Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

I recently realized that we have only been here for a little over a day!

I have already learned so much and had so many fun and unforgettable experiences;

I can't imagine what's in store for these next 3 months!

Bonnie, Jean, Caleb, our new friend Zach –who we are very fortunate to have to show us around the city-- and I explored downtown Maastricht last night. We hit up all the coolest local bars and one of the hottest clubs. Shamrock's was VERY fun! We began by trying out The Netherlands home beer: Grolsch! Once successfully winning over a Maastricht Rugby teams heart (don’t worry Logan, they were about 30 years old—surprising for a rugby team I thought) we received a FREE pitcher of Grolsch. We continued onto the "club" in downtown Maastricht… It is sooo beautiful walking down the street, and during the daytime it’s even more gorgeous… Oddly enough, one of the songs played in a mix of techno music was “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!” I found it odd and goofy that all the European boys knew the words and sang along!

This morning we went to brunch, which consisted of cereal and egg rolls (still the only aspect of being in another country I have been disappointed by.. the food). From there all 32 of us took a walk to the location where our classes will be held, through the market/mall (seems like shops go on for miles!), over the river, to the train station, and back. Of course we were shown pictures of the river, but never did I expect it to look so picture perfect. The building our classrooms are in used to be a monastery. The doors, staircase, and courtyard are still in place but the walls are painted an array of bright colors with artwork scattered throughout. The lecture room’s chairs are all different colors such as yellow, red, purple, green and orange. Very modern and uplifting.

One of my favorite differences is that every place there would normally be a basketball court in a park in America, there is a soccer/futbol court with metal goals. Jean so graciously attempted to help out some of the boys playing futbol by fetching their ball for them that had gone over the short fence surrounding the court. Instead, she made a fool out of herself because she was trying to "play it cool!" The ball was thrown right into the fence and bounced back to her. The next time she stood a bit closer to the court and lightly tossed the ball over the fence and back to the boys.

Once we returned Bonnie and I finally tried the spreadable sausage we’d been anxious to taste. Turns out, it’s not all that bad.. the cheese on the other hand- gross! We’ll have to try again when we return to the market… But for now, we will more than likely enjoy all of our meals at our new favorite restaurant—Nora’s!

Today was the championship game in the European Champions League between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. A group of us made our first trip to he Highlander and felt as though we were locals cheering on our favorite team: Bayern Munich (the red team!). We were livin' the life: watching good ol’ futbol while drinking a Heineken with our new Dutch friends. J