Oh my.
The past couple of days have been pretty interesting. I am going to give you all of the details pretty candidly, because I think that it is the proper thing to do. If you are all going to take the time to read my blog, I'll tell you all the things I did...
that being said:
The rest of my week at the castle was good. My classes are going to be A LOT of work. A LOT A LOT of reading. Much more then I've ever gotten in Boston, but it's okay. We're in Europe.
On Friday morning, bright and early, we all got on a bus for a school trip to Amsterdam. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to let 83 Emerson students roam around Amsterdam together is a very, very silly person, but we all made it through the weekend with out being arrested or dead, or something like that.
We arrived in Amsterdam at about 11 am, and dropped our bags off at the hostel. From there we split up into groups of 12 or 13 and were lead on walking tours around the city. Amsterdam in BEAUTIFUL. Full of canals and bikers and scary trams. Everyone there is so pleasant and despite the cold the city was alive with people walking around enjoying the sunny weather. On the tour, our guide took us on a little detour through the red light district. She never told us the moment when we crossed over into the district so I almost fainted when all the sudden I looked over and saw a women in her lingerie dancing in a window. It was kind of unsettling. We were dropped off in Dam Square (one of the main squares in the city where the dam used to be... hence the name) and we had about an hour on our own for lunch. We sat in the square and ate the lunches that were provided for us by the hostel and waited for the rest of the group to reconvene. After that we all went to the Rijksmuseum with everyone. There my art history group split off on our own and we were lead around the museum by Dulica. I don't know how to quite put this into words, but after touring around the museum with her I have a new found apreciation for art. I have NEVER in my life felt this way about the fine arts before (clearly I have always been passionate about theater) but for the first time I feel so utterly conneted wtih the cultural signifigance of a peice of art and I LOVE IT. So thank you Dulica.
After the Rijksmuseum we were taken to an Indonesian restaurant for a group dinner… which was DELICIOUS. And then we were on our own. I guess this is where things get a little racey?
Flash forward two hours later, and I was at a live sex show… with about 30 of my classmates. I won’t really go into the details of it, but it was HILARIOUS. They played to the fact that there were 30 college students there, and it was just a lot of fun, as crude as it was.
The next day in the morning we all went to the Amsterdam historical museum which had a really cool lay out. Hilary, Lily and I had the BEST falafel ever for lunch, and then a couple students from my art history class when to the museum at the University of Amsterdam to look at sculptures from the Greek and Roman Era, led by Rob Duckers. Rob is just as amazing as Dulcia, and is quickly making me LOVE all art. We did such a good job identifying the sculptures as Greek and Roman that he took us out for a bottle of champagne. Let me tell you, the 8 of us that were there felt so damn cultured talking about art in the middle of a nice hotel with a glass of champagne with our art history professor. It was wonderful.
That night a big group of us went to an improv show. Boom Chicago was the name of the company, they are American based but in Amsterdam. The show was fun, but more fun was finding out that one of the improvisers not only went to Emerson, but went to the Castle in the Fall of 2000. Awesome. After that everyone went out dancing. IT WAS A BLAST.
Traveling in such a big group was VERY stressful, but it was also really fun getting to hang out with everyone from the castle.
The next morning, Rosie, Justin, Ashley and I missed the tour to the Jewish history museum, which is upsetting, but I am going to see both that and the Anne Frank house with my parents when they come in March so it’s fine. We were responsible for our own travel back, so we just decided to get on a train then and head back to the castle. We were WIPED from a busy weekend. The train ride was VERY peaceful. The four of us just sat and talked and enjoyed each others company and laughed about how silly we were in middle school and found out that when you poop in the bathroom it just lands on the train tracks (Nicole, that fun fact is for you).
Being back at the castle has been good. Just doing work and recharging for Paris in a couple of days. We leave Thursday night, and I AM SO VERY EXCITED.
I guess that’s it for now.
Showing posts with label Kasteel Well. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kasteel Well. Show all posts
Monday, February 2, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
End of Orientation and first day of classes
So, I have officially entered school mode. Classes started today, but my World Drama class, which was supposed to happen tonight was cancelled for the evening because our professor is sick. Such is life. Instead of having class, most of us in that class (which consists of the performing arts majors that are here this semester) are going to Venlo, a town near by to check it out and see what's around.
I guess before I get to that I'll recap the past couple of days and my class this morning:
Saturday night they had a Spanish guitar duet concert for us in Sophie's lounge and then we went back to the Linden (there isn't much else to do on a Saturday night in Well), and we had a lot of fun. Pretty much everyone from Emerson was there, as well as the enitre town of Well. They were in the process of choosing the theme song for Carnivale (which is in about a month) and it was a blast. We danced in dutch conga lines, everyone got up on the pool table and danced, it was a good time for everyone.
Then sunday was back to orientation stuff...
So the rest of Orientation was actually pretty fun. Sunday we had sessions about the academics here at the castle with Dulica, who my love for is growing more and more with every time that she talks to us, as well as sessions on how to plan trips and Dutch traditions. There we learned how to sing happy birthday in Dutch, (there are videos of us singing to Michael on picassa). We had about two hours between the meetings about the castle and when we were going to meet to walk over to dinner, so Bettina, Katie Jo, Cherylynn, Stella, Lauren and Ilanna and I went on a little walk around the Kasteel to take pictures. (You can see them all: www.picasaweb.google.come/rebralow) Then it was off to a dinner and wine reception thrown for us by the school at Da Grote Waay. Da Grote Waay is a restaurant and inn owned by Nellie and her family. Nellie is the woman who does all the catering for the Kasteel and she's wonderful.
Dinner was good fun, as was the reception, which was really everyone just sitting around drinking some wine, but it has been nice to sit down with all the people here and really get to know them. I am enjoying the company of everyone on this trip so much. I cannot wait to begin traveling to places with people. Bettina, and our friends Ben, Ashley, Rosie, Michael, Clay and I have some plans for Amsterdam already. We also are about to book our trains to Switzerland, and our apartment in Paris (how fun!)
My first class this morning was Art History: Renaissance and Baroque with Dulica, and Rob Dukers. Dulica taught the class today, and as I said before this woman AMAZES me. I love her and her logic. I've only had once class with her so far, but her logic is sensible and I am excited to hear what she has to day.
I guess that's about all for now.
Just some bumming around until dinner and then Venlo tonight.
I miss the people in Boston, but at the same time, I can tell that I am NEVER going to want to leave this place.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
WELLcome
Hello all.
So I am writing this on Saturday, although I won’t get internet until Monday (because I had some trouble with my anti virus software), so now I have to wait until Hubert, the groundskeeper, who I will get to in a minute, comes back to the castle to get me online. Not that I am complaining…. because I am currently living in a tower, in a castle, in The Netherlands. WHAT?
I guess I should start off talking about the journey over here and the things that have gone on in the first 30 or so hours since arriving in Well.
The epic day started at 9 am on the 22nd at Emerson, where we had an orientation with the head of external programs, who I am lead to believe doesn’t really know much about the program. Don’t get me wrong, he is a good resource, but he didn’t even begin to skim the surface of what it was going to be like once we got here, granted how could you? After this info session/orientation, it was a whirlwind of saying my last goodbyes in Boston. My parents, a group of Kappas (and Kelly), and myself all went to CPK for lunch, and then it was time to load the busses. Saying goodbye to everyone was tough because it really hit me that life was going to move on in Boston and I wouldn’t be there. I know that sounds narcissistic, but I mean that everyone will be making fun memories at school that I won’t be able to share. That feeling died down pretty soon after the busses pulled out of school though because I realized that I was on my way to make my own memories in Europe.
The airport was pretty painless. It took everyone a little bit to get checked in, but once we all got through to the gate we had about an hour and a half until boarding the plane. Katie Jo, Stella and I bought pretty ghetto watches at Hudson news. We all forgot to pack ours, and we realized that it was pretty essential, followed but a stomach churning meal at the food court and then it we were off to Amsterdam.
A little under six hours later we arrived in Amsterdam. We all made it in one piece, although one girl on our trip left her passport in the seat pocket of the airplane and had to run back to get it. It was pouring rain when we got there, which made it interested loading on to the buses, but tired and soaked we boarded the two coaches (very similar to those buses we would fill on Price-Bralow-Friedburg trips) and drove to Well. It was about a two and a half (ish… I think) hour drive, and most of us slept for about an hour of it. It was surreal falling asleep looking at the rainy skies and construction that was happening right outside Amsterdam, and waking up (although still drizzling) to sheep and windmills. Wow. We all started to get pretty jazzed when we saw signs for Nijmegen, Venray and Venlo, the places that we have heard about from past castle dwellers as the towns near by Well, and then finally we started to see signs for Well. Everyone on the bus started to squeal, as we drove through the main street of Well. No one was standing in the street waving at us (like David Griffin said) but that was fine because all the sudden we were parked outside the outer moat of Kasteel Well.
The castle is amazing. I cannot even begin to describe all of it. I know a good handful of people who have been to the castle already, and none of their pictures or descriptions came close to truly capturing the feeling of this place. (Although, Caitlin, you did a pretty good job breaking it down for me ☺) We all helped unload everyone’s luggage off the busses and we stored it in the parking lot and headed into the Barbetta room (which is kind of like a big lecturish hall) for a Welcome from Dulcia. Dulcia is the director of the castle program and I have only heard AMAZING things about her. From the little bit that I have met of her, I can see why. She is so friendly and excited about us being here. I cannot wait to talk to her more and have her as a teacher. After the welcome we headed down to lunch, and on our way down we saw a list with all of our room assignments on it. Clearly, being nosey, I peaked at it and saw next to me and my other two roommates names TW2. I knew that MC stood for Main Castle, VB stood for Voorburcht (which is this U shaped building that surrounds the castle…. Which is the building that I live in), NW which stood for New Wing (also in the VB) so Cherylynn, one of my roommates, and I deduced that we were living in the tower. AMAZING. After lunch they showed us to our rooms, Rachel (yes I live with the only other Rach(a)el on this trip), Cherylynn and I got to our room, and it was this tiny green door in the wall with our names on it (I’m posting pictures on picasa, so you can really get a feel for it) and when you open it, and by it, I mean the huge cast-iron latch that is the doorknob, there is a set of steep, narrow wooden stairs (also there are pictures). At the top of the stairs is another door, and through that door is our amazing, wonderful, awesome, beautiful room. It’s a circle (duh, we’re living in a castle tower) with five windows with three of them have window seats, accents of grey and red and an extra dresser because the room is sometimes used as a quad. (look a the pictures, I’m not doing this room justice) When the three of us walked in, we dropped all of our stuff and started to jump around from excitement. Literally jump.
Since then they have been keeping us pretty busy with orientation stuff. We were done with the programming last night after dinner, so we all (well most of us) decided to check out the Linden, which is one of two bars here in Well, and the one that is frequented most by Emerson students. Jack, the owner was very excited to see that the Emerson kids were back in town, and after giving us a short intro and talk about American Night at the bar (which we are all pretty excited about) we all sat around and enjoyed a pretty tame night of trying Dutch beers and getting to know each other.
I’m sure that’s all you can handle for now, this is getting to be pretty lengthy, but I will keep this updated to the best of my abilities.
And in case anyone was wondering: for now my travel weekends look like this:
1) Jan 30th- Feb 1st: Amsterdam (school excursion)
2) Feb 6th-8th: Gyron, Switzerland
3) Feb 13th-15th Paris, France (on Valentines day… I know)
4) Feb 21st-22nd staying in Well for Carnival
Also on the list is the UK for our extended travel break—Stella and I are meeting up with our friends Ryan and Laura in London for a few days, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Barcelona, Greek Islands (Easter weekend), Bruges and Brussels and of course Prague on our other school excursion.
Hope you all are doing well! I miss everyone a lot. If the mood so strikes you feel free to email me (rebralow@gmail.com) I would LOVE to hear from all of you and will do my best to respond.
Love!
So I am writing this on Saturday, although I won’t get internet until Monday (because I had some trouble with my anti virus software), so now I have to wait until Hubert, the groundskeeper, who I will get to in a minute, comes back to the castle to get me online. Not that I am complaining…. because I am currently living in a tower, in a castle, in The Netherlands. WHAT?
I guess I should start off talking about the journey over here and the things that have gone on in the first 30 or so hours since arriving in Well.
The epic day started at 9 am on the 22nd at Emerson, where we had an orientation with the head of external programs, who I am lead to believe doesn’t really know much about the program. Don’t get me wrong, he is a good resource, but he didn’t even begin to skim the surface of what it was going to be like once we got here, granted how could you? After this info session/orientation, it was a whirlwind of saying my last goodbyes in Boston. My parents, a group of Kappas (and Kelly), and myself all went to CPK for lunch, and then it was time to load the busses. Saying goodbye to everyone was tough because it really hit me that life was going to move on in Boston and I wouldn’t be there. I know that sounds narcissistic, but I mean that everyone will be making fun memories at school that I won’t be able to share. That feeling died down pretty soon after the busses pulled out of school though because I realized that I was on my way to make my own memories in Europe.
The airport was pretty painless. It took everyone a little bit to get checked in, but once we all got through to the gate we had about an hour and a half until boarding the plane. Katie Jo, Stella and I bought pretty ghetto watches at Hudson news. We all forgot to pack ours, and we realized that it was pretty essential, followed but a stomach churning meal at the food court and then it we were off to Amsterdam.
A little under six hours later we arrived in Amsterdam. We all made it in one piece, although one girl on our trip left her passport in the seat pocket of the airplane and had to run back to get it. It was pouring rain when we got there, which made it interested loading on to the buses, but tired and soaked we boarded the two coaches (very similar to those buses we would fill on Price-Bralow-Friedburg trips) and drove to Well. It was about a two and a half (ish… I think) hour drive, and most of us slept for about an hour of it. It was surreal falling asleep looking at the rainy skies and construction that was happening right outside Amsterdam, and waking up (although still drizzling) to sheep and windmills. Wow. We all started to get pretty jazzed when we saw signs for Nijmegen, Venray and Venlo, the places that we have heard about from past castle dwellers as the towns near by Well, and then finally we started to see signs for Well. Everyone on the bus started to squeal, as we drove through the main street of Well. No one was standing in the street waving at us (like David Griffin said) but that was fine because all the sudden we were parked outside the outer moat of Kasteel Well.
The castle is amazing. I cannot even begin to describe all of it. I know a good handful of people who have been to the castle already, and none of their pictures or descriptions came close to truly capturing the feeling of this place. (Although, Caitlin, you did a pretty good job breaking it down for me ☺) We all helped unload everyone’s luggage off the busses and we stored it in the parking lot and headed into the Barbetta room (which is kind of like a big lecturish hall) for a Welcome from Dulcia. Dulcia is the director of the castle program and I have only heard AMAZING things about her. From the little bit that I have met of her, I can see why. She is so friendly and excited about us being here. I cannot wait to talk to her more and have her as a teacher. After the welcome we headed down to lunch, and on our way down we saw a list with all of our room assignments on it. Clearly, being nosey, I peaked at it and saw next to me and my other two roommates names TW2. I knew that MC stood for Main Castle, VB stood for Voorburcht (which is this U shaped building that surrounds the castle…. Which is the building that I live in), NW which stood for New Wing (also in the VB) so Cherylynn, one of my roommates, and I deduced that we were living in the tower. AMAZING. After lunch they showed us to our rooms, Rachel (yes I live with the only other Rach(a)el on this trip), Cherylynn and I got to our room, and it was this tiny green door in the wall with our names on it (I’m posting pictures on picasa, so you can really get a feel for it) and when you open it, and by it, I mean the huge cast-iron latch that is the doorknob, there is a set of steep, narrow wooden stairs (also there are pictures). At the top of the stairs is another door, and through that door is our amazing, wonderful, awesome, beautiful room. It’s a circle (duh, we’re living in a castle tower) with five windows with three of them have window seats, accents of grey and red and an extra dresser because the room is sometimes used as a quad. (look a the pictures, I’m not doing this room justice) When the three of us walked in, we dropped all of our stuff and started to jump around from excitement. Literally jump.
Since then they have been keeping us pretty busy with orientation stuff. We were done with the programming last night after dinner, so we all (well most of us) decided to check out the Linden, which is one of two bars here in Well, and the one that is frequented most by Emerson students. Jack, the owner was very excited to see that the Emerson kids were back in town, and after giving us a short intro and talk about American Night at the bar (which we are all pretty excited about) we all sat around and enjoyed a pretty tame night of trying Dutch beers and getting to know each other.
I’m sure that’s all you can handle for now, this is getting to be pretty lengthy, but I will keep this updated to the best of my abilities.
And in case anyone was wondering: for now my travel weekends look like this:
1) Jan 30th- Feb 1st: Amsterdam (school excursion)
2) Feb 6th-8th: Gyron, Switzerland
3) Feb 13th-15th Paris, France (on Valentines day… I know)
4) Feb 21st-22nd staying in Well for Carnival
Also on the list is the UK for our extended travel break—Stella and I are meeting up with our friends Ryan and Laura in London for a few days, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Barcelona, Greek Islands (Easter weekend), Bruges and Brussels and of course Prague on our other school excursion.
Hope you all are doing well! I miss everyone a lot. If the mood so strikes you feel free to email me (rebralow@gmail.com) I would LOVE to hear from all of you and will do my best to respond.
Love!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)