Days 14-16

So, it's official. I am a student at the University of Amsterdam, taking classes like a regular ol' Dutch student. Cool, huh? Since Monday morning, I have had two classes, Contemporary Dutch Social Policy and Introduction to Sharia, Islamic Law & Morality. Dutch Social Policy was with this wonderfully fabulous Dutch man named Bonny Wassing (yes, Bonny is apparently a boy's name in Dutch, interesting. Made me think of Mom!) who matches his shirts with his socks. No joke, he had on a pale blue paisley shirt with matching pale blue socks, neat jeans and stylish leather shoes. I gotta say, the Dutch know how to dress well. In this class we'll be discussing Dutch social issues: prostitution, drugs, immigration, housing issues, euthanasia & abortion, etc etc. It was a slow first day but I know that I will learn a lot. Plus we will be going on cool field trips to squatter's houses and we get to meet and talk to transgendered Dutch people, so it will be a very enriching class. The second class, Islamic Law, seems that it will be a fascinating class. My professor is Maurice Blessing, who studies Islam and the Middle East. He is also a journalist. According to him, we will be looking at Islamic law from many different perspectives and the entire history of it. It sounds absolutely fascinating. I have been hearing so many horror stories about how different Dutch professors are to American ones, and I was worried that this would make classes much more difficult. However, I can see that they won't be as different as I had previously imagined. A much more comforting thought. A classmate, Tuppy (yes, that is her name) and I were thinking of fun nick names for Maurice, and have decided that M-Dizzle or something ghetto-fabulous like that would be appropriate. I think we will have to wait to try out that cool nickname until we are closer with the professor- it may just be strange and quite frankly, inappropriate.

One thing that I am loving about Amsterdam so far is getting to meet so many cool and different people. Along with these new professors and various other class mates, I have had the good fortune of meeting two other interesting, yet completely different, characters. The first is Neeraj. (pronounced neer-Ahj. I think that's right... I just don't know how to spell it!) He is a delightful Englishman who works at the café that I drink coffee and read my book at frequently, as in pretty much every day. I had assumed that he was Dutch, since he speaks the language fluently. But it is so refreshing to have another native English speaker around! He resembles Stanley Tucci-bald, kind face, quite humorous, distinguishable spectacles- except with tanner skin. He and I will chat in the morning, and he even gave me a free coffee this morning! A very kind person.
The other character was this groovy dude from Minneapolis. A few of my friends and I were enjoying coffee and french fries when he joined our table and started chatting with us. His name is Tyler, and he has been in Amsterdam for the past three weeks competing in Magic the Gathering competitions. Yes, you heard me correctly. Magic the Gathering. Apparently it's a card game that is full of wizards and Lord of the Rings-type stuff. Well, this guy Tyler competes professionally. No big deal or anything. So he just sits and talks to us about his time in Amsterdam, his mad skillzz with Magic the Gathering, and how his bike got stolen a few days ago. He was also feeling quite....groovy. Under the influence of something psychedelic or something. But, he was hilarious nevertheless. We saw him a few minutes later wandering aimlessly outside of the bar. Tyler was a very different sort of character, but a funny and good person to meet either way. Oh, how I love the people here!

Currently, on this lovely Tuesday afternoon, it is pouring rain. It will continue to rain constantly for the next few days. Excellent. But I will be spending my time bundled up in the comfort of my own room until my class tonight at 6:00pm- Gender, Migration, and Development.

Another random thought: there are literally no real Mexican restaurants in Amsterdam. You may think this is silly to think, because well DUH there are no Mexican places because this is Europe, not Los Angeles. But, the city has Argentinean, Chinese, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, and Italian food, but not Mexican! Liza and I found this one place, La Margarita, and were so excited to eat Mexican food when we saw the menu. One burrito, an average flour tortilla stuffed with beans, rice, and other yummy toppings, cost SEVENTEEN Euros! An absolutely ludicrous price!!! So sadly we did not eat those obscenely overpriced burritos. One negative thing about Amsterdam so far.

So,

I miss: Mexican food.
I love: people.