Sunshine and Maastricht

Since returning from Dublin, the weather here has been, for the most part, incredible. High 60s with sunshine and beautiful blue skies! I have been going for jogs through Westerpark and hanging out on our balconies. Last Saturday Abby, Ryan and I went to the Noordermarkt. It's a pretty big market that has organic food on Saturdays. However, it is not limited to food by any means. We bought avocadoes and limes. Then we went home and I made guacamole...on the balcony. It was so beautiful! We decided to pull the couch from my kitchen onto the balcony too. Then, after squeezing a ridiculous number of limes, we invited the neighbors over for margaritas and guacamole. Unfortunately, I had to work on a paper over the next couple of days, but on Tuesday afternoon after class, Ryan and I got coffee at a cafe on the Prinsengracht, across the canal from the Anne Frank Huis. Cafes are setting up tables next to the canals, and we sat at one of them. The trees were all budding; they looked like they had pale green mesh wrapped around their branches. Tour boats passed by. I think we were in over 10 pictures taken by tourists that day. Little do they know that they have pictures of Americans! Another fun sunshine activity -- some of the people on my program have a grill on their balcony. They grilled brats the other night, which was great and very summery feeling!

Last weekend we went to Maastricht and some villages in the south. We stopped in this romantic little village called Thorn. All of the buildings were white-washed and it was very picturesque. Then we went on to Maastricht, where we took a riverboat ride up the river Maas and toured a series of caves/tunnels created through a 1000 year limestone mining operation. They were really impressive. There are hundreds of kilometers of then and they have very high ceilings. They actually used them for hiding and as a bunker during WWII. After that we wandered around Maastricht again. It was nice to see things I recognized. Although, I must admit, the city looks a lot different without thousands of people in costume packing every street. That night we went to a French restaurant for dinner. It was pretty good, but took forever. Four courses over 3.5 hours is a little excessive. That night I met up with Momchil and Paul, two friends from Macalester who are on the Maastricht program that Mac has. It was really great to see a familiar face. Momchil was my nextdoor neighbor in Dupre first year.

The next day we went to an American war cemetery, the only one in the Netherlands. It was beautiful. Rows of white crosses and stars against the green grass. It was nice to be reminded of some of the good things Americans have done in the realm of international relations. From there we went to Valkenburg and toured a coal mine museum. It was pretty dull. Our guide was entertaining only because he was so ridiculous. At times his racism and sexism were too much for me to bear. After that we got to hang out in the town for a little while. I got lunch and an ice cream cone. Hazelnut on the bottom and chocolate on top. For only 1.40 I was very happy with that purchase!! Our last stop was Drielandspunt, the place where the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany meet. It was not what I expected. I wanted to stand on the point where they all come together, but it wasn't clearly marked. I did take a little stroll into Germany though, quite nice!