Exams/Christmas

The past few weeks were crazy with exams, papers, and projects all coming up. My last exam ran on Monday, December 20 and since then I've been trying to relax and work a bit on some papers. I was able to relax and also get a little bit of traveling in. I went up to Köln, hoping to catch the last day of the Christmas Market, on a very snowy Christmas Eve, however, for reasons I have yet to understand, it was closed. I was under the assumption that the Christmas Markets stay open until Christmas Day, but I feel as if I was mistaken. Either way, it was a great trip to see the amazing Cathedral and just walk around the town, even though Germany seemed to be closed for the weekend.

From here I traveled on to Kleve to see my family who lives in Nijmegen and celebrate Christmas. For Christmas eve, nearly everything was closed so we stayed in, watched a few movies, and saw the snow as it kept falling. On Saturday, for Christmas, we went to Nijmegen and celebrate Christmas Dutch style. This meant that it was much less about presents, and much more about food and family. We had a wonderful dinner with ham, deer, pork, roasted potatoes, cabbage, cooked pears and apples, and of course some waffles and ice cream for dessert. After we were fully stuffed, we hung around, talked, and watched baby Ebbe as he opened his presents.
For second Christmas (December 26) we had a German lunch in Kleve before heading to the Africa museum near Nijmegen. Unfortunately, we had Motte, my family's dog, with us, and he was not allowed in the museum (which was strange, as he'd apparently visited before) so we could not see much outside of the gift shop of the Africa museum. So instead we went over to family friend's home, talked and continued eating until it was about dinner time, when we went out for Greek food before heading back to Maastricht.

Hopefully, if the trains are running in Germany, today I will be heading to Munich. From there Switzerland, and then back to Maastricht before Barbie and I visit Paris and Brussels. Winter break is going very well.

Winter Market/Sinterklaas

The past week and a half or so have, like most of my other weeks, been filled with schoolwork. The period is winding down so exams, papers, and projects are coming up quickly. Maastricht also had it's first snowfall of the year and has stayed below freezing for the better part of two weeks. However, that just made it more beautiful and made the opening of the winter market (Kerstmarkt) magical. It has really helped for getting into the Christmas Spirit, even with the amazing amount of work I've been doing.

I was able to get out of town a few times. I went to Aachen with friends from Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal to experience the Christmas Market there, which I have to say is a lot nicer than the one in Maastricht. In Germany, the Christmas Market is really just like a market, it feels very traditional, with wonderful food, stands selling anything you can think of, and gluhwein. We spent a few hours there exploring, until we got to cold and returned to Maastricht.
As you can see, the Maastricht Kerstmarkt is much more showy, but less like a markt and more like a carnival. It is pretty fun, although I think it is a bit absurd to have a ferris wheel when it is below freezing outside. However, they do have a pretty great ice skating rink, something that I haven't seen since I left the states, so I'm glad to be able to have that again!

After another week of work, this past weekend (December 4-5) was Sinterklaas. For this holiday we have to come up with gifts and poems to share with one another. I was able to celebrate twice, once with my Aunt and her family in Nijmegen and again with my Rotary family just outside of Nijmegen. With my family, we had wonderful Pannekoeken with beer for dinner, and even Ebbe (my Aunt's nephew's son) enjoyed it thoroughly.

With my Rotary Family, I found out that aside from the gifts and poems, you are supposed to add in a "surprise" this is kind of like a riddle or game that people have to play to find their present from Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet. However, I didn't know this beforehand and, as such, missed out on that aspect when making my present. For mine, it was hidden in the house and I had to go around and use my "worldly knowledge, athletic ability, and problem solving skills" to find mine. It was quite fun.

Unfortunately, all the fun had to come to an end and I returned to Maastricht to continue work on papers projects and exams. On the upside, just two more weeks of this period before Christmas Break when I can travel and start to think about my thesis.

Catching up

Hey everyone!

I've been keeping up with school, although struggling a bit. Three classes in one period has turned out to be difficult, but I am still enjoying my time thoroughly. My Dutch lessons are going pretty well. I think I'm gaining an ability to read some Dutch, but speaking it still alludes me. It's incredibly difficult to pronounce but it's still useful, and appreciated by the locals when you at least try to fumble around with the language.

My other classes, while difficult, have been interesting and rewarding. My Managing Learning course has forced me to step back and review a lot of my own notions. It is a course that really challenges the way I think at a fundamental level, and through that is helping me discover not only who I am but also how I take in the world around me. So far, I would say it's the most useful course I've taken and will be an interesting complement to the one's I've taken back at MU.

Speaking of which, I have kept up with MU football and basketball. I've even turned a few of my friends here into (somewhat) fans. I think it's hard to explain football and the love and joy that goes with it while watching it online. It's much easier when I can take them to a game to get the whole experience. From tailgate to the Missouri Waltz. But, I think they get the idea and are at least finding it interesting.

Here, the festivals seemingly never end. It is really incredible. As the pictures for this post show, party time is going on. On November 11 (11/11) at 11:11 AM they "officially" started partying for Carnival (Mardi Gras... in March). The sheer number of people out on a cold rainy day was amazing, and makes me excited for the chaos of a festival that will emerge in March.

For now, I'm trying to keep warm, plan some trips for the upcoming months, and get in touch with Rotary here in Maastricht (so far proving to be a bit harder than I expected.)

Family/Period 2

Maastricht has had a wonderful fall. The colors were amazing. Glowing oranges, brilliant yellows, deep reds on all the trees. The weather also held up to stay warm just in time for my family to come visit and my Mom's first time to Europe! I had just finished exams when I had to get ready for my family arriving. At the same time, I started my second period, which includes my Dutch course!

With family arriving we had a lot to do. I started out showing them around Maastricht. I think my parents became more comfortable with my living here after they saw the city, school, and my apartment. With the colors and weather, it was the perfect time for my parents to both see the Netherlands and also to get in touch with our family roots. As such we went to the Acterhoek and saw the old family farm.

Spending time was a learning experience. Not only am I consistently amazed by how kind harted the Dutch people are, but I had also never really spent time on a functioning farm before. I was amazed that we could just walk on to the farm, unannounced, and be met with a family willing to show us around and even invite us in for tea and coffee later on! On top of that, the family spoke English incredibly well, had an exceptionally complicated system for following dairy cows, and also (as we later found out) may have actually been related to us! They also knew the story behind our family leaving the farm over 130 years ago...

From there we also spent time visiting my Aunt's family, eating home-made Dutch meals, exploring the Acterhoek, and generally having a great time. Some of the more interesting things we ran into were a Dutch historical museum where they move old houses/windmills/etc. to one location to preserve the history. Further, we were able to go to the Kroller-Muller museum, which had a number of Van Gogh works as well as many classical and modern artworks from Germany/the Netherlands. It was a great way to spend a rainy day.

Lastly, we took all went up to Amsterdam, toured the mesmerizing canals, toured the brewery, and basically just walked around on an uncommonly clear November day. We also were able to stop by the Elfrink store in Didam, although they were closed.

Now my family has taken off and I've had to spend time catching up with work. Today, I ran into an interesting aspect where we watched "who killed the electric car" for one of my courses, and in that movie they sort of poke fun of Europeans. It was a bit uncomfortable sitting there next to my friends from Portugal, Germany, and the Netherlands, while the movie poked fun... but it was just another experience and a way to remind them that it is not the opinion of all Americans. For now, it's 11/11 which means the start of Carnival. I'm going to head out there to see what's going down!

Exam Week

This past week has not the most interesting in terms of getting out, well, much at all. As such, the beautiful picture of the week is the view of the large church in the town square from my apartment. Since I haven't been able to get out much, until today, I decided it was an appropriate photo.

I spent last week scrambling to get all of my papers and projects together (successfully!) and this week studying, studying, studying and then taking exams. The process of taking exams feels unnatural here. Instead of waking up like normal and going to my campus to take exams, I woke up, rode my bike 15 minutes away from campus, and took my exams in a large convention center with 1,000 other students. I thought that was very strange considering my largest class so far has had 14 students, but either way, I made it through them.

Either way, I feel confident that I have passed all of my exams and can prepare for my next visitors, my parents and uncle! They will arrive tomorrow, my mom's first time out of North America. I think they will greatly enjoy it. For the moment, I need to get outside, ride my bike, and breath in the fact that for the next few days, I have no schoolwork.

Busy week!

Sorry for a late post.. The past few weeks have been incredibly busy: I am getting closer to exam week (October 25) which means I have papers, projects, exams, and presentations... Even though it's busy, it's been informative! But, even though I've been busy with school I have had a lot of other action going on as well: I had visitors a week and a half ago. My aunt and cousin from back home came to visit! They were here to celebrate my birthday with me as well as show me around Paris a little bit. I have also been able to meet more Rotarians through our District 1550 meeting in Eindhoven on October 9 as well.
The meeting in Eindhoven was beneficial. Amy Henslin, the other Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in District 1550 and I drove up to Eindhoven at about 7:30 AM on Saturday. We arrived in Eindhoven about an hour later and met with District Governor Frank Van Der Meijden as well as different Rotarians. Even though all of the presentations were in Dutch, we were able to learn more about Polioplus, JobRotary (A Dutch Rotary Foundation Initiative) and the future of media. While this was informative and interesting, the most beneficial part of the day was the relationships we've formed with local Rotarians and the meetings we have set up for future presentations.

Aside from that, Paris was wonderful. I was only there for about 30 hours (because I left after class and returned before class) but I was able to see the Centre Pompidou, La Panthenon, La Louvre, Notre Dame, La Tour Eiffel (of course!) and spend some time enjoying the wonderful French cuisine. On top of that, it was wonderful to have family around with whom I could share the experience! Despite all of the Safety Warnings about traveling in Europe, I have felt no problems or unsafe in any way at any time.

Today I was able to "teach" the class on Ethics. It was pretty interesting as we discussed mostly American firms that had been implicated in unethical business practices. We talked about Enron (I mentioned that Ken Lay came from Mizzou, but also reminded them that this had nothing to do US business schools fostering unethical behavior), and also the fact that unethical behavior is not an American phenomenon, it just is more widely reported. I think it went well and the class was able to have a great discussion.

As for now, I need continue preparing for exams. Luckily, the weather is still holding up, so I can take a nice bike ride when I need a break!

Oktoberfest!

I have spent the vast majority of this week catching up on schoolwork because I spent last weekend in Munich enjoying the madness that is known around the world as "Oktoberfest." It happened to be the 200th Oktoberfest! The week of work is well worth the weekend of fun! I am lucky enough to have a friend who is working in Munich to not only give me a place to crash, but also show me around the city and surrounding area.

Munich is a beautiful city and I'm lucky to have been able to get around to see the Olympic Grounds, some of the main "old city" as well as the BMW factory! Unfortunately, they didn't let me take out a car...



The first thing I will note, is that Oktoberfest was very different from what I expected. Of course it is massive, but it is also much more family oriented than I expected. There are just as many rides, fair games, food and restaurants as there are beer tents. I'm happy I was able to see German families wearing dirndls and lederhosen walking around and having generally a good time as opposed to just foreigners over-indulging.

Another amazing facet of this festival was the amazing food. I expected the festival to just be about drinking, but the culinary aspects of the festival were just as impressive to me. I was able to have such traditional foods as Schweinshaxe (roast ham), Brezn (Pretzels), Weisswurst (white sausage), and Knodel (potato dumplings). I am going to miss the German food!

I was also able to get out of the city and check out the Alps for a bit. We went to a beautiful town called Garmische, just outside of Munich. While this was an absolutely gorgeous place, one of the most exciting things about it was driving on the Autobahn to get there! I have to admit, driving the Autobahn through Bavaria is a greater adrenaline rush than driving from Columbia to St. Louis on 70 behind trucks.

Schoolwork has still been a bit difficult to adjust to. Back at Mizzou, I was able to gauge my process throughout the semester through tests, quizzes, and papers. Here, it's more all or nothing and I will find out how I did at the end of the semester. Further, classes are very small (largest are 13), and the students are expected to have read all of the information and come with enough knowledge to teach one another. I honestly didn't think this process would work at all, but in Organizational Change and Consultancy classes it seems to work very well. It has been an interesting practice in group dynamics for me. Back home, most of my small classes were still dominated by the professor. Either way, I have to wait until the end of the period to find out if this has prepared me enough! And whenever my head is stuck in the books I can remember this:

Amersfoort/Amsterdam

The past week has been amazing in Maastricht. The weather has been perfect, no sign of rain, 75 degrees every day... pretty much perfect. So, I have been doing a lot of my studying outside. I found a great park and study next to the statue of d'Artagnan (one of the 3 musketeers who died in Maastricht). I'm still adjusting to the style of school here, but it's going pretty well.

Last weekend I went to Amsterdam to hang out with my friend Laura, an Ambassadorial Scholar from Canada, and also to head to Amersfort to meet all of the other scholars in the Netherlands. Walking the streets of Amsterdam both during the day and at night was really astonishing. It would have been nice to skip out on the rain, but besides that it was an excellent journey. I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the canals, viewing the wonderful Canal Home architecture, and checking out the houseboats.

In Amersfort I was able to meet with the other scholars in the Netherlands as well as meeting most of the host Rotarians as well. This was an excellent opportunity to discuss different projects we will hopefully be able to collaborate on throughout the year, as well as just getting to know scholars from around the world and from vastly different backgrounds.

We spent most of the day together talking about our experiences so far in the Netherlands, life in our respective countries, and our plans for changing the world. After spending the morning inside we took out to the streets to wander around the city of Amersfort (which is a beautiful city as well), saw the market, had a drink, and took a wonderful boat trip through the canals.
This past week left me busy, but I know for sure I will be back to Amsterdam and that I will definitely see many of the other scholars again. For this weekend: Munich!

Start of Classses

I've made it through a week and a half of classes in beautiful Maastricht. Here they pour on the work quickly. I have already made one class presentation, finished one group project, with two more due next week and read at least 250 pages of articles/textbook. But, I have still had time to hang out with friends and explore even more of Maastricht.

I found out that for 1 euro 50 cents you can climb to the top of a church right on the Vrijthof (the town square in the picture above) and was able to get a great view of Maastricht. I also quickly realized that no matter how much I've walked around and biked this city, it is very small, and it's streets very confusing.
I also had another friend come and visit this weekend. Silvio, from Germany, who was lucky enough to receive my wonderful Maastricht city tour (basically a big circle that goes by most of the impressive buildings I've found so far) before he took me off on my first journey out of the Netherlands so far- to Aachen. Aachen is right on the border of the Netherlands and Germany and is only a 20 minute drive from here, so it was not an incredibly long international journey, but it was fun nonetheless. Unfortunately, it was raining there and my camera died, so I guess I will have to head back to get those photos.

For this weekend, after I get all my assignments and group work done, I am planning on heading to Amsterdam to stay with Laura Morrison, an Ambassadorial Scholar from Sault Ste Marie Canada. From there we will head to Amersfoort to meet with other Ambassadorial Scholars and host counselors.

Second Week in the Netherlands

My second week here in Maastricht has been just as great, although very different, from Inkom week. I had plenty of time to continue exploring this beautiful city. I also have been able to continue strengthening relationships with friends I made my first week here, as well as adding new friends.

One of the more eventful days was Wednesday, we had our Master Orientation Day. This was more like what I had expected orientation week to be. It started with a discussion from the director of the program of working hard and working early, and then continued with a city/campus tour, meeting students who've gone through the program/are half way through the program, and making new friends. It was an incredibly helpful day and I feel much more ready for class to start tomorrow than I had felt a week ago.
On top of that, I had a friend, Christina, come visit from Cologne, Germany. She had actually come to stay with my aunt and uncle as a Rotary Youth Exchange 8 years ago, where I met her. We had a great time walking around town, meeting more friends, and experiencing a few of the restaurants. I was amazed to find out that Maastricht has 4 Michelin Star restaurants! In such a small city I think that is very spectacular. I was also able to watch the Mizzou-Illinois game (via the internet) with two friends I met last week. I think I've converted 2 more to love the Tigers!

The last event for the week was a free outdoor concert! I do not think I've ever seen such a diverse group of artists on the same stage. There were some jam bands, alternative music, heavy metal, and (of course) a few DJ's as well. Either way, it was a great time to get out on the beautiful weekend and listen to some live music! I am really hoping events like this happen all the time...

Besides that, classes start tomorrow... Hopefully it's not too difficult to make the transition.

First week: Introduction

I am wrapping up my first week of life in Maastricht! Last Friday, I arrived in Amsterdam, where I met Caspar Pompe, from district 1550, who took me to his home in Nijmegen for lunch and to meet his family, and then helped me get settled into my new apartment.

I spent my first weekend exploring this beautiful city, walking through the parks, and seeing the river. I have to admit, Maastricht is a great place to be. I will definitely be putting pictures up from around town from time to time.

I was happy to also pick up a bicycle to really get around the city efficiently and, definitely, like the Dutch do.

However, the biggest part of my first week was Inkom. Before arriving I assumed Inkom was just an introduction to the University. Like back home, I assumed that I would hear from professors, see the library, tour the campus, and do some "icebreakers" but, as you can see in the picture above, Inkom is very different from introduction week back home. Inkom was a week long party with thousands of new students, live bands, djs, and also workshops.

There were really two events from Inkom that stick out in my mind. The first was a Masters' Student Wine Tasting and Dinner. Not only was the food amazing, but the event also took place in a gorgeous old church right on the town square!

The other amazing event was what I'm told is a Dutch Tradition called Cantus. Basically, this is another huge party with over 1000 people all singing together and throwing beer on one another. I wish I had pictures, but I with so much beer flying around the room, I didn't want my camera to get soaked. Either way, I think I've found my favorite Dutch tradition!

For this coming week, I have Graduate School Orientation, which I assume will be much more business and much less party than Inkom, but either way, this past week has been a great start to my year abroad.