08/26/10

Today there were open classes at the gym for all the international students. So I biked down there to check it out, everyone bikes everywhere here. It's so great, and so easy! There are over 500,000 bikes in the city, and the population is less than 700,000! I took a martial arts class at the gym from the craziest man ever. He was so intense, but I thought he was so hilarious. He kept yelling at us in dutch and was wearing a black satin suit. He kept picking on me (probably because I was laughed everytime he yelled) and making me do push ups, and then he made fun of me for kicking like a ballerina, and made me do more push ups. It was wonderful, my arms are exhausted

Borrels are really fun. They pretty much mean just going to a bar and being Dutch. I also had my first clubbing experience last night. I went out with some Italians, a Dane, a Norwegian, and some Dutch kids. It was also great, except that...

European people do not dance.

European people bob there heads to the beat, with the occasional fist pump.

I'm not okay with it.

I've been failing at taking pictures, because I thought I lost my camera for 2 days, but now that I found it in my purse (yes the one I use everyday) I will try and get better!

08/25/10

First of all - shout out to my little bro HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY JACK, don't crash the jeep.

Amsterdam is absolutely incredible. It's so beautiful, my dorm is overlooking a canal and a little bridge that leads down all of these quintessentially dutch streets. There are people on bikes zooming past my window all the time it is great!

I've met a lot of people from all over the world in the last 3 days. The international student network (ISN) has a two week orientation for all of the international students. There are over 1000 of us from all over the world! I am the only person from North America in my group (we were all split into groups to do activities in), everyone else is either from Europe or Asia.

There are bikes everywhere! I had one but it broke within the first 15 minutes of riding it and so I am getting a new one tomorrow. So far I have gotten lost twice and ended up wandering around Amsterdam for over an hour each time, I need to start carrying a map around with me.

Tonight they are holding a Borrel, which is a traditional Dutch party for the International Students (last night they rented out an old warehouse on the river and held a crazy dance party). I'll let you know what exactly a Borrel entails once I find out, but they give everyone a lot of free drinks at every event so it'll probably be wonderful.

I don't know how to say write more later in Dutch.

But it's probably a really long word that looks something like this prizengglidkchetjke