousands of sick and dying people. But it gives the doctors a distinct and incredibly creepy look.

Whoohoo!!!

Tomorrow at 3:00 my summer officially begins!!!!

Whoohoo!!!

Aside from the one class I have to go to tomorrow, however, I finished my coursework this morning at 10:30 with my history final. Boy, have I had the most magnificent day.

After my final, it all started with a nap... (you know that had to be in there somewhere), after that a trip to get some money and do a little packing and laundry in preparation for my summer vacation. At 13:00, I indulged in my new favorite addiction. I am no officially a "Who's the Boss" a-holic. I've spent the majority of my rest time watching old episodes on you tube (though I tell myself this is me basically watching tv because there's never anything on over here). I am currently lamenting the fact that Sony only released the 1st season on DVD, but nonetheless I am enjoying my new infatuation with the relationship of Angela and Tony. After "Who's the Boss" went off I took a walk, that lasted for 3 hours.

The most amazing history nerd moment of the day? I found the place of the city walls where D'Artagnon was killed in the 1600. You know D'Artagnon, right? He's of the "Three Musketeers" fame, but he was a real historical figure before Alexander Dumas wrote a story about him and he died fighting the Spanish in Maastricht. There's a statue of him on the sight. (It's beautiful, too) and the bottom is inscribed with the ever popular motto, "Tous pour un, un pour tous," All for one, one for all.

In all, I had a marvelous day, my last full day in Maastricht. When I get back here there are going to be too many formalities and meetings to indulge in any exploring or even revisiting of favorite sights. Which brings me to my next point.

I'm going to Italy!!!!

Whoohoo!!!
(there are alot of things to Whoohoo about today)

I've been waiting form my Italy trip pretty much sense I started Baylor in the fall of 2007. I'm so excited to actually get there, you have absolutely no idea. We leave tomorrow directly from class and start 2 1/2 weeks of individual travel. In this time I'm going to see Venice, Lake Como, Milan, Rome, London (again), Dublin, and Edinburgh. The good news is that I've protected all the documents on my computer so I can take my laptop with me.

Whoohoo!!!
(told ya)

Mom actually made this suggestion, though I think it was just a scheme to make it so we can have the occasional skype chat. But it's going to be beneficial for you too! A laptop means internet and internet means blog posts.

Whoohoo!!!

Not every day, mind you, but when I get the opportunity. So that's all for now. Wish me safe travels and I'll see you when I can!

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 ;)

Ode to Tom

A poem

by Lindsay

Oh dearest Tom, of the comfy shoes,
your soft material has gotten me through
the hardest walking of my life
(except perhaps the camping trip that cause me so much strife!)

I cannot imagine what my life would be
if you were to fall apart on me
and expose my tippy toes to the sun
into a ratty pair of flip flops you would become

To buy a new pair means blisters galore
calluses and corns and too many sores
I don't have time for a 'getting to know you'
so for now, my dear you must simply do.

Then in Maastricht you will stay, I promise you rest
and I'll fly home and sincerely do my best
to find another pair as faithful as you
oh, Tom of the wonderful, comfortable shoes.

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.

De Haag

Have you ever heard of De Haag, the Netherlands? No? Really? Then it doesn't mean much to you if I were to tell you that I didn't post yesterday because our Dutch Art History class went on "excursion" to De Haag yesterday. It's really a shame that no one has heard of it because its the capital of the Netherlands! Really, it isn't Amsterdam, I promise. For this reason I'm glad that Dr. De Groot took us there instead of another city because there was no way I was going to De Haag on my own, and even if I had (seriously there was no chance of this)I wouldn't in a million years guess what this building was:



What about you? Any ideas? Perhaps seeing it from another angle.



It's the governmental seat of the Netherlands. Dr. De Groot likened it to the White House and that little round tower right there, that's the Prime Minister's office. Here's where a huge cultural gap widened between us and Dr. De Groot and it was interesting to watch. None us could believe that we could simply walk up to the Prime Minister's office and take random picture of it. There wasn't a single guard in sight, and it only got better.



The building is a giant castle that has been built larger and larger over the centuries. It has a little thoroughfare that people use to cut through town and a courtyard. Apparently the lawmakers work all day but every so often they need a break for fresh air, so they simply walk downstairs into the courtyard perhaps get ice cream from the vendor (which by the way is an Italian ice cream vendor) and they walk around the building. It's as simple as that. Oh, and there was one more sight on our little tour.



The in town palace! Long live the Queen!

So begins the Finals push

My Dutch Art History final was today. Technically means one down, one today and then its "watch out Italy here I come!" Oh yea, there's a couple of papers due in there somewhere. I can't believe we're almost to the long trip. Before I know it I'll be gearing up to come home. But here's a testament to what a wonderful time I've been having:

That's one post card from every city I've been to.

Today has just been a rainy afternoon in Maastricht. We're sitting at out desks with the windows open listening to the water dribble down the vinyl awning. For the time being there isn't any stress, just a lot of focused energy, so I'll leave it at that.
Hope all is well! Now it's back to the paper writing!

"I Am"*

I Am


*Music and Lyrics by Mark Schultz






I am the maker of the Heavens
I am the bright and morning star
I am the breath of all Creation
Who always was
And is to come



I am the One who walked on water
I am the One who calmed the seas
I am the miracles and wonders
So come and see
And follow me
You will know




I am the fount of living water
The risen Son of man
The healer of the broken
And when you cry



I am your savior and redeemer
Who bore the sins of man
The author and perfecter
Beginning and the end
I am







I am the spirit deep inside you
I am the word upon your heart
I am the One who even knew you
Before your birth
Before you were




I am the fount of living water
The risen Son of man
The healer of the broken
And when you cry
I am your savior and redeemer
Who bore the sins of man
The author and perfecter
Beginning and the end
I am




Before the Earth (I am)
The universe (I am)
In every heart (I am)
Oh, where you are (I am)
The Lord of lords (I am)
The King of Kings (I am)
The Holy lamb (I am)
Above all things



I am the fount of living water
The risen Son of man
The healer of the broken
And when you cry
I am your savior and redeemer
Who bore the sins of man
The author and perfecter
Beginning and the end
I am


Yes, I am almighty God your father
The risen son of man
The healer of the broken
And when you cry,
I am your savior and redeemer
Who bore the sins of man
The author and perfecter
Beginning and the end
I am

"Water, water everywhere/ and all the boards did shrink..."~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

What do you think of when you think of visiting Europe? Do you think of visiting Paris? or Spain? What about London? That one seems to be very popular. Have you ever thought about Sweden or Norway? No, me neither. That's what makes this past weekend so Amazing!

While the Baylor in Maastricht program gives up three Month Eurail passes, sometimes there isn't enough time in a weekend to go someplace further away and sightseeing. In that case let me introduce you to this little gem, it's called Ryan Airlines. Ryan Air is a discount airline that services Europe, and when I say discount, I mean discount. My flight to Sweden cost me a whopping 7.00 Euro, that's a little less than $14.00 for you American currency fans, and the flight home from Oslo cost a little less than that.

So Friday morning me and four of my Maastricht buddies boarded a plane bound for Stockholm, Sweden for a bit of Scandinavian bliss. Here's what I saw: lots and lots of boats, ranging in age from new to old, to holy cow that thing still exists?

Stockholm was my favorite for some reason I can't explain in rational terms. I think perhaps we had a very relaxed day. All that was really scheduled was a trip to the Vasa Museum so we got to take out time wandering through souvenir shops and little markets along the way. Oh, and don't forget strolling by the harbor.














I've spent the past three summers working the USS Cairo Museum at Vicksburg National Military Park, and I have heard the Vasa referenced at least once a month by some well travelled retired couple, usually the wife as the husband has already disappeared somewhere into the depths of the museum leaving her to entertain herself i. e. talk to the Park Ranger. "Have you ever heard of the Vasa." "Oh, you should definitely take a trip to see the Vasa" (said as if this trip would take only a couple of hours from Vicksburg). "The Vasa is the best preserved ship I've ever seen!" Really, I've heard just about everything in connection to the Vasa. I knew most of the story, I just hadn't seen it yet. Now I have, and I can say that everything everyone ever mentioned about it.... it's all true.

(These pictures turned out really dark, so I messed with the brightness so you can see them better. This, however makes them look slightly strange I think.)

The Vasa was commissioned by the King of Sweden in 1628, (so think... Spanish Armada, end of Elizabeth's reign, around that time period). It must have been absolutely beautiful for its time with all the decorations and painted sculptures that adorned her facade. Unfortunately this wasn't going to last too long because the ship had not longer been afloat more than 30 minutes before it sank. Why you ask? Well, the Vasa was one of the first ships that was built with not one, but two gun decks, this meant she weighed more and this fact was coupled with the problem that she was disporportionately tall compared to her width. She was top heavy and stared to lag to once side. Since the gun portals were so close to the water line, in goes the water and down goes the ship. She was recovered in 1961 (around the same time as the Cairo, interestingly enough) and now it the central sight to see in Stockholm.


Friday night our Swedish adventures ended, I am sad to say and we all boarded a train for an eleven hour trip to Oslo, but this time we had a sleeper compartment with I thought was really cool. I spent several hours hanging off the edge of my bunk taking pictures at the scenery as it wizzed by at 200+ miles an hour.

Saturday morning brought us to the Norwegian Folk Museum that was primarily about the cultural traditions of Norway. I'm ashamed to admit it, but it took me back to my American Girl doll days and my love for all things Kirsten. She was really supposed to be Swedish but the clothes and furniture all looked the same! There were a couple of permanent museums and then the village which is basically made up of buildings from the 1600s and later that were taken down and moved to the museum. It was a nice little stroll.



Then we high tailed it over to the Viking Museum to see move boats that had sunk and then dug up. Except this time they were older. I know what you're thinking, Lindsay how much older can you get than the Vasa? Uh, alot older actually, and since I haven't seen any Roman stuff yet, I think these ships are the oldest that I've seen since I've been over here. There was one ship in particular, the Gokstad Ship, that was amazingly preserved and it was built in 810 AD!



Can you imagine, the people settled Iceland and Greenland and made it all the way to Canada from Norway in little boats like these...

That was about it for my Scandinavian adventure. Oh, and my interesting food find of the trip was a grilled Moose Hotdog. Yea, instead of ketchup or mustard they put potato salad on top. Yummy.

Bye, bye, Holland and good luck!

I'm off once again! This time were heading out for a nice long weekend in Norway and Sweden. Who knows what'll happen in Scandinavia! My biggest disappoinment is that I won't get to see the World Cup Championship Sunday night at 8:30. It's Holland V. Spain. Keep me up to date, will ya?

The Art of Progress

America is a really young country. I have a tendency to forget this. In all honesty, I think of the progress we've made over the years and sometimes it makes me a little sad. About 150 years ago America was only have settled, there were miles and miles of undiscovered land lying perfect and untouched.There were hundreds of buffalo that grazed through the fields and birds flew high in they sky. In my opinion, American progression into a modern society is bittersweet. Yes, we are the technological masters of the world, we live in what is perhaps the safest country with books and paintings and many, many other beautiful things. But in order to have these things we have crisscrossing asphalt through what used to be beautiful landscapes and massive hordes of people trampling up and down paved sidewalks.

This feeling of loss isn't here in Europe, because there was never a moment before people.In fact, progress here stands as a beacon to human ingenuity and is incorporated into everyday life effortlessly. The past isn't sacrificed for the future.


This is the St. Servaas bridge. It stretched across the Maas river and connects the two sides. If your interested in getting to the train station or the movie theater you're going to have to cross this bridge (or another just like it). The original bridge that sat in this location was built by the Romans who originally settled the city, but after that bridge fell into disuse, this one was built in the 1200s. Today it's still used, though only as a pedestrian bridge. Regardless of cars or not, it sits at the heart of the city. After eating at one of the outdoor cafes you can take a stroll across this bridge and watch the sun set.

Here's a little local favorite among all the Baylor kids. It's the Selexyz bookstore.

Talk about Heaven on Earth! (Pun is absolutely intended here). Not only is this the biggest bookstore I've ever seen, it's the most creative use of ancient architecture that I've seen as well! This bookstore is complete with coffee shop (at the altar!) and carries books in Dutch, French, Spanish, German, and English (the English section is really big, and I've successfully refrained from buying anything! Go me!) It's interesting to go in here and just study for a little while, the frescoes still glow against the ceiling and all the tomb sites are still marked (I assumed the graves are still there, but I don't know that to be fact.)


When I was taking a walk around the old city center ( ok, so perhaps I was a little lost...) this past weekend I found this.

This is the original city wall that circled around Maastricht when she first was nothing more than a fortress city on a river. It was built in 1229. Look at the coolest part, though. In the foreground is a door. That is somebody's house. You can't see it but there are other doors that line directly across from the wall down the alley way. This part of town belonged to all the tanneries, so houses here are situated between the first city wall and a small river! It's actually quite a beautiful part of town.


Combining the past and present is not something unique to Maastricht. It's present in most European cities, Paris, Munich, Rome. I find this aspect interesting. It is as if to say, "we've progressed! No regrets!" Perhaps one day I'll be able to say thing about America. One day I won't be quite so bitter sweet about the industrialization of our country. I wonder what of our buildings will be incorporated into everyday life in 400 years!