Last Friday: Finally made it to NEMO Science Center! I went with Dominique, Aliza, and Vivian to this children’s museum suited for adults. I took some photos of the exhibits (they were pretty random, so bear with me):
Saturday: Visited the Castle in Amerogen with my Dutch professor and some other students. It was under renovation, but we had a really nice day anyways. It was fun to hang out with our professor, too — Bonny Wassing! He is really cool. Here are some pictures, the last one of Bonny:
Monday: I finally felt at home again in the city! I had been out of town and hosting visitors for such a long time that it was great to be settled. I had a midterm so instead of going to the Noodermarkt (which I usually do on Mondays), I studied and proceeded to (likely) ace it at 3. Then I had dinner at Soup Enzo, one of my favorite little joints around the corner, and then Dutch class. After Dutch, Aliza and I walked to Bimhuis to see William Van Ekeren recite Bukowski’s poetry to the music of Bach. It was absolutely awesome, and I wish I had had enough money to buy his album! The venue was incredible too—it was up over the IJ water, and we could see the entire city. A great setting for music of any kind, I will definitely be going back!
Tuesday: Tuesday was mainly spent in class and working on a presentation, it was made by the way I spent the evening — went to Overtoom 301 to play ping-pong and hang out. It was really cool, with graffiti on the walls and hipsters abound. Next time I’ll be sure to wear my coolest sneakers!
Wednesday: Wednesday I took it nice and easy. Gave my presentation (rocked it!), studied some more, and had dinner with Dominique and Ali at the pizza place around the corner. It was delicious as usual.
Thursday: I slept in nice and late, then rolled out of bed to go check out the Waterlooplein Market. It was nice and had some cool vintage, but it was so windy that most of the vendors had taken down their stands. I’ll have to go back another day. I walked from there to Dutch class, which was nice and made me hungry. At the cafe on the ground floor of the school, I bought a sandwich with “ossenwost,” a meat that looked like salami. I soon discovered it did not taste like salami, and looked up the word in my Dutch dictionary — turns out I ate ox! Yet another linguistic foul messing with my stomach (the meat was gross, by the way). After Dutch, I got word from Annelise that a party was happening (as in happening at that moment, right then). I bolted out the door and we biked north of Prins Hendrikkade to a party at some Dutchman’s. It was fun; I met a bunch of people from different countries within the first five minutes, and soon after we got kicked out by the apartment complex owners (it was 10pm and noise was an issue). We hung out in the room of a nice Polish girl (Nina) with a Nederlander originally from Scotland (Sean) and a guy from Poland (Jaceck). We went with Jaceck to another party in De Pijp (a neighborhood), at a kid named Riochard’s (he was from Berlin). Annelise and I left soon after to check out Club Rain, where the ISN party was taking place. It was full of trashy techno and was everything I wanted out of a Thursday. We met a Croatian and Annelise got to practice her Dutch. We eventually biked home and had some good conversation, hitting the hay soon after.
Friday (Yesterday): I sat in bed all day, watching How I Met Your Mother and only leaving the house once to get (and devour) a Milka chocolate bar. It was not looking like I had another nighttime activity in me, but something told me I needed to jump at the opportunity to experience this city a little more. I ended up going to a concert at Trouw with Jaceck, the Polish guy from the night before. I met up with him and his friends (May from Switzerland, Todd from Chicago, Andrea from Portugal, and Liana from Romania) and we took the Metro. The place (at which we arrived around 12:15) was a giant warehouse-like building, covered in graffiti. It had two floors, and each one had a DJ playing fabulous dubstep. In the basement room, there were glass bottles on the floor. It was pretty wild, even though all of the Europeans I was with felt like it was just their average evening. I had a phenomenal time!
Saturday: Today, we were supposed to go to Zaanse Schaans, the small town with windmills and cheese museums. However, Ali woke up sick (and I woke up tired) and so Dominique and I found random ways to occupy ourselves. We checked out the Amsterdam HIstorich Museum and the Torture Museum, both of which were very enjoyable. On my ride home, I stopped in droog to look at some design — they have some incredible stuff!
Tomorrow we go to Zaanse Schans (hopefully), and I can’t wait! Let’s hope everyone wakes up in time.
Until then,
Jen
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