Ok so here's the latest. Unfortunately, I am not going to be staying longer in Europe. I wish I could stay a few more weeks but some stuff came up, and I need to get back. Nonetheless, I am already making plans to come back next summer with some high school buddies. So I will be back on the expected date, August 2.
Anyways, I went to Amsterdam this weekend with some friends, and among other things, we were able to see the Van Gogh Museum, Red Light District, and Heineken Experience. We stayed at a really random guy's house (a friend of a friend's dad who was also a former IBI participant some 20 some odd years ago), but we had so much fun especially since it was my friend Pat's 21st birthday. We are going back to Amsterdam this weekend with the whole group, and we will be visiting the Rijksmuseum, Anne Frank house, and a flower auction (Amsterdam is world famous for its flowers). We will also be going to Rotterdam this weekend before we head to Paris.
One thing I wish I regret not doing is going hot air ballooning here in Holland. I might try to do it tomorrow, but it will be hard to fit into our schedule, so we'll see. We have been through some pretty intensive class work these last couple of weeks, so it is hard to fit a lot in. It's like we are taking summer school or intersession classes in that we are trying to cram large amounts of class work into a few weeks. The only difference is that instead of taking a single summer school class, we are taking 2 at a time meaning we are in class for long hours. We do have a significant amount of free time everyday, but there are a lot of big papers, tests and projects that consume a large portion of that time. We finished our global marketing class 2 weeks ago, and we will finish our International Trade and Finance Class tomorrow. I am even 'studying' for the IT&F final as I type by listening to other people discuss the material. We are 2/3 of the way done with our Comparative Economics Systems Class, which we will be resuming later, and we are about halfway into Global Business Strategy. Most of our class work has been here in the Netherlands, and it has been nice not worrying about it while in other cities/countries. What's nice about the classes here is that the grades don't transfer only the credits do, meaning my grades won't affect my G.P.A. Still I find myself putting in a considerable amount time into the classes partially because I don't want to let my group members down and somewhat because I still take pride in my work. But what's nice is that if it the night before a test and some people want to go to a club or bar, I can go out. It's just nice not having to worry about my grades all that much. Having said that, I think I still can pull out 3 A's and a A-. The classes are actually more difficult than I had expected and rival normal semester-long classes in terms of difficulty (people typically have that perception that summer school classes/ study abroad programs are a lot easier than typical semester-long classes).
We have been settled here in The Netherlands for some 2.5 weeks now, and while I have enjoyed it as a nice break, I am especially looking forward to traveling again. They went over our itinerary for Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Paris, and London, and it made me unbelievably excited. There is just so much to do and see in the upcoming cities, and I can't wait. I will have to tell you later about all the things we get to do.
Anyways, I got to go. I need to study, and I am probably going to go out later tonight. There has been a carnival in town for the past week or so. By the way, having a bike here in the Netherlands is utterly amazing. I will elaborate later. Thanks for reading.