#3 - Richten en Schieten!

First day of classes here in the marvelous Netherlands...

...and my only class of the day was cancelled. HIEPERDEPIEP HOERA!

So, instead of furthering my incredibly expensive education, I walked around the Castle grounds with Rosie. We set out with the intention of taking pictures, and after taking approximately three inside pictures, decided the 40-degree weather was too nice to waste. Hopefully, inside pictures will be taken at some point, but here are a few!

YEAH THIS IS WHERE I LIVE WHAT?!

And then Rosie decided to take me to NARNIA. No joke. Narnia is in the backyard of the Castle. Unfortunately, it's a "VERBODEN" area. So Rosie and I oh-so-secretly ninja'd our way across this lovely bridge/dam area:

TO NARNIA. For the sake of keeping it mildly secret, I'll only tease you with one picture, and then you can jealously imagine how awesome the rest of it must've been. I'm glad I got there once and photo-documented it before we all received a reminder via email that the outer grounds of the Castle were off-limits. SUCCESS.


Anyone that wants to see more pictures of Narnia, or the Castle in general, follow this link! The pictures came out pretty well, thanks to my incredibly generous father letting me whisk his much nicer Canon off to Europe with me!

#2 - Schipple Schapple and Other Delirious Things

Arrival in the Netherlands! After a half hour bus ride, a six hour flight, a half hour wait, and a two hour bus ride, we have all finally arrived here at the Castle. I literally have not slept in 28 hours, and am about to face-plant in my keyboard, but I'm trying to plow through until the end aka avoid most if not all of the jet-lag I can but MAN, is it difficult to keep my eyes open right now. I can hardly type this entry. LIFE WITHOUT SLEEP IS AWFUL. My brain goes limp (yes, limp), and my jaw hangs open and I just do not have the strength to keep my lower mandible where it belongs.

The Castle, though, glorifies all descriptions of itself. The grounds are fantastic, the Castle is marvelous, my room is awesome, and though it still doesn't feel real, I'm starting to get really excited about living here. I'll take some pictures when it's not as stormy/windy/rainy outside, and post them with a hopefully more detailed and coherent entry.

Yeah or something like that.

#1.5 - Pre-Travel, or "See you in April!" "What?...Oh right."

So this is not quite a post in a travel blog yet, but if you want to get technical (I know, you don't, but humor me please), I did already "travel" via plane from Virginia to Boston with the same 40 pound suitcase and backpack that I'll be taking to Europe. So, if you wanted to get technical, technically, this would be an official travel blog.

However, the reason I wanted to make a post will completely negate all that technical mumbo-jumbo. I don't want to write about traveling. I want to write about the non-traveling feelings I'm experiencing.

With less than two days before I board a plane to Amsterdam, I am in sublime denial. I'm not sad, I'm not happy (though I'll miss people and teachers and classes here). But people keep asking me if I'm OHMYGOD SO EXCITED TO BE GOING TO EUROPE AREN'T YOU AREN'T YOU AREN'T YOU, and at this point, I get excited sometimes, but not usually when people ask me the question. I think once we board the plane, my excitement will start building, and by the time we get to the Castle, I'll be excited enough to answer the same question enthusiastically over and over and over again.

I just wanted to record these semi-apathetic feelings before I left, so that way, when I'm reading this ancient internet blog 50 years from now, as a withered, wobbling old woman, I can reach this, the first-and-a-half entry of my epic travel blog, stretch a smile across my wrinkled face, and think to myself, "GOD you were a privileged, apathetic, veritable party-pooper."