Golden 20

Though I did not travel anywhere this weekend St. Patricks day and my Golden birthday kept me plenty busy.
As a proud citizen of America I feel that it is one of my duties to celebrate in the holidays of most of the other countries in which people came from. However, since I am in Holland, only a certain few know about St. Patricks day much less go out and celebrate it. Fortunately, Zwolle has an Irish Pub, 'Sally O'briens', in which we were able to find a few others who knew of the Irish Holiday. We were even 'lucky' enough to be able to hang out with the Irish band that was playing at the pub. We also got suspenders and t-shirts to comemorate our partaking in the celabration at the pub.
Three days after st. patricks day I turned 20. I spend my Golden birthday partaking in the Lords supper at church and hanging out with my host fam for the day. On monday I had a birthday party for the NSPICE crew at the apartment. Although, I am twenty I still feel as though people look at me as if I am younger than I actually am. I have many examples of this back home, but I also had a recent experience at the local high school in which N-SPICErs went to hang out with Dutch kids who were learning english. I asked the students how old they were there responses were respectively 15 or 16. Then without even asking me one of the male students said to me "so you are 18". A little suprised I blurted back "NO!" then he guessed seventeen, completely serious the whole time. I finally said "Im almost twenty" and ended the guessing game. So now I ask to you..... do I look 20?

Tea and Crumpets?

I have never been so happy to hear english in my entire life. I dare not say I saw everything in London beings its the largest city in Europe, but we saw plenty in our four day stay there. We flew over to the island on thurday and got to our hostel by around 7 o'clock.
Our hostel, The "generator" may have been the only bad part of the trip. Our room of 8 smelled like an armpit for the entire weekend. The plumbing had some serious issues leaving the towels on the floor a beautiful gold and yellow color. While trying to aviod our room as much as possible we played cards in a lobby right next to the bar. We qiuckily found out that the hostel put a lot of money into getting young people drunk. Most of the young people there were immiture and our entire crew grew very annoyed of them right away. This hostel only seemed to care more about getting young people drunk than actually taking care of the facilities. Anyways, about the city.
On friday we walked to the major landmarks in the city including the famous Picadilly Circus. We also went to the Buckingham Palace to check out the changing of the guard. This was pretty interesting, but after 45 minutes we all got a little sick of standing in the crowds. We made our way to Westminster Abbey which turned out to be the highlight of the trip for me. The history of the place was amazing having kings and queens buried there dating back to the 11th century including bloody Mary and Edward III. On our way to the Bridges we saw big ben. Though I always wanted to see this landmark, it was not as cool as I thought it would be. It was just a regular tower with a clock on it. I can say that I saw it though. We then walked over the Westminster bridge on our way to the Tower Bridge. Just a little past the bridge we found a stripped man standing on a box. I threw some money in his hat to see of he would talk to me, but all he did was some sort of robot move and shook my hand. It was definately something new for me. Finally we made it to the famous Tower bridge and then we headed back to the Generator. We calcutated that the walk for the day ended up to be 12 miles.
Saturday we got a little smarter and bought a tube pass (the London subway). We went to the British Museum in the morning and checked out the amazing exibits from all around the world. Later in the day we checked out Knotting Hill and walked through 3 miles of markets on Protebello road. We also saw the former house of George Orwell which is on the road. Then we went back into town and at a nice little outside restaurant by the Dames river. At night we took the tube downtown and checked out Trafalgar square at night.
On sunday morning we took the tube to the bus, to the plane, to the train, to our bikes and we were finally home to chill out for the rest of the night. Twas a good trip.

Catechismal Gangsters

Last weekend a small group of N-SPICEers took a trip to a little place in Germany called Heidelberg. We rented a Volkswagon Golf (one of the most natorious cars in Germany) and drove five hours to Heidelberg. Well actually I drove because no one else could drive a manual. Anyways, The city of 120,000 boasts a famous peice of CRC history as well as many castles.
The first night we were there we walked around downtown and found out that the city was not only very international, but also very college student orientated. While back in Sioux Center people carry around water bottles, Hiedelbergers carry(and drink) wine or beer when out on the town.
On saturday we woke up early, did a little shopping, and walked up to the Heidelberg Castle. On the way we stopped at a church and went to the top of its tower to check out the view. When we came back down we noticed a Kebap shop across from the church. We hadn't heard of Kebaps before so we decided to give it a go. WOW, it payed off. These tasty little treats are filled with such Heidelberg goodness that an hour after we ate, the whole crew was formally confirmed to be Kabap-Shop-aholics. The view of the castle was nice, but the actual Castle was beyond words. The shear size was more than enough to double any castle that I had seen before. Its tremedous view of the city as well as its rich history makes it an official "Must see" for all Euro-travelers. When we finished at the castle we walked across a bridge to take the Philosophenweg walk. While walking were sidetracked by a sweet toy that held our attention for a good half an hour. Though we did not find our prize at the end of the road (hitlers amphitheatre) it was nice weather and good company.
Sunday we headed out to Neckersteinach to visit four more charming castles. The castles were all within 1 1/2 miles of each other and were truly worth the extra hours. It would be wrong to compare them to the Heidelberg castle, but their serine lanscapes and untouristy atmosphere made them very enjoyable.
Though no one in the city really knew about the catchism, this CRC boy held its significance close to his heart.

Snowboarding in Germany

A semester abroad would not be complete with out a drive down to southwest Germany for some good old fashion Snowboarding. The 4 hour drive went pretty fast with our sweet rental car, a 2005 Opel 2.2 Turbo, and the autobahn. We got the car up to 200 Kilometers per hour (however fast that is). It was a pretty interesting car ride with the combination of people along. We had pretty good weather while we were boarding allowing us to get in some good runs. However, we did have some bad experiences with Germans. For example, the VVV worker who would not help us find a hotel either night we were there, (we ended up finding our own) and the skiers who made fun of us and wispered to eachother about us in the slopes. O'well, Jokes on them...we have a democracy. Anywho, While there we were able to enjoy some authentic Bratwursts.
Although Skiing/Boarding in Colorado is much much better, the crew still had a sweet time.

Czeched out of Prague

After being in Prague, Czech republic, for a week I found out many things about the city. The first thing I discovered was that it was beautiful. The second thing out was that there is a ton of history there. The third thing I found out in Prague is that beer is cheaper than water.
We traveled all of monday then walked around the city on tuesday, starting at the castle (with a Church in it). On wednesday we drove to the city of Melnik and went to a castle there. Thursday was very solemn as we went to a concentration camp in Terezin. Though it was not a death camp, 15,000 Jews were still killed there. The camp was basically a holding place for the Jews before they were sent to Auschwitz. The camp has a special cemetery for the people who were killed there in WWII.
We took off for home on Friday and drove through the night. Overall the trip was a lot of fun, but the Czech people were not friendly at all. The place seemed very cold all of the time (partially because it was snowing most of the time), and the people all seemed to be really pale. I also found out later that only 39% of Czech people believe in God. I don't know...its interesting. In the words of Bernard " well, I guess"

The Truth about Belgain Waffles

While traveling to Brussels my companions and I discovered the truth about the notorious Belgian waffle. They are flippin amazing! I tried to only have one, but after 2 days my tally had increased to five. I was thoroughly impressed.
On another note, Brussels has probably the best square in all of western Europe. Grand-Place was the coolest thing I have seen yet. Especially this tower. I also saw St. Michaels Cathedral . However, the biggest disappiontment of Brussels was most definitely Mannekin pis. This little guy couldn't even hold my attention for five minutes. I know its really old and everything...but old does not mean interesting. Oh well at least I haven't done any homework on the trip yet. Hahaha

Fun with Lepols

I made it to Holland! With five delays it seemed to take forever, but at least I here and settled in. The fist night in Holland was spend in a Hostel called shelter city. It was located right inbetween the historical district and the Red light District of Amsterdam. It was a huge culture shock!
While walking around the city I accidentally bumped into crazy Cocaine dealer. He ran after me and stopped me. He then proceeded to threaten to stab me if he ever saw me again. (he said I was interfearing with his biusness) But I made it out Amsterdam and on the 20th I went to Zwolle.
My host family is Bernard and Esther Petter. They are 26 and 24 and very nice people. They are much more informal than some of the other families. Troys family mom and Bernard are brother and sister, so the last couple of nights have been spent at each others houses. They are all really cool people. Most nights so far usually consist of drinking tea or coffee and having snacks from about 8-930, and then having a couple of beers over some conversation.
It seems that more I am here the more simple my english has become. Other than that stuff is a lot similar to the states (northwest Iowa) than I had expected. Church seemed just like at home except it was in Dutch. I am at the Jenssens (troys) and we are going to eat soon.
Soo, have fun in the -50 weather!
Chad

Mission: Europe

The point of this website is to update my family and friends on my study and travel in Europe. I hope that it helps you better see whats happening on my semester abroad. Thanks for visiting! don't forget to post comments!

i am chad

welkom.