Oh dear, I've got too much to blog about.

I suppose I'm going to have to divide this into multiple posts. Perhaps. We shall see.

I think the first thing I have to catch y'all up on was seeing a performance of Doctor Faustus at the Globe Theatre. It was one of the best nights of my life. We had to see the play for our theatre class, but little did I know that one of the main characters was being played by one of my favorite actors from the TV show Doctor Who.
The actor's name is Arthur Darvill. Here is a picture of him as I saw him at the Globe. (He's the one in red/orange). At times he was probably no more than a foot away from me, and I swear we made eye contact multiple times. It was sooooo incredibly awesome. I may have also stolen a fake grape from off the stage that he possibly threw during the play.
So that was an awesome night. Despite staring in awe at Arthur for most of the play, I really enjoyed every aspect of the production. I especially liked being a "groundling", which is having a spot right up against the stage instead of having a real seat. Paul Hilton, who played Faustus, literally leaped directly over my head at one point. It was terrifying and awesome.

Wednesday we left for the infamous Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam
It was a really neat city, with the canals and bikes and bridges everywhere, but just a couple days there was enough. I got tired of nearly getting run over by bicyclists numerous times and getting a huge whiff of marijuana every time I walked past a "coffee shop" (of which there were many). That smell makes me nauseous.

We did get to see some really incredible things, mainly the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Anne Frank house. We also saw Rembrandt's house, but it was pretty dull.
Those first three things were all equally awe-inspiring in their own way.
Some of the food I had in Amsterdam was just delightful. Haagen-Dazs was especially wonderful. I had it twice. Shhhh....
The other food I had that deserves mentioning was when we ate at The Pancake Bakery, which supposedly has the best pancakes in Amsterdam. They were pretty darn good. I had a bacon and pineapple pancake that was bigger than my head. Choosing what kind of pancake to get was one of the most difficult decisions I've had to make. There were ridiculously many options. But I have no regrets.

After Amsterdam was a day trip to Rotterdam and then a night in Brussels.

Rotterdam
I didn't particularly care for the city of Rotterdam. We only went there to see an exhibit on the Dutch/Chinese trade relations, which relate to my Tea class, at the Maritime Museum which is located in Rotterdam. We learned some junk and got to walk around a boat. Then I found an H&M and bought a grey bowler hat and then we were off to Brussels, Belgium.

Brussels
I like Belgium better than Holland (the Netherlands). Mostly because French is one of their major languages, therefore I understood more, but also because it's just much more purdy. We really only went to Belgium to spend the night there, eat some waffles, and then take a train from there back to London. Via the chunnel, of course.
Our first mission was to get a Belgian waffle. Our director knew of supposedly the best waffle place in Brussels, so we went there and weren't disappointed. It was right next to the famous fountain called the Manniken Pis, which is a statue of a little boy who is peeing. It has a bunch of legends about it, but I still haven't quite figured out why it's so special. I enjoy the fact that they dress him up in different costumes for holidays and such. 
So our waffles were deeelicious (mine had whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate sauce on it). We then just started exploring Brussels and found a huge square with incredibly ornate buildings and some sort of festival-y thing going on. I tried escargot for the first time (and enjoyed it), got some fresh mussels (which are a Brussels specialty), and saw some dudes dancing in huge feather hats and clogs.
I really enjoyed my mussels at the time, but today myself and at least two other people are really sick, and we think the mussels were the cause. It's the WORST. I had to miss my Shakespeare class. We were watching the first half of the wonderful movie Shakespeare in Love today. :'(


Bruges
Bruges was THE BEST. I haven't even seen the movie In Bruges, which is the city's biggest claim to fame, but now I definitely want to. It is an amazing medieval town that is just the cutest place you ever did see. And there were SOOO many chocolate shops. Belgian chocolate is heavenly.
One of the most random things that happened in Bruges was finding a square with a big stage set up and some sort of fitness/aerobics/dance thing going on. It was great fun. The best part was not actually dancing myself, but rather seeing my 60-year old professor do it. Hilarious.
Some of us girls did a bit of shopping. I limited myself to chocolate and an incredible silk scarf. Belgians are also apparently known for their tapestries and such. I got my scarf from a shop primarily selling tapestries. It cost too much, but it's worth it. It's so sooooooft and niiiiiiiiiice....
I would totally live in Bruges. It rocked my socks.

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We returned from Belgium last night. I spent pretty much all of the night posting my many pictures to facebook and starting to write this. So that's that.