Intro to UCM and Adventures in Amsterdam

So on August 21st, I moved from Utrecht to Maastricht. 2 trains and over 3 hours. Well, our luggage wouldn't fit in the cab so they had to send a different one. Once we got to the train station, Jaymie realized she forgot her laptop in the cab. Thankfully, the train was running late otherwise we wouldn't have made it. So, since the train was 25 minutes late and the train goes every 30 minutes, when we got to Eindhoven, the train people decided to cancel the train we were on so we had to transfer trains and run with all our luggage to a different platform (mind you I had over 100lbs of luggage with me alone). Somehow I moved in successfully. . .don't ask me how, it just happened. Oh and my room is about the size of my Aunt's walk-in closet

Monday, August 24th : The first day of the introduction period to UCM. We had a few lectures, a few tours and our first two training sessions of the PBL training. That was fun . . . During lunch, I picked up my bike which I had bought on Saturday. Then I got to pick up Lizzy at the train station and bring her home. . .ooooh. . .

Tuesday, August 25th: Second day of intro. . it was fun . . .again . . .But the most fun was had at the dinner that night. So UCM treated us to indonesian food and bottomless drinks. . .you know the usual for a school function: beer, white and red wine, coca cola and diet coca cola, and orange juice. So classy. I was bad and snuck lizzy in but I assume she had a good time. Well, she told me she did. Hot guys and awkward conversation: best thing EVER. Let me give you an example of the awkward conversation: " I want to get married at 40. What are your thoughts on marriage?" so that might not be an exact quote but it was one of the more amusingly awkward topics. After the dinner, or after we left the dinner before it ended, a couple of us went to the Mississippi Coffeeshop. It's on a boat!!! I kept singing " I'm on a boat!" It was fun

Wednesday, August 26th: The final day of introduction. Seriously FINAL . Finally. ;D Anyways, we had about 3 hours of nothing on this day because exchange students didn't have to do the case studies or the individual planning. Then the intro to dutch culture lecture.. . which wasn't very interesting especially since the speaker actually got a fact wrong: drugs are not legal in the netherlands, the distinction is made between hard and soft drugs and soft drugs are tolerated but strictly regulated. That same night, Universalis, the student group had a party. The theme was universalis in color and I got to observe how amusing the people I had been taking the PBL sessions with were when at a bar. And boy, was it amusing. I snuck Lizzy in again and I'm assuming she had a good time. Overall it was fun, we danced, drank, attempted to flirt with cute boys. We got back around 2 something in the morning . . .

Thursday, August 27th-Sunday, August 30th: So at this time, Lizzy and I went to Amsterdam. 2 and a half hour train ride to Amsterdam from Maastricht. We stayed at the flying pig uptown which is a "backpacker's hostel" I had never stayed in a hostel before. This proved to be amusing because I'm high maintenance apparently. We stayed in a room with 14 total people both male and female. I spent most of the time in the hostel in the smoking room because that was where all the hot guys were. . .goodness I have a one track mind. Besides that, I spent the entire time in a state of intoxication because I was on vacation. As Lizzy made me go to the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum hence I made her go to the Sex Museum and the Hash/Marihuana/Hemp Museum. I also accidentally got drunk on the canal tour. . wheeee! The second night we were there, the hostel had a Pirate Porn Party in honor of 2 people leaving, as I didn't have any pirate gear, I dressed in the theme of porn, pig tails and all. It was over all very fun and I fell in love with the city. It was gorgeous and it was simply amazing, the sights, the sounds, the history, the canals. I really loved it. Last night Lizzy decided to go to Munich with this guy we met on the walking tour named Dan. . . he called me "embittered." I was pissed because only people I know well enough can make those kinds of statements or awkward jokes about me. Definately not him. I guess this is why I was kinda mean to him (unintentionally). Since Lizzy went off to Munich, I spent the last night alone in our bed in the hostel (p.s. Lizzy and I shared a bed every night since monday except for last night because it was cheaper). It was a long but extremely fun vacation. <3