Hoi he! Ik woon en Maastricht!

Translation: Hi!  I am living in Maastricht!

This is a picture of my roommate (Sandy) and me after we arrived at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.  The weather was much different in Maastricht - cold, windy, and rainy.  We are actually in a tropical storm right now, but it hasn't been that bad.

The Erasmus Student Network members have been showing us around, and Maastricht is such a neat little town.  There are just over 100,000 people here.  Carnival (similar to Mardi Gras) will begin soon, and the town will be full of people in colorful costumes with music  and games everywhere.

This is a picture of one of the many buildings of Universiteit Maastricht.  There are many beautiful, old buildings here.  One of the buildings we met in today was an old monastery, and there were beautiful biblical mosaics on the domes and walls.  I will have better pictures for you soon, I hope.

And here is a picture of the cobblestone streets. Though it is a bit difficult to walk on, it is quite picturesque.  The grass is always green here, with all the rain.  I guess it does not require much sun.

Here we are visiting our director's office. As you may note in the balloons above, everyone is excited about Carnival, so we see red, yellow, and green balloons and flags everywhere!  The offices and hallways many times have murals and bright colors (possibly to combat the drab sky).  This is Laura Madeline in the picture.

And lastly, here is a picture of the room in which we had our first session.  Breathtaking, isn't it?  I wish you could all be here with me.  Our session was followed by tea and pastries.  So, Mom and Nancy, I drank some good tea for you!  ;)

Finally, you have two new ways in which to contact me:

Aim/iChat: JuliaGo0olia (it is letter o, number zero, letter o)

Skype: JuliaCJohnson

I can't wait to share more!

MUCH LOVE!!!!

P.S. And sorry about the formatting - everything is in Dutch, haha, and I am trying to make updates as the internet connection returns.  I would change it to English, but I feel that this offers more assimilation.  :)  Hopefully the formatting will look better as the connection improves.