I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but I love Leuven. Hands down, we have the best program at Loyola in terms of traveling around Europe. When we first arrived in Leuven, we were whisked away on a week long trip to France, completely paid for by Loyola. We have a Loyola sponsored trip in the Spring where we go to Rome and Florence for Easter, and this past weekend we went to Amsterdam. It started off with a few of us going on a NATO open-house, where I paid 10 euro for a nap.
The second we got off the bus at NATO, I was regretting my decision to come. The only reason why I signed up is because I'm trying to be more politically educated. It was awful. First of all, I was exhausted, and when I'm exhausted, I tend to get a little cranky. Second of all, it was cold, and when I'm cold, I tend to get a little cranky. Third of all, I was hungry, and when I'm hungry . . . you got it, I get cranky. Also, I think the guy in charge of the session and "tour" (I use the word "tour" loosely, because we weren't allowed to go beyond the main area, where there was an ATM, a gift shop, and a post office. Wooo. Exciting. I've never seen any of those things before,) went through his staff, and chose the least charismatic person to give the speech. And he told her on the morning of the session. She was a fiesty woman who clearly hated her life, refused to speak into the microphone and didn't care about NATO or our entertainment. I fell asleep within the first 5 minutes, after I saw our director Elke dozing off. My whole row was snoozing. It was an informational speech about things that I could have easily read in a text book. After my expensive nap, we boarded the bus back to Leuven, and grabbed our bags for Amsterdam.
Amsterdam is the one place so far that I've felt it necessary to put on my to-do list in the spring. It was a city with an identity crisis, one block a beautiful, historic place with elegant architecture and picturesque bridges, and the next street full of coffeehouses, street performers and graffiti. The disorganized and chaotic nature of Amsterdam made it all the more interesting. It's much different than I thought it would be, but in a good way. I only envisioned the sleazy part, but it was actually quite lovely. Our hotel was called Hotel Nadia, and our director Dr. Hughes had warned us about the deadly staircase. It literally went straight up, but luckily, my room was on the second floor, so I didn't have to go very far. I roomed with Steffi and Katie, but we weren't in our room very much. We spent our time exploring the city, going to places like the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Anne Frank House, and a hidden church called "Our Lord in the Attic".
Dr. Hughes gave us an art assignment before we arrived in Amsterdam, so we could prepare for it during our excursion through the different museums. We have to find two paintings, one from the Rijksmuseum and one from the Van Gogh Museum that we would like to hang in our house. We have to explain why we chose these paintings, and the historical relevance behind them. I think that this assignment really helped me focus more during the museums, because I was forced to carefully examine the paintings, and take note of the ones that really stood out. It made my experience more enjoyable. In between the museums we walked around the city, checking out the cheesy souvenir shops and peeking into the Red Light District. We may have only seen part of it, but the Red Light District was surprisingly disappointing. We saw the sex shops and peep show advertisements, along with the girls in the windows.
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