Monday

Classes began today! There was a lot of talk about the intensity of the courses (as there is a full semester's worth of information packed into 5-weeks), however everything seems to be pretty do-able. The Digital Photography course seems like it will be interesting, but I was suprised at how captivated I was by the Art History class already. The professor is this extremely intelligent woman who has a real gift for speaking and engaging her students into her lecture (which for Emerson, is unfortunately pretty rare). This particular class will keep its focus largely on Renaissance Art, and our supplemental excursions (Bruges and Venice!) will accompany our lessons perfectly.

We're in class from about 10am-4:30pm, with a short break for lunch. We eat breakfast and lunch here at the Castle, however every night we walk about 20 minutes to this small Inn (called "Grote Waay") where we are served a 3 course meal. It has been absolutely amazing...I've surprisingly been getting some pretty amazing vegetarian meals, and the most delicious desserts. The food is unreal... I guess it's definitely a good thing a bunch of us have started playing pick-up soccer games before dinner to stay in shape!

We leave for our first excursion on Thursday morning, and that will be to Bruges and Antwerp, in Belgium. It's only about a 3 hour train ride from the Netherlands, and we'll be going to many museum's and other sites to further develop our knowledge of Renaissance art. James (my brother) spent about a month studying in Bruges last summer and completely fell in love with the city, so I'm excited to explore!

I'm going to try and post some more pictures of the Village of Well, keep checking back at the photo link:

PHOTOS

Also, if anyone is interested in checking out the website for my Digital Photography course, I believe we will be updating it almost daily with images we create during the trip.

I hope everyone's doing well back home! Keep in touch!

Digital Photo Images of Castle
Digital Photo Images of Students

Orientation continues...

Nothing really new to share. We've just been continuing with orientation this weekend, getting familiar with the Castle, the village, and life in the Netherlands. I'm posting some photos of the Castle so you can see just how unbelievable it is; words cannot do it justice! Later tonight we have a boat cruise that departs about a mile away from the Castle on the River Maas (I think that's the correct name...), which is one of the most important rivers in Europe, beginning in France and flowing throughout the Netherlands and Germany.

We begin classes tomorrow and have a relatively easy schedule compared to what a regular semester usually entails. We have our Art History course from 10-2, then Digital Photography from 2-4...not bad at all.

Here's the link to my photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillianhorn/