Big weekend!

This weekend was really busy, so I decided to consolidate it all into one post. Let's start on Friday...

Friday--

Our first graphic design class was in the morning, and we were supposed to sketch lions from memory. This is HARD!!! My lions didn't look very lion-like... Then we went to the computers and had to design a lion in profile. This is hard too! The whole exercise was from memory, and if you think about it... I bet you have a hard time thinking of what a lion looks like too!

In the afternoon, we took another tour of Leiden. I'm starting to learn my way around, but we saw lots of new and interesting sites.

One of the places we visited was the first of the university buildings, founded in 1575. There is a room called the "sweat room," where students waited to learn their grades. Starting in the 1640s, graduates started signing their names on the wall, and it has been a tradition since. There are some famous signatures on the wall like some of the Orange family (William of Orange), Nelson Mandella and Sir Winston Chruchill).

The signatures on the wall in the sweat room.

Another stop on our tour was the Pilgrim Museum. I won't go into detail, but it was boring. The guy just rambled and was not very interesting.

For dinner, we went to the grocery store and stocked up on some food. Then we made dinner at the dorms. It was really nice, because we could just all hang out and relax together.

A few of us ventured out later in the evening and explored Leiden a bit. They thought I got us lost, but I knew exactly where we were. If they wouldn't have doubted me, I wouldn't have secondguessed myself, but I stood my ground and was self-confident and got us back safely!!

Saturday--

On Saturday, we actually got to somewhat sleep in. After talking to Chris in the morning, I fell back asleep and almost didn't wake up in time to go to Amsterdam!

We walked to the train around 11:30, and took an about 20 min train ride to the center of the city. It turned out that the other Emily and I were the navigators of the group, so we studied the map and figured out where we were going to go.

We walked around for a little while and took pictures. It is so beautiful, and the canals are so picturesque!!

We ate lunch and walked to the Van Gogh Museum. The museum took about an hour, but it was very interesting to see how his art changed as he went through different periods of his life.

We went to the Anne Frank Huis (house) afterwards. It was a very somber experience. Of course, no photography is allowed, but I got some postcards to remember what it looks like. It is the actual house with the "Secret Annex." Otto Frank (Anne's father) requested that the rooms never be furnished, but we were able to walk through them and Anne's photos and posters were still on the walls in her room. The moving bookcase was also very interesting to see.

It is amazing that we were able to stand in a place with so much history. I said as we were walking toward it that although the house gets all of the glory, all of the buildings around the area were part of the war and part of the Holocaust. It's just a very somber, moving thing to experience.

We ate in a nice little Irish Pub for dinner. I had a hamburger, and realized that it was the first red meat I've had in Europe. That's the biggest change for my diet... I'm not eating meat like I'm used to!

We walked QUICKLY through the red light district in the evening before it got dark. Everything passed by very quickly, but we could get the idea of what everyone talks about. It's only a few blocks long, so when we passed it, it seemed kind of like a dream... unreal.

We had one or two pints before we got back on the train to Leiden and called it a day. We were all exhausted!!

Sunday--

Sunday started off sadly when I heard that Jim Anderson had passed away. I was thankful that he went peacefully, but still felt heartbroken for the Anderson family. I am sad that I won't be there for the services, but I am sending my prayers to Iowa.

I slept in really late Sunday, and it ended up being a relaxing, lazy day. It was raining (more than usual) outside, so everyone just stayed inside and lounged. We played my new card game Scrabble Slam, and made both meals at the dorm.

I loaded some pictures on Facebook, and downloaded and edited the ones from Amsterdam.

Tomorrow will start our first full week of classes.

The time is seeming to go fast in some ways and slow in others. We have done a TON of things in only 5 days, but it's also crazy that we're 1/5 done with the program.

I'm getting to know a lot of the people in the group, and I'm becoming quite good friends with some of them. This really is a wonderful opportunity, and I'm so glad I'm doing it!

Madison, Emilee, Allison and Lauren posing at the "Iamsterdam" sign.

I looked out my window today and thought to myself, "It is crazy that THIS is what I see when I look out my window." When I'm in Des Moines, I see a parking lot.