It's Spring In Amsterdam
And everyone is sick (or at least everyone in the house). Things have been going good for me here.. spring has arrived.. school is going well.. and next week is exams so I'll have time off to work on all my homework for back home.. FUN!
Here's a few pictures.. will take some more over the next few days as long as it stays sunny out. There should be some more on
DeviantArt as well.
Overtoom
The giant chess set.
A Busy Weekend
"De Artistieke Interlyceale" was on Friday. That meant a 4am wakeup, which we all know is loads of fun. The day was pretty good though.. Its basically a competition in the arts between the 4 oldest schools in The Netherlands. Lots of good music and art.. All followed by a party that had its moments. Got back to Amsterdam around midnight.. Didn't get to a bed until 1 or 2.
Went out last night for a couple hours but we were all tired and a little sick so we called it a night around 1. Before that I had dinner with these people who are moving to Montreal come August.. Told them all about Canada and the little I knew of Montreal.. Basically confirmed their fears of the cold weather.
Speaking of weather, its suppose to be up to 16°C today..Then around 13 for the rest of the week..And sunny. So hopefully spring has arrived for good.
An Update
So Chris left this morning for Canada. Hopefully he'll get in all right.
It was a lot of fun to have him around.. Makes me look forward to living with a roommate..
So Friday is this Arts competition between some schools . Even though it means getting up at 4.30 and getting home around midnight, I'm looking forward to it. From what I've heard its a lot of fun.
Might be going to the zoo here on Saturday.. after a lot of sleep that is.. and then I'm not sure about Sunday.
The weather is starting to get better here.. it's suppose to be around 8 C on Friday... so hopefully it will start to get even warmer.
And tommorow is the halfway point of the exchange.. seems like it's gone by so fast..
This Weekend
My weekend was pretty good.. did a lot.
Saturday during the day Marte and I met up with another exchange student and her boyfriend who's visiting for the week. We showed them around a bit of Amsterdam and had a good lunch at this pizzeria and talked a lot about the exchange and how things were going for each of us.
I had to leave them around 5 and then head back home. Then me, Beer, Marte, Bauke and his friend Simon all went to an 'American Football' game as they call it. It was pretty good.. although freezing.. and the Amsterdam team wasn't the greatest either. We ended up leaving at half-time.
So got back home at nineish.. sat around and talked with Marte for a bit.. then left at ten to meet Omani for some drinks. There ended up being about 6 of us there and we stayed at this one place till about 2.. then went to another for a little bit.. then home. Below is Omani and Kaj..
So today I slept in till noon. Just beacuse I was tired and I could. Me and Marte eventually went to this Music Showcase that Omani was in and got there just in time to see her perform. We walked around after that for a while.. I tried Banana Milk.. which is really good by the way.. and then eventually came across this group of people around this big canvas. There was a bunch of people were painting on it and this lady yelled to us "hey you guys, want to paint?"
And of course, we did. It ended up being a church group from somewhere in wisconsin who flew here for the week to just talk to people from all around the world who are in amsterdam. We talked to this one lady from the church for a while.. then painted a bit..
The whole basis of it was 'what is peace to you?'.. Or something like that.. When it was doen, the entire canvas would be donated to a children's hospital.. along wiht 3 or 4 more that they'll be doing through the week.. Here's a
link to what I did.
So all in all.. I had a pretty good weekend.
3 More Pitcures and Some Words
A group of sculptures in Rembrant Plein depicting Rembrant's
The Watchman.. thats Rembrant there in the back.
A church we found around the area of the Anne Frank House (and no I haven't gone there yet)
A Canal.. there's a lot of those here.. but some are being filled in..
Status
So Chris ships out tommorow to Germany.. then he'll be back for a couple days on Monday.. so it'll be back to school for me in the meantime.
The last few days have been a lot of fun.. we saw a lot of the city and did a bunch of touristy things.. spent way to much money as well.
Looking forward to 'Amsterdam Day' soon.. not sure when it'll be though.. the day that was picked for it has to be changed beacuse of prior commitments.. but ya.. it'll be a good time, getting to see everyone again.
What else, what else.. I've realized that going to bed at 3am then waking up at noon is very hard to sustain for a a week.. but me and Chris have somehow managed it..
Will post some more pictures soon.
Some Pictures
This is the arch outside of the Rijks Museum where I was at the begining of last night..
A Street in Amsterdam (blue sky!! finally!)
Part of Leidse Plein.. the closest square.. pretty fun at night.. and a big tourist attraction during the day.
Mmmm.. Pistachio Nuts
Today was good..
Walked a lot.. biked a lot and walked a lot more.
Then went to the Van Gogh museum with the school.. saw some art..
Just got back an hour ago from sampling the night life.. which on a rainy thursday isn't the greatest.
"The German Guy Who Likes Politics"
Chirs got here this morning.. at 6.45am. (waking up at 6am was fun.. not)
So we walked back home from Central Station, showd him a little bit of the city, bought him a coffee.. Then hung around at home for an hour or two and talked a bit.. caught up.. then I took him to the school to meet some people.. went back home to grab gloves and then headed to this square which I know how to say but am to lazy to look up how to spell.
Anyways there wern't any tickets for Boom Chicago tongiht.. and then it started to rain.. and its cold.. not a good combination..
We eventually made our way back to the school to meet up with Omani.. then went and grabbed some food with her for an hour.. it was a lot fo fun.. lots of laughs..
And now:
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So what else has been happening here.. not a whole lot.. Friday marks the day that I've been here for a month.. its weird.. its really gone by fast.. I've been having lots of fun.. making friends and ya.. its good here.. but coming home will be good too.
Wow.. this is miserable weather. Sucks for Chris.. it was sunny yesturday.. and somewhat warm.
The Island
So this weekend was spent on the island of Terschelling in the North part of the Netherlands.. about an hour and a half drive, then an hour and a half or 45 minute boat ride depending on which one you go on..
Anyways Saturday was spent biking around half of the island.. and Sunday was spent recuperating..
Here's some Pictures..
Surprisingly Comfortable..
This is the best of The Netherland's Nature
Marte insists on doing this everywhere...
Putting her clothes back on after a quick swim... if you can call running into the water, realizing that its probaly hovering around zero degrees with high winds and then running back out swimming... and yes I went to.. so now we know why I'm sick.
More Pictures Below and Here
A Few More Pictures...
The Beach.. that's the North Sea..
Me and Marte...
The Grind
Not much has being happening here lately..
There's been snow on the ground, which I refuse to call real snow because it melts away by noon and has a habit of taking hail-like form.
School is going pretty well.. very unorganized.. making some friends though, which is good...
I have lots of free time because of not having much school.. took some pictures today.. they are up on Deviant Art...
Updated this page a little bit.. added some things, fixed the arrangement a bit and made real titles for all the posts...
Chris comes on the 8th.. looking forward to that...
See you all in 9 weeks.
Overtoom
The giant chess set.
