Amsterdam/Last few days in Cottbus

So my birthday in Amsterdam was pretty incredible. The city lived up to my expectations and I had a blast hanging out with all my new friends for the last time.

I left for Amsterdam at 6am and got there at 3pm to hang out with Judy. We found each other at the train station without having to use our cell phones - always a good thing over hear because it costs so much just to say "Hey, meet me by the sign that says *sounds really long German word out extremely slowly*".

We checked into our hostel, which was quite an experience. The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel advertises itself with the slogan "It can't get any worse than this". Always promising. The entire place smelled of pot and Judy found some lovely tiny hairs covering her mattress, haha. Good times. We had until 8.30pm to wander the city until we needed to meet up with people. We walked to Vondel Park - the park that they want to legalize public sex in - and then went up and down the streets doing some shopping in cool stores. Amsterdam is a big shopping place, apparently. I love their clothes because all of the pants are long enough for me! Dutch people, I believe, are the tallest people (or one of the tallest) by nationality. Perfect! I bought a sweet pair of pants that were size medium - I can never buy pants without a designated length in the states so I figured I definitely had to purchase these. Good call.

Friday night, after meeting up with our group, we headed off to check out the infamous Amsterdam coffee shops. I wish I could say more, but you know the saying: "What happens in Amsterdam, stays in Amsterdam."

Saturday morning we got up and checked out the Anne Frank Museum. I was really excited about going here and it was just as interesting as I thought it would be. The museum is put together very nicely - you walk through the building that housed the secret annex (Anne's father's business's building) and then you actually get to go behind the bookshelf and up into the secret annex itself! So cool! I learned a lot and the whole thing was really moving. There are quotes from her diary all over the walls - very powerful stuff. Perhaps I'll find some time to read her diary sometime.

Sadly, after the museum, I went to take a picture of the building and I dropped my camera. I only dropped it about a foot above the ground, but I guess that was enough to mess it up. Everything works just fine, except the camera doesn't pick up light, so it only takes black photos. Because that's the only thing wrong with it (sounds pretty minor to me) I figure I can get it fixed when I get back home. I went and picked up a disposable camera at a tourist shop that had 27 pictures on it. Sweet. I haven't used a disposable in ages, hah. The running joke was that I only have 27 picture opportunities, so whenever I went to take a picture everyone wanted to know what it would be of because that meant it was one of the top 27 things in Amsterdam. I'm really excited to see the pictures I took - I miss the excitement of going to Walgreens and picking up a roll of developed photos. I didn't use all 27 pictures in Amsterdam, so I will use the rest in Berlin along with another disposable camera. It should be interesting being limited with pictures, but I like the surprise behind it - I'm excited.

We also hit up the Van Gogh Museum, which was pretty cool. The place was WAY to crowded for my liking, but it was raining outside so everyone had the same idea as we did to get out of the rain. The pictures were cool, but I don't know much about art, so I just look at them and move on. Still really neat to learn about his life and see some of his works that I haven't seen before. Good choice to go there.

Saturday night was my birthday, so Laura, Ryan, Dana, and I went out dancing at the clubs. I had a great time and it was really nice to get to spend my birthday with friends. I was worried earlier this summer that I wouldn't have anything to do for my birthday, but luckily everything worked itself out.

Saturday we accidentally slept in and woke up realizing we had to check out 20 minutes ago. We rushed to get all of our stuff together and then were interrupted by some large black man that yelled at us to get out of our room because we were late. Oh, Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, you never cease to disappoint. We eventually got the hell out of there and then made our way to our free tour. New Europe tours are great - they're done off of a tip basis so you only pay what you think the guy deserves. Our guy was really cool and I learned a lot about Amsterdam:

So, turns out that smoking, selling, growing, etc. pot in Amsterdam is actually completely illegal. They have just "decriminalized" the act, so nobody really gets in trouble for it. Like jaywalking. Apparently, in the Netherlands, if the economy can make money off of something that doesn't really "harm" anyone, then it's allowed. Yes, it is also true that they recently passed a law that bans the smoking of cigarettes inside buildings, but you are still allowed to smoke pot in coffee shops and anywhere inside. Apparently the political party in power right now is very conservative so they want to reduce the number of coffee shops by not allowing one to be open that is within 500m of a school or church - that will reduce the +250 coffee shops currently open, to only 8. It should be interesting to see how that goes down... Also, prostitution is completely legal there. We walked through the heart of the red light district and it was pretty insane. Little glass windows filled with women wearing just about nothing lined the streets. All lit up with red lights, of course. It was pretty interesting trying to see them get guys' attentions and stuff, hah. Even the red light district in Paris lacked the glass windows with women in them - so this was very impressive.

Laura and I left about 2/3 of the way through the tour because we had to catch our train back home. It was sad saying goodbye to everyone, but I hope to see most of them again. Canada and New York aren't that far away? Right?

The train ride was a long one, but I got back at about midnight. I always see the craziest wildlife when I walk home from the station! 2 trips ago I saw a wild ferret! Yeah! It scurried across the street - I followed it for a bit because I have never seen a wild one before, but then I lost it in the shadows. Then, coming home this time I saw something walking through the grass - I got close and saw that it was a hedgehog! Yes! A wild hedgehog! I saw me, then turned around and scurried back across the grass, hah. Pretty cool.

My last day of work was today. Not so bad. I finished my experiment and then Annika, my boss, made me clean about +250 test tubes for some other person before I could go. Very frustrating, seeing how it was my last day. Oh well. I thought perhaps she was making me doing this so she could throw together a surprise party for after I finished (why else would she make me do this on my LAST day?), but luckily that wasn't the case. I'm not friends with any of the people I work with, so it's good there was no celebration - I see that being a pretty awkward time. But yeah, working there was pretty cool. I got to see how a real research lab is run and I got to do field work, which I enjoy. Although soil isn't my topic of choice, I think it was a good start and something that I can definitely put down on my resume. Plus I got to explore Europe the whole summer and got paid to do it - what more can I ask for?

I've cleaned most of my apartment now and I'm going to wake up early to finish the last part before I leave. Since cleaning I've killed about 20 little black beatle things. Seriously. Apparently I disturbed their home while cleaning and now they are out and about, scurrying all over my stuff. Disgusting. See, people, this is exactly why I don't clean on a regular basis. It leads to trouble.

I check out of my apartment at 9.30am tomorrow morning then I'm off on a train to Berlin at 11am. Yay! I couldn't be more excited. There were a few things happening at home that I was concerned about the last few days, but the excitement of going to Berlin and then flying home has erased any worries that I had. This weekend will be an awesome way to end this trip and I can't wait. I also can't wait to see everyone and hang out with people for a week before I have to go to work at Tech.

Well, I have to wake up in 5.5 hours, so I should probably work on getting to bed. I don't know how I'll get to sleep between the herd of bugs and all my excitement, but I guess I should try.

Next time I talk I'll be at home! Eeek!

See you all soon.