Rotterdam

Today we went on a group field trip to Rotterdam, a medium-sized city in Western Netherlands. It is known as the city of water because of its port, which is one of the largest ports in the world. Rotterdam also operates the world's biggest crude oil refinery.

The city was destroyed by several bombs during WWII, so it has had to be completely rebuilt, and the city has become a sort of test ground for experimental architecture... (More on that to come.)

We started the morning with by walking to the train station and meeting by 9. It was about a 40 minute train ride, and then we walked to a small photography exhibit.

Our next stop was a larger museum, Museum Boijmans Van Beunigen. It was a really awesome museum with a collection ranging from the classical masters to contemporary and modern art.

One of the exhibits was a Brazilian installation of nylon that you could actually get in! I could have stayed all day...

From the outside of the installation

Inside the installation

Sand in nylons supporting the installation

After the museum, we had lunch on our own in a shopping district... The people I was with had Chinese... mmm... Sweet & Sour Chicken!

We walked around A LOT more, but one of the really cool things we saw were apartments that have been an architectural hit in the Netherlands and abroad... They're called Kubus-Paalwonigen, and they're cube-shaped apartments.

Not the best picture of it, but it's so hard to get from one angle... Google it!

We actually got to go inside, and they are amazing! The furniture is custom built for the slanted walls on the three floors of the apartment.

We also walked around the harbor and got to see a lot of boats and bridges.

We headed back toward Leiden at about 4:30, but we got on the slow train, so it took us an hour and a half to get back! We made spaghetti and meat sauce as a group, and it was a great and efficient way to eat yummy food and save money!

This is me and Emily (from West Des Moines). She's goes to University of Utah and is a modern dance major! (And this is my new scarf...)

I worked on drawing assignment for tomorrow's class, and then edited and looked through the pictures from today and still some from Paris.

Now I think I'm going to go to sleep. My eye was still twitching today, and we decided that it's saying, "Emilee. Pay attention. Close me. Go to sleep. Hey. Emilee. Hey. Close me." So that's what I'm going to do!

Goodnight!