Wow, it has been quite a while since my last entry, but so much has happened with me over the past few months. I have just returned from my trip to visit my sister in Belgium for about a week with my dad and I have brought home about 3 rolls of b&w film filled with a ton of *hopefully* awesome pictures. It was really beautiful when we arrived because apparently it was 80 degrees and sunny the entire time! According to my sister, that is unusual weather for Belgium-it's usually always rainy and pretty chilly.

Anywho, I was able to visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and also see Ruben's House in Antwerp. It was really interesting to see Ruben's House because I have not heard much about that painter. According to the audio tour, Ruben wasn't much of a think-for-himself painter. He pretty much just imitated most of his paintings off of other artists and wasn't too concerned about collecting the other artists' ideas and forming them into his own personal style. I guess that's kind of why I never really heard much about his works. But either way, it was really cool to look around his house which was all rebuilt after it was burnt down during WWII.

The Van Gogh Museum was unbelievably amazing. They had pretty much all of his works and I could not believe how much more vibrant and stunning they looked in actuality. I was able to look at how incredibly thick his paintings were-and how much the bright colors popped out even more in some of his later works. My favorite painting of his, however, is from one of his earlier works when he first enjoyed painting peasants and farms. It was called "The Cottage." Even though it looks dull and rather dark, Van Gogh painted it to show the neglect and secluded feel a part of one farm felt in comparison to the rest. It brought out a sense of loneliness in me and I just felt as though the painting spoke a lot to me. In my opinion, it was an extremely strong and powerful painting.