It is officially our first day in Rotterdam! We got a great night’s sleep and started our day at 9 am to jump on a train and head over to The Hague. Over in The Hague, we had some free time before our scheduled visit to the Peace Palace. This time, we took the opportunity to explore the Mauritshuis museum. This collection was really great, and they have the amazing art piece by Vermeer, Girl with the Pearl Earrings. Apart from this, there were many incredible art pieces going back to Roman art and some about Catholic beliefs and stuff like that. This was also really great since we got to learn some of the history with this museum and regarding World War II. For example, in order to prevent the Germans from bombing the house during the war, they took the paintings out and hid them in places all around the country. They even put the frames back on the walls in order to feel a sense of continuity and normalcy despite the changes happening during the war.

Afterward, we met up with the group to eat the very generously provided food by Dr. Dukes. We ate authentic Indonesian food from the roots left behind back when Indonesia was conquered by the Netherlands, and it was extremely good. This definitely helped us understand more about the history and culture throughout the entirety of the Netherlands while also enjoying great food.

Finally, we headed over to the Peace Palace, where the United Nations and the International Justice Court are housed. This helped us learn much more about the history of government here in the Netherlands. We learned how in 1899 the First Hague Peace Conference took place, and people from all different countries carried flags stating “Peace to All Nations,” marking the start of an era where most countries want to try and achieve peace between the nations. Additionally, we learned how the International Court of Justice focuses on trying to solve conflicts between countries, helping mark the sustainability regarding peace. Moreover, by introducing us to Carnegie, a man who focused on providing education and libraries to a lot of places in the world allowed to understand the sustainability regarding education in the Netherlands as well as the entire world. We also learned many other things, giving us more insight into the past and present of the government here.

We also went to the beach, which was a 15-minute bus ride from The Hague, and walked around for a while. Overall, it wasn’t a day filled with much sustainability, but every single day we do use public transport, contributing to the lessening of fossil fuel emissions through carpooling.