The beer on the bus

Goes round and round

Greetings fellow Earth-dwellers,

I'm not currently in Maastricht, but having a great time in Europe. My flight to Copenhagen was happily uneventful, but the absinthe on the flight to Amsterdam was really something special. Maastricht is an incredibly beautiful (and incredibly old) city. I've already been on 3 different tours of the city, and I still haven't seen large portions of it. There are an awful lot of churches in Maastricht, which is ironic because the people are by and large areligious. They are reverent of their history, but not particularly of religion; thus, the heathens maintain the outside of the churches but modernize the insides. I've been to a bookstore, disco, bar, hotel (in monastery), and post office - all in churches.

The culture is getting easier and easier to adjust to. Some things are vastly different from the states. For instance, I was perusing a Dutch newspaper and stumbled upon pictures of topless women. I've since taken a subscription.

I'm staying at the UM International Guesthouse, which is nice and cozy. My roommate, Ben, is a cool guy. He also plays guitar and loves Dylan, so the adjustment hasn't been overly difficult. We have a huge room, complete with stocked kitchen. The showers have great water pressure, and the hall keg always has fresh beer on tap.

If only for the ubiquitous beer, cheese, and brats, the Netherlands feels an awful lot like Milwaukee. Some haven't found it as easy, but the Dutch are very laid back and accepting. To ease my cross-cultural transition, I attended a class in cross-cultural communication where I learned that people from different cultures see things differently. My mind was blown.

Just as I was beginning to get acclimated to the Dutch way of life, my program went on a joint European study trip. I was in Brussels and Bruges, went to Versailles earlier today, and am currently in Paris. I know the travel sounds grueling and tough, but it's actually not that bad. We've toured the EU headquarters, seen Manneken Pis, gone to a few breweries. Having a great time.

There's a lot of walking here in Europe. If it weren't for the aforementioned beer, brats, cheese, and bread I'd be wasting away. So feel free to send me care packages.

According to the highly informative pamphlet my study abroad office gave me, my wonderment with my surroundings is about to start ebbing, and I will soon crash into a manic depressive state. It's not so much that I miss you all, but the lack of free refills is maddening!!!!!!

Some other interesting things about Europe:

• Everything's old. I'm even old enough to buy a beer. The architecture is beautiful, but I've barely had a sober moment (just kidding... I've had a few).
• Cobblestones are death to my ankles.
• There's beer everywhere. We can even buy it from a cooler on our bus. Hence the title of this blog.
  
• Order a coffee and you get americano. Order coffee americain and you get coffee. Many of you may have already known this, but it's tough for me to reconcile.
• Lingering questions from Pulp Fiction's opening scene? Dutch people do in fact put mayo on their fries. It's disgusting. Also, a Whopper is just called a Whopper.
• Judging by the amount of people shopping, I think that no one works in Europe unless they work at some sort of shop.
• Scarves. They're big in Europe.
• Waffles, too.
• Despite my attempts to follow locals to the hospital, I've yet to see the famed Dutch welfare system in action. However, considering how much some of my fellow students drink, it's only a matter of time.

Keep sending me updates about your lives people. I'll keep sending about mine.