Life in Middelburg...and other places =)

Hello from Middelburg!

I apologize for the incredibly long wait since my last post. It's been about a month. I've been super busy, especially since a couple weeks ago (March 10-14) was midterms here at UCR. It's basically the stress of finals week at UNK, paired with more time-consuming assignments. And each class has a midterm test. Needless to say, my midterms week was quite intense, but I managed to pass all my tests with three A's and one B+. I must be doing something right, huh?

Anyway, in addition to studying (A LOT) for all my tests, I took a 'field trip' with my Bible in the Arts class during midterm week. We drove to Antwerp, Belgium, to tour the cathedral there. It was gorgeous! I took so many pictures of the cathedral, as well as various parts of the city. The car I rode there in arrived quite a bit earlier than the scheduled meeting time because the driver wanted time to look around the city and do some shopping. So I basically had three hours to roam Antwerp before meeting up with our professor and the rest of my classmates so we could tour the cathedral.

Middelburg is very close to Antwerp. The landscape I saw during the drive was very flat, which reminded me of Nebraska.

Here are some pictures I took in Antwerp:

An example of beautiful architecture in Antwerp.

The super-narrow streets still surprise me. Some areas of Middelburg are like this too.

Waffles in Belgium!!! (It was delicious, in case you're wondering...)

The train station in Antwerp

The cathedral we toured, as seen from one of the many 'market squares' in the city. (The statue is of Peter Paul Reubens, who painted some of the altarpieces inside the cathedral.)

A view looking straight up, as I walked through the cathedral.

This is just a small portion of the massive cathedral. My Bible in the Arts professor told us that it's the biggest cathedral in Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

Stained-glass windows lined the walls throughout the cathedral.

One of the many organs inside Antwerp's cathedral.

This is probably the most beautiful crucifix that I found inside the cathedral.

Proof that we were in Antwerp's cathedral (and that I didn't just find all the photos online somewhere). Thomas and I 'pose' with the altar below our favorite crucifix (the one in the picture above).

It's difficult to describe the atmosphere in Antwerp. Perhaps it was because it was my first time outside of the Netherlands, but for some reason Antwerp just felt bigger than Middelburg. It might actually be bigger; I'm not sure. But it's nothing new for me to think of Middelburg as a small city. There's a lot of it that I haven't seen, which is why for quite a while I thought it was so small. Thomas did some investigating, however. Here's where it gets interesting: Middelburg's population is larger than Kearney's population. Woah! I didn't believe him at first, so I asked my housemates. They confirmed what Thomas had said.

For the record, Kearney's 2012 population was 31,790 (according to http://www.city-data.com/city/Kearney-Nebraska.html). Middelburg's population in 2013 was 47,523 (according to http://www.citypopulation.de/Netherlands-Mun.html).

The week after midterm's was spring break. Thomas, Lindsey and I traveled to both London and Rome. We spent three days in London and four days in Rome. I took 700+ photos total. This post is already quite long, and I know it'll take more than one post to explain everything we did over break.

So be looking for the next post! It'll contain a copious amount of photos from London and Rome! (...after I finish going through all of them and pick my favorites, of course *wink*)

Until next time,

~Laurie

Promised Pictures

Hello from Middelburg!

As promised in my last post, I will dedicate this one to some photos I've taken of places around Middelburg. Some are from when I went to the municipality office a couple weeks ago, while others are from a small in-class trip we took to the Niewe Kerk (New Church) for my Bible in the Arts class. The Niewe Kerk is part of the Abbey and is right next to the Lange Jan.

Enjoy!

So...it's cloudy. Again. But at least it wasn't raining on our walk back from the municipality office.

"Let op! Invoegstrook voor bromfietsers." (see picture further down for translation)

Stripes? Not sure why the buildings are striped, but hey - what's that? The top of the Lange Jan in the center of the photo!

A sign that gives a true representation of the mode(s) of transportation in Middelburg: "Warning! Lane for mopeds."

The train station

The view, looking across the canal, from the train station

Look at the houses! They're so cute...

The organ at the Niewe Kerk. The "wings" each have a different painting of a biblical scene. We specifically studied (and had to write a short paper on) the top left wing when we discussed the story of Jephtha's daughter, from the book of Judges.

I'm not quite sure what this one says, but the floor has multiple designs set into it.

A different view of the organ. The outside of the "wings" also have paintings, but unlike the inside these are in greyscale. The inside of the case is bright and colorful, as shown in a picture above.

This is only about half of the room with the organ in the Niewe Kerk. The architecture is stunning. UCR holds their graduation ceremonies in this room.

This is the view of the school that I see every time I walk to class. This building is Franklin.

Standing at the same intersection (with my back to the building at the far left side of the picture), to my left is the Lange Jan and the church that Thomas, Lindsey and I attend every Sunday.

Another view of Franklin, as seen from across the street, with my back to another campus building (Eleanor).

Helm's Square - the space between Franklin and Theodore.

A closer view at the church we attend.

So, yeah. You've basically seen everything that I do on a daily basis, in terms of the school and the surrounding area. And now, just for laughs, I've included a couple pictures that I took with one of my housemates - Nick - earlier this week. Hopefully the absurdity in the pictures will raise your spirits after looking at so many cloudy/dreary/gloomy photos of Middelburg's predictable weather.

We decided to switch glasses. I don't think I look TOO bad...*wink*

Thomas and Nick also switched their glasses. I think Thomas looks better in Nick's glasses than I do. But Nick looks better in my glasses than he does in Thomas'...

A Month in Middelburg

Hello from Middelburg!

Today marks one month since Mom took Thomas and me to the airport in Omaha. Wow. That went by way too fast! I can't believe I've been in Europe for almost a month (it will be exactly 4 weeks on Monday, Feb. 17). I guess there's a saying that goes..."Time flies when you're having fun." And this past month has been a blast. And very, very, very busy.

I know it's been a while since my last post. I apologize for making you wait so long. In between having to write 1,500 word summaries of three chapters for Psychology, an 800-word essay on Romeo and Juliet for Intro to Theatre and Media, and read - A LOT - for all of my classes...I guess I got behind on my blog. A lot has happened since my last post...and I hope I can remember it all so I can write it here.

I've decided a while ago that my housemates are wonderful. There are nine other UCR students living in Bagijnhof 6 with me: Tinia, Lisa, Joy, Nick, Hugo, Emmy, Vejune, Lilia, and Luna. Three times a week we have a house dinner where two of us cook, and then we all eat together. I've cooked a couple times, with the most recent being just this past Thursday. The first time I helped Joy make chicken, rice, and stir-fried peas/carrots. Everyone seemed to like it. For our meal on Thursday, Nick and I made a variation of a recipe that Mom emailed me a while ago, called "Busy Day Casserole" (a.k.a. Mr. Noodles). Because two of my housemates are vegetarian, we decided to use the base ingredients: hamburger, macaroni, spaghetti sauce, and shredded cheese; but instead of mixing it all together, we just cooked everything separately and let everyone mix it on their own plates. That way they could take as much or little of each thing as they liked. Throughout the day my housemates asked me what I planned to cook, and I just replied with, "I'm going to go all 'Midwestern' on you tonight."

They all loved it. And the dessert was a hit, too. Thomas came over and made vanilla pudding from scratch. Though we're lucky he had the right ingredients to make it. Nick and I had gone shopping at Albert Heijn (the grocery store) earlier that day, with the list of ingredients we needed for dinner and dessert. The one item that took us the longest to find was the cornstarch that Thomas needed. Nick is from England, and I'm from America...and well, when you put two people who don't know Dutch very well (if at all) together and send them to a Dutch grocery store...things take longer than usual. After about ten minutes of staring at the different boxes on the shelf (we assumed we were in the correct aisle)...we decided to get something called "allesbinder" (pronounced 'ah-lace-bin-der') and hoped it was the right thing. When we got back to Bagijnhof, I went to Google Translate and checked to see what exactly we just bought. Thankfully, due to our use of context clues, Nick and I had managed to get cornstarch. Woo!

That's basically the most exciting thing that's happened here since my last post. My classes and homework definitely keep me busy, since at UCR they earn their degree in three years instead of four. So they've condensed four years' worth of work into three. Which makes for a lot of reading, writing, and stress, but at least I think I've found a rhythm to my schedule:

Sunday = Church + afternoon homework
Monday = No classes + homework + breaks + house dinner
Tuesday = 3 classes + house dinner
Wednesday = 1 class (that's 4 hours long) + some homework + unproductivity
Thursday = No classes + homework + breaks + house dinner
Friday = 3 classes + relaxing evening/unproductivity
Saturday = sleeping in + afternoon homework + miscellaneous

Oh! Another exciting thing that happened was when Thomas and I went to the Municipality Office to officially register as citizens of Middelburg, as required in our study abroad applications. I think Lindsey had class, so she did not go with us. Anyway, we walked halfway across the city to the Municipality, which conveniently was near the train station. When we decide to travel to other countries, at least we know how to get to the train station now *wink*. The lady at the Municipality was nice, and she said she had worked with students on exchange before. But there was an issue with our birth certificates. She said they lacked something called a "postile stamp" that we should have gotten from the Dutch Embassy. We were never informed that we needed to find the Embassy and get the stamp. We told her that, and she said that technically she couldn't use the birth certificates without the stamp, but she tentatively registered us. The paperwork still isn't complete yet, though, because we don't have our residence permits yet. Thomas' residence permit is in Riswijk (pronounced 'rice-wike'), and Lindsey and I will have to pick ours up in Goes (pronounced 'hoosh') whenever they finally arrive there. So when we actually receive our residence permits, we're supposed to go back to the Municipality and finish the paperwork.

I took some pictures of our walk back from the Municipality. And I have some more pictures of the streets/area by campus. I'll make another post that is just pictures soon.

Until next time,

~Laurie

IntRoweek - Spring 2014

Hello everyone!

I know it's been a while since my last post, but I've been very busy these past couple weeks. My story left off with our arrival in Middelburg. I also hinted at how living in Bagijnhof would be. Well, this post is going to cover a lot of events from our very first week in Middelburg. The IntRoweek...

We arrived in Middelburg on Monday, Jan. 20th. After having traveled for so long, it was really nice to have the rest of the day to just relax. But things started rather soon - at 9:30 the next morning, to be exact. All the new students for this semester reported to Helm's Square (the space between two of the campus buildings - Franklin and Theodore) to meet the RASA board members for our first day of IntRoweek.

RASA Board in front of Franklin. Front row, left to right: Steinar Boomsma, Ferry Tillekens, Marius d'Hond. Back row: Robert Peeters, Inge Zwart, Anne Laure Rouw.

University College Roosevelt Dean Barbara Oomen

When the three of us showed up, we were led to an upstairs room in Franklin for official registration. Including us, there were 30 new students. The dean, Barbara Oomen, gave a short welcome address, followed by another welcome speech by Inge. Then it was time to take the English test. Everyone except the exchange students (*wink wink - myself, Thomas, and Lindsey*) had to take an hour and a half test to see which English course they'd be placed in. Since we didn't have to do that, we had that time to just sit, relax, and get to know a couple RASA board members better. And we met the fourth exchange student, Olivia, who's from Canada. We sampled some traditional Dutch pastries (which were delicious) and talked about our travel experiences, which classes we hoped to take at UCR, and random other topics. When everyone had finished the test, we went back into the welcome room for short presentations by the heads of the academic departments.

Next came lunch and the revealing of the week's theme. The RASA board had chosen "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" as the theme, so they all wore western cowboy/girl hats to make them the sheriffs over the new students. They were on the lookout for the "most wanted" IntRoweek family. The big group was split into three smaller groups, with 10 students in each family. Thomas was placed in the "Good Family," I was put into the "Bad Family," and Lindsey was in the "Ugly Family." Each family had two older students as 'parents' for the week. To go along with the theme, the RASA board had organized various competitions, with the prize being dollars. Whoever had the most money at the end of the week won the title of "Most Wanted."

The first activity was a blindfolded trust walk through streets near campus. When we took our blindfolds off, our parents explained the activity: a scavenger hunt around Middelburg. The paper instructed us to collect various items by trading what was in our bag of items, take pictures by different buildings, and come up with a nickname for each member. Since my family was "Bad"...we tried to come up with villain nicknames. I was given "She-who-must-not-be-named" in reference to Voldemort from Harry Potter.
Each family was given a paperclip, a can of shoe polish, and a small musical instrument (that we could use, but couldn't trade). As we walked through the market square, we saw a flower stand. My parents designated two guys - Jasper and Matthijs (pronounced like Mathias) to try and trade the paperclip for a flower. They came back to the group with a beautiful pink rose, thus earning Matthijs the nickname "Casanova". We walked around the city for a while taking pictures by various buildings and brainstorming ideas of what to trade for. One of the items on the list was alcohol, so we found a pub and Jasper traded the rose for a bottle of beer. Matthijs tried going to the police station to trade the shoe polish for something in the lost and found, but it didn't work. We also had to find something red. While we walked near my street (Bagijnhof) we found a red/white striped traffic cone just lying there amid other junk, so we took it. I don't remember all the items on the list, but we eventually traded up to a small coffee table. We took our items back to RASA for evaluation. After all the points were tallied, my family came out as the winners.
We had supper as families on Tuesday night. After supper was the "pub crawl" during which each family had additional assignments to complete. I chose to stay home, since I don't drink. Technically the age here is 18, but in America it's 21, and my birthday isn't until May.

The next day we met at 11:30 for brunch and a meeting with Dr. de Wit, the director of education. We discussed how each student is paired with a faculty member as a tutor/mentor and then we received our class schedules. My schedule had all the classes I had asked for on my application. I'm currently taking Introduction to Theatre and Media Studies, The Bible in the Arts, Introduction to Psychology, and World History. I'll explain more about my first week of classes later.
Shortly after eating brunch, we gathered in one of the classrooms in Eleanor to play a "speed-dating" style game to get to know our 'opponents' from the other families. Every time we switched partners, we had three minutes to talk about the topic on the prompt at that station. But there was a catch - each prompt had a handicap that you had to follow. A few of mine were: must sing every sentence; what's your favorite music, but you can't mention artists, song names, genres, or instruments; and you are not allowed to tell the truth.

Getting to know my opponents...

We had a break in the afternoon before our evening activity: glow-in-the-dark mini golf. The scores were tallied by family, but we were split into mixed groups to play. I got a total score of 57, which I didn't think was too bad. Someone else got a score of 44, and Thomas got 47. After golf we went to one of the student dorm buildings for pizza before going to another place near campus for a 'saloon quiz' in which we had three rounds of Q&A and a couple smaller games to earn our families extra money. My family won the quiz and one of the games.

On Thursday we met at 10:00am for a real tour of the city with RASA board members. We'd seen a lot of Middelburg during the scavenger hunt, but we were rushing around and didn't get to take in much of what we saw. We didn't have to stay in our families for the tour, but we were split into two groups. Inge led the group I was in. We learned the history of the street names and saw gorgeous architecture. To end the tour, we all met up at the tallest building in Middelburg - the Lange Jan (pronounced lahn-geh yahn).

I didn't take this picture. I found it online. This is a view of the Lange Jan and the Abbey, as well as quite a bit of the city. I included this picture to show the height of Lange Jan (translated to Long John).

Everyone climbed the 207 spiraled steps to the top. The view was amazing.

View down into the Abbey Square

The tallest building you can see in the two photos above is the tower on Franklin at UCR's campus. Franklin is the building that looks like Hogwarts.

Marius explains to Thomas how the tower's old bell system worked.

The morning was cloudy and misty, much like it usually is. Today as I write this post, it's actually sunny =)

After walking down the 207 steps, we met in a classroom in Theodore to learn UCR's anthem. The song was a gift from a couple students to the university back in 2011. We learned the anthem because we had been invited to attend the Dies Natalies celebration in honor of this year being the tenth anniversary of UCR. And during the ceremony, we'd be singing the anthem. The lyrics go as follows:

A steadfast Zeeland town of old,
Stands firm agains the Northern cold.
And nestled safely in her heart,
There stands a school, a world apart.
The bright minds sheltered deep within
Wake rested, eager to begin.
The gain in knowledge evermore,
Beneath the golden figures, pure.
A strong communal bond presides,
Politeness reigns, respect abides.
An hon'rable collegiates' code
Will guide us safe down future's road.
The beads of wisdom we can see
Are strung onto our memory.
And 'neath the town hall's watchful eye,
We study, party, love, and lie.
The statue's face may fade with years,
The bells will peal upon new ears.
We all shall pass our wisdom on
And swear our fealty, though we're gone.
We'll spread remembrance of this place,
With smiles on every aging face.
In all our hearts eternally,
Hail UC Roosevelt!
Hail UC Roosevelt!

After our singing lesson, we had a final game to earn points. We went back to the dorm where we ate pizza and played Capture the Flag. Then we had a break to get ready for the Dies celebration. When that got done, we met in an upper-level Franklin room for our final supper together as the Spring 2014 IntRoweek group. We had pancakes. But they were very different from American-style pancakes. These were almost as thin as crepes, and they had various ingredients baked into them. I tried one with bacon, another with cheese, and a plain one. Like most of the Dutch food I've had thus far, they were delicious. At the final supper, the RASA board announced which family was the "most wanted" for the week. My family won the title.

It definitely helped to stay so busy during my first week in Middelburg. I think it helped me get over the jet-lag faster. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were free to relax after all the craziness of IntRoweek. And then classes started on Jan. 27. Let's just say that my schedule is very different from anything I've ever had at UNK...

I don't have class on Mondays.
On Tuesdays I have World History from 8:45-10:45 a.m. Then Intro to Psychology from 1:45-3:45 p.m. And right after Psych, I go to The Bible in the Arts from 4:00-6:00 p.m.
Wednesdays are also long, but only in the mornings. I have one 4-hour class (Intro to Theatre and Media Studies) from 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. It's that long because it meets only once a week, whereas the other courses meet twice a week for two 2-hour sessions.
I don't have class on Thursdays.
On Fridays I have the same classes I had on Tuesdays. Except the meeting times and class order are switched around. I have The Bible in the Arts from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Then I go to World History from 1:45-3:45 p.m. And right after World History I have Intro to Psych from 4:00-6:00 p.m.

I survived my first week of classes, and my schedule doesn't seem all that bad...considering I have Mondays and Thursdays free. But those will definitely be my homework days. For now, I'll just try to take every experience as it comes and keep up with my schoolwork.

Middelburg is full of adventures waiting to happen, and I'm full of curiosity. One of these days I'm just going to walk around with my camera and take a bunch of pictures. Though I'll probably wait for another sunny day...

Until we meet again...
~Laurie

Planes, Trains and...Jet-lag

Hello, all!

Today marks one week since I've arrived in Middelburg. Wow. Has it really only been a week? It feels like so much longer. Or maybe it just feels that way since it's my first experience with jet-lag. I'm still not sure if I'm completely over it.

Thomas, Lindsey and I had agreed to meet up at the Omaha airport at 5:00am on January 19 for our trip. We wanted to give ourselves enough time to get our bags checked in and get through security before boarding our flight. My mom had brought Thomas and I down to Omaha the night before so we wouldn't have to get up at 2:00am and drive to the airport in the dark. The hotel we stayed at had a shuttle service that took us directly to the airport, though, so we didn't have to worry too much about actually getting there. We got through security in plenty of time and waited to board our 7:08am flight to Charlotte.

From left: Thomas, Laurie (that's me!), Lindsey try to stay awake enough to take a group photo before heading upstairs to go through security at the Omaha airport.

Mom and I at the airport just before going through security

This trip was my first experiences with both planes and trains. To get to the Netherlands, we flew from Omaha to Charlotte, NC. After a four-hour layover we flew to Philadelphia, where we had a 4.5-hour layover. Finally, at 8:50pm we boarded our last plane of the day. We flew overnight to Amsterdam's Schipol Airport...and in the process we skipped seven time zones. Hence...jet-lag ;)

Shortly after taking off from the Omaha airport. What a beautiful sunrise!

The sky is such a perfect shade of blue! The water streaking across the windows froze the higher we flew. It was fun to watch it slow down as it became minute ice crystals.

Somewhere over Charlotte, NC. We're in the descent - the ground is that close. I didn't use zoom.

When we got off the plane we had to go through customs in order to get to the baggage area. Lindsey and I voted to have Thomas go first since he had the only experience with such a process. The customs officer seemed nice enough, but also slightly wary...

Officer: "Where are you going?"
Thomas: "Middelburg."
Officer: "Why are you going there?"
Thomas: "I'm studying abroad."
Officer: "Do you have your residence permit?"
Thomas: "I was told that I'll get it when we get there."
Officer: *sighs and stamps Thomas' passport* "Alright."

Lindsey went next. The officer asked her the same first question, and when she gave the same answer, he simply asked, "Same reasons as the first guy?" She said yes, and he stamped her passport. When I got up to the window he looked at my passport book, then back at me and said, "Are you with the other two?" I replied that yes, I was. He stamped my book and we proceeded to the baggage-claim area.

Amsterdam Schipol Airport baggage-claim area

Once we retrieved our bags, the three of us walked over to the service desk and asked where the train station was. The lady at the desk directed us through a couple sets of doors. Turns out...the station was connected to the airport. On the flight we had decided to take the first available train to Middelburg. We got our tickets and had about 10 minutes to find the correct platform before our train arrived. The ride took about 2.5 hours. I actually used my iPad and took a video of part of the trip, but when I loaded it onto my laptop, the video plays upside-down. If/when I get it fixed, I'll make sure to post it. The landscape was relatively open and agricultural. Some fields had standing water because it rains so much. The sky was completely overcast, as it has been for much of the past week. But one of the students from here said that Middelburg is actually "the sunniest place in the Netherlands."

I think the sun has been out once. Maybe twice. *wink*

We contacted a couple students from UCR so they could meet us at the Middelburg train station. Marius and Inge were there, as arranged. We had a 10-15 minute walk from the station to the street where my house is. I live on a street called Bagijnhof. Lindsey is just around the corner from me, on Pluimstraat. And Thomas is in a new student dorm called Sint Willibrord that's just across the street from campus. Lindsey and I both live in buildings that are basically large houses. There's a total of 10 people in my house. It's community-style living, and every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evening we have a house dinner. There will be a "house elder" who assigns chores and who's cooking for the dinners.

The culture here is different and will take some getting used to, but I'm eager and excited to learn more and experience new things. Tomorrow I officially start my first classes at the University College Roosevelt. I just hope the after-effects of my jet-lag don't mess with my concentration too much...