There's an old hospital building in Maastricht. It's been cleared out and cleaned up a bit, but it's still quite sterile. A few times a year a new batch of students roll their suitcases down its halls and move in; Welcome to the Guesthouse, the dorm where most international students stay. I feel like a freshman again sitting here between these blank white walls, bookshelf filled with folders labeled 'Welcome!', introductions every time i step into the hallway.

Maastricht is quite the cobblestone cliche. I walk to class wondering if I am really living here now, but I know that am. It's the longest time that I will have lived in one place for quite awhile now. 5 and a half months! That's nearly half a year in the same city, same address, same bed each night.

If you live in Maastricht, you have a bicycle. I tracked down a cheap and generally functional used bike from a floormate leaving in a couple of weeks. Soon I'll be pedaling the unmarked alleyways connecting the library to the cafeteria to lecture halls.

In all honesty, I really don't know much about the city, yet. Actually, I've barely seen Maastricht by daylight. We usually have seminar activities from 9 until 6, so I'm usually sitting around a table listening to a lectures on ethics or the UN or Dutch immigrants between dawn and dusk on these short mid-winter days.

Tomorrow we're taking a train to the Hague. We're going to be sitting in on a hearing of the ICTY, and then visiting the Peace Palace the next day. (Those are two stops on our very packed schedule. Did I mention how scheduled we are? Well, very.) Fieldtrips in Maastricht. It sounds like walking through an academic article to me, funny that the Hague isn't just a topic for class discussion, but Den Haag, a stop along the train tracks.

'Rondtrekken' is Dutch for wander. Cliche for a travel blog, but at this point, this third continent to temporarily call home this year, I feel a bit like I wouldn't be so surprised if I woke up tomorrow and was told that I was actually going to be studying somewhere else now. In fact, I'd probably pack up and go.