Good morning, goodbye

It's 5:22AM in Amsterdam:





















In less than two hours I leave for the airport, in less than six hours I will be off Dutch ground, and in less than 22 hours I will be in Seattle.

So this post is the Last Post from Amsterdam, and I wonder what to say.

The most spectacular thing I can come up with is this: I'm kinda tired. I didn't see the point of going to bed late with the chance that I would not wake up early like I need to, plus I can sleep on the plane. Sleep, go home, sleep, and then...

WRITE. Among other things. You see, I have so much more I want to say about this semester even though I will be home. I just don't have the energy now, at what has become 5:36AM in Amsterdam. But I want to tell you about Belgium! And I took all these pictures and photos of the trams and metro that I hope to put in an ode to Amsterdam's public transport system. Finally will be the necessary retrospective works, the "What have I learned?" section of the end of the semester.

But not now. As long as you promise to keep reading a semester abroad blog for a few days after the semester abroad has ended, I will promise to write later when I can do justice to it all. Even though I won't be in Amsterdam anymore and will have said goodbye to so many things (the people, the food, the VU, the sights), even though I have to leave so much behind...maybe an even greater part of it all I get to take with me. And that, I think, is pretty cool.

Now I'm going to go out on my balcony to watch the light come up and hear those planes fly overhead one last time...

Final Dutch Adventures

This post should also be called Life After Exams: Doing Everything you Haven't Done Yet.

The past few days (well, since Friday) have been filled with me trying to fit in all the things around the Netherlands that I still wanted to do. Has it been fun? Oh, yes! Extremely fun. Have I done everything I wanted to do? Not a chance, but I have hit all items at the Very Top of the List. And if I did everything now, I wouldn't have a reason to come back, would I?

Right, so what have I done? Most Calvin people began scattering all over Europe last Saturday as soon as exams were finished, but I have been in Amsterdam and the surrounding area. (My international adventures begin tomorrow). On Saturday, with an iced mocha in hand:

























I wandered around central Amsterdam, going absolutely anywhere I wanted to go. I found a market I didn't know existed, watched a man balance on a pole in Leidseplein, and did my final souvenir/gift shopping.

Souvenirs -- check.

Sunday was mostly cleaning my room and packing. I will spare you the details.

On Monday I made it back to Den Haag. I wanted to finally make it to the Mauritshuis:




















If anyone is looking for touring tips, I would strongly recommend this museum. Like the Rijksmuseum, it has top-notch art (Girl with a Pearl Earring, for example) but all contained within only 12 rooms. The small size lessens the chances of catching Museum Fatigue, an all-too-common ailment in Europe. Plus I got to listen to a free audio guide and, thanks to the uncrowded nature of the place, I could stand 6 inches away from paintings (including GwaPE!) for as long as I liked. This was no Louvre where you and five hundred closest friends look at the Mona Lisa together. If you're in Den Haag, go to the Mauritshuis!

After the museum I came across a cafe I had heard about from Deborah and Bonnie. I knew it was the right place because it had the stroopwafel Frappuccinos they told me about!

























Keep in mind that an iced coffee in the Netherlands usually means the ice is blended, so it really tastes more like a Frappuccino. And, yes, I can call it a Frappuccino even if it isn't from Starbucks! You still call that Puffs tissue a Kleenex, right?

Gotcha.

The stroopwafel frappuccino was a dream come true.

Final item on the Den Haag agenda was...Madurodam!

Madurodam, Madurodam, how I love you so,
Of all the places in the world, you're where I want to go,
A tiny Holland, built with care, for me to wander through,
Madurodam, Madurodam, oh how I do love you!

That spontaneous poetry stemmed from how amazing this place was. The best way to describe it is as a tiny Netherlands.



















You can feel like a giant for the day and wander through the buildings replicated at a 1:25 scale.



















I was smiling the entire time I was there. First, I kept finding buildings I knew (The Dom in Utrecht! Kuypersport in Middelburg!), and it was like reliving my entire semester. Second, I had a good time placing my miniature friend amongst the miniature buildings.

























Obama now has a test for you: How many of these Dutch landmarks can you name based on their miniature alone?

A)


















B)


















C)


















If you said A) Maeslantkering, Nieuwe Waterweg; B) Dam Square, Amsterdam; and C) Binnenhof, Den Haag, YOU WIN!

But really, I got a huge kick out of Madurodam and have over 100 pictures to prove it. Miniature Holland was a blast!

























Another thing on the Very Top of My List was the flower auction in Aalsmeer. I had only heard wonderful things about it, and let me tell you...


...it lived up to the hype. Maybe I was still on a Madurodam-high Tuesday morning, or maybe I was just pleased not to be visiting another museum/church/city hall (no offense to the thousands out there to be seen), but I thought the flower auction was one of the coolest sights I've seen in Amsterdam.

The gist of it: Every weekday morning millions of flowers are auctioned off in the auction halls located throughout this giant warehouse. Meanwhile, outside the auction halls, life in the warehouse is organized chaos. Flower carts are pulled around in trains, or pushed around individually, with beeping and honking and clanging and craziness.

To top it all off, the entire warehouse looks like a patchwork quilt of flowers.

AND the place smells amazing.

I took about 100 pictures here too. These will hopefully give you an idea of the colors:












































































This video might give you some idea of the noise and ordered chaos going on down on the warehouse floor. So many workers driving like crazy! Yet they don't run into each other!



I'm very sorry, but I can't think of any way to get the beautiful smell in the warehouse to you. You will just have to visit the flower auction yourself! Go now. Bus #172.

I'm serious.

...


Although I am not leaving until Sunday, yesterday (Tuesday) was my last chance to go into central Amsterdam. Continuing with my theme, I took about 100 photos of my favorite places:




















I also enjoyed delicious ice cream from a street vendor (something else I've heard wonderful things about, just now tried, and now agree that is wonderful), poffertjes from a street vendor, and a croquette from the vending machines of a FEBO.



















Try the ice cream:
Enjoy poffertjes one last time:
Finally visit a FEBO:

Check, check, check.

Checking things off mental lists feels great!

I also tried to achieve some personal poetic justice. This was the first picture of Amsterdam I took this semester (Jan. 30):




















And this is the last (June 1):



















How nice.

...


...


...

I realized on the tram ride back that they are of different canals (Prinsengracht vs. Keizersgracht). It's the thought that counts, right?

On to the final Dutch adventure: the Efteling!

Efteling is the coolest of all Dutch theme parks. Well, there is not that much competition, but it is still very cool! I have heard (and heard and heard) about this place from some certain Dutch people I know :) Eva and I went down for the day, and now I can say I've had the true Efteling experience!



















There we are with our little elf friend. Highlights of the day include getting "cursed" on the Flying Dutchman (a ride that goes from boat to roller coaster to boat!), eating fries in a grassy field with sad, sparse grass, getting wet on the river rafting ride, wandering through the fairy tale forest, seeing an unsupervised child fall 10 feet down a ledge (he was fine, but learned his lesson about sitting on railings!), getting "stuck" in the Python roller coaster seats (worker-boy brought out his special hydraulic pump to release us), eating ice cream by a garbage can that wouldn't shut up, getting the theme music for every ride stuck in my head...

You get the point -- Efteling was great! The weather was also perfect, and I did not at all mind spending a lovely day outside.

And my list is complete :( The only adventures I will have in Holland now will be had at the airport, and I hope to not have any adventures there since "adventures" in the world of flights are never fun. The three days I have left will be filled with beer, fries, waffles, chocolate, and other Belgian delicacies. Close to the Netherlands, but not quite! It should be great fun, and you might hear about some of it Saturday night.

But I feel like I still have pages to write about this semester. I don't want it to be over! So this blog might continue for a little while after I get back to the States, just so I can get caught up on everything worth saying ;)

Words of advice: keep checking back in! And as always, thanks for reading!

Giro d'Italia!

Hello! I need to someday write the recap of our last set of excursions, but today I'm just going to say that Turkish pizza is delicious. And I'm also going to tell a short story about the Giro d'Italia.

There are three Grand Tours of cycling: Tour de France (Tour of France), Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain), and Giro d'Italia (you guessed it -- Tour of Italy). And the Giro d'Italia was in Amsterdam this weekend.

WHAT????? You say. Amsterdam is not Italy! Well, the tour started here before jumping down to continue in Italy. And it went by the VU!

I was walking to class and couldn't help noticing the throngs of people that were lining the closed, police-lined streets.



















I thought, how many times does the Giro d'Italia go past my school? Probably only once. I knew I better stop and watch. For about 10 minutes, only cars and motorcycles went by:



















But after only about 10 minutes of waiting, the cyclists began to go by!



















For 30 seconds, they zoomed by. The cyclists still looked pretty fresh and happy!



















And just like that, they were off and gone!



















Followed by about fifty cars of extra bikes:



















It was awesome! Especially since I didn't know that the Giro would be riding right past the VU, or that they would be at the exact time that I was walking to lab. Got to love happy surprises! Including this sign that I found when I finally got to my lab only slightly late:



















Lab was postponed! I knew the Giro was worth it.

Remembrance Day

The Dutch like to squeeze all their holidays in at once. Last Friday was the Queen's birthday (officially, not actually), today was Remembrance Day for people who have died in wars, especially World War II, and tomorrow is Liberation Day to celebrate the anniversary of liberation from the Germans. What a week! I am going to write mostly about Remembrance Day, which is a very special idea in theory that...sometimes comes to mean something else. Let me explain.

Every year on May 4, the Queen comes to the Dam, exits from the Royal Palace (not actually where she lives), walks across Dam Square, and lays a wreath on the National Monument. Here is a not-so-professional photo of the procession walking out a few years ago. You'll be happy to know Queen Beatrix carried the same purse this year!






















Then at 8:00pm, right after the wreath-laying, the entire country observes a two-minute period of silence.

See, I told you this was a neat idea! I like the sense of national unity that it invokes, or simply the thought that everyone (most people) are doing the same thing at the same time. And I like the idea of remembering the sacrifices of those who came before you -- the noble idea that they gave their lives to make the world a better place, blah blah blah. Call me a romantic.

Since we had STNL class tonight right when the ceremony/minutes-of-silence were set to take place, Prof. Aay went to a news website so we could watch everything happen online. After all, this was another opportunity to participate in Dutch culture. Even though it is a solemn event, it is their culture nonetheless. So we spent some class time watching TV -- not a bad deal!

We watched the Royal family walk out onto Dam Square at about 7:50. (Pardon my extreme descriptiveness here, but it is my only time to live somewhere with actually royalty and I'm going to enjoy it). I mentally commended the Queen for walking gracefully across the Dam in such high heels at the age of 72. She's a very cool lady. Finally the group reached the National Monument and Queen Beatrix and her make-a-movie-of-my-life son, Willem-Alexander, together lifted the memorial wreath and put it into place. (I'm glad he helped her, it was pretty big.) Then, in a completely silent Dam Square, they stood looking at the wreath for the two minutes of silence.

And we, in a completely silent classroom, watched too.





We -- the country -- made it about 90 seconds in to the two minutes, and then this:



















That first aerial shot (about 10 seconds in) is quite something, isn't it? That was my first thought. Then I thought -- what in the world did we just watch unfold?

Turns out, nothing horrific. Someone in the crowd began shouting during the two minutes of silence, which cause mass panic and the crowds ran. I don't blame them. First of all, nothing logical ever happens in crowds. You don't think, you just go. And the Dutch have reason to be skittish at these events after last year's Queen's Day attack in Apeldoorn. I must commend the police/security for turning everything back around as quickly as they did. Shortly after the video I posted cuts out, right after the announcer called for everyone to stay in place, the Royal family came back out, the National Anthem was played, and things went on as...normal.

Not quite normal, though. I wish you could also see a video of the "after," because it was something. Queen Beatrix and her family walked hand in hand back into Dam Square to tumultuous applause. Then that fine lady who can walk better than I can in heels retook her place in front of the wreath and, without flinching, without blinking, looked back up at the monument and sang the words to the oldest national anthem in the world.

Now that is a Queen, let me tell you.

And oh, the crowd they showed singing along! Many people were crying. All the children (poor children!) that I saw on the news were crying and looked scared, freaked out, out of their minds. Dam Square was visibly shaken. Singing, but shaken.

How in the world are you supposed to remember veterans and soldiers who made the world a better place to live when it might not really be that much better at all?

Stupid noble idea.

What I mean is...We just can't get stuck in the idea that everything bad -- wars, hunger, Nazis, fear -- that was then. This is now and now is better. History is not progress. People did horrible things then, they do horrible things now, and, yes, they will do horrible things in the future. We are not, not, not getting any better.

But we can hug our kids when they're scared. We can stop the panic two minutes after it started and bring everyone back into the square. We can sing the national anthem without flinching, with heads held high. All this from the country whose motto is Ik zal handhaven: I shall endure.

God with us, we will endure.

Koninginnedag!

Once in a while, an event comes along that does many things, one of them being to improve our spelling. For example, we all learned ten years ago how to spell millennium (double L...double N...). I also became familiar with the correct placement of double letters when writing my blog posts about the Colosseum. And now I have a new word to add to the list of strange-words-I-now-know-how-to-spell: Koninginnedag.

Koninginnedag

Koninginnedag

One n, one n, double n. One n, one n, double n. One n...

Enough about how to spell it. Koninginnedag -- Queen's Day -- is a Dutch National Holiday held every year on April 30. I had never heard of Koninginnedag until a few months ago when I was looking up Dutch national holidays on Wikipedia. (I also memorized every member of the royal family, but that is another story). Now, you could jump over to Wikipedia right now and read what they have to say, or you could keep reading my description here. I'd like to think mine is a more thrilling account, but that is for you to judge.

Koninginnedag is celebrated all over the country (the Queen was going to be in Middelburg, remember?), but Amsterdam is the place to be. It's like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or New Year's Eve in Times Square. That many people, that much excitement, that much garbage. It was quite the event.

What does "quite the event" look like, you ask? "Quite the event" gives me no solid facts, you bemoan. I'm going over to Wikipedia, you declare. Hold your horses. I will tell you everything about Queen's Day that you need to know.

In a nutshell, Queen's Day is this: Central Amsterdam as you know it shuts down. No cars, no bikes. The trams are rerouted around the center. Hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets. Everyone wears orange. People hold rummage sales on the sidewalk. Open air concerts can be found everywhere, the largest one being in Museumplein where a few hundred thousand of the people have gathered.

Quite the event, huh?

Now for a few more details. First of all, Koninginnedag is an example of oranjegekte (orange craze). Most people wear at least a little bit of orange, and some go for crazy outfits. At least 50% of the orange I saw came from free inflatable crowns.




















I went downtown with Anna and Bonnie, and we were well outfitted to blend in with the crowd. (This was the only day that our outfits would be considered "blending in"!)



















Once you don your orange craze outfit and go into Amsterdam, you realize that many, many other people have had the same idea as you. Basically every street we walked down looked like this:




















or this:



















or this:



















That last picture was in Rembrantplein, probably the most crowded area we went through. That was where I learned to surrender any attachment I still had to the concept of personal space.

Those who are not inching their way through the streets have climbed onto boats:


























































Koninginnedag is also known for being the one day that people can hold a vrijmarkt (garage sale without the garage), so on the outer edges of the center, sidewalk sales are everywhere. I wondered how people kept that much stuff in their homes every day but yesterday? Vondelpark is reserved as the area where kids can come sell their toys.



















But let me tell you -- the kids of Amsterdam are entrepreneurs. They have come up with all sorts of ways to make money in Vondelpark. They sell baked goods, set up carnival games, and perform dance numbers. And (my favorite) many kids have hauled out their band instrument from home and play a little music:



















Mostly very cute, but when you have a saxophone and two violins competing for air space five feet from each other, the result is not so pleasant. Also, no matter how good you are, the recorder will never sound good.

Entry-level band pieces are not the only music filling the Amsterdam air. There are also dozens of concerts happening all over the city, from small stages shoved into alleways to the giant Radio538 concert in Museumplein.



















What was my favorite part about the concert at Museumplein? Hearing Gerard Joling sing Ik Leef Mijn Droom, of course!






















I'll put up a short video too, but it comes with some warnings. First, the visuals are dizzying. Second, one of our crowd neighbors chose THIS song to start talking to us and ruined most of my videos with his talking. This video is the least bad of them all, but you can still hear him in the background speaking in Dutch and me saying I had no idea what he was saying. After this video he switched to English, but I still had no idea what he was saying.

Anyway, see if you can pick up from the video a few of Gerard's dulcet tones. Ik leef mijn droom, oh oh AY oh!



Since most of the excitement of Queen's Day came from the general noisiness of the atmosphere, here is another video of "The Sounds of Koninginnedag." See if you can hear the awesome horns that one too many people got their hands on.



One last thing about yesterday -- the trash collectors of Amsterdam chose a strategic time to go on strike, the one day when the most garbage accumulates on the streets. I got used to the sound of walking on cans/bottles and chose not to ever look down. Actually, in most situations I was too close to other people to see my feet anyway.

Does that give you a better idea of what Koninginnedag is like? It was definitely one of those days for me where I kept mentally pinching myself and going, "Am I really here?" Yesterday was a holiday in every sense of the word -- normal life as we know it stopped in Amsterdam, and a musical, flea market, orange craziness descended on everyone. Anyone want to come back next year? ;)

the Office says hello

Welcome to Dunder Mifflin, everyone!



















Let me show you around. We have the accounting department: Kevin, Oscar, and Angela



















The "other" staff: Ryan, Kelly, Creed, Meredith, Toby



















The sales team: Dwight, Jim, Pam, Andy, Phyllis, Stanley



















And Michael Scott, Regional Manager!



















Aren't these pretty much the coolest ever one-of-a-kind Office character paper dolls? That's why they get a place of honor at the top of this blog post. Just admit it: you wish that my sister was your sister. Then maybe she would send you rockin hand-made paper dolls and other such exquisite crafts. But NO! She is my sister, and you will all just have to envy her artistic skills, and envy the fact that, through the magic of the mail, her crafts now decorate my room.

>>>

(segue)
Now, on to a few other things!

I know I'm expected to give a summary of Eva's birthday party here, so here it goes ;) The intricate Dutch/American cultural differences can be seen in the unique custom of...

You know what? Forget that. Our book of the title "Learning from the Stranger" told us to explore and enjoy the cultural differences around us in this *new* culture, and there is an appropriate time and place for that sort of thing. But I'm tired of always trying to find what's different about the things I do over here, and frankly after two months, nothing seems that much different to me.

So I don't have to say I went to a "Dutch" birthday party. I went to a birthday party. We ate pizza, we did crafts, we played a crazy game with the crafts, we played a more sophisticated version of the game Mafia, and we watched the Lion King. Eva blew out candles, we sang "Happy Birthday," and the pie and apple tart were out of this world delicious. It was fantastically fun, not because it was new or strange, but because it was familiar and normal.

My conclusions from this? Learning from the Stranger is good, but people very quickly cease to be strangers. Then you realize that some things -- friendliness, happiness, parties, Disney movies -- are not cultural, they're universal. And the things that make us different mean nothing compared to the things that keep us the same.

>>>

On that note, I went to the ZOO today!

(cue the song)

going to the zooooo, zooooo, zooooooo
how about youuuuu, youuuuuu, youuuu
going to the zooooo, zoooooo, zooooooo
you can come tooooo, tooooo, tooooooo

Every once in a while, you should take time to take time to re-discover your inner child. (Actually, for me this past week it's been more than every once in a while...) Going to the zoo is just such an activity. I can't remember the last time I went to the zoo for fun -- taking the kids you nanny doesn't quite count -- and, really, what's not to love about looking at animals?

Here are Anna, Bonnie, and Deborah, standing beneath the winged gates that serve as a portal to animalian adventure:



















Here's the niftiest part about the zoo: we got in for only 2.50! Being a VU student does get you some perks; the normal admission price was 18.50. But a quick flash of the VU student ID and our proof-of-registration cards, and we were in for 16 euros less than we might have been. How's that for a deal?

I could bore you with many pictures of animals, but that's what Facebook is for! Instead I will describe the zoo a bit for you. The zoo's full name is Natura Artis Magistra, but everyone calls it Artis. It was founded in 1838, and in 1883 the world's last quagga died there. Thank you, Wikipedia, for that information, and for teaching me that this is a quagga:



















As I mentioned in the previous story, cultural differences were not all that evident. In fact, I won't even use that phrase anymore. Artis was your typical zoo, with maybe the only strange thing being the slightly outdated cages (but that could just be because the zoo is old). But elephants and gorillas are not native to the U.S. or the Netherlands, so they will look about the same when you put them in either place.

Like the birthday party, the zoo was more about fun than necessarily learning something. I am okay with that, since I already do enough learning in class. Speaking of class, here are a few things coming up in the rest of my week:

Tuesday:
All-day field trip with the Human Evolution class to a neanderthal excavation site in Belgium. Fascinating, new country, long day.

Friday:
Human Evolution final exam. I started this class three weeks ago, and in four days it will be over. So between now and then, it's study, study, study!

Friday - Sunday:
The Calvin group has the excursion of all excursions. We're going down to Zeeland on Friday afternoon, staying with host families for two nights, learning plenty of things, and then returning on Sunday night.

Monday:
I start a new class! My last class at the VU :( It's called Molecular Development, and it's going to be a zinger.

Now I'm off to pack my backpack for Belgian adventures tomorrow. Talk to you later, and thanks for reading!

So, this week

This week I learned some stuff, did some things. It was fun.

What, that's not enough information? Okay, I AM sort of procrastinating until it's time to go do homework (on a Friday? what?), so I will go into more detail...

Sunday:
Happy Easter, everyone! I hope the day was wonderful for all of you. I had a great, relaxing day. A few of us went downtown to the English Reformed Church in the Begijnhof. We went there on Good Friday and it felt appropriate to complete the circle in the same place on Sunday. We got there early, as the pastor advised on Friday, and it was a good thing because he was right -- the place filled up. The service was great, but the weirdest part was walking out of the church to a courtyard filled with tourists talking pictures of the outside (I guess since they couldn't go in since the church was "in use"?). Anna and I also had quite a vocal tourist couple behind us on the way into the church ("Is this the church? Oh, it's so cute!"). Now, I have been to this church a grand total of four or five times, and I can't say that I even know anyone who goes there regularly, but...urg, the tourists got to me. Maybe because I never expected church to be a touristy place. I guess that's what you get when you go to a church built in 1607.

Am I turning into an Amsterdam snob? Maybe. But like to think I have a little bit of a reason to be.

Tourists aside, the service was great. Then that afternoon, the Aays graciously had all of us who could come over to their apartment for a delicious brunch. Easter was great!

Monday:
I honestly don't remember anything special from Monday. So sorry.

Tuesday:
Ahh, Tuesday. This was the day I got to spend quality time with some of my fossil friends:

























































Oh, and one (very sticky, nasty) foot:



















Yes, my Human Evolution biology class had a lab that met for EIGHT HOURS on Tuesday. To be fair, we did get a breaks for lunch and such, but we were in the same room from roughly 9am to 5pm. I came to the conclusion that, no matter how interesting something is, it begins to become uninteresting after eight hours. I remember sitting at the last of the twelve lab stations that we had to do, almost visually observing Chris and Adam's words bouncing off my head. Knowledge absorption at that stage is minimal.

But, hey, I got some pictures! (Nevermind the fact that they are for our lab report that we still need to type up...) I now could tell you the difference between a male and a female skull, or give a jaw an age based on what teeth it had come in. And I've seen enough "brow ridges" to last a lifetime.

What I'm saying is, this class is extremely interesting, but I'm coming off of two months of a history class that met for four hours a week. Now I go to lectures for sometimes five hours a day, and the lab...sigh. Not complaining! Just pointing out a difference for, you know, posterity.

Wednesday:
Something you should know -- the concert hall in Amsterdam, the Concertgebouw, holds free concerts at 12:30 every Wednesday. Something else you should know -- if you are ever in Amsterdam on a Wednesday, get to the concert hall at noon at least, because every retired person in Amsterdam will already be in line to beat you to a seat.

But Deborah, Anna, Bonnie, and I made it there early enough, and we got seats!





































The concert was short (30 minutes), FREE, and much, much different than I expected. Well, I expected Mozart, or something. The Nieuw Ensemble played three new pieces written by...university students? (It was hard to tell, the program was in Dutch). The pieces can best be described as experimental, and described worst as strictly melodic. Some of the new things were kind of cool! For example, in the piece called "Mice," the instrumentalists scratched on boxes with pencils at one point to make the sound of scurrying mice. Then they all sang "Three Blind Mice." But other times, I would kind of zone out. Experimental music doesn't always hold one's attention well.

I experienced a bit of "culture," though, instead of just spending my time reading TV recaps on Entertainment Weekly.com like I sometimes do. And - bonus! - we emerged from the concert to find that it was a beautiful sunny day in Amsterdam.

We had to photographically take advantage of the sun, the blue sky, and the fact that they finally took down the tent in front of the Rijksmuseum, meaning you don't have to stand three feet away from the I amsterdam letters to get a picture with them.



















Now if only they would finish up with that scaffolding...

We also took a walk through the Albert Cuyp market, rumored (whisper, whisper) to be the largest daytime market in Europe. But don't tell the other countries, they'd be jealous.




















We found things there both good and bad.

Good: the fresh stroopwafel that I had.

Bad: these harem pant-jeans.




















Thursday:
We experienced a classroom landmark, namely an AMAZING guest lecturer. Meet Jan van Hooff.
























I admit, the picture is not mine. I took it from a website I found a link to on his WIKIPEDIA PAGE! And one of his former students, Frans de Waal, is now slightly famous among some biology circles. You could say I was starstruck in a biological-academia sense.

Like all good professors I've known, he was a great lecturer mainly because he was slightly crazy. He talked about the social groups that primates live in, which naturally includes acting like a chimpanzee from time to time. He would also start speaking in Dutch whenever he got very excited/distracted. Most of the time he would notice. But once:

Prof. van Hooff: Dutch, dutch, dutch

Student: Professor? You're speaking in Dutch again.

Prof. van Hooff: I can switch to German, too, if you'd like.

(hehe)

Overall, one of the best lectures I've had at the VU!

Friday:
That is today, which means I can't write about it yet since it isn't over! I can tell you, though, that writing a lab report is in my near future.

And Saturday/Sunday bring another round of our group excursions with Prof. Aay. Let's hope for no stomach flu/traffic jams on this one! Honestly, though, I think this weekend will be pretty fun. We are going on a biking trip on Sunday around Amsterdam's largest park, the Amsterdamse Bos, and the trip may or may not include goat's milk ice cream and Scottish Highlander cows. Saturday -- I still don't know exactly where we're going. You and I will just have to find out, won't we?

Until next time, thanks for reading!