Post-Summer School

After summer school, we had a week to explore the city before school started. The first event we went to was the Noorderzon Festival, a performing arts festival where everyone sits around a large lake to listen to different international bands. The main performer of the night was La Chiva Gantiva, a Brussels-based band originally from Colombia whose music had everyone on their feet dancing. I also got to try my first falafel and found a version of Hoegaarden (a village some of my Belgian ancestors came from) beer that I have never had before called Hoegaarden Rosée (definitely recommend). It was such a fun night but unfortunately we had to say goodbye to half our classmates that were departing for the semester in Sweden the next morning :(

The next night we went to the Carnival at Grote Markt in the city center. We took a ride on the bumper cars (which were so much more dangerous than American bumper cars!), went through the mirror funhouse (which Linnea got lost in for about 10 minutes), almost died on the tallest ride there (I thought I was going to fall out of my seat because the harness became loose when we reached the top), and played a few games. The others met us at Grote Markt after and we went to a few different bars which was a lot fun. 

Sorry for the screaming... I edited the pitch to make it more enjoyable!

We spent the next few days celebrating Gronings Ontzet, which commemorates the city being freed from German occupation in 1672. We went to a festival in the Vismarkt (the other main market in town), saw a King Arthur-inspired marching band concert, went on a pubcrawl throughout the downtown area, attended the Canal Festival, and watched some fireworks. We didn't return until after 5 AM on most nights, but it was so worth it!

Summer School

I arrived at my hostel in Groningen a little after midnight. (Side story: everyone was sleeping in the room when I arrived, so I figured I would change in the hallway so as not to wake them up. I had to get my clothes and toothbrush out of my bag, which was locked because I was carrying a lot of money. After retrieving the items, I locked it back up, got ready for bed in the hall, and then quietly tip-toed back into the room. Suddenly, I realized I no longer had the key... I had put it in the wallet with the money so I wouldn't lose it. I walked back out into the hallway to see better and left the door slightly ajar so that it wouldn't make a noise when the door shut. Ten seconds later a LOUD ass alarm started going off because the door wasn't shut all the way. I'm sure it probably woke everyone up, which was what I was trying to avoid. Moral of the story: don't be an idiot if you're traveling with money, make sure you buy a quality lock, because it was easy as hell to pick the one I bought from CVS)

The next morning started the week-long MEME Summer School. The first two days consisted of learning about the MEME program, lectures from researchers of the different universities, and the best part- meeting my fellow classmates! Everyone is incredible and from all over the globe: Armenia, Belgium, Canada, China, Cuba, Egypt, England, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Macedonia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Portugal, Turkey, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Vietnam, and the USA! I'm so stoked to share this adventure with such awesome people.

MEMEs: The 4th Cohort

A few of us went out at night to explore the city. Groningen has 60,000 students and half the population is under 35, so the city is alive 24/7. A couple hours of sleep and we were boarding a bus the next morning to visit De Hoge Veluwe National Park in Gelderland followed by International Night with the older MEMEs. Each individual had to share something from their home country. We sampled Belgian, German, and Swiss chocolate, learned a few words in other languages, and had a lot of alcohol: Chinese Baijiu (so strong), Turkish Raki (really good), genuine Mexican Mezcal (cannot be sold outside of Mexico), and a Brazilian liquor (I forget the name but it's stored in a coconut for over a week before drinking). The graduating MEMEs presented their thesis projects on the final day. It was really cool to hear the various topics and to glimpse into the future for a peek of what is in store for us new MEMEs. At night the older cohort organized a party to celebrate the end of summer school. We danced the night away and sang along to some classic songs.

Us singing Bohemian Rhapsody

I haven't been here for more than a week and I have already learned so much about the world. I'm looking forward to the next 2 years... 

"I can't tell where the journey will end, but I know where it starts"

I have successfully avoided thinking about this the entire summer: Moving Day. It finally hit me that I will be unable to hop on a 45-minute train to come home whenever I want, unable to go for a late night Dunkin Donuts run with different friends, unable to eat at Buzzy's every weekend with my family. Don't get me wrong- I am ecstatic that I will be living my dream of living in Europe... but being away from my family for so long will be hard. I finally finished packing an hour and a half before my flight, so we had to hop in the car and drive race to the airport (Boyle's are never on time... convinced it's a genetic trait). With my last bagel from The Bagel Pantry in hand and tears in my eyes, I said goodbye to my family and passed through the gate. 

After being delayed 6 hours, I boarded the aircraft and thought about the summer which had ended too quickly: my family threw me a huge party at a house right on the beach the last weekend of June, I ran a marathon and triathlon with my good pal Chris Marrone, spent early August with my family at the shore house, partied hard with the lifeguards during the last few weeks in the USA (they threw me a surprise going away party... I have the best co-workers!), and got matching tattoos with my big sister and little brother the day before leaving. It was the perfect summer.

Some highlights from summer

Before I knew it, I was touching down in Amsterdam. And this is where the adventure starts...

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In case you haven't heard from me in two weeks, I want to start out by saying I have arrived safely in the Netherlands :) It was my intention to start this blog the day I embarked on this exciting journey, but things have been a little busy! And since tonight is the first night that I'm staying in since my arrival, I figured it would be a good time to get this thing underway. My impetus for starting a blog is to not only update you on my life, but to use it as a tool to share some of the cultural, scientific, and personal things I learn while I'm here!

Enjoy...
Mike