If I were a boot, that's the boot I would be: Week #3 of Nonstop Smiling

Mornin' Sunshines!

Views from my window... love!

My Baby Girl! <3 <3 <3

The past week has been wonderful upon wonderful-er! I left off all giddy about class last Monday and although a mass amount has happened since then, I'll try to hit you all with the highlights!

I've been meeting people left and right. Dutchies and Americans and people from all kindas crazy places! Toto, we're not in Boulder anymore. And loving it! Met a few more CIEE-ers (there are at least 70 of us in the program so I am constantly seeing new faces), met some beautiful people from my dorm, and am always accompanied by Dutch hospitality. I've been seeing Sir Chivalry randomly around my building and found out his beautiful accent is straight from Lithuania! (Warning! Tangent ahead: I am utterly embarrassed to admit that I was that ignorant American girl who had to look up exactly where Lithuania is as soon as he told me... look forward to a full blog entry about how egocentric and uneducated I have been feeling here. Sadface. And a short hint of advice to all you 'Mericans: start learning about the rest of the world. Turns out, there's a whole lot of it and we really suck. But anyway!) He's really great at opening doors for me and makin' me smile. I fall in love over and over and over again, with every new person I come across.

I had my third class last Thursday. Dance Me to the End of Love: Romantic Love Narratives. Woot wooten! What a name. What a class. I'm really excited about it. My professor is this beautiful Dutch lady who is one of the most quirky, friendly, smiley-est people I've ever met. She seemed genuinely interested to get to know each one of the students, went off on innumerable adorable little tangents, and said, "that just fascinates me!!" after pretty much every intellectual thing she said. She just fascinates me! And do I even need to elaborate on what we'll be discussing each week? L.O.V.E.: doesn't get much better than that! So I'm really lookin' forward to each one of my classes. Lovin' it all! Ya done me well, Universiteit van Amsterdam!

Another fun fact about that class: One of the few Dutchies enrolled in it is straight from Friesland! (Quick lesson for those of you who are not my Mom: my fam is from Friesland; it's in the north of the Netherlands; has it's own language; whole lot of farming and cows; not very many Amsterdamians are Friesian and a quite a few have never even been there). But this one lovely guy from my class still lives there! In fact, (get this!) he lives in a tiny town called OUDEGA. (Again, for those of you who don't know: that's my fam's name, also my middle name.) So, obviously, I'm all about him! Happy to see him again this coming Thursday, planning on firing questions at him left and right and keepin' my fingers crossed that he will be lovely enough to offer to let me journey there with him sometime and show me around! I'll keep ya updated!

Het Scheepvaartmuseum

I don't have classes Fridays so I got my Lewis and Clark on! A CIEE pal and I (she's extremely wonderful!) met up and went to Het Scheepvaartmuseum. Translation: The Amsterdam Maritime History Museum. Further translation (just in case): the Ship Museum. It's right across the street from my dorm and super cool! Really amazing building, really great exhibits, fantastic replica of a big, fun pirate (looking) ship. And as usual, the kid's part was where it was it! Emily and I threw on turtle costumes (naturally) and climbed inside this big, comfy clam bed. We were all smiles, relaxin unda da sea... Until a Dutch security man came to firmly inform us that we were not allowed to be inside said clam bed. So we awkwardly weaseled our way out of the clam, and sheepishly took off our turtles, under the watchful eye of Mr. Grumpy. Kicked out of a children's play place, yet again. But all in a day's work, right? Next we headed to the NEMO Science Center. The entire thing is made for the kiddies and full of fun hands-on sciencey goodness. Shoutout to Bro-Cheese Clay Campbell, you woulda gone wild! It was overwhelmingly fun. Best part: the TEENfacts floor where I learned all about sproutin' new body hair, combatting body odor, and how to properly make-out, haha.

The sea captured on canvas and the very magical kid's play place

That night we had a couple of CIEE meetings (snooze.) and then dinner at Kentjil en de Tijger. Indonesian food, also known as the best dinner I've had since being here. Ate my heart out! From there a few girls and I wondered the city, did a little pub hopping and met a few friendly-face Dutchie men. Also for Brother Clay: I'm getting so great at casually sipping quality beer! Woo!

Saturday was big CIEE adventure day. First stop: cheese and klompen making! We drove a little ways into the country: the area was beautiful and the houses were absolutely magnificent with fresh flowers in every single window. Just as I'm thinkin', "holy hallelujah, I just found the place I am going to settle down forever!" a CIEE guide tells us that this is where the rich and famous of Amsterdam live, so if you're currently daydreaming: stop. Haha... damn you again, expensive tastes! So new life goal: marry a rich and famous of Amsterdam and settle into life in Dutch country paradise. Anyway: we pass the most adorable windmill and arrive at Cheese/Klomp Place. A friendly dutch women, with her short blonde hair in pigtails and klompen on her feet, explains all about how she slaves away all day making cheese. And then a cute little Dutchie man shows us how he makes the klomps! The actual word "klompen" was never mention, which I thought was a little strange, but I guess "wooden shoes" will do for the mass amount of tourists that come through each year. Klompen Man was hilarious and adorable and made me feel warm inside. His sense of humor was just like my own Granpie's, gigglin' away at all his own jokes and making mildly racist (however, completely innocently and not at all meant to be racist) comments. Loved him! I was so tempted to buy a good pair of klomps, but I thought of the ten pairs we have at home (and the complete lack of any sensible occasion to wear them) and left empty handed. I did buy some cheese though (how could I not?), so I left cheese handed.

Such beauts!

So many klompen! CHEESE! Blue Delft Heaven, Momma!

From there we went to Jaap Eden for a lovely afternoon of speed skating. Before the skating began, they served us sneert! Ahhh, home. Again, the actual word "sneert" was never used, and was replaced with "traditional Dutch pea soup". Lame. But Momma, it was actually a little bit different from both yours and Grammie's. Tasted very similar, but much less thick and creamy. A little blah on the consistency factor, I thought. But I'm going to have to do a little sneert exploring before I make any judgements cause keep in mind this was the food served at the ice skating lodge and judging from my American experience (fond memories of hard pretzels and nacho cheese), the cuisine in these places usually isn't top notch and traditional. It was very good though. So who knows! I'll venture for some sneert elsewhere and let you know!

The lovely Jaap Eden

Apolo Anton Ohnin'

(I'm clever!)

After sneert, I strapped on these skates with the enormous sword fighting blades and was on ice! And while I'd love to tell you all that I am a natural and will be appearing in the next winter Olympics, I gotta keep it real... I basically just ice skated with the wrong kind of skates on. It was really fun though! I briefly tried to do that whole crossing the feet over each other and leaning around the curves thing and at one point I bent down (shawty, got low, low, low, low) and crossed my hands behind my back... But both were mainly for purposes of laughing at myself. I had tons of fun! And holy enchanting! It snowed, I mean really snowed, for the first time since I've been here that day. The place was beautiful by itself... outdoors with strands of little lights circling the rink and big trees just outside it. But just as we were skating giant wet snowflakes started falling and everything felt like magic. I'm from Colorado, I've seen beautiful snow. But this was BEAUTIFUL snow. I happily skated in circles, feeling all warm and cozy, looked up into the big twirling white flakes and felt so blessed to be here.

By the time we got home, I was soaking wet and freezing. I speedraced back to my dorm, took a long, hot shower and sipped tea until it was time for dancing. That night a few lovely girls and I bonded over wine and American drinking games, walked to a well known Amsterdam club, and got our groove on 'til morning.

Everything is so, so wonderful. I can't get enough.

However.... dun dun dunnnn. Today has not been my greatest day here. I have felt a small cold coming on since late last week but I was absolutely determined to not give in to the complete lack of immune system that I have been blessed with. Today I think I am giving in. I woke up this morning, my throat on fire and my head all puffy and foggy. Immediate grumps. Guess all that snowy cold and dancing the night away and denying the germs has finally done me in. And it doesn't help that today has been one of the chilliest days here yet. It snowed last night and everything outside is covered in a thick sheet of ice. The frozen roads are covered with icy bike track grooves making staying on my feet near impossible. Three steps out of my dorm and I almost fell. And within one pedal of my bike I was almost roadkill. So I grumpied my way to class, swung by the grocery store for the essentials on the way home, and am now back in bed.

I'd love to say I'm not letting it get to me, but I'm an honest kid... I'm letting it get to me.

I picked up some Dutch ramen on my short grocery visit. So dumb. I don't typically eat ramen in the states and here I am, in my pajamas in Holland, boiling water for a crappy meal that I don't even particularly enjoy. But I'm gonna let the broth work its wonders on my throat for now. I also picked up Dutch soup and am gonna make it a little later for din. It surely will not be as good as Grandma's or Momma's and will be rather veggie-less (and sans meatballs, but I usually pick them out anyway), but I think it will be just what the doc ordered. I'm missing my favorite cough drops but I'm armed with mentos. So, as I tend to do when I'm sick, I have turned into that whiney toddler, kicking and screaming on the floor. Grumpin', all the way. But I'm trying to be nice to myself. And with the power of positive thinking, I will be back with a bang by tomorrow! ...And if not tomorrow, definitely Wednesday because there is a large international dance party that I refuse to miss, haha.

So send me healthy thoughts and strong white blood cells. And don't forget, I am always sending all of you all my love!

XOXO

Ps. Happiest of birthdays to my all-time favorite uncle!!! Rand, wish I could take you for some jenever at Wynand Fockink today! Cheers!