From Tourist to Tenant: Tourist in Holland

I just sat through my last class of college, last class in the Netherlands. I only have 2 tests and a presentation left along with some more traveling in the next 2 weeks! What a weird feeling. These last few weeks have been pretty busy (mostly because I didn't do much homework until then b/c most assignments are due at the end of the semester rather than throughout the semester), and I didn't have much time to blog. This semester I've gone on weekly school excursions through the Netherlands to some of the biggest cities - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Den Haag - and to some of the most historic sites such as the concentration camp Westerbork. These excursions are always especially interesting, because our professors are well knowledgeable about the history of the city or area. My favorite trips have been to Westerbork b/c I'm fascinated with WWII history and Den Haag where we visited the beach and Madurodam. Westerbork was a beautiful woodsy area; we toured the camp on bike to see the layout of the camp and to stop by the several monuments and memorials for the Jews who passed through on their way to concentration camps. The beach in Den Haag, although chilly, was beautiful. Madurodam is a miniature Holland; it shows all the important buildings and sites in the Netherlands - it made me realize how little time I have left here, yet how much I want to see just in Holland. In most of our trips we visited Cathedrals, museums, and government buildings. A lot of emphasis was put on modern art, which I'm not the biggest fan of, still it was something new that I hadn't learned much about before (thankfully). Here's a collection of photos from the several trips I've gone on this semester!