hi from delft!

Bonjour dames!

I say that in french because we just got back from paris a few hours ago! Before i tell you about the most beautiful city i've ever been to (thus far) just wanted to say i am so sorry i havent been in touch! I've been thinking about you all and i hope you're all having a great summer, i miss you girls. We have been going non stop here from class, bike rides, trips, bars ect.. and i just have not been able to email as much as i would like to! I'm going to try to update as much as possible and i love reading about what all of you have been up to.

Ok, so where do i start?? Our flight arrived in Amsterdam at 8:30 am Netherlands time so it was like 2 am Boston time and non of us were able to really get a good sleep on the plane but nonetheless it was a great flight. Went by so fast, for the most part we all sat pretty close to each other and the in flight entertainment/food/drink was great! It was always kinda light outside on one side of the plane which was kinda cool. No luggage was lost and that whole ordeal (customs, luggage, 18 20-something year olds sticking together) went extremely smoothly! Our professor was waiting for us and a bus was there to take us to our rooms. We were all really out of it that day and so i didn't really take too much in on the drive to delft but i did notice right away how crazy flat all of the land is. When we got to our rooms we all got our keys and got all settled in. I slept until 3 then we had to go to the university to see the building and get our bikes (which have become our babies while we are here). The university (not that we're in the classroom much at all) is HUGEEE. The civil engineering building is like 4 times snell engineering and snell is for all engineering! It's crazy. Apparently it's like MIT status and we totally stick out but we're all having the best time sticking out so no one is really too worried about it. We ride our bikes everyyywhere as does everyother person in the netherlands (specifically Delft where we are living). Its so hard to really explain but the system is just totally different here and its their way of getting around. Its so safe and easy and just incredible how different it is from the US. Delft is absolutely beautiful. Its such a cute city (small too). We've been to Amsterdam and Rotterdam and i have to say niether one impressed me much but i do think that's because i compare it to delft and it's hard to compete with. Canals are down every street and the whole city square is filled with trees, cute apartments (small one right next to the other) bikes, horses, resturants with terraces, and of course beer. I think we maybe have not drank 2 of the 13 days we've been here (the guys have probably had at least a drink everyday). It's not that we drink like crazy every day/night but its custom here. They wake up have bfast (some kind of bread usually), coffee midmorning, lunch (bread cheese some weird stuff but not so bad), mile with lunch, beer in the afternoon or coffee and then dinner and beer. Also, they have frites. French fries but they dont have ketchup they put MAYONNAISE on them!!! No joke, pretty nasty sounding huh? I told myself i was going to try everything (almost everything) and so i did and its actually really good. I wont have it with mayo again just bc the thought grosses me out but it was not bad at all. Along with mayo they use a lot of peanut sauce i've noticed. You're prob getting bored so ill try to make it more interesting and not give as muchh detail! haha. SO i am a huge fan of so many different beers now and i will prob come home with a beer belly (o man i hope not). We went to a yacht club for a bbq the second night we were here and had such an awesome time. We did notice that night that they don't stand at bars here, everyone is sooo chill and people just sit at a table, talk and drink a beer. It was our first night out, we were up at the bar being loud and having the best time (not too loud hah just laughing a lot). Our professor and one of the TU Delft (the university im at) professors were talking outside and drinking a beer and the waitress actually asked my professor if we all had a way home (like making sure we didnt drive there). It was pretty funny and when he told us he was laughing. THe bus ride home i tought for sure we'd all pass out but no, the complete opposite. It was insane but again such a good time. We went out when we got home just for a coupld of drinks. The city square is like a 10 min bike ride from our apts and so we are there pretty often. We haven't had too many injury's with the drunken bike rides home but there have been a few. Hmm so we just kinda go on field trip type things during the day (mostly bike stuff bc my professor is annoyingly obsessed) and go out at night or chill in someones room. The weather here has been interesting. It rains one sec and is sunny the next...really weird. So much i want to tell you girls but i will tell you more in person!

We went to Paris on thursday night and it has got to be the most beautiful city ive seen yet. We arrived at the airport at 8 and had to take a bus into the city. It dropped us off at the arch de triumph and from there we knew our hostel was in the direction of the eiffel tower. The arch was absolutely gorgeous and HUGEEE as was the eiffel tower. The girls and i flew and the guys took the train and also were at a different hostel so we met up with them seperately. On our walk to our hostel we were just in complete awe of how beautiful everything is. The tower was unbelieveable and when it sparkled it jut brings chills (i thought anyways) . Our hostel was great (we got in late so were kinda sketched out that first night). We had aview of the tower from our room and it was in a great location. The next morning we got our 2day hop on hop off boat ticket and decided to take it around to see where to go first. Were riding along (began at the tower) and we get to Notre Dam and guess who we see standing along the river..th guys! We were so excited to see them (we actually missed them ha) so we got off there and decided to go in there first. It was incredible (im just going to keep saying that). From there, the whole weekend was perfect. Could not have gone any better and wesaw everythinggg. The girls and i did our thing during the day and we met up with the guys under the eifell tower at night to go out (it was really cute actually). Friday night we found an awesome pub type bar and sat we all went out to a nice dinner and from there went to the bastille area for drinks . There was karoke at the bar we were at so the girls and i decided we were going to sing. We get on stage and all of the guys followed. AAll of the sudden 15 of us are on stage belting out sweet caroline (i really wish we had it on tape). couple hours later (5am) we headed in our seperate directions and met them back in delft tonight. It was just a great perfect weekend and if you ever get the chance to visit paris (those who havent been) i would say GO! It's just amazing being there and the city just has this feeling about it. The history there just blows my mind. Id have to say my favorite thing was meeting up with the guys and our dinner sat was so great. We all get along so well and its been 2 weeks and i really think we all feel like we've known each other for so much longer than that (well alison and sarah who didnt really know any of us at all). It makes the trip great knowing that whatever we do we have a great time so im super happy about that. I miss you all so much though and cant wait to see you! I wish you could be here with me as well!

It's getting late here and i've had veryyy little sleep the past few weeks so i'm going to get in bed soon. I am so happy to hear about what you girls have been up to and i cant wait to actually talk to you about it. I want to see pictures from canada, la, boston!!! Any new updates with the job whit!! Hope everyone is doing well and i love you girls!

I'll write way less next time, im sorry if it was boring i was just trying to catch up!

Love, Christina