Finally! soooo many pictures.

I've been in Europe more than a week and this is my first blog post...that's not good :/

Anyway, everything is great over here, I'm figuring Rotterdam out pretty well. I live very close to downtown and my comfy old dutch bike gets me around pretty well.

I'll let pictures do most of the talking...

We had to change trains in Utrecht on our way to Koln so we walked around a bit. After I took this I went to my first Dutch "coffee shop". (note to my parents: I didn't smoke anything!:)


My first meal in Germany. mmmm fries with mayo, one of the many things I love about German and Dutch culture!!


Jetlag maybe...or just me being myself, the party pooper!


This isn't a great picture but I like it because you can see the cathedral in the background.


My new camera has a fireworks setting...this is what it looks like.




Right after midnight (Me, Jessica, Melissa, Lauren)


Hohenzollern Bridge's lock fence.


Fuzzy and foggy Koln.


German bar scene.


This is what you get to look out and see after walking up 500+ of the smallest coldest steps in the whole world.


It took me a few seconds to figure out what they were and then another few seconds to talk myself out of buying 3 of them to send home.


Here's Jess trying to get our lock to lock on the fence.


And here's our lock, unlocked, with all of our names on it (I made a wish and threw my key into the river).


And now for Rotterdam...

On the walk back from the train station we saw this. What a cute gift!


I took a walk around the neighborhood and found this. Apparently this is the first time in years that it's been cold enough to skate on the canals...lucky me!


This is my house (the one with the motorcycle). See the Heineken sign, I can get a beer two doors down!



And just in case I want to go to mass, a Polish church across the street.


My first bitterballen...yummy, Lekker!! :) (I wish I had a picture of my first Oliebollen!)


And last but not least, my new Dutch teacher. Her name is Caroline and she's very patient with my pronunciation :)

I'm going to try to start updating this more often with news, new words I've learned (I start dutch class this Wednesday), and pictures of everything.