Europe! the netherlands and belgium

We are in Europe! It is crazy, because there is no time difference from Rwanda. So we traveled for over twenty four hours, but I didn´t really have jetlag because it is in the same time zone as Rwanda. The trip did seem long, but I watched movies, slept, and rested. For a lot of the time, me and my friend Matt shared an ipod and listened ridiculous music. AMAZING
Anyway, it was weird going from Africa to Europe. It is just so different, and we all had a bit of culture shock when we got here to the Netherlands. It was just so weird. The people aren´t as nice, and I don´t like the vibe as much as Rwanda. It´s too organized and stuffy! And it´s strange being part of the majority again, in terms of race. The first day here in the Netherlands, whenever I saw someone, I would stare at them at want to yell `Muzungu`really loudly, which means foreigner and white person in Kinyarwanda. I just like the way of life in Rwanda better, I feel like I fit in better there. People in Rwanda seem to appreciate being alive more than they do here, even though their lives are probably so much harder. I guess I shouldn´t generalize though, because I have only been in the Netherlands for a few days. But one of the most important things I learned in Rwanda was that we are just so lucky and we should appreciate ever second of every day. And, of course this sounds cliche, but we have to realize that everything we do affects everyone around the world. There is so much we can do to help, and so much we can do to hurt.
After we arrived at our hostel in the Hague, which is a really nice hostel, we just walked around town a little. It is so stereotypically European, in a good way, with plazas and fountains on every corner! It´s amazing to finally be able to drink tapwater and eat salads!!! haha, but I guess I am so addicted to french fries now that I have already eaten at Mcdonalds twice. It was so worth all of those calories. The shopping areas are really cool. There are three H and M´s within one block of each other. I went to all of them, haha.
After shopping, I was really tired and really needed to decompress. It really was hard to adjust to western life again. I miss Africa, I miss Rwanda. That country and the experience I had there seriously changed my life. It is indescribable. It was just weird going back to the `west,` because I felt like no one besides the people in my group can identify with how I am feeling. But after my nap, I felt much better and I decided to go out with the group. We walked around town for at least three hours, desperately searching for a nightclub so we could go dancing! We didn´t end up finding one, but we had a blast just talking and hanging out and listening to an outdoor ska concert. It´s so weird, because it doesn´t get dark here until eleven oclock, literally. Its crazy, and it makes everyone want to stay up really late!
On Sunday morning, Jenny and I woke up really early and took a train to Belgium! How cool is that, we just felt like going to belgium, so we did! The train ride was only two hours, and it was fun just talking and looking at the landscape. It is so incredibly flat compared to Rwanda! At first it was pouring rain, but then the whether turned absolutely perfect. When we got there, we just walked around for like four hours. We had no idea where we were going, we just had a mini/map and our cameras, and we set off to explore! There were so many beautiful cathedrals and buildings and parks with fountains! Jenny and I both decided that it is so much cooler to have no plan when you go visit a city, and that you should just go wherever the wind takes you!
In the afternoon, we met up with a woman from Rwanda named Nadine! Jenny had become really good friends with her boyfriend in Rwanda, so we wanted to meet Nadine! She was so incredibly sweet, she showed us around the city and let us sleep in her house! We felt like we were in Rwanda again, because we ate goat kabobs and samosas and listened to Rwandan hiphop while we drove through the streets of Brussels. We also at an entire fish with our bare hands. It was crazy, because I really felt like the fish was looking at me.
Anyway, Belgium has a huge Rwandan community, and it seemed like everywhere we went, Nadine ran into someone who spoke Kinyarwanda. And that does make sense, since Rwanda´s history is so tied to Belgium through colonization. But it´s also weird that so many Rwandans want to go to Belgium, since it really played a huge role in setting up the genocide. Before colonization, hutus and tutsis lived along side each other, intermarried, and got along well. The groups were even fluid, you could move from one group to the other, depending on how many cows you own. But the belgian colonizers issued the identity cards that categorized the hutus and tutsis, which basically made it impossible for someone to change what group they identify with. They favored the tutsis, the minority, over the hutus, and then reversed this practice at the last minute to favor hutus. And that´s how the problems started, or at least how they were made worse. The Belgiums used the method of ´divide and conquer` to rule Rwanda, and the consequences of that are so obvious. That´s why it baffles me a little to think about Rwandese people willingly moving to Belgium.
Anyway, I really like Belgium, I get a better vibe from Brussels than I do from the Netherlands. Even though the Netherlands is cool too. But still, if I had to choose one country to live in, it would be Rwanda, of course!
We made it back to the Hague, after taking a few wrong turns and missing our train stop, haha. Tonight we walked around. Matt wants to get a tatoo, so we went in the tatoo and piercing place. And I started to want to get another hole in my ear! Matt said that I could totally pull off my ear piercing, because he said when he thinks of me, he pictures me saying `I´m colleen, and i´m a civil rights lawyer from carrboro and I am going to kick your ass.` I love that that is his impression of me, that is like the coolest thing ever! During this trip, I have really decided that it is my dream to become a civil rights lawyer and kick someone´s ass, haha.