Friday morning, time to pick up the car. Since we are doing this on the cheap, the four of us decide to get the smallest car possible that can fit four. We get a Ford Fiesta, with a diseal engine....stick shift of course. I drive it back to the dorms to pick up the other two people. Small cars are really no fun. I have the seat all the way pushed back and my legs are still touching the steering wheel. Plus the stick is shaking like crazy. Still I make it back without going down a wrong street or hitting a bicyclist. We are off to see some famous gardens close to Amsterdam. A half hour outside Maastricht and we hit traffic. Like bumper to bumper traffic. Like I want to get out of the car and walk traffic. We found the problem a hour later. There was a stop light. A STOP LIGHT on something equivalent to an interstate. Stupid Dutch.

So we get to the park and pay for parking and the entrance fee and see some flowers. They were pretty, I guess that is the best way to describe them. Seeing how some people in our group felt ripped off and wanted to bring back something they decided to steal some little gnomes. They were everywhere, 6 inches tall or so, all white little things. I kicked one as joke and its head fell off. Felt bad.

The garden was nice, but was more amazing were the fields before it. Row after row of blooming flowers, mostly tulips. Truly every color of the rainbow. It was very much a Kodak moment. Even have a shot of the flowers with a windmill mill in the back ground. Cant get more Dutch than that. We then had some dinner in Utrecht and headed on home. We went 300 kilometers over our limit, so the rental ended up being 27 a person. Thats close to a 120....for a FIESTA!!! Still we had shopped around and didn't see any better rates.

Saturday I worked out and that was it. I really have no clue what I did.

Easter Sunday went to see the Amstel Gold Bike race. There were a ton of people and bikes down there. Still for as big of a race as it was suppose to be(it was televised) I didn't think there were too many competitors. Well I saw the US postal service team represtenting. After that we went to get some coffee and hang out in one of the town's squares. Im actually starting to like cappacinos, weird since I never like any coffee product. It was the first Easter I didnt make it to church. I felt kind of bad. I even heard one of the churches ringing its bell to call mass. Still told God hi, said a little prayer.

Monday, another big day of nothing. It was raining and everything was closed so it was a good day to stay in. I finished a book and am about half way done with the next. I think in the last three weeks Ive finished 5 books, an incredible feat by my standards.

Brings us to today. I went to an earlier section of class hoping I could switch in and kind of helping a friend who wanted my seat in the later section. Well I got into the earlier and she wasn't allowed in the later. Im happy I made the switch for as soon as I saw the professor one word came to mind. American. Bullseye, straight from the heart at Indiana. She seems nice and easy going, I think the class will be interesting. Since there is 11 of us, just a ton of interaction. Shes also an interesting lady and if I had to describe her I would say she's a firecracker. Bad news, a hour and a half presentation with paper is due this Friday. Theres three of us and itll be nice to be the first and get it done. We will have one more in three weeks or so.

Tomorrow will be the first day of my other class. My friends back home finish in two weeks and I am just beginning. Its a frustrating little thought, but then I need to realize that Im in Europe. An opportunity that not everybody gets.