Things Thusfar: Amsterdam

---

So things thusfar have been quite busy. After finishing up finals week, our whole group went on a boat lunch cruise on the River Thames. Then we left London. A great city with tons to do and culture everywhere. But we were excited to get out of our comfort zone and get to Berlin. Adam, Sean, our friend Tori and I went to Holland via night ferry for the weekend. We thought it would be a barge with cots, and it turned out to be a cruise ship!!! Fantastic way to start out our trip to Amsterdam. (We decided to spend our whole weekend in Amsterdam, instead of being rushed with Brussels).

Amsterdam. What can I say. First off, it was cold, rainy and windy and I was starting to catch a cold while we were there. But we didn't let that stop us from having fun. Bikes are EVERYWHERE. Probably more dangerous than cars because one doesn't expect them to be zooming by. They have their own traffic lights and lanes. We didn't rent them because of the weather, but saw much of the city anyway.

The Anne Frank House was a great museum, built around the original hiding place. While there was no furniture at the request of Otto Frank, it was quite dismal to imagine living with no natural light, having to be quiet and a prisoner in your home for so long. It really made me want to read her diary. We saw the bookcase that hid the staircase and learned alot about life after the diary for her family in the camps. A good predecessor to Berlin.

The Rijksmuseum was neat, but a bit of a disappointment as they were doing construction on half of it, and Girl with a Pearl Earring was on loan to the Hague. But still neat to see other Vermeer's and Rembrandt, especially his Night Watch, which was attacked with a hammer by a crazy guy 25 years ago.

(Please note how difficult it is for me to type properly at this point, as many of the keys are moved around, especially y and z).

We went to the Red Light District, which was a cultural event in itself. Families, tourguides and such were all walking around late at night. We never felt in danger, but were just a bit freaked out by how normal it was to have prostitutes everywhere, in plain view of police.

We were lucky to have found a nice, safe hostel in Amsterdam but didn't sleep much from the ferry ride and early train to Berlin on Sunday morning. Our lodging in Berlin is quite nice and brand new, so that will be great. But it will be quite the change of pace from London. Classes are from 930 to 230 M-Th so we'll have to get accustomed to more academics than my previous one class. The German history class especially seems interesting with debates, field trips to the Third Reich areas, and a concentration camp.

All for now. I'm taking it easy trying to get over my cold and start up on homework! Also learning 3 German phrases from Mo daily to get by here.

Pics to follow.

Fortunately for our sake, we were out of the loop in Amsterdam and so didn't feel the full force of the Cubs losses. So much for the W flag I brought.

Auf Wiedersen,

Ian

---