brugge + ghent + nederlands.

Hallo from Nederlands.

We have quite a few things to catch up. I hope everyone enjoyed General Conference, I know I did with my limited internet connection. This made me appreciate how much we are blessed with the technology to see and hear our leaders talk to us half way across the world. Plus it made me thankful for the easy access at home to just turn on the tv and watch. 

After our crazy concert in Kortrijk, Belgium, we went to Brugge the next day (Friday, Oct. 5th). Brugge is known for it's Basilica of Holy Blood, supposedly they have the relic of Christ's blood. And yes I paid .50 cents (plus a 2 euro entry fee) to see a vial filled with some sand and red stuff that was suppose to look like blood. This church is the best preserved of Romanesque style. What's interesting is that the church has two different styles because one level was renovated to gothic revival. Overall it was an okay experience. Before the Basilica we went to a  museum that use to be used as a hospital in the 12th century, Sint-Jan Hospitaalmuseum. It has many pieces of art that were related to medical or anatomy things plus artifacts like old tools they used to operate on patients. We also went to the Town Hall to learn more about the town, it was great to learn about Dutch History since we hardly learn anything about it in school. 

After we finished seeing those sights we were able to explore the town and for the first time this was more enjoyable than others. The town was small and quaint, everyone was nice for the most part, and the town was just interesting with the small streets and canals winding throughout the town. There were also horses with carriages walking around the town, and I nearly got run over by one horse. It made me think of the Mini Series 10th Kingdom when Tony breaks the magic mirror and is cursed with bad luck forever. Every time when something bad is about to happen there is a sound of horses galloping, so every time I heard the click-clack of the horses hooves on the cobble stone it made me think something bad was going to happen, like getting run over by the horse.

It was a day of firsts for me, 

I had my first Belgian wafel with chocolate, it was delicious.

Later I had some great Belgian chocolates and to finish is off some hearty Belgian frites. 

{frites with mayo + ketchup}

Okay I know you are all thinking I am some fattie for eating only sweets and carbs, but let me just say that I do eat nutritional meals here not just yummy desserts. 

Paesha and I were walking back by the Sint-Jan Hospitaalmuseum and found a cute old man playing this wind organ. I gave him some coins and he waved me over, so naturally I went over and he wanted me to play the organ. I started turning the wheel and the music played, he put his little bowler hat on top of my head, it was awesome! I loved it, but let's hope I don't get lice.

{music thing I played, that's the cute little man}

Satuday Oct. 6th we went to Ghent to visit the Duke's castle and we saw the painting by the Van Eyck brothers' called The Lamb of God.  I cannot express how detailed and ornate the mantel piece was, it was unbelievable how someone could paint that. Again, we were able to walk around the city and explore. I am proud to say that I did buy some delicious fruit in this organic store, they were called kiwi berries. It is a mix of a kiwi and a gooseberry. It's great because it doesn't have the hairiness of a kiwi and whatever a gooseberry is but there were scrumptious. Also I got a nature (natural) wafel (dutch way to spell waffle). Belgian wafels are great because they are crisp and have a slight crunch (caramelization of sugar)  on the outside and a soft doughy inside that are cooked to perfection. We saw some funny looking candies called "The Nose of Ghent" it's jelly filled thing that looked like and smelled like licorice.

{kiwi berries}

{my nature wafel}

{Paesha with a "nose of ghent"}

{noses of ghent}

After wandering Ghent we were off to the Netherlands to reside in Leidendorp. Sad day though, it was our bus driver, Peter's last day. We were all sad because we have traveled with him for a week and a half. Now we have some man named William, pronounced almost like Villain but with a m at the end. He is much harder to understand so half the time I have no idea what he is talking about. Plus he smokes, which is gross because he is hawking up a lung every 5 minutes and the lingering smell of tobacco is in the air. *NOTE: once we got to the hotel, literally like 5 minutes there we heard the announcement from President Monson that the age for missionaries was changed from 19 to 18 for young men and 21 to 19 for young women. We were all freaking out, especially the girls because there are about 35 of us on this study abroad between the ages of 18-22, the previous age to serve at 21 and now 19. We were all thinking we could have been on a mission already, which is great and also crazy to think that. I have grown up thinking about going on a mission but it was always different to me that girls always went in later than boys, but with the change it totally makes rethink everything now that I will be "older" and that 21 is just a "normal" age. Sorry for the little rant but it is a huge footstep for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that it couldn't be left out.

{our bus driver Peter}

Sunday Oct 7th was a pretty chill day, we were able to Hague and visit the beach there. It was really windy and I just went off on my own to finish listening to the Saturday Sessions of Conference. It was great to take in my surroundings and listen to the words of the Lord. After the beach we went to a Modern museum. This museum had a collection of different exhibits, it had some of Rembrant's paintings, Vermeer, and Mondrian. Then there was one exhibit that I really enjoyed, it was called Happy Days: from 1947-1967. This exhibit was a compilation of the what the style, art and daily things that were happening during those times. I really enjoyed the style part of it because they had a magnificent collection of 1950s clothing. There was dress that reminded me of Lorraine Baines dress from the Enchantment under the Sea dance from the movie Back To The Future (one of my favorite movies). It was a pink tulle dress with puffy slip. I loved everything about the collection! After we went back to the hotel to try and watch the Sunday Morning Session of General Conference. It worked for the most part, it cut out a few times, but overall I enjoyed conference. Wasn't great?

{sidewalk at the Hauge beach}

{the view I had while listening to General Conference}

{george mcfly, lorraine baines, marty mcfly}

 Monday Oct 8th we woke up bright and early...8 am to go to Amsterdam. There we visited Anne Frank's House, Rijks Museum, and the Van Gogh Museum. I was really excited to visit Anne Frank's because one I have the book and two I enjoy WWII or just that time period even though it was a difficult time to live and enjoy. As any other historical site there were going to be like a bagillion people there, it wasn't too bad because we arrived early. It was way better than I thought it was going to be. It was such a great and emotional experience to see this side of the what people went through during WWII. It's was great how the museum had quotes from Anne's diary throughout the house, and Secret Annex that correlate to what happened in each room. It's sad that people had to live this way, hiding all the time and depending on others to keep their secret. Anne is just one person of millions whose story was shared with the world and I am so glad that Otto Frank published her story for everyone to have a taste of what she and her family as well many others had gone through to remain safe from the Germans during that time. This is once museum I will not forget because of it's impact it had on me.

Rijks Museum is made up of many of Rembrant's paintings and similar artists who painted around his time era. One of the best painting I saw was Night Watch, this particular painting had a greater significance to me because I had studied it in my Humanities class Freshman year, so it was great to see the real thing! Once we were finished with this museum, we made our trek across town to Van Gogh's museum. This museum also had a wing of impressionist paintings which I preferred over Van Gogh's paintings. In front of this museum was the huge  I amsterdam  letters, of course we had to get pictures of that. One thing I liked about Amsterdam was all the water canals throughout the city, they are EVERYWHERE. Almost every street has a canal weaving in and out. Also there are MILLIONS of bicycles and they are all over the streets, they have their own path for bikes which looks exactly like the sidewalk, so you can see how that played out...getting run over by bicycles every other minute and hearing bells ringing all the time, I was scared for my life, at least every time a bell rings an angel gets their wings. Anyone thing of George Bailey and Clarence? Plus scooters can ride in the bicycle lane, they are going like 30 mph, like 3-5x fasters a bicycle, not good when you can't the sidewalk from the street apart. Overall it was a good day in Amsterdam except for the bikes, but it made me want to ride a bicycle. Everyone had a bike and many people fit on one. I say a whole family on one bike, the kids were in a basket/bin in the front, the father pedaling, and the mother on the back. It was a good day in Amsterdam. 

{this is type to see bikes and canals of water}

Today Oct. 9th we head back to Belgium to go to Antwerp after visiting a few cities (Leiden and Delft) on the way. Tomorrow we visit Brussels and  the next day we FINALLY head to London on the Eurostar! I can't wait to be in the UK after about a month of traveling. I will be great to be in one place for more than 3 days at a time (perks of touring Europe right?). 

Props for hanging in there!

xoxo
Lauren

snapshots of the day.

Much anticipated pictures!

enjoy.

ps I'm in Belgium...

listening to some freaky concert outside of our hotel that goes till from 5pm to 12am!

They sure love their Dutch Rap and techno + their beer and cigarettes, they all look like they are 12 years old...pleasant site to see. NOT!

{Chartres Cathedral}

{Samantha, Kaylin, Danielle, Me and Brianna in Chartres}

{Spider at our concentration camp hotel}

{Leonardo da Vinci's house}

{A Tower at Chenonceau}At Chenonceau there was this green river that you couldn't tell there was any water under the green, but we saw little eyes peeking up from the water. They were FROGS! So as any young age student would do we got things to try and hit them. We got pretty close to hitting some frogs, but we felt bad after we hit one on the leg. 

{A view from the street in Saint Malo}

{Paesha and I on the beach}

{Our friend we met at Saint Malo, we named her Michelle Obama}

{Mont Saint Michel}

{Gun batteries in Longues}

{Battleground in Longues}

{Omaha Beach}

{Omaha Beach}

{Head stone of those not known but to God}

{American Cemetery in Normandy}

{German Cemetery}

{Water Lilies Monet painted}

{Water Lilies Monet painted}

{Claude Monet's House in Giverny}

{Battlefield of Somme}

Battle of Somme was a WWI site in France that we visited today. It was great to see the battlefield because this was the first war they started using trenches and we were able to see those trenches because they kept them so well. 

Welp the Belgians have a crazy language I can't understand, it looks like gibberish. Here is a little taste of what I have to look at for the next week or so before I head to the UK where I can at least understand the majority of what people are saying. 

"Zondag Maandag Dinsdag Woensdag donderdag

 vrijdag zaterdag"

(Those are the days of the week)

tot ziens

(that's dutch for see ya)

it's gonna be a long week, 

but at least the Belgium has really good WiFi, that's a plus. Also the town is nice to walk around when there isn't 12 year olds getting wasted listening to techno. 

on the road.

Bonjour!

Sorry for the delay in posting but the WiFi (wee fee) in our past hotels have been really junky. 

So onto the good stuff.

*LONG POST*

We have the pleasure of touring France, Belgium and Amsterdam in a bus...for 16 days. Sounds fun eh? But it's not. 8 days down. There is only so much you can do in a bus that will keep you entertained. I unfortunately can't read in a car because it makes me sick, so long reading Jane Eyre. But our bus driver is a hoot. Peter of Holland is a funny man that just randomly gets on the microphone to tell us things and stops mid-sentence, plays music of his daughter singing (who is really good in fact) and has amazing driving skills weaving through the dinky streets of France...it is unbelievable what he can do without getting a scratch on the bus.

Once we left Paris we headed to Chartres, which is a little town located in Northern France. We got to just walk around the town for a couple of hours and it was a nice little town in the countryside. Chartres is known for its Cathedral Notre Dame de Chartres, one of the finest gothic style cathedrals. It was great because we got to have a tour by a man who has been doing tours of Chartres Cathedral for 60+ years. I loved how he explained the stained glass stories and sculptures that throughout the cathedral. After tour we got to walk around the town again just to take the atmosphere of being in France. 

The next day we headed to Amboise in the Loire Valley, where we stayed in what seemed like a concentration camp like apartments. It was gross because there were TONS of spiders in our room that a girl would freak out and make me kill them…awesome. Plus some were giants like this one.

The next day we had a bus tour of the Loire Valley from a wonderful lady who knew her stuff about everything in this valley. It was great to learn new history about France that we never learn in the US. After our tour we had the option of going to a Chateau that had rooms decorated different times they were occupied or Leonardo Da Vinci’s house he lived in that last few years he lived. Hands down Leonardo won. After seeing so many chateaus and extravagant things it was great to see something different. I have always been interested in Leonardo Da Vinci because he did so many things, he was a painter (painted my girl Mona Lisa which is in the Louvre), he was a sculptor, he was an inventor, and he was just an overall brilliant man. Throughout the house were many of his inventions, which was great to see them recreated. Plus in the gardens outside were many of his inventions that you were able to play and use them. It was interesting to see how many of his ideas were of items we have today.

On Saturday the 29^th we went to Chenonceau Chateau that was Huge! It also had beautiful gardens all throughout the estate. There was a labyrinth that we played tag in that was way fun! Hiding in the shrubbery and running in a circle, even an old couple joined in on the fun.

On Sunday we headed to Church in a little branch and we doubled or even tripled their member count. We got there for Sunday school and you could feel the spirit so strongly there, it was just a great experience to have. Most of these members are converts to the Church, so it was great to see their love of the gospel and how it has influenced their lives. The lesson was why and how do we follow Christ; there was even a man nice enough to translate the lesson for all 42 of us adults. Sacrament meeting was wonderful because we had another man translate the Sacrament Talks, the first was by a women who is a convert and the only member in her family, her husband is not a member but her talk was wonderful as well as her testimony. After, the Branch President spoke to his branch about how we or in this case they could make their branch big. He made a great point of how we can become better examples of Christ and invite others to come unto Him. After Church we headed to Saint Malo, a little town on the coast of France. We were able to walk along the beach and splash our feet in the Atlantic Ocean! It was a great little town we walked around the next day before our trip to Mont Saint Michel, the abbey that was the inspiration for Tangled.

It was a cloudy day when we went there, but it is a town that in practically on it’s own little island with an Abbey. After seeing all the magnificent stained glass and amazing architecture this was not as grand as I thought it was going to be. The town was fun to wander around the little streets and alleyways but overall it was fine.

 We were able to walk around the American cemetery and go to the Visitor’s center there. It was very wonderful experience viewing and pondering about all the deaths that happened in WWI and WWII. I am proud to be an American and thank all those who serve and protect our country.

Tuesday Oct. 2 we had a tour of the Normandy beaches by a wonderful man who knew everything…he was British. We first went to Longue and wandered about the battleground and looked at old German gun batteries. After we went to Omaha Beach, which was a sad but great experience to see where D-Day happened. I really wish I could have know more or at least reviewed more about WWII events because it would have made the experience more meaningful but it was a great adventure to think of those who fought for our country. Later we headed to Normandy, which our tour guide Michael told us we were on American soil, many were really happy to be “back in America.”

(Sorry for the cheesiness)

Today (Wednesday Oct 3) we went to the Tapestry in Bayeux. It is the oldest tapestry that is still intact. The story on the tapestry is about William the Conqueror in 1066. There was also a nice little audio tour to go with it, which made looking at it much better. After we were able to walk around the town and enjoy the small town…just like all the other little towns we walked around. Once we came to the bus it started to pour, which was no fun because we had to go Claude Monet’s gardens today. I really enjoyed Monet’s garden because we were able to see where his inspiration came from for many of his paintings such as Water Lilies. We were also able to walk around in his house which was filled with many of his paintings and Japanese artwork, not sure why but I will have to look that up. Fortunately the rain ending once our tour was over, but we had a 3-hour bus ride to our hotel in Abbeville and something was up with my stomach that I struggled the whole ride…not good. But my friend Ellen gave me some oils to rub on which seemed to work.

**Back-story to oils: whenever someone is like “oh, you should use some of my oils for that.” First I think, “Right rubbing some oil is going to help my sickness.” Then I always think of my grandma who had oils all the time. Every time you would enter her house or go near her within a radius of like 100 feet, you could always smell her oils that were not the best smelling. Ps I have the nose of a dog, so whenever anything smells weird I will be sure to point it out**

After we arrived at our hotel we were welcomed to an interesting dinner. For those who have seen the movie Errand of Angels, there was a dish we were give that was exactly like the first meal Sister Taylor has to eat at a member’s house. It was some mix of meat or I at least think it was meat. In the movie it was pig snout, something else and gelatin. Yeah it tasted like cat food. But later we were served chicken with frites! Love me some frites.

Sorry for the catch up game and lack of pictures. It takes FOREVER to post all the ones I want, let alone just one picture is way to long. The next post will be all of the pictures for this post.

Thanks for sticking with me.

XOxo lauren

^^^any of you think of Nacho Libre?^^^

(Big kiss, Big hug, little kiss, little hug)

disneyland paris.

First off, you would think Paris would be up to date on the whole free WiFi but they aren't. The internet is so spotty here it is ridiculous...I'm using an ethernet cable. Oh and the French pronounce WiFi Wee Fee which we make fun of all the time. 

On Sunday we went to Versailles to go to stake conference which I was late for because a group of us decided to follow a kid who know where he was going but we ended up across town at another church that was not it. So we trekked across town to the other side to get to the convention center where stake conference was being held, which was right by the Chateau we need to visit afterward. This little trip included an hour to an hour and a half of travel on the train, which we didn't have to take because there was a train much closer to the convention center that got there much quicker too and it was freezing in a skirt, so I was not in the best mood for stake conference or the rest of the day. 

After stake conference which was great to listen in French and English (a missionary was translating for us) we headed to the Hall of Mirror which is where Marie Antoinette lived. The Hall were very pretty and luxurious but freaking crowded, there were so many people there it was insane. After we went to the gardens, they went on for miles. It was neat to see how well kept they were, it was beautiful! Just a brief summary of what I did on Sunday, and now back to what the post is really about...

DISNEYLAND PARIS!

Yesterday on Monday we had a group of about 12 that went to Euro Disney. It was great, maybe except for the weather at the beginning because it was pouring, but overall a fun adventure. They had 2 parks there at Euro Disney, Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios. We headed to Disneyland first because that's what you're supposed to do whenever you go to Disney. They were celebrating their 20th anniversary so there were lots 20's everywhere. 

We went to Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

They had beautiful stained glass telling the story of Sleeping Beauty, the fairies were always my favorite.

Aurora and Phillip.

Mr. Smee.

I was entrusted with the time card at Buzz Lightyear, as you can tell I was excited.

Mad-Hatter Tea cups.

Paesha, Me and Demarie in the Tea Cups.

Walt and Mickey with a little reenactment. 

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream on Main Street, sadly no waffle cones.

Vermuntster and Cookie Dough

It's a Small World, glad to know other countries think we are all cowboys.

One of my new favorite things to do in Frontierland...but it was 2 Euros so I wasn't gonna pay that when at Disneyland Cali it's only 50 cents!

A cute pink Mickey Mouse.

Disneyland was lots of fun! We went on Space Mountain and had a little episode with some throw-up. This kid totally just threw up everywhere and we saw this happening before our eyes, it was disgusting. We also went on Hollywood Tower of Terror which is always a favorite, and then we went on Rock'n Rollin Coster, it was like being at an Aerosmith concert while being on a Roller Coaster, it was awesome. Then there was this other called Crush's Coaster, it was like being on the EAC with Crush and Squirt. I had my first Fish n Chips experience, it was quite good! Overall it was a great day in Euro Disney. One thing that was weird was that men were in the LADIES bathroom. Hello there were men's bathrooms too, I don't know why they were in there, maybe it is some weird French culture thing they do. Welp that's it for now, today we leave Paris to travel around France for a bit then to Belgium and Amsterdam. 

Au Revoir.