Twice is always better than once

This is Sarphatipark. Again. Today I had to go back to the bank. This time with my tax number =) And this time I walked away with a bank card. Finally. Let's see - I had to go to the IND twice, tax office twice and the bank twice. All of which should have only taken one trip each. But why do things once when you can do them twice?

Amsterdam has weird rules. You are not allowed to sleep in public parks, such as Sarphatipark. You can get fined approx. 200 euros for sleeping. However, walking around naked is perfectly alright.

Ever wonder what happens to abandoned bikes??

That would be me ;)

Last night the cafe in the hostel was playing Christmas music - silent night, jingle bells... the classics. Please don't tell me I will still be at the hostel come the Christmas season. What would I think of that?

Haha and NO that is not a Christmas tree in the picture. The Christmas music stuck in my head all night and I ended up listening to Christmas music all day today at work on my iPod.

Football anyone? I was invited to join the archicup tournament at my work. It's a football soccer tournament between architecture firms. Someone at my office asked if I had ever played football... um... that would be what we call "soccer" in North America. I said I like playing but I'm not very good. Well I'm now on the LEVS team. They play about once/twice a month. I'm excited =) I should warn them again that I'm not good at playing soccer. The only sport I was ever really good at was gymnastics.

Lost is my middle name

I have gotten lost more times than I can even count. I am lost more than not. The fact that all the street names A) sound the same to me and B) are twelve syllables long doesn't help either. People tell me directions like I know the city better than the back of my hand. Then today I asked the tram driver how far my stop was from where we were and she was like "I don't know. You'll see for yourself" Haha - you're the tram driver. I would hope you'd know. Thanks for the help =P

This is Sarphatipark. I walked by this park 4 times today. Once on my way to the bank to open a Dutch bank account. Once walking the other way because I had asked someone for directions and it turned out I had been walking the wrong way. Then I asked someone else for directions and it turned out I had been going to right way the first time. And finally I walked by the park for the fourth time on my way back to the tram stop (after I had finally found the bank). 

I had a nice relaxing dinner here at the hostel. It was just me, a deck of playing cards and my word search book =) The hostel has the world's second best lasagna - second to my Mom's!!

4 days until Adrienne and I leave for London for the weekend!! We're seeing a musical!!! So excited =)

Doing the Touirst Thing

So today was the Terry Fox run in Canada and Europe also had a run of its own - not for Terry Fox but for something else. I asked people what the run was for, and they were just like "it's a marathon." So I'll have to check up on what it was really for haha. Apparently it is one of the biggest runs in Europe - the 10 mile marathon from Dam to Damloop. There were bands playing, music blasting, balloons everywhere... it was quite the event.

The start...

And they're off!!!!

Then I read up some touristy magazine at lunch and thought I should go on a bus tour and see Amsterdam!!!

So bus tour it was!!! I learned that although many people think that marijuana is legal in Amsterdam, it's not - rather it is tolerated. However there is not much of a difference. In fact there is no difference. You can buy weed at coffeeshops everywhere, you can smoke it in coffeeshops, smoke it on the streets... it's as legal as you can get. Below is a picture from my first hostel... only "during breakfast"

This is the bike "parking lot" behind Centraal Station - there are approximately 1 million people in Amsterdam and there are over 3 million bikes. The bus driver said he recommended, instead of buying a bike, steal one. People here call it "recycling."

Amsterdam is known for their windmill towers. Though there aren't nearly as many as there used to be, there are hundreds in the city still. Many have restaurants on the ground level.

We visited and got a half hour tour at Gassan Diamonds - where they cut and shape diamonds, then set them in pretty rings and sell them for massive amounts of money. I tried on a ring that cost over 20,000 euro!

Here's someone shaping the diamonds....

THE diamond rings =)

I also went to church today - in Spanish. It's actually really hard to find churches here that hold Mass in English. Spanish and Dutch are popular though! And no luck on the apartment search. In fact, I came so extremely close to getting one. It was right there - but it fell through. It's very discouraging. But it obviously wasn't meant to be. So... I'm still looking. Haha, on the bright side, the staff at the hostel are getting to know me very well, and they have given me free internet a couple times!

You're from Canada, eh?

Yesterday on my walk back from the office to the bus stop with Giovanna I came across these wicked chairs. They're just there. Random. And cool.

Dining alone is kinda - interesting. It's nice because it gives you time to sit and think. But it gets kinda lonely. Today at lunch I forgot to bring my word search booklet, which is what I usually use to keep myself occupied when I eat out alone. So... I just watched other people in the restaurant. Listened in to their conversations - sort of like in the movie Date Night. I had a tuna salad sandwich for lunch...

...which was actually very very good! (I skipped the tomatoes)

Amielle and I met up this evening. Another Canadian!! You know a lot of people have commented on the fact we Canadians use "eh" It's really funny because I don't even realize I'm saying it, yet people giggle and I can't figure out why. Weird eh?! Amielle and I did some touristy wondering around leidseplein (which is an entertainment district in the south area of the centre of Amsterdam), then found a McDonalds that had free Wifi. Free internet, yet you had to pay 0.30 euro to use the bathroom.

We're both on the hunt for housing =P

Until an apartment works out, it's back to the hostel for me. Every time I go up to the counter to ask to extend my stay a few more nights, I always think "maybe this is the last time I'll have to extend my stay" with the hopes that I'll find a place to live soon. At least I'm in a hostel. It could be worse. I could have no where to stay. Let's hope things don't get that bad.

Tomorrow I have to make sure to get up in time to make it to pancake breakfast. Last weekend I went at 10am and they had run out of pancake mix =(

Night with the Italians

Last night I, the Canadian, hung out with Italians in Holland. Good variety of cultures =) Stefanie from my office invited Giovanna and I to her place for dinner. It was nice to have a relaxing evening to get to know some more friends!!

The red light district is interesting. But more than that, it is a very pretty area with canals and little shops and cafes. During the day it's "relatively" normal.

After work I had a nice Italian dinner with Giovanna and Stefanie. My first home cooked meal in... a while!

And after dinner Stefanie was nice enough to help both Giovanna and I look for apartments on the internet. She was nice letting us use her internet for housing searches - here at the hostel I have to pay 2.50 euro/hour for internet.

The view from Stefanie's apartment. I wouldn't mind a view like that =)

Shelter City

Hostel #2: Shelter City Christian Hostel. Located in the heart of the red light district. It makes for an interesting walk back from the bus stop after work. Click here to see their website. It's a nice hostel, just not in the best location. Though it is downtown and near Centraal Station so I can't complain too much.

The shelter is very clean, especially compared to Bob's Youth Hostel. Below is the cafe - they provide free breakfast but the cafe opens at 8am - just after I leave for work. So I only made it to breakfast once - on Sunday!

I mentioned in a previous post that the staff at Bob's were super nice. The staff here are also extremely friendly. It makes the experience so much nicer.

Breakfast being served =)

I am in an all girls' dorm - there are 16 people in my room. Sharing a room with so many people I am learning to be very tolerant about noise and such. When people keep me awake at night from the door opening and closing, I try to ignore it. When they make noise getting to their lockers, moving suitcases, talking, I ignore it. It's part of living in a hostel. However, I was yelled at this morning because my alarm went off and "people were trying to sleep." Unlike most people here who are touring Europe as a vacation, I have to work. I can't sleep in. I miss privacy. Maybe an apartment is in my near future =)

There's a nice little garden off the cafe in the hostel. Unfortunately I haven't been able to sit outside yet - it's rained almost non-stop the past 5 days.

A mailbox that delivers messages directly to God. No postage required.

















Work's going well. I cut myself with an exacto knife today. I almost got blood on our good model. Luckily, I only smeared my blood on a scrap piece of foam. *PHEW*

Clean Clothes!

Clean clothes!!! Today my wonderful friend from Amsterdam, Anshul was kind enough to let me do my laundry at his place so I am fortunate enough to have clean clothes today - which is good. Let's just say I was running low ;)

Washing in Dutch =)

And then while we waited for my laundry, Anshul invited another friend over and we had Thai dinner =)

Weather has been a bit gloomy. It's rained almost everyday for the past week. Yesterday I visited Zandvoort - it is about a half hour train ride West of Amsterdam, on the coast of the North Sea. Beautiful. Luckily, for the few hours I was there it didn't rain =) There were wind surfers everywhere and I had dinner on the beach with Tony. Afterwards we got gelato ice cream for dessert. It was very nice.