Home away from Homesick

Hello all! I hope everyone doesn’t mind that my posts are going to be less frequent now, simply due to the fact that I am no longer traveling. In fact, I’m working again, which leaves me stranded in one place for the time being. However, I still hope to bring you weekly tips and musings on travel and life after spending three months living in Europe.

Now one thing I was told to expect after arriving home to America was reverse culture shock. This is sort of like culture shock, but in reverse; you find yourself shocked by things being different from the place you just visited.

I’m not here to tell you that reverse culture shock is a myth. But I will say that I am very skeptical of its existence, mainly because I barely experienced it at all. The biggest thing for me was I kept forgetting that my phone would actually work when I left the house. Other than that, I found that it’s easy to come home because honestly, this is what I’m used to having in my life.

What I have been experiencing is homesickness, or perhaps more correctly, home away from home sickness. Before we left, the castle administration told us that the castle would always be our home away from home. And the truth is, I’m missing it like crazy. One thing I will say is that it’s a large adjustment to go from country hopping in Europe to living back at home and working a retail job part time. (Not that I don’t love it, but come on, what compares to Europe?)

So I’ve been trying to find remedies to nurse my overwhelming urge to collect my friends and hop on a plane right back to the good, old Netherlands. Here are a few that have been easing my withdrawal pain.

• Watching movies filmed in Europe (or anywhere else that you’re missing). Last night I popped on Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette while doing some internship work. It’s the only movie they’ve ever allowed to be filmed in Versailles and seeing it brought back all the good memories I had of touring there with my friends. It allowed me to take a little vacation, if only in my mind.
• Indulging in some native cuisine. Namely, in my case, stroopwaffel. I started carrying around a pack in my purse for a snack during my breaks at work. It always brings me back to mornings in the tower where I’d have it every day for breakfast (even if its status as a breakfast food is questionable).
• Talking about your experience. I recently volunteered to go back to my old middle school to talk about my experiences studying abroad. It gave me a chance to spread my enthusiasm for the experience, while teaching kids a bit about Europe. It was nice being able to relive my experience, even if I was probably more excited about it than the kids!
•  Visiting your travel companions. I’m meeting up with a friend who lives nearby on Thursday and hoping to plan a trip to New York City to visit some others later in the summer. It’s been hard not seeing them after spending three months together and I hope by meeting up, we can get a chance to relive our adventures while swapping stories about readjusting to life in America.
• Reading. Similar to watching a movie, reading a book that’s set in a place you’ve visited can be oddly comforting. I hope to start The Diary of Anne Frank soon as well, since I bought it while in Amsterdam. I’m actually glad now that I brought so many books while abroad, because each now holds a unique memory of the place where I bought it!

What are some things you do to relieve the post-travel blues?

Well, I love ya

This past weekend, I did not travel, but rather, stayed at the castle in order to prepare for midterms. And to prepare for midterms, I mean do anything but, however that is beside the point. On weekends, the castle shuts down, which means we are forced to fend for ourselves when it comes to food. This also means though that I had to get out of my tower and explore a bit more of the town I’m living in.

Well is small, but there are still enough options here that we could eat at a different place for lunch and dinner every day. Friday afternoon, we headed to a local bakery. I have to say, they do not do sandwiches in America like they do here, as every sandwich I’ve had here has left me delightfully full and satisfied. I could not tell you what was in it, but there was some avocado which I was not brave enough to leave included in the sandwich. Later that night, for dinner, we ordered personal pizzas. I was really missing American pizza up until then, but where we ordered from had some of the cheesiest pizza I’ve ever eaten. It was nice to have a relaxing Friday night, ordering in and getting to know new people. Since a lot of the people I normally spend time with weren’t at the castle, the rest of us banded together, making for a nice weekend.

Saturday, we headed out again, this time to a family restaurant. I like to imagine I’m getting the hang of menus in Dutch and while I still need the menu translated, I managed to order my meal in Dutch and was quite proud of myself. It was funny to see how surprised the waiters were though, at some of our more American requests, like a side of fries. Clearly, you can take a girl out of America, but you cannot take the American out of the girl. For dinner, we went to another local restaurant down the street. I finally tried schnitzel and in the middle of our meal, a bunch of men in jester hats and suits came in and took over the bar. I’m starting to feel very Dutch, even though I don’t 100% understand what all of these things mean.

While my food experiences really gave me a new sense of Well, it was my History of Photography assignment that truly made me realize how much I love my new home. I was assigned a Dutch family and I had to go into their house to take their portrait. I walked to their house, feeling incredibly nervous, as I needed a translator when I called to schedule our appointment since they didn’t seem to speak English. However, despite the fact that this is the umpteenth time I’ve been in one, I couldn’t help but admire the Dutch neighborhood. Te houses always struck me as uniform, since they’re all brick. Walking through them, I saw how different they really are, all through the owner’s personal touches.

Carnival, which is a bit like Mardi Gras, is approaching so there are a lot of fun decorations, like this balloon wreath, around town.

When I arrived at my family’s house, I found my worries were for nothing. Mike and Angela were incredibly kind and spoke English very well. They had a six month old son, so it was great to photograph them all and I am so thankful to have the opportunity to be welcomed into their home.

The brick houses that seem to be traditional of the Netherlands

As I walked back to the castle, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with feelings of home. Despite the fact that I am thousands of miles away from what I’ve know, the people here are so welcoming. Everywhere we went this weekend, there were people willing to translate and talk to us. Slowly, but surely, I’m coming to love this new culture that I’ve found myself in. Well, I love ya. Despite not being where I’ve from, thanks for making me feel at home.

A Day in the Life

I’ve officially decided that I hate the phrase “culture shock”. I’ve been here in The Netherlands for two weeks and that is not at all how I feel. If anything, I’m more amazed by the ways moving here changed my day-to-day life.

Every morning without fail, I am woken up by the same thing: the chimes of the clock tower down the street. They usually chime once on the half hour, but for some reason, at seven in the morning, they chime for what seems like ages. One day I’ll find out why, but most days, I roll over and go back to sleep .

Meal times are always interesting as well. The Dutch really, really love potatoes from what I can tell. Though I miss the tastes of home (read: New England clam chowder), I like trying the food here. Yesterday for lunch we had mustard soup, which just as you imagine it would taste. At least it was accompanied by white bread, which is easily some of the most delicious bread I have ever tasted. You don’t even need butter with it! However, the Dutch food that I’ve really started to crave is stroopwafel. Two thin layers of waffle, held together by caramel, they have quickly the Poptarts of my European experience.

Yesterday, I decided to go into town to buy some stroopwafel to keep in my room. At the castle, we have meals at a set time and I always miss breakfast when it’s being served. So off I went into Well, population 2500. My first stop was the grocery store, which has an unpronounceable Dutch name. (At least, it’s unpronounceable to my American tongue.) It’s overwhelming how everything can look so different, yet so very much the same. I found my stroopwafel, sitting in a basket and after some persuasion from a friend, I caved and bought Dutch candy, which is essentially just delicious marshmallow bits in various shapes. I also bought socks, because for some reason, the Dutch grocery store sells them and I did not pack enough for two weeks, like I thought. (See my previous post on packing, aptly titled “The blind leading the blind”.)

When going to and from town, I noticed a lot of kids riding their bikes. Initially, I couldn’t figure out why, until my mind flashed back to my middle school French class where we learned about European students going home from lunch. It was such a different experience to see all these kids, biking home in the middle of the day. Some said hello as they passed by, while others rang their bike bells. When we passed the bakery, I saw one girl putting a loaf of bread into the pouch of her bicycle and imagined her mother asking her to pick up a loaf of bread that morning. I also tried to imagine American students going home for lunch. It would definitely not fly.

I don’t feel shocked by how different things are around me, but in awe. I want to learn more and more about the way other people live, and living here has given me a lot of insight already. (Granted, not everyone lives in a castle, but still.) Tonight, my friends and I head off for our first independent trip to London. I am excited to hope across the pond to get a taste of British life for a few days!

First day of school! First day of school!

Contrary to popular belief, we here at the Kasteel Well program are not just here to putz around Europe and have fun. As of Monday, classes began. In my last post, I talked about culture shock. Being on a campus of all American students, I didn’t think I would experience that much shock. However, as I spend more and more time here, I find I am surprised by new little things that creep up on me every day.

For example, my professors so far seem the same as my American professors, though they have great accents. One of them is Flemish and gave us the history of Belgium which is interesting, but after attending each of my classes, they don’t seem that dissimilar. Time will tell  if this proves to be true. One major difference I noted though was that they all want to take breaks during our hour and forty-five minute classes. At Emerson, this is the average class length and in Boston, professors don’t give us breaks. It makes me wonder how long the average class is at other universities.

In two of my classes, my professors instructed us to make name tags as well. I don’t think I’ve had a name tag since maybe the third grade. But then, it occurred to me that with the most popular names for The Netherlands being Sem and Tess,  the American names that they have in class here probably seem very foreign.

Regardless, I am excited to get started and  to see more of the differences between school here and school in The Netherlands. I am slightly disappointed that I can’t take Dutch as a class, but hopefully I will pick some up while I’m here.

Tomorrow we leave for a weekend excursion to Amsterdam. I’m sure to have stories when I get back!

Culture Shock!

“You will experience culture shock,” the trip coordinator reminded us multiple times during our pre-meeting orientation. He then proceeded to tell us about the village therapist, to help deal with culture shock induced depression. That was not what I needed to hear after tearful goodbyes to my parents.

Yesterday was my first official full day in Well, so it might be premature to say this, but the culture shock was not depression-inducing.  We explored the grounds, which are basically  the set of Pride and Prejudice. Large sprawling fields, stunning brick castle, an abandoned tower…the usual. Then we went into town. Well is unbelievably small, but happens to have the tiny, Dutch equivalent of Target. It might not have everything Target has, but it has a shocking assortment of products for a small town.

Here was where the culture shock set in. First of all, I’ve never seen a place before where wall paint and hair supplies are sold under the same roof. The woman at the counter also informed me that they didn’t take cards and gave me change in coins. I was a bit flabbergasted. Also, I saw a Dutch copy of The Devil Wears Prada, which gave me a lot of faith in the Dutch people.

The supermarket trip was even trickier. As someone with a peanut allergy, I have to be careful to begin with when it comes to what I eat. Ingredient skimming is a skill I mastered at a long time ago. Now I’m presented with the challenge of trying to read labels in Dutch, when the only Dutch I’ve picked up is “no trespassing” (because it says so on the pole that separates the castle from the peasants, I mean public.). I decided to play it safe and not to buy anything, because I’ve learned that’s always the best path to go when it comes to food allergies and breakfast foods you’re unsure of. I was able to get my hands on an English-to-Dutch dictionary before dinner though, and took a photo of the words for peanuts and peanut-butter. Of course, they are nothing like their English counterparts and completely different from each other (apenootje and pindakaas), but hopefully the photo I snapped of them will come in handy next time I attempt to buy food.

Other than that, I am really happy here. I am already incredibly happy that I came here and I am beyond excited to go on trips with my friends within the upcoming weeks. We’re going to Amsterdam next weekend, London the weekend after, then who knows? Maybe Paris? In the meantime, here are some pictures of the castle, as promised! Also, if you’re interested, don’t be afraid to follow through email!

Inner courtyard of the castle

Exploring the grounds

There’s our tower, the third window up!

The newer side of Well

The swans! These lovelies.