Prague and Berlin all in one week...
This week has been awesome! 27 of us went to Prague and Berlin for the week. There was a lot of time spent in the bus but it was fun. We got to see so much and learn a lot of historical things too. Prague was cool but also very cold...walking around for 6 hours on a walking tour of the city when it is freezing cold out isn't that fun but it was fun to see all the buildings and the changing of the guards and such. The highlights from Prague include going to Melnik castle and having a wine tasteing there... seeing the city from the clock tower...seeing the cathedral... and just getting to explore there. We also went to the Terezin consentration camp. It was very interesting but it was also very sad to see all the graves and the conditions that so many people were forced to live in.
Berlin was a ton of fun. We got there on Thursday night and left on Friday night (we had just over 24 hours there.... not nearly enough time to see everything) We had a four hour long bus tour of the city with an excellent tour guide so we were able to see alot of the city and the more interesting aspects of the history of Berlin and what has shaped it. We had about 8 hours friday afternoon to do whatever we wanted so five of us went to the Berlin Zoo... it was sooo fun. We spent about 3 hours there and only saw about half of the zoo but we had to leave because it was closing :( So we just wandered around and did a few other things.
We got back to Zwolle about 6 am today and I went home and slept for most of the day
I am still trying to recover from so much activity and excitement this week.

Utrecht
that is where I was this last weekend. It is about an hour away from Zwolle (where I live for the semester.) It was an interesting weekend.... I left Zwolle on Friday night with my friend Laurie. I love to travel here because there are always stories to tell... especially when you are staying in hostels! We met some interesting characters on the train and in the hostel and from just walking around. The hostel that we stayed at was packed full (apparently there was this huge party thing going on in Utrecht this weekend and lots of students came to Utrecht to go) Most of the hostel guests were guys which made it interesting with five of us American girls there.... to say the least we got hit on and guys were taking our picture without permission and all in all they just wanted to get our attention.
We mostly just walked around and didn't really see that much of the city but that was nice too.
When we were in the train station on the way back to Zwolle this guy walked up to Emily and asked if he could kiss her on the lips.... we just kept on walking (no eye contact with anyone... especially guys!!)
Well I think that about sums up what happened this weekend... Wednesday we are going to Amsterdam again and next week we are going to go to Prague and Berlin for the week...I am very excited about that.

Zondag!!!
You know what they say about time when you are having fun..... I haven't even had time to write on my blog!!! so I sit here on Sunday afternoon/evening and I am studying Dutch and I decide I need a break... Blog time!! So nothing too exciting to tell about. I had classes this week and did the school thing. I have decided that I am really glad that I live close to school becasue I don't think I would make it if I had a long bike ride to and from school. Classes went well I think I am going to like my classes. One of my classes only has five people in it so it will be interesting to see how that goes. It feels like I am not really in classes yet because there isn't that much homework....(there is some and I have been putting that off but it is still a lot less then I am use to) On Woensdag (Wednesday) I went to a Bible study that is put on by a bunch of Dutch students. It was interesting. They are doing the Alpha course so we first ate together and then one of the students did an introduction to the topic (we had a translator ..... which is nice because when we go to church we don't have one and it is really hard to not have that spiritual feeding each week) We broke into small groups (my group consisted of the 6 N-SPICERS that I had come with because we were in the English group!!) We had two Dutch students as leaders/guiders ... so pretty much we just had a really good conversation and discussed what we had heard. That was probably one of the highlights of the week.
On Saturday two of my friends and I decided that we wanted to explore around this area. We biked around and went to Hattem (a town nearby) we took the scenic rout and by the time I got home I was soooooo tired. Biking takes it out of you big time!! All we did was bike there and then shop and then biked back (it took us like an hour to get there and probably 40 min to get back... so our way wasn't the most direct ...... oh... have I ever mentioned that I HATE hills??? They are killer!!!!!!! Bridges too)
On Friday we got the schedule for the whole semester and I am sooo excited about all the places that we are going to see. In two weeks we are going to Prague and Berlin for the whole week we will be gone. I have been trying to figure out where I am going to go on the weekends .... so many places to see and so little time... my weekends are filling up fast I hope I can see at least a fourth of what I want to see!
Well I guess I should get back to the Dutch.... Tot strats