Fortunately, we are not the types to be meddling with drugs, legal or not, so we skipped that portion of the "things to do while in amsterdam".

There is definately a lot more to see in amsterdam than expected. we didn't hit up the hard nightlife, but took it easy with irish pubs and smokey hole-in-the-wall bars. but on the sight-seeing aspect of our trip (which can always rationalize a few extra drinks later on), we did see the anne frank house. it was very sobering, and actually tied in to our trip to our earlier trip to Dachau. the concentration camps, the nazi rule, the victims of the holocaust...it's all so interesting and the fact that it was in this lifetime that such a genocide took place...quite touching.
so i called my dad to tell him we went to see the ann frank house, and he says..."oh....right..." and i can already tell i've lost him. then he goes "so....she was blind, wasn't she?" and instantly i think oh my dear lord, he thinks i'm talking about helen kellar....so i say "oh no no this was during the second world war" and he took another second and then says "hmmm...why don't you quickly remind me of the story". so i'm laughing later on telling my older brother, and he goes "okay, so when mum told me you went to see the anne frank house, i thought she said 'anne frankhouse' and i said 'oh, isn't that a singer?'" thank you, cultured family

oh, and quite a show - lauren got chased down the street by crazy euro-children. we think now they were playing tag, but it was great to see lauren screaming, running down the street while all these young, blonde headed children-of-the-corn chased her down the streets of amsterdam hahahah unreal

we did make sure to pack our bags full of holland merchandise - shirts, socks, postcards, shot glasses, and anything else we could pick up last second. unfortuantely for my little brother, we could not find a "my sisters got high in amsterdam and all i got was this lousy tshirt"