Kasteel Adventure

My name is Scott Sinclair, and I am a student at Emerson College in Boston, MA. I just came back from a study abroad semester in the Netherlands where I stayed in a 15th century castle (Kasteel Well) and traveled around to different European countries every weekend. Please click on the links below to read my individual stories and adventures.

August 17, 2007: Welcome
August 20, 2007: 17 Days
August 21, 2007: 6 Days
September 8, 2007: Day #1:Jet Lag
September 8, 2007: First Day at Kasteel Well: Jet Lag Continued
September 8, 2007: Drugs Are Bad m'Kay
September 10, 2007: Wireless is Still Down...
September 10, 2007: Rainy Netherlands Day
September 11, 2007: Internet is Up!
September 11, 2007: Boar Cruise Pictures
September 11, 2007: Second Day of Class
September 11, 2007: I Hate Smoke
September 12, 2007: Who Has Airborne?
September 12, 2007: Paddy's Palace
September 13, 2007: One Week Down
September 13, 2007: Childhood Dream
September 14, 2007: Slow Day
September 15, 2007: So We Got Carded in Europe...??
September 18, 2007: I'm From Holland...Where the F**k You From?
September 18, 2007: If a Tree Falls in the Middle of the Woods...
September 25, 2007: Austria Pictures
September 25, 2007: I Have Confidence I Will Get Out of Germany
October 1, 2007: Brussels: The Trashy Version of Paris
October 3, 2007: Jackie is Here!
October 9, 2007: Hello from London
October 15, 2007: And There is No Place Like London
October 16, 2007: On the Streets of Dublin
October 16, 2007: Connecting with My Family Roots
October 18, 2007: Funny Dutch Emails
October 21, 2007: Welcome to My Home
October 21, 2007: Stress-free Weekend
October 23, 2007: What? Ads? Why? Huh?
October 29, 2007: Halfway Done Already??
October 29, 2007: More Lists and Funny Dutch Emails
October 30, 2007: New Layout
November 1, 2007: Halloween in a Haunted Castle...Does it Get Much Better Than That?
November 5, 2007: Get Ready
November 5, 2007: We Were HUNGARY in BUDAPEST (I Know...I'm Really Original)
November 6, 2007: Open Mic Night
November 8, 2007: Some Castle History
November 12, 2007: Willkommen Bienvenue Welcome
November 13, 2007: Please Click on Ads
November 25, 2007: I'm Back!
November 26, 2007: Czech Me Out, I'm in Praha
November 27, 2007: Bad Ass Chicks from the Moulin Rouge
November 28, 2007: Scheduling Stress
December 5, 2007: Coming Soon
December 6, 2007: Where You Going? Barcelona. Oh.
December 6, 2007: Sinterklaas
December 7, 2007: 3 Months
December 10, 2007: No More Class!
December 20, 2007: So Long, FareWELL (Get it?)
December 20, 2007: Oh Well, I Lived in a Castle

Oh well, I lived in a castle

Honestly, how many people can say that? Ok smart ass, yes 80 kids go each semester, and more go in the summer, so around 180 people each year can say that, but still. This past semester has been the greatest experience of my life. Last year and over the summer, whenever I would talk to someone who went to the castle I got the same response from everyone. "OMG You are going to have so much fun!" "It changed my life!" "Best semester ever!" And you know what. Everyone of them was right. There was nothing to be let down about. There was no false advertising. Every single thing I heard about the castle program was accurate. When I was in Boston for about 15 hours, all I could tell people were the same generic responses that I was given all last year. There is a reason everyone says the same thing, because its true.

Who else gets to travel around Europe for 3 months and see 12 different countries, 22 different cities all while staying in a castle from the 15th century? Not too many people. I feel like I have grown so much and can honestly say that I feel like I am almost an adult now. I matured so much during this semester, despite what it might look like from the shakey face pictures, because I was forced to mature. When something went wrong, there was no one there to solve the problem at hand except for me and a few other people my age. There was no calling mom, or having a teacher there to help us. We were all on our own. In a different continent. In a place where we don't know the language. But somehow we always found a way out of it.

I am very happy to be back in The US, but I know I will miss a lot from Europe. For now though, I am enjoying little things that I never noticed before or took for granted. On the way back home to NY, my parents and I were stopped at a rest stop and I looked around and turned to my mom and said, "Mom look! I can understand everything that is written there. And I can order...in English. And know that they know what I am saying!" Little things like having no language barrier anymore are amazing right now, but I already miss living in a castle and seeing amazing places.

I decided to end this last blog entry with a few pieces of advice to any future castle kids out there who might be reading this. I will probably think of more things as time goes by, and if I think of it, will add it to the list, but for now here are my Top 50 pieces of advice...

1. The 2nd floor hallway of the VB is great for skype
2. Book everything in advance
3. Don't book anything until you have all points figured out
4. Ryan air does not fly to major cities. Instead they fly 1hr outside of cities. Make sure you know the airport you are going to.
5. When there is a bathroom and its free-use it
6. Buy a cheap alarm clock and set it on trains so you don't miss your stop
7. The bathroom on the first floor of the main castle next to the kitchen is always clean cause no one uses it AND is the only place with paper towels
8. The “Reference room”/library has most of the books you will need for class-Try to figure out what books you need and check with current castle kids if you need to buy it or not
9. Girls-Do not let the boys at the Linden sweet talk you-they do the same thing to all the castle kids every semester
10. Wear sandals in the showers
11. Do not take ethics
12. Take anything Ralph Trost is teaching
13. Dulcia Meijers and Rob Duckers are incredible
14. Useful conversions…
            1kg=2.2lbs
            50lbs=22.6kg
            1mi=1.6km
      But don't worry, you will not figure out the metric system. Ever.
15. You do not need to pack any more pants than the ones you are wearing for weekend trips
16. You will wear things more than once without washing it-Don’t worry, everyone does
17. People will goes days without showering and girls will not shave in weeks. Hygiene takes a backseat to travel and exhaustion
18. Don’t be surprised if you wake up and your room is covered in lady bugs
19. Make your parents buy a microphone/webcam-You will save loads of money on calling them by using skype for free
20. Skype sucks and cuts out a lot. However it is better to cut out a lot, than pay $50 for a 10 minute phone call.
21. The castle was not built for wireless-You will get used to it cutting out
22. It is cheaper to buy stuff at Meer Mart than at Sophies or the vending machine
23. When something goes wrong while traveling (And I am 100% positive something will, you have two options
            1) Get pissed off and cry
            2) Laugh at how much life sucks and find a way to fix it
   You won’t solve anything by getting pissed off except for making others pissed off and irritated and not getting anything solved. If you just spend 3 minutes being angry and pissed then say “How do I solve this” everything will work out fine
24. If you overpack remember that you have to carry around your heavy bag for a lot longer than you think you will be carrying it
25. Make sure you back up any pictures you have taken in some way-Either save them online somewhere, bring CDs or an external hardrive-You will be very angry if you lose all your memories
26. Bring DVDs. There will be boring nights when you want to sit and watch a movie
27. If you have a choice between Kaldoun or Sophie-pick Kaldoun
28. Take a weekend to stay behind (After one of the travel breaks) and do day trips. Venlo, Nijmegen, Arcen, Venray-You will be very tired and it doesn’t hurt to miss out on one weekend to relax
29. You will not be able to talk to most of your friends back home. Between time differences and busy schedules, your communication will be severely disrupted. However AIM and Skype are incredible things and encourage everyone back home to use both frequently
30. You will get annoying emails/facebook invites to things going on back home/in Boston
31. The walls of the rooms (Besides Toren 1) are thin. Everyone can hear what you are saying so keep that in mind
32. Word spreads fast. If you don’t want people to know about something you did, don’t do it.
33. You will inevitably start talking a lot about natural bodily functions to make them less awkward. If you have to take a poop, take a poop.
34. If you have any questions-feel free to email me (Even if I don’t know who you are-don’t hesitate to ask me anything)
35. Learn a few key phrases before you go to a new country. If you know how to say Hello, Thank you and Goodbye, then the locals will treat you so much better than if you just try to speak English to them
36. “Castle-cest” is inevitable. If you make out with someone-chances are you are linked to over half the castle. Throw in sharing joints and pretty much the entire castle has swapped saliva in under 6 degrees of separation
37. Bring your charger and an adapter on ever trip-Charge your camera every night just in case-You don’t want to miss out on amazing pictures because your battery died
38. American toiletry products CAN be purchased overseas and most likely at Under one Roof. You do not need to over estimate how much product you need
39. If there is a special event being thrown by the staff-GO! You will miss out on one of the best nights if you don’t (ie Halloween, Jackie’s dinner, etc).
40. Bring two sets of sheets and change them every few weeks. You will already be really dirty, you don’t need to sleep on dirty sheets on top of that
41. Bring food with you on the trains-You will most likely get hungry at some point and you do not want to waste money buying over priced food on the train
42. Go to the grocery store before you leave. If you buy food in Well you will not need to pay for lunch on your trips-Rice cakes are only 30 euro cents and are wonderful at easing hunger
43. Don’t be afraid to eat American fast food. After months away from home it will be a sentimental and economically efficient meal leaving you more than satisfied.
44. The Nescafe machine does not give change-Don’t put more than 20 cents in unless you want to get a shitload of hot chocolate
45. The Nescafe however is a good source of free cups if you ever need them
46. After spending 3 months with the same 80 people (Emerson kids to be exact) tensions will be heightened and moods with shift. Try to leave space and don’t get involved in any drama going on. If someone is pissed off, back off and let them be
47. Don’t worry about having enough clothes when trying to fit everything into 2 bags weighing 50 lbs each-You will end up wearing everything twice no matter how much you bring, so you really only need a week/week and a half worth of clothes
48. Two words…Dr. Scholls. You will be walking A LOT so wear comfortable shoes.
49. Just because its legal (or “tolerated”) doesn’t mean you have to do it
50. Make a blog-It is an easy way to let people back home know what you are up to without having to talk to them every day (ie Your parents…Love you Mom and Dad)

Most of all just have fun! If you ever get frustrated or upset with something just think to yourself, oh well, I live in a castle!

So long, FareWELL (Get it!)

Here it is folks. My second to last blog entry (That is probably a lie...but as of now it is). I am home safe and sound sitting on my bed in Suffern, NY after the most eventful three and a half months of my life. I will save the reflections for my last blog entry, but right now I need to finish up describing my travels and journeys from Well to London and then London back home.

My last final was Monday afternoon. After everything was done school wise I just sat around and tried to soak in as much of the castle and my surroundings as possible. The rest of Monday was spent relaxing and starting to pack my entire life back up into two bags.

Speaking of packing and bags...Let me say that Chester Lee and David Griffin are not only horrible at their jobs, but extremely rude human beings (I know...Anyone could read this...But if you are reading this Chester or David...I have already expressed my opinions I hold to your faces but here is again what I think of you). To get to London, all 80 of us were going to be flying AirBerlin. We had a travel meeting a week before we left to discuss specifics and in this meeting someone asked specifically if we were allowed to bring the same two bags weighing 50lbs each and Chester said yes. Monday night (aka not even two days before we were leaving) one of the girls at the castle looked on AirBerlin's website and saw that this is a lie. We were only allowed to bring 22 kg of luggage TOTAL (That is about 50lbs). For each kg that you went over, you had to pay 5 euros. She quickly emailed Chester Lee (Assistand Director of the castle) and he told her that we would be liable to pay any fees for overweight luggage. After looking at how absurd that was, she sent another email to David Griffin (Director of External Programs of Emerson) and he said the same thing. She then got a nasty email from Chester saying that she was rude to email David Griffin about the problem at hand. She was only doing what was right in trying to work everything out to avoid us from paying the fee. She also found out that Chester Lee had written an email to David Griffin saying that it was explained in the travel meeting that the bags could only be 20kg total (Which was an outright and blatant lie). After doing some math, I figured out that every single one of us would have had to pay 125 euros each (About $190) to get our bags to London.

After I heard about what was going on, I immediately sent an email to David Griffin explaining in a firm, yet polite, manner that it is unacceptable what is going on and that they needed to come up with a solution that did not require us to spend money we did not have left. As some people who know me, I do not deal well with people who try and take advantage of me and ignore any problems that are going on (ie everything that happened at my job this summer). I also knew that an email to just David Griffin would not get anything done, so I CCed it to Chester Lee (So he would know what is going on), Dulcia Meijers (The Director of the castle who was on leave this semester) and Jackie Leibergott (President of Emerson College). A few of us also went around the castle and encouraged other students to send similar emails. I knew that if the two of them got inundated with emails and saw that head honchos such as Dulcia and Jackie were being notified of their mistakes, that they would get something done. Sure enough, later that night we all got a mass email from Chester Lee saying things were worked out. In true Chester Lee form however, the email was rude and condescending. However the bottom line is that everything worked out and we didn't have to pay a dime for our bags. But if we hadn't made such a huge stink about it, the two of them would have just blown it off and ignored the issue while we got inundated with fees.

Tuesday morning I woke up and got my room ready for the inventory and room check. Huber and some woman (I still don't know her name) came by and checked all of our rooms and made sure nothing was damaged or missing. Everything was fine and they went on their way. At around 4pm, Blake, Paulina, Laura and I decided to watch the sunset. I wanted to get a few of us together again just as we did on our first night in Well. It was very peaceful and nice to walk around the grounds one last time.

Then around 5, our activities began. The first thing to happen was a tree planting ceremony. Apparently every semester the class plants a tree at the castle so that part of us will always be there. It was cute and symbolic. After that we all walked into town to go to De Grote Waay. It is a really nice restaurant that Nellie (The woman who cooked our food) ran. We had a really nice dinner that definitely made up for some so-so dining hall adventures.




Me and Paulina at dinner


Me and Michelle


Spencer and John


Me and Blake


(Going clockwise) Blake, Michelle, Me, Lily, Caroline


Jessica, Me, David


Lauren and Me


Jessye and Me


Ashley and me taking an awkward Christmas card photo


Me and Devon


Me and John


Spencer and Me


Alicia and I can't take our eyes off each other


Me and Alicia


Mer and me doing an awkward prom picture


Jessica, Mer, Lauren and I


Caroline

After dinner we were told to go back to the barn. Upon arrival to the barn we were treated to a lipsync version of the Spice Girls performed by the male staff...







After one song another person came out wearing a bright pink hoodie and spandex pants...It was my World Since 1914 professor Ralph Trost! It just made me love that man even more.




We put Johnny and Rene through so much this semester. We made them dress up as the Spice Girls, Santa's slaves, Halloween monsters...

After they were done we went to Sophie's to watch all the other Farewell performances. There were some great performances, but the highlight of the night had to have been Ashley Whiting's stand up routine. This girl is the younger heterosexual version of Ellen.

Of course after everything was done around midnight, everyone headed over to the Linden for one last Dutch drink. I wasn't going to go because I was really tired, but I went for about a half hour or so. It was fun as always and a nice way to end.



Spencer and John


Me and Donia (sp?) who was one of my favorite staff members


Spencer and Johnny


John and Meredith



One last dance on the pool table



Caroline and Chris



To say goodbye Jack (The owner) brought out these big sparkler things...





Last Linden Shakey face...



Blake and I dancing behind the bar


Ok so I lied about the last shakey face...We got the Duke to take a shakey face with us!!

The next morning I woke up and was in such a weird mood. I knew that everything I did that morning would be the last. The last time I wake up in my bed, in a castle, in Holland. The last time I walk down those steep stairs to brush my teeth. The last time I eat in the dining hall.


Me in front of the castle


Blake and I


Last Dutch shakey face

So here is me and Blake on the first day of the semester in September...


And this is us now at the end...



I spent the day finishing my packing and soaking in everything. Finally we got on a bus and bid adieu to the castle. We had a 3pm flight to London and got to London about 3:30 (Hour time difference...). In true castle form, it took us over an hour to leave Stansted, hit traffic and didnt get to the county "hotel" until 6pm. Blake and I had tickets to see at show at 7:30 so we were in a big rush. We didnt get checked in until 7, and then we had to RUN to the tube stop and RUN to the theatre. We ended up getting there at around 7:34 but still made the beginning of the show.

Now let me rewind a bit. I am not sure if I talked about this in any earlier blogs or not, but about a month ago I got an email from my friend Lexie's mother. I have known Lexie since 7th grade and now she goes to Emerson with me, but she stayed back in Boston this semester. Lexie's uncle was a publicist for a lot of Broadway shows and worked in London a lot. Unfortunately last year he died. One of his best friends named Malcolm Sinclair (No relation that we know of) came over from London to speak at the funeral. Malcolm met Lexie's uncle because he is an actor in the West End. He ended up staying in NY for a few weeks and getting to know Lexie's family pretty well. Libby (Lexie's mom) sent me an email telling me that I should get in touch with him and he could maybe show me around when we went back to London. We emailed back and forth and set up plans to meet when I went back to London right before I came home. He is currently starring in a show called Dealer's Choice at a theatre in the West End in London, so he got Blake and I tickets to see it. Afterwards we met up with him and went out for drinks and dinner with him.

He is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. He is hysterical and so kind. The entire night, he did not let us pay for a single thing and that included dinner and a bunch of drinks. We started off at a pub next to the theatre with two of his other friends. After a drink there, his friends left and we went to a restaurant for dinner. We went to Joe Allen's (In the words of Malcolm "Of course I'm taking two Americans to a fucking American restaurant in London..."). Like Joe Allen's in NY, a lot of actors go there after their shows. All throughout dinner people kept coming up to him and complimenting him in the show. It was so much fun to be sitting at dinner with a legit West End actor. After dinner we went back to his apartment (or flat) and hung around there for a little bit longer. We ended up staying out until 3:30am. At this point we got in a cab and went back to our "hotel."



Blake, Malcolm and me

The next day I woke up, got breakfast and then headed out with some people to Camden Town. It is where all the punks and goths go in London and has a bunch of cool little shops and cheap food. I got lunch and then headed off on my own. I wanted to go to the National Gallery because I didn't get to go the first time we were in London and one of my favorite paintings is in there (Bathers at Asnieres by Seurat). I found the painting and then roamed around a little bit. After the National Gallery I just sort of wandered around London. I love having time to myself in cities like that. It is so peaceful.

Then at 3:30 we had a tour of...The BBC. The BBC has been a huge joke with Michelle and I the entire semester, so we had a lot of fun. It was an interesting tour and we got to see a bunch of different studios and inner workings of the BBC.


BBC Shakey face

The tour got out around 5 so Blake and I once again had to rush over to the National Gallery because we were meeting Malcolm there for tea. It was good to see him one last time, as well and nice to say I have had tea in London. Malcolm had to go do a show, so we said goodbye to him and then walked over to Piccadilly Circus.





After walking around for a little bit, we met up with Spencer and John to have our last dinner in Europe. We ate at an Italian restaurant in Leicester Square. After dinner, we found a carnival that was going on in Leicester Square so we decided to have fun there.


Me, Spencer, John, and Blake







Bumper Cars!

Finally a lot of people were going over to this club for one last hurray. I was tire/poor so I didn't really want to go, but I ended up going and just sitting and talking to people. It was a nice calm last night.


Me imitating Caroline

The next day...was hell. We woke up at 6am London time (1am EST). We boarded a bus at 7 to catch a plane at 1:45. Everything went fine though. We got to the airport, checked in, boarded the plane. The plane ride went a lot faster than I thought. It was about 8 hour to Detroit, but did not feel like it at all. I slept for a little bit, but not too long. We landed in Detroit around 5 at which point everyone whipped out their cell phones and started calling everyone they know because it was the first time in months we could use our phones. Our flight to Boston left around 7:30 and got there at 9. We were greeted by a bunch of Emerson kids which was fun. I got my luggage and got a cab back to Boston where I met up with Lexie. She literally jumped on me for about 2 minutes in the lobby of the LB and then we went up to her room. It was really strange being back and also being at Emerson for such a short time.

I spent the night with Lexie and then my parents picked me up the next morning. We left Boston around noon and got home by 4. Like I thought, the ride back that used to feel long toward the end, felt like an hour. I am so used to long travel trips now, that it was nothing.

It was really nice to sleep in my own bed. I fell asleep at around 10 and woke up the next morning, or afternoon I guess at 1. Yup 15 hours of sleep!

I am still trying to recover from the sleep deprivation of the past 3-4 months, but whatever. I lived in a castle.