Tuesdays are hard!

So I know that originally I wrote that I thought all my classes were going to be interesting and I was so excited for them. Well, it turns out they are very uninteresting and I really don't like them. All we do in just about all my classes is discuss the impossibly difficult articles we had to read for homework. I don't get why my teachers are getting paid to just sit in a room and listen to us, they aren't doing any teaching! And on top of that I am in no way exaggerating when I say I have to write at least 3 papers every week. I just can't get myself to do it! I've had problems with procrastination in the past, but nothing like this. Tuesdays, I don't have any class so I've spent the day doing laundry so far and trying to get going on the two papers I have to turn in tomorrow. I really wish I could just get myself to do things ahead of time. The rest of my trip would be much more enjoyable if I could just get things done with out torturing myself over it. Does any one have any suggestions on how to stay motivated?? I need help!

Edam & Volendam

Thursday night a bunch of kids in my program went to the ballet. It was a great experience and I'm really happy that I got to go. They performed Giselle which I'd never seen before. This is a picture of the beautiful theater.




I went to gay bingo the other night, it was lots of fun, I almost won too! My friend did win one of the prizes though, she got a box of q-tips and cottonballs.

We meant to go where the blue pen has circled Volendam, but accidentally ended up all the way at the top of the map in Hoorn. Oops! Luckily for us the Netherlands is much smaller than it looks on maps.

As an assignment for my Dutch Social Policies class we had to go travel outside of the city and explore a new town. I took the advice of my friend Taraneh who had visited Amsterdam last semester and said she loved the little town Edam. They're famous for their cheese, but unfortunately we didn't get to have any :-( However, we're going to try to make it to an actual cheese farm, so lots of cheese will be eaten at a later time I'm sure.

After we went to Edam we headed to Volendam, it was pretty touristy with stores where you put on traditional dutch clothes to get your picture taken (like what you see at theme parks and dress up like the wild west). But besides all the souvenir shops its a very pretty town.

There had just been a little kids party in the building and I thought these ladies were pretty funny.

I took this from the bus, the dutch countryside is very beautiful

Carnival in Venice

This weekend I went to Venice for my very first time. It was so much fun and beautiful! There wasn't a single cloud in the sky while we were there, which was a much welcomed change. The week before I was very sick and had to miss a couple days of class, so by the time we left for Venice I'll admit I was very homesick. It really didn't help either to be in one of the most romantic cities in the world on Valentine's day and have Matt half way across the world OR that in every single shop was some kind of nick-knack I've seen my mother bring home OR that all the venezian glass paper weights reminded me of my Nonnie's house. Of course though I could only stay sad for a little while, I was in Venice after all! Carnival started this weekend, so there were so many interesting costumes and performers every where and a TON of people. It was so crowded on saturday that we took the water bus to Moreno where you can go into the glass factories and watch the artists. Somehow we got mixed into a group of older french tourists and got to see a show for free (all in french though so I couldn't understand anything that was being said). I thought I would be sad to come back to Amsterdam after being in sunny Italy all weekend, but it actually feels rather nice to be here. The best part of the trip though was all the little kids dressed up throwing confetti, they were so cute! (but of course that just made me think about how much I miss my nephews and nieces-who would have really liked to throw the confetti)

While my friend and I were looking at this tower we were talking about how unbelievable it is that the Italians built such a huge tower so long ago. A man next to us piped in on our conversation who happened to be named Gabriel and was from Buenos Aires-of all places in the world! I swear I couldn't do ANYTHING with out being reminded of every one at home.

This family was feeding the pigeons their sandwiches. Ok, not weird, but most people don't continue to eat the same sandwich after dozens of pigeons have been pecking at it. It was so disgusting!

Don't worry Mom, none of those are mine

So crowded!

Little Glass horse-so crazy how quickly they make them!

Carnival Masks

Musicians who played very beautifully, I tried to post a video but it wouldn't work

San Marco's Square

This was my favorite costume! Can you imagine little Liam or Matti dressed up like this?