It’s been a long time…

It’s been a while since I’ve last posted. So much has happened since my last post. Basically I’ve completely adjusted to life here and while the weather is improving daily and most of my school work was done before the midterm, I am enjoying every day the Netherlands has to offer.

I did some touristy things in the past month. I participated in the public pillow fight, then went to the Keukenhof (the tulip fields), cycled to the beach, visited the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh museum, went to the Anne Frank house, the Warf, saw a sex show in the red light district, shopped in the flea-markets (there are 3 main ones), ate at the famous pancake bakery, celebrated Queen’s Night and Queen’s Day, witnessed the Remembrance Day service (experience my first real moment of terror) and celebrated Liberation Day. Amsterdam is wonderful with all of its celebrations and holidays. Every couple streets there is a set-up with a beer stand and stage where DJ’s play all day and until about 12 at night.

Below are photo’s f

rom some of the things listed above to give you an idea of how

In Museumplein (near the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh museum)

great it all was!

Being such a tourist!

Public Pillow Fight!

Warf (cool graffiti art everywhere and a 'green and organic' cafe near by

Selling Drinks on Queen's DAy

30 day fun-fair in Dam Square!

Albert Cuyp Market (the biggest in Amsterdam)

Flags at half-mast on Remembrance Day May 4

Celebrating Liberation Day !

Keukenhof (Tulip Field)

Taking advantage of a sunny afternoon

Living. Loving. Amsterdam.

Living in Europe is a unique experience. Living in Amsterdam, particularly the downtown of Amsterdam is an entirely different world. Life seems easier here. Everything is close by, parks are within minutes of a bike ride, stores, cafes, cheese shops, butchers and bakeries are at every corner. Also, the city looks completely different in sunlight. When the sun is shinning, the water sparkles, the colours and details of the buildings are boat houses stand out against the bright blue sky – it’s really incredible.

The people are friendly and I’ve heard that when you talk to them about work or school, they enjoy themselves, are interested in what they are doing and don’t complain like everyone does back home. It’s not all perfect here, of course no place is, but in my opinion a lot here makes up for the things that aren’t ideal.

The Dutch people that I’ve met so far have been very nice. I think I got lucky in the beginning because my ISN coaches are probably the best ones and we still meet up with our group for dinners just to catch up on what’s going on.

Three weekends ago I went to Brussels. It’s a beautiful small little city. My hostel was in the Moroccan, Turkish area of the city and that in itself was an experience. The integration of people from that area is a touchy subject in many parts of Europe, particularly the Netherlands. In the beginning I couldn’t understand, but after staying a few days in that neighborhood I had a better idea. My observations were that the people didn’t integrate well and the cultures are just so different and it was like you were walking anywhere but Europe. I may be a little extreme in my description, but it felt extreme at the time.

Brussels is nice, much smaller than Amsterdam and not as beautiful (I’m biased), also there is not as many things to do and places to see. Spending 1 to 3 days there is more than enough time to see all the main attractions. Belgian waffles were delicious (best to get them fresh in the morning), and the fruit beers were quite unique.

School is finally getting busy .. after 1.5 months. I have my first take-home midterm next week. I also have a midterm paper (something I never do at Mac!). I’ve realized now after already writing 1 short essay and 2 research papers, that the curriculum here is much more practical than at McMaster. At Mac, we learn theory and get tested on what we know. At UvA, we learn theory and then are made to go out and test the theory, observe, and question it. We also get tested on how we know theory, but we get tested in a way that shows the professor how we understand the theory and how it relates to our research. In some ways its more challenging because I actually have to think and be creative and do real work, in other ways it’s liberating because I actually feel like a scholar and that I’m in university for the right reasons.

And talking about school reminds me I need to get off my break and get back to studying for my midterm exam. Oh and I probably won’t do any more traveling until the semester is over (June). I decided that if I went away every weekend I wouldn’t have time to explore and enjoy all the things that Amsterdam and the Netherlands has to offer. So no more travel updates but I do have some other things I’ll talk about later, like my plan for paintballing, cycling 2 hours to the beach, painting on canvas in the park, discovering the forest, setting up a lemonade stand on Queen’s Day, making a bike video, and so much more!

Update!

Let me start by saying that – I am in love with this place.  There’s so much more focus on a simply way of doing things and it’s more social and slow-paced here. Everyday I’ve been biking to get to class, through the rain, snow and freezing wind. I’ve been lugging groceries home on my bike, going through the narrow cobble stones streets and I am in a complete honeymoon with this place. The only complaint I have is that I don’t know any word of dutch and it’s so hard to learn, it kind of makes me feel like an outsider. At least in such a tourist city of Amsterdam. I don’t like to think of myself as just another tourist.

It’s been almost 2 weeks since I’ve last put up a post. Life here is so busy now, with school work (loads of readings and little assignments), partying and.. well I don’t know what else really there is.. just everyday life stuff.

The international parties here that the ISN throws are always really fun. I would definitely recommend to anyone who’s coming here to join in with the ISN. Especially to anyone here in the second semester. Carnival in the south of the Netherlands is like Halloween for 4 days party in the streets. I went to a Carnival party just here in Amsterdam, but it was really fun to dress up and see how everyone else dressed up as!

This past weekend I had my first weekend trip and I went to Maastricht with the ISN group. Maastricht is in the south of the Netherlands. The city was so cute and it really made you feel like you were almost back in time. We toured the city, and in the neighboring town called Valkenburg we got to visit a medieval castle ruins and their underground “caves”. The caves were really giant underground rooms and tunnels they built under the castle. There was even a cathedral inside. It was incredible! Not only were the sites really beautiful, but the ISN intro. weekend is a great way to meet new people and have the time to get to know them really well really fast!

This week I’ll be catching up on school work before heading off again for the weekend to Brussels!

First Visitor :)

On Monday I picked up my first visitor from Centraal station. It was Lionel a French exchange student from McMaster that had recently arrived back in Europe. My flat-mate was kind enough to lend me her mattress for Lionel.

So the first night he was here, Lionel, Caitlin and I went the Heineken Experience. It was a cool museum and even cooler that we got 3 free beers during the tour. I would say that was probably one of the best parts of the tour.. the free beer and the “make your own Heineken music video part”.

After, we met with Cata, and cooked a really nice dinner together. Lionel and I were too tired to go out, so we stayed in the first night. The next morning, we found our way to the Van Gough Museum. I didn’t know anything about the artist so it was interesting to find out about his life and see his most famous paintings.  After the museum and a nice lunch at a small bar/cafe, I took Lionel with me to my first class. My professor was really welcoming and the class sounds so interesting.  After class, Lionel and I decided to visit the Sex Museum because you can’t be a tourist in Amsterdam and not go there! Needless to say it was a bit shocking but mostly funny.

Next we hit up the Heffer Cafe, which is a bar near the Red Light District that the international student network frequents every Tuesday night. It’s really nice inside and they had drinks going for 1.50E . Partying in Amsterdam is like partying in Toronto. The cover to most night clubs ranges from 5-15E ($7-20) and the alcohol in the clubs (for cheap drinks) is about 2-4E ($3.50-7). The Heffer was so busy and crowded that finally we rounded up some ppl from my group (including my coach) to explore some of the Red Light District. That’s another place in Amsterdam that as a tourist you can’t not see.

To sum up, the district is really creepy. The women seem nice enough, but it’s the groups of old men that roam the streets that make you feel uncomfortable. There were mostly men in the streets at all.. I saw maybe 2 or 3 other girls walking around in a group (clearly tourists like us). I would never go there alone, or again except that my professor is taking us there to do some kind of field experiment. One really nice thing about the place is all the swans there! Apparently the swans always gather there at night so it is really beautiful to see!

The next day, Lionel and I made a big breakfast and small tour around my neighborhood before he had to leave. It was nice to have a familiar face close by and nice to also know that this wasn’t the final good bye.

So today I have my third class of the week. So far the classes seem so much better than McMaster’s. Apparently we are going to be learning theory and also doing field experiments and primary research. Our professors don’t want us to argue any points specifically in our papers, but to find out as much as we can about the topic and formulate some possible conclusions or more questions. Basically they say that a good paper is when it can prompt someone to ask more questions.

I’m going to finish this entry with OMG the weather here is CRAZY! lol Its been mild the past couple days, but since I’ve been here, in one day it can rain, snow, hail all within a couple hours! Further, the other day, it rained for the entire day! It’s raining again now which is why I’m complaining because I either have to walk through the rain or bike through it…. biking is so much faster so I might take that option but it’s still annoying lol. I am definitely looking forward to Spring!

Amsterdamming

Hey! Okay.. I have been so busy that I can’t believe that tomorrow I’ll have been in the Netherlands for almost an entire week!

The first four days in Amsterdam were fun, busy, and exhausting. The first day I arrived, I had to find my way to the DeKey residence office to sign my lease and pick up my room keys. I was so out of it, that I didn’t take down very good directions, and it if wasn’t for my brother being with me I think I would have gotten very lost. He and I had a hard time finding the place.. only because of my disorganization lol but eventually we got there. I had thought that it would be a quick and easy process at DeKey.. only to see that there was a long line up for some kind of registration, and waiting again to get called in to sign the lease, then again in line to pay, and finally to register with the city of Amsterdam.

I think it took almost 3 hours or something. At least that’s what it felt like… so we went back to Centraal station where we left my luggage, and started towards my apartment. I had no idea what to expect and was pleasantly surprised. My apartment is about 15 min from Amsterdam Centraal, which means that I live in what’s called the “centre”. I’m about a 5-10 min walk from the Palace of Amsterdam, where King Louis III sent his brother to live for 3 years and reign over the country – this is how the Netherlands became a kingdom (can you tell I paid attention at the history museum? )

So anyways, before I even had time to sit down, my brother and I decided to scope out the palace square for some nice restaurant to eat a late lunch. It took us a while, especially because he wanted to show me a few  of the main streets, especially the Dam Rak, which is one of the main streets in Amsterdam.

After dinner, my brother took off and I found my way back to my apartment. My lovely flat-mate, Cata, invited me for dinner. I started to unpack and get my computer hooked up, etc. The dinner was great and I finally finished unpacking by 11:30pm.

The next day at 9:30am my orientation for Amsterdam began. It started with a short city tour, some speeches, and finished with a good dutch dinner and party. On the second day of orientation we met in groups to visit the historical museum, go on a canal boat tour, visit the palace and watch a typical dutch movie. There was some kind of karaoke party that night, but the venue wasn’t nice and it was so cold that I decided to leave shortly after I arrived. Unfortunately for us students, this year the karaoke was in some kind of warehouse club that hadn’t been cleaned out since the last party… make that parties. lol I think you get the idea.

The third day of orientation was a sports day and final party. I did neither of those. I was so tired and sick of eating restaurant food so I decided to take the day of to buy a bike, kitchen stuff and a few groceries. Since I didn’t attend the sports day, I didn’t get a ticket for the final party, and when I tried to go to the party later, the bouncer wouldn’t let anyone in without a ticket… it was pretty annoying considering they advertised that we could pay at the door, but at least I met a couple of nice Americans. Caitlin was with me and we spent the entire night walking and exploring the streets and bars of Amsterdam until about 3:00am when we decided to get home to sleep. (Just a side note, bars in Amsterdam close by 1am or 2am usually. Only special places (that I don’t know of yet) stay open until 4am.)

And now it’s Sunday. A day of rest.. I took the luxury of sleeping in today with nothing more on my mind than to do some laundry and buy a few more groceries. I’m glad I live in the “centre”, because typically stores in the Netherlands close by 5 or 6 and are close on Sundays. Only if the store is in a busy tourist area can they get special permission to stay open later and have some hours on Sunday.

Tomorrow I have my orientation with the ISHSS faculty. I’m also picking up a friend from France, who’ll stay at my place a couple days. I’m not sure what the plan is because I don’t really know Amsterdam well enough to show them anything, but hopefully we can do something like the Heineken Experience or the Anne Frank Huis Museum.

So far I am enjoying the city. It’s a bit chaotic and always busy, which is something I will need to get used to. It’s also very easy to get lost in its winding streets, but also pretty simple to find your way again. Everyday I’m going to try and explore the city more and more – familiarize myself with the streets and different canals.

Arrived Alive.

Finally I have arrived in the Netherlands!

It has been almost 24 hours since I left for the airport in Canada. The flight was very short but also very turbulent for some of it. I was able to catch maybe about 1-2 hours of sleep on the airplane.

I landed at 6:30am Amsterdam time (12:30am Hamilton time) and caught the train to Rotterdam where I met my brother.

Without really being able to sit down and rest for long, we were out walking all over the city – my brother as my tour guide. Rotterdam is so beautiful. It seems like so much care is put into the design of each building and structure. The architecture is really cool. We took a lot of metro’s and trains to get around and it’s really nice that each station seems to have something very unique and artistic about it.

We also went to Delft. Such a pretty dutch town which a nice town centre and little restaurants and pubs. We ended up visiting this old church and climbed 300 steps high into the tower of the church to get to the top! It was really crazy to walk up and down the narrow spiraled stairs (you can’t really see where you are going) and so much fun. The view of the city got better the higher we went. 

Finally after an entire day of walking about, and enjoying some of the nice dutch restaurants, I’m finally back at the residence for tonight only to get myself ready to go out for dinner in about 30 mins.

Tomorrow I’m going to Amsterdam to find my residence and explore a bit of the city.

I’m too tired to right any more now.. I’m just happy to be here and I really like it already!

Farewell Party

My Farewell party was awesome. I had no idea how the night would turn out, but it turned out to be so much fun.

It started out with dinner at my house with my ladies. One last little group get together until I get back from my exchage. It was so nice to see them all again before I left, because it’s been such a busy semester for all of us that we didn’t have a chance to all hang out.

After the dinner I headed over to Phoenix, where I reserved a room at the side for mine and Caitlin’s friends. Caitlin is the girl that I’m flying with to Amsterdam. She’s also going on exchange from Mac to UvA.

Phoenix was great fun, all of my friends came and it meant so much to see them all. It’s always interesting when I invite all of my friends to one spot. I seem to have different groups of friends that I regularly hang out with, so it’s fun when I can bring them all together and hope that they can mingle. lol I was so happy that my “boys” came out. I haven’t seen them too much this term (being so busy with school and all) they were such a big support for me last year so I’m really glad I could hang out with them for a bit at the party.

Caitlin and her friends decided to go to 77/Dirty Dogs so my friends and I went along with her. It was really cool when we got there and saw there were more friends that we all knew there too. We entered in first to Dirty Dogs where Caitlin and I decided to ride the mechanical Bull. That thing looks slow moving, but when you’re on there, it can really flip you from side to side, up and down and send you off flying in any direction! The rest of the night was spent dancing up a storm on the dance floor of 77.

I had decided before the evening started that  I was going with the flow of the night, as I had no real solid plans for the evening. It turned out to be an unforgettably awesome night!

I start packing tomorrow …only 8 more days to go before leaving for Amsterdam.  I am looking forward to it so much!!