Ik houd van jou, Amsterdam!

Let's raise a glass to the bitter end
Farewell to old friends
Will you be the same when we see you again....

..... I don't want to leave this semester... what can I say.. it's been amazing, beautiful, adventurous, scary, exciting, words can't beging to describe everything that can encompase the last four months. It feels like yesterday that I was anxiously awaiting my flight to Amsterdam, getting nervous about meeting a whole new group of friends, being alone on a continent far away from anything that I was close to knowing... and now... I can't bear to tear myself away... Amsterdam was my home.. I felt at peace coming back from my travels.. and leaving in a day.. I just imagine myself coming back here, to Amsterdam, after those 2 weeks. I can't bear to imagine not.. and yet I have to go home. I cried.. I cried often tonight.. saying goodbye to the first wave of friends.. many of which are most likely waking up right now to get ready for the airport.. I however, can't bother to sleep as I am kept awake by my thoughts of the semester... therefore I put them down on paper...
The first day was a whirlwind.. and today was one as well... dinner with my boys.. Prosts! of champange.. and it seemed fitting that Me Nina and Hayley were the 1st ones there... Our first lunch together outside of orientation was at the very Cafe we had our last dinner together.. Cafe Koosje... always a welcoming place for any time of day or night.. To our Italians.. thank you for the very best Good-bye Party.. to the Nutella Fights.. Power Hours.. and other countless nights just sitting around their room... I thank you.. To Swedes, Australians, Bulgarians, Portuguese, and Californians... To Three Sisters and de Kroon, To Peer Pressure.. To my Girls, for people questioning us why one member was missing on nights out...To Love Generation, which will now always make me cry tears of happiness..To Bikram, Bike Rides, and all the Chocolate we Ate!... To the Silver Grill, 5 euro Pizza Wed. Traditions.. To canals and falling in them... To XXX... To orange jumpsuits....To Picnics in the park... To soccer and juggling, for putting up with my inability to control a soccer ball.. To Schiphol...To sunrises and sunsets and everything inbetween..To Amsterdam, for providing me with amazing friends all over the world... for memories I will never forget.... for always having a place to hang.. and every moment good and bad of the past 4 months.. I will always call Amsterdam home.... I love you, Amsterdam!

Chocolate and Beer

ahhh.. the land of Brussels! Me Sus and Maura loaded up our gear and headed on a train to Belgium.. the land of chocolate and good beer.. how can you go wrong with that combination! so.. our 3 hour train ride was tiring as was our trek to our hotel in the rain.. soo pretty much after getting our monster suite of a room.. (it even had stairs! haha that Maura did not manage well) we decided to go in search of dinner.. our only problem was that as it was May 1st, and the European Labor Day, nothing was open!! we walked around for a good 40 min passing by some bars, but nothing with an open kitchen, until.. almost back to our hotel we found the restaurant of our dreams.. well not really.. but it was open and inviting! We pretty much sat there the entire afternoon.. and were the last to leave the place.. after eating 3 dinners and many many crepes! i got my first Belgium beer and it was delicious! so after that we were bums and slept... all three of us ended up curling up on 2 twin beds... until we woke up starving at about midnight.. haha so off we go again in search of food.. this time even less was open! but we managed to find a little night shop where we loaded up on waffles, Koala Yummies!!, fruits and other yummy junk food to keep us through the night! (pretty much our travels revolved around walking and eating and sleeping).... The next day was nice and sunny and we walked through the city.. it was really pretty and of course the chocolate amazing! We also went to see the "I-ron" molecule that was part of a world's fair.. it was never meant to last this long, it was Maura's science dose ... and I had some trouble pronoucing it for some reason?...The trip concluded early the next morning, we were off to the train station for Sus and Maura to hop on a bus to the airport and me back to Amsterdam!