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Amsterdam in Bloom 🌷

Published on by miadervisevicLeave a comment

This past weekend I finally experienced something that had been on my bucket list for years: The Netherland’s tulip fields. Ever since I knew that they had existed, it’s always been on my life bucket list to see them. Miles upon miles of tulips and other spring flowers in the countryside of The Netherlands. Red, orange, yellow, purple, and pink tulips and flowers all in rows as far as the eyes could see. It was a beautiful sight that only encouraged my love for flowers and for spring.

Amsterdam was the trip I knew I had to go on and saved up for. While it was certainly expensive, it was so worth it. I got to see a beautiful new city, with leaning buildings and pretty canals, all the while checking off a major experience off my bucket-list. Going into this spring semester, I knew I had to make it up to this northern country. And I did!

We arrived Thursday night after classes, and while Friday was set to walk around Amsterdam and explore, Saturday was reserved solely for the flowers and its beautiful spring aesthetic. Waking up, I put on the floral dress I had gotten for the occasion and hoped I wouldn’t be too cold. My friends and I were so lucky; while the week leading up to the weekend had been cloudy and chilly, Saturday was filled with blue skies and sun!

I had booked my friends and I a tour to the flower fields and Keukenhof Gardens, which was a perfect way to organize the day without worrying about transportation. The tulip fields are in the city Lisse, which is about an hour away from Amsterdam, and on the road, we passed by multiple private flower farms, all with bright colors greeting us.

The Amsterdam Tulip Experience was our first stop! Seeing the flowers in the huge fields made a smile appear on my face. I couldn’t believe I was finally here! While there was a lot of people, it was wonderful to walk through the fields, touch and smell the flowers, and enjoy the sunny spring weather! We set up on the outskirts of the flower field to take some Pinterest worthy pictures in multi-colored tulips. Truly, my favorite pictures of all time now. However, we only had an hour at these fields, so we had to work fast and enjoy as it as much as possible. Taking photos, videos, and vlogs, we did as much as possible in the short amount of time. Admittedly, the only recommendation I would give is that the guide should have given us more time in the fields, because of how gorgeous it was! I could have stayed there for hours.

Next, we hopped back onto the bus, and the next (and final) stop was Keukenhof Gardens, which is basically an amusement park for flowers. It was huge and filled with tulips, hyacinth, bluebells, carnations, roses, and many more types of flowers. The sun had gone away, and the clouds had come, but it didn’t hinder the beauty of the gardens nor the flowers. We were there at the perfect time. All the flowers were in bloom, in beautiful bright colors that one might think was edited and unreal.

We had 3 hours here at the park, and it still wasn’t enough time. Wandering the pathways, the flower ‘designs’ changed at every step, and it was beautiful to experience. Honestly, there was a ton of people, and the gardens were crowed, but I was still so happy I was able to go to and be there.

By the end of the day though, we were all quite tired and wanted to change out of our floral dresses and into something more comfortable. We went out to a ramen place. In the end, it was such a wonderful day, filled with beautiful flowers and wonderful company, and checking off a big box on my bucket list! Not only was I able to go to the fields, but I was also able to explore this new country with my friends, which made it even better! I will forever hold this memory in the depths of my mind and wish to go back to this moment forever.

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Finding My Way Around

Published on by Katie SandovalLeave a comment

This week, I finally had my first face-to-face classes! Because of that, I headed to campus early to make sure I could find all my classrooms ahead of time. At Doshisha, the classroom names are abbreviated (like S34), and I’m really thankful that in an exchange student group chat someone shared a list of what the initials stand for—otherwise, I would’ve had no idea which building to go to.

Now that in-person classes have started, campus feels much livelier. There are students everywhere, and the energy is different from when I first saw campus. I also attend classes on two different campuses, so it’s been fun exploring both of them in during my free time.

I was also really nervous about meeting my classmates for the first time. I tend to struggle with socializing, and since most of my classes only meet once a week, it’s been a bit harder to connect with others. But I’m hoping I can slowly start to open up more as the semester goes on. I’ve noticed that I feel more comfortable talking to new people when I’m with friends, but I’ve also talked to people on my own, which I’m proud of. Hopefully, I’ll get to know my classmates better and maybe even hang out with some of them outside of class.

As for the classes themselves, this first week has been pretty simple. Out of the seven classes I’m taking, three are taught entirely in Japanese. Two of those are for learning the language, and one about Japanese society. I also haven’t had much homework, aside from the Japanese language courses that gave pages of homework. The few assignments I’ve gotten so far have been fairly simple—mostly readings, short essays, or comparisons.

Honestly, it feels a little strange that things seem so easy right now and because each class only meets once a week, I’m not used to having so much time between assignments, so I always feel like I’m forgetting something.

This week there was also a welcome party for the semester, which was a lot of fun. We were split into groups and made paper lanterns while getting to know each other. It was a fun talking to one another while also helping each other when someone got confused on how to make the paper lantern. We also played a few card games. My friends and I wanted to play a certain card game and because a few people didn’t know what it was it was interesting, and hard, trying to explain the rules.

This week has been a roller coaster of emotions and it’s still a bit overwhelming honestly, but I feel like I’m adjusting okay. I’m hoping that for this week I try to socialize more to slowly make new friends both in class and outside of it.