Author Archives: Laurel Petrulionis

Back in Happy Valley but Homesick for Europe

It’s been a while since my last geoblog, and while a lot has happened (namely returning to America), I wanted to wait and process my experiences a little bit before coming here to blog. 

I spend my last two weeks having the time of my life in Amsterdam and London. Amsterdam is now tied with Berlin for my favorite city in the world. I went with a couple friends from Maastricht, and we went to a Electronic Music Festival called Dance Valley, which was fantastic. I had never been to a music festival before, so going to a huge one in The Middle Of Nowhere, The Netherlands was pretty incredible. Also that weekend, my friends and I met local university students from Amsterdam. They hung out with us all night and showed us the best things to do in Amsterdam. I’ve heard it said that the Dutch are the nicest people in the world, and the people I met definitely back that statement up. 
After a last week of classes (and a final exam), I packed my room up, returned my bike to the rental place, and lugged my twenty thousand pound luggage down to the train station. It was very sad for me, but also strange because I was the only person in my program not looking forward to coming home. No offence Mom and Dad if you’re reading this. I loved the weeks I spent studying in Maastricht, and I regretted leaving, just as I was starting to be comfortable navigating the city. 
So, I took the train under the English Channel and arrived in London. I write for an entertainment news site in my spare time, and they were putting on an annual convention in London that weekend. The timing worked out incredibly, and so I spent my weekend frantically running around the convention hotel trying to cover different events and panels. I got to see friends who I hadn’t seen in years, and though exhausting it was easily one of the highlights of the entire trip. 
And now I’m home. I cried the whole time I was in the airport, not wanting to have my summer adventure be over. But now that I’m getting back into the swing of things I’ve adapted back into college-mode. Interestingly, I find myself homesick for Maastricht, or even Europe in general. I’m taking three different European studies classes this semester, and I teared up the other day just looking at a map of the continent and realizing how much of it I was able to explore. When I was abroad, I was fortunate enough to not experience homesickness. I might have just not been there long enough, but I did find a life-style that I loved and more people with similar values than I’d ever met anywhere else. I think that means that I’m in the right field of study (International Politics/International Agriculture), and I’m already looking for the next opportunity to travel abroad. 
So that sums up my adventures in Europe. Thanks to modern technology, I was able to take pictures and share them with friends and family at home. I was able to keep a blog as a record of my time spent, and I have social media to allow me to stay in contact with all the friends I made from Australia to Sweden to Brazil. But before I end my time as a geoblogger, I wanted to give some advice to anyone studying abroad in the future (Shout-out to my friend Marie who will be blogging from France this Fall!)
#1. Say yes to everything.

Barring illegal or dangerous activity, really try to break out your comfort zone. There were many times when I ended up having the time of my life after talking myself out of initial hesitation. In Berlin I didn’t want to go on the bike tour, but I ended up enjoying it so much that I rented a bike for the entire trip. In Amsterdam I was weary of going to a music festival in a different country, but it was unforgettably fun. Find ways to challenge your status-quo and really make the trip an adventure.
#2. Add everyone you meet on social media.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatever your preference is for social media platforms, add everyone. The person you met waiting in line for lunch, the student sitting next to you in class, even the person who you talked to at a dance club that one time. It’s actually surprising how much seeing updates from these people keeps my memories of the experience alive, and even simply “liking” a status or a photo is an easy way to stay in touch with people. And on the plus side, when you’re on your next trip and you realize you’re in the same city as someone you know, you can easily find them to go have lunch with them. 
#3. Take too many pictures.

In the age of camera-phones, this may seem obvious, but I regret not taking more pictures than I did (and I took over 700 pictures). Everywhere you go, snap a picture. If you meet a group of people, take a selfie. That building looks cool? It should be on your phone/camera. Posting pictures online is an easy way to stay in touch with folks back home, and I promise there will be nights when looking through your thousands of images sounds like the most fun ever. You’ll never regret taking a picture, but you’ll definitely regret the ones you didn’t take.
#4. Use all your time.

This may be different for semester study abroads, but during my trip I traveled in every spare hour I could. Find something to do in the time after your classes and put a limit on facebook-checking time. I promised myself that I wouldn’t spend my time in Europe sitting in a dorm room, and I’m very glad that I actually got out to explore the area I was in. Plan trips well in advance for the best prices, and look up things to do in the area before you go. I highly recommend “Let’s Go: Europe,” which is a travel guide written by Harvard students specifically for study abroad travelers. Basically use your time so that you’ll have the most stories to tell when you come home. 
#5. Stay in fun hostels.
I already wrote an entire blog post on this, but staying in hostels is an incredible experience that no study abroad is complete without. Go make friends from Australia and explore the city with new friends. 
I’m sure once I publish this I’ll think of twenty more things to say. Now that I have access to a real computer instead of the iPad I’d been traveling with, I’ll be going back through the blogs and inserting photos to them. Even though I’m a bit sad to say that my trip has ended, I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to have what is so far the best summer of my life. Thanks for reading about my adventures, and good luck to all the students who are heading out on their own. I’m incredibly jealous, and you’re about to have the best semester ever.

Location: State College, Pennsylvania

Student Life in Maastricht

I have a midterm tomorrow; so, naturally I decided this was the oportune moment to write a blog! I am about to wrap up my second and penultimate week of classes at Maastricht University. I’m just taking one class: “The Politics of European Integration,” and I’m also participating in a “Social Program” hosted by the university. Even though its summer and the University isn’t as busy as it would be durring a semester, I’m definitely getting to experience what studying is like for students here.

Maastricht is actually one of the newer universities in the Netherlands, having been founded in the 70’s. Part of their mission is to be an “international” university, and they do boast impressive numbers in terms of non-dutch students. They also host a “summer school” that allows students to come take short courses throughout the summer break. That summer school actually overlaps with the program I’m in, so I’ve been able to study with students from Brazil, Italy, Russia, and Macedonia, to name a few.

The diversity of the students in the class has lead to a fantastic learning environment. Though our class focuses on the institutions and functionings of the European Union, we use the systems we’re familiar with to help us compare and understand them. So I’ve really gotten to hear a global perspective on issues around integration and globalization. My life’s goal is to work within the international political realm, so this experience is preparing me more than any class could.

Speaking of the class, I had been curious to see how thorough of an education I could get from a class that only lasts for three weeks. It turns out that it’s easy to pack a lot of information into a short time. Our professor specializes in law, so we’re focusing on European Law and looking directly at the treaties that form the basis of the European Union. If anything, this class has let me know that law school is probably in my future. I enjoy flipping through pages of documents to find the small clause that will inevitably decide the nature of a law. It may seem like tedious work to some, but I find these legal douments to be like treasure hunts and logic puzzles! It’s actually my idea of fun.

It may be hard to believe, but we are also spending time not studying while we’re in Europe! With the other international students, I’ve attended vinyard tours, lazer tag in caves, and soon we’re going to tour a castle! Maastricht offers a wealth of options for a fun day, and I’ve made fast friends with everyone in the program. I’m lucky that about thirty of us are all from Penn State, and therefore I can see them in my normal life as well. But I don’t even want to think about saying goodbye to the friends I’ve made from other universities.

I also wanted to mention how well I’ve adjusted to Dutch life. A common phrase around here is that “the dutch are born with a bike between their legs.” And since the university is about a thirty minute walk from our dormitory, I decided to rent a bike and really get the Dutch experience! I love being able to just jump on my bike and go anywhere (no really, it’s only a ten minute ride to Belgium!). I can take it and leave it at the train station, and grab it again after a weekend trip. Even though almost every street has its own bike lane, traffic laws favor bicyclists so heavily that I feel safe biking even in heavy traffic. I’ve enjoyed owning a bike here so much that I plan on getting one to take with me back to Penn State!

A group of friends and I are going to Amsterdam for the weekend, and then I have my final week of classes! Time is flying, so I really have to enjoy every moment of the next two weeks.


Location: Maastricht, The Netherlands

Weekend Travels: Copenhagen and Vienna

The best part of Europe to an American is that it’s so small! Compared to my home state of Pennsylvania, the distance between one city to another is nothing. My central location in Maastricht is convenient for weekend trips, and I’m definitely taking advantage of our university’s scheduled three day weekend!
Last weekend I went to Copenhagen. I had never been to Denmark or any Scandinavian country, but I found a train that let me fall asleep in Cologne and wake up in Copenhagen, so I said “why not?” It was such a fun city — museums displaying full sized Viking boats, an amusement park in the middle of town, an autonomous hippy state, and the best bread I’ve ever tasted in my life. Seriously, they don’t process their wheat before they made bread, so it’s chewy and filling and full of fiber. 
I took a bike tour to see as much of the city as possible, and I ended up really enjoying the hippy paradise of Christiana. In the 70’s, a group of squatters took over an abandoned military baraks. The police decided to look the other way, and soon the tiny area had turned into a full fledged autonomous state. They’ve built their own houses and buildings in addition to the ones they took over, and it has a booming economy independent of Danish rule. They have hair salons, restaurants, doctors offices, basically every need is met. The town is ruled by direct democracy and all decisions are made by consensus. The coolest part to me is that they have strict policy on development, and are therefore the most biodiverse area of Copenhagen.
I also took a day trip to Sweden, but on my way I visited the castle of a town called Helsingoer. In English, that would be pronounced “Elsinore.” Any literary nerds understand why the castle was so exciting yet? It’s the castle that Shakespeare set “Hamlet” in! I’m a huge fan of Shakespeare and I was an assistant director for that play a couple summers ago, so I geeked out trying to figure out which rooms each scene might have taken place in. I was disappointed to find out that Hamlet was not a real person; rather, he was based on Danish legend. Therefore no Hamlet, Polonius, or Gertrude ever actually occupied the castle. It was still the highlight of my trip though!
This weekend I’m staying in Vienna! I have a good friend from the city and so I’ve heard stories about how beautiful it is. I can now confirm the truth of that statement, and also add that Vienna is one of the best cities to visit in terms of food, art, and culture. I’ve eaten the famous “Sacher torte” which is chocolate cake with apricot jam topped with chocolate ganache, and drunk their cappuccino-esque “melange” at one of the famous Viennese cafes. The town is easy to walk through and the architectural opulence of the Habsburg empire dominates the city. Every building is grand and ornate, even outside of the tourist areas.
I realize I’ve been blogging mostly about my trips rather than the classes I’ve been taking, so my next update will talk more about Maastricht itself and my “Politics of the European Integration” course. I’m going to go continue to enjoy Vienna for now though!

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Learning About the European Union

The European Union is a tricky web of institutions and consulting bodies that would be difficult for the unfamiliar student to navigate. Therefore, before we begin our formal class on “The Politics of the European Integration,” Maastricht University took us on a ten day study tour around Western Europe to see the European government first hand.
And it’s complicated. For someone who has been diligently paying attention to governmental structure from an American point of view, our first few discussions of the European Union were disorienting. But, I can honestly say that if I needed to write a ten page paper on supernational political governance structure and functioning representation, I would be able to use the European Union as an example.
The EU is different from most international political organizations in that it effectively regulates and enforces its treaties. The United Nations, for example, lacks any power other than political pressure through sanctions to enforce the rules its member states sign on to. For example, the UN considers access to education to be a fundamental human right, but I have several friends who did not attend college because it was too expensive. Clearly turning education into a privilege goes against the United Nations’ declaration of education as a right, but America still sits on the security council. That would not happen in the European Union.
There are seven main institutions that make up the EU, but our class visited organizations that didn’t belong to the EU as well. We started in Luxembourg, made our way to Strasbourg, Paris, Bruges, and finally to Brussels. Our trip made geographic sense, but the schedule of visits was not the most conducive to understanding the EU, so I will describe our visits out of order to make some sense of the organization.
The EU has what is known as a cooperative process of passing legislation. Much like our bicameral legislative branch, this means that it takes more than one body to agree to pass legislation. In fact, the EU uses three institutions officially to make a new law.
Lets look at it schoolhouse rock style: how a bill becomes a law. Only one institution has the right of initiation, meaning that they can draft a new bill. Though the European Commission is mainly the executive branch in terms of enforcing and implementing legislation, they are the only institution allowed to present a new piece of legislation. 
After careful consideration and consultation (we’ll talk more about that later), the Commission sends the new bill to the European Parliament.  The Parliament is the only institution whose members are directly elected rather than appointed by member states. They amend the bill and send it over to the European Council, which is made of ministers from the member states.
They have to come to agreement down to the exact wording of the contents of the bill. Their differing membership creates a check and balance between national interests of member states and overall European interests. If they both agree, the bill is passed into European law.
They are mandated to consult two committees, the European Economic and Social committee, made of employers, employees, and experts, as well as the Committee of Regions. The Committee of Regions represents what we would understand as State and Local governments in the member states. These differing points of view ensure that the passed legislation is informed by a diverse representation of the whole European citizenry.
Whew. And that was only five of our eleven visits! We visited the European Court of Justice, who fines countries for breaking European law as well. My personal favorite visit was the Court of Auditors, who triple check all expenditures and actions to inform the EU how to adapt its practices. We also visited the European Ombudsman who fields complaints about maladministration.
Outside of the European Union, we saw the Council of Europe and its main institution, the European Court of Human Rights. We actually got to see  a trial between five governments and a Bosnian citizen who claimed that the state run banks refused to return a deposit he’d made right before Yugoslavia fell. We didn’t get to see a decision happen yet though; it was said that a ruling could take up to three months!
The most unusual visit was to the Organization on Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris. The organization is a politically neutral economic powerhouse who has statistics and models for just about any potential policy to ever be created. Their opinion is highly valued by most international organizations.
Outside of the “study” part of the study tour, our group had a great time traveling around. It was fascinating to attempt a European lifestyle from an American point of view. For example, an average sit down dinner rarely took fewer than two hours. Our first experience with this was stressful, because we are used to quick service and little down time. However, by the end of the trip we learned how to relax, sip our wine, and really enjoy each others’ company long after we’d finished eating.
I really enjoyed my experience because  I’d only been to Paris out of all the visits. Traveling to new places is always top on my list of favorite places, and Western Europe did not disappoint. Speaking of new places, I’m currently on a train by myself to Copenhagen! I’m hoping to explore the city and meet new people for the weekend, and maybe I’ll even take a day trip to Southern Sweden. I’m already excited for the next big adventure.

Location: Brussels, Belgium

Poor But Sexy: Berlin

If I had to recommend one broad thing to every student studying abroad, it would be to go to a hostel for a weekend. I met a good friend from Canada in Berlin for the weekend and had my first true hostel experience. In the past I’ve stayed in single rooms and didn’t really interact with my fellow travelers, but I learned this weekend that I’d been doing it all wrong.
Hostels have the amazing guarantee that the people you are rooming with are young, broke travelers. With that common ground, it’s as easy to make friends as the first two weeks of freshman year in college. “So where are you from?” is an easy phrase to open a conversation, and by the end of the night everyone around the table seems like an old friend. 
My Canadian friend, Sophie, had already made friends with a couple of guys from Aussie (pronounced “Ozzy” apparently) by the time I arrived late on Thursday. After hanging out at the rooftop terrace, we made plans to meet in the morning and see the city together. 
At breakfast, one of the Australians suggested going on a bike tour. Biking has always been boring to me, but I didn’t want to be the annoying person who always says “no.” So, I bit down my complaints and jumped out of my comfort zone and onto a “Fat Tires” bike tour.
It turned out to be the best choice I’ve ever made. For a cheap 22 euros, we were taken on a guided five hour bike tour of the city. I quickly gained a confidence on a bike that I’ve never had before, and we got to see much more of the city than we would have on our feet. Our tour guide was a young Guy named Niall, and he knew everything about Berlin’s history from Prussia, Nazi era, Cold War, even modern happenings. We even got to see the place where Hitler died — the city doesn’t mark  it because they don’t want to run the risk of it becoming a Neo-Nazi shrine, so most tourists walk right past the now parking lot.  I learned more about Berlin than I could have imagined, and had a fun day out doing it. 
I wouldn’t have had the perfect weekend in Berlin if I’d stayed at a normal hotel. The benefits of hostels go far beyond their cheap price. Each night I met new people from different places with different stories. And in these large groups of people I felt comfortable to go out and explore Berlin’s nightlife.
In my life, Berlin has always been one city. I was born just after the wall fell, only hearing stories of soviet days but having no tangible memories of the Cold War. With similar memories, he youth of Berlin have taken the remnants of a divided city and built a city full of vibrant art and culture. By day young Berliners work  in an historic city, but by night they truly live.
I doubt nightlife like Berlin exists anywhere else in the world. Every street has dance clubs with nonsensical minimalist names such as SODA, What?!, and raw. Abandoned warehouses have been resuscitated with laser lights, smog machines, and painstakingly crafted electronic music. Most clubs have multiple rooms, each with a different decor and mood. Clubs are rarely marked, relying on word of mouth instead. At one point I walked past an open manhole and heard music and saw pulsing lights coming from below. For a city with a difficult past and a still emerging identity, Berlin has a name for knowing how to celebrate long into the night.
The Mayor of Berlin has been famously quoted describing his city as “poor but sexy.” Maybe that’s why similarly described millennials flock to the city that’s normally a bit off the beaten path of the “grand tour” through Europe. It’s easy to walk through the streets of Berlin and see important relics of five different eras next to a wall of graffiti that has become fiercely protected as the emerging genre “street art.” Unlike most big cities I’ve been to, admirable fashion isn’t expensive and store bought, it’s creative, quirky, and often altered by hand. 
For a weekend trip, Berlin tantalized me. I walked to the train station feeling emotional and not wanting to leave. I’m looking forward to several more weeks of traveling, but I will have a hard time finding a more perfect city. Tomorrow, we start the “study tour” part of our class, and our first stop is in Strasberg, France!

Location: Berlin, Germany.

Walking the Way and a Free Scotland

In December, I used Christmas break to figure out what I was going to do with my summer. In the back of my mind I’d assumed I’d try to find an internship and maybe even get paid to get coffee for someone. My parents encouraged me to look into study abroad opportunities for the Summer, andi managed to find one that fit my major and interests so perfectly that the idea of doing anything else seemed ridiculous.
So I’ll be spending my summer months in Maastricht, in the southern part of the Netherlands. My program features a study tour — 10 days traveling to political spots around Western Europe. After that’s over I’ll be taking a course on the Politics of the European Integration, or how the EU came to be.
Before I came to Maastricht, my parents took advantage of my need to be on the other side of the pond and planned a Scottish vacation. We hiked the West Highland Way, which is a 96 mile trail from Glasgow to Fort William through what I would argue is the most beautiful wild land left in the world.
Scotland has prioritized the conservation value of their land. The path makes use of old military roads to weave through farm land and forests, even winding around the perimeter of Loch Lomond. The Scottish highlands are still wild; developing the mountain land isn’t allowed, so only a few old towns spot the valleys. Comparative natural areas in the USA have been turned into ski-resorts and vacation destinations, and while they are still natural areas, they lack the feel of preserved isolation found in the Scottish Highlands.
Unlike American backpacking, wearing a thirty pound pack, eating macaroni and cheese every night, and sleeping in a tent that you carried and pitched yourself, the Scottish people have figured out how to make backpacking a little more fun. We would hike between 6 and 16 miles on a given day, normally stopping for lunch at a restaurant along the way. When we arrived at a predetermined bed and breakfast each night, we would find restaurants and pubs nearby to eat at. And each night we got beds and showers, so the overall experience was less “roughing it” and more “walking from one fluffy guesthouse to the next.”
As we made our way through the highlands, a hot topic for the locals was the upcoming vote on Scottish independence. In 2014, Scottish people will vote on whether to remain a part of the United Kingdom or to become an independent country. We heard both sides of the opinion from locals, but my guess is that they will vote for independence. Everyone said that the young vote was definite in favor of drastic action, and the older people were moderate at best, mostly saying they weren’t quite sure how they’d vote yet.
As a political junkie, the conversations were some of the most interesting we had. We are watching a centuries old disagreement over who should rule the land be carried out through a vote, rather than the usual revolution, deaths all around, and the banning of Scottish tartan for a decade or two. Apparently Scottish people think that they’d be better off if they were allowed to make decisions for themselves (what a concept!). If Scotland had to start running itself independently, a number of country-managing jobs would open in the regulation and governing industry. 
To hear the Scottish people we spoke with discus their relations with the UK government, I was ready to throw an “Occupy Scotland” and get out on the streets. Most of Scottish industry has been moved by Parliamentary decisions elsewhere, leaving a growing number of skilled laborers unemployed, especially in the under 30 bracket. The people we talked to were suspicious of the UK government, who on one hand complain about subsidizing the Scottish people with English taxes, but it also reluctant to give up control over the Scottish government. 
I’m going to be following this issue of independence closely as the vote approaches, and I won’t hide the fact that I’ve become biased in favor of the Scots. Political issues around the European Union are heating up as well, with Germany set to decide on their role in the union and if it’s even constitutional. I’ve picked a good time to come to Europe, and I’m already looking forward to the next part of my journey in Maastricht!
Before I end this first blog, I have to mention one particularly exciting anecdote. I’m a huge Harry Potter nerd to say the least. At the end of the trail, Fort William, there is a train company that runs a line called “The Jacobite” which is an old fashioned steam engine. It happens to be the route and train that was used to film the Hogwarts Express! We rode the train and got some iconic views, and all the while I was excited to be riding on a train that had been so much a part of my childhood! 

Location: Fort William, Scotland