Today was a short day, but it was still packed with activity. The day began with a walk to the seven-floor office building housing DakAkker, an entirely green, 1,000 square meter rooftop garden. In the lobby, we met with our tour guide, and we turned right around to see the surrounding areas before stepping onto…

Today, we visited the Deltaworks, which is a group of dikes, dams, and storm surge barriers throughout the Netherlands (specifically the southwest island-filled region) that began construction after the devastating flood in 1953. The idea behind Deltaworks is to limit the amount of water that enters Dutch lakes from the North Sea, while not disturbing…

Right after we woke up, we left to catch the train to Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Work was being done on the roads on campus, so we had to walk on a beautiful, wooded path for around 20 minutes before making it to the university. Once we did arrive, however, we immediately went…

Today began with a slower start than most other mornings, as we had a free morning due to religious observances. I got to sleep in until 8:50 when I was woken by loud music in the hall, and got to lie in bed all comfy and cozy until 10 (an extremely rare occurrence on this…

Today was a rare day, as we had almost exclusively free time except for one group museum visit. The morning began with us leaving the hostel at 9 AM to board a train for The Hague, which is a city close to the west coast of the Netherlands, where the Dutch Parliament functions in its…

The first thing that we did this morning was leave our hotel in Amsterdam. Around 9 AM, we loaded our suitcases and bags into the bus and began our hour-and-a-half-long journey east to Deventer to visit the R&D center of Nouryon. Nouryon is a chemical company that serves as the world’s leading supplier of organic…

Today began with a very emotionally-charged morning, as we first visited the Anne Frank House. The museum provided us with an audio tour, guiding us through each room of the building in which Anne and her family hid from the Gestapo. I feel that the museum did an incredible job of showing us how the…

Today, we got to sleep in a little bit. We left the hotel around 9 to catch a train to Zaanse Schans, a farming neighborhood north of our hotel. We arrived slightly southwest of the neighborhood, so we walked along beautiful suburban streets, somewhat comparable to those east of Oakland (at least, in my mind)….

Today began bright and early; we were on our way to Royal FloraHolland just after 6 AM. This company serves as the largest international floriculture marketplace for many varieties of flowers and other plants. The building is just under 2 million square meters, making it nearly as large as, if not larger than the country…