I procrastinate like it’s my job, what can I say …
My Grandmother is over eighty and still doesn’t need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle. Henny Youngman
Anyway sorry for the lapse in postings! So let’s recap the weekend (in which most of our friends traveled and Alex and I, as the only ones left in A’dam, partied)
Friday:
The day began with my first Amsterdam Architecture (which I will hereby call it, because it’s full title is way too long) class since two weeks ago. Our excursion was a biking tour of the 17th century part of the city, a.k.a. over by the Jordaan. I could not imagine how this was going to be a good idea – 8 or 9 students riding around behind our crazy professor trying to listen to his lecture as we pedal by architecture and then randomly stop and get in the way of everyone around. But I bravely headed over to the meeting place, the start of the Singel canal. It actually went OK for the most part. Although these outdoor field trips are hard because I only end up catching about every other word he says, its still interesting to see first hand some of the city’s design. The only big problem came when we tried to start up again after stopping on a steep (in relative terms) canal bridge. The entire time there was one of my peers constantly chatted about how terrible she was at biking. And every time she said something I would smile, commiserating with her. However, I didn’t realize how abysmal she was, I just assumed she was like me and complained a lot, but managed to get by for the most part. This was not the case. So the canal bridge was pretty busy and there was a car in front of me turning to go down the same street we were going down, which was fine, I was just letting him do that and then was turning inside of him. Well all of a sudden I hear a “no! no! no!” behind me and I try to veer but there’s a moving vehicle right there and I can’t really do anything as I feel the front of her tire collide with mine. I would have been pushed over into the car had I not quickly hopped off my seat and saved myself, but the whole incident was rather frightening for a moment or two. Other than that, and being yelled at loudly in by an old (very old) Dutch lady who was trying to walk her dog on the sidewalk we had taken over with ourselves and our bikes, the entire excursion was quite nice. It’s interesting to see how modern architects have tried to incorporate past styles into their new buildings, and how some have failed miserably and others have succeeded. We ended the tour outside the Bible Museum, which believe it or not I had been thinking about trying to find. So I figured it was fate and decided to pop in to see what it had to offer. It didn’t have much. It really would have been tragically disappointing had I not had a Museum Card to get me in for free, but as it was I was happy to just check another museum off my list and see a few cool things. These interesting artifacts included a mummy, a mummy head (unwrapped) and a to-scale replica of the Holy Mount (I think that’s what its called) in Jerusalem. Also interesting was a video on the battle between Jews and Muslim for that place; both have significant holy events taking place there and both want to claim it as theirs. I think the psychology of religion is just so fascinating. What causes these people to so fiercely identify themselves by their religions, and have such strong negative views of anyone from the other? I guess that’s the question of the day, but it really clearly illustrated the tensions that exists between the Jewish and Muslim population in the Middle East. Anyway, I don’t regret going, but I would not recommend it to someone who either had to pay or was only in town for a couple days.
That night Alex and I decided to try to find this hip-hop bar we hear was good. However we never actually looked up how to get there, so we ended up wandering around Rembrandtsplein for a little bit. Finally (both having to use the restroom) we decided to just randomly pick a bar to go into. We found the Old Bell, which was adorable. We walked in on a bunch of middle-aged Europeans dancing to 60s-70s music and singing. As juxtaposition to them there was also a large group of younger kids having just a good a time. We decided we had hit the jackpot. We ordered beers and sat back to enjoy the experience; which included some interesting compliments, chatting with an old couple who came to A’dam for the weed, and one of the middle-aged European woman rocking out on an air guitar. However the highlight was when they grabbed Alex and I and made us start dancing with them. It was a really good time, a great atmosphere and everyone was having fun with each other. All in all a wonderful bar! We stumbled out of there sometime around 2, and after a brief encounter with a group of English boys, headed off to try to get some frites, which we became mildly obsessed with obtaining. Miracles of all miracles we found an open snackshop and enjoyed some good ole greasy Amsterdam fries. When we finished a scarily intense Dutch woman asked us about the differences between the American academic system and the Dutch one (wanting us to tell her it was much better.) I wanted to scream at her how much worse it is, but restrained myself lol.
Saturday:
I decided in the afternoon I wanted to get out and so I went on a walk. I headed in the general direction of the Artis Zoo, which is near us, but in a way that is no where near anything else so I rarely go over there (arg poorly constructed sentence … sorry) Anyway, not far from Funen I saw a sign for DapperMarket (which apparently is a “hidden jewel of Europe” according to … frommer’s or lonely planet or something) and I had heard good things about it from Alex so I decided to venture in. Apparently it wasn’t in full swing, because it was mostly just shops, not vendors on the street … but I enjoyed it anyway. It was a bustling area and the shops had a large variety of offerings. I found a really cool clothing store, which I want to return to with money. After about an hour or so I returned home, and having previously decided to eat out for dinner, Alex, Dana, and I headed out to the windmill café, something we hadn’t tried yet even though its so close to us. We ran into Matt, an IES-er, who was studying there and joined him. I liked the atmosphere, but didn’t find anything on the menu I wanted. It’s a good place to go for a drink, but I’ll have to keep scouting for restaurants close to us. That night Alex and I tried out a The Green Elephant, a bar really close to us (are you getting the idea – we were feeling pretty lazy lol) Anyway it has a fantastic atmosphere – very quiet and chill. It’s small and out of the way and seems very Dutch to me. I definitely feel like it would be a good option if we aren’t up for the trek into the city (and back for that matter.)
Sunday and Monday:
As usual my Sunday and Monday were mostly just me hanging out. I did do laundry yesterday, which made me feel as though I had accomplished something! (and then spent the rest of the day looking up Jensen Ackles interviews on youtube lol) Today I also did some school work, went to the grocery store, and almost finished Amanda Quick’s book (yay for mutti sending me the new one!!!!!) Tim and I met with Adela to work on our presentation for tomorrow’s Europe-Hollywood-Europe class. It’s about Roman Polanski and The Fearless Vampire Killers … I hope its good, but either way, that will be 30 percent of my grade out of the way, and then all I have to worry about is my final paper.
I can’t wait ‘til Dana gets here!! I’m so excited, it’s only in a couple of days.
Anyway
Much love!
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