August 21, 2009 - Brussels
After a late night of preparation for our first official trip, 30 Muhlenberg students, 3 Center for European Studies Coordinators (Monique, Dario, Isabella) and our Residence Professor, Dr. Laposata, and his wife Kathy, boarded our two level bus at the invigorating time of 7 AM. By 10:30 that morning we were situated, shirt and tie and all, at our first destination, the European Parliament complex, for an overview lecture and tour. To impress our hosts Dr. Laposata said that he would give extra credit in his class for good questions asked. So, after the presentation you wouldn’t believe the level of sophistication and intellect behind each of the questions asked by some people.
After a fascinating visit to the EU Parliament Center, we bussed across the city to the giant iron molecular structure and Mini Europe. The giant iron molecular structure is just a massage tower of connected atoms that make chemical formation of an iron element – constructed because southern Belgium came into being due to its iron abundance. Mini Europe is a mini theme park with a series of shops, restaurants, and the main attraction, a stroll through ‘mini Europe’ literally, where Kelly and I strolled through mini replicas of main attractions in all the European counties (eg Tower of Pisa, Big Ben, Eifel Tower etc.). The whole Mini Europe and Iron Molecular structure were a bit much.
From there we checked into the Crown Plaza hotel, dropped off our stuff - I took a quick power nap. An hour later we were back on the bus to center city where we were met by a series of tour guides who would show us around. On the hour tour we saw key sites like center city, the palaces, an ancient ruin of a monastery, a random group of Japanese tourists who stopped us to take a picture of them (of course they had their fingers in the peace sign motion), and everyone’s favorite Brussels attraction, in addition to waffles, THE MANICAN PIS! From the city tour we strolled to the Delirium Bar for a few drinks from the bar’s over 2,000 drink selection.
Once at the bar, which was around 6 PM, the group was given the rest of the night free. Many people remained at the bar scene, but a few friends, Josh and Alex, and I took the metro to a nearby shul, The European Shul. I had found the shul that morning when I had a few minutes of free time. At first it was very difficult to find the schul because there were no indications of any Jewish life at all, just a plain brown door, could’ve been a mere apartment. But after some door-knocking and direction requesting from strangers I was able to locate the shul and find the services time – 8 PM. When we walked into the shul we had a few minutes to kill before everyone arrived so we took some pictures and walked around. It was quant and beautiful. After services, while sitting at the Kiddush, of course playing the typical Jewish geography, I ended up realizing that the man across from me was my cousin Avram Siegel, a grandson of Shirley and Nate Rothner. What are the chances!
From shul we went to Rabbi Avi and Nehama Tawil’s house from Shabbat, where we were also joined by Rabbi Avi’s Uncle in-law, Rabbi Menachem Hadar, who is the head Rabbi of Brussels. Rabbi Avi is the director of the European Jewish Community Centre (EJCC) that does Jewish youth outreach across Europe (events@ejcc.eu). Just imagine a to full chabbad families and a few guests. The long rectangular table must have sat 30 people. And 5 courses later, and many a discussion about politics, economics, European and American similarities and differences, personal stories, and the typical dvar torah (piece or speech about Torah), we waddled out of Rabbi Tawil’s house the fullest we had been in a week. From Rabbi Tawil’s house, we went to Rabbi Michoel Rosenblum’s house – he is the Rabbi of the European Shul (info@theshul.eu) – for drinks. After a few strong Belgium beers, some more talk of politics, economics, torah and more, we headed back to our hotel around 1:30 AM. What a night!!!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
August 20, 2009 - Week 1 Winding Down
Dearest All,
I sit, writing in my communal hall kitchen, alongside Kelly (best friend from Muhlenberg and also on my Maastricht trip) with almost a whole week gone by. Today, I took my first nap, three hours long! The unfortunate thing is that those three hours are probably a quarter of the total amount of sleep that I have gotten since Monday when I arrived on my red eye. But sleep-less aside, Maastricht is an incredible place that I am becoming more and more happy to call home. Here's what has gone on:
Firstly, and most importantly, I have used this week of orientation to get organized, prepare for the semester and settle in to my new environment. On Monday, Kelly and I went to the Brusselport Mall (10 min walk) and bought linens, sheets, towels, kitchenware, including a super cool green mug - eco-friendly feeling - and basic food essentials, such as bread, oranges, apples, and peanut butter. After a few tiring but highly productive hours of meddling between aisles, and trying to understand the Dutch labels, we left the mall for a nearby stoop where we sat and enjoyed a biget snack. (see picture)
On Tuesday, we did a little more settling in, organization, and heard people speak, which included a welcome ceremony where the leaders of our Center for European Studies (CES) provided us with an overview of everything. We also went to the local town square, 'market', where the University was throwing a massive concert for incoming first year students. (see picture) Must have been thousands of people there! My friends and I stayed around to experience the crazy Ducth culture. These Dutchies really know how to party .... and drink. That night there was more partying. About 4,500 people packed into this gigantic warehouse, known as the 'MECC', to experience a concert by a variety of techno, raving, types of artists, one of which was the very own Netherlands group 'The Vengaboys'. So they played that six flags theme song, 'The Vengabus ('We like to party....')' like four times in a half hour. One snapshot of the night that I hope you won't read into, but when I look back on I truly don't want to forget, was my moshing (crazy jumping and pushing) with a group of guys. The story goes as follows: So being at this concert of crazy, jumping, overly aggresively social Dutch people, I decided to not be my usual awkward and reserved American self. So as I was walking around the smoky aired, fog filled atmosphere, with a ton of beer and sweat sticking my shoes to the floor, I saw a group of guys with their shirts off jumping around like animals. I cannot begin to describe to you how much fun they seemed to be having. After a few seconds, I decided that opting for spontaneity and risks in small doses would be advantageous for my overall enjoyment.... And at that moment I wisked off my shirt, and began pushing and shoving some of the guys, and obviously, as I calculated, after doing a double take, they reciprocated the pushing .... and the party continued. About 20 minutes into this odd site, mind you people were very fascinated and simultaneously wierded out by this act of overly friendly, sweaty, and half-naked guys pushing, shoving, hugging and jumping and each other, a girl tapped me on the shoulder and tried to convince me that nudity, even though just my shirt was off, was looked down upon by Dutch society. I am not sure how she knew that I was unaware of that, which I still think she is wrong about Dutch society, but I took that as my cue to move on to the next excursion. The following night, as I recited this story to my orientation student leaders. They told me that there is a good chance that this social orgnization is most likely an all gay organization. Being in a social fraternity at school and also being in a Jewish youth group in high school, I guess I never was able to distinguish the difference between the homosexuality and male comraderie. Oh well..... Super good times! Again, don't look into the story too much, just note the comedy of the whole encounter.... After the concert, all of the people boarded buses, or their bikes, to go to the after parties, mind you this was about 3 AM. My friends and I went with a few people who we had befriend to a social organization's - 'SV Koko (not sure what means) - after-party. After that we started heading back to our dormatory. The night ended for me at 6AM. Crazy Dutch culture!
Wednesday we did some more settling in, organization, and orientation stuff, which this time included Visa papers, passport photos, and an overview lecture on an upcoming study trip. A few of my closer guy friends, Josh and Mike, and I walked across the city to the train station to look for bike rental places and adapters for Josh. Although Josh was thrilled that we found his adapters, and we were all happy to exchange our American cash for Euros at the train station, we found no bikes, which meant that instead of briskly biking back to the dorms, we had a nice 45 minute walk. And in the beating sun we were very unhappy. Wednesday night was a little more low-key. The highlight though was by far my first cooked meal of beans and rice. (see picture) Although it was a simple procedure, oversaw by Josh, who is an expert chef, boiling a can of beans and microwaving Uncle Ben's rice, plus putting salad into a bowl, was very challenging for a kitchen and cooking virgin. I blame my kitchen incompetence on my Mom's domineering presence in HER kitchen. Mom, you better watch out though, because when I get home, I am going to be making kidney beans for everyone.
Today, Thursday, included more of the same.... settling in, organization, (which by now just means buying a few more essentials, like a water heater for the room, some more food etc.) and of course we had more orientation stuff. The highlight, besides my 3 hour nap, was by far our 3 hour bike ride through Maastricht and into Belgium. (see picture) Besides being a very leisurely bikeride for most of my group of 29 students, there were a few miss-haps, that for the majority of us were extremely humorous, but certainly not funny for those people. They were the following:
1. Mike had gotten on a bike for the first time in his life a few days before we all left for Maastricht in anticipation of the European biking lifestyle. About five minutes into the ride, while still in center city, he ran into a parked truck. He eventually got it together and stuck with us. Major props to Mike.
2. Lucy got a bike that was too small, plus she accidently road through some brush. That combination, plus seemingly poor maintenance by the store, caused her to experience a flat tire about half way through the ride. The result of her flat was twofold:
3. Gil, who is a good biker, was asked to bike with one hand and use the other to pull along Lucy's broken bike. Additionally,
4. The leader of the tour put Lisa on the back of his bike to allow Lucy to ride Lisa's bike. Are you still with me.....
5. The final mis-hap was that in the last 15 minutes Evan's peddle broke off so he was forced to kick he feet back into center city.
For most of us, it was just too funny.
Overall, despite all the walking, the crazy nightlife seen, which by the way I really don't have the stamina or attention span for, and the relatively dull orientation talks, Maastricht is an incredibly vibrant, homey, and safe city that I am happy to call home. My guesthouse room is well furnished, kind of like an Ikea store. I have a bed, closet, bookcase, desk, chair, nightstand, and sink. Finally, my own sink! Take that Jonathan and Brian! I have everything organized and all of my walls covered with pictures of most of you. I still need to buy a bike and sign up for the gym. Weather has been beautiful, 75 and breezy. Tonight it rained for the first time. The group dynamic, although cliquey and factioned at times, is seeming to work out. I am developing a coor of reliable friends. The majority of all the international students come next week.
That's all for now.... Next on the agenda will be to start organizing traveling plans. Stay tuned.....
Always,
Jason
PS I don't anticipate each entry to be this long. And as usual, sorry for the gramatical, spelling or structural mistakes. I am a little tired still.
I sit, writing in my communal hall kitchen, alongside Kelly (best friend from Muhlenberg and also on my Maastricht trip) with almost a whole week gone by. Today, I took my first nap, three hours long! The unfortunate thing is that those three hours are probably a quarter of the total amount of sleep that I have gotten since Monday when I arrived on my red eye. But sleep-less aside, Maastricht is an incredible place that I am becoming more and more happy to call home. Here's what has gone on:
Firstly, and most importantly, I have used this week of orientation to get organized, prepare for the semester and settle in to my new environment. On Monday, Kelly and I went to the Brusselport Mall (10 min walk) and bought linens, sheets, towels, kitchenware, including a super cool green mug - eco-friendly feeling - and basic food essentials, such as bread, oranges, apples, and peanut butter. After a few tiring but highly productive hours of meddling between aisles, and trying to understand the Dutch labels, we left the mall for a nearby stoop where we sat and enjoyed a biget snack. (see picture)
On Tuesday, we did a little more settling in, organization, and heard people speak, which included a welcome ceremony where the leaders of our Center for European Studies (CES) provided us with an overview of everything. We also went to the local town square, 'market', where the University was throwing a massive concert for incoming first year students. (see picture) Must have been thousands of people there! My friends and I stayed around to experience the crazy Ducth culture. These Dutchies really know how to party .... and drink. That night there was more partying. About 4,500 people packed into this gigantic warehouse, known as the 'MECC', to experience a concert by a variety of techno, raving, types of artists, one of which was the very own Netherlands group 'The Vengaboys'. So they played that six flags theme song, 'The Vengabus ('We like to party....')' like four times in a half hour. One snapshot of the night that I hope you won't read into, but when I look back on I truly don't want to forget, was my moshing (crazy jumping and pushing) with a group of guys. The story goes as follows: So being at this concert of crazy, jumping, overly aggresively social Dutch people, I decided to not be my usual awkward and reserved American self. So as I was walking around the smoky aired, fog filled atmosphere, with a ton of beer and sweat sticking my shoes to the floor, I saw a group of guys with their shirts off jumping around like animals. I cannot begin to describe to you how much fun they seemed to be having. After a few seconds, I decided that opting for spontaneity and risks in small doses would be advantageous for my overall enjoyment.... And at that moment I wisked off my shirt, and began pushing and shoving some of the guys, and obviously, as I calculated, after doing a double take, they reciprocated the pushing .... and the party continued. About 20 minutes into this odd site, mind you people were very fascinated and simultaneously wierded out by this act of overly friendly, sweaty, and half-naked guys pushing, shoving, hugging and jumping and each other, a girl tapped me on the shoulder and tried to convince me that nudity, even though just my shirt was off, was looked down upon by Dutch society. I am not sure how she knew that I was unaware of that, which I still think she is wrong about Dutch society, but I took that as my cue to move on to the next excursion. The following night, as I recited this story to my orientation student leaders. They told me that there is a good chance that this social orgnization is most likely an all gay organization. Being in a social fraternity at school and also being in a Jewish youth group in high school, I guess I never was able to distinguish the difference between the homosexuality and male comraderie. Oh well..... Super good times! Again, don't look into the story too much, just note the comedy of the whole encounter.... After the concert, all of the people boarded buses, or their bikes, to go to the after parties, mind you this was about 3 AM. My friends and I went with a few people who we had befriend to a social organization's - 'SV Koko (not sure what means) - after-party. After that we started heading back to our dormatory. The night ended for me at 6AM. Crazy Dutch culture!
Wednesday we did some more settling in, organization, and orientation stuff, which this time included Visa papers, passport photos, and an overview lecture on an upcoming study trip. A few of my closer guy friends, Josh and Mike, and I walked across the city to the train station to look for bike rental places and adapters for Josh. Although Josh was thrilled that we found his adapters, and we were all happy to exchange our American cash for Euros at the train station, we found no bikes, which meant that instead of briskly biking back to the dorms, we had a nice 45 minute walk. And in the beating sun we were very unhappy. Wednesday night was a little more low-key. The highlight though was by far my first cooked meal of beans and rice. (see picture) Although it was a simple procedure, oversaw by Josh, who is an expert chef, boiling a can of beans and microwaving Uncle Ben's rice, plus putting salad into a bowl, was very challenging for a kitchen and cooking virgin. I blame my kitchen incompetence on my Mom's domineering presence in HER kitchen. Mom, you better watch out though, because when I get home, I am going to be making kidney beans for everyone.
Today, Thursday, included more of the same.... settling in, organization, (which by now just means buying a few more essentials, like a water heater for the room, some more food etc.) and of course we had more orientation stuff. The highlight, besides my 3 hour nap, was by far our 3 hour bike ride through Maastricht and into Belgium. (see picture) Besides being a very leisurely bikeride for most of my group of 29 students, there were a few miss-haps, that for the majority of us were extremely humorous, but certainly not funny for those people. They were the following:
1. Mike had gotten on a bike for the first time in his life a few days before we all left for Maastricht in anticipation of the European biking lifestyle. About five minutes into the ride, while still in center city, he ran into a parked truck. He eventually got it together and stuck with us. Major props to Mike.
2. Lucy got a bike that was too small, plus she accidently road through some brush. That combination, plus seemingly poor maintenance by the store, caused her to experience a flat tire about half way through the ride. The result of her flat was twofold:
3. Gil, who is a good biker, was asked to bike with one hand and use the other to pull along Lucy's broken bike. Additionally,
4. The leader of the tour put Lisa on the back of his bike to allow Lucy to ride Lisa's bike. Are you still with me.....
5. The final mis-hap was that in the last 15 minutes Evan's peddle broke off so he was forced to kick he feet back into center city.
For most of us, it was just too funny.
Overall, despite all the walking, the crazy nightlife seen, which by the way I really don't have the stamina or attention span for, and the relatively dull orientation talks, Maastricht is an incredibly vibrant, homey, and safe city that I am happy to call home. My guesthouse room is well furnished, kind of like an Ikea store. I have a bed, closet, bookcase, desk, chair, nightstand, and sink. Finally, my own sink! Take that Jonathan and Brian! I have everything organized and all of my walls covered with pictures of most of you. I still need to buy a bike and sign up for the gym. Weather has been beautiful, 75 and breezy. Tonight it rained for the first time. The group dynamic, although cliquey and factioned at times, is seeming to work out. I am developing a coor of reliable friends. The majority of all the international students come next week.
That's all for now.... Next on the agenda will be to start organizing traveling plans. Stay tuned.....
Always,
Jason
PS I don't anticipate each entry to be this long. And as usual, sorry for the gramatical, spelling or structural mistakes. I am a little tired still.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
August 15, 2009 - Night Before the Big Flight
Dear All,
As I am finishing my packing, organizing my room, and sending out my last emails, I cannot begin to attempt to reconcile the reality that tomorrow night (EST) I will be landing in Brussels, for what I hope to be an incredible abroad experience - don't tell my Mom that I am actually leaving for 5 months.
A little about my program: I, along with 28 other Muhlenberg students, will be taking four courses in International Business through the Center for European Studies (CES). The academic semester is divided into Block 1 and Block 2, both of which are 8 weeks long. I take two classes in each Block. I will be living in the international guesthouse, in my own room, with my own sink! Yet, I unfortunately have to share the toilet and showers with with not only men but women as well, which is very different from my fraternal environment at home or at Sig Ep. I am also sharing a kitchen with my floor mates so maintaining a certain level of kashroot (kosherness - a level of Jewish dietary restrictions) may be challenging. I am assuming though that a bigger problem with sharing a kitchen with my floor mates may be my uber-neurotic necessity for a high level of cleanliness. Just a concern that I will figure out. My Muhlenberg delegation will also be accompanied by a Muhlenberg professor, Dr. Laposata, and his wife Kathy. Dr. Laposata teaches economics at Muhlenberg. He is also my academic advisor, which makes his presence on the trip all the more special for me.
Emotions regarding my Departure: The summer overall, although highly rewarding and educational, specifically in terms of the solar industry, was a bit of a burn out, primarily because of the rigorousness of the work schedule. As a result, I am not psychologically or mentally aware that tomorrow I will be boarding the plane for not only the time of my life, but a life changing opportunity that I don't expect to experience ever again (a little pessimistic, I realize), and will probably feel all too short by the time it is over. This being said, I am waiting for the moment when I board the plane and sink into my plane seat, the official moment when my semester abroad starts, and the moment when preparation for abroad actually, and finally, 'thank the lord', ends. That moment of satisfaction, liberation, confusion, insecurity, anticipation, angst and just pure excitement when I hit that seat cushion is the glut of emotions that I have looked forward to feeling for a long time. Thats when it begins. Thats when my 'Life Changing Adventures' begin.... more to come.
As I am finishing my packing, organizing my room, and sending out my last emails, I cannot begin to attempt to reconcile the reality that tomorrow night (EST) I will be landing in Brussels, for what I hope to be an incredible abroad experience - don't tell my Mom that I am actually leaving for 5 months.
A little about my program: I, along with 28 other Muhlenberg students, will be taking four courses in International Business through the Center for European Studies (CES). The academic semester is divided into Block 1 and Block 2, both of which are 8 weeks long. I take two classes in each Block. I will be living in the international guesthouse, in my own room, with my own sink! Yet, I unfortunately have to share the toilet and showers with with not only men but women as well, which is very different from my fraternal environment at home or at Sig Ep. I am also sharing a kitchen with my floor mates so maintaining a certain level of kashroot (kosherness - a level of Jewish dietary restrictions) may be challenging. I am assuming though that a bigger problem with sharing a kitchen with my floor mates may be my uber-neurotic necessity for a high level of cleanliness. Just a concern that I will figure out. My Muhlenberg delegation will also be accompanied by a Muhlenberg professor, Dr. Laposata, and his wife Kathy. Dr. Laposata teaches economics at Muhlenberg. He is also my academic advisor, which makes his presence on the trip all the more special for me.
Emotions regarding my Departure: The summer overall, although highly rewarding and educational, specifically in terms of the solar industry, was a bit of a burn out, primarily because of the rigorousness of the work schedule. As a result, I am not psychologically or mentally aware that tomorrow I will be boarding the plane for not only the time of my life, but a life changing opportunity that I don't expect to experience ever again (a little pessimistic, I realize), and will probably feel all too short by the time it is over. This being said, I am waiting for the moment when I board the plane and sink into my plane seat, the official moment when my semester abroad starts, and the moment when preparation for abroad actually, and finally, 'thank the lord', ends. That moment of satisfaction, liberation, confusion, insecurity, anticipation, angst and just pure excitement when I hit that seat cushion is the glut of emotions that I have looked forward to feeling for a long time. Thats when it begins. Thats when my 'Life Changing Adventures' begin.... more to come.
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