Exploring

Even though The Netherlands is a small country there is so much to see especially in Leiden :) On Wednesday we took a two hour tour around the city and got to explore De Burcht (pictures to come), Churches, local hangouts, and just walk around a soak up the city. There is so much history and I catch myself just being in awe of how beautiful everything seems. After our tour we went back to Central and had our first "borrel" with our teachers and classmates. This is custom in Leiden to have drinks and chat about life. I tried some white wine along with some other girls, but none of us liked it so we took shifts to the bathroom and dumped the rest out ha! The borrel finished kinda late so a group of us went out and ate at a Chinese restaurant. In Europe, eating out is a lot different then in the States. When you eat out in Europe you go and spend 2 or 3 hours just sitting and talking. It is all about the company instead of the food. We however were so hungry and couldn't really do what the Europeans do. We were probably their fastest customers!

Today was another full day! We learned about the history of The Netherlands and got to go on a tour of the oldest house left in Leiden where some of the Pilgrims stayed. I never realized the Pilgrims went to Leiden before traveling to North America. Anyways,  the house dated back to the 1300's and it was really awesome to see items that were as old or older than the house! A group of us got tickets to a soccer game coming up in March.. USA vs. the Dutch! Tomorrow we are going to Amsterdam for the day where we will travel to some museums, hopefully see Anne Franks house, and eat at Amsterdam University. I start Dutch on Monday and am excited to be able to finally recognize some words :)