VAMPIRE WEEKEND

Since my computer is still broken, I can't upload any pictures onto this site so I apologize for that.

Tuesday was my dishwashing shift, but after working for only an hour I was told that I wasn't needed anymore and could have the rest of the day off. How great. In the afternoon Zach and I received a ride to Amsterdam with the director of Mennorode, Mr. Geert Eigenbrood. He's the big shot here, whenever my co-workers see him coming they tell me to look extra busy, I'm not sure what they think I'm normally doing.. Either way, we were dropped off at a bus station in the outer parts of Amsterdam and after much confusion of which bus to take we arrived safely at our Stay Okay hostel in the center of Amsterdam. Here I would like to clarify that it was indeed not the center, but a 20 minute train away from the city center. When I explained we were at the Muiderpoort station, all the Mennorode staff agreed we were indeed in the city center. I still don't think we were.

Upon our arrival at the hostel, we met Dustin and after leaving our bags in our room, which we had to ourselves!, we set out looking for a place to eat in the Bollywood section of the city. I'm not being rude when saying that, there was actually a street called Bollystraat. We found a quaint italian restaurant near our hostel who served us with the most delicious pizza I have tasted, and watching the customers entertained us throughout the meal as well as Dustin's commentary on what he assumed they were doing.

After the meal we hurridly caught the train from the near-by station to the Heineken Music Hall. It was super busy since the soccer arena is right beside the hall and there was the "real amsterdam vs madrid" game the same night, but we quickly found the hall, checked our coats (free coat check! Genius!), and found some seats. The hall was fairly large and although we agreed it would be awesome to be a part of the crowd, I voted for sitting since I don't enjoy being stepped on, crammed into other people, having beer spilt on me, and being covered in other peoples' sweat. So I bounced along to the music in the air conditioned seating area at the back. I could see Vampire Weekend perfectly and was so glad that I wasn't trying to see over peoples heads. Zach ventured down into the crowd of people halfway through, and dustin remained bouncing beside me. All in all it was a reallyyy great show.

The train station was unbelieveably busy afterwards, since the concert and football game ended at the same time, and after spending a long time getting up the escalators (which had stopped and were steps) and finding a board to see what time the train came at we found out we were on the wrong platform. Instead of trying to get through the crowds of people again and go down the escalator stairs the wrong direction we opted for the SLOWEST elevator ever and went to the right spoor. Of course the train was nearly empty, except for a couple who when realizing we were speaking english fluently to each other decided to mock us and speak in their english that neither of them could understand and start singing songs. Needless to say we were all laughing at their attempts, which was probably exactly what they wanted.

Wednesday after breakfast we headed back to the train station, and after dropping dustin's suitcase off at the main station we headed out into the wonderful world of Amsterdam. We simply wandered through the residental streets and 9 shopping streets. It was great to spend those two days with the guys. Since we have no other English/Canadian contacts, when we are together our conversations are rarely serious and mainly bursting with sarcasm and jokes. Those two days, doing nothing inparticular (other than seeing Vampire Weekend), may have been two of the best days of the month.