Hamsterdam

We're working at a small hospital about 30 minutes from Amsterdam, called "Spaarne Ziekenhuis." For those of you not familiar with the Germanic languages, yes, that does mean "sick house," which for we Americans used to our euphemisms is weird but is the way of things here in this part of the world. Also the way of things is that they are very nice all the time and have holidays like every other week. Today is "Ascension Day" in Holland, which is in celebration of Jesus going back to heaven. This is funny because Holland is like one of the 5 least religious countries in the entire world. Like I said, they like their holidays. I cannot say I blame them, being that we Americans spent the holiday in a windowless room in the sick house, "pushing through to the home stretch," as my boss put it.

I did have free time this weekend, wherein we went to Amsterdam and all that one is supposed to do there. Which mostly involved walking all over the damn place. We also saw the Heineken Experience. This is a museum in theory, but mostly it's just a huge, elaborate advertisement that you walk through. That said, it was pretty cool. Mostly because there's beer involved. Two glasses of beer are included with admission, and we snuck a couple more. Later, Nema convinced us (me, Rachel, and Melissa) to go to creepy sex show "just so we could say we did." This was mostly what you'd expect, gross and expensive out of all proportion to what it was worth. I had previously agreed to a maximum of 15 Euro, but then we got there and it was 25, and I really couldn't refuse at that point. Well anyway, that's checked off the list. By far more exciting was these raspberries I bought at a little shop near the Heineken place. These were 5 euro for well under a pint, which is an insane price, but oh my jesus they were good. There's a picture attached.

We also went on a canal tour and visited a cafe. Both of these were as you'd expect. On Sunday, I went by myself to the Rijksmuseum, which unfortunately was mostly closed for renovation. I did see some cool rembrandts (a small fraction of their collection) and like 2 second-rate vermeers. I should have gone to the van gogh first, now I have to try to squeeze it in tomorrow before I leave for...

Spain! Yes, that's right, I fly to Barcelona on Saturday at the ass-crack of dawn. I'm flying some cheap European airline, so wish me luck. they only allow 5 kilos of carry on, so I will have to be strategic and hope my checked bag makes it through. Assuming all goes according to plan, I'll be taking the AVE (highspeed) train to Cordoba, finding a "pension," and then doing nothing but drink, read, eat, and draw for 6 days. Maybe a day-trip to the ocean. Maybe. First, I need to find a Spanish phrase book. I am going by myself to a small city in a foreign country whose language I don't know. Again, wish me luck.