Final Post: Back Home

The last week in Zwolle went by like a blur. Between packing, studying for exams, and trying to squeeze in every opportunity to spend time with my host family and the SPICE group I didn't have much time to think about the fact that I was leaving. I thought I was ready to come home until a couple days before I left. I was so excited to see my family and friends from the States, but I definitely wasn't ready to leave Zwolle for good. I wished it was just a summer break and that I'd come back in the fall again. The last couple days were so fun! I had the whole SPICE group over for a birthday party on Saturday and it was one of the last times the whole group was together. On Monday, Zwolle had their liberation day celebration...it was a whole day or free concerts with several food stands and clothing stands, it reminded me of a fair or carnival, it was very fun. They had 4 or 5 stages with different singers and DJs. All day we walked around and switched from stage to stage. That night we went to one of the SPICE students' house, Brianna, just to rest for a little while. Her dad offered to make us delicious fish and veggies with wine and stroopwaffle mcflurries for dessert. I was reminded again of how hospitable and kind the SPICE community was; not just my host family, but all of the host families were so generous and inviting. On Tuesday I finished my exams, did some last minute packing, and then went to the goodbye party with the entire SPICE group and our families. It was a good time to see everyone, but just a little overwhelming. I hate saying goodbyes, especially to people I was just getting close to and would most likely not see again. Afterwards I went out with several of the SPICE students and our Dutch friends. We were out until about 2 am, but it was the perfect last night in Zwolle of talking and dancing! Nothing can beat Dutch style dancing at the Joffer! Several students had said they were going to leave by midnight, but a heavy rainstorm hit around midnight and since no one wanted to ride their bike through it, the party lasted a couple hours longer :) The next morning my host parents got up with me at 3:30 am and brought me to the airport. This just shows how sacrificial they were. I always felt like part of the family and they even told me they considered me a daughter and when deciding what to do they would always think "What would we do for our daughter...'' Thinking back on the memories with them makes me miss them quite a bit.

The long plane ride gave me plenty of time to reflect on the semester and look over my pictures and journal entries. They brought back so many good memories, and made the fact that I was leaving Zwolle for good finally sink in. After the long travel day back to the States, my roommates picked me up in Omaha and took me out to dinner at the Cheesecake factory and shopping for graduation dresses at the mall. It felt like I'd only been gone for a short break/long weekend. My roommates and I picked up right where we'd left off sharing funny stories and catching up about each other's lives! The last weekend was so fun at school! It was difficult to see everyone again on Thursday, because I felt like we were back after summer, and then the next day everyone was leaving for the summer...this quick transition made the reality of being home and graduating sink in - it was a tough reality to swallow though. I was so excited about all I'd experienced in Europe and so excited to see everyone from Dordt, I didn't like all the changes happening so quickly. 

Now that I'm home and with my family, I'm able to reflect more on my experience in The Netherlands. Everything seemed familiar at home, just slightly different. Little things like using bigger cups or forks than I was used to grabbed my attention. I have little reminders of Holland, especially living in Pella. Yesterday relatives who used to live in Holland visited and was able to serve this Dutch coffee time, it was so fun and a good reminder. I hope I can continue to be reminded on my amazing time in Europe and share stories with friends and family...I just hope they don't get sick of listening to me, because there are plenty of stories and memories to tell about! 

Barcelona!!!!!!!

Barcelona!! Definitely my favorite place, besides Zwolle, that I’ve visited on SPICE. The city is absolutely beautiful, it’s a center for modern art - not the impractical, interpretive type, but the type that mixes bright colors and unique shapes in the architecture - this style was started by Gaudi, who’s the famous architect who began the work of Sangrada Familia and Park Guell (google those places and you’ll see what I mean). His work reminds me of castles in fairy tales. The city is clean, has many green parks, and trees and flowers along the streets. It also has great, unique shopping! The best part is probably the beach though. We stayed in an area called La Barceloneta (google.map it!), which is the triangular section of Barcelona along the beach. We were about a 5 minute walk from the beach, so we could go back and forth between our apartment and the beach during the day. 

The trip was so relaxing. Each morning we slept in a bit, walked along the beach or through the market, spent the afternoon on the beach, and dressed up to go shopping or to dinner in the late afternoon. This was the perfect place to spend my birthday! I got to share my birthday with a friend I met on SPICE, Katie. She definitely added to the fun of the day. After skyping my mom in the morning. We set off to the beach for much of the afternoon, then dressed up to go shopping in the city along the famous “La Ramba”, and finished the night going out to eat to an authentic Spanish restaurant where we were served a seafood paella (a rice dish with a mild sauce, and yummy seafood). They served the seafood - shrimp, mussels, clams - still in their shells which was new for me, but all part of the authentic experience! We ended the night with homemade Spanish Sangria and games in our apartment. The only thing I missed was of course celebrating with friends and family from back home...and surprisingly birthday cake. 

After getting a little burnt the first day, I realized I needed to cover up a bit with a scarf and hat...This is how I spent day 2 on the beach :)

The beginning of our birthday outing..shopping!

An opera house designed by the famous architect Gaudi 

Beautiful park on La Ramba

First course of our Spanish birthday dinner

Our seafood paella 

Lekker! 

And Birthday Dessert 

Overlooking Barcelona from Park Guell 

Overlooking Park Guell 

Picnic area in Park Guell 

Thankfully there were some escalators to aid in our climbing the hill up to Park Guell 

Some beautiful sights from our beach walk the last night 

Beach walk on the final night

Some of the workout equipment to found

Perfect way to end the trip!

This trip was much too short (meaning I’ll have to come back again to see everything :) ). Now on my way back to Zwolle and realizing all I have to do this next week before I leave, it probably was the right decision. I’m feeling very bittersweet in leaving Zwolle in less than a week. I’ve enjoyed my time here so much! I’ve formed wonderful relationships and made so many lasting memories. I also can hardly wait to hug my mom and little sister, Lizzie at the airport and spend a final weekend as a college student with my roommates and friends from Dordt. I do think this is perfect timing, I jsut can't let myself think I’ll never come back. 

Romania and Budapest

A couple of weeks ago we took a business trip to Romania and went afterwards to Budapest. While eastern Europe isn't as developed or wealthy as western Europe, I enjoy it much more. It's less populated and less touristy. I feel like I'm experiencing more of the culture of the city and country when I visit cities there compared to cities such as Paris. You can really tell the influence of communism. During the years when the country was under communist rule, the country didn't develop like western European and American cities did. Communism in a way preserved the historic buildings and culture. My favorite city in eastern Europe was Prague, which I already blogged about, Budapest was much larger, but also very beautiful. Romania was very poor, but is improving. In Romania we visited several non-profit organizations, which I really enjoyed since that's something I would like to go into. We visited "Save the Children" which is an organization that provides schooling and after school activities to children who have parents working in western Europe for long periods of time. We also visited a non-profit home healthy agency and a tourism agency. I don't know much about business, but have learned a lot this semester; even with my little knowledge, I could tell the differences in the developing market in Romania. Since one of the organizations was a tourism company, we were given tours through Brasov and Bucharest, where we learned about the history of Romania and the several different countries and dictatorships that had control of it, including communism. Having a tour guide to provide stories and explanations of sites always adds so much value to the tour!

Helping Roxana at the "Save the Children" with her schoolwork (it probably was just coloring)

View in Brasov

Brasov city center

Brasov

Brasov from above, notice the ancient wall for the city's protection. 

Brasov

Restaurant in Bucharest where we ate authentic Romanian food. 

Largest government building in the world - parliament built during communism in Bucharest. 

We took an overnight train to Budapest, Hungary - another adventure in itself. After an hour of figuring out how to set up our beds, we got to know our cabin mates a little better....one was from Romania and another from M... They answered all of our additional questions and gave us a locals' viewpoint about Romanian culture, including some of the corruption in politics and about the prevalence of gypsies in society. We arrived in Budapest the next morning, and decided since we only had one day to see the city to purchase a jump on, jump off tour. This was a good idea as it allowed us to see the entire city with tour guide commentary and go on a night boat cruise. Most of the group was together on the tour, so this provided some fun photo opportunities. As usual, my favorite area was the park/gardens around the top of the citadel hill. The next morning we climbed the other hill, castle hill, and walked through the area and got coffee outside for a relaxing morning before flying out. Possibly another reason why I like eastern Europe is because several of the countries don't use the euro and prices are much cheaper that in western Europe, so I feel like I can splurge a little :)

The gardens near the city center in Budapest

Castle Hill

Castle Hill 

Out for cocktails in Budapest

Parliament Building 

Our night boat tour

Budapest city center

Citadel Hill 

View of Budapest from Citadel Hill 

Selfie on top of Citadel Hill 

 Park path on Citadel Hill 

When In Rome

When leaving for Rome on Monday the 21st after a late night from the soccer final, I wasn’t really in the traveling mood....how could I not be extremely excited to go to Rome?! I was tired and pretty traveled out I suppose. But all the same, I didn’t have to pay for or plan the trip, so I didn’t give it too much thought. When we got to Rome the first night we walked around the city, visited a couple smaller tourist sites, and ate supper with the whole group. The next morning we visited the major tourist sites, such as the historic cathedrals, the Colloseum, the Pantheon, and ruins of Roman villas and government buildings.

Trevi Fountain 

Ruins of Nero's Villa 

Colosseum 

Panorama of the Colosseum 

Ruins of a chariot racing area 

Overlooking the city from the ancient villa 

Roman Ruins 

Temple of the Vestal Virgins 

more ruins of the government sector 

Prison where Peter and Paul were kept 

Beautiful, but more modern building from 1800's.

Pantheon - complete structure about 2,000 years old 

Inside of Pantheon - reconstructed. 

 During our walk through the Roman ruins, our teacher provided detailed stories about the history of all the sites. These stories made it so much more meaningful. Recognizing that Peter stayed and preached at the church we visited, and that each of the ruins were 2,000 years old is stunning. The next morning we visited Pompeii and Mnt.Vesuvius, which is a 3 hour drive and saw a whole city that was destroyed by the mountain volcano in 79 AD, but yet preserved from the natural disaster. We climbed the volcano and were able to see crater. The city was so impressive, the ampitheater, temples, shops, houses, and roads were all so well preserved. Even the fresco paintings on the wall were preserved. It really gave an indication of how they lived during this time. Similar to the day before, we also had short stories and explanations of the tour. 

Crater from Mnt. Vesuvius 

Streets in Pompeii 

Vineyard from Pompeii 

Wealthy house in Pompeii 

Fresco painting preserved

Courtyard connecting houses in Pompeii 

Area for worshipping idols

Temple for Roman gods

Amphitheater 

Roman ruins in Pompeii 

Pompeii ruins 

On Thursday we visited the Vatican. We walked through St. Peter’s Catherdral, climbed to the top of the dome, and tour the Vatican museum and the Sixteen Chapel. This area was so beautiful! But also incredibly busy, because of the all catholics making a pilgrimage to the Vatican for the Pope becoming a saint. The view from the Dome of Saint Peter’s Cathedral was beautiful, you could see the entire city of Rome!

Saint Peter's Cathedral 

Famous sculpture of Mary and Jesus

Saint Peter's from above

Dome of St. Peter's cathedral 

Saint Peter's cathedral from above

beautiful views of the Vatican from the top of St. Peter's cathedral 

Inside of St. Peter's

Ancient bath used by the wealthy Romans

Gardens in the Vatican

On Friday we visited catacombs and the Via Apia, the longest road in the Roman Empire. It was so neat to walk where Christians from 2,000 years ago walked and to see the signs that distinguished themselves on their gravestones. I wasn't feeling like being a tourist by Friday, so I didn't take any pictures myself...I'll add them later when I get them from other people. Currently, I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to Barcelona. How crazy that I’ve been walking and seeing the sites of people 2,000 years ago. Learning about the culture and about the Christians of that time is unforgettable.