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.

"Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark"

Life’s tough—I’ll say. I’m so tired! “Why is that, Paloma? Have you been spending too much time in coffee shops?” No, no, I’m tired because I just spent four days in Denmark, with a brief stint in Sweden (besides, you cannot spend “too much time” in coffee shops!...kidding mamma ☺). Anyway, back to this business about my weekend…so Sharon, Katie (“the australian”) and I ventured north this weekend to see all Scandinavia had to offer, well at least Copenhagen anyway. The title of my post is actually very misleading because KÖBENHAVEN was a really beautiful city, although a lot more cosmopolitan than I expected. After dropping off our stuff at our hostel, we made our way to this church that has a very high spire you can hike up for the most amazing view of the city and the harbour. I have to say I really love the idea of these wind turbines in the middle of the water…functional without being a scar on the landscape. We pretty well spent the rest of first day just wandering through the streets, taking in the view, you know the usual the old and new architecture and the people, or more specifically the men. They were very attractive, nay, GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, BREATHTAKING. I have never seen so many beautiful specimens—they were everywhere, I think I may strained my neck trying to take them in all at once, it was almost ridiculous how attractive everyone was. But, who am I to complain?

The next day we visited “Christiana” a hippy commune literally in the middle of the city. Apparently a group of our peace lovin’-pot smoking-long haired-stickin’ it to the man-friends started squatting on this piece of land about 35 years ago and the government decided to let them stay as a “social experiment.” Initially, the police weren’t allowed into the area and it was all “free love man” but eventually that stopped and according to the habitants have been a thorn in their side ever since. They even have a billboard with a running tally of the police visits for that day and the cumulative total since 2003 when they started counting. It was a really strange and wonderful place to visit, although I wasn’t allowed to really take pictures of the main area, affectionately called “Pusher Street.”
It’s a self-contained unit, you don’t even feel like you’re in a city, you enter and there are shanty houses everywhere, people partying, smoking, drinking, random animals running around. Then you stroll around a bit and come to these huge river and its so gorgeous…reminded me a bit of Thunder Bay actually. One of the locals we spoke to said that “the right wing government” was trying to shut them down even though they pay taxes now…taxes equivalent to 200 Euros for each inhabitant of the area per year. I’d say that’s a pretty good deal for prime real estate in one of the most expensive cities in the world, but hey man, leave the hippies alone! Besides, this “social experiment” is quite a cultural anomaly in the west and maybe we can learn something about community values from our long-haired friends…did I just write that?!...living in liberal Amsterdam must be getting to me…

Anyway, that night, we met up with David, a friend of Katie’s who lives nearby and we went out for dinner and to a café/club…cool music, chill atmosphere. The next day we set off for Sweden, I mean we were half an hour away, why not? We spent the day visiting Lund, a cute university town, and Malmo, albeit most of the time there was spent on the beach just snoozing.
You can see Copenhagen in the distance in this photo. We also searched everywhere for meatballs and came to the realization that this is an IKEA myth…we endured more than one strange look from locals when we asked where you can get “meatballs” so we finally gave up. Our last day we headed to Elsinore to visit the setting of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (ironically we did catch a glimpse of the famous brooder roaming the fields near the castle). Here are the secret passage ways under the castle.



So I have to say, despite being so pleased with the opportunities I have to travel over here, I love coming home to Amsterdam. I’m also a little weary of leaving the city every weekend, there is so much to see and do here, I’m worried that if I spend too much time abroad I won’t really appreciate what it is to “live” in this city. We are staying in Amsterdam this weekend and next weekend we’ll head to Texel Island, north of Holland for a few days. Other than that, things are good. I can’t believe I’ll be home in less than three months…Hope everyone is doing well. Keep the emails coming, I really love hearing from everyone.

Officially a Member of the Quarter Century Club

In case you didn't believe my previous post...note the stiletto. This is my bike "White Lightning."


First things first, I wanted to send out a big THANK YOU for all my birthday greetings, whether via phone, text message, email or regular mail. I can't tell you how nice it is to have received all of your messages when I'm so far from home, so thank you very much- very much appreciated. Secondly, I have to also say thanks to everyone in Amsterdam who made my 25th so special-I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate.

We started out an indian restaurant in an area known as "De Pijp." Then I was whisked away to a surprise location....although, in this photo I look a bit like a prisoner at Guantanamo, I was very pleased to discover that I was escorted to a canal where we were all going to have our own private boat tour. Thanks especially to Sharon and Dunny for organizing this--it was amazing! Amsterdam at night is beautiful.

A night out in A'dam: Heels on Wheels

So a few of us went out last night for my upcoming birthday (thanks for a great night Paola, Emma, Hannah, Crystal, Dunny and for ALMOST showing up Frank, Andrew and Jordan!). In any event, a night out in Amsterdam is a slightly different experience. So Paola (my roomate) and I headed out at about 10:30. Normally, I would jump on a subway, car or cab--not in Amsterdam, here you get on your bike. That's right, Paloma and Paola in 3 inch stilletos jumped on their bikes and headed to other side of the city to meet up at Frank's place. So we're biking along, trying to see signs through poorly lit streets, not entirely sure where the hell we're going and all of a sudden I hear a terrible crash. Thinking the stillettos had taking vengeance on my roomate, I turned around to see a fountain of beer showering Paola. Well I may be exagerating slightly, but her feet got wet because the bag of beer we were bringing to Frank's got caught in her spokes. One bottle shattered and another one was still spraying beer because it was stuck in her wheel. A bit of a dilemma...before she managed to unwedge the bottle, we had to endure many a dirty look for the shattered glass on the path from the dutch cyclists riding by. We finally arrived at Frank's before deciding to once again jump on our cycles, this time all 9 of us, to venture once again to the other side of the city to go to the club. Half way there, we're stopped by the police who inform us that this is a pedestrian area only. WHAT? I thought bikes ruled the streets here! At this point, half of us split up and each went in different directions before finally meeting up at the club, minus Frank, Andrew and Jordan who "mysteriously" disappeared...possibly into a coffeeshop along the way. So the remaining went to a club called Sugar Factory and danced for the next few hours before (that's right) jumping back on our bikes to go home. Funnily, we were talking about how convenient it is to not have to find your way home, via cab or otherwise, at the end of the night and about how necessary a bike is in Amsterdam when upon arrival home, my other roomate Elisa, informed us that her bike had been stolen from outside our door. Terrible! Bike thefts are very frequent here, junkies steal them and sell them for 10-15 euros. I hope no one steals my bike "white lightning" --I can't afford to buy another one (unless of course I decide to buy one off a junkie...). Anyway, I had a great time last night and look forward to my next excursion.

A few more pics from Belgium

Royal Palace-Brussels, Belgium
Palais de Justice, European Court of Justice-Brussels, Belgium
Street in the Sablon Neighbourhood-Brussels, Belgium
Canal-Bruge, Belgium
Palais de Justice-Antwerp, Belgium

And so it begins....

I've decided to heed my brother's advice (for once) and avoid mass emails. In lieu, a blog, filled with whatever verbal diarrhea I decide to post and you decide to read at your leisure. Truthfully, I will attempt to document my travels or experiences here in the dam---but you all know how good I am at sharing feelings, so don't expect too much. I welcome comments or emails.

With that said, its already been two weeks, so I have a bit of catching up to do.

So initial impressions: I arrived on the morning of August 29th, 2006 to rainy weather and overcast skies. I expected this much, so I was only slightly bothered when this pleasant weather continued for the next ten days. Thankfully, the charm of this city is not dependent on the weather. In fact, it's a bit like visiting London, something about the grey days adds character to the buildings. I don't think much could detract from the quaint houses that line the canals here-it really is charming. The Dutch have been so far among the nicest, most down-to-earth people I have met; always willing to go out of their way to help you out or explain something to you, like for example, what meat I was buying in the supermarket today (let's just say it wasn't beef as I had presumed).

The first few weeks were busy getting settled in and participating in the International Student Network orientation activities. I'm living with Sharon (my schoolmate from home) and two other international students. Elisa, hails from Berlin and speaks better English than I do, and Paola is an attorney from London, who (I think) may share my sarcastic sense of humour (love those brits!). We all get on really well and I'm sure that will be helpful in the months to come, should homesickness develop (unlikely but possible). Oh and we get BBC1, so I have officially starting watching Eastenders again. Woo Hoo!

Classes have begun, although technically I'm not registered in any because somehow the administration at the universiteit van Amsterdam faculty of law managed to forget or something.... Seriously, here's the culture shock: the school's adminstration staff office hours are 4 per week-- Tuesday and Thursday 10-12. If you have class during that time-tough luck. Nobody likes to respond to emails either, so it should prove interesting. When I realized that I wasn't registered in any of the classes I was supposed to be registered in, I approached the international student co-ordinator. This woman is a character and she's exactly the way I pictured her. She's probably in her mid-40s but looks like she's smoked the last 35 of her years on this earth, kind of dishevelled blond hair and smeared lipstick. She wears some funky glasses but is still the most frazzled person you've ever seen. Apparently, I wasn't the only one thrilled with her organizational skills but she reassured everyone in the same way, whatever the problem- "don't worry, it will all work out." Let's hope that is the case.

So, leaving school aside, Sharon and I went on our first weekend trip to Belgium last weekend. We hastily organized our travels to Brussels, Bruge and Antwerp when classes were suddenly cancelled on Thursday and we realized we had a four day weekend. Belgium was beautiful. Brussels was a gorgeous city and we managed to finally find "Mannequin Pis" by the end of our day in the city. Its the most disgracefully amusing statue I've ever seen. We also had the a really nice meal with Jean-Pierre, a director of documentaries from France, and Nick, the token Australian backpacker from our hostel. (Incidentally James, I swear this french guy could have been your brother...or well mine too I guess.) I also, proudly, enjoyed my first Belgian been and I say enjoyed because I have yet to do that in any other country. Next we headed to Bruge, a beautiful little town but FAR too touristy and expensive. Apparently, there was some military parade and Prince Philip was there, although we didn't see him (too busy getting ripped off). For all its charm, we were anxious to head to our next destination-Antwerp. Unfortunately when we arrived, we realized my hostel-booking skills were not so stellar and I landed us right in a ghetto. But, as I say, you don't come to Europe to sit in a hotel room, so off we went to explore the city. The funny thing is that neither Sharon, nor I had really done very much research on our impromptu destinations, so we didn't really know what there was to do anywhere. Once in the downtown, I realized that our hostel location was not representative of this city's atmosphere. I ended up really liking Antwerp, it was a hip city but still with the old buildings and beautiful squares. We wandered around the city, saw a few interesting museums and took in the sites before returning back to Amsterdam.

Coming back to Amsterdam on the train really felt like coming home, despite the fact that we've only been here two weeks. The city has a certain comfort to it and its easy to get used to, even though I am (still) constantly losing myself in its winding streets or "straats" (hey, I'm picking up some Dutch!). Anyway, we've decided to stay here this weekend and enjoy the nightlife A'dam has to offer. We've booked our tickets to Copenhagen for next weekend. Should be good. I promise not to make my next post, so bloody long. I'm boring myself. I hope everyone is well.