Mar

24

Ireland, Holland, and Papers. Oh My!

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Hi there! Sorry it’s been so long, but it has been an insanely busy two weeks! I’ve been finishing papers for classes and country hopping and having the time of my life.

First, let me explain the schools here. It works differently than in the US. We go to class for 10 weeks, then two weeks for Spring Break, two more weeks of class, then 3 weeks of exams. As a history student, I have a paper for every class and an exam at the end of the semester. It’s that time of the year, so I’ve been writing papers every night it seems! Everything is just a little different here. Instead of letter sized paper, they use A4, which is basically just longer paper, but I had to figure out how to change my computer to A4, UK spelling, and learning a new style of referencing. You never think you can’t use MLA until you go somewhere where they don’t know what that means! But, my papers are turned in now so I can breath easy. Everyone in my classes is hoping for passing grades (which is only a 40% here!!) because your first year classes don’t count as long as you pass. Only half of your second year classes count and all of the third year counts. It’s been odd figuring out how different the school system is here. We only have class 2 hours a week per class. There is one hour for lecture and one hour for discussion groups. I can’t believe I only have 3 weeks of actual classes left!

My friends and I have been traveling like crazy lately. We spent St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin because we didn’t have class on Wednesdays. We were only there for 20 hours, but it was so fun. I saw the parade, which reminded me a lot of Mardi Gras with its colors and outrageous floats. Then we walked around and saw all the festivities that were happening the St. Paddy’s Day festival. The amount of green that was there was crazy! The flight to Dublin landed at 10 am and the flight back to London left at 630am so we slept in the airport and did the longest 20 hours of my life, but it was so worth it.

Then, this past weekend we went to Amsterdam. After the 12-hour bus ride there, 45 minutes in the Chunnel, and 2 stops at border control, it was so nice to get out and walk around! Amsterdam was absolutely beautiful. My friends and I took a 3 hour walking tour through town first and saw everything from the canals to the Red Light District. After exploring the city on Saturday, we decided to take a boat tour of the canals on Sunday morning and it was so cool to get a different view of the city. All the buildings are built to lean forward and they all slowly drift sideways, so it was fun to find the houses that were slipping sideways! Then, we went and toured Anne Frank’s house. It was one of the more sobering moments of my life. It felt so surreal to walk through the bookcase entrance that the Nazis had dragged her and her family out of and to see where they lived for over two years and pages from her actual diary. It was an experience I suggest everyone do if they get the chance because words cannot describe how inspiring it was.

This weekend is a resting weekend! Spring Break is in a week and a half and I am hoping to see Italy, France, Germany, and Spain! I hope it works out, *fingers crossed*. Cheers!

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