It is a gorgeous day here in Breda.  Not a cloud in the sky.  I have a four-day weekend.  Unfortunately, no one else does and so I am stuck.  I want to see everything I can in Europe, but I have figured out that it’s best to see it with someone.  It’s really not safe to travel alone.  Sometimes I was not sure with just two people.  So since no one else is able to travel, that means I should stay home, too.  (Study time!)

I think I have finally figured out the Problem-Based Learning here at Avans University.  I have started to get high marks easily.  I have no idea about the tests, but the tutor groups are coming along (they are like classes).  After next week, we will start our projects.  We have two projects, one taking one week and the other taking two weeks to complete.  They are (of course, like everything here is) group projects.  The main goal from this type of learning is to prepare you for your job in business.  Most of the time, you will be working with others, in groups or in meetings, and you will have to know how to interact and accomplish tasks with them.  I agree completely with this goal, but I am just not sure it’s working well when you have to “work” with 15 people at once.  Everyone wants to talk and not everyone can.  Plus, you basically get a bad mark if you don’t talk (sort of backwards from Western)!  But, as many people who are abroad are saying lately, “It’s an experience.” (Lydia and Christine!)

The Dutch language classes are not really hard in themselves, but the actual language is somewhat difficult.  I also have IC (Intercultural Communication) where we are learning about the Netherlands and its people.  This is my favorite class because the teacher brings in some type of Dutch food each time.  I didn’t like the salt drops but the sweet ones tasted just like black licorice.  We’ve also had Speculaas and some carmel-waffle cookie (yum!).

I have finally finished “The Devil Wears Prada” after buying it in DC.  It was a good book to read on the metro when I would come home from work.  But other than that, I didn’t have time to read it during the summer.  Now, I like to do things that remind me of home and one was reading about NYC and the fashion industry.  I did watch the movie, and there were great discrepancies between the book and the movie.  I like the book better, of course, because it had more detail and the movie left out a lot of different things/events.  I loved Meryl Streep, but she did not quite fit the character of Miranda Priestly.  I wish there were more to the book, it has a rather abrupt ending, but all in all I highly recommend it!

Let me leave you with a few corrections to what I had thought earlier:  the grocery store shopping carts only cost the coin you put in if you don’t hook them back up (yep, I lost 50 cents).  Once you do, it gives you back the coin (like a deposit).  And the taxes in the Netherlands are one of the highest in the EU (17%, I heard) but they are already included in the price (to fool eager foreigners).  I will have this country figured out by July!