Goodbye to my Hos

Below are some snaps of what I've seen and been up to with the Dutchies.


pool with the Atrissi crew for Rens' going away party…


Visiting Alkmaar and the sea…


Buying food from a compartment…



Sanddunes— clearly…


my little bedroom…

Barcelona

Weekend in Spain. Nice weather. Stolen wallet.

Final Days

It's been a while since I've written, most of this is due to lack of access to a computer outside of work and that my life has taken to a regular pace these days.

I spend my weekends in Amsterdam trying to become a part of the city life there. I ride a bike regularly, go to the cinema, shop second hand, I even attended a wonderful international film showing that my friend Laura puts on once a month. They show short movies/music videos that are artsy fartsy.

Last Sunday I wanted to travel outside of Hilversum/Amsterdam so I took the train to Alkmaar, just north west of Amsterdam. It is known for its cheese market but this won't open up until April. So I walked around the old, walled city and took a bus out to the beach. There I found miles and miles of sand dunes. The weather was actually decent so it was enjoyable to get lost in the mounds of sand and when you climbed to the top of one, you could see the sea and people strolling on the beach.

I have one week left before I return and trying to pack everything in. Last night I wanted to do something for my roommates so I cooked them all American style chili with the ingredients I could find at the supermarket. Tomorrow evening I play laser tag, in Utrecht, with my coworkers for my going away party.

Time flies!

Broke

i work for no money. my computer won't turn on anymore. and my bed frame keeps breaking causing me to crash to the floor while i'm sleeping. I AM BROKE.

[hence, who knows the next time i will be able to update my blog with photos unless i do it from work]

Soulwax

Other than Linds coming to work with me one day and hanging out in Hilversum, we returned to Amsterdam Thursday night after work. I was able to take Friday off so I could spend more time with Lindsey. So that night we went to the Paradiso in Amsterdam, which is a club where Dj's were playing and the Belgian DJs, SoulWax were performing. They came on at 11 and they played instruments while dJing and came back on at 1am to dJ with turntables. The club was open from 9pm to 4am and we tried our best to stay awake.

Always lock up!


Soulwax


Friday morning, after sleeping in, and eating breakfast in bed, we took the train to a city outside Amsterdam, den Haag. This is where the palace is where the queen lives and also the sea. So we walked along the beach in our winter coats and walked through the city center. We returned to Amsterdam that night and John cooked us dinner and we played cards and went to bed so Linds could catch her flight back home the next morning.








Other than that, I am getting pretty good at riding a bike through Amsterdam, besides crashing with Lindsey on the back at one point and spilling us onto the ground. But I pretend like I know what I'm doing. Hah!

New Years

So much has happened in the past week that it's hard to recap on it all. But I will do my best–starting with Linds' arrival. I met her at the airport on Sunday and we rode the train back to Hilversum. Her, Richard and I walked to the grocery store to pick out some food so we could make a Dutch meal. Or rather, Richard could make us a dutch meal. He made us sauerkraut and potatoes with a meatball. But before we ate, we rented a bowling lane and bowled a few games. Bowling isn't much different than America, except that it is very expensive and you pay by the hour.



The next morning (New Years Eve Day) we took the train to Amsterdam and met John at the station. He had to go to Utrecht during the day, so he left us his keys and brought two bikes to the station for us to ride. We rode back to his apartment so we could drop off our things and get used to riding before we headed back into the city. John lives in the North part of Amsterdam, which means you have to take a ferry to cross the water each time you want to go to his place. After we got settled in we decided to ride bikes all day and explore the city and pick up a few groceries so we could make some American treats for the night. John and his roommate were having friends over for a New Years dinner so we thought we would try and contribute. Linds and I did quite well riding around and keeping the bikes locked up each time we went into a store; although at one point we found our bikes laying in the street because we accidentally locked them in front of someone's door. Whoooooops. At least they weren't stolen.

On the ferry!


Keepin' the bikes safe






That evening we actually outnumbered the dutchies. It was Lindsey and I, John and his roommate, and four of their Belgian friends. The Belgians cooked us dinner and Linds and I contributed our BLT dip and chocolate covered pretzels. Everything had to be improvised since their ingredients are different, and John seemed to think no one would like what we made but we were pleasantly surprised. At midnight we popped some champagne and watched copious amounts of fireworks go off outside. It felt like the fourth of July as we stood out on the porch and watched Amsterdam's sky light up.

Eating our tasty pretzels


After we tired of the fireworks; John, Linds and I hopped on our bikes and biked into town to go to Tobias' party at a pub near the red light district. We made it there safely after dodging endless fire crackers and drunk tourists in the street. Linds and I danced it up to cheesy dutch music and American songs we no longer play.

The streets outside the pub


inside the pub



I will also try and upload a few videos from the night if I can figure it out.