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I'm a college student based in Berkeley, California but from the North Lake Tahoe area with a major travel bug. Follow along for my adventures with travel, food, fitness, school, and life.

The Last First Day & Other Adventures | Dutch Diaries Week Three

The Last First Day & Other Adventures | Dutch Diaries Week Three

The Weekend | Het Weekend

Last weekend was the tail end of a long heat wave, bringing temperatures over ninety, which I’m told isn’t normal for Maastricht. Regardless, my friends and I decided to take advantage of the weather that none of us packed for and grabbed our only swimsuits to head for the beach.

Yep, you read that right, Maastricht has a beach, and it’s actually a really cool spot… I was just as surprised as you are!

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Fun Valley’s Cuba Beach, or “Ibiza on the Maas” as I’m told the locals call it, features a beach bar and free pedal boats in addition to a gorgeous view of Mount Saint Peter (don’t get too excited, it’s actually just a hill). And honestly, with a ropes course, climbing wall, trampolines, jungle gyms, and everything a kid could ever want in the summer, Fun Valley really is pretty fun.

The next day, with skies a little bit more grey, we headed out on our first day trip to the Belgian city of Liège, just 35 km down the River Maas (also known as the Muese).

While the city as a whole was a little sleepy on that Sunday morning, we still managed to enjoy the Belgian classics, gaufres and frites (waffles and fries), and stumble upon a gorgeous square, palace, and cathedral before making our way to the Sunday street market, the Marche de la Batte… But more about that in another post.

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Monday | Maandag

On Monday, with tired and sore feet from the ten miles of walking through the city of Liège and the stress of the first day of classes on the horizon, I was both craving a little R&R and needing to run some practical errands. Therefore, it makes perfect sense, or at least that’s how I’m justifying it, that I would indulge in a little bit of back to school shopping in the city center, an area of town that I learned is actually a shopping destination for people who live in the areas surrounding the city of Maastricht… So you know my time in Europe is going to do great things for my fashion sense.

Toting around my haul of new clothes (all of them were super necessary purchases, Mom, I promise), the final stop on our shopping tour was the obligatory visit to Maastricht’s iconic bookstore, Boekhandel Dominicanen, that has been cited as the most beautiful bookstore in the world. Truly, the poor quality iPhone picture here doesn’t even begin to do it justice.

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Between moments of marveling at the architecture, I browsed bookshelf after bookshelf, searching for the novel that would keep me company on future bus, train, and plane rides. Twenty minutes and a couple flights of stairs later, I finally found the section of books written or translated to English. Of course, my search wasn’t as difficult as I make it sound since those twenty minutes were more spent savoring than scouring… I find my happy place in bookstores, and this one, with a busy little coffee shop inside, definitely tops the list.


Tuesday | Dinsdag

Tuesday, marking my last first day of school, at least in the foreseeable future, and the official start of my senior year, came with a little bit of homesickness and mixed emotions.

You see, in talking about all of the wonderful and extremely positive aspects of studying abroad (and I’ve already discovered so many of these aspects), people often leave out the less positive parts of the experience. For me, those less positive things, and in particular, missing my friends and all of the important people in my life that I’m used to leaning on in the more nerve-wracking moments like this, gave the first day of my last year a bittersweetness that would stick with me throughout the day.

While I love my classes and have found myself more engaged in the subject matter than ever before, it’s weird not to be able to share my day to day with the people that I’m used to having around me. Yet, I know that the discomfort is all part of this experience. As cliche as it sounds, feeling lonely every once in a while is just another way pushing me out of my comfort zone so that I’m challenged to reach out to my new friends, make new connections, and learn to be confident in my independence.

So, after riding out those feelings of awkwardness that come with every real new beginning, I made it my goal to embrace my new reality and lean into the discomfort while I settle into my life here.


Wednesday | Woensdag

Wednesday, then, was largely spent getting used to the rhythm of my new university and my new classes, making all kinds of strides and missteps in my assimilation into Dutch daily life in the process.

One of these challenges I didn’t see coming? The weather.

Since I grew up in a place with highly variable weather, I have never been particularly daunted by rain, wind, or snow. Running, hiking, skiing, and otherwise living in the elements has not historically been something with which I’ve had much of an issue. However, when the torrential downpour hit just as I was leaving campus to head home, I discovered that biking in the rain is not ideal, even with a raincoat.

Through this very soggy three mile commute from the psychology faculty buildings to my dorm, I gained a newfound respect and general sense of awe surrounding the Dutch biking talent. Anyone who can seamlessly carry an umbrella while steering their bike with one hand through gusts of wind should be considered a professional athlete in my mind.

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Meanwhile, my performance on that rainy ride was much less impressive (see the results of this ride, pictured here on the right). At least I discovered that my old ski jacket from high school very effectively protects me from the rain, and when I say me, I mean my torso and only my torso. I’m beginning to think I might need something a little longer for the wet winter months ahead. That, or I learn how to ride the bus.


Thursday and Friday | Donderdag en Vrijdag

Thursday marked the beginning of the great search for a new favorite study spot, beginning with a very promising contender that I will definitely be returning to soon (I’ll muster up the courage to embarrass myself by taking pictures next time): Alley Cat, a cafe and bike shop in the heart of the city center.

Today (Friday), the tour of Maastricht cafes continued as the homework accumulated. This time, we visited the Livin’ Room, an adorable spot with great avocado toast (an essential), cacti in coffee cups, and Coke bottle vases filled with wildflowers. I felt right at home, which I think is exactly the point.

As the classes continue to be demanding and the readings pile up, the great search for the next best coffee shop study spot will continue. The goal is to try every place in town over the next four months, so prepare for the onslaught of photographic evidence of my daily cappuccinos. The subject matter of my courses themselves has been the most interesting I’ve encountered in all my years of school, but if that’s not enough, this mission should give me a little extra incentive to actually study abroad.

As for the abroad part of that equation, I have plenty of exciting trips to look forward to, starting with a weekend in Luxembourg… Time to start packing!

In a Liège of its Own | Liège, Belgium

In a Liège of its Own | Liège, Belgium

Sleepless in Berlin | Dutch Diaries Week Two

Sleepless in Berlin | Dutch Diaries Week Two