Amsterdam.

Oh my.

The past couple of days have been pretty interesting. I am going to give you all of the details pretty candidly, because I think that it is the proper thing to do. If you are all going to take the time to read my blog, I'll tell you all the things I did...
that being said:

The rest of my week at the castle was good. My classes are going to be A LOT of work. A LOT A LOT of reading. Much more then I've ever gotten in Boston, but it's okay. We're in Europe.
On Friday morning, bright and early, we all got on a bus for a school trip to Amsterdam. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to let 83 Emerson students roam around Amsterdam together is a very, very silly person, but we all made it through the weekend with out being arrested or dead, or something like that.

We arrived in Amsterdam at about 11 am, and dropped our bags off at the hostel. From there we split up into groups of 12 or 13 and were lead on walking tours around the city. Amsterdam in BEAUTIFUL. Full of canals and bikers and scary trams. Everyone there is so pleasant and despite the cold the city was alive with people walking around enjoying the sunny weather. On the tour, our guide took us on a little detour through the red light district. She never told us the moment when we crossed over into the district so I almost fainted when all the sudden I looked over and saw a women in her lingerie dancing in a window. It was kind of unsettling. We were dropped off in Dam Square (one of the main squares in the city where the dam used to be... hence the name) and we had about an hour on our own for lunch. We sat in the square and ate the lunches that were provided for us by the hostel and waited for the rest of the group to reconvene. After that we all went to the Rijksmuseum with everyone. There my art history group split off on our own and we were lead around the museum by Dulica. I don't know how to quite put this into words, but after touring around the museum with her I have a new found apreciation for art. I have NEVER in my life felt this way about the fine arts before (clearly I have always been passionate about theater) but for the first time I feel so utterly conneted wtih the cultural signifigance of a peice of art and I LOVE IT. So thank you Dulica.

After the Rijksmuseum we were taken to an Indonesian restaurant for a group dinner… which was DELICIOUS. And then we were on our own. I guess this is where things get a little racey?
Flash forward two hours later, and I was at a live sex show… with about 30 of my classmates. I won’t really go into the details of it, but it was HILARIOUS. They played to the fact that there were 30 college students there, and it was just a lot of fun, as crude as it was.

The next day in the morning we all went to the Amsterdam historical museum which had a really cool lay out. Hilary, Lily and I had the BEST falafel ever for lunch, and then a couple students from my art history class when to the museum at the University of Amsterdam to look at sculptures from the Greek and Roman Era, led by Rob Duckers. Rob is just as amazing as Dulcia, and is quickly making me LOVE all art. We did such a good job identifying the sculptures as Greek and Roman that he took us out for a bottle of champagne. Let me tell you, the 8 of us that were there felt so damn cultured talking about art in the middle of a nice hotel with a glass of champagne with our art history professor. It was wonderful.

That night a big group of us went to an improv show. Boom Chicago was the name of the company, they are American based but in Amsterdam. The show was fun, but more fun was finding out that one of the improvisers not only went to Emerson, but went to the Castle in the Fall of 2000. Awesome. After that everyone went out dancing. IT WAS A BLAST.
Traveling in such a big group was VERY stressful, but it was also really fun getting to hang out with everyone from the castle.

The next morning, Rosie, Justin, Ashley and I missed the tour to the Jewish history museum, which is upsetting, but I am going to see both that and the Anne Frank house with my parents when they come in March so it’s fine. We were responsible for our own travel back, so we just decided to get on a train then and head back to the castle. We were WIPED from a busy weekend. The train ride was VERY peaceful. The four of us just sat and talked and enjoyed each others company and laughed about how silly we were in middle school and found out that when you poop in the bathroom it just lands on the train tracks (Nicole, that fun fact is for you).
Being back at the castle has been good. Just doing work and recharging for Paris in a couple of days. We leave Thursday night, and I AM SO VERY EXCITED.
I guess that’s it for now.