OK, so it has been awhile since I last updated.
The past week and a bit have been kind of blur, in the sense that I always have something to do. Class, readings, walking or biking around the centre, and just hanging out. Right now I am up to my eyeballs in work. I am taking three courses, and in Holland this is unheard of (well maybe only keeners like myself do it). So, it is a lot of work in the Dutch sense. For me it's ok, it's just that the books for the classes weren't available in the first week, which meant that I got behind in my readings, and they are all catching up to me now. And, because the system here is shorter (my classes end in the beginning of November, and a whole new set start right after) everything is compressed. Luckily, I don't have to work so technically I have a lot of time.... Anyways, suffice to say that I have my work cut out for me, but part of me likes the challenge. Actually, last week my prof was sick and she wrote up our lecture on a hand-out, and then indicated that I would dictate the second part of class (one of her masters students set us up in class and then...). WHOA! yeah exactly what I thought. My stomach dropped a bit. I know I am vocal in class, and I think that what I am saying sounds good, and has grounds because people listen and the prof seems impressed. I suppose this is why she chose me. (Part of me thinks that because I speak English fluently it helped). It's werid though, when I talk in class I have a commanding demeanor, and everyone turns and listens, and I become another person. It's like the part in Old School, where Will Farrell is in the debate with the political huncho from CNN, and all of the sudden he just miraculously comes up with an amazing debate, and crushes his opponent. If you haven't seen the movie, sorry you are out of luck. I only hope that you can take my word for it. Otherwise, I am just Meagan, goofy and full of movie-liners and loads of facts. hahaha.
See link: http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=OEflzeCGta4
My cultural integration has gone well. I am getting much better at riding my bike, although last week coming from the market I almost got hit by a car. That would have been bad because I reckon I would have flown a few metres in the air, and had potential damage. But, as luck would have it, I am safe. I think because of the saddle bag I attached to the back of my bike with all my groceries, it made me slower and also I think I went on the cars turn, instead of mine. I think I have it under wraps, riding to school is getting easier, and there is a really beautiful park on the way, that is a nice detour.
Partying is selective around here. Tuesday is free entrance and cheap beer at this club associated with this International Organization, but the music sucks, so it becomes a tough trade-off. Maybe every other week. Thursday is student night, so everyone goes out then. My floor has decided to start having themed parties, which could bode well for me, being 1) an organizer 2) a fan of themed parties. Some themes include: Miami Vice, 80's, Pimp and Hoe (not pimp my hoe), Superheros, cocktail/black tie, and a recent addition that I saw some friends participating in on facebook - 'everything but clothes'. One guy wore a diaper, and a lot of people wore garbage bags. We'll see, that one might not go over so well.
Halloween is coming, so prepartion for that is underway. I have NO IDEA what I am going to be, but this is an even bigger decision than back home, because Halloween is just catching on here, so I really have to blow them away.
This past Friday I went to this party in Amsterdam on a boat. We had this wicked plan, to pull an all-nighter & save money by not getting a hostel for Friday, but then checking into a hostel in the morning and doing toursity stuff all weekend. So, we put our stuff in a locker at the train station, and got all ghetto by drinking outside the train station. A few friends rented an apartment last minute in the Dam so we were going to go there and have some drinks, but we got lost. 'Lost' hahah. Anyways, we ended up walking through the Red Light District. Upon entering the first street, I was propositioned by possibly a pimp. Then came the 'Live Porn Shows', wow, I so did not know they were 'live porn' shows. Damn. I am sorry, porn is one thing but watching it live... ewww. We kept walking, and loads of sex shops and neon lights were blinking and promoting EVERYTHING you could thinkg of. We eventually, neared the windows of women. They were ok, I mean they looked like prostitutes. FYI: 50 euro for 20 min. My reaction was : digusted, I suppose this kind of thing just seems tainted... paying for sex, and selling your body. But, there is no need to get into a moral debate, I am just saying that the Red Light District was not a district I would like to 'hang' out in, or find attractive.
We eventually had to go back to the train station to meet up with the people who had tickets for the party, and try and get some for ourselves. This was the start of an adventure. Everyone was high or drunk or both. We had to take a ferry across to the place where the boat was docked. We arrive on the 'other' side of Amsterdam, apparently it is not good enough to be considered part of Amsterdam. We had to hang out for a bit, and then eventually we walked through this industerial park, or graveyard depending on how you look at it. Graveyard in the sense that everything was rusted and decrepit. Then it appeared... the 'ex-Soviet whaling ship'. (Well, at least that's what I thought, it could have been a militray ship from the Cold War). It was called Stubnitz and the party was Switch. A techno party, that may have been promoted as more techno friendlier then it would eventual be.
The party was 19 euro, holy crap we are off to a good start. The tickets were sold in a small twinky looking trailer where the women scanned your money to make sure you weren't scamming them. If you were cold, there was a ghetto fire in an old oil drum, and then the ship. We all boarded, thankfully it didn't move, I would have been afraid it would have sunk. We were early. Apparently 1130 is early, however, we were in for the long haul. We had to stay until 5am, because the ferries stopped running and we had no hostel. Essentially, it was fun for like 2 hours, and then the music was too repepitive, we had our photo ops and we were ready to leave, except we couldn't. You needed to be high on something to keep up with this crap, oh and you needed ear plugs. My ears still hurt. My mistake... vodka/red bull I ended up getting sick, and turned into a party pooper around 2am. We finally made it off the boat warmed our frozen asses and had to walk to the 'other ferries'.... we ended up taking a cab back to the central station and loitering there for 45 minutes to get our bags from the lockers. Blocking the stairs catching some zzz's we killed 45 mintues and then got our stuff, and then made the executive decision to go back home. 730 am = back on the train to Utrecht. Oh, I forgot to mention on the way to Amsterdam, we got on an international train to Frankfurt, it was stopping in Amsterdam, but for like 10 minutes we thought we were throughly screwed. Or, were we? We will never know.
So, the party sucked, but we made the best of it, the most we could. We had a better time on Sunday. We went back to Amsterdam, this time 3 of us. We went to the ZOOOOOO. OMG it was so much fun, well at least for me. They had so mnay animals I was freaking out. Now, there comes a moral issue, being an animal activist, I am against holding animals against their will especially in unnnatural habitats. However, it did make me want to save all the animals in the wild from extinction because of various human activities, so in a sense seeing these animals makes you consider what it would be like to see them in their natural habitat, or at least have a deeper appriciation for them. Thus stimulating a several things (and as I beging to write this, several arguments have surfaced, mainly things my uncle would say in rebuttal - being a lawyer they tend to do that- so I am just going to stop). Depsite, my reservations, I think zoos can have positive effects if done properly, and this zoo was done to an extent, there were definitely things I would change.
Then we walked around the city, what a beautiful city, the houses and the canals. Every corner is teeming with history. We went to this photography museum- FOAM and checked out the exhibition, and walked around some more. Did some shopping, and enjoyed the city. There are a lot of things to do in Amsterdam that is why we have to go back. Next time we will bring our bikes. I could see myself making it a weekend occurance, just spending the day there. There are also musuem cards that are 22.50 and they give you free access to all the musuems in Holland. I'll be getting that. We ended the evening with a canal cruise and then headed home. It was a splendid day. Now, I am catching up on all the readings I missed (so worth it), nursing a potential cold, that I seemed to have nipped with this Emergency C my aunt gave me.
In 2 weeks I go to Paris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So excited. And, this week there is a film festival so I will check that out.
Hope everyone is well.
xxx
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