Den Haag & Stuff

The Hague is really cool! It was a beautiful, sunny day on Monday. We got up bright and early and took the 8:29 train.

This is the Peace Palace:


It's even cooler-looking on the inside!

The proceedings were delayed for about an hour because the Democratic Republic of the Congo didn't show up because of the ash cloud. Finally everyone decided to go on without the DRC, since it was Guinea's day to talk anyhow. The actual talking part was extremely boring... but very interesting. I can't really explain it. It made me sleepy, but I found what they were saying intriguing. I wasn't the only one who got the sleepy vibe though. Some of the judges were actually nodding off! eek! But it was a cool experience. Everything was in French, but we got headphones so we could here the English interpreter. It was neat to see Judge Abraham in real life, since I was him at Boston Model UN once in high school.

After court, we went out to lunch at a cool cafe. I got really yummy soup. At 3 I took out my computer and registered for classes. I'm taking Music and Embodied Cognition, Seminar: International Politics, Introduction to Historical Performance, and then I registered for two politics classes from which I have to choose one. I signed up for Debating Democracy, which is with a teacher I've heard great things about, and International Environmental Politics. I'm leaning towards Debating Democracy. If I take that class, however, I will only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. My classes will be at 11, 1:30, and 3. I will also have my seminar on Wednesday nights at 7:30. It could actually be really cool to have MWF for homework and other stuff. And Tuesdays and Thursdays won't be any busier than they were last semester. And I can sleep later. What do you guys think? I also plan to take private lessons on bass and viola da gamba.

So yeah... after lunch and course registration, Vivian, Laura, and I walked to the Mauritshuis museum. It was super cool! I love that period of art (and music), and the museum was an awesome size. There were lots of paintings, but it was small enough that we could see them all and really appreciate them and stuff.

This is the museum:


We saw this thing:


This painting, entitled "Searching for Lice," gave me horrifying flashbacks:


I really, really liked this one. It's Gabriel Metsu's "A Young Woman Composing Music." It looks so much cooler in real life though:


The train ride home from the Hague was so pretty and sooo Hollandy! We went by tons of tulip fields with all sorts of crazy colors, and a bunch of cows and windmills and stuff!

My camera seems to be breaking. The left side of all my pictures is blurry. Hmm...

Yesterday, I witnessed the most disastrous lecture ever. Our guest lecturer for Conflict Studies showed up half an hour late. He spoke really quietly and was a total mess until someone finally said something. Then we had a break. Then he came back after the break and said he couldn't finish. It was so sad. I felt really bad for him. But I got to leave early and go out for coffee with some friends, so that was nice.

Dam square has become a huge carnival. It's super exciting. There are rides and games and cotton candy and everything! I wanna go on the ferris wheel!

I don't think Spain is going to happen, but I might try to go to Copenhagen that weekend with a friend. If it's not equally expensive. I'm going to start looking into it.