Land of the Free

So today is August 23rd which marks the date of exactly FOUR months to come of my study abroad adventure. So far this long weekend has been pretty busy. We've been going out at night in Leidsplein, which is a popular place with a lot of bars, pubs, and clubs. On Friday, a bunch of us went to 'Sail Amsterdam 2010.' It only happens every five years so it was awesome that we were there to experience it. Pretty much, there are THOUSANDS of boats in the Amsterdam harbor and there are a bunch of activities for four or five days. Although we didn't make it to the fireworks, they happened every night at 10 pm. There were some massive boats. I couldn't help but think how much my dad and sister would have absolutely loved this.





Friday night involved some bar hopping. Apparently people don't like to stay in the same place for more than 20 minutes... We make a frequent appearance at the "Sports Cafe" where you can buy either 10 shots of Jager or some fruity liquor for 10 Euro. The fruity liquor tastes more like cough syrup but apparently some of my friends actually enjoy that taste. Here's a picture of a few of the kids from the Loyola crowd.




Saturday we ventured to Ikea to get a few things to spice up the room. After picking out a very cheap rug for my room, I saw a little boy circa 5 years old pick out the same rug. Yes... I purchased a racecar rug. Here is it on my floor.



On Saturday night we went to this bumpinnn club called Melkweg. It's set up like a concert arena but on Saturday nights, they are filled with DJ's. It was super fun and we all danced the night away. Some people thought it was clever to 'ice' someone in the middle of the club, so that was entertaining.



Today, we had our orientation at HES. Amsterdam could not have chosen a better time to be itself and downpour on our 35 minute journey to our school building. Although it was a pain, it was really quite humorous. My jeans ended up looking like leather pants and we were freezing for the entire day because it took a while for our clothes to dry. The orientation was somewhat helpful, but pretty much informed me on things I already knew. The rest of the week is the ISN program where we are all split up into small groups and show us the city of Amsterdam. There are about 200 international students so we are all put in different groups so we can mingle with students from all over. Apparently they take us to museums, bars, etc. But for the most part it's a surprise!

Things I observed on the tour of HES:
1) A man smoking IN the library
2) A library stocked with about 300 books at the most
3) A school snack bar that serves beer and wine after 3pm.

Would this ever happen at Loyola?