Thursday, March 31, 2011

Spring

Just a few thoughts off the top of my head:
1. Happy Opening Day for Major League Baseball. The Honkbal Hoofdklasse has nothing on the MLB (and doesn't open for another week)
2. Fake Doritos from Albert Heijn are not very good, better just pony up the extra 15 cents and get the real ones.
3. I do not understand why time changes in the USA two weeks earlier than it does in Europe.
4. I'm sorry that MU did not get Matt Painter, but I hold out hope that we will get a great coach.

The past few weeks have seen some great Spring weather. It's been warming up (slowly) still staying around freezing at night though. Generally, it's been fairly sunny with periods of rain running through town.

The latest crazy Maastricht festival also ran into town was a big one the TEFAF: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/arts/design/european-fine-art-fair-maastricht-the-netherlands.html
However, given the price of entry at 55 euros a day, I missed out on this one. I was lucky enough to see the never ending stream of Bentleys, Rolls, Maseratis, and Aston Martins as they pulled up to the VIP parking and were led into the incredibly expensive art fair. Maybe some day I'll have to come back for the celebration.

Besides that, things are moving forward with my thesis. I have nearly finished the literature review and will start collecting data next week. Things are looking positive for finishing in June and being home in July (maybe in time for the 4th!)

Until then, I've been having an excellent times with the weather warming up. A group of friends have started playing soccer regularly, but we are still trying to find the right place to actually play. Besides that, we have been having numerous BBQ's, just so we can spend more time outside. I have to say, Dutch BBQ's are very disappointing when you are used to great Missouri BBQ, but it's still fun hanging out with friends and grilling out.

Aside from that, I am leaving on another wonderful Ryanair trip on Saturday to Croatia (22 euros round trip! How do they make money?!) during my exam week. This period I just have a report due, which is almost finished, so I can turn it in before leaving and take some time to relax and hopefully enjoy some beautiful nature.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Carnival/Madrid

I realize it's been a long time since I have posted. From the last post until the start of Carnival, not much had happened. Cold, rainy weather. Long days working on my thesis (I've gone through four topics, until I finally found one that will work on) and trying to keep up with school. Not the most fun, but necessary.
Just before Carnival, Amy and I made our way to Weert to have another Rotary presentation. While most of our presentations have gone well, this one was so far my favorite. It was the first all men's club we have seen and one of the most intellectually curious. Not only did they ask numerous questions after we finished, but also invited us to stay along and continue discussing issues ranging from business, cultural stereotypes, and ways to grow Rotary clubs among more youthful audiences.

After our presentation in Weert, I just had one day left of class before our week long Carnival break. I had heard a number of different accounts regarding what to expect, but really none of them did the festival justice. I think for four days all of the Limburgers drop all of their inhibitions and just have all out fun. It is a combination family event, parade, cultural festival, and party. Most businesses close for Monday and Tuesday, most of the bars/restaurants board themselves up with colorfully painted plywood depicting Carnival scenes/colors. I also was able to see the Carnival Prince a few times, although I'm still not really sure what he did... But, he wore a cool hat and rode around with a posse.

I started Friday just walking around getting a feeling for the pre-festivities. That generally involved random marching bands walking through the incredibly packed streets of people just starting to celebrate and have fun. Only really the individuals in the marching bands were dressed up for the day, because I was told that Sunday is the day the locals really wear costumes, and I didn't want to look too much like a foreigner so I took their advice.

On Saturday we hit up the parade. It was very different from the Mardi Gras parade I'm used to back home. I mean, Maastricht only has 120,000 inhabitants or so, but it looked like 100,000 people were in the parade and even more watching. The parade went on for hours and had mostly smaller home made type floats and tons of individual marching bands. It was lively and friendly. Although, I think I would have gotten a bit more in to it if I could understand any of the Dutch music, but either way the atmosphere was great.

On Sunday I went all out with my makeshift costume. I went out with friends, we wandered around the city, listened to more of the bands who were around the streets and had a great time. It was a sunny day, a bit cold, but fun to be outside having drinks and seeing all the people around generally letting loose.

For the rest of the week I generally worked on my thesis/homework so that I could enjoy my time in Madrid, thanks to Ryanair and 40 euro roundtrip flights. I went with my Portuguese friend, Pedro, and we stayed with a group of his friend's near central Madrid.

The first day in Madrid was not beautiful, because the weather rainy and we were tired from our early flight, but we still made it to the famous Prado museum where we saw some incredible art from Rembrandt, Goya, Van Dyck, Caravaggio, and Raphael. It was a great way to spend a rainy day. After that, we had an amazing Spanish lunch. Then wandered around the city a little before meeting up with Pedro's friends. Luckily, I was able to meet up with some old family friends who moved back to Spain. We had dinner and caught up for awhile, and were lucky enough to go grab a ton of wonderful Spanish ham.

The next day we got up early and met up with Pedro's sister and ran to another museum, the Sofia museum, which had a number of works from Picasso and Dali, including the Guernica. We then went out to explore the city and saw the Plaza Mayor, the National Palace, and a few Cathedrals. For that evening, we attempted to go to a Real Madrid game, but unfortunately to get tickets together we would have had to pay 75 euros each, which was way out of our price range, so we ended up just watching the match at a local bar, which was still a fun experience itself.
Sunday, our last day in Madrid, we took it easy. The weather was nice so we generally just walked around a few parks and saw the city from the outside. It was a really laid back day but a lot of fun.
We had to head back early because our flight back to Maastricht left at 6 am. We made the flight and then work on my thesis and classes started again. However, the week off was a wonderful break from all the work, and the weather seems to have turned for the better. Today was about 60 outside and sunny, so after class I went to the Vrijthof (main square) to hang out with friends and enjoy our first real day of Spring. Hopefully it will be like this for the next few months... but we'll see....