Kelocity.com

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. I attempted to get up early and go to a Dutch Easter Mass, but then got too tired and decided against it. We could hear the church bells from our room though (does that count?) Today, I went for a run, then chilled on the lawn outside and did some homework. It was sooo nice outside! Then, Nelly cooked us an “easter dinner”, but it was terrible and I got sick from it. I’m so mad because here, you have three options: 1.) get sick from the food 2.) eat peanut butter and bread for the rest of your life and get fat 3.) starve… you just can’t win. Everyone is super homesick. Thank god Irving called me tonight, because I just want to come home. My sister is in Europe this week, my parents are in Disney World, and I’m here…. All alone. I had a great time here, but enough is enough and I ran out of money…. Time for Boston!

Today was Easter Monday. Again, everything was closed. Apparently it’s a big holiday here. It was close to 80 degrees here today, super hot. I went for a nice run around the village, and for the rest of the day, just relaxed on the field behind the castle. There was a little cookout going on, and a bunch of guys bought a grill and a bunch of meat and veggies, and just barbequed all day. Everyone just hung out on blankets, getting some sun. We played Frisbee, and cards, and just talked about stuff. It was perfect. What a great day.

Today, Dara and I totally slept in. Then, at noon, we met Dominique at the Vink. He is a guy that works in the dining hall with me. He lives in the village here. All of us were going to Arcen, a town 15 minutes away. In Arcen is the ice cream place rated “Best Ice-Cream in Europe, for like 3 or 4 years in a row. We got there, and it was true, it was great! Then, we walked around the town for a while and saw some of the castles in the area. One of them looks very similar to our castle. It was fun. Marjorie, Tony, Dara and I went to the Vink for dinner and got some soup. Then at night, till almost 2am, we watched the “Sixth Sense” with a bunch of people. It freaked us all out because it was scary. Dara and I were scared to go back to our room. This castle is scary at night when there aren’t too many people in it. Oh, and by the way, there has been a massive attack of spiders on the Castle and they are everywhere, it’s so scary and gross.

Today, Dara and I got up early and went to the Meer Market (the town supermarket) and we got some food for the weekend. There are no meals this weekend, so we have to stock up! Then, we ate brunch in our room. After this, we took the bus to Venlo, a town 45 minutes away. When we got there, we found the Limburg Museum. We were hoping to find some cool artifacts from the Castle, but there wasn’t much there. We saw some old portraits of the Royal family who lived here, but other than that, it was a waste of three Euros!

After that experience, we walked around the town. It was really warm out, and there were so many people. Everywhere we turned, there were people. It was crazy. We did some shopping, and a lot of window shopping. With about 10 Euros left until we leave, window shopping was a good idea.

On the way back to Well, we saw a few castle guys get on the bus too. They had come all the way to Venlo to buy beer, because apparently, if you buy a lot of beer in Well, the people call the Castle to warn the administration. That’s sad.  And, on the way back, there was road construction, and it took us an hour and 45 minutes to get back. It sucked. But we made it.

For the rest of the night, we just relaxed around the castle, ate dinner in the room, and played Scrabble online. (Its fun, you should all try it!) I don’t think I’ve won a game yet!

I have been just relaxing and chilling, getting ready for finals. That’s about it. Its actually better than that in real life, I’m just too lazy to write it all down. Its all in my real journal here, and I have tons of pics to show, like, everyone when I get home! I know you all miss me! I miss everyone there too!

Ok, midterms are the most evil thing in the world. I have been going insane this week trying to make sure I know everything. I had my Intercultural Communication midterm yesterday and one of my answers was: “I think I know this answer, it begins with a C, but I can not think of it right now… do you give partial credit?” Well, we will see about that… but in the middle of our test, a parade came right through the Castle gates and into the courtyard…like a tractor pulling a float and there was a band that was playing Dutch music and everything. It was so strange, but hey, I guess during Carnivale, anything goes. Then I had my Renaissance class and in the middle of that class, fireworks went off. Luckily, my teacher let us have a break so we could watch them. They were ordinary fireworks, but the Dutch just made them seem so much better. Right now, I am off to go for a run…. I’ve been good and I’ve been going pretty consistently. The weather is just amazing.