Today was a later start, which allowed for some extra sleep.  After breakfast, we walked to the University of Amsterdam, for a tour of their campus.  The university was nice, and had a good vibe to it.  I learned along the way that university in Europe differs from the US in a number of ways. …

Day 9 of the trip started with a tour of the VU university campus, on the outskirts of Amsterdam.  The campus had an interesting mixture of modern and traditional architecture, but it seemed generally like a good place to go to school.  The tour lasted about half an hour, and then we were given 2…

I can’t believe that we have already been in the Netherlands for a week.  Time has raced by, and it feels like we have packed so much into such a small amount of time.  Today was academically relaxed on the surface, but there were plenty of lessons to be learned reading between the lines.   We…

After a great night’s sleep, we checked out of our hotel in Rotterdam at 8:30.  We then took an hour-long bus ride to Watersnood museum.  The museum is dedicated to the history of flooding in the Netherlands, specifically the flood on February 1st, 1953.  Much of the Netherlands is under sea level, so flooding has…

Today we traveled to Rotterdam.  While the Netherlands isn’t a large country, this turned into quite the process.  We took the metro into the city center, and then boarded a high speed train. Unfortunately the train was canceled because someone had been hit by a different train on the tracks up ahead. So, we had…

Today, for the first time, we got to sleep in.  A 10:30 wake up made me miss breakfast, but it was worth it for the extra sleep.  At 12:15 we met Sophia to head downtown to the red light district, where we visited the famous 3D printed bridge, developed by the company MX3D. The bridge…

Day three in the Netherlands was a rainy one. And that is certainly no understatement. It rained pretty much non stop for the entire day.  While this dampened spirits a bit, we still made the most out of our time.  Breakfast was pushed back half an hour this morning to 8:30, allowing for a critical…

Waking up for day two was difficult.  An 8am breakfast call felt like a 2am wake up.  The time change is certainly still working its magic.  But after a good breakfast buffet and a shower, we were ready for our first real academic event.  The event was a presentation by Karel Bockstael.  Karel was a…

After flying from Burlington, VT to Washington, DC. Washington to Pittsburgh. And then Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, I finally boarded our groups red eye flight to Amsterdam at about 6pm on Saturday evening. The flight took nearly seven hours, and we arrived at about 8am local time in the Netherlands. Luckily for me, I had an…