You know you're studying abroad in Amsterdam when...

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-Life sans fries with satay sauce seems grim.
-All the Bulldogs are annoying.
-You aren't surprised when your iced tea is carbonated.
-When you get a cold drink at a restaurant it startles you.
-Girls in tanktops seem really skanky.
-Girls in anything other than an outfit that covers 90% of their body seem really skanky.
-You carry around a massive chain with you everywhere...to lock your bike...or to fend off junkies.
-You've locked your bike to a tree, a bridge, a sign post, someone else's bike, a car...
-The horrible exchange rate has stopped bothering you.
-You're surprised when your food has flavor.
-You want to devote your life to Euroshopper because you are absolutely in love with that brand,
-Same with stroopwaffles.
-Being served a beverage in a minuscule cup not longer bothers you.
-While riding your bike you've hit a tree, a fence, a sign, a person, and a car.
-You've been about this close >< to being hit by a tram.
-You still don't know any Dutch people.
-You've started eating pizza with silverware and give dirty looks to people who are so disgusting that they eat pizza with their hands.
-You feel amazingly generous if you live a 2 euro tip.
-Somehow European fashion sense still eludes you.
-Especially gas masks.
-You pass by countless monuments/churches/museums on your way to school.
-You've developed a taste for sweet white wine.
-A diet of starch, carbs, chocolate, pie, and beer seems completely reasonable.
-Apple pie back home will forever be a disappointment now.
-You've stopped looking at traffic signs.
-You love the miniature forks you get with everything.
-Schiphol airport annoys you because absolutely NO cheap flights fly out of it.
-It doesn't alarm you when a car stops in the middle of traffic in order to drive over the center divider to go the other way.
-You're seriously considering putting your University education to good use by becoming a mounted cop. Ok...maybe thats just me.
-You want to cry if you are inside while it's sunny out.
-You know that an 11 am class really means an 11:15 class.
-You don't want to go back home.

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Photos

Work party
Allison and Me being silly.

Work outfit
This is very carefully mismatched. I have my reasons. This is a pretty good approximation of my work look. I think I look kicky.

American culture
I thought this sign was funny. It was the American contribution to cultural exchange.