Pieces From the Final Week of DCL

After we got back from Delft we had the weekend off. I got settled in more and Maastricht really started to feel like home. The second week of our orientation was more classroom based. We had a long lectures on culture and started the language course. These are some highlights from the week,

Monday: Started the language course! Learned how to say some exciting things like:

     Ik ben Jenny. Ik kom uit California. Mijn geboortedatum is 22 Mart 1991. and the alphabet and numbers... and thats all I really remember now haha. But it was fun. After we took a bus to The American World War II Memorial and Cemetery. It was freezing and depressing and it hailed on us as we were waiting for the bus back, but it was a cool stop none the less.

Lots of names of lost soldiers

America? I thought we were in the Netherlands...

It stopped raining and the sun came out for a brief second

That night we went to this little movie theater to watch The Black Book. A great dutch World War II movie. You should watch it, really. It was very inspiring, but I hate war and it put me in a weird mood. The movie theater was so cute, and it had a bar in it, not like the big industrial movie theaters at home.

The bar in the theater

The theater. It was so tiny!

The itty bitty screen

Tuesday: We had more language this morning. We began to learn the clock system, which is complicated because they say things like its 10 before half before the next hour. So 9:20 is tien voor half tien. Which to me makes no sense. We also listened to the best song ever. It was very simple dutch and Allison and I loved it. Got stuck in my head for the rest of the week. Afterwards we went across the river to Ceramique Square, which is dedicated to the Maastricht Treaty that was signed in 1992 and started the Euro.

The walking bridge over the river

Ceramique square is also where the public library is. Its huge and beautiful and has a really cool miniature model of what maastricht used to look like in the 18th century. 

Adorable

A museum in Maastricht

Tuesday night we went back to the same movie theater to watch The Storm. Which is another Dutch film about the storm that hit in the 1950s and broke all the dams in the south west and it flooded and lots of people died. It was the slowest movie ever but I had no idea how bad the flood was so it was cool to learn about.

Wednesday: We learned more language, then in the afternoon it was off to Brussels! We left around 1 and took a private bus to the European Commissions. We had a lecture there about it. It was alright. I still don't understand the European Union completely, but it helped.

What it looks like inside

Then we had some time off in Brussels before we had a shmancy dinner, so obviously we went to hang out with the Mannekin-Pis and eat Belgian waffles. Nom.

Gettin Friendly

The dinner was pretty great. Had some tasty fish. After we went to Delirium to get some Beer and we played a fun game where you have an identity on your head and you have to try and figure out who you were. I had absolutely no clue who I was, even when I gave up and found out. Some model or something. The funny thing was that Medi (our group leader) and I both picked Britney Spears for the people next to us. Made for some great laughs. 

Fun times in Brussels

Thursday and Friday were more Culture Lectures and Language. We listened to some really great Dutch music videos. Hilarious. and didn't really learn much more language. We had an exam at the end but I think it went pretty well. I was sad that the introduction was over but excited to meet the new people that were beginning to show up! It was a great program to get oriented with our new home, even if it was a struggle to get through sometimes.

Next: Bruges!