One month already

I can't believe that one month of my stay in Amsterdam has passed already! Of course, I am fully assimilated into Dutch practices by now. And I definitely did not fall off my bicycle yesterday and do a face plant in front of an upscale Mediterranean restaurant (I only bruised my elbow and hip- nothing at all serious!!). No, actually, in the past week I've been thinking a lot that the more I learn about this city and this country the more I realize all of the subtleties and specifics that I need to also learn to move from being a guest and a tourist to being a resident. I hope some measure of this is possible in four months.

This weekend was lovely. On Thursday after class I used my newly purchased colored pencils to make a cactus drawing while I skyped with the family. Later I added a self portrait into it. I've decided to do a series of drawings in the style of Frida Kahlo, but much less bloody and sad. My colour theory class actually required the colored pencils and a sketch notebook. And everyone knows how much I hate buying art supplies, just like Dad, so it was a real pain to have to do that!! In Amsterdam!!

I had my documentary class on Friday morning, and then I met up with my friends Esther, Lauren and Tim to shop for a birthday present in the Kalverstraat, the big tourist filled shopping street. It was our other friend Judith's birthday on Friday night, so we chose a nice plant and some chocolates for her, which we later presented at her apartment in the Amstel. The trip to the Amstel was when I fell off my bicycle. It was somewhat comical because Lauren, who I was traveling with, also fell off of her bicycle. When we arrived we seemed as though we had been through quite a lot!! It was a really nice party, though, with many of my international friends and I got to try German meatballs.

Today I woke up very early to take a field trip with the CIEE American program. It was the most incredible program of events. We first went to Gouda to take a tour of a small family cheese farm. We got to go through all of the rooms where the various steps are performed, and to hold a 17 kilo wheel of cheese, which is very, very heavy. The building smelled quite horrible inside but the cheese was so fresh and delicious. We tried pepper, mustard, herb, aged, medium, and young cheeses! We also met cows and a toddler named Debbie, who I suppose is heiress of the family farm!

We then took our bus to the Delft pottery center, where original Delftware is hand-painted by Delftware master artists. We got to see the pieces as they came out of the mold, and watch the masters paint them. Each one is identical with the design canon, otherwise it can't have the Delft seal! Real Delftware is so expensive- oh my goodness! Then we took a kick scooter tour of the city of Delft. I would not recommend this because only tourists ever use scooters also they are inefficient. I think we could have walked faster. However, Delft was incredibly charming and full of history- home of William of Orange, origin of Vermeer, and site of major trade activity in the Golden Age!! We saw a beautiful church, went to the Vermeer center, and looked around in the market a bit.

Tonight my roommate and I went out for a girls' night with some friends, but had a series of unfortunate encounters, including our coats being involuntarily coat checked without numbers at a club and being demanded to speak in Dutch by a man with french fry gravy on his face. And then he threw his pizza crust on my plate. But the owners of the restaurant intervened. In general Amsterdam just seemed rowdier tonight than usual- maybe there was a soccer loss! Anyway, tomorrow I plan to buckle down and do a lot of homework, so look for me on the skype as well. Much, much love, Julie

PS- Mom and I are officially going to Madrid next, next weekend!! I really couldn't be more excited. The tapas will be good, but the company will be better!