The Smell of Canals and Heineken

Yet again, I have failed to stay up to date on my blog posts, what a shocker. There's much that has happened since my lost post and I'm trying to decide what to write about first. Let's see, there's the trip to Amsterdam or Zurich or Spring Break or the other 4 weeks I've missed. Wow, that's a lot. You'd think chronological order would make the most sense. Yeah sure, let's do that. Although, I'm probably missing a lot of the details from my trips since it was weeks ago. 

So Amsterdam, I went there with Elaine, Reagan, Shawn, Rahil, and Gunnar. The first thing I think of from this trip is this zipline we found in a park near the city center. It seems now that everywhere we go we find some type of playground. We decided to take turns going down it with Gunnar's GoPro. It was hilarious. Especially when Elaine would go and get to the end of the line and she'd be going so fast that the line would jerk her back and her arms and legs would flail everywhere, it was great.  

Oh, another thing about this trip. It was the first, and only time so far, that we've had any difficulty. We got to the hostel and the guy at the desk(I'm not sure what his title was, so I'll just call him that) was saying that we hadn't paid yet, which we thought we already did. It was all charged to Shawn's card. The guy behind the desk said that we couldn't check in till we paid there. It was frustrating. So, we decided to go get some food at a nearby place and come back when Shawn could get ahold of his parents so he could confirm that the card was charged. 

We came back and it all worked out, but the atmosphere was a little tense. So, we go up to our room and we all agree that the shower is pretty sketch because there is nothing blocking the water from getting all over the bathroom. Most of us decided we wouldn't shower while there. Don't worry, we didn't reek of BO or anything, we were only there for 1 or 2 nights. 

Let's see, other things we did. We took a tour at the Heinekine(sp), since Amsterdam was where it was invented. Gunnar, Reagan and I went to the Van Gogh Museum and I was able to see my favorite painting, which was pretty stinkin' exciting! We weren't allowed to take pictures, unfortunately, so I wasn't able to capture this momentous moment with a picture of me cheesin' next to it. By the way, the painting is called 'Almond Blossoms.'

From there I went to church at one of my sister churches. I managed to navigate public transportation and get to the right stop to meet my friend. The intercom on the tram was in Dutch, which was really the first time I heard it spoken since in Amsterdam. The city is very internationalized, so English was what I heard most often.  While at church I met a fellow Aggie, which was very exciting! We're everywhere!