Last week took our first trip as a group to the Netherlands. We started in Den haag (the Hague...but den haag sounds much cooler so i will never call it the hague again). We went to the criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia which was really interesting for me because i have had to study the Balkans in so many classes. We even got to sit in on part of the joint trial against Milutinovic (former president of Serbia), Sainovic (former prime minister of FRY) and Ojdanic (cheif of staff of the army for yugoslavia). It was a defense portion, so some former army guy was trying to defend them. The craziest part was that Milutinovic kept falling asleep. Can you imagine being on trial for GENOCIDE and falling asleep? I guess it just goes to show that he doesnt really care about what he did, even now.
We also went to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and Eurojust, which is baisically like the EU's FBI. It was all interesting...i guess we had to have some sort of educational reason to go on the trip.
The next day we did a tour de Holland. We went to Delft in the morning and toured the famous pottery factory. I had wanted to get something for my mom...but little did i know i would have to drop atleast 150 euro (i.e. ALOT more USDs) to get anything. We also went to this town on the North Sea that i can never remember the name of, but is reminiscent of the word "shenanigans". It was chilly but it was still cool to go down on the beach and get in the water. We found this really cool jetty that went out pretty far and just chilled out in the middle of the ocean for a little bit. Lastly we went to Leiden which is an old college town in the Netherlands. It is also apparently where the first pilgrims lived between fleeing England and claiming America.
The next day we went to Maastricht----all these places honestly began to blur together. Every Dutch city looks the same. Cobblestones. A big church in the center square. Windmills. But there was a carnival in Maastricht! So i rode this sweet ride that was really high and flipped in every direction. Best way to see a city is definitley upside down.
That night we stayed in Aachen Germany. We were literally there for less than 12 hours, but I got to have some bratwurst and sauerkraut which was fabulous.
In the morning we did a tour of the Battle of the Bulge, we followed Pieper's trail from Germany all along the Belgian border and into Belgium. This was definitley my favorite part of the trip. We started in the Ardennes in Germany, right on the Belgian border (in fact in the woods was this concrete slab that said D[Deutschland] on one side and B [belgium] on the other). This was so haunting...walking around in the woods where dozens of people died. There was still a few remnants of the war...an old telephone line, barbed wire and some post-war memorials. All through the German countryside was remnants of the german Seigfried line---concrete teeth that were put up to stop allied tanks from getting through.
It was weird seeing such an interesting piece of history in the middle of farms. Next we stopped in Werweth, which is where a division of african american soldiers were massacred by the Germans....an event that most history books skip over. We also went to Malmedy, another site of a massacre of American soldiers. All through these towns on the border were tons of monuments to WWII...it was stranage to see American flags flying in the middle of Europe. We also went to the Henri-Chappelle American War cemetery where more than 8,000 american soldiers from WWII were buried in perfect lines with identical cross headstones.
It was a really beautiful, and incredibly sad sight to see. Lastly we went to the "Remember Museum". It was a private museum owned by an older couple. The husband was a young boy during the occupation of Belgium and the germans came into his village and annexed half of it to germany. Suddenly this guy was told he was a german, had to speak german and saw alot of really gruesome things. There were American soldiers staying in his family's barn and when the battle of the bulge started they just got up and left, leaving behind tons of stuff. He kept it all, and started his museum with it and now they have an AMAZING amount of stuff from veterans and donations. it was really fantastic. They had a story for every single item. The best part about it was that these people LOVED Americans. They baisically opened the museum in honor of America and attribute the freedom Belgians enjoy today to the sacrifices we made. It was just a really good feeling to actually hear Europeans say they loved us and appreciate everything we did for them----definitley a rareity to hear pro-American things over hear these days. So it was a really wonderful feeling and filled me personally with alot of pride for my country, and everything that my dad's father and uncles fought for. SO that was last week. This week was busy, mostly because we had a big test today that I was freaking out about all week. In about a half hour I am jet setting off to Prague. I am SO excited, mostly because that is where three of my best friends from school are studying, so I am staying with them---PLUS it is a cool city (and DIRT cheap compared to the stupid euro). I love everyone here and have made some really good friends, but it is just gonna be really nice to be with people who really know me and understand me.
Miss you all!
-Cristen
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