bethany_abroad

Yay for sleeping in late.  Well not so late.  Somehow the routine that David and I have fallen into is turning on a movie as we get into bed.  It’s pretty funny looking at his apartment with the Lucy and Ricky bed look.  Still, it means that we aren’t going to bed until about 2 or 3AM every night.  I don’t mind so much it’s just that I would prefer to get up early to get things done rather than stay up all night long, not out drinking wine or dancing out of David’s place.  David gave up smoking, drinking, and one other thing that I feel like it will be impossible for him to accomplish over a year’s time.  So, not exactly the friend that I knew from way back when.  He still has good taste in wine that I intend to exploit as much as possible as soon as possible.

I didn’t really know what to do today but when I left the house at about 11AM, I decided that instead of staying in Paris, I would go to Versailles.  I haven’t been to the château since I was 14 years old.  It made an impression on me then but when I was here in 2007, I just didn’t make time to revisit the place.  Really, the thing that I wanted to see was the gardens.  There is so much to see at Versailles and now there are only 8 hectares instead of something like 1,600.  So that was my primary goal.

The round trip ticket out to Versailles on the RER is only 6.30€, so it gave me some wiggle room once I got there.  It’s also only about a 30 minute train journey there.  So when I got out of the train station, I spent some time exploring the actual town of Versailles.  The farther you get from the 8eme arrondisement of Paris, the more you see what the rest for France is truly like.  Though I love Paris, I truly love the French culture.  They are all about food and a certain joyeux de vivre. Even though it is Monday and most everything in all of France (aside from the Marais) is closed, there is an explosion of 17th century French architecture in Versailles that makes it a breath-taking place.

When I finally made my way to the castle, or château, I discovered what I’d forgotten about everything in France and the palace too was closed.  Oh well.  I mean I’ve already seen the Hall of Mirrors.  I determined not to waste any of my time being grumpy about my bad luck and explore the gardens, which I’d never truly gotten a chance to see.  The exterior of the palace is absolutely beautiful.  It’s worth going there, in my opinion, simply to see how ornate the Kings of France wanted their domiciles to be.  They have added some intensely weird half-circle art or whatever outside the palace.  I’m not sure that I understand it and instead of adding to the aesthetic beauty it’s kind of rusty looking.  But whatever.  Just because a look at art doesn’t make me an expert connoisseur.

I walked around to the rear of the palace.  It was such a pretty day.  There was a ton of cloud cover and definitely threats of rain, but it was still so beautiful.  People had picnic baskets and there were little children running all over the place.  I walked through the Queen’s garden, the King’s Garden and the Labyrinth before sitting at the reflection pool to meditate.  I’d brought along my paper journal and started to write.  There is something that is so peaceful about being in a place that was intended to be used as a place to ‘meditate’… if the King or Queen was indeed ever alone.  For the most part of my early afternoon, I barely ran into anyone.  Each person that I saw, I stopped and had them take a picture because the gardens are so expertly designed that I don’t even want my memory of them to diminish.  Even 250 years later, it looks as though the palace gardens are still tended just to please the dead kings of France’s history.

After losing track of time and noticing only when my stomach started to growl, I went and found a cute little café in the gardens.  I had a light lunch and a glass of wine watching the clouds roll by.  I love the feeling of just letting the world pass and doing as little as possible to impact time.  I mean, I don’t want to be a stoner, but at the same time, there is something that is so peaceful about being the quiet observer.  You start hearing things that you normally wouldn’t notice about the world during these times, the laughter of children, the calls of birds, the sound of wind in the trees… I mean maybe I do notice these things but perhaps I appreciate them more then I am just listening and watching.

Rejuvenated, I started walking through the east part of the gardens.  There were tons of areas that were shut off due to perhaps it being a Monday, I do not know.  Still, it was impressive to see the designs of the gardens.  There is one particular part of the garden that is a round, completely open field.  The smell of fresh cut clover is overwhelming and it is just sunny and amazing.  There was no one there.  It was like I had found my own little slice of country in the middle of one of the most famous gardens in the world.  I laid down in the grass and watched the clouds roll by.  As much as I have needed days where I don’t feel like a tourist, I also need times like these to make sure that I am meditating to keep my wits about me… this was the perfect place for it.

Among the other fountains, that were not closed to the public, there were art students (I think) who were sketching pieces all over the place.  As it started to rain, it got cold and so everyone scattered and I once again found myself alone in the gardens.  I meandered my way around getting lost in the twists and turns of the garden before finally making my way back to the train station.  I do have to say that I am grateful that I didn’t see the gardens until I was an adult because I don’t think that I would have appreciated them then as much as I did today.  I think with age, comes an appreciation for aesthetic beauty like you don’t really have as a youth. 

When I made my way back to Gare Monparnasse, I found David ready and waiting for me.  I’d just assumed that he went to work but he decided that tonight, we would go to Relais de l’Entrecote.  Someone once told me that you are a true world traveler when you can name your favorite restaurant in 3 countries of the world.  I don’t know about anywhere else but it is the best meal of my life.  It is of such an amazing quality that every single time I go; I just want to eat until I explode like the dude from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life.  I know how he feels.  ‘Bring me a bucket!’ Indeed.  Much to my surprise, instead of it being a touristy place, like I thought it was, I was told by a staff member that most of the patrons are actually locals who just love good food.  And for 25€, you simply can’t beat that meal!  AND… dun, dun, dun… I just found out that they have one in New York City.  Who’s up for a freakin road trip!!!

After an amazing meal, we went to meet up with one of David’s friends.  As it turns out, they met each other in Columbia, where I met David.  They live not only in the same district, but about a block away from each other, and it wasn’t planned.  We drank a hot chocolate in front of a local café and reminisced about Columbia, the common tie between us all.  It is amazing how small the world is… and how much you appreciate things as time passes.  Yesterday, I thought that the reason I love Paris is because of what it meant to me personally but I can just tell you, I’d be happy for the rest of my life if they opened a Relais de L’Entrecote and a La Duree in a city where ever it is that I live.  That reminds me… I must buy some amazing macaroons tomorrow.  Don’t let me forget!  I love and miss you all!!

I felt like an official resident of Paris today.  I didn’t do any sightseeing, I didn’t really go anywhere important… I just hung out with the locals and tagging along with people living their normal lives.  I don’t really like to laugh at other people’s pain… Schadenfreude is not really my cup of tea… but I think that it is interesting that David is now on a 48 hour sleep schedule because I don’t think he slept a wink last night but slept for most of the day today.  I spent the morning working on some studying for a class that I am taking here and before I knew it, the day kind of got away from me. 

When David got up, we went to get pizza at this little place called Pizza Pino.  Apparently, this is a major chain across Paris but David raved about it.  It tasted different than I expected a pizza to taste like… but it was still amazingly delicious.  On the television… on most of the televisions around the city, displayed were news stories covering the action at Ground Zero.  People singing the National Anthem and people holding pictures of their loved ones.  I started harmonizing with the National Anthem and David quickly told me to shut up because even though I was singing in (what I thought to be) perfect harmony, there is actually a law against such in most restaurants in Paris.  So I couldn’t be patriotic at all… but I did cry.  You can ask anyone where they were on December 31st, 1999 and they are WAY less likely to know than what was happening when they heard about the Twin Towers.  It changed the world.  Who can say if it changed for the better… but no children will ever know what it’s like to wait for their parent at the gate as the plane arrives.  There will never again be the same view of the Muslim faith (even though Christianity had its time – oh, say around the time of the Crusades).  Did it bring us together only for a moment simply to tear us apart later?  Who knows?  However, just because reminders aren’t ever present, never forget… just like all those posters from 10 years ago.

We then went back to the CC so that I could finish up on this course work that I’d started and feel like I’d accomplished something during my time here.  I love being in school.  I miss it… so much.  It’s making me think that when I get back to the States, I’m going to very seriously be thinking of how I will be able to apply to get a PhD in something… anything… the more difficult (but not quantitative) the better, because I will get to be in school longer.  Why is it that when you finish something that you are really proud of, all the people around you are really happy for you too?  It is something that I didn’t really expect from this particular experience but I have this strange feeling of pride accompanying me throughout.  The course supervisors at the CC are also so patient when you don’t understand something.  Definitely not like my A&M profs, who told me not to ask questions in class because they would not answer any more of my questions. 

I have to relay this story because it made me so proud.  One of the things that I was reading about was talking about making life instead of letting life make you… and it asked for an example.  I know lots of people but I don’t really have lots of good examples that I can present people with in order to actually make my point but then I thought about Alisa.  It’s true, she has had some pretty down times.  I relayed the story of her and how she made this miraculous change in her life, exclusively because she wanted to… because Lord knows we tried everything we could think of… and somehow, she made a full 360, and is now a highly paid chef at a major hotel in San Antonio.  I didn’t actually say it like that but to protect her just in case she doesn’t want her story out there, I said as much of it as I could remember.  When I handed my essay in, my course supervisor not only said that I had an impressive sister but asked if he could show the story to other people.  He was gone for about an hour while I continued to work and throughout that time, people kept coming in to tell me how lucky I was to have such an impressive family member and tried to talk to me about the situation to see if they could learn from her… in French.  I went along with things as best I could but I thought that it was one of the coolest things that I’d ever experienced.

After finishing up at the CC, we decided to go with some of David’s friends to the movie Friends with Benefits.  Though not really a Justin Timberlake fan, the movie was absolutely hysterical and definitely something to watch with the appropriate company.  I feel like I embarrassed David with my loud laughter though out the movie but whatever.  On the way there, David rode on the back of a motorcycle with someone who I think he is being set up with, and I got to ride in a Smart Car.  I’ve never ridden in one and now that I have, I secretly want one like nobody’s business.  The girl I was in the car with spoke almost no English and though I told her ‘trop vite’ over and over, she continued to talk almost too quickly for me to understand… but I was impressed with my understanding when I am put in the circumstances of being with someone who I MUST speak French with… it was a cool experience.

So even though I didn’t do that much today, and I didn’t go to any celebrations or remembrance ceremonies for the marking of a decade since the whole world changed, it was a good day. I needed a down day to not be a tourist and look at things from a different perspective.  I love travelling but that is about to stop.  Though it seems like I should be squeezing every second out of my time here, I really needed these past few days to make sure that when I get back to Dallas, I won’t undergo such a crazy culture shock.  Days until I’m in the States: 3. Pray for my sanity over this next week.  I love and miss you all!

Because David was sick yesterday, this morning, this whole method for being on Paris time was screwed.  I didn’t ever realize this… but going from West to East is for more severe for your body than from going East to West.  I haven’t done this in at least 6 months… so I don’t really understand what he’s going through.  Nonetheless… after I’d gotten up, gotten ready for my day… eaten breakfast… and done what I needed to do, David decided that he wanted to take a nap.  A ‘nap’ turned into most of the afternoon.  I went out of the apartment only once to look around this area to see what was around Gare Monparnasse… but it got rainy and stuff so I came back and made myself as quiet as possible for the duration of the time he was asleep.

When he finally woke up, We decided to go to the CC Org.  It’s a long story, but in short, it is one of the bonding things that I have with David.  We ate lunch of lamb at this absolutely terrific middle eastern place and before I knew it, I had eaten more than I should to be sufficiently full and was therefore absolutely miserable as I walked down the street with rocks in my stomach.  Too bad there isn’t a caffeine to solve that blunder.

As I walked around the Org and met all these people who all wanted to speak English, even though I felt massively guilty that I couldn’t speak decent French to them, set me up with a ‘personality test’.  I figured this was a good a test as any to take and the results were definitely not what I expected them to be… so after talking with people, I decided that I would take a short course in order to help improve points in my life that I saw were flawed.  This took up a significant part of my afternoon and though I get a little pushy when I feel like I’m being patronized, I think that the information I’m learning will be useful when I apply it to practical situations.

(DON’T WORRY, I’M BEING INTENTIONALLY VAGUE)
After everything was said and done, David had a birthday dinner to go to and I wasn’t invited.  I didn’t mind not going and being the third wheel around where everyone felt like they had to speak English.  So David walked me to a very near metro station.  Yet I wasn’t really feeling like riding the metro… so instead I started walking.  We were in the 17eme district but David lives in the 15eme, even though it is very nearly the 14eme.  As it turns out, I was walking around in my old hood in Paris.  Now, I don’t think that anyone could ever call the 8eme district a ‘hood’ but there is always something wonderful about walking around an area in which you know.  I ended up walking down the Boulevard de Courcelles and seeing Parc Monceau.  This used to be my favorite park in 2007 when I was living in Paris.  It was an absolutely perfect afternoon.  There were a ton of people jus lounging about and enjoying a beautiful September day and so I joined them, just sitting in the park and people watching.

Because I’d already walked that far, I decided that I would walk all the way home.  I didn’t really know how far it would be but I figured that I could do it.  My first goal was to make it to the Arc de Triumphe.  It always surprises me when I walk down the street and see it looming in what looks like the near distance.  Let me explain something for those of you that have never actually been to Paris and only seen it in pictures… The Arc de Triumphe is GIGANTIC.  It looks small in pictures because you don’t notice the people in the pictures that are around it.  It is mammoth.  So even if it looks like you’re almost there, you’re not.  You’re not even close to where it is… you’re about 20 minutes of a fast walk away.  This always happens to me and I am almost always surprised by it.  When will I ever learn?

I walked from the Arc de Triumph to Trocadero.  Though I am a shoddy tourist and have never actually been to the museums at Trocadero, it is definitely a breath-taking view.  Everyone always photographs the Eiffel Tower from here and though I prefer the view from the Champs de Mars, it is always fun to see the things going on and listen to the always present Peruvian flute bands do their things.  I love going up to random strangers who are taking the awkward, extended arm, self portrait and give them an actual quality memory of the time that they are in Paris… since few people are addicted to the city as I am.

What I found to me most interesting was the fact that in the very center of Trocadero, stood two monuments to the World Trade Center in NYC.  In French and English the towers displayed, “Les Française n’oublieront jamais” (The French will never forget).  Now I remember 10 years ago when people refused to eat french-fries and insisted they be called freedom-fries.  I also know that France is the United States’ oldest ally and friend.  We forget that they back us up in the UN.  Lots of Americans don’t even know that THE Statue of Liberty was a gift from France.  People here remember.  People here refuse to forget.  It wasn’t just an attack on the Twin Towers… it was an attack on American ideals… and no matter who tells you anything, you should try to understand that everyone in the world wants to be like America… EVERYONE.  Believe me.  I would know.  I’ve seen people bleaching their skin and getting eye surgery to look American… and I have seen some of the freedom which people have been stripped up in the form of taxation that others pay.  The French love America.  Don’t listen to people who say differently.  They are ignorant.

After walking down Trocadero, through the legs of the Eiffel Tower, I walked past the Champs de Mars where there was obviously some kind of run: Le Parisenne. No running for me thanks.  They had all these tacky tents lined up that didn’t even have anything for sale… I am sure that there was some purpose… but it was not readily apparent to the non-Parisian and I was too tired to spend lots of time investigating.  I continued along and found that I was at the UNESCO headquarters.  I’d been there once before during 2007 but it was just another office building to me at the time… I hadn’t yet discovered all the cool World Heritage sites.  On the fence are AMAZING photographs of all the things that are listed as World Heritage places.  I took note of the 4 or 5 that I now desperately want to see and was proud of myself for having been to about 7 of the 20 listed on the fence.  Yay for me!

As I continued my walk through the Left Bank, I decided that it was high time that I got lost.  I was kind of tired but I turned on a street that I thought was where I was supposed to be headed to get to David’s apartment… but it was a self-contained hospital facility that ended up sending me in a labyrinth of mazes just to find the SORTIE (EXIT), which was listed on every sign I passed… pointing me in a new direction.  Fabulous.  I was getting to the point of hunger-based anger and getting madder at myself until I finally came upon an exit that spit me out right in front of Invalides, the place where Napoleon’s sarcophagus is buried.  In the late evening sunlight (because it was still light at 8PM), the golden dome just glittered in a perfect tribute to the little dude.  He’s probably rolling around in his tomb for me saying that.

When I FINALLY got back to David’s, I’d been walking for about 3 hours and was ready to not be on my feet and just eat something.  I love the fact that I am staying with David and that he’s given me full range of his kitchen facilities.  It makes me feel like I am actually home here…  I don’t know why I love Paris so much.  Maybe it is because it is the first place I traveled internationally, maybe it’s because of the food and the people, maybe it’s because of the culture itself… but I think that the reason Paris is so special to me is because it is the first place that I ever went for me and no one else.  Every time I come back, it’s empowering.  Every time I leave, it becomes all that much more difficult.  Parts of me are really not looking forward to Wednesday morning when I have to say goodbye to this life and start a new one.  I love and miss you all.

So this morning, I had all these big things planned out for me to do.  David had a ton of things on his list of to-dos and so I figured I would tag along just so that I could spend some quality time with him… after all I’m only in Paris for a very short time.  We woke up late at about 10AM and after I’d taken a shower, and I was getting something to eat, he suddenly announced that he was going to be taking a nap.  It is his first full day in Paris just like mine and so his schedule is a bit up in the air… but I didn’t mind.  It was nice just to sit on his balcony for a little while and watch the world go by.  However, the day started going by before my eyes.  David is sicker than I thought he was.  So at 2PM, I tried to wake him up and he didn’t actually get out of bed until about 6PM.

At this point, I went to the Monoprix to get some groceries and he stayed in bed.  By the time I got back it was already starting to get dark but I made a scrumptious dinner for myself and something to calm his stomach a little and we just kind of turned in for the night.  So, not exactly what I would have expected to be doing in Paris on my first day back in this city I love, but what else are friends for?  If you can’t use your friends, who can you use?  I think Mary Black used to say that back when she was a Black…  Either way, I got a lot done today.  Did you see my pictures?  It took me a long time but I figured that they might help show a little better what I’ve been doing.  No pictures for yesterday or today but I promise I will be taking some tomorrow because come hell or high water, I will see the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph.  I love and miss you all!

This morning I got up at the crack of dawn to catch the bus from Amsterdam to Paris.  The bus was supposed to leave the station at 9AM and I wanted to make sure that I got on it because I’d already purchased the ticket.  My body did not want to get out of bed at 7AM though.  It’s not that I needed 2 hours to get ready; but I definitely needed to give myself a little bit of leeway time to get there just in case I had the wrong address or something, which has happened in the past.

When I went downstairs, I was greeted by this cute little dude, whose ethnicity I have no clue, but was absolutely the most chipper morning person I’ve ever met.  I think he worked the grave yard shift and was up from the night before… but it was just he and I sitting around drinking a cup of coffee and getting everything sorted out to make sure that I got to where I needed to go.  He had so much to talk about but I get the feeling that no one really ever talks to him because of the nature of the hostel.  I was glad for his company because I was a little nervous about getting the coach to Paris and he calmed my nerves with his friendly demeanor and warm cup of coffee.

It only took me about 30 minutes in total to get to the bus station but I didn’t really know what was going on and apparently with Euro Lines, you’re supposed to have a boarding card.  This was totally news to me but whatever.  So I boarded the bus and basically fell immediately asleep.  I didn’t wake up until we got to Brussels when the bus filled up to the brim with people.  So much for laying down over two seats, but I’m not bitter.

The guy who sat down next to me I could have sworn was Owen Wilson trying to play it low key with a slightly homeless appearance.  I am serious.  He even had the nose and talked like him.  We had an interesting conversation about nothing before we both kind of went into our own little worlds.  I fell asleep again and before I knew it we were in Paris.  It was the shortest 7 hour bus ride I’ve ever taken and I don’t know how I got so lucky.

There is something to be said about being back in Paris after so long.  I think that because I spent some time here when I was so impressionable, part of it never left my spirit.  I love the people and the fact that I can understand the language.  I love the food and the smell of fresh baguettes from the local boulangerie.  I know enough French to get around but I always forget that I don’t know nearly enough to consider myself to even have a beginner’s proficiency when it comes to speaking the language.  Still, when there were some tourists that were very lost and arguing, I went up to them and asked if I could help.  They were from Sydney, Australia and had never been to Paris before and were kind of confused with the metro system.  I helped them get to where they were going and then made my way to Gare Monparnasse.

David lives in the 15eme quarter of Paris and though I have never really explored the area, I am glad for the opportunity.  I got to David’s house about 2 hours later than I’d expected but he had gotten to his place late too due to some flight delays.  We spent the evening going to his favorite little Chinese restaurant and then he took me to get gelato on the Ile Saint Louis.  It’s the island behind the one with Notre Dame.  Thought David and I will always be paternal friends, there is something to be said for the romanticism of this particular location.  It might be the most romantic place in the entire world.  You see lovers cuddling with each other all the way to them almost grotesquely making out. 

Seeing Notre Dame again is something that I always love.  It feels like home here… home in a way that I can’t describe.  I love Paris.  So much.  Maybe one day I will get to live here again for real… but for now, I am just grateful to be back… to eat the food, mingle with the locals, drink some amazing wine, wander the streets, and spend some quality time with one of my best friends in the entire world.  I couldn’t imagine a better way to end my time abroad than in the city of lights.  I love and miss you all!

When I woke up this morning, I said goodbye to Philip and then did everything I could to get out of the house as soon as humanly possible.  The single reason that I desperately wanted to stay in Amsterdam an extra day was to go on one of the New Europe Tours.  This is the same tour company that did the free tour in Berlin, it is just in Amsterdam.  Because I know relatively little about Dutch history other than wooden shoes and the Red Light District, I figured that this would help me get a better grasp on everything that was really important to see in Amsterdam.

There are only two tours every day instead of something like 4 in Berlin.  One of them starts at 11 and the other at 1PM.  Even though I wanted to go to the 11AM one, I ended up going on the 1PM one because I just couldn’t get out of the house as quickly as I had wanted to.  Because Philip had already promised his couch to someone else, I debated about the best thing for me to do for the remainder of my time in Amsterdam.  Although it seems as though the city can run for 24 hours because of things like the Red Light District, things start winding down around 2AM.  This is absolutely perfect for me because I’m a wenus and always want to go to bed as early as possible.  So staying up all night and sleeping on the bus tomorrow didn’t really seem like the best solution to my issue. 

So I ended up going to the first hostel that I saw.  I didn’t really care where it was just so long as it was a place where I could catch a few hours of rest before getting on the bus to Paris tomorrow.  So the hostel that I went to, whose name I can’t for the life of me actually remember, smelled of cannabis and wasn’t the cheapest place in town… but it was clean and definitely a place where I could go in order to leave my things without being worried about any of it.  The management didn’t exactly spell morally upright but whatever… you have to learn to trust people at least a little.
So I went to Dam Square, which is actually the name of the square with the national palace and the national monument.  This is where the tour was supposed to meet up in order to start at 1PM.  The guy that was holding the free sign was wearing a UT backpack and ended up harassing me because he saw my A&M ring and thought it was lame that A&M is leaving the Big 12 (which they are – in my humble opinion… I mean our War Hymn is dedicated to causing t.u. issues).  We talked for a little while before the tour started.  He seemed super nice and it was nice to meet someone who understands American College Football rivalry.

Our tour guide was Kate today.  She is German but came to the Netherlands to study and because of love… or so she said.  She has only been a tour guide for the past 3 months and though she was full of useful information, she seemed a little nervous about everything.  She started off giving us a brief history of Amsterdam and how it was founded and why.  Apparently Amsterdam was the first ever republic in Europe. 
We started off our tour going through the Red Light District where she pointed out an interesting memorial.  No one knows how it got there or why but because it is anonymous and completely non-judgmental, the people who populate the District actually really like it.  What is bizarre to me is that Oude Kirk (or the Old Church) is in the very center of the Red Light District.  It is a phenomenal establishment, though it is no longer used for services.  It is the best example that I have ever seen, of how the Roman Catholic Church sold indulgences to people to make money.  No religion is perfect but that is definitely not something that I would be proud of were I to subscribe to the Catholic doctrine of faith.
Our next stop was the Waag.  This is a building that was set up for the guilds of Amsterdam and was a central meeting point.  Later this building would be used as the meeting point for public executions.  It looks a little like a fortress but has been turned into a café in modern times.  We then walked through the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam.  Before WWII there were 80,000 Jews who lived in the area, after the war, only 5,000 were left.  It is one of the random places in Amsterdam that was destroyed during WWII.  This is not because of bombings but rather because after all the Jewish people were rounded up, there was a really terrible winter and the old houses were raided to find food and fire wood.  This means that it was rebuilt after the war… specifically in the 1960s. The people who were working on this part of the world in the 1960s were totally into cubism.  This makes the entire street stick out like a sore thumb.
After walking through the  Jewish Quarter, we stopped by the Cannabis Museum.  Apparently, in an afternoon you can get a degree from the museum so that you are certified in marijuana.  I would totally do this just to say that I know my shit… but it doesn’t seem like a valid use of my time.  We then stopped by the old VOC headquarters.  The VOC is the West India Company and it is really one of the reasons that the Netherlands was profitable was because of the VOC as a trading company and because they were the first people to design profit sharing among a fleet of ships.  This seems to be a really mundane idea to most people, but really, it was novice then and because at least some of the ships would return, there were always profits to be made.
After a short break, we walked by the statue of Multatuli, who was a central figure in helping the Indonesians gain civil liberties… behind this statue is the narrowest house in all of Amsterdam (and indeed the world) at an astounding 40 inches wide.  This means that the people who live there actually probably could lay down from wall to wall because the house was too narrow.  But the reasoning behind the super narrow house was for taxation purposes.  The Dutch government taxed based on the width of the front of the house at the river front because merchants needed houses on the canals where they could store their goods.  Still, I don’t think that I could live in a house that narrow.

The last stretches of the tour, Kate told us the miracle of Amsterdam, which occurred in the 14th century.  Apparently an old guy was dying and when the priest gave him his last rites, the bread dipped in the wine fell out of his mouth and into the fire but would not burn.  It is still recognized today although no relic of it exists.  We also stopped again by Anne Frank’s House and the West Cathedral (Westerkirk).  This displays the crown of an emperor.  Behind Westerkirk, there is a memorial to the homosexuals in Amsterdam.  It wasn’t really explained that well but it was a touching memorial and there were a ton of Pride things all around.
When the tour was over, I went back to the hostel and got things ready for my departure to Paris tomorrow and made sure that I had the opportunity to figure out where it was that I was going before I woke up the next morning.  It took me longer than I thought but that was okay.  On the morning tour, Kate had told us that there was a tour of the Red Light District that would start at 6:45PM.  I was supposed to be meeting up again with Robert but I emailed him and told him that he should go on this tour with me.  When he didn’t show up, I just wedged myself into the group because I mean everyone was there to talk about sex and therefore couldn’t be made uncomfortable by my awkward questions about sex and prostitution.

Our tour guide was named Simon.  He was full of so much interesting information that it was difficult for me to soak everything in.  He pointed out the theatres that were live sex shows.  Cassa Rosso owns most of the theatres in the Red Light District.  They were the ones to revolutionize the theatre and put live performers on stage to show people having sex.  It is a new angle to voyeurism and though the idea is intriguing, I don’t think that I would be able to go unless I had a significant other with me or Alisa.  Barring those two people, it’s not so much my thing.  We walked past the PIC (prostitute information center) on the other side of Oude Kirk, which has a plethora of pamphlets about prostitution and an older woman, who I think is relatively quite famous runs the shop as a non-profit organization.
At the end of our tour, we stopped at this bar and everyone had a Jaeger shot.  I found this to be massively appropriate since in all actuality that is the shot that is always on special at a strip club. How can you like Jaeger and not licorice?  They’re made of the same thing…  So we all had a shot and a majority of the group decided that they wanted to go to one of the live sex shows.  The tickets for these things cost 35 Euros.  I don’t know whether or not I think this is reasonable but again, definitely not something that I would do with a group of strangers.

Instead, I just hung out with Simon and some of his tour guide friends.  I was supposed to meet up with Robert at Dam Square at 9:30PM but when I got there, he wasn’t there.  I waited for about 20 minutes but he never showed up.  Part of me felt immeasurably guilty for leaving him to get back to Simon and the other tour guides because I just wanted company and to not be back at the hostel at 10PM when people were smoking cannabis in my room… P.S. that is why all my stuff smells like weed.  We stayed at the bar until they started powering down with Marilyn Manson.  It’s not that I don’t have respect for the guy, I would just prefer to have ear drums when I am 30. 

We walked to a little hole in the wall joint.  We were the only two there with the bartender and his woman.  It was a nice change.  I talked to Simon until I was just about ready to fall asleep on the bar.  For the most part, I would consider myself to have had one of the more successful days in Amsterdam being this last day.  I want so badly to make sure that I actually say that I have really seen a place that I tend to forget that seeing a place is only as good as seeing the people who reside there.  Maybe next time I visit Amsterdam I will be up for some extreme partying.  P – A – R – T – WHY?  Because I gotta!  I love and miss you all!!

I thought yesterday was bad.  Ooh wee.  Seriously.  I woke up in the middle of the night with loud booms of thunder and lightning and a monsoon the likes of India.  Where did this torrential downpour come from?  Yesterday, when it was raining during the morning and I was feeling lazy and not wanting to go out and get wet but this morning, just looking outside makes me feel like I’m going to get sick.  Not exactly the perfect way to go out and spend your time in Amsterdam.

Instead of doing walking and wandering around the city and continuing to get lost, I decided to take the bus to Central Station.  I kind of knew where I was going from there but my biggest goal was to get to the Rijksmuseum.  This is the quintessential Dutch Art museum that is housed int a building with a 19th century façade, housing Johannes Vermeer’s Kitchen Maid and Rembrandt’s Night Watch.  It is kind of like needing to see the Mona Lisa if you are in Paris.  NOT seeing Rembrandt’s Night Watch would be a travesty.  This was my first goal of the day.
When I got to Central Station, I walked down the way that I knew I was supposed to do and instead of walking straight to Leidse Square, I found myself at Rembrandt Square. From there, I really didn’t know how to get to the Rijksmuseum.  As I was wandering along the road, I found the most interesting sign.  You know those signs that are meant to look like a scan thing deal from a grocery store?  Well, there was a sign that had, in digital old school print, the sign of I love you in sign language.  I had to take a picture.  It was so cute.  It was like Mario trying to be a baller.
When I got to the Rijksmuseum, I was completely drenched.  It was okay for me to walk around but my feet were completely wet and I am not sure how people would have felt about me walking around barefooted in a national museum of Holland.  So I walked through the museum and marveled at all of the amazing works.  No pictures were allowed but it didn’t matter because I found this woman who was giving a private tour in English.  I didn’t really intentionally follow them around, but through the entirety of the tour, she (who had to have been Dutch) continuously said on many different occasions, ‘The Dutch were liars and thieves and the only reason this nation is great is because of stolen goods.’  Interesting to hear that from a Dutch national.

After I finished my way through the Rijksmuseum, I decided that the best thing for me to do was to go to the Van Gogh Museum.  It houses some 200 paintings and 500 drawings of Van Gogh’s as well as about 850 letters of Van Gogh to his younger brother Theo.  When I was a child, one of my favorite pieces in the world, as far as art was concerned, was Van Gogh’s Starry Night.  I was fortunate enough to actually get to see this in Dallas a while back.  Still, I wanted to see the museum because of the story of Van Gogh.  The museum itself houses his famous Potato Eaters, Vase with Sunflowers, the Bedroom at Arles, and Crows in a Wheatfield.  I walked through the museum and was astounded by all the art by which I was surrounded.  It is intense to go to a museum that is strictly dedicated to one artist and houses only a few paintings that either inspired the artist or were inspired by the artist. 

After leaving the Van Gogh Museum, I decided to grab lunch near Leidse Square.  I went into a restaurant that was purported to be Indonesian but I didn’t see anything on the menu that wasn’t French-inspired.  So I ate some soup and sat there with the guys in the restaurant warily eying me.  What is it about a woman travelling by herself?  It’s not like I’m some rare phenomenon in Europe… yet everyone seems to want to know why I’m doing it alone and without a friend or a husband.  Does this help my internal body clock?  Not so much.  They all thought I was Spanish and because they didn’t particularly look Dutch, I tried my best to politely respond in Spanish until they finally asked me where I was from.  Somehow, I get secret fulfillment when I don’t appear to be an American.  I suppose this is sadistic but I don’t even care.

I then walked to the Red Light District.  I wasn’t particularly interested in the whole ‘coffee shop’ scene, but the idea of legalized prostitution in such a tiny area intrigues me.  For some reason, in my brain it doesn’t work out.  That much estrogen in the same place would, to me, invite trouble and even extreme conflict.  Yet it still works.  I saw many a girl sitting in her window, waiting for a customer who wanted to spend 50 Euro for 15 minutes on your basic suck-and-fuck. (Sorry to be graphic but apparently that’s what they call it.)  What was intensely more interesting, from the sex side of things is not the fact that they had porn theatres… but you could actually go into theatres and watch two people having sex on stage.  I, myself, have never been that into voyeurism but I can get where people are coming from.  Still, I think that going to a theatre to get your rocks off to other people having sex is kind of strange.
I definitely loved going into all of the sex shops though.  Seeing all that there was to offer in a sex store without feeling judged in the least is really an intense thing.  In America, simply going to a sex shop, the general public would consider you a delinquent… but here, they just want to know what you’re looking for and are willing to supplement advice so that you can find the things that you are looking for. Did I buy things, maybe, but only me and one other person really need be concerned with that.  I seriously could have spent multiple hours in those shops talking to the people and looking at the differences between all kinds of clothing and toys.  There is something that is immensely satisfying for me to be able to admit that sex is natural and something that most people enjoy.  The Red Light District of Amsterdam just takes it to a whole different level.
I made sure to be home by 7PM because Philip had said that he was going to make dinner.  He indeed made a dinner of lamb and couscous that was completely out of this world.  I would do well to be able to replicate what he did with all the spices and fruits and vegetables that he put in there.  For desert, he mixed mascarpone with fresh vanilla bean seeds and sugar and topped everything off with strawberries that had been soaking in a concoction of balsamic vinegar and sugar.  Weird, I know, but AHH-mazing.  I will definitely have to be working with Alisa on this to help me make new and amazing recipes from the few things the Philip taught me to do!

I am so grateful to have been able to have met Anthony’s boyfriend and to have gotten to know someone who is living the life of a Dutchman.  Amsterdam is truly an amazing place and I feel so lucky that I have a home base and someone to bounce ideas off of while I am here.  Tomorrow, I will be going to a hostel to spend one more day in the city but there is something that is nice kind of getting your bearings in a place before you are just thrown into a city all alone just to see what there is to see.  I love and miss you all!!

This morning, when Philip woke up, I kind of stuck around the house.  I wasn’t really tired but it was raining and though I don’t really mind getting wet, it seems as though the autumn in Europe came sooner than I, or even the locals, expected.  This means that I am brutally ill-prepared to deal with freezing rain.  So this morning, I did laundry, read a book, played my guitar, and after all my laundry was finished, I went out to find lunch.

I decided that Amsterdam was too small for me to take the bus everywhere… so I started walking.  I don’t particularly mind walking anywhere… but I was not necessarily in the center of town.  I started walking though this amazingly beautiful park that had the most interesting statues.  So in Copenhagen, there were elephants promoting some kind of awareness – maybe Asian elephant awareness since they are going extinct… here in Amsterdam, they have globes.  These lined a street and were all unique in their own way, promoting eco-friendly things from green energy to recycling.  I didn’t count but my guess is that there were at least 40 different globes painted or completed using different things.  I probably stood at each globe for about 3 minutes wasting about an hour of my very precious time in Amsterdam just admiring the art.
I then started walking through western Amsterdam.  This is considered to be a very posh neighborhood with all kinds of money, but considerably more conservative than the rest of the outspoken Amsterdam.  I saw almost no one in the streets… what was even more annoying is that I was completely famished and every store I passed seemed to be closed or I was just nervous about going into a restaurant to order food when I don’t speak the language and when no one else is in the restaurant.  So I wandered around and looked at the amazing architecture.  My intention was to go directly to the Anne Frank House… but I had to stop for food earlier.

So what is Amsterdam known for (at least among some of my delinquent friends who know less about art and architecture than cannabis)?  Cannabis.  I am not into marijuana.  I don’t like really anything about it… but I feel crass to judge anyone who likes using it because I don’t know what it’s like to be in their skin… my skin says no.  I think it was the D.A.R.E. programs that I went through in South Florida when I was growing up.  All I knew is that you could get marijuana at a coffee shop.  Tell, I didn’t know that a ‘coffee shop’ was actually labeled as such.  I just thought that if you wanted to go into a shop to get a cup of coffee, which I desperately needed, that I was going to be accosted by the cringing, well-known smell of marijuana smoke and worry about what I was eating because I just don’t have to time to get stoned for several hours.

Hunger got the better of me… so I walked into this lonely store where I saw another lone traveler munching on a bagel and drinking a cup of coffee and I decided that I had to take my chances or else I would not do anyone any good because I would just be lame and pass out somewhere in the streets.  Through happenstance, I leaned everything about the ‘coffee shops’ from the owner who angrily bitched out some tourists for asking for some ‘space cake’.  I guess I don’t have to worry about my tomato soup and baguette being laced with THC after all.  The owner was super nice.  I asked him for directions around the city and he did everything he could to help me.

When I exited this delightful little coffee company, I turned left and RIGHT THERE I was at the Anne Frank House.  What luck, right?  The line looked a little long and everyone that I’d talked to had told me that it was really not something that I needed to see unless I was really into the story.  I haven’t read it in years but who wouldn’t go to the Anne Frank House if they were in Amsterdam?  As I was standing in line, out the door of the museum walks a girl that I swear I knew from high school.  You hear random stories about this all the time, but for me, I didn’t know what to do.  I closed my eyes to think about the name because it’s been 10 years, and when I opened them after I’d gotten it, she was gone.  Then, she wandered right by me and I said, ‘Kaitlin?’  She looked straight at me and was as surprised as I was to see someone from home so far away from home.  Kaitlin Moon-Jones was in MHS theatre with me back in the day.  She was and is a phenomenal dancer and actress and now is working for the USO.  It’s crazy how small the world becomes as you grow up.We then had a drink on Leidse Square on the terrace.  I was not prepared and therefore very cold. Robert is fascinating.  He spent some time in China, which is how we initially started talking, and then after that did several internships abroad.  I don’t know how people are able to do that but somehow, it works for them.  After a few drinks and because it was definitely not warm enough for me in a shawl and him in a t-shirt, we moved to Rembrandt Square and had a few more beers inside.  It was super fun just getting to talk to someone about shared experiences in the same places.  It’s not that I want to be pretentious.  I don’t.  It’s just that some people really can only understand something once they’ve been there… so it was nice to have someone like that.  We spent a better part of the night chitchatting before he took me back to Central Station on the back of his bicycle.  I should be so lucky that I have people in my life who are so chivalrous.  I do, but not here.  I love and miss you all!

This morning, I was so proud of myself for getting up on time, being quiet… getting out of the house when I needed to in order to catch the bus to get to Amsterdam on time.  By the way, Saarbrücken is not really on the way to anywhere other than Paris… so if you’re trying to go to Amsterdam, you really need to get creative.  Thankfully, Kerri helped me out and showed me where the tourist information office was.  As it turns out, Luxembourg is very close to Saarbrücken and therefore has a semi-regular bus that comes and goes from the main train station every day.  You can then catch a train from Luxembourg to almost anywhere convenient.  This is what I chose to do… or so I thought.

I had done a lot of careful planning to make sure that I would have the opportunity to see a tiny bit of Luxembourg.  The bus was supposed to leave at 9:15AM but because it is Sunday and everyone here seems to be particularly religious, the busses are less semi-regular than normal.  So I tried for a train but the train was leaving later than the bus.  So instead, I just sat at the bus stop for two hours watching people, playing my guitar, and trying to make sure that I didn’t have do anything that would cause an annoyance to anyone.

When the bus finally came at 11:15, I was biting my nails because of the ticket I’d already purchased for the train… so much for seeing a bunch of Luxembourg.  As I sat on the bus, I was one of the first to arrive… but I didn’t think that there would be that many people coming since I was at the bus station waiting and NO ONE else was there.  Nevertheless, soon there were about 60 loud high school girls flowing on to the bus and taking every last available seat.  I don’t know why I thought this would be a peaceful trip… As we pulled out of Saarbrücken, the girls started singing together.  Apparently, they were some kind of choir and they were very impressive.  I guess I was one of about 5 people who weren’t on tour with these girls and I really enjoyed myself as they lulled me to sleep with their music practice.

In Luxembourg, I arrived only 40 minutes before my train was set to depart.  I wandered around a couple of blocks but stayed relatively near the train station because I didn’t want to get lost and then not have the ability to actually get to my train on time.  Luxembourg is absolutely breath-taking.  It is a good sized town but it is so rich that everything is lavishly decorated with amazing facades and brilliant architecture.  I wish that I’d planned my time to Amsterdam better because I would have loved to have spent the day or even the night here just seeing what there was to see…  General Patton was buried here after all!

The train situation from Luxembourg to Amsterdam is like this, you get on a train in Luxembourg and change trains in Brussels.  There were not so many people on the leg from Luxembourg to Brussels, but from Brussels to Amsterdam, I was surprised to find that there were more people than seats on the train.  I guess you can do whatever you want if you’re the train authority.  All of the children on the train were so cute and relatively well mannered… but the train was definitely not as nice as the one from Berlin to Saarbrücken. 

I got to Amsterdam at about 7:30PM and went straight to Philip’s house.  Philip is my friend Anthony’s betrothed… Anthony kind of set up everything for me… which was awesome.  I arrived and Philip had already eaten but we sat around and just chitchatted the night away, not going out, not really doing anything but enjoying the company of a new friend.  I think that there is something definitely wonderful about getting to stay with friends as you travel.  It makes the world seem as big as it really is but helps you find a home wherever you are.  So even though I basically spent the entirety of today just travelling, it was a good day and tomorrow, I’m going to see what Amsterdam has to offer… for someone not interested in Coffee Shops or the Red Light District.  I love and miss you all!!!

So this morning is Saturday.  Somehow, when you’re on an extended vacation, you end up forgetting which day is which and even what the actual date is.  However, when you are aware that it is the weekend, it makes things a little easier when you’re staying with friends because it means that you don’t feel as guilty about being off of work and everything.  Because we got back to the house later than I expected, waking up this morning took a little more effort for me than normal.  We had some things planned for the day but I didn’t really know what that entailed.

Kerri’s only plan for the day was to visit the local IKEA.  I think that IKEA is great but it makes me think that everything that I own is really shitty and I should break down and buy a whole bunch of newer and more modern things.  We were thinking about lots of plans but ended up getting out to IKEA so late that it didn’t work.  I love going furniture shopping with friends.  I think that it is so interesting to see the tastes that some people have for their homes and how it differs from mine.  I know that I will be having to do a bunch of furniture shopping when I get home, so I suppose going with Kerri was kind of like being in training for being an adult and getting furniture that I like in MY house.

We walked through, laying on beds and looking at wardrobes, until it was so overwhelming for Kerri that we had to simply sit down and figure out whether or not she actually wanted to buy anything or whether she should just wait.  Then we distracted each other by talking about old Aggie Band stories and trying to figure out who the Corps Commander was when we were seniors and what it was like to be on Kyle Field in the Aggie Band.  It is fun to reminisce about those things with people who actually knows how it feels to be in those shoes…  We even talked so long that we ended up eating lunch at IKEA.

However, we shouldn’t have stopped because instead of checking to see when the bus would come through, since it was a Saturday and everything changes based on weekday and weekend times, that we missed the bus by only 5 minutes but if we wanted to wait for the next one, it would be nearly 3 hours until the next one came.  I wasn’t so keen on actually waiting around for that long and neither was Kerri; after all, this was her day off and just my vacation.  So we started walking… but I had no idea how far it was to get back to the train and when we eventually got to the highway, we decided that calling a taxi was the best thing to do. 

Getting in a taxi cab always makes me nervous.  I don’t know if it is because I am putting my life in the hands of a complete stranger or if I am a complete cheapskate. Could be a combination of the two.  Either way, when we got into the taxi, Kerri told the driver where to go… however the road was shut down and as the meter kept ticking up, I got more and more anxious.  It was slightly like being in Beijing when the taxi driver didn’t know how to get to the Great Wall… but instead if it being pennies every time the meter goes up, it was more like quarters.  Yikes.  It wasn’t so bad but I could see Kerri biting her nails over the unexpected expenditure as well.

The beauty of the location of the train station is the fact that it is very near a UNESCO World Heritage Site: Weltkultur – Völklinger Hütte.  I didn’t really know anything about the site but apparently it has 6 kilometers of walkways that show the milestones in high technology in the beginning of the 20th Century.  In 1873 a man names Julius Busch started a steel works company on the Saar River but he didn’t complete this feat and so in 1881, Carl Röchling took over but the plant was only in operation for 4 years because shutting down again.  It opened and closed a few times but then in WWII, they used 70,000 concentration camp workers to continue to make steel for the war efforts.  It closed in 1986 but only 8 years later it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I don’t know how fast you walk, but 6 kilometers, just walking, it a long way… but then if you want to stop and read anything or take in any of what you’ve seen, it would take you longer than it was open.  They close everyday at 6PM and by the time we got there it was about 4:30 so we just sat and had a cup of coffee on the terrace and marveled at the giant city block that was once the largest steel mill in the world.  We wanted to get back to the train station early enough as to not miss any of the trains but as it turns out, we were there as they were unloading molten steel from the factories.  Molten, you say… why yes, the train cars were aglow with hot liquid metal and they were pulling about 8 of them down the track at once.  This has always impressed me when I get to see a metal container which holds liquid metal.  I’m not scientists and I know relatively little about melting points… but it was definitely one of the strangest things either Kerri or I have ever seen.

We got back into Saarbrücken at about 5PM.  Kerri took me to see her place that she will be moving into in less than two weeks.  It was nice to get to see something of someone else’s and feel pride for them that they are so successful after all this time.  It is the cutest house and her room is absolutely adorable.  I know that she will be happier there because she isn’t surrounded by a bunch of pre-pubescent college kids who only want to part all the time.  It gets exhausting after awhile. 

We then went to the Ludwigskirche (Ludwig Church) so look at one of the best known things about Saarbrücken.  I was happy to see what there was to see in this particular area.  Saarbrücken is so different from all of the big cities that I’ve been to on this trip.  It is nice that everything here is kind of centered on church and a quiet lifestyle rather than the grandiose nature of someplace like Berlin.  We were invited to go over to another of Kerri’s friend’s houses: Andy.  We arrived there and everyone was playing video games.  We spent the evening quietly talking and laughing at each others’ jokes, debating, and throwing a minor dinner party just to celebrate friendship.  It is nice to see what the locals are doing… even if they are expats.  I am so glad to have met all of Kerri’s friends and she what life is like for an ESL teacher in Germany.  It kind of makes me want to go back and do it for myself.  I love and miss you all!!