UUUGHHHGHHH

Frowny face.

Let's not lie. I would be hard pressed to find a MAIPR who isn't fed up and close to punching someone in the face. Things have been pretty darn rough lately. I don't want to go into specifics, but suffice it to say I am counting down the days until I get out. Between classes, my internship, and Amsterdam in general I've been getting the impression that I'm/we're not really looked after or regarded very highly, and I'm just getting tired. But in less than one month I'll be back in the UK, done with classes for maybe forever, and working on my paper.

Rather than have this be a laundry like of things that have been making me a sad panda, I'll go into some random facts, observations, and stories about Holland life.

Some of the architecture here is really beautiful. The tops of all the buildings are in cool weird shapes, and lots of them have little shields or crests painted on them in pretty colors. Its easy to get distracted looking at all the lights and people at street level, but looking up is really lovely. And lots of buildings are so gorgeous, like the Central Station, but its hidden by tram lines and construction, or the Palace, which is covered in scaffolding...

The sun doesn't set here until about 9:30pm, it doesn't get really dark until 10pm. That's weird.

They love construction. Everything is under construction. Worse than the UMD campus. I saw a little crane thing with the company name "Instant Holland" the other day. Ironically appropriate.

A contradiction: Everyone is beautiful here. All the people are statuesque, generally really fit, dressed well in nice clothing and shoes, perfect makeup. I don't care if its raining and they are on their bikes or what, the people here always look ready for a photo shoot. BUT. The parameters for acceptable hair in Europe are so much wider than in the US. Here hair is like the forgotten stepchild of the morning routine. People can go out with messy ponytails, unblowdried, grown out roots, frizzy, greasy, messy, anything! And its ok! And intentional! Interesting...

There are some pigeons who live just outside my window. They are damn loud.

A reflection on personal space bubbles: America is a hugging culture. We are comfortable with physical affection. Families hug, friends walk holding hands and kiss hello and goodbye (Amsterdam fun fact-- traditional greeting is 3 cheek kisses given on alternating sides of the face. Perhaps for the 3 X's on the Amsterdam flag??) BUT we also have personal space bubbles. We don't like the person behind us in line to stand right up on us and touch us. We don't like to be tapped or brushed on public transportation. We really don't like it! A lot of the rest of the world seems to go the opposite way. No hug hello, the goodbye cheek kiss will be given with the bodies pulled as far away as possible like you were the uncool kid they were forced to dance with at the middle school drop in, but you better believe they'll stand pressed up right to your back waiting to get to the vending machine.

I don't think there is skim milk here anywhere.

I am on a quest to count how many gas stations I see in this city. I'm up to two.

The interwebs knows I am in Holland, and opens everything in Dutch. No matter what I try, they want my gmail and google searches and EVERYTHING I access to be Dutch. Make it stop.

This is not as big a party city as one might think. Sure, you can drink while walking down the street. Sure, you can smoke pot and carry mushrooms around with you, and you can purchase the services of a Red Light girl. But don't expect to go out after 11pm. Or on a weekend. Or even do any kind of shopping after 6pm. Seriously. Not this city. Restaurants will be closed at like 10:30. If you order a pint of beer you will get a look like you grew a second head, and that head was an alcoholic. If you order a beer you will get a little baby cup that has 2 fingers of foam on top. I know there are some somewhere, but I've rarely if ever seen an actual club. And Queen's Day, the giantest street party of the year, ended at 10pm. So think about this when planning your next bachelor party or crazy weekend get away. You can find every kind of sex toy imaginable while smoking pot with your new prostitute girlfriend... you just have to do it at 4pm on a Tuesday.

I found my mother's doppelganger! She is Chinese and living in Holland and runs the Chinese take-away restaurant that is right by my container. Mom, I wish you were coming to visit me here, because it is freaky how much you two look alike. When Ian comes back to visit I will make sure we perform a sneaky adventure to get a picture of her. For a minute I thought my mother had sent her clone to spy on me and make sure I'm behaving. Ok, for more than a minute. Ok, I still kinda think it.

Speaking of Mama, tomorrow is Mother's Day in Holland and the US, the UK's was back in March. And I won't get to be home. I keep missing all the good stuff. Kinda getting homesick over here.

Shout out to my Mama!!