Day 9: Lecture & Cruise

 

bike parking by the train station! (There are 900,000 bikes in Amsterdam)

I have not blogged the last couple of days mostly because I have been a bit sick with some sort of stomach virus and the internet in our building no longer wants to provide its services.  After a pretty brutal night sleep, I rolled out of bed, force fed myself some yogurt (yogurt here is so bitter...so I got activia strawberry haha) and biked with Tracy to the college.  From there we had a three hour lecture, that went by surprisingly fast, on a "brief" history of Dutch Art.  Then we all went to the cafeteria for lunch...the cafeteria is amazing.  I have found that any juice you buy here is extremely delicious.  At home, cafeterias always have minute made, but here the juice is fresh squeezed and you can tell.  At the local grocery chain, Albert Hein, I bought a big bottle (glass bottle-most things come in glass, peanut butter even...) of apple-pear-rarberry juice that was molto delizioso! So anyways, I clearly had juice at lunch and a nom nom BLT.  Then we went to the Art History library--total let-down.  Super lame library that apparently is about to be shut down and turned into high priced real estate come summer's end.

A movie theater-cineplex-interactive type place...clearly a bit unsure

Erin & me with our prestigious vouchers

But the good part of today was that it was sunny and warm! On the first day of the trip we were each given a voucher for a free canal cruise, so with the sunny weather some of us decided to take advantage and go cruising.  It was fun going through the canals and learning fun tidbits about the city.  I especially liked seeing all the locals out in their own boats floating around eating cheese and crackers and having a bottle of wine...the european lifestyle.  Since the voucher was a gift, we could only go on the designated boat line, Holland Cruises, but if I was paying for it myself I would have chosen an open air boat as apposed to the plastic case we were housed in.  I know they have the

italian sticker-la dolce lingua

plastic for all the rainy days, but on a day like today it would have been nice to be in the fresh air--plus it would have been easier to take pictures of the sites.  While on the boat, I spotted a cool looking restaurant tucked close to a bridge, but with lots of outdoor seating.  So when we were on our bike ride home we decided to stop in for some dinner.  The place was really cool--clearly a locals spot since I think we were the only foreigners there.  There was a band and lots of people hanging out and mingling.  After ordering our food we kind of realized it was more of drinking place.  This was because the food literally took an hour or more to come out.  But it was good, just maybe not worth the wait. I would however return for some cocktails with friends.  Seemed like a great place to meet locals and just have a nice time on a warm night.  When I was in the bathroom I saw a sticker for people wanting an italian language buddy so maybe I will email them tomorrow and see what that's all about.

My friend Angie & me on the boat..she's sarcastic..it's great

the restaurant we ended up going to

From left: Jennifer, Erin & Allison

My food, Im so touristy, but I wanted to show evidence of a decent meal in the Netherlands!

 My mood has definitely lightened although of course I still miss my family, friends, boyfriend, and ice (no ice ever) but I think this trip is definitely getting better as I become more acquainted with the city.  Just hoping I get some solid "Z"s tonight.