less than 10% of the people here smoke

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Amsterdam! What would a semester abroad be without at least visiting this interesting city?
It actually is a very beautiful city once you get out of the Red Light District.

And the coffee shops are actually extremely cute and I think we visited almost all 200 of them that are located in Amsterdam.

The Van Gogh and Rijk museum are probably two of my favorite museums EVER. The Rijk houses many of Rembrandt's pieces, and although part of the museum was closed, it was still great.

The Anne Frank house was probably my favorite, despite the fact that I was fighting tears while I was there. I went by myself because half of my friends didn't go and the other half already went and I am really glad I got to experience that alone. It is amazing to actually be in the same room that Anne Frank hid out in. It really brought to life the terror and horror of the things people had to go through during those years.

We also went to Boom Chicago which is supposed to be a pretty good improv group, but I honestly think that USC's various improv groups are much better and the show actually kind of made me homesick (or school sick?) for USC !

WATCH OUT FOR BIKES! Many people almost ran over us with their bikes!!

The canals are gorgeous . . . they say "God made the world, but the ____ made the Netherlands" Okay, maybe I messed up that saying because I cannot remember what they call themselves, Netherlandese? Sorry I promise I paid attention during the tour!

The public library was amazing as well, actually I don't know why I got such a kick out of it, but it just was nice to sit and read next to a huge window that looked out over a canal.

and yes, the brownies are good here.

PICTURES 😊

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Photos

Clouds
Although it rained all day Thursday and most of Friday, we still went everywhere. The sky was gorgeous on Saturday and Sunday

Neighborhood
I could definately live in the outskirts of Amsterdam

Boats!
There were boats EVERYWHERE

Centraal Station
Dutch is a funny language, some words sound like English and just when you convince yourself it is English, you realize it isn't. I had no idea what they said on the flight over because I was trying to figure out what they were saying thinking it was English, but it was really Dutch, and when they were speaking English it sounded like Dutch anyway.

Ellie and I in Amsterdam
This is Ellie Nave. She goes to Northwestern and is dating some football player. I don't know why that was the first thing I said about her but it seems interesting? We are going to Belgium together. We also take Flamenco together.

Modesta and I
In front of the Palace in the rain!

More coffee
Look how pretty this one is.

Look how cold I am . . .
Amsterdam was pretty cold

I AMsterdam
Not really . . .