And it has begun....

This week is going to be a shorter blog which I am sure everyone is very happy about considering how long they normally are.

I haven't gone on any major trips this weekend so there is not much to talk about but I have to say not travelling big time has defiantly made me a lot more homesick than normal.

Not travelling and getting my mind off things and distracting me from Arnhem has made me miss things more than normal. Its hard being away from home and being all alone in the sense that you have no one you are familiar with in a foreign place. Its hard trying to communicate with people around you who frustrate you more than you can ever imagine (I will explain) its hard being in these classes in this environment, its hard trying to eat here, hard being out of the normal schedule, and just plain hard missing the important people in your life.

Being all alone
I cant deny I have made friends here and think they are great but in general being away from the people you have either known your whole life and can tell anything to is hard. What makes everything hardest would have to be this 6 hour time change. You try to set up Skype dates but they just don't work because their day is my night and work schedules are quite a mess.

People Here
As I have said people in the Netherlands are very nice but trying to communicate and get points across just does not work. I am not sure if its because I am in a straightforward culture on a normal basis but here everything is dallied around and you have to go through so many hoops to find out specific pieces of information. For example as I have mentioned when the trains are down no one ever tells you, or even trying to buy a train ticket. Sonya and I have bought so many train tickets now and not once has someone told us about the 2 persons day pass you can get and save ourselves 20 euros or the day pass you can buy for yourself outside of the station and save like 40 euros. As well when taking the train they will send us to a track that wont even be running the train that we need at that time. It probably has to be the most frustrating thing around. As well the other day we tried to order a meal to share, and of course the lady did not understand even when we tried to explain a little bit in dutch and she brought us 2 meals which we could not finish and we both had to pay !!
In general when you ask anybody a question here you can never get a direct answer.

Classes
I'm at that point in time, for those of you who know me and the feeling most people get I am at my I need a break from school time again because classes are just so frustrating. The difference here is I am not frustrated because I am overloaded with school work its more or less the classes are not specific enough for the way I am used to. You are not given instruction just expected, and when it comes to such things as exams in which I have next week they are not in your class time so you have to be prepared but not only that you get the scheduled like a week before they happen so how are you supposed to plan your time around that? As well I feel as if I have no idea what is going to be tested on what so ever.

Food
As much as my new found love of doners are amazing you cannot eat them all the time. Everything here when you eat out is deep fried which is very annoying trying to eat "healthier". As well since I do not have a microwave it is harder to reheat food if making leftovers. The most frustrating thing has to be the fact that I have little to no room in the fridge and when I do put stuff it gets moved so I cant find it and it goes bad or someone takes it out of the fridge and leaves it out (this happened with my mild, I was very upset). In general I miss Canadian food. I miss stir fry's and being able to reheat, wings (I know deep fried) and poutine (I know not good for you) but you get the idea things we don't have here. I miss salad dressing and making good salads. I miss more than Gouda for cheese just in general I miss convenience and space to have the food I need and want.

Schedule
I am the person that loves to keep busy works well under pressure and loves having specific things to do at specific times all the time. This is not the case here you always have to be prepared for change. Classrooms can change, days of classes can change, and your whole schedule can actually end up changing in general. I miss being able to go to the gym, setting time lines for study and school work, planning travel is hard because you have to worry about day changes and just not being able to have certain things to do at certain times all the time is very off throwing for me.

Last but not least People
Just like everyone is going to and will I miss friends and family. You look at facebook and see people hanging out being in clubs and going on with their lives and its almost like your sitting out on the sidelines.
I miss OWIMA
http://www.runforthecure.com/site/TR/RunfortheCure2012/Ontario?pg=team&fr_id=1291&team_id=24825

I miss my mom and dad- even though I don't live with them or see them that often when in school its a very different experience being across seas and not having the convenience to see and talk to them when I want.
I miss my friends- I feel like that's just a given and of course... Sarah I miss you cleaning my room (I have to do it at least 2 times a day here) and I miss you!!
I miss my boyfriend-We talk all the time and there are so many things I just wish I could tell him in person because it is never the same over the Internet or BBM but we have to deal with it for another 3 months. As well I wish I could be experiencing this with him travelling and meeting people. I miss his family as well. Going away after spending the past 7 months with him straight and a full summer with him and his family has been quite hard.

That being said of course I am home sick I think everyone is going to get it at some point how can you not being away for a long period of time after so many years in your comfort but I think what I am gaining in return is going to be priceless;
Even though I am frustrated with people and school it is teaching more than I have ever known about working and communicating with different cultures and people. This is not my country or my comfort zone and I need to adapt myself and learn their ways in order to get along better
Which is my next point I am learning to adapt-this is an intangible aspect in life being able to adapt to new situations and being flexible to whatever comes your way and still being able to get your job done
Last but not least is friends. I have met so many people from around the world and have gotten to know so many different cultures in a way you don't get in your own country being in your own comfort and not putting yourself out there. It has only been a month and I have made great life friends and made so many memories.

Even though I am homesick and I do look forward to the day I get back to my loved land Canada I am enjoying the exchange experiences and I look forward to dealing with more hardships to learn more things, and to making many more life memories...

ITS NOT ALL BAD


There are some cool things that have happened this week as well. There was a horse show and race which Brigitta and I saw horses and goats and pigs and ducks and it was SWEET!

We had a nice dinner one night as well. We all got together rode our bikes (dressed up...yes you know you live in the Netherlands when....) went to a Greek restaurant and had a very nice group dinner

As well this weekend even though I did not travel to another country I explored more of the Netherlands and we made our way to the city of Rotterdam (the modern city of the Netherlands)

IT HAS BEEN A SUNNY WEEK!!!!


I am going to leave you with my funny items....
As I said I have made friends and memories ... and well Today Sept 28th it was sunny (yes sunny in Arnhem) so we decided to enjoy the outside weather.. Sonya and Brigitta decided to do handstands in the grass.. A little bit of a failure but kind of funny (As well ... yes of course I am talking about pizza. for anyone who listens and knows me I LOVE FOOD)

As I have said I have been learning about cultures...well... there are no words for this
Brigitta and Sonya both trying to show us their cultural dances

Brigitta :)

Sonya-- WE DON'T HAVE A CANADIAN DANCE

Country Hopping Adventures

In the time it takes me or my boyfriend to drive to see each other from Windsor to Toronto to see one another we drove to another country last weekend (France). Now this weekend add the same time that some people drive to their cottage (about 8 hours) we drove to two different countries. This weekend was a whole new adventure in its own. We rented another car because it is turning out when you have a group of people to be the cheapest method. Sonya and I of course since we travel everywhere together were looking at going to Munich Germany on Friday and Saturday for Oktoberfest. When we looked up train tickets it was going to cost about 200 dollars each way which is crazy ridiculous for Europe so we decided to rent a car for the weekend again. Tom from Odette was joining us on our adventures so he made his way from Paris to Amsterdam and out to Arnhem to go to Oktoberfest with us. Since we were renting a car for 5 people we decided to ask the American boys to come because it than becomes cheaper as well as we know they wanted to go to Oktoberfest.  Since we didn’t really want to spend all weekend drinking either we were going to head to Berlin from there but found out it’s not as close as we thought so smart Mickey and Sonya pull out a good map of Europe and notice that Prague is quite close to Munich, only a 3 hour drive away (that’s nothing) so that became the plan J

We left Friday night to drive to Munich... We left about 5:30 and stopped for some food on the way good old Burger King but other than that one stop, and for gas we actually made it to Munich in good time about 5-6 hours. I guess that’s what happens when you drive in Europe on roads that don’t have speed limits I’m pretty sure Ryan and Sonya got the car up to over 200km an hour. I can’t say the drive there and to Prague were my favorite part they all stuck me in the back middle since I am the smallest, I had no room L especially being in the back seat with Tom who is 6 foot so takes up all the room.  Other than lack of space the drive was actually very easy and painless. We arrived in Munich at about 11:30, 12 and since the cost of a hostel was minimum 100 euro a night we pulled a cheap European student way of living and slept in our car for the night. This in itself was very interesting. I was beside Tom and Sonya and as I said Tom is so big he takes up all the space. I pretty much did not sleep all night, every time I got comfortable Tom moved and I had to readjust myself. As well Sonya snores and Tom talks in his sleep. Oh What a Night!! For not sleeping luckily we got to sleep in, in the morning…NOT we were up at 6:30 cause I told them we had to be in line for 6 or 7 cause they get really big really fast. We made it to the line for 7 but that was still not early enough. The doors open at 9 and we were quite far back in the line people must have been there for like 5 in the morning. I guess that’s what you get for going on opening day.  We ended up making it into the “tent” but could not make it inside the building as we were way to far back in line. This really sucked at the moment because guess what, oh what a surprise in Europe it was raining. we tried to wait in line to get inside eventually but the angry German security guard had none of this and yelled at people “SIT DOWN OR GET OUT”, first in German and then luckily in English so we could understand. What I am very glad about is that it ended up clearing up and becoming a beautiful day. There is really not much I can say in words for Oktoberfest It was such an amazing experience if anyone ever gets the chance I think you defiantly have to make your way out and go there it’s something that just cannot be explained.  There are rides and souvenirs beers and food, an abundance amount of people and really just a great time with great people and I can say I HAVE BEEN TO OKTOBERFEST!! Last but not least something you have to look for and laugh about when being at Oktoberfest is what they call Smoosh Mountain. Its right in front of the site, it’s a big hill with a statue and it has to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen, drunk people passed out everywhere just on this hill. Sleeping and looking dazed and confused just flat out funny.

As I said Oktoberfest cannot be described in words it was such a great time while being there and I would recommend anyone who can go to go because the atmosphere around there is just amazing.

From Oktoberfest we made our way to Prague since as mentioned it was only 3 hours away. Driving through the night again wasn't fun but we ended up getting there at a decent time. The one thing I have to say Sonya and I have been lucky for is we like to plan our trips quite nicely but tend to leave hostels until the last minute because we don’t know which part of the city we are going to end up in. When getting into Prague I was texting Prague is located in the Czech Republic and for this reason I have to thank god Tom was with us for this trip (he is from Slovakia) because unlike the Netherlands or France where I could figure out how to ask for help people around Prague did not speak much English at all. He was able to communicate with the local people which helped us to order food, get around when we were lost, find locations and just communicate with people in general. 

After a long rainy day of sight-seeing the beautiful city of Prague as you will see from some of the pictures we as a group went to a club called Karle Lazny. This was the biggest club in central Europe.  We did this on a Sunday so it was not as busy as it would have been a Friday or a Saturday but it was a cool club all in all. it had 5 different levels for different types of people; dance music, radio hits, old school, games room, all inclusive room and a top floor in which was not open that night. They had lots of special effects within the club like robots and smoke lasers and lights that really added to the atmosphere.  It ended up being a great day with a great end to the day but there was one downfall. As I have said earlier being in a foreign country and trying to find your way around is actually quite hard. We asked directions before we left the hostel but something went wrong and we ended up getting lost. On our way home we got on a tram (like a Toronto street car) the wrong way and had to get off take a random Tram to get onto the right Tram. As well we than got off that Tram because we thought we missed our stop and were going to walk when in actual fact our stop was the next one if we would have just waited it out. Eventually we all got home safe and sound but it was an adventure kind of a scary one especially when you are tired.

There’s not much I can expand on Prague except to emphasize the beauty of the city. Walking around and enjoying the sights, being with good people and really just enjoying your time travelling is what it’s all about.

School

Well it’s been 3 weeks and I am at my frustrated stage as normal. Normally when it comes to classes I get frustrated with the timing of everything. The University of Windsor and I have a nice pattern of scheduling Mickey’s stuff all at once. I will have weeks of nothing to do and then BAM everything will hit at once between midterm papers projects and group work but I am having a different issue out in the Netherlands. There is ample amount of time to do stuff as it is weekly so easy to plan for but what I am frustrated with is teachers expecting things from us but giving no guidance or explanation and when you ask for help THEY DON’T HELP YOU. I know they say learning in different cultures is an experience and this is just part of it and of course I can say it is defiantly something that is going to help me in the future saying I have dealt with different things but at this moment in time it is very frustrating. I have had two presentations in the past two weeks for the same class and they are very frustrating to work with. For the first presentation everyone in the class got the same mark everyone in the group and everyone in the class which was like a 75% which some may look at as a good grade but it makes you feel like why are you putting in all this effort when you’re going to get a certain grade anyways? As well the problem with that presentation was there was no guidance given on what was supposed to be done and when you did it to your interpretation of the instructions the professor questioned why it was done that way. As I mentioned it is all a learning experience but it is defiantly something I am dealing with at this moment and has gotten to me a little bit. In the same class I am currently working on my second presentation which I am worried about for the same and different reasons. We are in groups presenting about Canadian (for me) SME and large businesses their sectors and sizes but once again each person is having a different interpretation on what the instructions are meaning. When Sonya and I asked in class he did not help us what’s so ever and actually told us we should be working together because we are both Canada and thus we now are in different groups presenting the exact same information? Either way I have done my research and prepared this presentation and I can only hope what I have done it satisfactory to what he was looking for as well as get a better grade than last time since I think that would be one of my worst presentation marks ever. The next class that is getting frustrating is the awesome event management class. Although I am still very happy with the group I am working with and our event ideas and progress what is frustrating is how much is up in the air and what is expected of us with so little knowledge. For example the one thing holding us back right now is we are trying to work out the date to our event. The client of ours would like the event around Dec 14 but this is going to put a damper on our group because one of the girls

has a flight booked for the 19^th and we would still need to hand in our portfolio and be assessed. For this reason we are trying to get our date changed to the week before around Dec 7^th which would work out perfectly for our group and everything. Without the date being known at this exact moment it is making it hard for us to start our planning and executing the ideas of our event; we cannot contact caterers, the event venue or start advertising because this is a big part of what we need to know. As well as with so much being up in the air it is becoming hard to complete the assignments that are due every week. We have to do such things as; action plans, branding exercises, sponsorship and with all this dates and times are needed, schedules, and we have a good idea of what needs to be done but it is hard not knowing for sure and being able to really start to get the ball rolling. All of this will come into place eventually but until than we shall just have to wait and see. Everything else with the other two classes is going well; Dutch not much is happening, and ethics we have a case each week but the professors are really cool and they are very interactive which is nice for a subject like business ethics.

Arnhem

To start off here is the Doner I promised to show you all; yes I ate sheep and it has actually become my new obsession of food out here.

I have taken my first actual bike ride. It’s interesting to get on and off my bike since I am so small and it is so big but I have learned a new trick to either use a step or stand in the middle with the peddle upwards and do a little kick off motion.  I ride my bike to school now which is nice it saves some time and is good exercise but have actually taken my first actually city bike ride tonight. So in Arnhem each month they have ladies night at the movie theater. This month was Friends with benefits (They are very, very behind with their movies here) and all females get together watch this movie, enjoy free champagne, gifts, popcorn and a fun time. Since most girls from the exchange went we all got together in the bottom of one of the residences and rode into the city on our bikes. It was a lot of fun actually and funny as well. I am still learning to maneuver my bike nicely since it is so big and Sonya and I have some trouble running into each other so we were trying to make sure we did not crash ( as I have already crashed and fallen off my bike ). It was a lot of fun a bunch of girls riding down the streets together and so much better exercise than taking the bus. Anyways a little more about ladies night; As I said women from all over Arnhem get together to enjoy a movie. It costs about 12 euro and for this price you get a movie with comfortable seats, free champagne, free popcorn, a free pop a goodies bag and a chance to win actual prizes. As well during the event there are chances to buy some things such as jewelry, makeup, female products and much more (what a great marketing idea for the ladies). It was really just a fun Wednesday night to get out with the girls go to a movie laugh and enjoy. What a great idea! What I was surprised about was that I was not annoyed with the Dutch subtitles in the movie. Normally subtitles annoy me very much but for some reason this time I did not even pay attention and I LOVED THE MOVIE! I laughed, I cried (for anyone that knows me this is nothing new) and I just felt all around mushy gushy inside.

Laundry—Well for those of you who know me well you know I hate doing laundry. I put it off until the last minute and do ginormous loads to get it all done at once. Well in Arnhem this is not smart and not easy. In my residence there are laundry machines in the basement but really I don’t want to use them and spend extra money. So of course I leave laundry until the last minute when I have no clothes left and use my new found friend Sonya who now has a washer in her room and bring my ginormous stack of clothes to her place. Funny this about this is apparently in the Netherlands they do not really use dryers…so when you leave so much clothes to last minute it is a lot to try and hang around her room, so poor Sonya has my clothes everywhere. Thank you to her for allowing me to use her room and ahah enjoy the picture

Travels

Back from OKTOBERFEST and finally taking a weekend off. This weekend I have no travels planned so it will be interesting to see what I end up doing around the school. As for current travel plans coming up!

Oct 1^st weekend-Weekend in London England with Sonya and Briggita

Oct 8^th weekend-Weekend in Dublin with Sonya, Brigitta, Cait (from Ireland :D, and maybe Tom, and anyone else who decides to tag along)

Oct 15^th-Visiting family in Germany

Oct 23-Dusseldorf Germany with Sonya’s family

Oct 24^th we fly out to Italy for the week off of school

And more travels to be planned during or after that time based on price and class schedule.

Miss You

I can’t lie there are times being out here that no matter how many people you are surrounded by or what you are doing you just miss home. I miss my friends, my family, I’m missing the Jewish holidays, I miss the University of Windsor and Odette School of businesses and most of all, my boyfriend. All of this is hard and of course at times I want to come home but I know I can make it through the 4 months with a great experience and great memories that will never be forgotten.

As well other than people and school what I miss most of all is the sunshine and lack of rain (nothing rains as much as Europe) and food. I miss normal food and being able to cook a normal meal and heat things up normally in the microwave. I as well miss the gym. I have been working out in my room attempting to not gain too much weight while travelling and eating out a lot but it’s just not the same as going to the gym and I have finally started to like the gym so I do miss that a lot.


Until Next Week :) 

J'aime la Paris !!

Thank you University of Windsor for this AMAZING opportunity that I have been experiencing abroad. Although there are some really hard things about being away from home the experience has been an eye 

opener for myself and the differences different countries really have from one another.

Well as you all are probably wondering I AM BACK FROM FRANCE. I made it back in one piece but it was defiantly scarier being over there because every nice person you talked to always warned you about pickpockets. You always hear about that back in Canada, and how it happens around the world but to actually be in the situation and have people tell you it has happened dot them is a lot scarier and I was walking around with my hands on my purse the whole time.  Other than that France was amazing. The architecture out there is really mind-blowing. seeing all the churches and cathedrals, the old buildings, and of course the Eiffel tower you really look at these buildings and think to yourself wow the time and craftsmanship that went into the structure of these buildings is amazing. So to begin with the transportation to France, it’s crazy when you think about it but we drove the whole way. On a normal basis I drive an average of 3-4 hours to see my boyfriend and mom in Toronto and for the same time (a little more) we made it to a whole new country not just a different city.  Let’s start by taking you through our journey on a brief not from beginning to end;

When we first decided to go to France it was going to be us going to see Tom because he just got in from Windsor and is going to school in Rouen. Once deciding to drive to France we got another 2 people involved, quickly as more people started hearing about the trip more and more wanted to join and on a very fast note it went from 2 people to a group of 15 road tripping across the country. Our itinerary for the week was; Friday Sept 9^th drive to the town of Lille (This is apparently where Flanders field it). Now unfortunately I have class until 5:30 on Fridays so the group had to wait to leave until then. We got on the road a little early because I got out of class early. The plan in Lilles was to tour the city a little, and find a hostel to stay in that night with the intention ofk getting up early to make our way to Versaille. Slowly our plan started to fall apart….
The car ride was amazing though, I was in the car with four other girls and guess what we did, rocked out to some old school spice girls OH YEAH! The car ride in itself had to be one of the highlights of the trip 3 different cars following each other, singing, dancing and of course laughing very hard at all of mickey’s messes…So as some of you know I am kind of a clutz and a mess well of course since it was after class I was sooo hungry but no one in our car had food, so when we stopped I jumped out of the car grabbed my backpack in which I had stored 2 apple turnovers for the car ride. I was now so excited to eat these apple turnovers that when I pulled the bag open I dropped them everywhere and made a bunch of crumbs in this clean rental car OH GOODNESS!! But of course that is something everyone would have expected from me

Anyways we than made our way to Lille we had to stop on our way for food. What did we get you may ask… Well just take one guess. McDonalds!!! What a surprise having to stop on the highway and the only fast food around in every country around the world is McDonalds can you say major brand awareness everywhere. But moving along we finally made it to Lilles France and it seemed to be a beautiful, beautiful city. Unfortunately by the time we got there it was already dark outside so it was very hard to take pictures and see the buildings. We walked around the city for a bit and tried to find a place to stay. Since we did not book ahead because we weren’t actually sure where we would end up we got a little problem and realized it is a lot harder to find a place to stay for 15 people. Walked around the city a little more and took some pictures but decided since we were not going to be able to find a place to stay we might as well complete the next 2 hour drive and make our way to the city of Versaille.

Lille

Lille

Lille

Sketch Motel

We got to Versaille very later or early morning whichever way you want to look at it and figured from there it would be a lot easier to find a place to stay because it’s a bigger town and should have a lot more hostels; worst come to worse we can stay in the cars. When parked in front of a church in Versaille one of the girls decides to talk to some strange women who offers to take us to a cheap place to stay for the night. Further we go, I won’t lie kind of creepy following a stranger we are brought to a really old stingy looking Motel. That being said it was a cheap place to stay. The lady turned out to be really nice and actually has a daughter going to school in Quebec but from now on I think we decided asking strangers to take us to places not such a good idea (wasn’t my first choice in the first place). The rooms ended up being small but cheap so we got 2 rooms for 15 people and put 4 girls in one, and 3 guys in another while everyone else slept in the car. This is where it gets funny for me… I was sleeping in the backseat of the car with Sonya in one front seat and Ryan in another when I guess after I passed out, I heard a car door, I woke up in a jolt but when I looked at the back of the seat I saw a HUGE beyond HUGE spider. Of course I started to freak out like crazy, than Sonya freaked out, and Ryan just kind of looked at us like we were crazy. We took a flashlight to the car and looked for this spider but found nothing… So in the end I ended up crashing in the girls room at the end of the bed because I was so scared Sonya went into another car and I have been made fun of this whole trip for hallucinating a random spider in a car.

As the morning came we made our way to Versaille. This palace was the most amazing beautiful thing I have ever seen. As I said the architecture and decoration inside are beyond words (See the pictures for yourself)

After Versaille we made our way to our hostel in Paris (We booked these rooms the night before but were lucky enough they were like apartments and held 7 people each) The hostel (should not be called a hostel) was amazing. It was big and nice and was more than we could have asked for especially for the price we paid. We were about a 10 minute walk away from the train station which was amazing since we could easily get into the city center of Paris. We did just that Saturday night and all of Sunday.

We saw;

Museum de Louvre (Outside)

Eiffel Tower

Notre Dam

Arc De Triomphe

and Sainte-Chapelle
Pictures Say a Thousand Words!!!

Hard Parts about France

Travelling with so many people is defiantly a hard thing to get used to but something interesting that is going to be done throughout the next 4 months. You are constantly looking out for others, trying to please others, making sure everyone is there and accounted for, making sure everyone gets to do what they want as well as making sure no one gets lost in a foreign country. Even though it was very hard and at times very frustrating when you sit back and look at after the time the experience and people are so fun to be around. As well the pictures and memories you get are amazing.

Best parts about France

Well other than seeing the amazing sites and waking around the beautiful city the best part defiantly had to be the FOOD! (Beware this may be my favorite part about a lot of trips)….So what can I say I did last Sunday. I climbed 669 stairs up the Eiffel tower and then ate a large hot dog in a French baguette and an AMAZING AMAZING chocolate banana crepe in front of the Eiffel tower.. and you did?

I would love to talk more but to take you through the whole trip would be so much time but please enjoy the pictures

School

And my classes are finalized. Unfortunately I had to drop my e-marketing class but I look at that from a bright side I am not enrolled in Project Dutch economy and I get to really learn all about the country I am living in and truly get a grasp on a different society. I have had my first presentation in Business 2 Business Marketing, and ahh it was the worst presentation I have ever been marked on. Not necessarily the worst presentation ever given (not the best) but still it was hard to get a mark like that. Working in the international group turned out well I was lucky to get such a great team but the professor did not very the marks across the board which means all three groups that presented got the same grade. It was a little frustrating but all I can do is improve for the next time. What will really be upsetting is if he specially did not vary our marks and the groups next week have that chance and can do better than all of us I will be upset because than it just won’t be fair. Moving along in business ethics not much has happened. We have gotten our first case and slowly the class is started to learn more and more about the ethical cycle and theories. Last but not least event management; this is a lot more work than I thought it would be. not just the event because we know going into that it was going to be a lot of work but we have assignments every week that can be something like 7 pages reports have to get these done while as well putting together our event and working in other classes. This is defiantly going to be a class to work on your time management skills. Our event though the ideas are coming along; we are going to be hosting a formal presentation with buffet dinner and a Mardi Gras party afterwards. WISH US LUCK!

Friends

YAY, as I said it takes time but I have friends J Of course since France when you are travelling with 14 other people it is hard not to make friends. Slowly as the time goes on I am still meeting more and more people and hanging out in different crowds. As well as around here it is student night every Thursday so partaking in those events is helping to get out meet people and make this time a little more interesting. Some of the new and exciting people in my life are;

Danielle-Australia

Essi-Finland

Viddie-Indonesia

Shaye-Canada

Of course if I don’t mention Sonya she will kill me (She does read this)! There are so many people it would take too long to name on this but I have to say people around here are so nice and accepting. Being on an exchange is such a great experience to meet people from all around the world and really indulge in their cultures. When can you ever say again you made so many friends from literally all across the globe in such a short period of time?

Arnhem

It’s a slow process but it is moving along-UPDATES

I got a bike- YAY I can finally be considered like any other Holland person around but there is one downfall. I AM SO SHORT! Being so small and Holland people being so tall the bike I got does not quite fit right. I need to stand on a ledge to get on and off and pedaling feels a little wobbly here and there, should be an interesting time trying to ride that one every day J Picture will be updated soon since I have not taken one yet.

Food- As I said I am a picky eater but slowly I will start to try things that aren’t of my normal nature and I have done it. I tried what is called a doner pronounce done air it’s like a shwarma type of sandwich. What I did not know while eating it and enjoying it most defiantly was that I was eating sheep. SHEEP AHH!! But what can I say, I enjoyed it. There will as well be a picture of that but I must get it off Sonya’s camera first.

Travels

Back from France and heading out again this weekend. This weekend Sonya, Ryan, David Tom and I are driving to Munich on Friday. In Munich we shall be attending….OKTOBERFEST … I could not be more stoked to say I went to Oktoberfest like how many people can say that in their lifetime. From Oktoberfest on Sunday we are going to drive our way to Prague which is only 3 hours away from Munich and spend Sunday and Monday there heading back Monday driving through the night so Ryan and David can make class on Tuesday. I am so excited … Especially for Prague as well.

Well to all the people reading this I know it’s a long one I am sorry again but enjoy the pictures and I am hoping you are enjoying my weekly blog.

I would just like to finish off by saying THANK YOU AGAIN UNIVERSITY OF WINDSOR BEING ABLE TO REPRESENT YOU AND THE ODETTE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS <3 HAS BEEN AN HONOUR AND I AM ENJOYING EVERY MOMENT OF IT.

I CAN HONESTLY SAY EVERYONE SHOULD TRY AN EXCHANGE!!!!!!