Days 112-114: angels, body-benders, ugly christmas sweaters

So Friday started like any normal "weekend" day for us. We got some breakfast at Waterlooplein, browsed, found some funny clothing. We all luckily found sweet ugly sweaters for our Christmas party Saturday night. It's funny because there are SO many ugly sweaters at the stands in Waterlooplein but NONE of them had anything really to do with Christmas- no jolly santas, no reindeer, no garish bells or pompoms. However, Oritt found a lovely one with seals on it, Sasha found a SUPER sweater with petroleum and a gas pump on it (I wish I were joking about this) that ironically looked the most christmas-y out of all of ours. I found a little gem that has a speed skater on it and says "Speed Skating"across it. It was pretty ugly, red and white, but extremely comfortable. Don't judge me too harshly back in the States when I wear this sweater to class or out to dinner or something. You have been warned.

On our stroll through the markets, I noticed a little old lady strolling down the Plein, wearing all white and angel's wings. Since people are always randomly dressing up or doing crazy things in Amsterdam, I figured I should ask her what her dealwas. I approached her, and she was the sweetest, kindest little lady- I think she was Dutch. I didn't get the full gist of what she was protesting/doing in her angel wings, but she said that she wanted to promote peace and harmony in the world, starting with Amsterdam and Jerusalem and then joining those nations together in peace, love, and happiness. She told me that she used to have a house, job, a settled life if you will. Then one day she just gave it all up, sold her house, abandoned her material possessions, and walked to Jerusalem. I don't know if she meant this figuratively or literally, but all she said was "I found a map along the way". But if she did walk all the way to Jerusalem, then good for her! She and other ladies dressed in white were passing out different colored heart stickers to people on the street. She told me that she was going to stand on the top of a statue and present something. We saw her a few minutes, and darnit if she wasn't standing on top of a statue! I don't know if she was a crazy-psycho religious person and I didn't get that because of the language barrier or due to me being naive. But she sounded like such a cool woman- giving up her life to help promote peace and harmony in Jerusalem and around the world? Even if she was a nutty, I like her passion for what she believes in. She was just so happy and kind, and was clearly so passionate about this. I give her mad props for that.

After the angel encounter, we took the metro down toward the Ajax Stadium (the Dutch major soccer/football team) to go see Cirque de Solei. It took us forever to walk around the stadium and to find the tent where Cirque was. After twenty-ish minutes of wandering aimlessly, we found a teeny tiny yellow sign that pointed us in the right direction. We then knew that we were there when we saw massive blue and yellow tents in the horizon. The show was called "Totem", and it was all about nature, life, different ethnic/cultural tribes, etc etc. It was a whole smorgasbord of nature and life. We got there a bit late, because the gentleman who was trying to get us our tickets seriously couldn't have taken longer. It took him about 6 minutes to print EACH ticket, not to mention how long it took him to get us to sign the credit card receipts or to even figure out where we wanted to sit. I felt bad for him- I think it was either his first day, or the stress of giving out tickets had caused him to crack under the pressure and therefore he was silently having a anxiety/panic attack.
But all of this quickly vanished from my mind the second we stepped into the tent. It was an absolute rush. There were dancers and performers jumping all over the stage, on trampolines and over this spider-web shell that they were climbing all over it. It was absolutely magical. There were little Asian ladies on top of 5-ft tall + unicycles, and they were throwing cups onto each others heads with their feet WHILE still on the unicycle. There were men balancing poles on their heads, and then people on top of that pole doing crazy things. There were these two rollerskaters who were swinging each other around at an alarming rate- I swore one of them was going to die! At one point the man and women each had a harness around their neck, and then they were attached to each other, so the man was literally swinging the woman around by her neck with only his neck! (note: you can see that part at 1:12 in the video, if you are interested.) It was absolutely mind-blowing. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but here is the promotional video for the performance.
http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/totem/default.aspx (click on "View Trailer" on the right-hand side)

After all of this excitement, we went out to a delicious Mexican restaurant near Prinsengracht for Steph's 21st birthday. It was a girl's night out which was quite a lot of fun. It was a night chock-full of burritos, margaritas, and silly girls.

But the most groovy night was Saturday night for our Ugly Sweater party! We all went to Plantage, one of the other dorm buildings, to play American drinking games and to all just hang out in our cool sweaters. Most of the men happened to be wearing old lady sweaters. One was pale pink and very silky, another was black and white with silver rhinestones all over it. It was actually my first ugly sweater party, and I was quite impressed with the whole concept of the ugly sweater party. We partied until about midnight, when the mean RA Oscar kicked us out- what a party pooper, literally. The night ended at the student bar Criterion, followed by a glorious walk home along the canals. What's nice about the people here (mainly the ones I've been hanging out with) is that they don't need to go out to posh clubs or to crazy events to have fun. We can literally be in an empty room and we can entertain ourselves and have a wonderfully fun time.

Today has been focused on doing work- two papers, three tests still to go. Writing lots of papers has made my head hurt and has also made me more ready to go home- there will be no more homework once I'm back in the States for Christmas, so great success! However, while I was attempting to write this blog, I got a bit sidetracked by something I saw outside of the the window at the Crea Café. All I heard was the sound of a trumpet, and then I saw an older gentleman in a teeny tiny dingy-sized boat with a small organ machine attached to it. He played his trumpet and performed his musical show. I was told by a British couple that he usually does street performing with his trumpet and music machine, and that he also occasionally brings his act to the canals. People gathered and stopped on the street to see this funny man play music. After his "set", he held up a fishing rod with a mini clog attached to the end for donations. It was actually very beautiful music. The best part was that he ended his song with blowing out of a conch shell. I don't know where that conch shell came from, but all I know is that that was a pretty sweet accessory to have.

Days left in Amsterdam: 5
if you didn't know this, five days is less than a week. I have LESS THAN A WEEK left here. So scary, but also pretty exciting. I have one test Tuesday morning (Islamic Law) , one 10 page paper, one 15 page paper, two 2-page papers, and a test on Wednesday (Colour and Culture/Dutch Social Policy) and my final test is Thursday night, which is Dutch language. Then I come home Friday morning- this week is flying by and I don't like it one bit!

FUN FACT: my facebook is currently in Dutch. When a man/someone puts that their relationship status is "single", in Dutch that translates to "vrijgezel", which translates to "bachelor". Kind of funny.

Here are some other funny things about the Dutch facebook:
-with facebook, if you find someone's picture pretty, or someone wrote a funny wall post, etc, you can "like" it. In Dutch, instead of the word "like" popping up (as it shouldn't since it is Dutch facebook, not English), you can "Vink ik leuk", which roughly translates to "I like" or "I find it fun" (literal translation). Even though I've been speaking Dutch for the past 3+ months, I am still constantly amused by the Dutch language. I don't know if this is offensive, but it always makes me laugh.
-instead of writing a comment, you schrijf een reactie (write a reaction/comment)
-one writes on a person's prikbord, not wall
-belangrijkste nieuws: literal translation=important news. English FB=top news



Dutch words of the Day:
komen=to come
actie=action
in actie komen= to take action

Days 107-111

Greetings!

This week has (unfortunately) been jam-packed with final classes, papers, tests, studying, writing papers, etc etc etc. But it has also been crammed with some pretty fun activities! This is my last week of classes before finals next week- eek! I hope I do okay. I have three tests (Islamic law, Colour and Culture, and Dutch Language), not to mention two 10+ page papers due (Colour and Culture and Dutch Social Policy) so the majority of my time this week has been spent doing work work work.
Let me give you a re-cap on what cool things have happened this week in the Dam:

Monday, since good ol' Bonny decided to cancel Dutch class, Liz and I ventured into the Oost (East) and went to the Tropenmuseum. It is connected with the Royal Tropical Institute, which focuses on Middle Eastern and African studies. We had to go for our Colour and Culture class to the Rood (Red) exhibit, where they had about two hundred different items, from ancient Chinese robes to paintings by Anish Kapoor to a hand-knitted Ferrari, all in red. It was actually a very cool exhibition.
Monday night, after Dutch class, I biked as fast as I possibly could to make it to the CIEE office, where Sinterklaas was expected to arrive! If you were a little Dutch shnoo you could have easily told us that Sinterklaas goes back to Spain by steamboat on December 5, but apparently he made an exception for us uber-eager Americans. Sadly no Zwarte Pieters came to our little shindig, but I think the Dutch (ie our program) think that we are either freaked out by them (which some of us are) or find them offensive, or whatnot. But the fabulous, fly, and always fresh Bonny Wassing was our Sinterklaas, which we couldn't have been happier about. When Sinterklaas sat down, he had his big book of who was naughty or nice. He began by drilling individual people, from calling out new couples within our program, exposing their secrets, which was absolutely hilarious but probably really embarrassing for those who got called out. He also called out a friend's friend Sean, for having been on a TV show, and then made him sit on Sint's lap, as seen below.
Sint lookin' mad fly. Note his shiny ruby ring on his left hand. Poor Sean with Sinterklaas.

Sinterklaas then called ME out for knowing Dutch! I am in a higher level class then most of the kids on my program. They are learning the absolute basics while I am in pre-Intermediate at the INTT. So Sinterklaas made me name five different modes of transportation in Dutch, which luckily was fresh on my mind because that was just what we were learning in class that day in my Dutch class. So, if I am correct, the ones I named were: vliegtuig (plane), taxi (...), auto (car), trein (train), and fiets (bike)! I was quite proud of myself.
Sinterklaas is supposed to be a funny, sort of "roasting" type of occasion, as shown by many of the poems that people wrote for their "Secret Santas/Sints". We were assigned to secretly have someone, and then on Monday we all brought them their gifts. Some of the poems were hilarious, others were really cute, and some just ROASTED the other person. Those were the absolute funniest- I wish I could remember some lines from the more intelligent limericks (I'm SUPER lame at writing poems). But I got the BEST poem from my friend Drew, who apparently knows me quite well.

I also got a cool sinterklaas folder filled with sint/zwarte piet chocolate. yumyumYUM!

Gifts such as stroopwafels, funny drinking straws, candy, more candy, lighters, and even some nudey lady playing cards were exchanged.
Overall it was a lovely way to celebrate some of the holidays.

Another funny thing about this week is that the weather has been SO strange. One minute its snowing, the next it was hailing, and then right after that it will be sunny! Thursday morning was one of those times where I saw snow first, then hail, then rain, then sun, then more hail.
my snowy bike!

that is hail covering the sidewalk outside of Orloff.
It didn't matter that much to me, since the majority of my time was spent inside doing my work (ick) but it was still pretty crazy to see the weather being so ADD.

FUN FACT: the Dutch have two words for shopping: winkelen and shoppen. Winkelen means when you browse through boutiques, stop for coffee, and make a day of it. Shoppen is more of the equivalent to a big shopping trip to Target or after Black Friday, with tons and tons of shopping bags.

FUN FACT: Rood Staan means to be overdrawn from your bank account. It literally means "To be red". It refers to the red text on the bank statement when you are in big trouble.

I am getting pretty bummed because I only have eight more days here- the equivalent length of Hannukah. I don't think I'll ever be fully ready to leave Amsterdam. But I was talking to this cool guy James who is from Brooklyn but works at a local café in the Dam. He came here about ten years ago (!!!) and was only planning on staying for a month. But then that expanded to be ten years, and he hasn't been back to the USA since. He is fluent in Dutch, has a job permit, and is truly living the Amsterdam dream. It is my not-so-secret dream to live here after college, maybe for a month, or maybe for the rest of my life. That is probably the primary reason why I've been so adamant about studying Dutch here. I think it's helped, if only a little. But it will give me a head-start when (not if, when) I come back here and work or live or even just visit. So while I know I have to start saying goodbye to this unbelievable place, I can't seem to grasp the idea that I'm leaving for good.

Tomorrow (Vrijdag) I get to go see Cirque de Solei- Totem. I cannot WAIT!

funny Dutch words:
koopjesjager=bargain hunter
vliegtuig=airplane

Dag!

Days 102-106: COLD COLD COLD

One word: brrrrrrrr!

This past Wednesday was probably one of the coldest days that Amsterdam has ever seen, especially this early in the season. On December 1, which was that wednesday, it was supposed to be a wind chill of 5 degrees Fahrenheit. There were similar weather warnings on Tuesday night (November 30) as well. Wednesday night it was about, with wind chill, 3 degrees fahrenheit (-16degrees celsius)!! That's how cold it was. It was too cold to even stand outside! You would walk outside and just be hit with a wall of frozen, unbearable wind and utter chilliness. My Colour and Culture professor Marietta (the insane Dutch lady who I mentioned a few times) had to walk to class on Wednesday because her bike lock was frozen due to the excessive cold. Which is another reason why less people seem to bike in the cold / snow. Apparently this type of weather is unusual for December 1 in Amsterdam- usually this type of weather doesn't occur until January or February. Since the first snow on Monday night (well, what I consider to be the first snow) it has snowed more or less every day, except for today. It snowed all night on Friday night, so I woke up to find the courtyard re-coated in fluffy white snow. Unfortunately the snow has started to disappear due to the "warmer" weather today (a steamy 37 degrees fahrenheit) and the rain/sleet last night. We were talking about how great the weather has been today because the temperature was in the double digits again AND the sun was shining- we hadn't seen the sun for quite a few days. But it has gotten me even more into the holiday spirit. Due to this, I am also even less in the work/finals mood.

On Wednesday, the same chilly day, we watched a Dutch film called "Simon" in our Dutch Social Policy class. It documents the life of a free-spirit, coffee-shop owning man called Simon and how he changes the life of a homosexual man, Carmiel. It traces both of their lives over a fifteen year span, from when the two first meet and become friends, to the eventual end when Simon is diagnosed with cancer. The first half of the film is lighthearted and silly- even silly just reading the English subtitles!- while the second half goes into issues of family, gay marriage, and eventually euthanasia. I wasn't expecting anything great from this movie, but I was completely blown away. I don't want to give away too many details of it because you should experience it for yourselves. While the movie is in Dutch, it does contain English subtitles, which, according to Bonny, were translated quite well. If you are looking for a new movie that will make you laugh and cry, PLEASE go rent this movie asap. If you need anyone to see it with, give me a call! (when I am back in the USA, of course).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0393775/

In Thursday's Dutch class, my professor Anita was wearing a button that said "I <3 Linkse Hobby's". When a classmate asked her about it, she said that Linkse Hobby's refer to more "left" hobbies, such as the arts, music, theater, etc. According to Anita, Geert Wilders, the current head of the PVV Party, or the Party for Freedom, is not so supportive of the arts and other "left" hobbies in the Netherlands. His party, the PVV, is more right-wing and conservative. He is the person who is openly racist against Muslims within the Netherlands, and wants to place a tax on women who wear headscarves. Currently the PVV is the most represented/popular political party in the Netherlands, winning at least twenty out of the 150 seats in Dutch Parliament in 2009. He is the guy who wants to have Dutch be the only language taught in schools, and also wants to forbid Muslim imams (preachers) from preaching in mosques in the Netherlands. Also the guy who said "I don't hate Muslims, I hate Islam". Seems like a tolerant dude, right? What's ironic is that he is openly gay, but also openly discriminates against non-Dutch natives in Holland. In essence, he's a terrifying man. If he gains total political power within the Netherlands, who knows how long the Dutch's tolerant and accepting social policies will last. If you are interested more in this crazy Dutchie, search for him on Wikipedia. He's quite a character, to say the very least.

Geert Wilders in the flesh.

Tonight a few of us are going to Kriterion, a student run movie theater and bar in the Plantage area. We are going to see the independent film "Winter's Bone". I've heard raving review about it, and cannot wait to watch it after a long day of doing homework.


FUN FACT: at this one pizza delivery place, a pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni is called the "USA Today". Thought that was strange/funny

FUN FACT: The Dutch don't believe in a. snow plows, or b. salt for the roads and sidewalks. They don't plow the snow- they just leave it be. Hence why the cars drive much slower, and the bikers have to bike through the half-melted snow and slush. They are at a great risk of falling off their bikes. Another reason why I have stuck to walking places for the past few days. Another problem with biking in bad weather: the wind literally pushes you back so you could be pedalling your heart out, and still not going anywhere. If there is even a centimeter of snow in Maryland, the snow plows are out in a heartbeat, accompanied by masses of salt. Someone in our dorm courtyard did put down about a handful of salt near the building entrances, which did some help but not much. Oh well, I guess that's how the Dutch handle the harsh weather!

Also, tonight is the last night of Sinterklaas! This is the night when the Black Pieters / Zwarte Pieters give little gifts to the Dutch children. Our dorm is doing a little gift-exchange for us. We are supposed to leave our shoes outside of our doors, with a funny little poem as well. Then the Zwarte Pieters will leave little gifts in the shoes for us! I'm excited to partake in more Dutch traditions. Tomorrow is also when CIEE is celebrating Sinterklaas. We have a gift exchange, where you have to give a gift under 5 euro, and you have to wrap it in clever wrapping that is funny or cute, or even an inside joke with the person. For example, if I had someone as my "secret santa" who didn't understand or speak Dutch, I could give them a gift wrapped in a Dutch newspaper or something silly like that. You can prank people, but it can't be too mean or spiteful- that's just against the nature of Sinterklaas! A few problems with this: A. I haven't gotten a gift for my person; B. don't have any wrapping ideas for the gift; C. I have class tomorrow night, so hopefully I can sneak out early to attend the festivities!


Days left in the Netherlands: 12
Things I still have to do/see/experience: too many to count.

Fun Dutch words:

ijs=ice
bevriezing=freezing
koud=cold
bioscoop=movie theater
peper=pepper
noten=nuts
pepernoten=little gingerbread cookies that Zwarte Piets give out, literally: pepper nuts
voor=for
goed=good
voorgoed=permanently, literally: for good

Days 100-101: let it sneeuw!

Greetings from the white city of Amsterdam! Why is it white, do you ask? Well, maybe it's because we got about two inches of snow yesterday!! It was an absolutely stellar day in the snow. Right after I got out of class at noon it started to flurry. Then it kept snowing until around midnight. TWELVE hours of luscious snow! It automatically got me in the mood for Christmas. The minute there's snow, my mind first goes to Christmas. My day yesterday was sadly unproductive due to being overexcited, enthusiastic, and rambunctious about the snow. I just running around my room and my friend's room screaming "IT'S SNOWING!!!!! IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS!!! I LOVE SNOW AND CHRISTMAS!!!" I feel bad for everyone who had to listen to me frolick about and act like a nincompoop.
Even though there was a bit of snow over the weekend, it was a. only flurries, b. didn't stick through the night, aside from a few crystals, c. I didn't get to see it. Therefore I refuse to acknowledge any of those as the first "real" snow. Instead, I am going to just say that yesterday was the first real day of snow.
my snow-covered courtyard, view from my window
besneeuwde fiets=snowy bike

The day was jam-packed with relaxation, Christmas tunes, enjoying each other's company, and enjoying the beautiful snowfall. That night I also took a glorious walk over to Plantage in the snow. I joined some lovely dwellers there for stoopwafel s'mores, hot chocolate, brownies, and Love Actually. It was a glorious holiday celebration.
Unfortunately these photos don't give justice to just how stunningly quiet and beautiful the snow and night were.

Yesterday was another monumental day: It was my 100th day in Amsterdam. SO weird, right?? I've been here for one hundred days already. So freaky! As of today also, I only have 17 more days here- less than three weeks before I leave the city and return back to the United States. It's so strange to think that I've been here for a pretty long time. While it sometimes feels like I've been here for ages, it also feels like I just got started here, and that I have so much more to accomplish in the Netherlands. So many things left to do, so little time!

Since the snow was the most exciting thing that's happened, and it truly made me grin from ear to ear for about twenty-four hours straight (I just had a presentation for my Islamic Law class and was rambling and being awkward in my usual terrible-at-public-speaking-way, but I'm still happy as a clam), I don't really have anything else as riveting happening today, aside from frolicking through the sneeuw (NOTE: I have been spelling that word wrong: this is the correct way) on my way to Crea Café to do miscellaneous work. yippee.

FUN FACT: it is quite dangerous to fietsen (bike) in the snow. I've already talked to friends whose bikes have skidded out, resulting in a not-so-glamorous face plant.

FUN FACT: Even the Dutch fall off their bikes in the snow!

Okey dokey then, I'm off to do work today- tot ziens!

Days 97-99

Happy Holidays Everyone!
Since Thanksgiving is officially over, it's now time to start getting into the Christmas spirit. Time for christmas cookies, eggnog, gingerbread houses, christmas lights, the christmas tree, carols, wreaths, snow, a crackling fire.....I could go on and on and on...
ps. I am listening to Christmas tunes as I write this, just to get into the holiday mood.

So much has happened in this weekend, and only so much space to write it all! Once again, I have thought of more exciting and delightful events that have occurred over the past few weeks that I have failed to mention in previous entries. Again, my apologies for backtracking and the lack of consistency. But hey, I guess this blog somewhat can define a bit of who I am as a person: random, disorganized, goofy, sometimes irrelevant, full of EXCITEMENT!

Anywho...

I'll start with this past weekend, which happened to be Thanksgiving weekend.
Thursday afternoon, the nifty-ily fabulous Sinclair Post Miller (otherwise known as Clair to the Baltimore/GFS homies) flew in from Copenhagen, Denmark to stay with me for the weekend. She arrived just in time to help me boil and mash a large quantity of potatoes to make some scrumptious mashed potatoes for dinner. Since I don't have an oven, and I also have very limited cooking skills, I thought it would be best and safer for my fellow diners if I stuck with something simple and something that it is difficult to screw up. They actually turned out okay!
The vast majority of our program, along with our program leaders and various professors joined us at a cool bar/restaurant that CIEE rented out just for the occasion. Among the special guests were the one and only Bonny Wassing, Vreer (our trans* guest speaker, wearing an impeccably sharp kilt of some sort), Hannah's husband and baby Noor. Noor is by far the cutest and happiest Dutch/American baby I've ever seen.
I was honestly terrified that no one was going to bring food for our epic Thanksgiving feast- I was under the assumption that the rest of our group was going to forget to bring food. Boy was I wrong! There were so many different dishes of potatoes (sweet and regular), corn, cranberry sauce, turkey, bacon-wrapped dates, Russian beet salad, other miscellaneous salads, a plethora of breads and spreads, and this isn't even including the vast amounts of pies! I was initially really upset that I could not be in Baltimore to spend Thanksgiving with my family. However, I couldn't have asked for a more warming and lovely Thanksgiving with a group of people that I love and truly cherish. It made me so thankful for everyone in my life, from California to Maryland to Amsterdam to everywhere else in the rest of the world. I feel so blessed ( and I don't use that word much- not much of a religious person!) to have been able to spend Thanksgiving with all of the people in my study abroad group. They have truly become family to me now, which I definitely didn't expect to find when I came abroad.
food and friends
our epic feast
Clair and I!
Sorry Liza, had to put it up
we LOVE thanksgiving!The boys with the one and only Bonny Wassing! Doesn't he look sharp in his bow-tie?


After stuffing ourselves silly with food and drink, we participated in one activity that is only appropriate for Thanksgiving: Karaoke. Most of our posse joined us at a glorious Karaoke bar. Well actually we attended not one but Two different Karaoke bars. The first we re-opened because so many of us were so enthusiastic about karaoke, and then various other Dutchies followed us. They did an intriguing job of the actual Karaoke part. Example A: the song "I'll sing a little prayer for you" or whatever the title is, had these lyrics instead, which I thought were sort of amusing. After this karaoke bar proved to be sub-par, due to their lack of truly groovy tunes, we migrated to Casablanca, another karaoke bar that is well known and loved by people here. (by people I mean the kids in my program...) We boogied and jived to the melodious sounds of tipsy kids of all ages belting out to various tunes from all different genres. It was a truly delightful way to end Thanksgiving.
tee hee.

John Henry and Nori singing their hearts out.just a trio of soul sistazz! Note Jeanine's (girl in middle) turkey hat. A work of art.

Friday was a lazy day for Clair and I. After a rousing night before, we decided to take it easy. We rode by bike (I dinked Clair- she's a great dinkee, fyi!) to Waterlooplein, where we perused through the random assortment of clothing, antiques, and random junk. We also mingled and wandered down a few shopping streets full of thrift stores and stores with other miscellaneous stuff. There's a store called "Knuffels" which translates to "Hugs" that was chock FULL of stuffed animals and other silly trinkets. We ended the afternoon with lounging, Planet Earth and perpetual napping. Friday night another dorm building, Plantage Muidergracht, had a mini fiesta appropriately named "Lekker Studies", aka delicious studies. Someone brought red solo cups (a friend had brought them from California) so we played the traditional American drinking games- flip cup, beirut (beer pong), etc. It was such an American moment: at one point it was the Europeans (A Dutchie and actually an Australian? not sure where guy #2 was from) versus two Americans. The Euros had no freaking clue what beirut was, and the Americans were getting a wee bit too competitive over the rules and regulations. Such a typical American thing to do. I may or may not be guilty of getting overly competitive at some point during the game as well....
It was a lekker night indeed!
Saturday Clair, Steph and I ventured to Sara's Pancake Bakery, where Clair got to taste a yummy Dutch pancake. After we stuffed our faces full (this seems to be a theme for this weekend), we wandered down the street to the Electric LadyLand, otherwise known as the fluorescent art museum. It was basically just a room in this hippy man's basement that was full of fluorescent minerals, paintings, and other random objects. It was small, but actually a really cool museum. The pictures turned out pretty nifty as well, as you will see.

our groovy host and tour guide

This was followed by hot cocoa, and- wait for it- more food. This time it was nachos. Quite a strange dish to pair with warm chocolademelk (warm chocolate milk, literally), but delish nonetheless!
Sadly Clair had to leave early this am (6:00 am!) for the train station. On our walk to the station we saw bikes and the bridges dusted with snow and ice. It was a lovely zero degrees Celsius, or 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and boy was it chilly! brrrrrrrrrrrr! There was sprinklings of snow all weekend, but most of it melted by noon. Still, it is promising to see that there can actually be snow in Amsterdam, in a city that is 10 meters below sea level, a city that should in theory be covered in water. The weather forecast says that there is supposed to be snow Tuesday and Thursday also, which should be fun. I wonder if Dutch professors give out snow days.... I also am wondering about how easy / difficult / dangerous it will be to bike in the snow. Even worse, what will it be like to bike when the snow has melted and re-frozen over, creating a maze of black ice? I'll let you know about the wintery adventures soon!

Fun Dutch words for the day:
lol=fun (not kidding...)
uitstaande=outstanding
gambas=shrimp

Days 91-96

HAPPY HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!

If you all didn't already know, vandaag (today) is thanksgiving! A glorious holiday for giving thanks to the wonderful people and things in your life. It's also a great time to stuff your face with scrumptious Thanksgiving food, from turkey to stuffing to potatoes to pie to EVERYTHING. I hope all of you have the most delightful Thanksgiving plans. Today is going to be an uber exciting day for a few reasons: A. Today is Thanksgiving, so naturally it's going to be awesome. B. I get to miss my Dutch class for our CIEE thanksgiving dinner, which is truly spectacular. C. the marvelous and delightful Clair Miller is going to be in Amsterdam with me for thanksgiving, which I couldn't be more thankful for. D. There's going to be a plethora of food, people, drinks, merriment, and thanks-giving tonight- and that's enough to be excited about as it is. Today I am going to attempt (note: Attempt is the key word here) to make mashed potatoes. The concept sounds simple enough. boil potatoes, mash the potatoes, right? With my luck, they will be a grade-A disaster. Which is why I am going to spend most of my day trying to make some yummy mashed potatoes. Our program is full of big eaters, so I gotta make a TON. We'll see how this goes...

So I've realized that after each blog entry that I write, I always forget some important or particularly funny/amusing story from each entry. Which is why today, in this lovely entry, I will make up for the lost silly events that have transpired over the past few weeks that I have failed to mention previously. I must warn you, the remaining part of this blog will be very random, colloquial (a nice way to put it), and just random. End of story.

I'll start off with my morning today. I had set my alarm to wake up later, by 10:30 or so, so that I could sleep in. But around 8:30 am I hear this "FWAP" noise hit my window, and it sounds sort of wet and squishy. Half asleep and completely confused, I look out my window and see a man with a HUGE sponge attached to the end of the stick, washing my windows. I didn't actually see the man because I typically look like a hot mess in the am- and no one wants to see that! But Strangely, that squishing sound lulled me back to sleep for a few hours. And now my windows are squeaky clean- GREAT SUCCESS. A delightful way to start thanksgiving.

So last tuesday (november 16?) I was biking to Crea Café to do some homework. After I locked up mijn fiets (my bike), I started to walk by the canal to enter the front door. I see about twenty-five people alongside the canal, some with cameras, some without, and I was wondering what all the hoo haa was about. And then I saw the claw. It looked like the Claw from Toy Story at Pizza Planet, where the claw machine/arcade game lowers down and clamps onto one of the squishy alien toys as they all murmer "the clawwwwww........." Except that this claw machine wasn't on a quest for little rubber aliens. Instead, this claw machine was attached to a mini canal/tug boat, and it was fishing at the bottom of the canal for old bikes and other rubbish that had accumulated at the bottom for the past few months. Here are a few pictures of the claw machine picking up garbage from the bottom of the canal.


garbage left over from finding crap on the bottom of the canal.
They do this all around the city every once in awhile, because too frequently people throw their crap, including old or broken down bikes, into the canals. It's pretty gross (hence why you would NEVER want to swim in a canal) but sort of groovy nonetheless.

A few weeks ago (it was a Monday, I think), we all went to tour a squatter's house. It was about to be shut down by the government, but for some reason the people at the squatter's house got the eviction turned around. I actually couldn't understand, and I can't still really recall how they didn't end up getting evicted, but I am quite glad that they did! Three Dutchies showed us around- two ladies and a man- and they have been also squatting there. It was formerly used as a school, an auditorium, and now it's a squatter's location where students and artists alike can come and exhibit their artwork. They even have a mini area for concerts, with a stage, a bar, and everything!

the bar
groovy seating
a view into the rest of the house.

It was cool to see all of this going on. Apparently they have concerts and art exhibitions with cool people and cheap drinks. May have to investigate more into this in the near future...

Ok I hate to also be a debbie downer (wha wha WHAAAAA) but I just checked my calendar and I only have 22 days LEFT in Amsterdam!!! There's so much more to see and to do. There's also SO much homework piling up currently that my last three weeks here will be spent at the library, or at Crea doing work.....super duper. But I do have 22 more days left, which is a decent amount of time, which means that I must live up my last moments here before they all fly by.

One lovely and sweet thing that I have seen not once, but at least TWICE here this week is couples holding hands while biking. I don't know what the duck it is, but I find it utterly sweet and adorable. I even saw two men, with a child on each of their bikes, and the KIDS were holding hands as the men (assuming they are together) biked side by side. One of the sweetest family moments I've seen here. Once again, it cements my love for people. It also proves that there are the best people to watch and observe in Amsterdam. I am really going to miss that after December.

fun Dutch words:

ik feetstend = I am partying
verrast=surprising
When I searched for "turkey" in my Dutch translator, it came up with Turkije, ie the country
aardappel=potato
pompoen=pumpkin

Have a wonderful day today everyone- celebrate lots, give thanks to those you love, and enjoy life!!

Days 86-90

Hoi!

Sorry I haven't written much in a long time- I have just been so busy and stressed with homework, school, life, etc etc etc. You know how it goes. But here's a mini recap of what's been going on in my life!

On Tuesday I got to see the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1). I know everyone's probably already seen it by now, but it was fun because it came out in the Netherlands before it premiered in either London OR the United States. So we got to see the movie before anyone else. A big group of us all dressed up ( I did not dress up, but did draw a dark mark on my arm and did carry a wand into the theater....no big deal.) There were kids dressed up as Luna Lovegood, Bellatrix, Harry, Hermoine, Moaning Myrtle, Dobby, Winky, Voldemort's homeboy (not actually Voldemort, but his homie...), and a few other miscellaneous wizards/creatures. We got to the theater very early, about thirty minutes before. In America, if you don't get to the midnight premiere at least an hour before, you won't get a ticket. It's as simple as that. However, when we got there, there was NO line, and no one dressed up. We were the only ones in the Amsterdam area (that I could see) that dressed up for this glorious occasion. We got a plethora of strange looks from other Dutch children and adults alike, but whatever. It's Harry Potter for pete's sake!! But it was an absolutely stellar movie overall. I was a bit disappointed that they omitted certain parts of the book from the movie and added some new scenes to the film, but it was still a great film. And it reaffirms my devoted love and adoration for Harry Potter. It was great that most of my friends are all major Harry Potter nerds also. GREAT SUCCESS.
However, we did see the movie in English, but with Dutch subtitles. The subtitles were actually hilarious to read throughout the movie. They change all of the names of the characters from English/JK Rowling's Wizard language into Dutch. For example, Dumbledore in Dutch is Perkamentus.... didn't get that. I can't think of any other examples, but it was quite unusual! They also found a way to translate the spells into Dutch.
FUN FACT: the spells are not real English- they are fictitious and fabricated by JK Rowling. However, this shows that the Dutch really must do things in their own way, just to be different and unique. Such a Dutch thing to do.

Thursday night, after my three-hour-long Dutch language class, I biked a few blocks down the street and went to Gay Night Out with a bunch of other International kids. The first bar had musical bingo, where they played a variety of tunes like Cher, Whitney Houston, Katy Perry, The Pointer Sisters, and pretty much every song from the Zoolander soundtrack, and if you got all of the songs on your bingo card then you won a gift card to some restaurant. I sadly didn't win, but it was groovy to just dance and be silly after a long week of classes. There were about four different bars that we were all going to, but I was very lame and only went to two because I was uber sleepy. Oh well.

I just was checking the weather forecast and it is supposed to SNOW this weekend!!! I hope it does. I would love to see a snow-covered Amsterdam. It will be quite difficult and potentially dangerous to bike in the snow, but it's always worth a try!

Next Thursday is Thanksgiving, which I am assuming that all of you already know. I am sad that I won't be able to be home for this holiday, which is my favorite time to be with the family and with friends. But my program is hosting a big potluck dinner with the program and various professors. I am bringing mashed potatoes, which are delicious (lekker), and easy to make. They are also one of the only things I could make since I don't have an oven. Another reason I am excited for Thanksgiving is because my lovely and beautiful friend Clair Miller is coming to visit me for thanksgiving!!!!! She is coming this Thursday afternoon and staying with me for the weekend. It will be so nice to have someone else from home visit me, especially around the holidays.

I have been pretty homesick this weekend, most likely due to a combination of stress, lack of sleep, and an abundance of work that I will have until literally the day I come back to the States, which is December 17th. It has also made me more homesick when people are talking about going home for the thanksgiving break, and sadly there is no Thanksgiving break in the Netherlands since they don't celebrate this holiday (duh). But it has been nice to talk to people from home. It has relieved my homesickness a tad. But it just also makes me more excited to come home and see everyone in less than a month!

Funny Dutch words:
poep=poop (sorry, I am five years old. but it was a vocab word for my class)
snieuw=snow

Days 83-85

Happy Holidays!

You might wonder, why happy holidays? It's too soon for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and even for Hannukah. What holiday am I referring to?
The answer is SINTERKLAAS! Sinterklaas is the Dutch equivalent to Christmas. It is the holiday that the little Dutch children look forward to the most. Sint Nicholaas (ie Santa) wears robes and a big red pope's hat. The legend goes that Sint Nicholaas comes from Spain. Every year in the middle of November, Sint Nicholaas travels to the Netherlands by steamboat from Madrid (FUN FACT: Madrid has no port, and is completely surrounded by land.) and arrives in the Netherlands on his white horse (schimmel) and his Black Pieters, or Zwarte Pieten to give the children toys and treats from then until December 5, when he returns back to Spain. Little children leave their shoes by their fireplace or their front door, and the Black Pieters are supposed to come down the chimney and leave little treats in the shoes. This year Sinterklaas occured on this past Sunday November 14, and he arrived on his steamboat down the canal right by where I live! Now what the controversial issue is is the Zwarte Pieten. According to tradition, they are called "Black Pieters" because their faces are black. Their faces are black (apparently) because they always go down the chimneys and are always covered in soot. However, it is not black actors portraying the Pietes, but it is white Dutch citizens that don black face. When I first got to the Netherlands, I was honestly shocked and slightly horrified about the black face. If this stunt was ever pulled in the United States, the NAACP and basically every American citizen would be all over their butts! So all over the city there have been Dutch people, donned in ruffly costumes, black face, and bright red lipstick, running and roller skating all throughout the city. The ironic thing is that the Dutch think that this is a totally acceptable tradition. The Dutch are so pragmatic, socially sensitive, and accepting of prostution, drug addicts, squatters, gay marriages, etc, etc, yet they don't see any racism with the black face. It is preposterous to me. Even some of the little children will dress up as Zwarte Pieten and wear black face as well! Maybe I am not looking through the correct cultural lens when assessing the Dutch situation, but it is a very interesting and highly controversial subject, especially when discussing among the international and non-Dutch students.

Zwarte Pieten
Sint Nicholaas coming down the canal by Steamboat with his boat chock-full of Pietes
Sint Nicholaas himself!
two children excited for Sinterklaas. Note the irony here.

On a lighter note, our program is doing a secret santa type thing with Sinterklaas. Our celebration is on December 6, so technically the day after Sint Nicholaas goes back to Madrid. But I will share more info on this when the date arrives.

The rest of my weekend was quite eventful and full of many different cultural events, all spanning over the cultural spectrum. On Friday night I got to go see Ratatat, a New York based electronic/alternative music duo. They combine synthesizers with guitar, bass, and drums. The music is primarily intrumental, with occasional vocal clips. I wasn't expecting anything incredible when I bought the tickets. However, I was completely blown away by their music. It was honestly one of the best live shows I've ever seen. It was a small crowd, but still just an epic show- great sound, cool lights, great vibe. Here is one of the only pictures that I got of the show.
I've always been saying here that there are very few genuinely creepy Dutch people. Well, I was proven completely wrong at Ratatat on Friday. It seems as if every single creeper in a two-mile radius was at Paradiso seeing Ratatat. So many weird, awkward men trying to dance, touch, and creep on the girls. So that was a down side. But aside from the weirdos, the show was absolutely AMAZING!! If anyone ever has the chance to see them live, DO IT. It is completely worth your while, money, and time.
Here are some YouTube links to some of their songs:

"Loud Pipes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64liF2VuLxI
"Mirando"-one of my favorites, even though all of them are stellar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk8qcGOtBFw

On Saturday night a few of us engaged in yet another cultural activity. This time it was ballet. It was the Ballet Preljocaj from the Bolshoi Theatre. They are a Russian Ballet company who performed in Amsterdam for a week. They combined beautiful ballet with electronic music, along with other crazy stuff. I wish I could've taken pictures of it, but sadly they don't allow cameras in the theatre :(

The piece was called "A Thousand Years of Peace". I'm not sure what it was about, but it could've involved themes of gender roles, violence, and world peace. I'm not sure, but the whole show was pretty trippy with the cool light effects and electronic music. At one point all of the dancers had a book in each hand and one in their mouth and danced for FIFTEEN minutes with a book in their mouth, doing complicated danced moves non-stop. At one point there were dancers in a bubble of saran wrap, tons of different flags from different countries, and even two baby lambs were brought on stage! Such a random show, but a beautiful and brilliant performance nonetheless.

This week is chock-full of work, school, more work, and other random activities.
FUN FACT: the 7th Harry Potter movie comes out in the Netherlands before London OR the United States. Jealous much?

FUN FACT: A girl in my Dutch class named her dog Febo de Lekkerste. if you don't recall, Febo is a late-night munchie spot where you can get fried snacks out of this vending machine thing. A very funny name for a dog.

funny Dutch words:
moeten=should
moetje=child out of wedlock (rationale behind this word: a child out of wedlock is called a 'moetje' because the parents SHOULD'VE or SHOULD get married with their kid. amusing concept.)
hand=hand
schoen=shoe
handschoen=glove (literally: hand shoe)
vuilnisbak=trash can
hond=dog
vuilnisbakkenhond=mixed breed dog (slang)

Days 75-82: Dijon imports, Museumnacht, and more!

Bonjour from the Dam!

These past few days have been super busy. This past weekend (Thurs-Sunday) Caroline Riina and her lovely friend Hannah came from Dijon, France to stay with me in Amsterdam for a few days. We went to the Van Gogh Museum, the I Amsterdam sign, the Anne Frank Huis, Waterlooplein, and to MuseumNacht, among various other adventures.

Caroline and Hannah at the "m" in i amsterdam

They even had their first Dutch pancakes- a real treat to be able to document.
remnants of our pancakes.

Museum Nacht was this past Saturday, and all of the museums in Amsterdam were open until late (around 2am for most of them) and with your ticket you could access all of them for free! They had their exhibits, plus food, drinks, and good music. At the Hermitage Museum, where they have an Alexander the Great exhibition currently, we made it just in time for the "Larp your heart out" event. For those of you who do not know what LARP-ing is, it means "Live Action Role Play". So there were people dressed as Alexander, his ladies, and various other people from Alexander's time, dead and alive. They were interacting with the museum visitors. My friend Becca was even attempting to negotiate with Alexander himself!
We also went to the FOAM (museum for photography), the Botanical Gardens (where they were selling bugs for people to eat...intriguing), and the NEMO. At the NEMO, the science museum, they had everything from kid's games to a sex education exhibit (where Caroline and I could try out the tongues box where you "french kiss"! see picture below for explanation.)
note: did not intentionally make a creepy/pervy face in this.

We also got to just sit outside on the roof and see all of the city lit up. It was, and still is, a magnificent view of Amsterdam.

The view of the city from the roof of the NEMO.

Overall it was a stellar weekend. Pretty good weather, good friends, good activities!

However, this week has been stressful with papers, presentations, Dutch classes, and the like. Not to mention that today there has been the WORST weather since I've arrived! 40 degrees fahrenheit, freezing rain, gusts of wind that are so powerful that they will literally knock you off your bike. Or the wind will be blowing directly toward you, so even if you are pedaling as fast as you can, you aren't moving forward at all. Quite a challenge.

This weekend/week have been great successes in the Dutch language category (NOT including the class itself.) I have been able to communicate with various strangers only in Dutch. They were basic questions, like "where would you like to sit?" (café) or "who is the last person in line?" (filling up tram cards), or "how many siblings do you have?" I have been (somewhat) coherent in my Dutch speaking capabilities, which was very fun!

While the weather has been stinky here today, I did receive a FANTASTIC letter from the one and only Sienna Beckman! It was such a great way to wake up and to get this letter. I apologize to everyone for being so TERRIBLE at writing postcards (current # of postcards sent=0. sorry.)
But I do miss you all so darn much.
Here is a picture that Sienna sent me of the whole gang playing the TRAIN GAME!!!! Which no one here in my program or in the Netherlands for that matter understands. Thank you again Sienna for the letter, the photo AND the temporary tattoos!! I will wear them at the most appropriate time, just for you ;)
taken from my phone. This photo (along with the postcard about the two fall shows at Oxy) is stuck to my wall right above my bed. LOVE to Sienna, Zoe, Alyson, Aylia, Tristan, and Eric. (and to everyone else, obviously.)

After my Dutch class tonight (6:30-9:30, ugh) I am FREE from classes until Monday- huzzah! Friday night I am going to see Ratatat live (SO. EXCITED.) and then perhaps I will get to see a cool ballet performance on Saturday night (ballet + dubstep/electronic music=bliss).

Either way, I am looking forward to this weekend!

Funny Dutch words:

lawaaierig (la-VAI-er-ig)=noisy (ps. very hard word to pronounce!)
geboren en getogen=born and raised
zand=sand (so simple, right?)
huis=home
dier=animal
huisdier=pet (literal: house animal)
knuffelen=to cuddle, snuggle

Dag!!

Days 69-74

So I left off last time (Last thursday, to be exact) saying that I was going to an English tea room. Well, I did, and it was so fabulously English! Betty's is in a quaint town of Harrogate, with some groovy shopping. Their main "site to see" is Betty's Tea Room, a classy three-story restaurant with floral print and classy English patrons everywhere. They even came around with a delicious cake trolley, chock-full of different types of cakes, tarts, and other yummy sweets. I opted for the Yorkshire rarebit with bacon, which is essentially bread under a layer of baked cheese and Worcestershire sauce, paired with chutney. I went for the caramelized onion and tomato chutneys, but they had a ton of others. Those Brits love their chutney!
Camilla and I outside of the tea room
Rarebit (partially eaten already, was too impatient to wait to take a pic!) with (clockwise): bacon, a bit of caramelized onion chutney, tomato chutney. NOM
cake trolley. Wish they had one at school.
the outside of the tea room.

After some wandering around Harrogate, we went back to good ol' Leeds. Camilla and I saw The Social Network, the movie about the creation of Facebook, that night. It was actually a well-done movie, and it was cool to see how Facebook, something that basically everyone that I know, and probably everyone who reads this, knows about or obsesses about constantly. Nice way to end Thursday.

On Friday Camilla gave me a tour of Leeds, where we went to the Corn Exchange, which has a cool restaurant and some shops inside, and we also went to the shopping area and walked around for awhile. I also tried roasted chesnuts for the first time. A great chilly day treat!



Camilla also took me to this trendy sushi place on top of a cool Leeds department store called Yo! Sushi (yes, the ! is included in the actual title of the restaurant). It was a rotating sushi bar with bright colors and all you can drink green tea.


The destruction we did on the sushi plates. So tasty.

That night we all went out to one of the University bars on campus to an event called "Fruity", which is a weekly tradition for Leeds students. They turn their Uni (short for university, fyi) terrace/restaurant into a bar/club for the night. Everyone was dressed in costumes which was a pleasant surprise to see, since none of the Dutch know what the heck Halloween is.

I flew back to the Netherlands on Saturday after a fantastic stay with Camilla and her lovely posh British roommates. I made it back just in time for more Halloween festivities with my CIEE crew. We gallivanted around the Dam, went to Paradiso for some boogying, etc etc.

Now, I am back to school work and the school routine. It was nice to have a mini break from classes and school! Also, I only have 1 and a half months left here. THAT'S IT. It is already November. I have finals in the beginning of December. I can't even fathom leaving this place. I feel as if I have just gotten into a good routine, and I will be so disoriented when I have to be removed from my Dutch bubble and when I plop right back into the American lifestyle. I'm not sure how I'll react to it.

I had classes all day today, and so now I am VRIJ (FREE) for the weekend- huzzah!
Tomorrow my good friend Caroline Riina and her friend will be staying with me in AMSTERDAM for the weekend. I am so excited to see her since it feels like I haven't seen her beautiful face in years (that could even be true, it's been so long since I've seen her!). Will blog more about it later!

Much love to all back in the States.

funny Dutch words:
air mattress=luchtbed (literally: air bed)

Dooi!!