I AMsterdam

the beauty view from Lisa's dorm window

Day 3 of my trip is winding down, and I feel as if I've started to absorb what it is to visit Amsterdam.

Yesterday I didn't see much daylight. This was partly due to grey, cloudy and often rainy skies, and partly due to the fact that I slept in until 1pm, and then again from 3:00-6:00pm. That said, the night picked up after my second waking.

Lis had a group project to work on, and her group mates were kind enough to have me tag along to their dinner meeting. We walked (in the rain. Yuck) to Lisa's friend Liz's place, where she lives with her boyfriend Barto. Their flat is just beautiful! It felt so nice to be in a cozy home after our wet and windy walk. While Liz and Barto made a scrumptious dinner, I got to know Lisa's other groupmates, Crainy and Frank. One of the coolest things about staying with Lisa is that I'm getting to meet people from all over Europe. She has dormmates from Bulgaria, Denmark, Italy, Germany, England, France...you name it really. It's very multicultural and cool. I really like the myriad of accents floating around not only in Lisa's dorm, but around the city in general.

the maroon monster makes
her first European showing ;
walking to Liz's

When Lisa's meeting was over, we all headed back to her place for a big international student party her floor was throwing. We drank punch made with undetermined Dutch alcohols and had a rather fun time of it. The only bummer to the night was a broken bottle of red wine by Lisa's door- but we quickly mopped that up.

At about 1pm the party starting winding down, and apparently in Amsterdam, that means phase two of the evening is only just beginning. Many options were discussed and it was decided that we would go find a bar at Rembrantplein.

A decent sized gang headed out. The stragglers amounted to 8. Only 4 with bikes. And so I had my first experience riding on the back of a bicycle. It was scary! But also really fun.

The first bar we lined up for was really snobby and wouldn't let us in because we didn't know the name of the DJ. The next bar had Spice Girls trickling out its doors, so clearly it was the place for us to be. We danced to some classic nineties tunes, and left the square at about 3:45am (I know, right!?)

Rembrandtplein!

Lisa and I got quite adventurous at this point in the evening. She convinced me to get up on the bike, and then, amazingly, we mastered the whole double biking thing! Lisa is pro at managing the extra weight, I am pro at balancing on the back, and we're basically just pro together.

When we got home, we decided the kitchen needed cleaning, and just went to town on it. Mopped and everything.  By the time we got to bed, it was 6am.  Needless to say, today started with a sleep in.