First days in Leiden

I am home!!

2006-01-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

Picture 1: Bekah and me in Barcelona
Picture 2: Me in a Jewish Memorial in Berlin
Picture 3: Prague
Picture 4: the guys from S. Carolina
Picture 5: Me in front of the Louve!

So as most of you know I took a very long trip. For the past few weeks I have traveled to 5 countries! Although it was a fabulous time, it was very tiring. Our first stop was to Berlin. The train there got cancelled, but we eventually made it there in one peice (but a lil sick after the smokers car). Berlin was a pretty cool place, I would probably never go back though. We saw the Berlin wall, Check Point Charlie, Hitlers Bunker, and a fabulous chocolate shop. Our next destination was to Prague (my city choice). Prague was beautiful! We spent a nice Christmas there! For Christmas Eve, we went to a Chinese Resteraunt with some guys from South Carolina (there pics are above) and a lil Chinese girl who couldnt speak English. After this we went down to Charles bridge drank some Gluiwine (hot red wine) and chilled. For Christmas we drug the guys with us to a horriable puppet theater...haha oh well! And then after that we went to a pub and enjoyed some goulosh and beer. Prague was very nice, but also very poor and a 'lil scary at times. Bekah saw some guy with a knife in the train station, a lil scary! From there we went back to Germany, to Munich. Munich was wonderful, very cozy (gezellig). We went to the haufbraugh (cant spell that) house and had giant pretzles with giant beers! From Germany we headed to Paris. Paris was an interesting experience. It took us 3 hours to find our hotel which was located in ghettoville about 20 miles out of Paris, I wouldnt be suprised if that is where the riots were. Because we were stuck so far out we only made it into the city 3 times. I saw the all the famous sights! The weather was horriable there as well, good thing Bekah and I came prepared with our LEG WARMERS. Yes I said it, leg warmers!! I loved them and still do. Do not be suprised if you catch me wearing them! From Paris we took a night train to Madrid. Bekah and I really just wanted to go back to Holland when we met our roommates. A crazy Spanish lady with a crazy husband who liked to yell a lot...in SPANISH of course. Bekah and I did our best to converse with the native speakers, it did not work out to well. Madrid was a nice place. The people in our hostel were fabulous, very nice. We also met Jose there, he is a friend of my great spanish speaking friend Lyndsay. We met up with Jose and he took us out for a night out of the town. We went to a couple of clubs, but sadley, because my jeans were wet and I had no nice shoes, I was not allowed in one bar...how rude! But nethetheless, we had a fun time. Jose had a lot to say about life, it was very hilarious actually. Madrid was nice, but Barcelona was even nicer!! The weather was awesome and so were the people we met. The beaches there were fricking awesome! We met a nice guy from Australia, a guy from Mexico, and a girl from Germany, we had so much fun talking every night. We finally made it back to Leiden in once peice...I can't believe I traveled like that alone with Bekah! We should be proud of ourselves!! GO US!

"I am an Irish Pirate"

2006-01-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Enough said...hehe we love you Michael (most of the time)

The song goes as follows:
I am an Irish Pirate I have a wooden arm
I am an Irish Pirate where are me lucky charms?

Maastricht, Brussels, and fun times

2005-12-13T04:55:00.000-08:00

The guys at the Beach on Thursday. It was a fun time! (Kyle, Joe, Mark)

Pancake house, our last time all together before we leave :(

our Ice skating rink in Leiden, Winter Festival (I won this lil cutie from a claw machine...I got it for the best roommie in the world! You know who you are girl!)

Hello to all and to all a happy day! Well folks I will tell you about my exciting adventures I had over the past few days. On Friday, Bekah, Deyenne, and I made our way to Maastricht, a 3 hour train ride to the southern part of the Netherlands. We enjoyed venturing through a Christmas market that was located in caves...muahahaha. That was pretty neat! Next we took the train into down town and did some serious shopping. Bekah and I both bought a pair of shoes. I got a pair of sexy black boots and Bekah got a pair of sassy white heels (she looks damn good in them too!) We enjoyed a fabulous dinner, and I enjoyed a fabulous martini (only 2 euro!) Speaking of martini, Bekah, Deyenne, and I are getting all sassed out and going to a cocktail bar on Thursday in Den Hauge. I am very excited. According to Deyenne, we are to get soo wasted that we cant remember how to get home (this worries me a little bit). But I suppose...you gotta live it up!! So this past weekend I went to Brussels all by myself!!! And believe it or not I made it to Kara's work. I had to switch trains and trams a total of 5 times...and I did it! I also did some serious shopping on Saturday before Kara got off of work. I loved it. After Kara got off we went to a bar where we got some strong drinks! I think the bar tender liked us a little too much. We went back to her cute new appartment and watched waterboy...it was great! On Sunday we relaxed. We made some American Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!!!!! They were fabulous, certousy of Kara's mom. On Sunday night we went bowling, I actually beat Arnuad. I scored a 118!!! Probably my best score ever. Poor poor Kara...she got a 32 (HAHAHAHA). Well I do not know if I will update my blog before I leave, this could be the last one. I head out this Sunday, so wish me luck!!!
Oh yes...Euro Mullets are the best!

Brussels with the family

2005-12-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

Okay, for all of you who read my blog yesterday, I am now going to edit it. Last weekend I took my family to Brussels. We left on Friday and came back on Sunday. On Friday I took my family to the grand place, which is pretty much the centeral square in Brussels. It was soo beautiful there. There was a Christmas Market, a huge nativity scene, and Christmas trees everywhere. I enjoyed some hot chocolate from the market. That night we went out for dinner, and the man who lured us into his restaurant asked me, "Sprek je Nethederlands?" I was like.."no, ik sprek engels." I was so excited because I was in Brussels and someone automatically thouht I was dutch..kind of exciting. Friday night we went to the Delarian bar and had some beers. This place has over 2,000 beers that come from all over the world. The most expensive beer there was 100 Euro. I will now explain the picture below. My dad was being a little careless and had to take a dump sooner than he expected. I told him to hold it, but he couldnt. He left poop tracks all over the museum in Rotterdam (another trip). Just kidding!!! The "poop" tracks are actually globs of chocolate!!! Yummy!!! Okay, so on Saturday in Brussels we went shopping, bought a crap load of chocolate and ate some belgium waffels, which are the best! Saturday night we met up with Kara and Tony & Guy (where she works). We then went to her cute new appartment where she cooked us a great dinner! Next we went down to the grand place and walked around the Christmas market. Arnuad, Kara, and I rode the ferris wheel...that was great! We then admired the ice rink. We all enjoyed a great beer after in a cute beer tent by the market. I had the Kriek beer...my favorite. My dad, me, Kara, and Arnaud stayed up until 12:30...that is way past my dad's bedtime, what a trooper! The picture of the blue building is a church in the grand place, all the buildings were light up just like this..it was soo beautiful. In the other picture my mother is admiring one of the many chocolate fountains. And the cat in which she is holding is the one and only...Baily (one of the cutest cats in the world). I will miss him soo much when I leave. Just to let you all know I take off next Sunday for my Journey...This is my travel schedule....
Dec. 18-22: Berlin
Dec. 22-25: Prague
Dec. 25-29: Munich
Dec. 29-3: Paris
Jan. 3-6: Madrid
Jan. 6-9: Barcelona

Tomorrow (Friday December 9): I am going to Maastricht tomorrow with my neighbor Deyenne and Bekah. We are going to the caves that have Christmas markets. Then we are going into town and going.....SHOPPING!!!! I am either spending the night at her dad's or going to Brussels again. Yes, I am going to Brussels again this weekend before my finals. Except this time I am going alone! I wanted to spend some extra time with Kara before I leave...:( Tear. I can't wait to see all of my friends!!!!!!! wooohoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving and Weekend Fun!

2005-11-27T12:23:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!! How are you? I wanted to let everyone know that my parents arrived saftley on Thanksgiving at 12:30 my time. They enjoyed a great feast at my school with some of my proffs. All of us brought a little something to dinner to make it complete. Bekah and I made stuffing, fruit salad, and corn. Steef, our program director baked a turkey, it was delicious. It is pretty special we got turkey, because it is very expensive to import one. There were actually 9 pies for desert, people went a little crazy with the pies I think. Haley made a pie with a dough hand cut out on the top, it was supposed to be a turkey, but my dad called it the high five pie...it was pretty funny. On Friday I took my parents to the pancake house for lunch, they have HUGE pancakes that are super good! It was so rainy and windy we could hardly walk anywhere. There were umbrellas on the sidewalks broken everywhere...it was fricking out of control that day. On Saturday I took them to Amsterdam. Even though my father wanted to go to the red light district, I suggested that wouldn't be a good idea :) We went to the Heineken Experience, the Van Gogh museum, and the Anne Frank House. It was a pretty good time. I actually led my parents around Amsterdam and knew what I was doing and where I was going, Bekah was so proud of me when I told her. The picture below with my mom and dad is at the Heineken experience, my mother does not like beer so much. On Saturday night I thought it would be fun to have a girls night. At 10:30 Bekah, Deyenne and I went to the "24" hour liquor store that closes at 11:30... Only 4 people are allowed in this ghetto place at a time. So we had to each wait our turn to go inside. We got some redbull, strawberry vodka, apple stuff, and some cranberry stuff. The cranky storekeeper told us "vier mensen" (4 people) and then he told us to hurry up, and we just got in there! This man was very rude, he only gave us 1 bag for 3 bottles of liquor and 6 redbulls, keep in mind we walk everywhere. I think he needed a nap. That night us girls played some BS with Deyenne's authentic spice girl cards...they were the coolest thing since bouncy balls...yes I said it, bouncy balls. We also enjoyed having a little dance/singing party of our own at 3:00 am, I do not think the neighbors were too happy with us. But this is okay, because my neighbor enjoys making animal noises at 7:30 in the morning...DAILY. We stayed up until 4:30 until we decided it was time to "hit the sack." If you have not guessed already the picture of Deyenne and me with our hands around are faces is supposed to represent vogue...Because we are super models. Oh yes you can clear see the spice girl cards in Deyenne's hand in the upper picture. If you were unaware, Deyenne lives next to me and she is the one that owns little Baily (the kitty). So I only have like 3 weeks left of school, I cannot believe this!!! I am kind of scared to think about going home...it is going to be culture shock all over again. I will actually have to drive a car, that is so weird to think about. Anyways, I must be off, I will blogg sometime soon!!!

Rotterdam fun

2005-11-09T04:55:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!!!
Once again I am going to write in my blogg, so you can all know what I did yesterday. Well as you probably already know, I went to Rotterdam. And for those of you who do not know much about Rotterdam it is the second largest city in the Netherlands, and its the newest as well. In World War II it was bombed very bad and they lost a ton of buildings. So today, they have some of the most modern buildings in the world! They hired a bunch of different artists and architects (even from USA) to build new and more sufficient buildings. If you look below my pictures are actually out of order, so I will explain them up here, then you can refer to them below. After first arrived in Rotterdam, we walked by, I guess you would say the Central Plaza. The Central Plaza is huge and the ground is actually made out of many different materials, including metal with different kinds of divits, woods, and some green weird material (this part used to be rubber, but it had to be removed because too many people were falling and breaking bones on them). You can find a picture of this square at the bottom of this page. There are also huge red light poles that were invented so they could move around, it is actually pretty cool! In the background you can see a grey building with some yellow letters, this building is a movie theater and was the biggest one in the Netherlands until Amsterdam out did them. What is interesting about this building is that it is made out of plastic. That probably was not the best idea...Considering it does not handle weather damage very well.
On to the next part of the day...We visited a museum that had a ton of modern as well as old art, it was a spectacular place, sorry no photos of the museum guys...I know you are all so sad :)

After the museum Audrey, Bekah, and I had a sandwich at a little sandwich place (imagine that). While we were enjoying our lunch, the best rapper from South America approached us. I know...I could not believe it either! We were actually in the presence of an African American, South American rapper (HAHAHA). After about 5 minutes if trying to make out what he was saying, we figured out he wanted us to give him 1.75 Euro then he would rap us a little tune. I told the odd looking man to leave! The crazy people you will meet...I tell ya!

Before I forget, there was also another place by the square we walked by, it was a building for people who use drugs. Now I am not talking soft drugs here, I am talking cocaine, heroin, and meth. The Dutch look at drug users not as addicts but as people who are sick and need to be treated. This building actually houses "addicts" (what I call them) and provides them with any kind of illegal substance they could ever want, with fresh needles. The goal is to get these people off the streets so violence and robbery decreases. This idea has actually been proven to be very successful. I know the Netherlands is a crazy place!
Okay, on to more pictures. The picture with yellow boxed houses is where we visited next. They were soo awesome!!! You can see some of our group actually sitting inside the box below as well. There is actually a little community of houses just like these all connected to each other, it was the coolest thing I have ever seen!

It was a beautiful fun day! We got back around 5:00, I took a little nap, had a little dinner, then watched Desperate House Wives, and Gilmore Girls over in Dianne's room with the kitty kitty. Kitty likes to sleep in my room and cuddle with me sometimes, he is sooo cute!
Tot ziens mi Vrienden

This is a fun statue of a mom holding a baby.

Spelling mistakes

2005-11-05T07:04:00.000-08:00

Hello friends!
I have been recently informed by two friends that I have a lot of spelling mistakes in my bloggs. I will try to start editing my blogs before I post them :). I usually just type really fast and post them without spell check and without reviewing first. hehehe. I hope you are all having a fun time in Iowa and in Minnesota. I miss everyone so much and will be home on January 10th!!!! yipeeee

Trip to Texel

2005-11-01T03:07:00.000-08:00

Hello to all my family and friends!
This past weekend was a great time. My study abroad group..all 10 of us and our program director traveled to Texel. For most of you that probably do not know, Texel is an island in the Netherlands. We took a ferry to get there as well. We left on Friday and got back to Leiden on Sunday night. On Friday we arrived around 6:00 pm. Steef (our program director) suggested we go to the grocery store and get groceries for the next couple of days. It might be hard to see in the picture, but the bikes lined up in a row (our main source of transportation on the island) have boxes on the back of them, this is how we carried our food home with us. On the way we had a few little accidents with falling boxes and food everywhere! However, we all eventually made it back to our cute little cottage with no bruises or damaged food. We enjoyed Friday night by eating some soup and having some drinks. We all slept in the same room, which was a interesting experience. I enjoyed the sounds of Hayle snoring and Bekah talking in her sleep :). On Saturday we had an exciting day ahead of us. We first went to a little cute museum by the ocean..The beachcomber Museum. After this we took a shrimp boat tour.
Here you can see the picture of the net that they had to tear open in order to get the shrimp. One of the cords snapped and a couple of the shrimp men had to climb over the boat and grab the net and break open the bottom over the water so they could pull the net in, which was too heavy. Well, when the shrimp boat man broke the net over the water...There was a huge backfire of shrimp icky water that covered him. It was pretty much one of the funniest things I have ever seen. While on the boat we got to see the sea creatures and eat them as well. It was the freshest shrimp I have ever tasted! We were all exhausted that night, all we wanted to do was eat dinner and chill. Mark, Allison, and I made pancakes for dinner, homemade ones for all 10 of us. Now these are not the normal pancakes you are all used to. It took us about 2 hours to make them by scratch...There is truly an art to making them just perfect...Which we didn't exactly perfect that night. Again we all sat around, played cards and drank. Sunday was a great day as well. We biked to the Seal museum (and for Bekah, it was the Sill museum). I guess it was not really a museum, it was kind of like a mini zoo. We got to see a bunch of seals, pet them, and we watched them get fed!

Here is a cute little picture of a friendly seal who wanted to say hi to me and my friends!

After a fabulous time conversing with the seals we made our way to the ocean. It was a great time! Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that Bekah and I decided it would be a good idea if we went out and bought some galoshes. It is usually pretty wet and rainy on the island. We decided to wear them to the beach that day and we wore them on the shrimp boat. All of our friends made fun of us because they were pink and had flowers on them. I am still convinced they were all just jealous that we had dry feet and they didn't. If you look below you can see a picture of Bekah and I in our nice fashionable galoshes. I look so cute this day in my pig tails! Oh yes, Hi mom! I thought you would appreciate that if I took a picture of your "name" in the sand! Before we left on Sunday, the guys decided it would be fun to make a fort in the sleeping room...while the rest of us were busy cleaning up. The fort was called "Fort Texel." It was made of blankets and such. When I opened the door the room I had to duck down and crawl through the fort. Before I could get too far, I was given the constitution of Fort Texel. Here it goes...Rule number one, If you are female (except for Joe's fiance) you must take off all of your clothes. Rule number two, obey rule one. Rule 3, no buttpluckers allowed...do not ask, please. Oh yes...we also had to go through customs in order to get fully across the fort. It was pretty hilarious if you aks me. There were also a lot of falls on the bikes this past weekend. The guys..thinking they are soo cool, decided to try the "four wheel flasher." This consists of spreading your hands and legs out away from the bike. Well lets just say that Kyle and Mark both ended up in the ditch when they tried to menouver this trick. The only person that was able to do it without falling was a girl!!! (Allison). You go girl! Anways, I must be going because I have a crap load of homework to do! Peace out friends!

Trip fun!

2005-10-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

Hello to all of my friends!
I made it safely back from all of my trips. The first place I went to was Brussels, this was a group trip with all 9 of us. Brussels was a fun time. We enjoyed going out to this bar that had over 2001 different kind of beers. They actually had a beer book so you could look up what you wanted. My favorite remains to be Kriek though, it is a Cherry beer (first introduced to me by Kara in the states). Speaking of Kara, I got to see her on Thursday night. She went out to a bar with us and had a few beers. She is moving this week into downtown Brussels, which is closer to her job. On Friday we went to Brugge, it is a very
(Bekah and I on the back of the boat on the way to London)
small, old, and cute town. Here I bought a bunch of chocolate, saw churches, and went to a museum.
Saturday is when Bekah, Kyle, and I made our way to London. We ventured out at 1:00 pm and got on a huge boat to London. The boat was super super awesome! I enjoyed a nice pina colada as well on the trip. I started to get a little bit sea sick though, so I took some advil and it went away. This trip lasted about 3 hours. We finally got into London about 10:00. We stayed at a Hostel for all of the 3 nights. We did meet some very interesting people here as well. One guy was from Australia. He had told me (while wasted) that there are Swarrels (squirrels) in MN that jump out of trash cans and attack. I am pretty sure this was the funniest thing I heard on my trip. This guy was actually convinced from an internet site that squirrels jump out and attack humans in MN. We met another guy who was pretty cool, he was from Dublin. One night at our hostel there was loud noise coming from next door. I opened up my window to discover a half naked guy and 3 other guys wasted. They told me they were from Albania, but I knew this had to be a lie, which it was. These guys were kind of scary...one guy said he was looking for a "good fuck." I was a little bit scared and shut my curtain. Then he proceeded to knock on our door in his gotchies. Kyle rescued us from the half naked horny guy who eventually tried to crawl through our window. Interesting night I have to say.
Okay, so the first day day we were in London we took one of those famous bus tours. We quickly learned we could not jump on and off of it because there was no space on any of the buses. So we went to Westminster to look around, but they were having mass (it was Sunday). We also went to another church (the one the lady from Mary Popins was feeding the birds) and took a picture on the step, trying to be like the lady from the movie. Let see here...oh yes, for lunch we had the all famous fish and chips, which was spectacular. After this we took a boat ride to another place in London and visited a view museums. Finally that same day we went to the London eye (the largest Ferris wheel in the world) and rode on it. The ride was about 30 min long.

This is a picture of Kyle and I on the London Eye, it was soo beautiful up here!

On Monday Kyle and I ventured off to the London tour where we got a short tour and walked around for a couple of hours. He decided he wanted to say longer so he did and I left him for Piccadilly circus...of course. I actually traveled in London all by myself without getting lost! Bekah was soo proud of me. She is aware of my horrible direction sense.

(This is from the boat we took in London, it was included in our bus tour)

Okay, so after London we hoped on a plane(that we missed) and flew into Dublin. We had not previously booked a hostel before we left, we thought it would be fun to just go and see what happens. So when we got there we got a hotel...we thought it would be nice for once. It was only $30 Euro per person a night so we decided to stay here one night. This night we decided to go on a little walking pub tour of our own. We went to about 4 bars and had a little too much to drink. Kyle decided it would be a good idea to get a bottle of wine to top our night off. So us 3 enjoyed a drunken night. That night was the best night of sleep I had on the trip! We woke up and had a wonderful breakfast prepared by Othello's (the hotel) staff. Wednesday we did a walking tour by ourselves. We started out around 11 and went to a bar...first thing is always first :). We proceeded to go to Trinity college, then to a huge garden, then to a museum which had a lot of old scriptures, like from bibles and such. We then went to Dublin Castle, it was not that cool. It was pretty much a horrible day outside, it did not stop raining, and my umbrella decided to ghetto out on me and break :(.

(This is Bekah and I at the bar we went to on Wednesday morning)

On Wednesday night we ate at a fabulous restaurant. They had live traditional Irish music and Irish food. Bekah had a delicious stew, Kyle had some super good steak, and I had a traditional Irish burger. I do not recommend getting one of those unless you are eating for 3 people! The food was fabulous though! At night we decided to go on a haunted bus tour of Dublin. It was really fun, we stopped at a grave yard and an old church. It was a little bit scary, I am not going to lie.
The next morning we got up bright and early for our day trip. This was the most fabulous thing I have ever done. We got to see the beautiful sites of Ireland, and let me tell you, they were asbsolutely breath taking! We went to some old ruins, ate lunch, and walked around on the mountains. I have never seen anything like it before.

(me Kyle and Bekah in the wilderness of Ireland)

Make sure to check out my picture website, I am going to post more pictures on here so you can all see what I saw. We also met a really nice girl Thursday on our day trip, her name was Naomi and she is from Canada. We all went out for beer after and enjoyed watching some Irish Dancing and live music. Once again, we all had a little too much to drink. Bekah was the hoot of the night I must say. Not only did she dance with a 50 year old man (I have that picture posted), she also made friends with the bathroom cleaners. Oh Bekah, I love you sometimes :). All of us made friends with some Italians, Spanish, and Greek guys that night. We had so much fun dancing to the music. I am sure I looked like an idiot though.
Well guys, that was my trip! It was the bestest time ever!!!!! woohooo
Check out my pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/98487110@N00/?saved=1

Leaving for awhile

2005-10-11T04:31:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family,
I will tell you a little bit about my weekend. On Friday night Bekah and I went over to Kyle's and had 2 bottles of wine. Then Kyle and I decided to go meet Jim at salsiendo (a salsa club). We had such a fun time! Jim (he is a cool 30 year old guy) taught me the basic steps of salsa. And Kyle learned from another older lady. The whole night, after the 2 bottles of wine, we were drinking rum and cokes. They just kept on coming...that happens a lot around here. After salsa dancing we went back to Kyle's and ate cocktail weiners with the poeple that live next to him. I guess cocktail weiners after a drunkin night is a popular thing. To my suprise they tasted very good! Jim came back with us and he insisted we open yet another bottle of wine...a 20% alcohol content wine. I had a small small glass, it was the strongest wine I had ever tasted! I basically did no homework this weekend, which was a bad idea. I cannot do homework here, I get distracted way to easily. Good thing all of my classes are pass/fail.
I also wanted to let everyone know where I am going in the next few weeks. Tomorrow our abroad group (the 9 of us) are going to Brussels, we are staying there for 3 days. I am once again very excited to see Kara! Then, we get back on Friday and rest and maybe do some homework (but prob. not). On Saturday Kyle, Bekah, and I are going to London, via boat. We are going to stay in London for 3 days then we fly to Dublin (Ireland) and we stay there for another 3 days. I am so excited to go to these places. So most of you prob wont here from me for awhile, do not be scared. I will have a ton of new pictures and stories to tell when I get back. Oh yes, my parents are now coming over Thanksgiving break, they decided to book tickets instead of flying standby. yay! All for now :)
Tot ziens
JB

Leiden's Onset

2005-10-05T04:34:00.000-07:00

The onset is Leiden's indepedence from the Spanish. It is one hell of a party, I will put it that way. The partying started on Saterday. There was a huge fair with a ton of food!

This is me and Bekah stuffing my face with cotten candy!

I was being a little devil with the shopping cart at 1:00 am! It was a long night of boozing.

One of the traditions in Leiden is to eat Raw Herring, We had a herring lunch and we all had a small bite. It was the nastiest thing I have ever tasted.

Because of all of the fun drinking times, I got some munchies during the night. The picture on the left is Kyle and me, we are eating broodjeworst...they are the shizzle! On the right is me stuffing Kyle's face with some Turkish Pizza...Turkish pizza has become an all time fav. for me at 1.50 a pop!

No I have talked about my pictures, I will tell you what I did this weekend. Sat. we pretty much laid around, and then at night we went out and partied. There were sooo many people out it was insane! There were boys peeing everywhere!!! It was fricking nasty. There were beer stands about every block or more, live music, and techno were very popular. Oh yes, Bekah, being the hot sexy girl that she is...got another guy on Sat. night!! Go Bekah!! On Sunday Bekah and I went to the fair where we rode the Farris wheel for 5 euro! Way too expensive, but worth it. Sunday night we chilled and watched Momento in my room. Monday was the herring lunch and parade. The parade was like nothing I have ever seen before. Monday night we went out again! We started drinking at a little cafe, then we moved on to the fair where Bekah, Hayle, and I rode a spinny ride. Bekah thought it would be safe to put her glasses in my jacket pocket...well she was very rong. This ride goes upside down, and when it did, her glasses fell out as well as my cell phone. So we thought it was going to be a horriable night after we couldnt find those items...Well we were wrong. We decided to go have a few more drinks and walk around. Well we did not actually walk, we more like danced along, Kyle walked. :). We saw some pretty fireworks and ate way too much food!!!!!!! That is all I have to say about my crazy weekend. I am also on my 3rd flat tire in 1 week!!! How wonderful is that. I am adding some more pictures to my picture websit, so make sure you check it out as well. I hope you are all doing well and I will blog again soon :)

Twee halen een betalen at Odessa.

2005-09-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

You are probably wondering what my blog title is about. Well it means two for ones pretty much. Every Monday night me and my friends go out to the Odessa where we drink 2 for one beers for an hour and get wasted, its a great time. The beer they have there is Grolsh, its very good, I have come to like it a lot. Last night Bekah met a handsome young fellow...hehe. This girl is fricking hot in Europe guys, let me tell you. Just as I was about to leave the Odessa, I turn around and what do you know...Bekah is hitting on a guy. We ended up staying there an extra hour! She got a little friendly with the guy...in her words to me..."Jenny can you wait for a second, I am going outside around the corner with Brandon." Oh Bekah, how you are a man magnet.

BriAnna, the picture of me smelling the lillies are for you. They were at the Het Loo palace and I could not help myself but to smell them forever, because they were the best smelling lillies in the world! :)
You are probably also wondering about the goat...well there wre about 4 goats in a park Bekah and I found when we went for a walk. Apparently that is normal to have random goats chained up in a park. Anyways, my hands smelt pretty bad after touching that goat!

This is me on my fiets (bike), her name is Eva and she comes equiped with a bell, a basket, and 3 gears. As of right now she is broken, her front tire is flat. And to the right of my fiets is a little baby red car. Now usually small cars are typical here, but this one caught my eye. I have never seen anything like it before.

Good information to know

2005-09-26T02:40:00.000-07:00

Hello all! I will tell you about my adventures of the past few days. On Friday we went on an excurtion to The Het Loo Castle and to the Kroller Muller museum, which contains the 2nd largest display of Van Gough paintings in the world! It was a super time! To top off the night we went to Ak Als...the BEST turkish pizza place in Leiden! Bekah and I headed to the Market on Saturday and picked up some food to make dinner. I have become such a great cook! We like to make chicken, pasta, vegies, and all other kinds of stuff. Even though sometimes the kitchen fills with smoke, and the rest of the hall...most of our creations turn out well. Sat. night Bekah and I went to a movuie, The Pride and the Prejudice. I will give you some valuable information, they dont sell popcorn, there is a fricking intermision! I was so worried that the movie was broken, but infact they have a break in the middle of the movie, so if this ever happens to you, dont be worried :). I was planning on going to Amsterdam this weekend as you all knew from my previous blogg, however, I did not realize how much homework I actually had to do! Yes guys, I have to do homework while I am here too. I have officially decided I hate politics!!! I hate it all! Just to let everyone know, my parents are coming to visit me in 2 weeks! I am very excited. I am also planning a trip to Ireland for my fall break..which is less then a month away! The pictures that I am trying to post are not working, but if you go to this site http://www.flickr.com/photos/98487110@N00/?saved=1 I added a bunch of pictures.

2005-09-21T05:20:00.000-07:00

So...I cant believe I have been here for a whole entire month today!! What the heck, time goes by way too fast! We started out first week of classes, I am taking Dutch Art and Architecture, Globalization, Drawing in Leiden (which I am scared about), and European context. So..it is a decent schedule. Last weekend Bekah and I went to a couple of bars with Kyle...lets just say we all had a little too much to drink that night. For some reason I keep meeing guys at the bar...but they are all like 18 and 19 year olds...what the hell is up with that. Last night I watched TV for the FIRST time since I have been here in Europe...I know crazy. I went over to Michaels and watched Desperate Housewives...it was wonderul (Girls, I know you would be proud). However on the way over to the Clique (dorm kind of thing) I got completely lost and went about 20 minutes out of the way met the fiets (with my bike)! It was dark and I was very tired and kind of worried. H owever after an hour of toodeling around with my bike...I got to the clique and made it just in time to watch the show! I was so relieved. This weekend I believe I am going to Amsterdam to go shopping and such..isn't that cool I can just pop over to Amsterdam whenever I want? I love it! On Friday we have a "field trip" to Het Loo and Kroller Muller, I dont really know what it is about but we will see. Oh yes, the kitty you see likes to chill with me in my room, his name is Baily and I love him very much, he reminds me of ED...well somewhat..hehe. I dont any any more picture right now but I will get a bunch up soon. I have some on Bekahs camera I need to get from her. I miss you all!

Belgium

2005-09-12T03:48:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! This weekend Bekah and I traveled to Brussels to visit Kara and Arnaud. It was amazing, we actually made it there and switched trains 3 times! We had such a great time. Kara colored my hair at Tony&Guy (where she works), she also cut my hair...she did a fab job. While we were there we visited the Grand plas, and saw a bunch of old buildings, plus the man of pis...belgium's icon I guess. That night we went to a bar and had some beers, I had a cherry beer which was wonderful. On Sunday we visited a historical town that had a wall covering this little city...it was super cool. I also had the experience to try escargo (snails), belgium chocolate, and waffels...yummmmy (but not the snails). I am looking forward to going back there very soon. This is my last week of dutch class and I am super excited. Check out my picture site, the webiste is an entry in my blog, I added more pictures

Dutch class

2005-09-06T01:22:00.000-07:00

So we started dutch class last Wednesday, I have already learned so much! It is crazzy, its kind of easy and kind of hard at the same time. We have class 4 hours a day for 2.5 weeks. I cannot wait until it is finally over next Friday! Nothing is too new with me, I go out a lot, mostly on weekends and Monday nights. This weekend I am going to Brussels to see Kara, I am super excited! I have been mastering my cooking techniques lately...ya right. Because our "dorms" only have a stove top, it makes it hard to cook certain foods, such as pizza. Mostly Bekah and I make spaghetti and tostis (grilled cheese). I am so excited that I finally get to do my laundry...after being here for 2 weeks. Bekah and I figured out where the machines where and how we get the tokins for them. I was running pretty low on underware, so I was worried. But I have to get back to class...I miss everyone and have a good day!

Amsterdam

2005-08-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took a tour to Amsterdam with my study abroad group. First we took a train there, which took about 30 min. I got a little motion sick, and had a fun experience in the bathroom (not cool). Once we got there we took a tour boat in the canals, we went by the Anne Frank house as well as some other old buildings. After this Steef (our study aborad director) took us around town and we visted a ton of historical sites. We went throught the red light district (this was during the day) and saw some nice ladies in the windows...puke! I was exhausted when I got home so I went to bed right away at 7:30. My buddies and me found a super cool bar called the Odessa, its out on the canal and a lot of young people go there. It's way fun to meet dutch peeps and try to speak it. We went to this bar on Monday night. Bekah and I hitched rides on the back of Kyle and Mark's bikes (from our group). I was chilling in the back just fine, when all of a sudden we turned around and both Bekah and Mark were on the ground and the bike was on top of them. It was the funniest think I have ever seen, probably because they were drunk and so was I. This was our first biking experience in Holland. I will post more pictures soon! I miss you all soooo much :)

Hello friends of JB

2005-08-29T15:20:00.000-07:00

I have almost been in Leiden for a week, and it is wonderful here. Everything is so different and new. The people on the streets speak Dutch, but they all know english, it is very strange. The main mode of transportation is the bike in the city. Sometimes I am scared to death I am going to get run over by one, or by one of the mini cars , which are absolutely hilarous looking. I have meet a few people here in Leiden, they are all pretty friendly. It is very strange to see 16 year olds and the bar...very weird. There are also coffee shops all over with menus for weed...can you believe it (of course I do not take part in these activities). One cool thing about this place is the work day does not start until 10:00 and it ends at 6:00. So everyone stays out late and they all sleep in. When my classes start. most of them will not start until after 12:00. My classes are 3 hours long though, but only one day a week which is nice. We also dont have classes on Friday, so its a 3 day weekend which is double nice. I have not traveled yet but will be going to Amsterdam tomorrow with our group. All of my group members are very nice as well. I will be buying a bike today...so please wish me luck...I am in fear I might die on these streets. Oh yea, one thing I learned the first day is you have to bring your own bag to the grocery store, because they dont have bags for you! So if you ever come here at least you will know this. There is not a day or an hour that goes by that I dont feel dumb and completely clueless about everything that is going on here. It is a different feeling but I guess I will have to get used to it. All for now :)

This is my picture site

2005-08-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/98487110@N00/?saved=1