Our trip started off full of anticipation, but that quickly settled after we realized we would be stuck on an airplane for the next 8 hours or so.  Not many of us were considered “world travelers” before we left, so we really had no idea what to expect.  When we finally arrived and got our bearings on everything, we quickly fell in love.

Our group of nine arrived at Schipohl Airport around 8 o’clock in the morning.  At the time, it was raining, but after 12 days of it, we eventually got used to it.  We headed to our home-away-from-home, the Rembrandt Residence.  Jet lag was not in effect, we were all way too excited to worry about sleep at this time (or any time for that matter).  We dropped off our bags, and skipped showering-we were in Europe so we tried to fit in as much as possible.  It was finally our first chance to explore.  It was way to early in the morning for the “Amsterdamians,” so we were kind of on our own. 

The first day was spent figure the city out, where things were, where good food is (a.k.a. hot dogs), and most importantly how to get back to our hotel.  It was a great first day though, which gave us the opportunity to see some of the general aspects of the city: bikers, canals, Red Lights.  But sight wasn’t the only sense which was in effect, but we will let your mind wander. 

After the first few days, we really felt a sense of belonging in the Dam.  We could navigate easily throughout most of the town and more importantly how to get back to our hotel (find the Red Lights and go left).  We also had the chance to reflect on how different their city is from those in the U.S.  We did do the tourist things, saw the Anne Frank Huis (house), the Van Gogh Museum (Van Houghf not Van “go”), and a few other museums that we can’t remember the names of, basically because we couldn’t pronounce them in the first place. 

The Amsterdamians were much better people when we interacted with them than we found in some of the other cities.  Everyone spoke English, even the ladies that cleaned our hotel, which we decided was really impressive because we don’t have that here.  And, we later found out, that when they cuss you out, they have the decency to do it in Dutch so we can’t understand anyway.  Americans are perceived differently in each city.  People living in Amsterdam see a lot of American tourists, so they are used to it.  Pretty much, they thought that every person our age goes there for the same reason.  But in our next city, Den Haag, or The Hague, Americans were seen as cocky and arrogant.  We tried to explain to them that it isn’t our fault, it’s our President’s.  But they never listened.  We couldn’t get out of that place fast enough.

From there, it was on to the other dam, Rotterdam.  As we walked off the train, we knew that we liked this city a whole lot more than the last.  The skyline has it’s own feel, the buildings were the products of architectural geniuses, and it almost looked like a slice of the states.  Many people were younger and the attitude of everyone was different from Den Haag.  As a result, everyone was much happier here than there.  Unfortunately, we only had two days in Rotterdam.  We tried to see everything that we possibly could, but it all had to fit into our schedule group discussion, seeing the sights, dancing, visiting clubs, and eating French Fries with fry sauce (mayonnaise). 

For our final days, we got to go back to our favorite place we visited, Amsterdam, and again got to stay in our ill-fitting home-away-from-home, the Rembrandt.  Our last few days were pretty much our final chance to be overseas, at least for this time.  We tried to make the best of it, but at times we found it extremely difficult to find stuff to do to entertain us.  This was especially true considering that the tele only had three or four English speaking channels.  But, we tried our best to entertain ourselves with boat rides, museums, etc…

All-in-all, we would all agree that this was a life changing experience that we wouldn’t have traded for anything in the world.  There were many possibilities for winter term travel, but honestly, who would argue that they went to a better place that we did?  We didn’t need much.  All we needed was the tiny hotel room we occasionally slept in, a heady glass of Heineken, and the wonderful culture that is Amsterdam.