August in the Netherlands: April 2014

Hi all,

After going close to three months without a blog post, I've had one of the best weeks of my life, and just have to write about it. The main reason why the blog posts haven't been coming, is because life here has fallen into a rhythm that I haven't really wanted to break. There will be around twenty pictures at the end due to lack of space in the actual writing.

The biggest highlights of the months leading up to today were Carnaval, the sweetest of birthdays and of course a trip to Italy.

In Eindhoven for Carnaval

The thing about Carnaval is I got lucky with my placement, because if I was placed in any town farther north, then I wouldn't have had the experience of Carnaval. This years Carnaval was filled with costumes, special music and straight up fun. I went out a few of the nights with friends, and once with Madison and Pierre to Eindhoven with a few of his friends. We saw a little bit of the yearly parade in Eindhoven, and almost all of the parade in Deurne.

Carnaval Parade in Eindhoven

I celebrated my birthday by waking up really early and opening presents, of which, I got from my host parents the opportunity to go play paintball with friends which I still have to plan, as well as tickets to see Manchester City play against Olympiakos with Mikkel and Kamran when I get back, and to see the Twins too with my cousins like we do each year. Then a week later, we had a jacuzzi and sauna party with a few friends from my class.

Now begins the story that I came here to tell. The bus ride on Saturday was long but after twelve hours we arrived in Busto Arsizio. We drove to the house of Andrea, dropped my luggage off and then we get off to a night club for the night.

The next day we took the train with all of the other students to a small, beautiful, touristic town called Arona which is located on the beautiful Lago Maggiore and across the lake, are the Alps. Arona was not very big, but we took lots of pictures, looked at the overpriced handmade goods that they were selling at the market, and then ate really good gelato. Then we took the train back to an all you can eat pizza buffet which had many delicious pizzas to choose from including one with fries and often seafood, needless to say, I ate my heart out.

Lago Maggiore with Italians

We spent the first half of Monday at the Italian school which was not exciting but then we went on a treasure hunt which would have been fun if we were younger, but with sixteen, seventeen and eighteen-year-olds you would think the Italian teachers could've found something more up to speed. Everyone was tired, so we ate lunch at an amazing piadineria (Italian sandwich shop) and laid in the sun at a park until it was time to leave. In the evening we went with some of the other Italian and Dutch students to eat pasta and we were even convinced to play Just Dance once.

The most drawn-out day of the week was Tuesday in my opinion, because we took the long trip to see Venice without the Italian partners. With a round trip ride time of eight hours, I find it surprising that the experience somehow made up for the number of hours spent in the bus. We spent a lot of the time in Venice around Piazza San Marco, a square in the center of Venice that includes St. Mark's Basilica and also a clock tower that lets you see the whole city. We weren't able to go in the gondolas because of the high price of 80 euros per hour, but they do have a system of boats that act as a subway which we did get to ride. After began the sleepy ride back to Busto.

Random Couple in a Gondola

On Wednesday we took the bus to Turin with half of the group but didn't see too much of the city. We began the day with a tour of Pinacoteca Giovanni E Marella Agnelli, a modern art museum built on top of an old Fiat test track and was filled with beautiful paintings of the French masters- Renoir, Manet and Matisse, as well as Picasso, and less memorable Italian painters. For lunch, we ate at a market/restaurant with free liter bottles of water and bread as well as good company. Honestly speaking, I remember nothing more from Wednesday, other than the ice cream we ate in the town square that might have been the worst I ate during the trip. However it was still better than your average ice cream you would find anywhere else. There also was another museum sprinkled in their, possibly after lunch.

The Bus Ride to Turin

The next day was another spent at the Italian school, which was filled with time that could've been spent elsewhere but nevertheless we sat in the school feigning interest in bland discussion at hand as well as sampling the Italian cafeteria and ping pong table. We spent the evening bowling with a group of nine Italians and six Dutch speakers, I realized that the league bowling from my early youth never really escaped me but the muscle memory gained from my time spent in game rooms is obviously gone.

Duomo, the signature Italian

The last day of the exchange was the most interesting, exciting and the longest. We travelled with the train to Milan to see the Duomo of Milan (a cathedral), the famous shopping streets and La Scala, perhaps the most famous setting for opera in the world. The view from the top of the Duomo was beautiful and the perfect place to make pictures with friends as you will see if you read the rest of the post. After the long climb down the stairs of the Duomo, we went to eat at the typical food you eat while in Italy- McDonalds, and then took in the shopping part of Milan. There was not too much actual money spent on clothes, but many were fitted. Then to end our time in Milan, we saw La Scala, which was very beautiful but there was a ban on cameras so you'll just have to take my word on it.

With Jay-Jay and Ramzi at the Woods

The final night was spent at a rented out house with all of the Dutch and Italian students plus many of the friends of the Italians from school. Before the party, we came home, I showered and then we went off to the school for a goodbye dinner of pasta (I know, surprising) and a few presentations from select students. We got to the house party at around 9:30 and left no sooner than 2:00 or 2:15. There was some good dancing, even some break dancing by Jay-Jay. Despite the low quality of English spoken at the party, it was still a great time, and many good friends and memories were made.

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone Saturday morning, even more so for me than the other Dutch students, because of how hard it is to come visit, they can just hop on the train and be there in half a day, but for me it'll be expensive to come visit. I'm sure that that Saturday won't be the last time I see some of them/you. The only sleep had on Saturday was on the bus, none of it was at night whatsoever. Before I knew it, we were back in Deurne and life went back to what has become normal.

There's less than a quarter of my exchange left which is scary because that territory comes with not wanting to leave/but wanting to see everyone in the U.S. Until it July rolls around, I won't be thinking about that.

Take care all of you, enjoy your spring. Scroll down further for some pictures that I didn't fit into the post itself.

Cheers,

August

Selected Photos