First Day of Class and Thursday

Yesterday was my first day of class (Dutch Art History)! I was really excited about it, and then remembered that it was from 1:30 - 6! What a day full of class and art, art, art!
I woke up that morning, and Annika and I had decided to go to the square where the town hall is, because every Wednesday they have a farmers market. However, its much different from the farmers market that I am used to, because there isn't as much food. There is tons and tons of fabric...everywhere you turn there are different colors, designs, and patterns! But then once you get around to the other side where all the food is, its GREAT! There are so many bright colors...and everything just looks so fresh. We wandered around for a little bit, trying to decide what exactly we would buy...and what might fit into our fridge (thats crucial!). I decided on some zucchini and cucumbers. The zucchini are the biggest I've ever seen!! And it was quite a deal --two cucumbers, two massive zucchinis for two euros! YUMM! I enjoyed one of the zucchinis last night and when I cut it up, it looked like it was an eggplant (now do you have an idea of how big it was!). It was delicious!
So then...I headed off to class at 1:00. Off on my bike..to my first day of class! There are just kids from my program in the class, so it was a good start to classes, not being thrown into a class where I didn't know exactly what was going on. We learned a little bit about our teacher, Arvi, and he told us that he had just gotten back from Italy, because he is studying specific pieces of art that are in Italy. He seems like a great teacher...however, its a little hard to understand him! He lectured for about an hour and a half and then we went off to a church that is in the middle of the town. The church is called St. Servatius (who was sent to Maastricht by St. Peter). St. Peter gave St. Servatius a key (which I got to see in the church), to come to Maastricht and look over it. There were many relics in the church, including the grave of St. Servatius, which is right under the alter. Not only did we get to walk around the church, but we also got to go and see the grave! The church is much larger than I expected it to be, and apparently it kept getting remodeled in order to keep up with the changing architecture and in order to challenge the church that is right across the river. So there are parts of the church that are from the 2nd century (when it was first built), as well as 13th - 17th century (the add ons). We went back to the classroom after the church tour and learned a bit more about some other Dutch painters, and before I knew it..it was 6! Guess I really do enjoy art!
Today, Thursday I had no classes, so I got to go exploring. However, it was raining really hard this morning, so I had to wait for a break in the clouds so I wouldn't get completely soaked! Once it cleared, I hopped on my bike and headed down to the train station, in order to figure out exactly how to book a train and all that fun stuff. After that, I was on a mission to find some postcards to send to people and just to have as souvenirs...NO LUCK! I guess, Maastricht really isn't a touristy town, which is kind of neat...but not so neat when you are searching for postcards! All the other places that I have been in Europe seem to have places to buy post cards and little knick knacks every turn of the bend....but o no..not Maastricht! O well! But I did find some cute stores that had some little things in them that were fun to look at. No class tomorrow either...so more exploring shall be done!