being here

Oh my goodness, I love it here.  I love this city and the life I get to live here.  Everything is just so wonderful.  I feel like I am living in this long dream or some fantasy world that I created to be just the way I would love it.

I'm currently sitting in the most fantastic and vast and adorable and good smelling and incredible bakery I have ever seen (La Place cafe) with anything you could ever imagine, drinking my cappuccino (YUM) and people-watching between classes on my first day of actual class.  I didn't gotten a pastry yet because I was far too overwhelmed to decide.

Since I've been reprimanded for not updating my blog enough, I figure now would be good a time as any to do that.

When I decided to study abroad through the Baylor in Maastricht program, I was not excited at all about the Maastricht part (some random city in the Netherlands I had never heard of); all I cared about was traveling to different parts of Europe each weekend, but now I feel like I never want to leave!  The city is beautiful and so quaint, I have not tried to take pictures yet because for the three times I have walked around so far, it has always been raining, but I love the feeling and atmosphere of the city in the rain so much that I almost don't want the sun to come out (apparently it came out Saturday, but I was in Amsterdam for the day).  Plus nothing looks as beautiful in pictures as it does in real life and I am not sure if I am ready yet to ruin the magic by attempting to capture it through a lens.

I spent the last forty-five minutes or so walking in the rain from where we are staying to the city center, and then around the city center.  There is so much to see and so much to enjoy, from gorgeous old churches at every corner to irresistible shopping and cafes, that I couldn't help just wandering and taking it all in.

It was beautiful.  I never knew what an amazing feeling it is to wander around and get lost in a new city in the rain by yourself, watching the world go by and taking everything in.  I am so blessed to be here.  Everything just makes me so happy.

I had no idea what kind of city I was coming to, but what I quickly found out when I got here was that Maastricht is known for it's shopping.  People from Germany, Belgium, or other parts of Holland often come to Maastricht for long, wonderful days or weekends of shopping, and I am not surprised in the least.  There is no way that I could ever go into every store with clothes I love and prices I can afford in the next three months because there are streets and streets just full of them.

Maastricht has a huge young adult and student population, there are people my age everywhere, mostly dutch people of course, but many from all over Europe because the University is an international university, so they have a huge study abroad program and many people from a variety of different cultures, which I think is just far too wonderful.

I really wish I spoke Dutch; I constantly want to eavesdrop on the people around me that I am people-watching, just to see what occupies their conversations and what is on their hearts.  Luckily most Europeans can speak at least three languages fairly well, and English is usually one of them, so communication is never really an issue, except for when I am trying to read signs.  My solution is to always just ask people around me, which I constantly do.  I feel like I talk to strangers more often than I go to the bathroom here, it's not a big deal at all anymore.

One of the things I love most about this city is their culture and attitude towards life.  They are so incredibly laid back and they really enjoy life in ways that the rest of the modern world neglects to because we are so caught up in our need to accomplish things.  People here in the southern end of Holland are easygoing and slow.  They will often go out to lunch on a work day and sit there chatting for three hours or so like it's nothing.  They enjoy their sweets and their alcohol, which means lots of  chocolate shops that I am obviously excited to explore and many bars.  They start off getting about 40 days off of work a year and their days are shorter, so they don't work nearly as much as we do.  Stores close early in the evenings and everything is closed on Sunday so that everyone can relax.  Everyone bikes everywhere; I am not exaggerating at all.  There are more bikes than people, and your average person owns two bikes (I have no idea why).  Cars are relatively rare, even in the cold.  It is such a beautiful, happy place full of people who really live life, instead of living for the next big promotion or a raise.

Alright now that I've raved about Maastricht, I figure I better talk about my time here so far.  We got in late last Wednesday night, had orientation for the university on Thursday and Friday, I took day trips to Brussels and Amsterdam on Saturday and Sunday (I promise to post about those trips soon!!!), and today is the first day of actual class.

I fell in love with the city right away on Thursday morning during our tour, where we found out how to get from our dorms to the university to shopping to the train station (none of which I remember because it's all pretty far away and the streets are very confusing).

Thursday afternoon we went to an American cemetery full of soldiers from World War II.  To explain that experience, I will include a portion from my journal:

"and I thought Washington D.C. had all the WW2 soldiers who died... think of young men my age going off to their deaths.  Weird to be in the place it happened.  Crazy that something honoring America exists in another country like that...  Sad to think that, unless they had kids before going to war, they didn't leave anyone behind who would still know them, remember them, love them, and miss them today.  I mean, their colleagues would be 90 now, so I imagine most of them have no one left... It's hard.  Not what I expected to see at all my first day in a new country.  I'm thankful to be an American, no matter what I experience and how much I love it here, I'm happy to call the United States home." 

Fridays highlights included activating the Eurail pass, deciding I would go to a new cafe or coffee shop twice a week every week I have classes because I love them all so much, and wandering around the city at night with JW and Kyle.  I wen to a casino for the first time and doubled my money! (Well, I doubled Kyle's money, he gave me two euro to play with and I made two more, so I gave two back to Kyle and got to keep two for myself!  It was so much fun.  I understand why people have gambling problems, luckily I don't have an addictive personality.)  We got lost exploring (which has proven to be a reoccurring theme when wandering around Maastricht), and ended up walking for hours because the buses stopped running, but it was a ton of fun.

After a fun weekend of traveling and figuring out how to use the trains even though we can't read anything in the language, last night was the superbowl.  We started watching it at 12:30am when it started, but quit at halftime to get sleep before our first day of class.  That didn't really work because my lovely roommate and I ended up talking for hours instead, and I only got two hours of sleep before my 8:30 class, but it was so worth it.

I love the city and I love having time to wander around it alone, but I also firmly believe that being in good company is of the utmost priority, especially for my weekend trips.  I am SO blessed to have a loving, hilarious, Godly, witty, cuddly, forgiving, and brillant roommate to share this adventure with, and that I have made so many incredible friends already.  I can't wait to continue to grow closer to the people on this trip and invest in relationships in which we can grow together in Christ.

I am thanking God daily for this indescribable, beautiful dream I am living in.  For now, I have class in half an hour so I should probably figure out how to get back!