Day Four- The Dutch love ethnic food

[View of the snow from our window!]

First day of classes! After an early breakfast that consisted of a ham sandwich and bread with sprinkles I headed to my first official class at the castle: Art History. Rob Dukers was our professor today and explained to us that he and Dulcia alternate teaching different topics. I absolutely love the class!! Rob is very funny and seems like he will be a very interesting person to learn from. He is an art historian and the curator for a treasury museum for a church in Maastricht. I think he is going to take us on an excursion there which would be such a cool opportunity. Rob also told us how he is a guest curator for different exhibits and will actually be giving one in his specialty (medieval manuscripts) in New York while we’re on our travel break. This looks like it is going to be a much better art history experience than my first one! Right now we’re learning about Greek civilization and its impact on European art and architecture. It’s especially cool because two summers ago I was able to see a lot of the Greek temples and statues that Rob kept referencing in person.

For lunch we had Dutch French toast. I wonder if they actually refer to it as French toast…they never really told us what it was called. It seems like the trend here at the castle is to have typical American breakfast foods such eggs and French toast for lunch. After lunch was Intercultral Communication with Patrick Cattrysse. He is a professor from Belgium and speaks Flemish. This class seems like it might be a struggle to stay awake in because it seems a lot drier than my art history course. I had to run to the store with Louisa so we took a lovely stroll through snow covered Well. It snowed about a half an inch and everything looks so unbelievably gorgeous! I came back and did my art history reading and napped for about fifteen minutes before dinner.
Aunt Fran, you’ll love this-dinner tonight was Dutch Tacos. Yes, that’s right, Dutch tacos. To my surprise they were actually good! I’m not sure what kind of meat was in them but I’ve adopted a “don’t ask, just eat it” policy here. We had some delicious strawberry icecream in “baby cones” (a Cardone favorite) for dessert.

Something I have noticed is how the staff here pronounces my last name. Dulcia even made a point during our very first meeting with her to comment on how Mertens is a Dutch name. Everyone here pronounces it differently than in America. It’s pronounced “Mehrt-ens.” Renee told me that if I go anywhere and people see my last name, they will assume that I am Dutch. When I told him the name actually comes from Luxembourg he laughed and said close enough!

I love all of the comments, keep them coming!