Happy Birthday Papa Rain!

Happy Birthday Dad!!! Sorry I couldn’t be hanging with you on the boat today and be your second mate but hopefully Mom did at least something to help you out. I’m bummed I missed out on the ice cream cake. It’s been a super long week and it’s just ending! We had orientation all week and each day consisted of different activities within our groups. Tuesday, the first day of orientation was absolutely POINTLESS. We arrived at 9:30, which is the time we were told, and we stood around in a big mob for about 2 hours before we moved upstairs into our group. Another thing we have all learned about the Dutch: their organizational skills SUCK. Anyway… we were all put into small groups and none of the Loyola kids were together probably on purpose. However, that didn’t stop me from finding someone close to home. One guy in my group, Danny, is 24 and going to a semester of Law School in Amsterdam (yes… law in Amsterdam). Where did he grow up? Great Neck, NY. For those of you who don’t know me, that happens to be the town next to me. Bizarre. I also became friends with this girl Frankie from Australia, who at first I couldn’t help but think of Summer Heights High when I heard her talk, but I’m used to her Australian accent now and she’s started to call me ‘Rain’ because I told her about my various nicknames. Out of: Toria, Toe, Vic, Vrain, Rain, Toey, etc. ‘Rain’ was the winner.

Wednesday morning ISN took us on a city walk. First stop: Red Light District. We walked through this really narrow alley and even though it was only noon, there were still people in their windows. We got a few grunts about getting the tourists away, but overall it was a cultural experience. Here are a few pictures of the things we encountered on our walk:







Thursday was sports day! We all met at a gym that was in Guam. What was meant to be an easy trip ended up taking about an hour and a half in the lovely rainy Amsterdam weather. We finally made it. Kristina and I started out with some soccer and then Mara, Kristina, Lucy from Italy and myself did a spinning class next. What a workout!! Friday we went to the zoo in preparation for our Animal themed party that night. I took one too many pictures of animals at the zoo, but here are some precious animals I thought stood out:







Animal party!!! So the final party after orientation was at this club called Panama. It was BUMPIN. A bunch of us dressed up with animal print shirts or dresses and tried to go along with the theme as much as possible. Although… when we got there, less people dressed up than I had hoped, but I still embraced it. At the end of the night after dancing the night away with Americans, Australians, Spaniards, Germans, and more, my friend Carly and I hopped on some nice fellows bikes and they gave us a cycle to Central Station and we caught a cab from there.







I took my first solo pic with the I Amsterdam sign… I am a tourist after all. Classes start tomorrow, and although I have no classes Monday, it will be nice to finally start a routine. We looked into joining a gym today…surprising right? In addition to a lot of walking around, we’ve booked some trips! So far, Oktoberfest and Prague are all booked. Trips to come: biking in the countryside in Holland and skydiving in Switzerland!! Hopefully I’ll be making my first freefall in about three weeks. To all my followers, I miss you! Alexandra Metter is making her way to Europe tomorrow so everyone please say a little prayer for her that she makes it through the first week. Don’t forget underwear!! Michaela – Happy Birthday tomorrow!!!