my home away from home

This past weekend I went back to Berlin with a good friend of mine here in Groningen, Coraline. She had never been to Berlin before which made the trip even more exciting. I could not decide if I was more excited to see my friends or to show her around. The combination of the two and simply being in Berlin was exactly what I needed. Berlin remains my favorite city but I also realized that Groningen is the perfect place for me now.

Berlin Wall

Did I mention that fall is my favorite season?

Coraline trying a Berliner curry wurst.

The modern 'center' of Berlin, Potsdamerplatz

We took advantage of 2 euro black and white photo machines twice!

The Festival of Lights is taking place in Berlin right now - lucky timing.

My View

View from my bedroom window.

Rainbows seem to be a permanent fixture here in Groningen.

The International Games

This past Thursday, I played in a tournament called the International Games, which consisted of four games: Soccer, ultimate frisbee, hockey, and badminton. The day was fun despite our very bad luck; we played twice against a team of huge Dutch guys, and of course were matched against a Scandinavian team for hockey. After losing every game, we still had a lot of fun and enjoyed a dinner together including an after-party.

Team JACK - James (English), Me, Carlos (Colombian), and Amy (Greek/Canadian)

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend I travelled a few hours southwest to a Dutch city called Alphen aan den Rijn. A friend of mine from my program, Danielle, was nice enough to take me to her boyfriend's place for a long weekend. Basically, they completely spoiled me for the whole weekend. We went to a comedy show, shopping, celebrated Danielle's birthday, and consumed every type of Dutch sweets imaginable. I remain utterly impressed by Dutch sweets. They really know what they're doing here in Holland with sweets such as hagelslaag (chocolate sprinkles on their toast for breakfast), lots and lots of licorice, pepernoten (tiny ginger cookies which you can even buy covered in chocolate), stroopwafels (caramel waffle cookies), slices of coconut for your toast, etc. It's like living a real life version of Candyland. I had such a wonderful weekend with Danielle and Edwin. I would really love to spoil those two some day in the U.S.

Danielle and I in the train

A nice shot of Danielle heading home after

a day full of shopping in Alphen aan den Rijn.