This weekend was great!
Friday evening started with a fancy dinner at Burger King with Marie-Ange, Christopher, Rebecca, and Rebecca's roomie Jane (from Moscow).
Marie-Ange and Rebecca attacking their double Whopper meals, mmmmm

Afterwards we met a whole posse of international students at Dam Square
Marie-Ange, Jane, me, Christopher - and our bikes

Once the group assembled we rode over to Rembrantplein to an Australian pub called Coco's Outback where we proceeded to take in the...fireworks?

And chat over a few pints...

At some point Annie (from Canada) and Julia (from NYU) rode by and the group moved on to a very peculiar club in Westerpark (close to my house!) called Pacific Rim.
Hans (Dutch), Rebecca, Annie, Julia, Chris, and I (please ignore the fact that my eyes are closed. Anyway, this bar featured early 90's hits, seedy old men, and a fog machine. Quiet a combo!!
Ok, here is Hans dancing to Beastie Boys "You have to fight, for your right, to PARTY" hahaha, it was that kind of night. On Saturday, Marie-Ange and I met up with Rebecca and Jaco at Rebecca's place on Prinsengracht and then headed towards a "house party" at Funenpark with other international students. First we (along with some random Croatians and Romanians that somehow tagged along with us) met Mo and Gemma, two New Zealander girls studying law here, at their apartment - where we chatted for a bit.
Jaco & I talking at Gemma & Mo's apartment

After the little pre-party we went over to Funenpark and got totally lost for a bit. Finally, Andrea #1 (We'll call him Andrea #1, because there is another Andrea) came from the party and guided us there! (Along the way we picked up some Peruvian girls who were looking for the party also...) The party ended up being very peculiar, it was just in a corridor of a student apartment building, with music being played from a laptop, and a table with cups and soda, and people eating chips. Granted we knew it was a "BYOB" kind of thing so, I dont know, we were all agreeing "This is weird, but ok..." So we stayed and socialized for awhile, ran into friends here and there, and after about an hour or two decided to move on to the next thing. Our friends Brett and Jordan were at a bar on Prinsengracht so that's where we ended up. After this little bar closed, we just walked to the one directly across the street...
The group at the bar

It was a fun night! All in all, the destinations were kind of far away from one another and we got lost here and there so we were biking all night. The good thing about that is you burn all of the calories from the wine you are drinking! Fine with me.
Sunday was a day of rest, but today was a productive day!
I woke up early (relatively) and headed out for my destination: V&D, a department store comparable to Macy's in the states. I have gotten so tired of the cheap, low quality bedding that the housing company sold us when we first got here that it became essential for me to upgrade immediately. I am terrible with directions, maps, and anything involving navigation so finding this place is counted as a victory for me!!! When I walked downstairs into the housewares level, I felt like I was in heaven. I bought sateen sheets, a duvet, two pillows, pillow cases, and a little rug for next to my bed.
It looks like this

I also found this little tray at Blokker that matches the bedding perfectly (for maybe 1 euro)
Perfect for tealights & candles.
Such an improvement and now I feel like I'm living in luxury. The total was about 100 euros but I think worth ever dime.
After the department store adventure I stopped at a cafe for lunch (shopping works up an appetite) and had a pear-mint smoothie, and a sandwich with goat cheese, spinach, thyme, honey, sundried tomato. The smoothie was great, the sandwich was interesting but I wouldn't get it again. After a brief stop at home I headed to the Coffee Company on Harlemmerstraat (kind of like Starbucks, a chain that I see everywhere in the city) and stayed there for a few hours to study.
Then to Albert Heijn for my favorite pastime, grocery shopping!! Every grocery shopping outting is a new adventure.... Anyway, I know this isn't a food blog but my dinner was delish: I sauteed/steamed brocolli & cauliflower with garlic and terriyaki; made "homemade" mac and cheese (no Kraft mac&cheese to be found!) with GOUDA, and made some little chicken cutlets with lemongrass and coconut milk. The chicken had an interesting zesty flavor, the gouda made the mac and cheese like gourmet, but the broc/cauliflower concoction was by far my favorite.

After dinner I tackled laundry. I love when people take your wet clothes out of the dryer and put it on top of the machine so that they can use it!! I have a drying rack in my room so I'll just have to resort to hanging things to dry since other residents are kind of inconsiderate... Oh well.

So today was a busy and productive day, hopefully tomorrow will be too. I'll probably try to reschedule my "intake appointment" at UvA in the morning, study in the afternoon, and go out with friends in the evening!

Hope everyone at home is doing well!!