"January 27, 2009"

January 27, 2009

Today was very long, filled with lots of cold weather, long walks, and good company. We started the morning with breakfast downstairs at the hotel- an interesting combination: corn flakes, sandwich meat, and rolls. We smuggled out some sandwiches for lunch (that most of us didn’t even get around to eating unfortunately) and headed out for the day, beginning with a stop at a place to get Netherland’s Passport pictures for our residential permits. After that, we stopped by the CIEE office and met our advisor people, Hannah and Renee. They were very nice and let us check our email and write parents. After figuring out the schedule for tomorrow, we continued on the Dam Square area, filled with different smoke shops (bongs lining the shelves and marijuana candy bars, chocolate, and lollipops to the consumer’s liking), cafes, hookah bars, and souvenir shops. We stopped for lunch at this Tapas place, which means basically little plates to get a lot of and share. Kelly & I shared a hamburger and fries. A little plate came out with sliced potatoes and a little meatloaf-like patty on top. It was actually really good!
We continued on and glanced in different smoke shops, and saw some with refrigerators, holding little packs of shrooms (which are technically illegal now…) and other smoking supplies. We stopped at this shop called “Dampkring Growshop” which actually had 3 plants growing in the back! We got pictures! It also had a microscope set up so you could check out the crystals on a piece of the weed. We moved on to walk more, and made a very large loop of the city, ending up at a coffee shop that had not only space cake, but also space tea and chronic hot chocolate. We also went in this shop that had like, herbal drug-like teas. There was one that sounded like it would act like Adderol, one to enhance the effects of shrooms, one to maximize sexual something…very interesting. There were also these pills that was “natural LSD, ” promised to cause colorful hallucinations. This store also had a set up of “Peyote,” which is what the Indians use to use for their “spiritual journeys.” Peyote kind of looked like shrooms, but was said to have a 12-hour high. As if I even need to say it, this store was cool, yet no purchases were made.
When we eventually got back to the hotel, we enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate in the lobby and then Kelly & I went up and passed out for like 2 hours…it was beautiful. So I haven’t mentioned this, but the weather is COLD! Today I wore leggings & uggs, a tanktop, sweater, jacket, long woven jacket, wool coat, gloves, and my little head wrap-ear covers. It was really cold in the morning and then warmed up once the sun came out in the afternoon. The weather actually got quite pleasant during this time, and wasn’t even that cold when we headed out for dinner until a little while through our walk. We ended up at this place called Pints & Plates. The ten of us grabbed a table upstairs and the waiter was a little goofy. It was a fun & extended dinner, though, and everyone is trying to be a bit more conservative with their money now. Once we left the dinner place, we walked to this ice bar…kinda like the Absolut Icebar I went to in London. We didn’t end up staying because we decided to save it for another night, so Twen (Tiffany Wen- new nickname), KB (Kelly Bartlett), and I (Dia) headed back to our place.
I am really happy about the situation we have going on. Twen & KB are both really cool girls, and we’ve really clicked so far. We are all in different dorms, so it will be good to expand from where we’re living and explore the other areas more easily. These girls are just really fun and we’re all always laughing and making jokes and just having a great time. Even now while we’re in the hotel room (its midnight now) we’re all just talked and making jokes and laughing obnixously.
Tomorrow orientation starts: we have to take a cab to go get our apt keys in the morning and then get to our apt…then we have til 3 pm to get to CIEE for orientation, so I will have time to unpack, hopefully get on wireless, etc. That’s all for now…