Eenentwintig jaar

I am 21! Actually, now I am 21-and-one-day, but yesterday I was just 21, and we did some pretty sweet things to celebrate.

To start, I have heard that the Indonesian food in Amsterdam is amazing, mostly due to the large number of Indonesian immigrants. We decided to go out for lunch at an Indonesian restaurant near Leidseplein, and the restaurant turned out to be not too busy, not too expensive, and very, very tasty!
Here we are:



































Since we (actually, just Anna) are smart people who come prepared, we used two coupons to get free appetizers! Here my traveling friend shows you one of the plates:



















For lunch, Deborah and I split a mini-rijsttafel, or rice-table, which Wikipedia tells me is the Dutch-ified version of a traditional Indonesian feast. LOTS of delicious food!



















It was truly one of those I-don't-know-what-this-is-but-it's-delicious types of experiences, which is what I love about trying ethnic foods. Me, the kid who thought salad was scary until 5th grade. Go figure.

The street that the restaurant was one is one I'd like to go back to again -- and again -- and again. Just look at all of these restaurants! Can you spot the Thai...and Italian...and Greek...and Indonesian...and...


















After that, we spent some glorious time walking the canals of Amsterdam. We managed to find our way to -- wait for it -- the Bible Museum. We got in for free with our museum cards, so we figured, why not?

Now, if you are only going to be in Amsterdam for a few days, I would recommend NOT going to the Bible Museum. There are other more valuable uses of your time. But for some college students who have four months to use up, it was worth a try.

Let me try describe for you the randomness that was this museum. In the top floor, we saw a scale model of the Tabernacle that a minister spent his entire life constructing. We also saw his collection of Egyptian artifacts, like a mummy. We saw souvenirs from the Holy Land, and spent quite a bit of time in the kids' area, coloring and writing our names in Hebrew. Oh, and we saw some Bibles, too.

At the end of the museum, I was in need of some sugar. We saw earlier that McDonald's is currently selling nothing less than a STROOPWAFEL MCFLURRY. Yes. Since this is not something you can get at home, we felt it justified our shameful going to a McDonald's. Sadly, the first Golden Starches we went to was out of ice cream, so no McFlurries. We went to the next closest McDonald's, thinking they would have ice cream, but same deal. Amsterdam McD's must be having a serious ice cream shortage right now. Our quest for the stroopwafel McFlurry has been postponed to another day.

Funny story: on the way from the second McD's to the tram stop, we walked through the floating flower market. Sarah wondered outloud to herself, when do you plant tulip bulbs? And a man selling bulbs in a stall said "Right now!" Ok, end of story.

Fast forward to later in the day, when I was planning on heading down to the Cafe Uilenstede to buy a drink and pretend that being 21 affected that process at all. For some reason, the girls convinced me that "going to the cafe" involved swinging by Anna's room first. Surprise! She made me a cake! Which takes some skill when you have limited materials and a toaster oven to work with. The cake was delicious, so delicious in fact that we forgot to take any pictures of it before we ate it all. You will just have to imagine a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, in the shape of a fish, with candy decorations. Mmmm! Helpful tip: melted chocolate bars make very good frosting.

We watched some Olympic coverage, ate up some cake, and then went down to Cafe Uilenstede so I could pretend to get carded and all that.
























It was a fun, fabulous day, thanks in part to some pretty cool people:
























And, of course, thanks to YOU! It was weird being away from so many people that I love on my birthday, but tools like Facebook and Skype made the world feel a lot smaller. And, if you are reading this blog right now, know that I am always grateful that you are keeping up with me and thankful that you care! Your love and support is what keeps me going through the week. I look forward to "talking" with you all soon!