le jut d'eau

yesterday my allergies turned into what sounds like a smoker's cough. the worst part about it is that deep breaths and laughter only makes it worse. i've taken my first dose of cough medicine. we'll see if it works.

i wish i had more to tell you about my classes thus far, but truth be told, they haven't really caused much inspiration. although today we went to the icrc (international committee of the red cross) and it's possible i've found my job. we'll see. i feel like international human rights law may not be up my alley, but international humanitarian law could be. more on that next week when i'm in my humanitarian law class :)

geneva is just beautiful and might be the most livable city i've been to in europe, minus the high prices. yesterday we had the afternoon off, and ilana and i went down to the lakefront and walked around, stopping at the occasional beach and drinking 1 franc beers from the grocery store. when we stopped at the store for the second time, i remained outside. shortly thereafter 2 elderly swiss men left the store, holding a bar of chocolate between them. they stopped outside the front to open up the package and have a piece. it was the cutest sight. i just stood there smiling at them. after one old man took a piece, the one holding the bar offered me a piece. of course i took it. and they clearly knew what chocolate was the best to buy, because that was some good dark chocolate. we then headed back to the fanzone. to watch more futbol. yes.

even better, our friend coen from leiden emailed me back about the dutch game (they won on tuesday 3-0, it was great). i'm really touched that the these friends we've made are maintaining contact :) wow, i'm one of those mushy people.

tonight most of us are staying in to catch up on reading, as we have our first exam tomorrow morning.

i've also had the opportunity to work on my russian, speaking both with ilana and the russian. well, more like improving my comprehension skills, as i still respond in only half russian.

john knox

basically i just wrote a post and then hit a button and it disappeared. what's the point of autosave, when it autosaves the disappeared text OVER the text that used to be there?

so here's a funny story.

i'm staying in the john knox center. yesterday on our tour of the old town, we stopped in front of a monument recognizing four protestant reformers. wooooweeee. one was john knox. apparently, a guy in our group asked his taxi driver from the airport to take him to john knox. the driver took him to the statue. HA. also, clearly law school is affecting my life because i kept misspelling statue as statute. HA.

after our tour of the UN building we went to the fancenter to watch the france v. romania and the netherlands v. italy game. the second game was PACKED. and it was the game we were really there for, since we all now have this strong connection with the dutch people. by halftime we were winning 2-0. the fancenter is awesome. there's great atmosphere and LOTS of food. i had a veal sausage on a roll. tomorrow night, when we go to watch the russia v. spain game, i will get the falafel wrap. it's supposed to be excellent. also, surprisingly, the food at the fancenter is priced almost better than any other place.

sweat, sweat, and no sleep

right now i'm sitting in a weird chair at the john knox center, my new home for 3 wks. 2 seats to the left of me is a russian guy speaking to a ukrainian girl who is standing beside me. neither of them are with my program. but the reason i bring this up is because the guy has a phenomenal speaking voice. it's deep and sexy, and it's kind of blowing my mind right now.

i'm not sure if i should work backward of forward from yesterday to best impart on you the vast amount of sweat that came to pass from my body. (although i'm sure dena beats me.)

i arrived here at 11am, after hiking 15 minutes up hill with my bags, which was after the bus ride, which was after the train, which left paris at 7.10. i think that "i'm afraid of missing my train" feeling kept me tossing and turning all night.

the paris i saw last night was beautiful. but like i said before, the feeling of melancholy still remained.



on my last day in paris i went to the musee d'orsay and l'orangerie. they were both incredible. i made my first purchases...a small monet print, a book on l'orangerie so you all can see what an awesome "museum" it is, and 2 postcards. one of the postcards is this random orientalist piece that is called elephants in africa. it's basically not at all the typical style of art i like. but something about it drew me in.

i like paris, but i don't love paris. but i could basically eat my way through the city. too bad money doesn't grow on trees...

paris, je t'aime

today was basically insane. i almost overslept. my train left bruges at 6.26am. i was rushing out of the hostel at 5.55am. to catch the bus to take me to the train. as a result, i'm not a pretty sight. i didn't straighten my hair last night, so my bangs are kinda crazy. i have bugbites on my face (and a zit), and barely any mascara. and i've worn this same shirt like 4 times. which could explain why i've been sweating so much because i think old clothes makes you sweat more. now that i've adequately grossed you out, i will continue.

i arrived at the gare du nord at 9am. i was at my hostel by 10. then i walked. all day. i also went to the picasso museum. i ate one sandwich. by 2pm my legs couldn't carry me any longer, so i went to see the sex and the city movie. more on that at another time. after the movie, i started walking again. and i stumbled across a giant crowd watching the semi-finals of the french open in front of the hotel de ville. i joined them for about half an hour before i went to au lys d'argent, a teeny restaurant on the l'ile st. louis that my mom had recommended. it was good. i had a salad with toast and smoked salmon, then a crepe with fromage, tomato, and creme fraiche, then a chocolate cake with creme anglais. i drank a glass of muscatelle with dinner and an espresso with my dessert. i sat and ate it all alone, with no one else in the restaurant. because i'm in paris and was clearly eating too early. afterwards i made my way to the eiffel tower and read. now i'm at an internet cafe. soon i will go to sleep.

i'm not sure how i feel about travelling alone. part of me likes it because i don't have to bend what i do to someone else's needs. and i can get started early, as is my style. but there's this part of me that gets kind of melancholy. maybe it's really like that because being in paris reminds me of the last time i was in paris. and so much has changed since then.

here's hoping that no one has stolen my suitcase. since it's been sitting around in the hostel for 12 hours.

in bruges

on wednesday morning i left scheveningen and arrived in brussels at around 2pm. i did a whirlwind tour of the center...2 walking tours and a lunch of beer, mussels and fries. then back i went to the train station to pick up my bags and headed to bruges (of course that was after dealing with the crazy brussels train station, where my train didn't say it was going to bruges). my first night in bruges i ate dinner on the center. i had beer and this weird salad, where it seemed like the chef threw together whatever he could, i.e. endive, lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, cucumber, bacon, warm goat cheese on little apples slices, croutons, all joined together with a raspberry vinaigrette. truth be told, it was still good. i then befriended 3 of my roommates in my hostel and we went downstairs to the bar.

yesterday, i toured bruges with one of my hostelmates. we did, of course, a walking tour. saw some historical stuff, blah, blah, took a tour of a brewery, where we met some nice australians, bought some belgian chocolates, and then had dinner at a pub, which had over 150 kinds of beligian beers. all delicious. i tried some kind that is unique to belgium. it's called a trappiste. it's made by a special group of monks. there are only 7 trappiste breweries in the world. their beer is super strong, but you can't even tell. and has great flavor.

thunder and lightning

on sunday, lisa and i went to the m. c. escher museum, which i loved. outside the museum was a typical dutch flea market, with a couple of food stands. i was craving fresh squeezed orange juice. it was expensive, but quenched my thirst. after meandering through the stalls of persian rugs, chrystal, and delftware, we walked around the center of the hague, and stopped for some dutch french fries.

yesterday and today were my last two days. these two weeks have just sped by. unfortunately, our early days have not lent themselves to much exploring, due to intermittent thunder showers. we did manage to go to our suriname restaurant yesterday and a great doner deli today. tonight is our farewell dinner.

heineken pilsners

yesterday, ilana and i left the hague to take in the last of the surrounding areas. in haarlem, we walked around the saturday market and kept buying food. they had these great vietnamese spring rolls. we also had samples of raw salmon from the sushi stand and really good sausage. also ilana finally got to see a windmill. at the de adriaan windmill, we took a tour from a really funny (unintentionally) dutch man, who basically told us the entire history of windmills and demonstrated how they work with models.












we then made our way to leiden, but, by the time we got there, the botanical gardens were already closed. instead, we just meandered through the university and then toward the center, with no map. as we headed back to the train station, we passed a bar playing loud dutch music, where the patrons seemed to be celebrating something special. of course we went in. they were not celebrating, it was an ordinary saturday night.


at rembrandt cafe, we quickly befriended the entire bar. all we kept hearing was, why did you decide to come in here? most people just walk on past. the bar closed at 8pm to the public, but remained open for us and our dutch friends. when coen and his brother, thomas, realized that we had yet to eat real croquets and fricadels, thomas got on his bike and rode to a snackbar to bring us back some. this kindness was seen all night, as ilana and i only spent 3 euros, total. we were also invited to come back this afternoon for a bbq. unfortunately m.c.escher beckons.