Half way

So I realized all of a sudden that I am about half way through the time I have on Study Abroad. It is kind of incredible that I have already been here for 2.5 months. Now that I do not have that much time left here, I am going crazy making travel plans. I went to Brussels for a day during easter. Then I am going with 5 other mac people to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest, with a small stop in Bremen after we are done with classes for the first block. Then I also want to go to Paris, Barcelona, and Rome and that will probably happen later in April and May. Kabir came back from Rome the other day and said: Urvashi, you have to go to Rome ... it is like India! So obviously I have to go.

Brussels was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it was snowing! That was a huge surprise to me. Apparently this part of Europe experienced its coldest easter in 40 years. So when I started walking to the bus stop on the 21st morning, and i say huge white chunky things falling to the ground, for a while I was convinced it was hail. I could have turned around and gone back to my dorm, but I was being optimistic and hoped that Brussels would have better weather. Turns out I was wrong. It seemed like every time I left a building it would rain harder or start snowing. But I still managed to get a lot of sight-seeing done. I went to the Grand Place (that is what is in the first picture), which is this amazingly beautiful square, but it is very very touristy. It was just full of people with cameras, taking an insane amount of pictures . I went to the Cathedrale des Saints Michel et Gudule, stumbled onto some other pretty churches, went to the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, and a bunch of different palaces. I also made the horrible walk to the EU area and got to see the EU parliament (2nd picture) from the outside.


I also ate some belgian waffles and fries and bought some chocolates. Despite the weather, I was glad to be in Brussels, because I think I really needed to be in a louder and bigger city. Even though I know I am not from a big city, Agra feels bigger than it actually is because of the crowds and the loud people, and I miss that sometimes. Also, walking around in Brussels I also overheard someone on the street say the following sentence: "We have just been walking around this place like donkeys". But it wasn't in English, it was in Hindi and that made me really happy. I also got to speak some French while I was there. Somehow I managed to not look like a tourist, because a bunch of people came up to me and were asking me in French where the entrance to the museum was, or how to get to place X,Y or Z. That was exciting, and I just responded in my horrible French that I did not know. I got back from Brussels completely drenched and freezing that evening. It was still a great trip.

All of the traveling that I am doing right now is with other Mac people. For whatever reason we all tend to hang out with each other more than anyone else. Samatar, when he was here in January, said that we were a really "cohesive" group. Actually so far most of the friends I have made here are either mac people or people in my hallway C4.00 (who are all great), but I don't feel the urge to really extend my social circle here for some reason . I think its partly due to the fact that coming to Maastricht wasn't really about getting to learn about Dutch culture. So it is hard to say that I have learned a lot about the Netherlands in the last 2.5 months, if you can actually learn a lot about a place in that much time, but I have realized some stuff about Europe. One thing I like about being here is that you can relax, and not be ultra-competitive and stressed out 99 percent of the time. So even though we have quite a bit of work, its nothing compared to Mac.
What else? I cannot really think of anything profound I have to say about Europe right now. Also in the last week of my class I got to learn that India is world's largest producer of bananas and mangoes and the second largest producer of sugar. Now, I knew about the mango fact, but the other two - I had no idea. I don't know why. We did this project on the international trade of bananas, and it was fascinating. If you 45 minutes to spare you guys should check out this npr interview. Its about bananas:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19097412

Apparently if nothing is done to stop it, the panama disease might destroy the main type of bananas, which is currently the only banana suitable for export. So you in Europe and US might not be able to eat them. Scary, isn't it?

So Dutch Words: this time I have two because I didn't have one last time-

Koekjes: any guesses? - Cookies
Alstublieft: This word along with dankjewel (thank you very much) is the dutch word you will hear the most in this country. Literally it means : There you go, but it is sort of similar to s'il vous plait. It is pronounced: ashubleeft.

Koln Koln Koln

Not a lot apart from classes has been happening in Maastricht over the last few weeks, and so I haven't really had much to write about, but last weekend I went with all the mac people here to Cologne (Koln) for a day. This is one of the best things about being in Maastricht; I can get to Germany, Belgium, and if I leave my stingy ways, Paris, in about the same amount of time it would take me to get from Agra to Delhi, or as from Saint Paul to Crosby, MN. I know that the globe that I have had since freshmen year makes it pretty obvious that Europe is not that big area wise - but I am realizing now just how small it actually is. One thing it is not, however, is cheap.
The Euro is a pain and every time it appreciates a little bit more, a part of my hopes for a grand European adventure dies. But I have finally decided to bite the bullet, and I am making plans to go to Prague, Berlin and Italy for the 2 big breaks we have from classes during the semester. This, along with other short weekend (and hopefully cheap) trips to places close by, will hopefully not leave me completely broke.

Now to what I really wanted to talk about - our mini trip to Koln. Since most of us were getting a bit stir crazy here in Maastricht, we went to Koln for a day last Saturday. The original plan was to leave at 8:30, but we actually only left the guesthouse at 10:30. It took us about 3 hours to get there, which included a 40 minute stop while switching from a bus to train in Aachen, Germany, a city about the same size as Maastricht just across the border. The first picture is of this weird sculpture thing we found on the street, in Aachen, with dinosaurs, and strange crustaceans.

In Koln the first thing we did was to go to the Dom Cathedral, right outside the main train station. It took about 600 years to build this cathedral and it is pretty spectacular. We walked in and around the cathedral for a bit and then began our treacherous climb up one of its towers. I don't remember what the exact height of the tower was, but we climbed over 500 steps, and it was painful. It was also a spiral staircase, and so for the most part I was completely dizzy. But we did finally get to the top and the view of the Rhine and Koln from there was great. We also got to see the largest working bell in all of Europe. The picture on the left is only one part of the cathedral, and you cannot see the tower that we climbed. The second picture is the view of the Rhine from the top of the tower, taken through the mesh that prevents people from falling to, what I imagine would be, a very painful death.

Apart from that we went to a few German beer halls, walked along the Rhine, and went to the Chocolate museum and got back to Maastricht before midnight.
There is one more thing I have to say - I do feel a little cheated by my study abroad program. One of the big reasons for leaving Macalester this semester was because I wanted a break from all the mac-stress, but I am now in this class called "Globalization and Inequality", which I think has been made harder for us on purpose. Or maybe Maastricht is just a harder university to study at. Either way, I am pretty sick at this point of our weekly projects which involve a group presentation and paper. Doing group projects once a semester is stressful enough, but one every week is really pushing it. And so right now instead of reading up on Amnesty International's position on an EU arms embargo on China for their violations of human rights, I am doing what I do best - procrastinating. I have convinced myself that what I am doing is still something worthwhile and productive. I mean catching up on the fourth season of Lost is very important for my mental well being.