Groeten from Utrecht 2012: 18) Out and about

One thing I keep getting made fun here is my accent. Ok I know we say 'eh' and I know we use some slang words but really how I say 'about' is not unusual! 'Out and about' is the one that I get made fun of the most for- so I use it as much as I can to annoy people :)
The last week here we had beautiful weather, sunny with a high of 17 somedays- it was great so I was out and about a lot. Last wednesday I went on an adventure to Utrecht castle, known in Dutch as the Kasteel de Haar. It is outside of the city centre and about an hour long bike ride- well it is an hour if you don't get lost. Heard of some of my friends getting quite lost and it taking twice as long. We didn't get lost but thank goodness for my iPhone location device to keep us on track. It was amazing, one minute we were in the suburbs of Utrecht and the next in the country farmland. Spent the day there and had a picnic on the castle grounds- which included a maze and deer park. The bike ride back to IBB was a lot quicker since we knew the way. The other days last week I studied a lot outside and went for walks around the city centre trying to soak up all the vitamin D I could.
Last Saturday I went to the city of Leiden with one of my flatmates. The weather was not as nice but better than it had been in Vancouver from what I heard! Leiden has a very good university, two wind-mills, a castle, an older part to the city and there are poems on many of the corners of buildings. Gemma and I saw all of this and managed to get some shopping in. There was a market that day so we spent a lot of time seeing all the nice cheese, breads, fresh fruit and vegetables and I also came across a North American food store! I was drawn in by the Canadian flag hanging outside. All I found that they labelled as Canadian was maple cookies and moose poop ( chocolate covered almonds).
Now that I have finally caught up the blog I can keep my posts more recent. This week I am finishing up essays and then it is Easter break. I am lucky that all my exams are done so I have three weeks off until next block starts. I will be in Bremen (Germany) with the Mildners for Easter. On the 10th I will go to Ireland with Erika and get to see some of my irish friends while we are there. On the 19th I am going to Sweden to visit my friends Emma, Johan, Sabina, and Josefin! Really exciting few weeks ahead of me and I am looking forward to the travels very much! now if only my essays would write themselves...

Happy Easter or as the dutch say...Vrolijk pasen!
Doei for now,
-Xoxo