Wednesday, January 28

maastricht- above and below

Wednesday, January 28
Hi there! Let's catch up on what's been going on. Tuesday was a blast!


We finally got to walk around and see our new home in the daylight. A walk to the Center for European Studies, which houses half of everyone's classes, is about 20 minutes away from the guesthouse (our dorm). It was so nice to see everything up close.


Maastricht is a really interesting city in that it is the oldest in the Netherlands (2000 years old!) but also has many modern buildings and amenities, while retaining components of its earlier days. As we walked, we all took a ton of pictures, and probably looked ridiculously touristy...but then again it is pretty obvious that we are not Dutch.


Pana and I

Everyone's getting ready for Carnaval, which isn't until the end of February. I've seen crazy clown signs and costume sales all over the place.


We divided up into teams and explored the ancient bunkers/tunnels of Maastricht for a few hours, which was both terrifying and exciting!


We had to follow clues and instructions in the dark with only a few flashlights-- and the ceilings were just a few inches above my head. For one of the challenges, we had to travel about 100 yards without flashlights. So we held on to each other and shuffled our way through...probably ridiculously slowly. After we got to the end we found that one of the tour guides had been following us in the dark! Haha. Needless to say, our group bonded.

Team 4! Amanda, Kaitlyn, Rachel, Kathy, Chris, Me

We recreated the pictures in our guidebook while we waited for our turn--they're pretty amazing. As always, you can see the rest of my pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/joannaprice88


Later, we went to a dinner/party with some of the Dutch students who help welcome the international students. We made some new friends, including Jules, below. Oh yeah, and they put stickers on our faces, which is why Kathy has one on her forehead. :)


4 comments:

Sar said...

LOVE IT! So jealous already. Yesterday I told Nate I missed you and he laughed at me for being a wimp. :( Still miss you!

Joanna said...

oh sarah you know i miss you too!!! we will have to make up for a WHOLE semester when i get back...so get ready for some of that!

Anonymous said...

wait a second! don't have TOO much fun.

then you won't want to come back. :)

MattLamkin said...

Karnival!!!
I cannot wait I am excited!!
you must get a costume, its important.