First will start with the continuation of my trip to Holland even though that was almost a month ago haha! So after spending time in Amsterdam with the cousins I journeyed to Tilburg where my second set of parents, Gijs and Jose, live. It was so wonderful to feel like I was at home again! It feels like I never left. While I was there Jose took time off work to hang out with me which was super nice! The first day we went and saw Middelburg, a town about 45 min by train from Tilburg. This town was absolutely beautiful but what else can you expect from Zeeland (the region). The most amazing thing to me is that this town was nearly completely destroyed by bombs during WWII, but has been rebuilt in the historic fashion so you can even tell. Jose and I took a tour of the town hall and then we took a walking tour of the city. All of it was in Dutch, but Jose was nice enough to translate for me and one of the guides spoke French so I got part of the tour in French which was a surreal experience to be speaking French in Holland. We walked around and had lunch outside because it was such a lovely day and then made our way back to Tilburg. The next day Jose and went to the museum of modern art in Tilburg which I didn't like too much but there were a few pieces that were good. Overall I think that modern art is bullshit (excuse my french ;p). I think that if anyone can do it, then it isn't special and I don't really care to see it, but maybe I just don't understand it haha!
Then Jose and I took the bikes that we were riding to a small town called Oisterwijk which is beautiful and we had an excellent lunch in this awesome restaurant. We ended up biking a total of 25km that day, I was so tired by the end of it and of course it was nothing for Jose haha! I got to have dinner with Tanne that night at her house which was lovely and a great time to catch up.
Getting home was a tricky situation all on its own. I had ordered the tickets for my trip in France and had gone to the gare (train station) here to collect them before I left. I stupidly didn’t check to see that they had given me all the tickets that I needed and of course they didn’t give me my tickets for the way home. I realized this on the train on the way to Holland, and I figured it shouldn’t be a big deal and that I would be able to pick them up at a train station in Holland. Oh boy was I wrong…apparently you can only get the tickets at a SNCF gare in France and if I wanted my tickets the people at the Dutch train station told me that I would have to go back to get my tickets to go back to France…awesome. After much anger, hitting of my computer and 40 extra euros I was on the exact same train as I was supposed to be on before and made it home no problem. Viva la France…
Getting back to Angers was back to work as usual, nothing really too exciting there except for the fact that I actually got to teach my own classes for once which was both terrifying and exciting and I am seeming to do pretty well because at the end of most of the classes the students seem sad to leave. After a week back in Angers I got my first real bought of homesickness so I decided to take a trip to Nantes to visit my friend Lindsey who always makes me feel better. Away I went and it was just what I needed. It was a weekend of little sleep and lots of good times in which I met a lot of cool people and laughed until I cried! We went out a couple of times in downtown Nantes which was fun, the only problem was that Lindsey lives 40 mins outside of Nantes and we missed the last tram, so we had to walk home in the rain, but it was worth it for a great of randomly talking to French people in a local pub.
More to come in the next couple of days, I am too tired to keep writing! Pictures will be added too!
I have a degree in Art History and I am afraid I have to completely AGREE with you about most modern art. I am told it is more about design, but I still don't get it.
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