Valentine's Day

Well so this is it-the holiday dreaded by so many around the world (most men, all single people, and all the women who don't receive a gift today) has arrived. I am happy to report that here in Amsterdam, Valentine's Day is celebrated but not in the traditional, over-commercialized American way. It's more of a subtle, here are some flowers for sale should you choose to buy them, sort of way. It's a very nice change! In honor of Valentine's Day-and because it's been a week since I've written and some people are probably thinking I'm dead-I am dedicating this blog to all the people at home who love me enough to read every e-mail, blog post, and Facebook update that I share with them. I feel especially loved by all of you who continue to contact me even though I can be slow in responding. This is my gift to you all. Happy Valentine's Day!

1. I love you Mom so very much and I love every e-mail you send me. I actually feel that through this exchange we have talked more frequently than we do when I am at school.

2. I love Skype and the way it enables me to see all of you and occasionally contact my sister since she is the hardest person on earth to reach! I love that Carly and Marli are coming to visit me and I am so excited to show the two of you around! I am also excited that you will get to meet all my friends!

3. I love all the people I am meeting here and thank all of you at home for being so encouraging through prayers and support.

4. I love my cousins and the way that sometimes I feel they are like siblings to me! Jenna I heard you are reading this to Grandma and I really appreciate that. David, I appreciate the fact that you are probably the one who prints out these blog posts since Jenna can struggle with technology at times. I also love the song that  the two of you sang to me and I still giggle when I think about it. Justin, Achy Breaky Heart just played on my iTunes and I thought of you! I hope that I cross your mind from time to time as well! I really do miss you all and our family get togethers! To my other three cousins: Drake, Sage, and Cruz: I love you three so very much and miss you a lot! I especially miss you because I know you are going to look like different people when I get back! 

5. To my other faux-siblings: Sam, Lana, and Jess: I love hearing from you all through Skype/e-mail/Facebook! I also love that you all are now members of the group of people who actually enjoy Valentine's Day. Seeing you all so happy makes me happy! I think about you guys so much and constantly try to tell my new friends about you. With all the travelling I'm doing I think of Sam, Jess, and our roadtrips/adventures frequently. I hope that you can come visit and we can have another one!

6. Dad-I enjoy getting your e-mails, even when they are about practical things! I also like hearing updates about your work because I know that's what is going on with you right now! I am so happy that you get to take a break from your job and come visit me!

7. Chad-I love you for making me do this. Thank you!

8. Brandon and Akash: I think you two would be surprised how much I think of you! I creep your Facebooks-don't worry!
9. Alex: I love you and miss you so much. I hope you are managing in Cape without me! I am sorry I left you and I really want you to come visit me!!

10. Aunts and Uncles: Jim, Tracy, Shane, Stacy: I said before that I miss our family events and I'll repeat it again! I heard all about Drake's birthday party and I am sad I could not make it! My feelings might have been swayed though, as I heard it was at Walt's, so my sadness might have been at missing out on Walt's pizza more than missing out on family time. Just kidding, love you all!

11. Grandma and Pops: I miss your house, your stories, and your cooking! Send snickerdoodles with my mom! Just kidding, but I really do miss the two of you very much. I miss dropping by your house and having little chats or our lunch dates in Cape! 

12. Mother Mary, Gretchen, Julie, Nurse Lynn, Susan, and all of my mom's other friends: I love all your Facebook posts and that you read my blog. Most importantly, I love you all for keeping my mother from going insane while me, my dad, and my sister are all away! 

13. I love this city and this experience. What I love most about this exchange, thus far, is the perspective it has given me on my life and what's important. Here I am in Amsterdam, while you all are in other parts of the world: South Carolina, West Virginia, Mississippi, Illinois, Kentucky, college, work, or other places, but you all cross my mind all the time! You are all important pieces of my life and I love you very much! I feel your love, support, and encouragement even across the ocean!

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you all over the world. I hope that if you find yourself, as I do, without a Valentine today, that you are surrounded with as much love as I am! Love actually is all around you-all you have to do is look. 

From Holland with Love,

Megan

Super Bowl Sunday

After staying in and relaxing on Saturday night, it was time to venture out on Sunday. We started the day with French Toast and coffee, then waited around until we finally formed a group and headed to an area of town called Niewemarket. They were supposed to have corn on the cob there and we were dying to try it. After taking the metro downtown, we walked around a bit, but discovered we have already been to that area of town and never found the corn. We did spend a long time talking with a local shop owner, though, so the trip was still a success.

 Afterward, we came home to rest and get ready to watch the Super Bowl, which aired at 12:30 am here. We had a nice Chinese dinner, prepared by our wonderful chef Nick and then headed downtown around 10. Only a few bars were playing the game, but we went into one that was very crowded. We also brought along our friend from France, who may have been deceived by my excitement to watch the game. I told her it was similar to Christmas: a lot of food, people getting together, parties, and it only comes once a year. I don't think she felt this was an accurate analogy. At the bar I met two guys from the States, who had lived over here about three years for work. When I asked them what they missed the most about home, they said: Mexican food!! Also, when he asked where I lived, I jokingly said the ghetto and he said "Oh by the arena?" So apparently we live in a pretty bad part of town!

Other than the bar and chicken wings, watching the Super Bowl here was pretty depressing. First of all, I was under the impression that watching the game aired live via ESPN AMERICA I would see American commercials. It had American pre-game show, American announcers, but no American commercials. Since I didn't really care about either team, the commercials were very important to me this year. The commercials are an integral part of the Super Bowl and not having them was a disappointment. Additionally, I was very disappointed in the choice of Christina Aguilara to sing the National Anthem (and mess up) and I was not impressed with the Black Eyed Peas. I guess this was the first time I really missed America!! We stayed until half time (about 2:30 am) then came home.

So Many Things to Share!

Well this has been a big week for me! I finally attended all my classes and got my schedule straightened out. Here's one more funny story about a class mishap:
On Thursday morning I had a class at 8:30 am. I went to this class, on time, sat down and the professor started speaking. Unfortunately, he was speaking only in Dutch. Obviously, I knew I could not be in that class, so I got on the computer and dropped the class, moving into another one that began at 9:15. As discreetly as possible, I left the first class to get to another. Upon opening my schedule, I realized I had been in the wrong classroom all along. I was in the classroom that holds my Wednesday 8:30 am class....but I enjoyed the new class so much that I decided to stay. That was my last class for the week.

This week, I tried to do a few touristy things. On Thursday, we had our first sunny day, so we trekked down to Vondelpark. Vondelpark is a huge, famous park here that many compare to Central Park in New York. It was very beautiful and we are hoping to go back when the trees are blooming. We will probably be there a lot because it's free!

I also went to my first museum this week, The Sex Museum. It wasn't the top of our list, but we want to take in all the museums and this was the first one we saw. Plus, I am trying to save some of the more famous ones for when my parents are visiting; I didn't think the Sex Museum would be on their list. Anyway, it is advertised as "Sex through the Ages". My friends and I thought this would be a historical walk through sex and culture, information about rituals and things in other centuries, possibly highlighting how women have been treated in regards to sex, etc. That was not quite the case. The museum was less of a "museum" and more along the lines of pornography. It was not informative at all and was just kind of weird. We felt extremely uncomfortable and giggled like 13 year olds. I would not recommend it as a must-see, but it was something to see and now we can check one museum off our list.

After the museum, we proceeded as tourists and went to see the Red Light District. Again, not something I would recommend, but something you have to see in Amsterdam. I expected the women to be different than prostitutes in the States, seeing as how it is a legitimate profession here. Instead, I saw women who looked genuinely sad. Many of them appeared to be on drugs. The whole experience made me feel very sad and I wondered how men can bring themselves to patronize these places. The girls looked just as desperate here as they do in the States. I found myself wondering, as I do when I see a prostitute at home, "What went wrong in her life that this is the outcome?"

After all of this, we went out to dinner because it was our friend Matilda's birthday. After dinner, we bought cake and A LOT of ice cream to celebrate her birthday.

Friday, I got all my hair cut off. I have been having a lot of trouble with my hair because it is so windy here and we do so much walking outside. I was nervous to cut it, but I LOVE it!! I think I was meant to have short hair! There are a few pictures posted on Facebook.

Also on Friday, it was my friend Kathy's birthday. Instead of going out to dinner, we all brought ingredients and made a big, Mexican dinner. It was wonderful! We have all been craving Mexican food and you can't really find it here. After dinner, we went out to the ISN social. Apparently, the door men were unhappy with such a large group and would not let us in. Instead we went to the dance club Paridiso. This is a place that has multiple DJs spinning records, playing music, and a light show. It is a converted church, so it is beautiful and the acoustics are great. I was having such a good time and enjoying the light show so much, that a Dutch boy asked if I was hypnotized (I think he was asking if I was on drugs, but didn't know English well). Don't worry family, I was not on drugs. I was just having such a great time with my friends, enjoying the lights, and dancing. I was sweating a lot from all the dancing, probably further leading to my "drugged" look. I was simply high on life-the best way to be! After leaving the dance party, we found a very crowded local burger joint and had a bite to eat. Two Dutch boys sat down with us and we had a very odd interaction. They kept making Jewish jokes and we were very confused....I'm still confused actually. Weird interaction. Sidenote: People here have no problem joking about Hitler or WW2. The girl from Germany thinks it's hilarious to do the Nazi salute. I really don't know how to take that-I think it's just not offensive or a sensitive issue to them. It's very interesting and slightly confusing. After eating, we had our first successful cab ride that did not end in getting ripped off or in an argument with the cab driver. Success!!

Today was a lazy day. We had a pancake breakfast, tried to do laundry, bought groceries, and I updated all my web sites. Check out Facbook for new pictures. Also, if you like this blog and want to read more, you can check out my friend Chad's blog at chadhaertling.com. He is also a really good photographer and has many nice pictures!
Ciao!

Back to School

Well today is Wednesday and classes started here this week. I had almost forgotten that the reason I am here is to actually attend school. I feel like this has already been such a learning experience that I don't really need class (lol)! Of course, the sponsors of this trip (my parents) feel differently so I am making class work a priority.

Monday was my very first day and was an overall poor experience. The rooms are numbered, so I thought it would be no problem finding my class. First of all, I should tell you all that in the Netherlands, the first floor is numbered 0, not 1. In my building, where there is a basement, it is numbered -1. It really makes sense I suppose, 0 is always the ground floor. Secondly, in my dorm building, the rooms are simply numbered in order, so room 119 is on floor 7. My room, 074, is on floor 4. It is kind of annoying because you never know what floor to find people on.

Anyway, I digress, back to school. My first class was in room 3.005. When I arrived on floor 3, I found that odd numbered rooms are to the left, even to the right. No problem so far. Apparently, however, the rooms are in no certain order and numbers are often skipped. I don't know if there is some type of code I'm not in on, but room 3.005, was smack dab in the middle of the building, next to room 3.009. When I finally found the room, I was 15 minutes late and I didn't want to be remembered as the late girl, so I noted that my friend was inside and spent the next hour finding all my other classrooms so as not to make the same mistake twice. I was able to get all the notes and find out we didn't do much, since it was just the first day. All was well again. I was hoping my second class at 3 would go better, but no such luck. Turns out, it was the second half of a class taught last semester. The book was two inches thick and they were starting in chapter 12. I had absolutely NO CLUE what was going on. Luckily, I was able to get into another class tomorrow and my advisor graciously agreed to substitute the classes. I am pleased to say the next two days went much smoother, minus an alarm mishap today. Luckily my neighbor buzzed me and I was able to make it to class on time! I have a lot of friends in my classes so that makes things easier.

With the start of classes, I haven't been able to accomplish much. Our shopping center closes at 6 so it is difficult to get there after class. I need one more big trip to buy a few more supplies for my room, such as a long mirror and some type of box/decorative something to keep all my make-up in so that it is not sprawled out all over the sink constantly. There is very limited drawer space here!! I promise to post pics of my room soon on facebook. Facebook seems to be the way to go for pictures, it's just easier to put them all there instead of here. I try to write informative captions, but if you have questions you can ask! If you don't have Facebook, let me know and I can send you some pictures via e-mail.

Yesterday it rained for the first time. It wasn't so much a rain as a really cold mist. It was cold but not too bad. I am bracing myself for more rainy days come spring time. I know it is snowing and icing at home, so I'll take rain and 32 degrees and be happy!

Well that's all for now folks. Hope you are enjoying the blog!