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
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)
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
