A Sign

Mom and I went out the other day and got another book on European travel:
 Stay here! Beware of this! Beware of that! Travel here! This city isn't worth it! Tricks of the trade! 

The book gave tips on how a traveler can experience the hidden side of Europe, letting you enter through the metaphorical "back door" so that you can see the REAL Paris/Berlin/London/Enter-City-Name-Here. In my opinion, that's how you walk away with more stories. A million people have gone to see the Mona Lisa, but you could be the one person who gets too close, and gets chased out of the Louvre by security.

Not that the book - NOR myself - is encouraging you to get in trouble with the law. But you get what I'm saying.

That same day, we stopped off at the library to pick up some books and movies on Germany, England, etc. I also got a few fun books to read. I picked up a few I'd read a few years ago and knew they were good stories, as well as a few new ones.

The one book I chose was called "Just One Day" by Gayle Forman.

 The blurb at the back talked about a girl on vacation in Europe who traveled to Paris with a guy she just met, and they spent one day together. Typical love story which played to my romantic side (I'm not even ashamed).

The book contained a lot of really great tips about traveling: getting lost on purpose so that you see a side of the city you wouldn't normally; embracing any and all "accidents" since you never know where they'l lead you.
Most importantly, to take every day you have, and to do something spectacular with it.

"We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. And we can 

fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in just one day.” 

About half way into the book, things started getting strange.
The guy in the book was Dutch, from Holland - oddly enough, where I'm going next year. They go to Paris, where he introduces her to the hidden side of Paris, taking her in through that "back door" in which they drink wine and spend the night in an Art Squatter building, and she gets to play poker with french men on a riverboat.
After Dutch Boy disappears, she goes in search of him.
Guess where she ends up? at Utrecht University. Utrecht is to Roosevelt what York is to Glendon.

Lets just recap here:
Girl goes to Europe, falls in love with a Dutch man from where I will be living,  and searches for him at the university which is the Mother School of the University I am attending next year.

Call it coincidence, a sign from the universe... It was like fate picked up that book and plopped it down in front of me, whispering "Read me! Read me!" in my ear.... Either way, I am taking it a sign of good fortune and good luck for my travels next year. I've decided to take it as a sign that I just might be lucky enough to experience that mysterious "back door" of Europe.  After all, it had a happy ending.

Although, maybe I should read the sequel before I go.
I'll be there soon!
-Jennifer