The Wonderful City of Maastricht
We started off our semester with orientation and welcome from our coordinators and a school tour. They have a student network that works with international students and helps us get acquainted to the city. They showed us around the Universiteit of Maastricht and led us to the Vrijthof shopping district. We then bought phones. We think we got a pretty good deal and we didn't have to buy Zach Morris phones!

We then walked back to the Guesthouse, grabbed a bottle of wine, and watched the inauguration. At 7 pm, the Dutch students came to take us out to dinner and drinks. Little did we know how much fun Dutch people are! We ate this cafe (I would call it more of a bar) and filled the entire upstairs. I had peanut chicken and, of course, fries and mayonnaise (it is sooo good)! I also had my first of many Heinekens. We ate and talked to the Dutch students about all sorts of things.

After dinner, we played Beer Rally at the cafe. The game is just like flippy cup, but instead of flipping a plastic cup and drinking the sip of beer in it, you chug a 10 oz. glass of full-calorie Heineken beer. You then have to tip the glass over your head to show its empty. All of us Americans were having a great time and the IU students were definitely holding our own...that is until the Dutch students joined the game. Now, when I was looking through travel guides before coming here, they all said Dutch students are not like American students because they only drink socially and do not "drink to get drunk." Boy, were those guidebooks wrong. The Dutch girls could throw back a Heine in 2 gulps and the boys, I think, just poured it down their throats! We had such an amazing time! After the game was over, we went to the Shamrock (a bar) and hung out. We then went back to our original cafe which had turned into a dance club/bar and danced before calling it a night and walking home. I had so much fun.

Today (Wednesday), we had to get our residence permits. I will say the Dutch are extremely efficient people. There are 32 of us in the group and we had our pictures taken, printed, and ready to go in less than an hour! We then went to the school to fill out paperwork and be debriefed about our 6-day study trip!

I am so excited about the trip! We leave tomorrow (Thursday 1/22/2009) and journey to Luxembourg, Brussels, Bruges, Versailles, Paris, and Reims. We are touring the European Union HQ; a Belgian Chocolate Factory, Brewery, and Diamond Center; the palace at Versailles; the typical Paris destinations (and we have free time), and a champagne farm in Reims! I will blog as soon as I get home to fill you in on all of my travel adventures!

Miss you all!
Betsy