Alright Lovelies!
Sorry about the full week without updates... I've been a busy kid!! But I'm comin' back with a bang! Pour yourself a cup of tea and get comfortable, cause this is going to be an extensive one again! Where to even begin?
The past week has been a SERIOUS WHIRLWIND. Like college freshman orientation week, times a million, all in a different language.
The first day, after recovering from the electricity scandal, I packed my bags, got on the shuttle back to the airport and found my group. CIEE was nice enough to pick us up from Schiphol and guide us through the rest of the day. We went to De Key (pronounced: De Ka), got our keys, signed leases, blah blah blah, and a few hours later I was dropped off with my luggage in hand and a tip that my room was on the fifth floor. I walked inside and looked up at the enormous staircase in front of me, looked down from my first 50 pound suitcase to my second, and winced. The staircases are long and steep and five of them separated me from my brand new humble abode. However, as I was in the middle of hoisting bag #1 up staircase #1, a beautiful guardian angel, in the form of a very well dressed foreign boy, introduced himself, took my bag from me and soon we were standing before staircase #2. Now ladies, hold on to your hats... This lovely man INSISTED on carrying BOTH of my suitcases up ALL FIVE flights of stairs. And when I say insisted I mean would not take no for an answer, refused all help, insisted INSISTED. When I tried to follow him with one of my own bags in hand he literally said, "ah, now you force me to carry both bags at one time" in some kind of beautiful accent, grabbed one piece of luggage in each hand and climbed each staircase. I just wobbled up the stairs after him with my jaw dropped and hearts in my eyes. And when we finally made it up the gazillion stairs, he dropped my bags at my door, smiled, and said simply, "hope to be seeing you!" And with that, he was gone.
So with my first short interaction with a foreign manfriend comes a warning to all the American Bros out there... CHIVALRY IS NOT DEAD, SUGAR. It seems to be very much alive and thriving here in little 'ol Holland and you boys have got a lot to learn! And while we are on the subject: start dressing in real clothes. I feel mildly hypocritical since I have ended up wearing yoga pants to class more than plenty of times back at school, but this is immediately no more for me, and I hope for you as well. You American men and your brotanks, shorts and flip flops have been the butt of many of these lovely European men's jokes this past week and I laugh every time. They dress well, they speak well, they chivalry me right outta the water... so get on it, boys!
Anywayyyy....
Somewhere between the stairs, my room, and all the wooziness of being treated well, I met a wonderful American girl who happens to be my roommate! Her name is Varsha: from Miami, goes to Amherst College, is just really fantastic all around! We have our own rooms and share a modest kitchen and bathroom up here on the fifth floor of Prins Hendrikkade 189. Once I got to my room, I had only a moment to take a peek and drop my things. I was then rushed into the insanity of three days of nonstop orientations.
First was a short CIEE orientation meeting, followed by a canal cruise with all my American program-mates. They served hors d'oeuvres (wow, that's some spelling right there) and beer and wine. Oh how I am in love with being of legal drinking age and not feeling like an insignificant, immature toddler when I go out! That night I met a ton of lovely Americans, planned a crazy night out, however, got back to my dorm and immediately passed out. Jet lag is really fun! (not.)
The next morning we got our fiets! That's bikes, for you English speakers! We stood in the rain, waiting to sign a contract and fork over 100 euro in exchange for a new fun little mode of transportation. I was standing in the back when everyone stampeded to pick their bike, so I was initially paired with a big, ancient, rusty ol' guy. I couldn't complain one bit though, because he reminded me of Grandpa's bike in California and I loved that thing. So I was pretty in love. Until a new friend decided he was going to look for bikes elsewhere and handed me the MOST ADORABLE little turquoise beauty I have ever seen. Head over heels at first sight. It's still old, nothing fancy shamncy. But she's my color, she says "FIETS" in white, and she's full of character. I can't get enough of her.
Although, I didn't even have time to test drive her because we immediately locked up our bikes and headed in a completely different direction to get out of the rain. From there, there were a few more meetings, some lunch, and then the beginning of the International Student Network (ISN) orientation. The ISN includes every international student doing a semester or a masters at two different universities in Amsterdam. So it's basically just a giant group of amazing peeps from literally all over the world. We got into groups of about 10, with two Dutchies as our group leaders. My group was really great. One girl from New York, one from Canada, a guy from Australia, and from Ukraine, two girls from Finland, a guy from Norway, a girl from Italy one from Greece, and one from Thailand. All really nice. I spent the next three days getting to know them. After the first meeting, we went for a beer. Don't worry, Momma. Drinking culture here is so much different than at that top party school that you sent me to. It's just leisurely sipping beer, hangin' out, getting to know each other. After that was dinner, followed by more drinks at Wynand Fockink. This time we drank jenever, classic Dutch hard liquor similar to gin, but also kinda whisky-ish. But still, Momma, we sipped. There was no tossing back shots, like I am most definitely not used to! ;) Fun fact about this bar: it was tiny, full of old Dutch gentlemen and older than the entire country of America. I was all kinds of stoked on that. I'm usually not a huge history buff, but I'm learning that perhaps U.S. history just kind of bores me because it is so new. This place was chalk full of interesting! After that was a big party, with a whole bunch of shaking my bootay with tons of new European friends! Got home late and threw off any amount of jet lag progress I had begun to make. But, really, who has time for jet lag when you are having so much fun, anway!
The next day I met my ISN-ers at the Artis Zoo (fun fact: it is the third oldest zoo in the world, and sits right in the middle of the city, so those guys have got some prime real estate!) It was fun but raining and cold and we were all a little tired so we went indoors for guess what? A beer! Haha. From there we went to dinner and a comedy show (fun, fun, fun!) and back to another bar afterwards for more relaxing and sipping.
The next day was ISN sports day, followed by some time off to get dinner, relax and get ready, and then a huge night out at one of Amsterdam's best clubs. The big sporting event building was far away, so we were (very vaguely) instructed to get there by public transport. I honestly probably would have ditched out all together, but you had to show up in order to get your ticket to the club that night (I spy a ploy for a little forced participation!). So a friend from CIEE and a German girl I had met through ISN made the trek. It was a mess. We bought tickets from the first unhappy, unhelpful Dutchie I have met (I think he is the only one in the country, to be honest) and he muttered to use the metro, go three stops and get off and then shooed us away. So we walk into the metro station, thinking wait a minute, theres more than one metro route? Which train do you take for three stops? We try to scan our tickets and the screen says something in Dutch and the background flashed red, so clearly not a good sign. After about 20 minutes of wondering eyes and confused thoughts, I gave in to being the lost Americans and asked two security guards. They told us that the tickets we were sold weren't even for the metro, they only worked for busses. And because they only ever work security for the metro lines, they had no idea about bus routes. But they were extremely lovely and helpful, looked it up on their phones and pointed us in the right direction. Brief shoutout to them: you were not only unbelievably helpful, but you were also super easy on the eyes, so thank you for being you! So we made it on the right bus, got off to transfer busses, realized we would have to wait a half hour for the right one to come, and decided to just walk the rest of the way. Took us probably three hours and a whole lot of confusion to get somewhere that could have taken about 20 minutes to reach. But being lost in Amsterdam is like being lost in heaven, so no biggie, smalls. We finally got there, grabbed our tickets, lunch, did a little bitta Zumba, and headed home (still took us unnecessarily long, but again, no worries). That night Varsha and a friend and I grabbed burgers from BurgerMeester (super close to our place) and it was not only cheaper than a burger back home, but oozing with quality, unprocessed, deliciousness. From there we went home, got our party pants (slash dresses) on and got ready for our big night out!
Varsha and I met the two Finnish girls from my group at Centraal Station and took a tram (which was so much easier without a grumpy man selling us the wrong kind of tickets) to meet the rest of my ISN group. Once again, we grabbed some beers and at about 11:30 headed to the Sugar Factory. After a little waiting in line, and a few drinks (this time shots were involved, haha), we were dancing the night away. I am in love with both of my new Finnish friends! They fed me sambuca (which apparently we have in the states, although I had never had it) and we danced our hineys' off. Also in love with Varsha! And the rest of that night's dancing partners! Partying with about a million kids from all over the globe until 4 in the morning (they go big here!) was SO MUCH FUN. Varsha and I got home at 5am with hurting feet and big smiles on our faces.
Sunday was the first time I had a moment to breathe, so I dedicated it to downtime (and the nursing of a tiny hangover and sore dancin' feet). I unpacked a little, got to see the beautiful faces of my Momma and my Mard and MY PUPPY (thank the lord for Skype!) and finally just relaxed.
And today was the first day of classes! I'm taking three classes here. A CIEE course: Contemporary Dutch Social Policy, Socionext: Social Entrepreneur Challenge and (check this name out!) Dance Me To The End Of Love: Romantic Love Narratives (which is every Wednesday, so I'll report back on it later!) I had Social Policy this morning at 10:30 and loved it! It was a very basic first day of class... just going over the syllabus and jumping into a little bit of Dutch history. The class is with all my American CIEE-mates and the teacher is a nice Dutchie, who I've heard is hilarious. Very sociology-y which I love, and will be really interesting especially after this past election when I took a dip into politics (thanks a million, Ani and all you great Denver Young Democrats!). Also really happy that I took a sociology class called Drugs in U.S. Society last year, because there will obviously be a lot of talk about the Netherland's drug policy and I not only get all fascinated with that kinda stuff, but now I can compare material! Plus, as the course goes along I will be able to accurately inform and myth-bust all your American stereotypes about the Dutch! So look forward to me being all kinds of informed!
At 5pm, I went to the Social Entrepreneur Class, which I AM SO STOKED ABOUT. I wasn't sure if I was going to take it, because it has a time dilemma with Dutch Culture. So I thought long and hard about my decision this past weekend and decided that with my Dutchie background (thanks, Grandparents!), meeting all my Dutchie relatives, living here and a weekend homestay in a Dutch household later in the semester, I will become familiar enough with Dutch Culture even without taking the course. So Socionext it is! And yeeehaw, am I glad that's what I picked. I walked out of that classroom feeling more inspired and passionate than I think I've ever felt in a school setting before. There are only about 15 kids in the class, which is extremely refreshing considering my usual lectures include 100-400 nameless faces. Only two of us are American (CIEE kids), which I really like because a lot of you Americans are really cool, but let's be real, I can hang with y'all anytime I want. There are four Dutchies, two German girls, one lovely Italian girl and a girl from Poland and the teacher is just a really cool, maybe 30 year old passionate British entrepreneur guy. Once everything really starts we will be put into groups, given a coach and other guidance-people, and begin creating our own business plans (product/service oriented) or fundraisers. Thursday's classes are dedicated to guest speakers teaching us all about start ups and business and success and Monday's are all about forming creative ideas, taking action and carrying out our designs. There's also weekly skype sessions with students in South Africa and the end goal is to raise enough money through your business/fundraisers to be able to send them to university. All sounds extremely great, right? Plus, learning how to spell entrepreneur is just another little perk! Most of the other students are business majors, or more interested in the entrepreneur side of things, whereas I've never had a business/economics class in my life and am really in it for the social nonprofit-ness. We all talked a lot about who we are, what made us want to take the class and what our first impressions were. I talked a lot about Camp Wapiyapi and being inspired by tiny adversity-conquiring kids and just feeling overwhelmingly passionate about it... I was that wide eyed girl smiling about changing the world. Other people talked a lot about business and media and profit and big words that I have never heard before (more realistic words, haha). But I think the combination of me with all the inspiration and compassion and creativity and them with all this expectation and knowledge and drive, will make for a really incredible semester. (Sidenote: the amount of greatness I just placed within myself in that last sentence is kind of cringeworthy...sorry, guys. It's more like me with all the naivety and them with all the smarts, haha). But either way, the professor agreed :) So I sat in the class feeling all jazzed and giddy and warm inside. And while I have really enjoyed quite a few of my classes at CU, I really feel like this class is bursting with life-changing potential. And that makes my cheeks sore from smiling.
So, here I am, sittin' on my bed in Amsterdam, feeling utterly smitten with literally every single thing surrounding my life at the moment. Lovelies, I am about to explode into a firework of joy. I know this is just the "honeymoon" stage, but as super cheesy as it sounds, I feel (for maybe the first time in my life) like I am exactly where I am supposed to be.
And with all that loveliness, I am going to get some sleep! I hope you all are enjoying life back at home. Don't forget: even being completely consumed by my love affair with the Netherlands, I am missing you.
I love you. xoxo.
Ps. This blog was a whole lot of the big happenings around town, and I still feel like I have a million little things to tell you all so I'll try to do just a random post with all my little thoughts and things I've already learned and mini-adventures soon! Also, sorry about the lack of picures. I know, I know... I like picture books better than novels, too. I just haven't had time to take too many or figured out a solid wifi connection to be able to share them. But I'll get the ball on the ball and a picture post will come soon, I promise!
Oh and one more thing (I'm really great at Ps.'s) CONGRATULATIONS to my favorite of favorites, the beautiful, Kristen SmartiePants Richards, for kicking some serious Stanford butt! Like I said during your interview, that brother of mine if extremely lucky that such an amazingly wonderful genius like yourself is willing to dumb herself down a bit for him (jk, Encyclopedia Clay!!!), and Stanford is so incredibly lucky to have you! You're the greatest. It's an honor to be in your presence :) Love you, smartie!
MWWWWAH!
