Study Trip to Amsterdam

Our intensive 2 week Dutch Culture and Language(DCL) orientation program included a 3 day study trip to Amsterdam! We left suuuuuuper early wednesday morning. The trip started as a struggle for Allison and me. We slept through our 3 alarms and almost missed our group taxi to the train station. We were really smart and didn't pack the night before, so we got dressed and packed in about 5 minutes. Struggles. By some stroke of luck we made it on time and got on the train. Everyone napped all the way there. Our group leader, Medi, told me later that she started to dread the trip at that moment because she thought to herself, oh man, these guys are going to be no fun. Good thing we proved her otherwise!

First stop was our hotel to put away our stuff. They had the two cutest puppies EVER. Definitely got my animal fix. They didn't photograph well, but still adorable.

Just look at those eyes! awww

Then we went to our first Amsterdam Lecture: Dutch Art of the Golden Age. We walked there and saw lots of cool things along the way like...

houses that like to lean

and the Rijksmuseum

Looks cold doesn't it? At the time I thought it was very cold, but in retrospect it was warm! I wish it could be that temperature again. Oh winter...

The Lecture was pretty interesting. I learned a lot about Rembrandt and art from the Netherlands during their Golden Age, the 17th century. However, the lecturer talked painfully slow. He wasn't very good at english, but sitting there, all I wanted him to do was get his idea across and move on. It didn't help that I had 3 cups of coffee and was super jittery either. 

Well, he gave us an assignment. Find a picture in the Rijksmuseum that should have been included in his lecture and write an essay about why and how it is still relevant to the dutch today. First we stopped for some lunch, where I had amazing tomato soup with pesto in it. YUM. Then we started out hunt. It was fun walking around the museum and looking at all the different paintings with more of a purpose. I wish we had more time there.

Andy Warhol of Queen Beatrice

Rembrandt self portrait. This man was so talented.

Super famous Rembrandt painting, the night watch. Its huge! The guys are bigger than life size. Impressed.

Afterwards we walked in the cold misty rain to the Anne Frank House. Interesting and very informative, but very sad. Teared up a few times. Her story is more impressionable when hearing it from people that knew and helped her.

The house where Anne Frank stayed in hiding before being moved to Aushcwitz has been turned into a museum. Each room has a new purpose of explaining how the Frank family lived in hiding and what happened afterwards. There are a lot of tv's set up with interviews of people that helped the family out. Lots of new perspectives. I enjoyed it.

Afterwards we were free to do whatever. Everyone napped, I showered and journaled. Then we got some dinner and made plans for the rest of the night. I had a truly Amsterdam-ian night. We walked through the Red Light District. I hated it. It was so depressing, I have no need or desire to ever return to that district. The rest of Amsterdam is great though.

Day 2!

We were supposed to start our day off with a canal cruise, but we just missed the first boat, so instead we started by taking lots of pictures with the I amsterdam sign. Yay tourism!

Huddling together in the rain

The canal tour was cool. Great way to see Amsterdam. I love all the canals going through the city. It makes every turn gorgeous.

Love the house style too!

We stopped by this souvenir shop where they had a model of how cheese is made, and since I'm an expert I was able to explain to everyone how it really works. Thanks Stacy!

This is me trying to explain Cheese making, you can see their enthusiasm, haha :]

After, we went to our second lecture: The Dutch and World War II. The lecturer was more interesting, but he didn't tell us anything we hadn't heard before so it was kind of difficult to stay focused through the entire thing.

Then we went to the Jewish history museum. We didn't have enough time there, but it had a lot of really interesting sections. I really liked this one part where they had all these videos of Jewish people talking about specific traditions. I liked learning about the ones I wasn't very familiar with like Roshashana. 

This was my favorite display though. Allison and I are obsessed with this store. It's basically the Dutch version of Target. We even have a song we sing every time we go, or pass by, or talk about it.

Love the Hema!

For dinner we went to Walk to Wok. So good. You got to choose your noodle combination. Like what toppings, what noodles, what sauce, and then they whipped up the stir fry real fast. I wish we had one in Maastricht, but then again, thats all I would eat, so maybe its good they dont. Afterwards, Allison and I did a little shopping, I was in desperate need of a belt and she only packed one shirt. Good thing we were both successful in finding what we needed.

This is where we stayed, Rembrandtplein. Which means Rembrandt square, so it makes sense that there is a giant statue of Rembrant in the square.

We weren't going to go out this night cause everyone was so tired and we had to be up early to go to Delft the next day, but we decided this was the last time we would ever all be in Amsterdam together so we bucked up and went clubbin. First we went to a salsa club, it was fun for a minute, then we noticed all the old creepers, so we left and went next door where the real fun started. We danced for hours. It was great. Only thing I hate about clubs here is that you are allowed to smoke indoors. BLECK. I always come home smelling like an ash tray. Have to do laundry and shower so much more often because of that. But what can you do? 

Amsterdam was fun. I love our group of people. It was super rushed and packed, but it was a good way t get introduced to the capital of my new home.

Next: Deflt!