Munich

Exactly one week ago, I left for Munich with my friend, Sarah. We left late at night on Thursday and traveled to Amsterdam to catch our overnight bus. After a painfully long 14 hours (but no border check!), we arrived around noon on Friday at the campsite we were staying at. Our campsite was mostly filled with Americans and Australians. Throughout the weekend, we met quite a few other exchange students from the US, which was really nice. Anyway, after we got our tents, we dropped our stuff off and headed into the city center. I'd been to Munich once before five years ago with my family to visit my brother when he lived in Germany, and I was surprised to realize that I could actually remember significant parts of the city and where to go! It was really exciting.

We took a train to Marienplatz, and the first thing we saw coming out of the station was the Rathaus (New Town Hall). It is such a beautiful building!

Rathaus (New Town Hall)

Also, all transportation was free while we were in Munich because of Oktoberfest -- that was super nice! Our Friday was filled with visiting churches, cafes, eating German food, going to the Hofbrauhaus (one of the biggest and most popular beer gardens), and many other touristy things. It was so much fun!

A church in the city center

The Residenz (royal residence in Munich city center)

Gardens by the Residenz

A tower of the Frauenkirche, one of the most famous churches

Sarah and me in Munich! :)

The next day, we woke up and got ready to go to Oktoberfest! There were SO many people and most of them were dressed up in lederhosen and dirndls (traditional German costumes). It was really fun to see everyone dressed up, the girls in braids and the guys in nice hats. It was kind of funny to see all the foreigners (like us...but we weren't dressed up) wearing the costumes too. The atmosphere was amazing and so different from the first time I'd been to Munich, which was during Christmas. We watched the parade, where all the different breweries had horses and marching bands playing. Then, at noon, we somehow managed to get into a tent, even though people had been lining up since 7am to get into them. We were very lucky that weekend. We even managed to find a table of really nice Germans who were kind enough to offer us both a seat! The tent was so lively -- everyone was singing and drinking and laughing and meeting new people from all around the world. It was a lot of fun!

New friends at the Paulaner tent!

On our last day, Sunday, we went back to Marienplatz and climbed Peterskirche, the church across from the Rathaus, in order to see the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, a kind of weird and interesting show of dolls dancing and bells going off. The view from up there was spectacular!

View from Peterskirche

We spent the day eating more German food, visiting Schloss Nymphenburg (a castle in the city), walking around town and visiting more churches, and finally going to the Olympic Stadium of 1972. It was a great and relaxing day!

Schloss Nymphenburg

Gardens of Schloss Nymphenburg

Munich Olympic Stadium of 1972

We headed back to the campsite at 10pm that night and got back home around 10:30 in the morning. We were exhausted but so excited about all the traveling ahead of us because we know that this is just the beginning. Until next time! :)

Rotterdam

On Monday, I started off the day as usual, waking up early and going to Dutch class with my Belgian unit mate. In class, my unit mate and I found out that we both needed to be in Rotterdam the next day, but she needed to arrive that night already. Somehow, she convinced me that it would be a good idea for me to go with her that night and spend the night at her friend's so that we could go together. It was a terrible idea. I was almost falling asleep on the couch by 10pm, and our train left was leaving at 11pm. Besides one girl, I'm older than the entire unit, so they all keep telling me my tendency to fall asleep everywhere is because of my old age. I am 20. But ok.

Anyway, it was a nice trip despite my exhaustion, and it was nice to spend time with her. We arrived in Rotterdam late Monday night and arrived at her friend's house. We had our priorities in order, so the first thing we did was set off on her friend's bike in search of a McDonald's. We found one that was closed and continued looking for like an hour (we were really hungry...), and eventually, we finally found a 24-hour one. The prices here are ridiculous!!! I was explaining all the American prices to my friend in comparison with the Dutch menu, and she thought it was odd that I had basically memorized the entire American McDonald's menu. One McChicken was 3.45 euros, and the cheapest meal was 6.70!!! But it's ok, we were so hungry that it was worth it.

After getting home after an adventurous night, we had coffee together in the morning and split ways because I had to meet my Museum Studies class at a museum there (the original reason I came to Rotterdam). It was a nice museum with many artists I'd only read about in my AP Art History textbook, so that was pretty cool!

The city itself was not extremely impressive to me. It is among the top three largest cities in the Netherlands (along with Amsterdam and the Hague), but in my opinion, it looks quite industrial and plain. The harbor was pretty, but other than that, I think I really prefer Utrecht. I was so happy to come home, even though it was just one day.

I'm now packing to get ready for my trip this weekend with my UW friend Sarah! We are going to Munich tonight -- can't wait! I'll blog about my trip next week! :) Below are a few pictures from Rotterdam and a few from Open Monument Day in Utrecht too (a day where all cities have buildings/private homes/historical sites open for free to the public).

Garden of the Dom Church

Inside the church

Saturday Flower Market!

With Cassy, my unit mate, in Rotterdam

At the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam

First Week of School

My first week of school was great! I am taking Intro to Dutch Studies, Museum Studies, Public Policy Studies, and Crime & Context. They are all great classes, and I am having so much fun learning Dutch. My pronunciation is slowly improving, but it still sounds like I'm trying to spit at the person I'm talking to half the time. The classes here are all very small, so the largest class I have is 28 students. It feels like high school again, but it is nice to actually know my professors, unlike the 300-student lectures at UW. A lot of people have Fridays off...I, unfortunately, do not, but that's ok! I also love how all my unit mates and I keep going in and out from our unit in between classes. It really does just feel like a giant family where we all live in the same house. It's been a lot of fun! We have a pretty centralized living room, unlike a lot of the other buildings, so I love that we get to see each other often, and we somehow end up playing games almost every night.

Yesterday, I attended an Intro Day for international students with the main university (Utrecht University). It was a lot of fun exploring Utrecht with my "family" and meeting other internationals. We took a boat ride in the main canal (Oudegracht), visited the Dom Tower, played pool at a bar, had lunch together, and much more. It was a great experience!

I also had a good time making a home-cooked meal at night with my friends. We made pasta, which turned out really well, considering that we can only cook on hot plates in our units. None of them have stoves installed, so we are all just provided with hot plates. The distribution is a bit odd though. My unit has one hot plate for twelve people. We'll manage though!

Lastly, I just wanted to announce to you all that I can now ride my bike without any hands on the handlebars (besides turning and braking)!!! I was pretty proud of myself the first time I did it, and I still amaze myself every time. I can also pull something out of my closed backpack while riding a bike and then reclose the backpack, as well as enter directions into Google Maps on my phone while riding. I'm pretty excited. Riding my bike is one of the things I love most about living here -- it's so accessible and so liberating!

My phone died halfway through the day yesterday, but here's some pictures below still!

Meeting up with UW friends! (Lucie, on the left, is a Belgian international student at UCU and studied abroad at UW last year while I was there. Sarah, on the right, is an exchange student like me and also from Spokane!)

Bikes everywhere!!!

I finally saw a windmill, yay!

View from the boat

The Dom Tower (still on the boat)

Me on a boat!