The third day that I was in Amsterdam we took a tour to a Belgium town called Bruges. the bus ride lasted for three hours but we had a great tour guide who, once we arrived let us loose to wander the town. Bruges is famous for to locally made chocolate and the beer. There was a shop for one or the other (sometimes both) on every street corner. The town was packed with tourists. We spoke with two couples from New York City who had been trapped in Europe by Super-storm Sandy. It was amazing just how many people there where in that predicament.

As we walked through on of Bruges many great cathedrals we saw the Madonna and Child carved by Michele Angelo. It was the only piece of his work to leave Italy while he was still alive. the only thing protecting it from the outside world were a pair of elderly ticket sellers and a pane of glass. I was astonished that belgium had so few worries about a terrorist attack.

O, and Happy Halloween. I REALLY missed it.

Germany is awesome! For the past two weeks I have been enjoying a school break. October was wonderful and the fact that I had no school made it even better. For the first week I simply enjoyed being in Germany, but the second week I went to Amsterdam. Plus, a bonus is that I finally was able to charge my camera for the first time, so here are the pictures. 

 This is the Amsterdam Central Train Station. It was quite busy. 

       The Anne Frank house (short one in the middle) was really interesting. We had to wait in line for an 11/2 hours but when we got in, it was worth it. On the walls were quotes from her diary. The entire house was silent. In her room, the pictures she had glued on the wall are still there. 

      When we went downstairs again we got to see the actual diary which is covered in red checked cloth. We were NOT allowed to take pictures, sorry. 

Every house in Amsterdam is built tall, thin, and squashed together. 

Holland is famous for two things; wooden shoes and windmills. Both of which can be found on every street corner. 

Seen from the train window.

       We passed through the Red Light District, but just to say we had been there. I saw nothing. For those of you who don't know what this is, the Red Light District is the section of town where the "dirt of society" works.

       Note: prostitution and marijuana are both legal in Amsterdam so you can guess what is to be found in this area of town. When taking that walk, I watched my feet and held my umbrella very low over my head. So that was day one and two of my week in Holland.

     This past weekend was really fun! I taught my neighbors how to play Cribbage after we built two Cribbage boards. It took us all afternoon but we had a great time. I have only played the game once before, but now I have won two times in row!!!! I really like the game.

: this is a slightly nicer version of what we built.

"That rounds up the usual aspects" of my daily life in Germany.

           On Sunday we did something I have always wanted to do!!!!! We went to a fox hunt.

       If you have ever seen the movie "Mary Poppins" you will know the scene when cartoon characters are riding horses and are with their hunting hounds while they chase a fox.

          That is exactly what we got to see. The start was at the home of a family friend. The house is actually a small castle or fortress. Its really cool. I actually have been able to stay there on my previous trips to Europe.
   
           The grounds outside of the moat were covered with riders and their horses. Everyone was dressed up in the English style riding outfits, and they looked very professional.

           Then, there was one woman surrounded by thirty or so hunting dogs. The animals were milling around in a large group and from time to time the lady would throw them a treat. This caused a lot of jumping and scrambling over each other. There was one dog who was digging a hole, I have never actually seen a dog do that before and it was quite picturesque. But aside from this they were all very well trained!

           When they took off everyone trotted by in pairs of two and at the end of this prosession came the dogs in one huge pack. It was awesome!

      The week of Investor (the game) is over, thank goodness!!! I didn't really understand any of the material for my german is very limited, but I was in charge of the creative aspect of our group.
   
      I got to design to Flyers for our product, I put together the powerpoint, and I filmed the movie/commercial we were required to make. Our movie is going onto the school website because it was in English!!!!!! Unfortunately, it is not up yet.

(This picture to the left is my school.)

      It started raining on Monday of last week and hasn't stopped yet!! I have never seen so much rain in my life!! The rain isn't even the good kind, it doesn't rain hard enough to be awesome and there is to much of it to just ignore. Now I can see why everything in Germany is covered in moss.

      This past Wednesday was a national holiday for the reunion of East and West Germany. So instead of having school, we got to go to the zoo. I took a friend and we ran around for three hours. It is a very nice zoo with tons of trees and walkways. In fact, it is the nicest zoo I have ever been to.

     There is one part where you can pet fish!!!! You know the kind of huge, gray fish that are in Canyon Ferry Lake, well they were in a shallow tank and when you put you had in they would swim up to you. When I rubbed them, they pushed up against my hand and wiggled. It was sooo funny!

      The fish were not stingrays. I think they are called carp. But they are the ugliest, most boring fish I have ever seen in real life. (Meaning I have seen uglier fish in pictures). They look a lot like huge gray goldfish.

Flossy Nossy Vanilla Philip Vacation.

The front EU building



Here are a few photos that I forgot to upload last week.

The back of the EU building.

            This week my class is playing an Economy game. We have to start and run a company for an entire week.

            Every morning we go into our homeroom and have everything explained to us, then we break up into groups and fill out the worksheets that we are given. This cycle repeats itself about every two hours. I can't say that I understand much(if any) of what is going on, so my week isn't turning out to be that interesting.

            But there are some things that I do understand!! We get to make a commercial for our product (a massage chair), fliers for the company, and a logo. I am proud to say that I came up with our logo and I get to create the flier. I think making the movie is going to be fun, we can do whatever we want. I have a great group of kids to work with. On Thursday every group must give a presentation at the assembly and I have no idea what I am going to do! But thats life.

I think the way to sum this week up is to say that it is the best of times, it is the worst of times.