Rotterdam, the Netherlands

As a part of my PhD program at Central Michigan University (Mt. Pleasant, Michigan), I will (God willing and Dutch customs officials permitting) be studying abroad this coming academic year.  If all goes well, and if I ever get around to writing my thesis, I will even be able to get a Master's degree diploma written in Dutch.

I will be attending Erasmus University Rotterdam, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.  The whole program is in English, which makes it much easier, but I will be attempting to learn enough Dutch to make getting around more entertaining and to make research more convenient.  I will be studying in the "History and Modern Society" program but I will be focusing on Early Modern Dutch political thought (~1500-1700 AD) particularly looking at the ways in which they justified resistance to the Spanish king.  I also might be looking at the influence of English ex-patriots who settled in the Netherlands while fleeing the Marian persecution, some of whom remained and founded English speaking churches which are still extant.

Hopefully, I will also get to do some traveling for fun.  Rotterdam is very convenient for this as it seems like it is just about 2-4 hours from anywhere in Europe.  I am hopping to visit Copenhagen, Denmark (because who doesn't like Vikings and the Little Mermaid), the Czech Republic (because I have a friend who used to live there and who wrote me letters about it and because it is one of the older, cheaper type places in Europe), Albania (because they have a heroic history and because no one else ever goes there) the U.K. (because I have wanted to see the British Museum ever since I started reading about Egyptology, because you can see a matinee of a Shakespeare play, at the Globe theatre, for about $12, and because I know a lot of people there, including Penny (Schultz) Philip) and any place which was formerly inhabited by ancestors of me (because it is fun to say you saw the places that your family couldn't get away from fast enough).  Unfortunately, every time I look at a travel guide, I keep thinking of more places I never realized I couldn't live without having gone to see, so we will see how much time I spend studying and how much time I spend trying to see everything that ever happened anywhere in Europe.

In any case, I thought that, since I tend to be bad about remembering to correspond, and since I might be in places where it would take a really long time to upload pictures to email, that I would try to kill a few birds with one stone by 1) letting everyone know that I am not dead yet, 2) showing off some of my pictures and telling all my funny traveling stories while I still remember them, and 3) allowing everyone to say "Oh, I think I already heard all about that . . ." when I come back to the States and whip out my giant photo album.

Feel free to enjoy, ignore, or share, as seems convenient.