Ok, things have been looking up since my last post. 

A little bit of financial aid (for some reason, not all of it?) made it to me so I finally have money for food again which is great. 

On Wednesday I finally made it to class after being completely lost the first two days of the week. First class is called Metropolitan Governance and seems to deal with the growth and development of cities. We spent the first class period discussing the development of the city of Amsterdam and the region around it. I think this should be an interesting class but it is pretty long (four hours) and involves a lot of discussion and possibly debate? My second class is right after this one and is called Childhood in the Global South. This class looks at issues like exploitation of children, street children, child prostitution, children warriors in the developing world. The first book we read focuses on Recife in northeastern Brazil which I'm excited about! On Wednesdays I'm in class from 11 to 6 pm. 

After class on Wednesday I got home and had a little get together with some of the neighbors in my building. Marie-ange from France and her friend Rebecca made crepes and we drank wine with the two of them, Christopher, Jordan from Michigan, Brett from UF/San Diego, and Sebastian from Amsterdam. We then went on an excursion to see some live music near the university at Cafe Crea and later to a bar called the Last Watering Hole with a live band playing blues rock in Leidseplein square. It was really fun going out and making some new friends!

On Thursday the weather was kind of blah so I just went to the grocery store and studied and hung out around home. 

On Friday Chris and I met up with two new friends, Allison and Alyson, who just graduated from FSU and have moved to Amsterdam to find work doing dance. We spent the afternoon and evening wandering around. It's nice to have some fellow Seminoles around here! The girls are on a hunt for jobs and an apartment so they wanted to attend a "couch surfers" meeting in order to find a temporary place to stay. The meeting was being held at a bar/cafe near my house so we decided to meet up there (since Chris and I had bikes and they would take the tram). Since it was close to our house we decided to stop at home to get some lights to put on the bike but while we were here Chris accidentally locked his keys in his apartment! Disaster!  

Yesterday, Saturday, I went off on my own around the city riding around and walking. There was a big street festival going on at the street near my apartment. People were selling their goods at tables on the sidewalks and people were walking around with food, cheese, and glasses of wine. I had to walk my bike through the crowd and could barely get by because of how many people were walking around. There were 8 piece bands playing music in the street!! 

I finally made it to the bigger, pedestrian shopping street (still dont know what it's called) so I locked my bike up and just went on foot. I found a store called Hema that is sort of equivalent to Target. It's two stories and has clothing, office supplies, and home goods. I wanted to buy some nicer bedding but I had no idea what size to buy as all of the packaging was in Dutch, of course. I found a few other place that sell home items so I can make my apartment a little more comfortable - but of course none of them take Visa cards so I'll have to return with cash. I also found a decent department store that sells good winter coats (and takes Visa!!) for a decent price. Excellent. After this excursion I went to Albert Heijn to try to buy a sim card (no dice) and came home to cook a gourmet meal and drink some wine. Later Chris and I rode our bikes to a little coffee shop nearby where we live.

My plan for today was to do all of the required reading for my two classes on Wednesday and I've discovered that I have to go buy some books in order to actually accomplish this. Unfortunately,  Im not sure if the school bookstore is open on Sundays and there is no way I am making the trek over there just to find out. So tomorrow I'll wake up early and grab the books, run some errands, and study. Then in the evening our apartment complex is hosting a "Welcome to the Neighborhood Borrel" ("borrel" = social) at the bar next door to my apartment. Should be fun!