Happy Halloween

Hope you are all enjoying halloween, not too many ghosts or goblins roaming these streets.

In any case, today my roomate Paola and I decided we would stop living illegally in A'dam and go and register our residency with immigration services. Granted, this seems a little pointless considering that I have already managed to spend half my time here with no problems, but I will be venturing to Morocco in two weeks, I didn't want to have any trouble coming back. So on the map, it seemed like the office was a good ways away, but we were up for a bit of a exercise and so decided against taking the tram there, despite our roomates' suggestions. This was not a good idea. Our "jaunt", lasted approximately one and half hours-against the wind, on highway roads, in the rain, in the sun, through construction sites. It was a wee bit difficult and reminescent of another bike ride from hell minus the sheep. Nevertheless we arrived and were pleased to find that there wasn't very much of a wait. When the government employee finally met with us, he informed us that we each had different procedures, given that I'll only be 3 months and Paola will be here til the end of the year. He tells me that he's imput me into the computer and that before I leave the country, "I MUST go to city hall to "de-register" myself-this is very important." "Oh, why, what happens if I don't?" I ask with concern. "Well, we just eventually take you out of the computer." Oh, so you mean that if I don't 4 hours out of my day to go to city hall and deregister, you'll do it anyway? Right-I'm all over that then. Seemed a little too easy for me. For Paola on the other hand this was not the case, although I really question the necessity of any of this paperwork as it appears there are no consequences for not doing it, Paola is informed she must make an appointment with another government office, in addition to registering. "right, is that in this building?" she asks. "Oh no!" (chuckle chuckle) "that's not even in the city-you have to take a train to get there." "Brilliant" she says and I laugh because this is one more example of how ridiculously bureaucratic this country is and unnecessarily so. It completely fits with my friend Becca's observation about the Dutch. She pointed out to me that while it appears on the surface that the Dutch are very liberal and laidback, given their lax drug and prostitution policies for example, it is not the case. They are regulators--every thing in this country is regulated to the -nth degree and there are millions of procedures for every facet of societal life, none of which are particularly co-ordinated towards efficiency and ease as they are in North America. This over-regulation slightly skews my perception of the Dutch as laid back and easy going liberals.

Anyway, last Friday we spent the day walking through an area of Amsterdam called the Jordaan. It is the cutest area, with tons of little cafes and neat little shops built along the canal. It really makes you wonder why anyone would come to this city for its Red Light District and Dam Square. I've begun to realize that I enjoy less and less even the idea of a "touristy" place. The thought of someone coming to Amsterdam and associating it with the grimy, dirty, people-infested streets of the red light district instead of this: is beyond me. Later that night we tried an indian restaurant, which was weak to say the least. For all its ups, the restaurants haven't been one of the memorable things about this city. With the exception of FEBO. What is FEBO you ask? Well, I'll tell-it's vending machine food but not just any vending machine-FRESH vending food. I know its so hard for me to actually fathom getting a sandwhich from a machine that does't taste like cardboard but the Dutch have mastered it. They serve all these different things, like croquettes, which are amazing and dangerous. Saturday, I spent the day biking around and running errands, got lost, but in a good way...fun to find a new neighbourhood. Saturday night, the resident assistant gave the nod for a "red light district" themed party for the houses, which seemed like a well chosen theme given that our window frames are painted bright red. Thankfully, while the decorations tried their best to be authentic, the party goers did not take the theme too far. Sunday, spent the day biking around and well, enjoyed a Sunday, nice to live a life of normalcy on occassion....not for long though, Morocco is in two weeks, followed by London, Paris and Krakow. Hope everyone is doing well. xxP

FINISHED!

I finished my exams yesterday and so this weekend can only involve fun and exclusively fun (wait, those are both the same things, aren't they?). Anyway, point is I slept in today and I'm heading out for a little exploration of the city's known and lesser known parts. I'll post some pics later. Hope you're all doing well.
xx

Texel Island and Library Basements

Well shock of all shocks, horrors of all horrors, I've actually been studying the last week or so...it's rather miserable frankly. The reality that I'm here to study has caught up to me rather quickly and I have found my new favourite study spot in the basement of the law building. I also have a new appreciation for the Canadian legal system and its comparatively simple procedure. The EU legal system is insane-seriously, it's as though a bunch of people sat around a boardroom one day and thought-what's the most ridiculous, non-sensical way of implementing some random, not to mention useless EC provision --(fill in blank)---let's do that and call it direct effect! Ugh..Enough about that.



Anyway, since I last checked in, I have also ventured to the northern island of Texel. It was nice to see the Dutch countryside AND I even got to play with some baby goats!!! The other highlight was the 3 hour bikeride through the island, which has since been engrained in my memory as the "ride of death" (evidenced by the photo on left of people literally collapsing when it was over). It was basically like biking across the prairies which, granted on a calm day would be quite pleasant, unfortunatley, on this particular day, the wind was blowing-HARD. It was as though six people were hanging on to your back tire while you tried to cycle. It was painful--but I'm sure I can attribute some random life lesson/cliche to that endeavor so not all is lost.
In between secluding myself for study marathons and frolicking with small furry beasts, I have been enjoying the city. I went to a club on Saturday night called PANAMA and saw my new favourte dj, FEDDE LE GRAND. Although he didn't come on until late, he was amazing! My feet still hurt from dancing and luckily he is a resident in Amsterdam, so I'm sure I will have another chance to see him before I have to return home.
I missed Canadian thanksgiving, so I hope you all had a nice turkey day. I lack an oven or I would have organized my own feast to share with the neighbours. Instead I had salad with chickpeas. Anyway, exams are over on the 26th, so I'm sure I'll return with more regular and entertaining posts then (I know, what could possibly be more entertaining than baby goats?)

An Amsterdammin' Good Weekend

I am very very excited...Sharon and I have officially booked a 10 day trip to Morocco!!! We'll be leaving for North Africa on November 14th and we'll land in Marrakesh. We have no idea what we are going to do there but I'll be picking up a Lonely Planet tomorrow to solve that problem. I'm sure it will be fan-fricken-tastic though...speaking of which, so was my weekend. I stayed in Amsterdam and had a few really great nights. On Thursday night, Sharon, Paola and I went out to find a dancefloor, luckily in this city, that's not too difficult. We started off at this really cool lounge kind of bar, where the dj was spinning some really good house. Unfortunately there was no dance floor so we decided to check out the club next door, Escape. While (bregudgingly) waiting in line, we looked around and noticed that everyone looked about 17 years old. We knew it was student night, we just didn't expect that to include pre-school. In any event, we old-timers decided to venture to a venue that was more age appropriate. We ended up at Rain. The club was gorgeous, very modern with an asian kind of decor, very zen. There were orchids all over the place, which I love. Anyway, the dj booth consisted of these kind of lit pods right on the dance floor. The music was amazing, the dj was spinning good housebeats and he was accompanied by this saxophone player who was randomly interjecting a very jazzy rhythm. The club closed at 2 though, so we didn't have that much of a chance to dance, so we made up for it on Saturday night. We decided to return to Escape, given that it was not a "student" night and it was a good decision-there is really good music everywhere in this city, I can't get over it!

Anyway, our apartment has been packed this weekend, Paola's mother is visiting from England, Elisa's best friend from Berlin is here until Tuesday and Sharon's friend, Zaki, whom she met while traveling in Thailand last year, was also here for two days. Its hard to remember to study amid all this craziness of planning trips and living in Amsterdam...

A few people complained that they cannot comment on my blog without signing up for an account. I think I've resolved this by allowing anonymous comments, so comment away--I know some of you must be very anxious to scold me for my debaucherous lifestyle as of late and now you can.