Still Around

No worries. I am indeed still alive, despite the slovenly manner in which I have updated this blog. I assure you, as I have in the past, updates will be more frequent and of a higher quality.

The past couple of weeks her in Holland have been excellent. I have made many friends from far off and exotic places like Whales and Germany. Exciting, I know.
School has been going great, aside from a bad case of the lazy ass one day this week. This crazy two block semester means that exams and assignments are sneaking up on me in a hurry, but I'll survive.

As for the homestead. I actually really like my apartment. The tiny little thing is growing on me. The building is great as well. A big group of us students have become close and hang out at the corner bar a lot. Also, this little guy is apparently our unofficial building pet.



Nobody knows his name, but he hangs out behind the building around the bicycle parking all day, occasionally crying for food. He is clearly well fed, which is why he stays around, I'm sure.

Last weekend, a big group of us from the Narwal (the name given to either this building or the neighborhood, I haven't figured out which one just yet) went out to the beach on Zandvoort which was good fun. On the walk to the train station, Dafydd and I spotted this odd looking fellow.



There is so much to say about this man. I don't even know where to begin. So much spandex on one human being. Where do you get a pink do rag anyway? Baffling.

From that little distraction, we were off to the beach. Which was quite nice. I was expecting it to be cold as it was the previous few days, but went anyway, despite my best judgment. Luckily, I was dead wrong. It was a beautiful day for the beach.

I wasn't sure about this beach, but we come to the stairs and catch the first glimpse, and it was nice.




But, if you notice off in the distance, is this



A nice big sailing ship, which we spent most of the next couple of hours hatching a scheme to pirate it. It was quite a complex plan, which involved the hijacking of no less than two other smaller boats, in order to get to that one. Alas, as the beer flowed, we lost interest and never fulfilled out dreams of being rogue mariners.

Later on, I spotted this tenacious fellow. He was trying to surf the saddest set of waves I have ever seen, but damned if he wasn't getting up on a few. You have to kind of admire that.



Towards the end of the evening, we left the beach, where me and Dafydd split from the group to meet up with some other folk, where we proceeded to get a right bit inebriated and involved in some light petty theft, if you can call it that. None the less, good times were had by all involved. All in all, it was a good Saturday in Holland.

And now, I must be off to continue my studies. But I assure you, there will be more to come.

I am no longer bicycleless

Now I can be everywhere and unstoppable, as I finally secured a bicycle. And after much headache, it is now fully functional. Behold



It's no looker, but it gets the job done.

Other than the cycling business, a lot has gone on this past week. I began classes, which has been exciting. All of my lecturers are Dutch, which I didn't really expect, but perhaps should have considering I'm studying at a Dutch university. I think I'm going to enjoy this semester. It's very nice to exclusively study exactly what you want.

My buddy, Paolo showed me around the university and a bit of the town, and directed me towards the oddly named book store. It was really just a regular ass book store and not one devoted to the sales of text and school books, which made it a bit difficult, luckily I had a native to guide me. Below is said oddly named bookstore, which I now know how to pronounce, but cant pull off spelling it phonetically, so you will just have to guess.



After getting all set up and getting back into the groove of school, I wandered around town a bit. My neighbourhood, Haarlemmerdijk seems to be nice. It has a ton of shops and a market every Saturday.



It's no Adams Avenue, but it will do just fine.

On Friday, a few of us from the building went to our corner bar for some drinks. CJ, an American I have befriended here is half Dutch and his father was in town for some sort of college reunion. Thus we went out to the Spui to see if we could scrounge up a few free drinks from his dad and his buddies at the bar they were at. When we finally arrive after getting a bit lost, the bartender says he is closing up shop and isn't serving anymore. He claims he was sick, but I think he didn't want to serve a few Americans and a Welshman, the racist bastard.
After this slight, he points us to a couple of bars, one of which he calls a punk bar and have very cheap beer. Naturally, I am intrigued and insist on going for both the punk and the cheap beers. You can't really beat that.
Thus we spend the wee hours of the morning with a bunch of Dutch punks. Good times were had by all. A few days later, I am walking back home and stumble upon this place in the daylight.



Oddly enough, there is no stage, but I will have to return.

That is all for week two, but I leave you with a few photos, naturally.

I saw this and thought it was a classy piece of graffiti, then I translated it and it became so much more glorious. I don't know who did it, but I admire him to no end. It translates to "we are everywhere and unstoppable."


Here is De Krijtberg R.K. Kerk St. Franciscus Xaverius, the big Catholic Church in Amsterdam. From what I understand, it was made in 1883. Don't worry Moms, I will investigate into the church further, per our agreement.


Below is the Dam Palace, where the Queen lived when she lived in Amsterdam, before high tailing it to the Hague. She still stays here when in Amsterdam, but it's not or ordinary residence.


Finally, I think Chevrolet needs to reevaluate its strategy in Europe.


More to come,
Matt