It rains ... a lot.

It has been quite some time since my last post and as a result it is very difficult to remember everything that I've done in the last week and a half and try to recount it. What does come immediately to mind is the weather. I only have one issue with Amsterdam, and that is the weather. If they can build dikes and stop the lowlands from flooding, they should be able to do something about the eternal wintry mix here, too. It's rained pretty much every day for about a week and a half now. Often it comes in spurts, and it's not like in America where it storms for a few hours and then the next day it's beautiful. It just kind of drizzles for a week here. The sun often comes out during intervals, and more than once I've seen sunlight out my window and been greeted with rain by the time I'm out of my building.

That being said, I love Amsterdam more every day. I love the people, the streets, the buildings, the canals, the food (especially the beer and the coffee), the flowers, the markets, my bike. I recently traded in my first bike for a different one, a 21-gear mountain bike type. It's a lot faster and being able to switch gears is nice, and I also finally have a rack for strapping a basket or a small person to. My biking skills have grown immensely since my first wobbly ride upon getting here. I zip through the biking lanes with confidence. I ring my bell at slow bikers. I squeeze through mathematically impossible spaces. I listen to music, talk on my phone, eat fries and mayonnaise, read Spinoza, nap, and compose poetry ... all while biking. When pedestrians see me coming, they flee in terror. I am like Nicolas Cage in Ghost Rider, only far more dangerous and with better acting skills. 

Only part of that is true (I am definitely a better actor than Nicolas Cage). In fact, I experienced my first spill yesterday. It's well-known that you have to cross tram tracks in Amsterdam perpendicularly, otherwise your tires will get caught in them. Yesterday I was biking in pouring rain through the Dam (pictured here), the large square between the royal palace and the national monument, and in all the rain I managed to get my front tire jammed in a track. Needless to say I went flying over my handlebars onto the wet cobblestone. I was not seriously injured, but my pride may never recover (the Dam is a very, very busy area. I don't want to know how many people watched this hapless tourist eat the Dam yesterday). It didn't hurt until today. 

Last week I visited several museums: the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Anne Frank House. The Van Gogh museum is phenomenal and I can't wait to go back. The Rijksmuseum is basically the Dutch national museum and to be honest, it's a bit dry, though they have a nice collection of Rembrandt and Vermeer. It's housed in an incredibly beautiful building, but unfortunately much of it is under construction and as a result the exhibit is pretty limited. The Anne Frank house, which is all of a minute's walk from my building, was a great experience for me. I went with Will, who spent four or five days in Amsterdam last week with some friends from his program in Vienna. Actually seeing the building and the hiding area after reading the diary so many years ago is something I think everybody should do at some point. I won't try to describe the experience, I just highly recommend it. The museum itself is also very well done. 

Having Will here gave me the opportunity to show off my extremely limited knowledge of Amsterdam. It was really nice to be able to lead somebody else around "my city." I think I did all right. It also gave us the opportunity to pool our collective love of beer and make a careful examination

 of the cafes (bars) in Jordaan. Here, the nice ones are called "brown cafes" and there is at least one on every block in my neighborhood. They get the name from their dimly lit, mellow atmosphere, and the fact that many are quite old and almost all have wooden bars, tables, and floors. They are a far cry from the noisy, crowded bars in the touristy red light district and around much of Amsterdam centrum. Here we practiced the fine Dutch art of being gezellig, which is a difficult concept to describe but in my interpretation means having meaningful and earnest conversation with a few good friends over a beautiful glass of beer. Being gezellig also justifies drinking beer at any hour of the day. In this manner we discovered Rasputin, an herby, 5 euro per glass beer brewed after a 14th or 15th century recipe that makes Guinness taste like Bud Light and clocks in at 10.8% alcohol per volume. Beer culture here is nothing like in America.  You also can't really get drunk in a brown cafe--it wouldn't be looked upon kindly. This place is perfect for me. 

Also, it turns out I'm taking classes here. That was a big surprise last Monday. For the most part I don't have class until 12 or 1, but I do have a 9am on Wednesdays, which is brutal. I'm taking a film class called Europe-Hollywood-Europe, Introductory Dutch, Introduction to European Integration, and an English class called Literature, Love, and Lust (many fellow Brandeis English majors will recognize this one from last year ... I think this course must be taught everywhere). Everybody says that studying abroad is an academic joke, but I feel like I have a pretty decent amount of work to do (though granted less than I would have at Brandeis). That being said, there are relatively few assignments. Dutch academics pretty much put all the responsibility for keeping up with readings and lectures on the student, and most of my classes only grade a midterm and a final. My classes are through the international school here, the International School for Humanities and Social Sciences, so unfortunately I don't really interact with Dutch students in the classroom. On the other hand, I meet people from all over the world: Kenya, Kazakhstan (I did not reference Borat), Azerbaijan, Norway, etc., etc. 

My film class is awesome. It covers the mutual influences between American and European film in a really interesting cultural context. The readings are fascinating and the professor really knows her stuff. In three weeks I will be making my midterm presentation to the class about Polanski. Hail Satan! Dutch is crash course. The language is grammatically very easy but I will never understand the pronunciations. The professor, however, is awesome, and lectured for well over twenty minutes yesterday about how to properly order a beer in the Netherlands. European Integration is the first political science course I've ever taken, and I have to say it's pretty interesting. I don't know anything about how the EU works, and I suspect most other Americans don't either. Our professor is amazed that we haven't heard much about the basic problems the EU faces today, and doesn't seem to understand that the American media doesn't really report on them. My literature professor is great, but the class discussions so far have made me appreciate the level of instruction and engagement I've had in my Brandeis English classes. Also, I'm supposed to find the time to read Persuasion, Madame Bovary, and Anna Karenina (along with "other light readings") sometime while I'm here. Thankfully I have already read Anna Karenina and hopefully a quick browse will suffice. 

That's all for now. I hope to update more frequently in the future, so please do check back. Or don't, but I'll keep writing anyway.