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.