The Holidays are Upon Us

So it has actually been really nice being in the Netherlands at this time because this is their Christmas time. I am a sucker for Christmas festivities and people around here are very excited. They do it a little differently I have learned and although I prefer our tradition because its what I know it is very interesting to learn about. All around Europe they celebrate on different days but have the same sort of idea. They call the "big man" who we call Santa Clause, Sinta Clause, and instead of having reindeer's he has his little black bo peeps... Your thinking pardon right.. Yeah that's what I thought to but really its a bunch of people dressed up a black men who kind of in a way look like jesters from the olden days but they paint their faces black, where black wigs, and hang around Sinta Clause. Instead of flying in on his sleigh with reindeer he travels around Europe on a boat and comes into the different cities that way (this is as well why they celebrate it on different days). He came to the Netherlands a week or so ago and Sonya and I went down to the city center to see what was going on. There were soooo many happy screaming kids just like the Santa Clause Parade back home :) :).... The nice this about this one was I was not freezing :) Here instead of stockings they clean their shoes and leave them for Sinta Clause who brings them presents..

Its really funny actually how similar the whole concept is but how different people celebrate all over the world.
Enjoy the Pictures at the Sinta Clause Parade in the Center

For Christmas here, my ethics class may be celebrating which is cool and I hope we do so I can get a sort of feel of what they do on the actual holiday as well as before. Oh and I forgot to mention they pick names from a hat and write each other poems and give them to the person whose name they picked along with a small gift... Just like secret Santa :D

Which brings me to my next excitement we are partaking in our own secret Santa. Brig, Danielle, Sonya and I got together one night to pick names and are each getting the person a gift. We are planning a nice dinner night, to exchange gifts, have a nice meal, nice company before I leave for good, and they depart for the holidays. I have already been outfit picking because we are going to dress up, but man I am having trouble picking a gift for my person. Do I give a sincere nice gift, a joke gift both. I want it to be really good... Some thinking is going to go into that.

And than a week later from that I am home. Whoopie. I come home and a week later from that it is Christmas time already. OMG where has the time gone, but man has it been enjoyable. YAY Christmas. I get to spend Christmas with Steph (My boyfriend for those of you who don't know) and his family. I get to partake in the whole turkey, and tree, and snow angel making. Hot chocolate, presents, and just a joyous occasion all in all. I love the happiness, the music, the snow, THE FOOD, the people. I am just so excited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONyXSnL2LtA

Other festivities going on around the Arnhem facilities would be Geek night, American Thanksgiving, a Pool Tournament, and our event coming up. 

One of the groups from event management put on a bar event which had a geek theme where people were supposed to dress up like Geeks...ENJOY

Coming up we are having such events;

American Thanksgiving... The Americans decided to make it into something like international dinner and invite everyone to bring food (trying to stick to traditional thanksgiving) and come celebrate together

Pool Tournament; One of the event management groups are having a pool tournament for charity and they convinced Sonya and I to play.. we both are not very good at pool

Really not to much else happening.. Some plans are going to see the new Twilight Movie... YAY

School

Well as you know I didn't do so well on my Dutch exam. Kinda sucks but what can you do now. I have no more dutch classes officially as now we are just working to complete the final paper due the 23. I want to do really well on this, so I worked for 3-4 days and finished it already now going to go into some major editing process. If anyone wants to volunteer to read it over please let me know :)

Ethics is still a cool class I really enjoy taking out here. The professors make it really relaxed, funny and an enjoyable time to come too especially since it is Friday evenings. I currently am working towards (well have to start) my end paper for that as well. Its a paper comparing the ethics of 2 different countries. I got a good group so that should be well done.

Event Management is moving along. Our event is in 2 weeks so things are starting to go fast. Have been in contact with all sponsors and such so really its just a time game and making sure everything gets done, as well as during the event will be interesting and fun at the same time. That will be the busiest stressful day.

Business 2 Business Marketing has nothing new happening. We have a presentation every week (only small) and working towards our final presentation which is our exam. I am a little unhappy about this because I did so well on the exam and this is a long presentation and he marks harder on those but we will see how it goes. Will actually have to practice for this one.

Well there is not much new happening around here. I told you these would get a little smaller. But that's okay cause school is busy and I am really just enjoying peoples company before I head back home.

Oh and I forgot to mention Brig, Sonya and I went for a walk in a nice park one day and took some nice fall pictures so here they are for you to enjoy as well.

Until next time.

One Month to the Day

The time is coming to a close and in one month to the day I will be on a place and arriving in Toronto.

The blogs are slowly going to come to a shorter and shorter end because it has been decided that no more travelling will be done. Unfortunately the timing is not going to work, and I am trying to come home with a little bit more money. I cannot complain in any way shape or form because I have seen more in 3 months than some people see in their lifetime, and I have now left more for me to come back to and explore again.
For future travel plans for myself I would like to come back to Europe but on a purely pleasure basis and I would like to do more adventurist stuff. Being here for the second time (first time when I was 12) and being able to go to so many different countries in such a short amount of time has been amazing. I have seen buildings [Many, many churches], and bridges, parks, and learned about the history of the world and not for one second do I regret any of it. I have taken pictures, walked explored and really expanded my horizons but when I come back I want more out of these places. I want to sky dive in the mountains, and fly in the alps, hike through the mountains and more things like that. The one thing I can say from all my experiences and from reading and seeing about all my friends experiences is, there is something to offer everyone in Europe. If you want romance, or food, adventure, or exploration no matter what you are looking for you can find it in one place or another in Europe.

School

Well I have only been back in school for about a week now and really nothing has changed. I only had two classes last week because two of mine were cancelled, so this week is going to be my first normal week again. The small updates I can provide are; I did not get a grade on my ethics paper, because apparently everyone in the class (other than my group) did not source their work so another chance was given to the class to do it properly and not fail. Although I think this was nice of them I have to wonder when making things so much easier for us does it really instill the proper values in peoples work ethics. No matter what though throughout the process I have kept my own core values which is the most important thing.

Dutch class- The marks were given back and to say the least I was not happy at all. What I hate about this class is during the class all the professor does is show you graphs and such and really in my mind not teach anything, but to each their own. Than for the grading system in this class we have an exam and than a final paper. For the exam it was supposed to be all written but people complained so he made half multiple choice and half written. He said he wanted to prepare us for the exam so he was going to give us the open ended question of "what is the dutch economy in your own words"... SO with an open ended question like this you would think when you write about the dutch economy using facts notes from class you should be alright. Apparently this is not the case. I studied for a while for this exam, I had my notes all prepared and ready, and when I wrote the exam I felt decent about it. Somehow when I got it back it blew my mind and it was the total opposite. I really have NO idea how I did so poorly and I am a little scared for the rest of the class especially since papers are not my strong suit. I HAVE NEVER FAILED A CLASS BEFORE, OR EVEN GOTTEN A D :'(.. It makes me really sad!

Event Management- and now things are starting to move along. We have less than one month until our event and things are starting to pick up like always when the time is close. The party decorations are being set, the posters and tickets have been printed, the caterers have been contacted, tickets are starting to be sold and really its all coming together quickly. I am looking forward to the event. A nice semi formal night of food, presentations, fun, pictures and memories all in Mardi Gras theme. Of course I am nervous for the outcome and things going wrong and especially nervous for having to put this portfolio together but I think in the end everything is going to work out okay.

Really not much else is new with school. As I said I really am just starting to get back into it. Its been weird having so much time off, and now especially not travelling I have so many more days off I sometimes don't know what to do with myself but I will start to get a pattern going again. Especially since I have this event to work on, and the dutch paper to write.

On Monday and Today I got to help out the International office by promoting the University of Windsor and Canada as a place to go on exchange. Monday was not so much fun because I was in the city of Nijmegen

Life


I have started packing my bags which is funny because it has actually made my room more of a mess than normal (kind of hard to believe) but things get thrown around and figuring out where everything is going. As well I am going to have to purchase an extra suitcase coming home as I am coming home with more clothes, MORE SHOES, and souvenirs that I did not come with. That's okay though it was all worth it.

I have started to run again here. Its been nice that its been cold but not snowy or rainy lately so Sonya and I have started to try and get into our healthier lifestyle again. We are attempted to eat better, and run as much as we can during the week but man eating well is hard. I don't know if its just me but when I eat healthy all the goodies just look so much better. Especially for me here the muffins. They are honestly like cake and I LOVE THEM.

Really that is all for this week.
Thank you all for reading
See you Soon

Italia

As you've all been waiting for the journeys through Italia (Italy).

There is so much to describe I honestly don't even know if I can get it all out properly.
First I would like to say wow has it been amazing being off school for almost a month and being able to travel, going back feels so weird (I start again tomorrow)

Okay Italy- I shall take you all through the journey as I can remember it

Oct 25th 2011
We begin our journey to Italy. Unfortunately this journey began late and we did not actually fly until about 10pm. So technically official journey does not begin until the next day but man was it an adventurous night. We landed in Milan at about 11-11:30 and had a hostel booked for the night. We looked for the public bus to take us to the hostel but instead found a cab driver. We told him where we wanted to go and he took us on our way. Little did we know that this little old man had no idea where he was going and dropped us off at the wrong place. So there was a wasted amount of money and still no bed to sleep in. We had to than call another cab who got the address correct and actually took us to our hostel. It was close to one in the morning by now and we were tired but excited at the same time. We got into our room which was considered a family room so we all had our own bed and it was in a private room which was nice. Not even five minutes after we got into the room we were talking and angry old lady comes to our door to tell us to be quiet and when we say sorry and apologize she just stands there and keeps lecturing us. Some people

Oct 26th 2011
Today we get the car that we rented. We made our way back to airport (after asking directions from many different people because they all had no idea) we get there and get the car. This time we double check all the damages they say are there because we had the issue last time with the car that they charged us for damages we did not cause. Everything was all good, and we made our way to Milan.
Milan in Italy is the industrial fashion capital!
FASHION YAY! I was very excited about this and I won't lie it was pretty cool to see the high end stores I don't actually ever make my way into back home. No different in Europe though I am still to broke to afford 700 Euros for a purse, especially since I don't even actually like purses I make my boyfriend carry my stuff :)
We walked around the city, and made our way to main center. Within this main center there was this magnificent looking church it was like a mix of a castle and just beauty.
A little more walking around in the city and we decided to make our way to Venice. We had no intention of staying in major cities because they are usually more expensive to stay and eat so we found places along the way.
We ended up in a place called Verona because it was along the way as well it was where Juliet's balcony from the famous Romeo and Juliet was based on. This is where Shakespeare pictured Romeo and Juliet and as well they have now actually established this balcony as Juliet's.
From here we drove through the towns to find a hotel. We stopped at every one on the side of the road looking for one in our price range. We did find a random one on the side of the road so we sent Sonya in. She came out with a price of 100 Euro for the night, but we were always told in Italy you can negotiate. Brig did her thing, went into the hotel and negotiated a lower price. How I am not sure but it worked!

Click for Album of Milan, and a little preview of Juliet's Balcony

Oct 27th 2011
Our way to Venice has been finally made. The city on water was amazing. Beautiful, cool, interesting, and just beautiful. Everything here is done on water, restaurants, houses, ambulances, GONDOLAS. Same thing as the other cities we walked around and explored. Saw some major highlights (of course a church) and mainly just walked, oh and shopped. The coolest part of Venice and shopping would have to be the glass everywhere. Since they are on the water one thing they are known for and do quite often is make glass. Glass everything, necklaces, rings, wine stoppers, everything and its beautiful really. As well another thing other than glass that was everywhere was masks. Just like Mardi Gras masks they were in Venice. I learned that in February all across Europe they have something like Mardi Gras in which they call Carnival and these masks are worn all around. I was very happy when I bought one for myself; Purple, sparkly, and a picture of Venice on it.  A true Venice memory.
Speaking of memories of course when in Venice you cannot not take a Gondola ride. It was not as romantic as they make it out to be (maybe because I was not with my boyfriend but friends) but it is still something you have to try when you are there, and I do recommend going there. We actually spent the whole day in Venice so now it was time to make our way through on the way to Bologna where we would find a hostel to stay in. We found a place in a city called Ferrara.
It was a nice hostel we each had our own bed and it was pretty cheap so you cant beat that.

                                                                    Venice at its best
                                                                    
Oct 28th 2011
Through Ferrara
Bologna was a city I had no idea what to expect because I had no idea anything about it but it was something Brig suggested. Surprisingly or not a wonderful city, not expected but for some reason here I felt like I was in a more authentic part of Italy city wise. I'm really not sure why but something about the houses, the streets markets just felt nice. We walked through this city looking at buildings, and shopping around. One thing we did get to do was climb a tower (about 500 steps. OH YEAH) and see the view from above. Breath taking really. And just to make everyone in Canada jealous, I was wearing a tank top because it was sunny and warm out :D

The same day from Bologna we had to make our way to Maranello for Niklas. This was his one and only request for the whole trip and considering he was travelling with three women it was the least we could do. Maranello a mans dream was the place where Ferrari is made. They are everyone and Niklas got to test drive one. I got to sit in one :) but I did learn I am to small for one as I sunk down majorly haha. It wasn't a city we explored or anything we saw the Ferrari factory, the store, and he test drove a Ferrari. We came, we saw, we conquered.

                              Click for a small amount of Ferrara, Mostly Bologna, and Maranello

On our way to Florence, and this is where the adventures truly begin..

We arrived in Florence at night and to our luck within Florence all the hostels and hotels were booked. AND I MEAN ALL OF THEM. We drove, and drove, and drove some more when finally I gave up and decided to sleep in the car. Sonya and Niklas still wanted a place to sleep so they kept looking but eventually they had to give up as well and we all slept in the car. Worst part about it was Sonya and Niklas didn't want to at all and they had the best sleep, Brig and I in the back slept horribly.

Oct 29th 2011
Florence!
I was excited for this city the most because I had heard wonderful things about Florence and Tuscany in general. Description of this city really cannot be done in words. It was not what I expected but at the same time I cannot even describe what I did expect but it was still nice at the same time. We saw the Duomo which is a big church building again but unfortunately we did not get to go inside and to the top because the line was HUGE. We walked around the city more took many pictures and made our way. I do have to say my favourite part about Florence was truly walking through the markets and shopping. I love shopping in environments like this, and I really just love shopping. But honestly there was something about different shops being side by side looking, feeling, trying jewelry on, bargaining it was wonderful.

The best part though was just Tuscany. Driving through the country, seeing hills and mountains, the houses upon them, the sunset it was one of my favourite parts for sure.
We than got to stay in the middle of country Tuscany in this little family Villa/Hotel and it was so nice. We ate the their restaurant in which I thought the food was great; the noodles were so fresh. The room was private with a good view, and just out in the country was nice and relaxing.

After Florence we headed to the famous Pisa to see the leaning tower of Pisa. Everyone said there was nothing special about this town but really you can't tour around Italy and not see the leaning tower of Pisa.
That is exactly what we did. We made it just in time to see it during the light, as well as when the sun was going down. We took our pictures and we headed off to our next and soon to be final journeys.

                                                                      Florence/Pisa 

Oct 30th 2011
BEACHING IT UP
We stayed within Tuscany to enjoy a day on the beach. Sun fun and life on exchange. It ended up being a little more chilly than we expected so we spent our morning/ a bit of the afternoon on the beach until we decided it would be best to head to Rome to find a location to sleep because no one wanted to sleep in the car again. On our way to Rome we go.. and uh oh to our luck when we get there it is earlier this time but everything in Rome is booked. We searched and searched, and all hostels were booked. We than had to find someone in Rome in which had a wireless signal. We found some cafe which has WIFI but you had to order something in order to get the password. The people here were so rude but we needed Internet so Brig and I ordered dessert. It was about 7 euros for one desert and I have to say it was probably one of the worst deserts I have ever had.
So we search and search for hostels and hotels and finally find a hotel outside the city for a decent price. We call the place to find out if it was close to a train station and the guy said it was so we booked it for the 3 nights we planned on staying. To the hotel we went to sleep and start our journeys in Rome

Oct 31st 2011 - Nov 1st 2011
Rome had to be one of my favourite cities by far. I know a little cliche because it is the tourist city but really I found it the most interesting to see, learn about, explore, and experience. My favourite, favourite part about the whole time was the Colosseum. It was really truly amazing to see and be inside and all I could think about was the movie Gladiator and how it took place there so I actually knew what happened in the past and could picture in my mind exactly what was done there and how it was back than. Many, many pictures taken within this rock sculpture and I was so thankful that it was sunny that day. I can't describe this building in words really, its something you defiantly have to see for yourself. We waited in line for about an hour, maybe 2 not to sure actually but time seems to pass by faster when you talk and are with people. We went in, we explored, we pictured, and we made our way. We technically had only 2 days in Rome and this was the one city we did pack our list a little tighter to see all the major highlights. From there we headed to the building in which Caesar used to rule and now their current government sits. What a nice white building, reminds you of the movies and Hercules. We saw the old ruins, we saw little places all around the city being dug up looking for more history and artifacts, we saw the fountain of love, we saw a fountain used in When in Rome ( I wanted to see this :) ), we saw churches, and shopping, stairs, and so many things that can't even be remembered. After two days we were tired and ready to relax. You could spend days and days in Rome seeing more and more in better detail but we were happy we got to see all the major highlights in two days.
The bad part about Rome everyday was the end trying to get back to the hotel. As I said it was outside of the city and we called to ask the guy if it was close to the train station. He said yes but oh man did he lie. We needed to take a bus to the train, and a train to the station, and another train to where we wanted to go in Rome. I never led because I am challenged when it comes to directions but even without me leading we still seemed to get lost getting home everyday. The hardest part as well compared to other countries in Europe is 98% of people in Italy do not speak English at all so trying to communicate and find out where we were was very complicated. Eventually we always made it back but it was adventures to be had every night.
Rome was where our adventures as a group ended!

                                                             The Adventures in Rome
Nov 2nd- Nov 6th
The wonderful island of Sicily.
As you all knew and waited for from Italy Sonya and I were supposed to head to Greece. Unfortunately due to all the riots and dangers happening over there we did not want to take the chance of not being able to get around, not being able to get home, and just being in danger while being there that we decided to cancel our trip there and go somewhere else. We looked into Spain but in the end for cost and ease reasons we decided to go southern Italy, hope for some warm weather and relax...
Man were our thoughts right and wrong at the same time.
So where to even start with this adventure.... When we left Rome we asked the hotel man to drive us to the train station so we could skip the bus and save time. This did not work in our favour after all; getting a hold of the hotel man was a challenge, when we finally did he took his time getting us, and when we finally made it to the train station we had just, just missed the train. We than proceeded to wait for the next train to make it to the airport. Since it was only a domestic flight we thought we could only be there about an hour early but man were we wrong. By the time the train came and we go on it we were cutting it pretty close to our flight time. What we did not know that when flying with easy jet they expect you 40 minutes early just to check in and if you are not they close the check in allowance. Well due to train delays and slow trains in general we were 10 minutes late for the check in time and they would not allow us to get on the plane. This was very very upsetting because the plane had not even left, was not leaving for another 40 minutes and they still would not do anything for us. We went to customer service counter to see what could be done and she said nothing other than paying a fee of 85 euros each to change our flight to the 6pm flight. It was about 10am at this point.
We decided to think about it and look into other options. We went onto the computer and looked up other flights to see if there was anything cheaper and although there was not we found one with another airline which flew out sooner (it was about 100 euro each but left at 1pm), and thank goodness we did this as you will learn. So we killed some time in the airport, ate some McDonald's, and got onto our flight to Palermo. When we arrived in Palermo we were informed we needed to take the train to a town called Balestrate. We bought our train ticket asked for directions and got on our way. All good you would think but get this, when we get off on our connection stop to catch the train to the actual time our connection train does not come for ANOTHER 3 HOURS. There was no other way to the town and we now have 3 hours to kill doing nothing. We thought maybe we could walk around the town and get something to eat but this train station was literally in the middle of no where. No restaurants nothing around but some houses and animals.  We proceeded to sit there for 3 hours, but to our nice luck some stray dogs decided to come hang out with us and keep us company. I have learned there are a lot of stray dogs in Italy, especially down south.
Finally 3 hours later we catch our connecting train and make our way to the town. By the time we get in its 9pm we are tired and starving since there was no food around we had no eaten.
We got our villa, dropped off our stuff and got some dinner.
This had to be the best food in Italy I had. It was lasagna but tasted so fresh and good I was very happy.

For the rest of the time in this town we actually just got to relax. We shopped, we cooked for ourselves which was nice (Lots and Lots of Pasta was eaten), we watched movies, we lied on the beach and we just relaxed. The town was beautiful, the water was amazing, the people were so friendly and it was actually my favourite place because the atmosphere was so nice I just felt all around good. I would really enjoy going back here in a warmer time when you can lie on the beach more because it would be warmer and less windy so the sand wouldn't be blowing as much.

                                                                   The south of Sicily

And now Italy is coming to an end. We did not want to take a chance getting back and having a big mix up so we decided to leave early this time. We left at about 10 am for a flight at 530pm. We made it in time and killed about 7 hours in an airport (well Palermo airport) Our flight than took off and landed in Barcelona where we had an 11 hour layover. What a trip really. We spent 11 hours in the airport, Sonya slept, I attempted it did not work since the chairs were so uncomfortable so thus NO sleep for Mickey.
I was cool enough to watch love story movies in the airport all night and thus balled like a little baby and people must have thought I was crazy.

But in general this is where the Italy Journey ends!

Favourites
Well as I said I loved every city and each one had a special unique thing about them but some major favourites are;
Colosseum
Country
Sicily
Shopping ( I forgot to mention, we did a lot of shopping. So many souvenirs were bought we had to pay for suitcase home and Sonya and I each bought a new carry on suitcase. As well in Balestrate we found this amazing shoe store and well enough said 2 girls Italy and 11 pairs of shoes later we were very happy. But with these 11 new pairs of shoes we had to buy another actual suitcase to bring home with us... YIKES, but so worth it beautiful shoes and if they would have had my size I would have bought more (I only bought 4, she bought 7)

Dislikes/Disappointments
The travel experience. Although driving was nice the issues with the trains and planes was such a downfall
The food was a little disappointing to me. I'm not sure if I was eating in the wrong places, or just had such high expectations but I didn't think most of the time the food was anything special. I as well realized I enjoy Canadian thick crust cheesy pizza so much better.
I did wish it would be warmer but I cannot complain about that since a lot of the time I was in a tank top, and it did not Rain.
THE AMOUNT OF MONEY I SPENT!!!!! AHHHHH

Really all in all looking back the trip was a good one and I am happy I went :)

Some Pictures to Enjoy throughout the Journey

Ladies Night
We got to see the movie The Help which I was really happy about because I read the book and it was amazing. Ladies night is always fun because you get free champagne, free popcorn, can win prizes, with friends, and really food. Tonight was really nice because they had this eating competition in the sense there were pastries out and you were supposed to guess the flavour of them. They had cream puffs, lemon cake, and some custard cake and really we all just kept eating and sneaking more. I as well got my makeup done, and they had a sawing contest. They had blocks of wood set up and had competition who could saw the fastest. I was one of the fastest with 39 seconds but got beat out by some ladies in the end.

School
Well Today was the official day of starting school again. There is not much to comment on because really I have not started anything yet but should be interesting to get back into it. And oh yes for the first week of classes 2 of my profs have already cancelled so we do not have class this week. Aw Shucks. Oh what I can comment on is exams and papers. For this first period I had an exam in B2B, Dutch, and a paper in Ethics. I think Dutch went well but am still waiting for the mark back, I have no idea about my ethics paper but B2B went really well. I ended up getting a 90 on the exam which was surprising cause I did not think I did that well but I was very very happy about this mark. I hope I can do as well on the final :)

Funny Video
So I found this Video from London I thought you would all enjoy :)