The first weekend.

Starting Friday afternoon, I got to take part in an introduction weekend to Amsterdam.  Being as tired as I was starting off the weekend with mega twister (about 30 twister boards taped together with about 200 students) didn't seem like a great start.  However, our group bonded nearly instantly and we made a great time out of the games.

Each night as a group of about 20 international students, we went for an activity or two, dinner, and a night out on the town.  While the food tended to be less than fabulous, the activities included a canal tour, an improv comedy show similar to Who's Line is it Anyway, a guided tour of the city center, and ended with a photo scavenger hunt.  We pretty much went nonstop for 72 hours, which means I am currently about one step above comatose.

I have to admit, when I first found out that I'd be coming to Amsterdam this past March I was devastated.  Ideally we had planned to go to Edinburgh, Scotland, and Amsterdam was actually our last choice.  I didn't really know anything about the city besides weed, and I guess I had just had my heart set on the UK.  After the extensive tour taken this weekend, I have fallen deeply in love with Amsterdam.

The streets have so much character, 

the tilting canal houses tell a million stories, 

the whizzing and whirring of bicycles are the soundtrack to the fantasy tale told by the barely clad girls in shop windows of the Red Light District.  

The rain is sucky to say the least, but the grass is a shade of green unseen by my eyes back home.

I want to go into every shop we pass,

I want to ride my rusty, used, hand-brakeless bike over every inch of cobblestone alley,

I want to live in a canal house,

Pray to a hidden church in the middle of the 600 year old convent courtyard in the middle of downtown.

More to come later, as I have so many ideas running through my head that I can't seem to catalogue them all on my lack of slumber.  Thanks for reading, thanks for praying, and keep believing :)