The Dam

Amsterdam was outrageous. It's not like that surprised me, really. Any place that could have captured my brother's heart the way it did must be pretty unique. And I knew it was going to be crazy. I knew pot and prostitution were legal. I knew that there were more bikes than cars. I knew that they ate mayonnaise on their french fries. I knew it attracted people like Matty Evans. What I didn't know was that it was so freakin' pretty! My mind was absolutely blown by how adorable the little houses lining the winding canals were-- despite the absolutely frigid weekend my 12 friends and I chose to visit the Netherlands...
Yep, my 12 friends. We were 13 girls strong all weekend long (well, despite Bear being sick. Sorry, Bear.) and we did a very good job of rallying the troops. No one died. No one even fell in a canal! But we did have a lot of fun. It was an absolute dream to meet up with so many friendly faces. Katie and Carolyn (as previously mentioned in Christmas break blogs) came from Leister, England along with a Pittsburgher friend named Heather. Two friends came from Leon, Spain. Quirky came from Bamberg, Germany. And seven girls came from Italy (winners!) bringing the grand total to 13! We were the last of the group to arrive at around 7 o'clock on Friday night, and we almost immediately proceeded to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. It was my first (and probably last) Hard Rock experience, and it didn't shed any light on my ever-present question of why the hell Europeans love it so much...They wear those t-shirts like it's their job. I don't get it.
Quirk made dinner more interesting by telling our extremely obnoxious waiter that it was Katie's birthday, so she had to stand on the booth while everyone sang to her. Pretty hilarious seeing as how I've heard Katie described as being "painfully shy"... after dinner we walked down the touristy street with all the bars. (I'm calling it that because I actually have no idea what it's called. Woops.) and did some dancing and drinking, but mostly catching up and laughing at people.
We woke up the next day and headed to this really cute little bagel place we discovered right by our hostel. Again, it's hard to be discreet when the entry of your group means the instant doubling of the population of any restaurant...So we took over the two biggest tables in the place, all demanded to pay separately, accidentally tried to steal some cream cheese and immediately made ourselves the enemy of Bagels and Beans. (Too bad we went back 3 more times...) Our agenda for the day was to take pictures on the I Amsterdam sign, visit the Anne Frank House and see the Red Light District. We decided not too be too ambitious, seeing as how moving in such a large group was a huge pain in the first place. The I Amsterdam experience obviously took us close to an hour for everyone to get the pictures we wanted without weirdos in them. This is not to mention the fiasco of people climbing up on letters and not being able to get down...Having a tall friend came in handy more than once. I don't understand why every big city doesn't have one of those. It's pretty much the simplest idea in the world and everyone loves it! I mean, I know I had a good time and so did the group of strange Italian men who were trying to crash all of our pictures.
Our chosen form of transportation was a hop-on-hop-off canal cruise that was actually really cool. We got to see the city from a different angle--and it was heated. The Anne Frank House was depressing, obviously, and actually very different that I expected. We made the realization after our tour, though, that most kids were fascinated by the Holocaust and lots of depressing things. So in the end we were reassured that none of us were morbid freaks when we were little; kids are just strange. It reminded me of my obsession with the sinking of the Titanic when I was younger, and how bizarre that was. Mom, why didn't that concern you? Va bene.
Our next stop was the Red Light District. Let's just say our trip was brief. I didn't imagine that anything could quiet that group down that quickly. We were so uncomfortable it was ridiculous. Nothing was alleviated by the crazy woman with the sign yelling: "You think you find in the Red Light District? That ain't love. Jesus is the only true love." Making us all feel like we were participating in this nonsense. Sorry ma'am, we're just awkward college students trying to creep ourselves out. Everyone was just sort of looking at the ground while they walked until someone got up the courage to make an awkward joke about the "lazy one who's just slouching in her chair texting. She's not even trying." But really, it became obvious very quickly that we didn't have any future prostitutes in the group. We went during the middle of the afternoon to ensure that we got to see the "B team". I think we were all too scared of what Varsity might be like...
Afterward we decided it would be best to get back on our canal cruise and hang out for a while. We asked the conductor if it was okay to bring food onto the boat. His response, "You can bring bread. But no potatoes." Well, that's the most hilarious thing I've ever heard. To be respectful we decided to snack on tortilla chips and Dutch beer. That's a good compromise, right? After the love boat stopped, we returned to the hostel to get ready for the pub crawl that we'd decided to partake in that night. Crawl doesn't begin to describe how slowly this process moved. We decided the only way to make it fun would be to conduct ourselves like complete imbeciles. So we all donned the "free t-shirt" (which is actually the most embarrassing thing ever. I hope Lils never sees me wearing it) and danced the night away in our army of girls. It was as absurd as anyone would imagine, and obviously ended at a fast food restaurant. As all good nights do.
The next day everyone but Quirk, Jenna Bear and I left. It was sad to see so many friends leave. I don't know when I'm going to see a lot of them again. I hope I don't have to wait until September :( But the four of us had a lovely day at the Van Gogh museum and wandering around the city. I really really enjoyed the Van Gogh museum. What a weird dude, but I am a huge fan of his art. The gift shop may or may not have been one of my favorite parts, though. They had the most ridiculous things! I wonder if Vince knew when he was painting that his art would one day be on t-shirts, plates and umbrellas. Because I bet he had no idea that someone would make an eraser in the shape of his head...
We spent the rest of Sunday wandering around the city with some of Quirk's German friends who were very fun and friendly. One of her friends is actually coming to Holy Cross next year to work as a Foreign Language Assistant, and promised to have schnitzel night every Sunday at the FLA house. So, maybe I won't actually ever lose my study abroad body... :( Our trip back to Firenze was long and complicated (as usual), but it's wonderful to be home!Still without shampoo. Bummer.
But the weather is lovely, and Kristen and Jenna's families are coming to visit--which means some fun meals in my future. As for now, I almost strangled a horrible boy named Enrico at CCD today. 11-year-old boys are annoying enough in English, it doesn't improve the situation at all to have them yelling things I don't actually understand. I pretty sure I've developed from the weird foreign girl who's too old to be sitting with the kids to the mean foreign girl who just yells "Ragazzi, basta!"
Everything else is just wonderful. No trips planned for now. Just sitting here anxiously awaiting March Madness and Carnevale. La vita e bella.
A dopo, amici. Vi voglio bene e mi mancate. Baci.