The fog is thicker than pea soup here in cold little Amsterdam—but I really couldn’t be bothered about it. I’ve been trying to make the most of what little time is left in the semester, and I’ve loved so many things about the past week or so.  

Last weekend my friend Valerie and I took a train to Germany for a few marvelous days. We started off in Stuttgart, bopping around in the cold afternoon for a few hours and doing some exploring.  the city itself suffered some major  damage in the second world war, and as a result almost every part of the city is super modern looking. Even the big church we stumbled across was unexpectedly filled with abstract stained glass and a distinct lack of typical european ornateness. But our thirst for some traditional German atmosphere was quenched as soon as we came upon the town square; a cluster of wooden booths were huddled together, selling every warm goodie from pretzels to bratwurst to hot chocolate. Christmas lights and decorations were strung everywhere, and there was even a little iceskating rink! We got some mugs of gluhwein (a spiced wine served hot that warms you all the way to your toes) and talked with some Germans at the bench next to us as we regained feeling in our extremities. I could have stayed forever—but around 5 o-clock Heike came to pick us up and we drove back to her house on the hillside a little outside the city. It was so so great seeing her for the first time since I was…4? 5? Her and her husband Uli and little boys Benedict (3) and Maximilian (6) showed us their beautiful old home, and after dinner together Val and I played with the boys and looked at family and wedding photos with Heike and Uli. The next morning we all went on a walk around the neighborhood for some really pretty views of the city, and Uli showed us where our train through the Black Forest would be going. They were such gracious hosts, and I felt very blessed that we were able to stay with them and catch up.  

On our train to our next stop, Freiburg, Val and I accidentally got off one stop too early—in the middle-of-nowhere Offenburg. But it was only an hour until the next train came and the weather was gorgeous, so we had a little picnic and took some pictures of the mustard field while we waited. Eventually we made it to the Freiburg station where my friends Sean and Chrisi, who are studying there for the semester, met us.  After a quick tour of the main part of the city, we dropped our bags, ran to the grocery store (easily ten times bigger than the average one here), and went to their friends’ apartment for an experimental grilled cheese dinner. We went to a few bars after that, but it was wicked cold and we didn’t stay out too late. The next day we explored the city, including the munster (cathedral) and some pretty delicous bitterschokolade ice cream, and ended with dinner at their favorite Irish pub for Sean’s Bears game. I even got to use Sean’s oven in his building (!!!) to bake a pazookie for us when we watched Lion King that night. My favorite part of Freiburg may have been the bachle; they’re little irrigation streams that run through the city, trickling prettily, and if you fall in one you’ll supposedly fall in love with someone from Freiburg. 

I was sad to leave, but the train ride on the way home was nothing short of spectacular. The tracks went along the Rhine for a good hour and a half, and the setting sun hit the endless rows of vineyards perfectly—and there must have been a dozen amazing castles lining the opposite hillside. I’ll never forget that scenery.  

By the time the train pulled in to Centraal Station I was so happy to see my canals and bikes and Albert Heijn’s I couldn’t stop smiling—an expression that only brightened when I came home and saw the Christmas lights Emma put up in the room! 

Here I am, sitting on the rooftop in the early evening sun, eating birthday chocolate and listening to the kids shout and play soccer on the ground—and thinking how stunningly perfect everything feels. 

Celebrating my birthday so far from home and family and friends was a little surreal.  I ended up getting a little more than the usual amount of emotional when I opened all the cards I received from my family; I could positively feel the love from the other side of the world, and I can’t help but feel blessed. My friends here were also really sweet to me: Emma and Valerie got me pretty bouquets from the flower man down the road, Taylor and I had stroopwafels and coffee, Matt and I made asparagus risotto and had a really nice dinner, and a bunch of people ended up coming over to drink white wine and cuddle and watch Fight Club (finally) as it rained outside.  It was all very lovely and comfortable.

And the atrocious weather we had at the start of the week turned absolutely perfect around Wednesday afternoon; since then I’ve hardly been able to stay inside for too long when it’s been sunny and cloudless and autumn-y. It made for the perfect trips to Dappermarkt and Waterloopleinmarkt on Friday and Saturday, and made me want to take an even longer way home from the library today.  Somehow the gorgeous weather Amsterdam throws you between fits of wind and rain and cold makes everything sheer…perfection.  It’s a little overwhelming sometimes.

I feel like I’ve found some really amazing little places this past week too! On Wednesday Val and Christian and I checked out a hookah lounge one of my classmates told me about, called Lost in Amsterdam.  Cliché name aside, I became immediately obsessed upon walking in: try and picture a cozy bar amid three Moroccan, pillowed dens, dimly lit and candle-filled, with the best electro-Indian music playing in the background and a roaring fireplace. Throw in a white cat sleeping on a bar stool and the best vanilla milkshakes you ever did sip, and you’ll start to see why I fell in love. I will one hundred percent be taking off my shoes and settling in to do homework there on multiple occasions. Then I took a few back streets home today, and biked past a really neat looking bar/café of some sort. It was very obviously all Dutch people sitting at the picnic tables outside, each of which was hand painted differently and crammed densely around a small circular building from which I assumed the pitchers of beer were coming.  A bunch of kids were taking turns on  makeshift slides made of wood planks and packing crates, and couples were sitting along the edge of the canal with their shoes off, talking.  Hopefully I can find someone to go with me sometime this week…  And then yesterday I ran into some guys from my building outside of this psychedelic coffeeshop called Katsu.  We went in and I convinced them to play a game of Scrabble when I saw how many board games they had for people to play with, and it was really fun.  I almost died when I saw that they had Bundaberg ginger beer—I haven’t had any since Australia!—and obviously ordered one. Then a couple of men taught us this really complicated Dutch dice game called 10,000, and we ended up watching a bit of the soccer game when it came on.   

Sidenote: I didn’t realize how much I truly miss my SCU friends until I Skyped with all of them at once in Friday night.  I couldn’t really say much because Emma was sleeping, but my voice probably would have been cracking anyways, and I had a few tears in my eyes just from realizing how long it’s been since I’ve heard that group of people talking and bickering and joking, and how much I miss it.

Now I guess it’s time to start another week….is it seriously the middle of October right now? Really?

I can’t believe it’s already the end of week 2 of classes! Time flies when you only have each one once a week. I’m taking Identities in Popular Culture, Exploring Dutch Culture and Society, and Media Activism.  In Dutch Culture on Wednesday, our professor—who’s completely and adorably crazed and I’m obsessed with—had two Afghani refugees come in to tell us their story. She translated as they described fleeing the Taliban almost ten years ago, the long journey here where they didn’t know a word of Dutch and had little money, and their ongoing attempts to gain refugee status within the Netherlands. Both of them were extremely inspiring individuals.

In other news, the weather these past few days has been INCREDIBLE. As a general rule one should always expect anywhere from a 10 minute to an hour-long rain shower at some point in the afternoon, regardless of the morning’s weather.  But it’s been sunny all day long for 3 whole days now! And I’ve definitely taken advantage; exploring even more markets and parts of the city, dinner and drinks on our rooftop terrace, checking out some parks in the area, even being the only one in Amsterdam wearing sandals..haha. The fact that it’s sunny and beautiful is definitely useful in convincing myself that I am not in fact coming down with something… Extremely thankful for the tea kettle that came with our room!

I met a guy from Liverpool at a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah concert I went to on Wednesday (so so good), and he’s trying to get some people to bike to the coast at some point this weekend—since apparently it’s only 8km away?! Anyways I’ll be drinking peppermint tea and willing myself into a state of full health all evening so I can go along!