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!