Beginning of the End

So once my parents left it became official, my program is actually about to end. With just 1.5 weeks left in Barcelona, I would officially be a senior in college (wow that sounds weird) and would be free to travel on my own. Unfortunately, my last weeks were quite uneventful. I would have liked to have spent the last few days doing the things in Barcelona that I never got to do in during the semester. But to be honest, I was pretty good about keeping busy during my months here, and there was no other big event that was still left to do that I hadn’t already done. So I spent my last week studying (not too much though) for my final exams, hanging out with friends, packing and preparing for my trip, going out a bit, going to this new flea market that I recently discovered, and just hanging out.

On the Monday night before my last day of class I met up with my intercambio, Andrea, one last time. She invited me over for dinner at her apartment with her, her sister, and her mom. It was such a nice dinner that her mom prepared especially for my visit, and we sat and talked for a few hours, (little did I know this would be the last time I spoke Spanish in 3 weeks). I gave Andrea and her sister, Lorena, the snowglobes from DC that mom brought for me to give to them. And gave her mom the book about Washington DC: I think they liked it? Andrea was nice enough to get me a CD from a Spanish band called the Van Goughs that she had told me about, and wrote a long letter in Spanish that I will soon plug into my translator online to help read what it says. I had a great night and it was sad to say bye to Andrea and Lorena, they have really taught me a lot about Spanish culture and it was nice to have Spanish friends that I know I’ll keep in touch with.

The next day I spent packing up my room, and taking my last 2 final exams. At night there was a CIEE event/party thing that Kayla, Yasmin, and I accidently went to un-fashionably late. Oops. We didn’t stay too long, but it was nice to say bye to everyone before we parted. Actually, who am I kidding, I said a quick "hey, see ya" to a few people, and that was about it. We went to a club afterwards which was fun, and then came back to the residencia and I was sound asleep by 4am.

Wednesday morning I woke up and brought my luggage over to Molly’s apartment across the street. She is nice enough to let me keep my stuff at her place while I’m gone, and then stay at her apartment in the spare bedroom for the 2 days before I leave for home. So I bring my stuff over, and then meet Katherine to leave for Amsterdam! Yeaaahhh and the adventure begins!

BUT, it can’t begin without a tiny little road bump. Our train, which we got to 10 minutes early, left 10 minutes late, meaning we missed our connecting train to the airport, so had to get off the train, and take the bus instead, during rush hour in Barcelona. We got a bit nervous about getting there on time, but alas we made it! On the flight we had some “in flight entertainment” I guess I would call it, when a girl a few rows ahead of me starting yelling at the guy sitting next to her about something (not in English so I have no idea what it was about). This drama went on for about 30 minutes and she was crying and I think having a panic attack and they had to bring out the oxygen mask for her. Uh ohhh. I think she was okay after a while though.

Anyway, I finally was starting to get excited when we were on our way there, and when I stepped out of the train station in the heart of Amsterdam, my expectations were immediately exceeded. Even though most people tell me that it's touristy and too crowded, it didn’t even matter to me, I LOVED IT! Amsterdam is beautiful and looked different from any other city I had ever been. The colors and architecture and bridges and canals were amazing. Amsterdam is also where I couch-surfed for the first time! I had a great experience with it. I stayed with a 25 year old native Dutch girl named Jo. She’s an actress and small film producer and her boyfriend who was there too is an actor and a puppeteer. Pretty cool life I’d say. There was actually another couch surfer there as well, a girl who just graduated from Ithaca college and who has been traveling around Europe for 6 months. She was real cool so we invited her the next day to come walk around the city with us, starting out at this cool outside market thing, then over to a department store for a coffee and breakfast, and then down to the red light district. We spent the day just walking around the city and walking into random stores. And also into this one safari store that I was completely entranced by, it was like walking into a jungle! (just wanted to write that down about the jungle so I would remember it!) Oh and we also went to a cute little "coffeeshop". nough said.

Amsterdam Central Train Station: even this is beautiful

Just another canal

Me

The Safari Store!

OKAY. Red light district was not what I expected, women sitting in windows waving and pointing at men. Just, not what I expected. Kinda crazy. Apparently on a tour group a few days before, a guy took a picture of one of the girls, and she got so mad that she came outside her box, started yelling at him in Dutch, and threw his camera to the ground and smashed it.  Crazy. But okay, moving along. That night we went to some pasta place for dinner and hung out a bit more in the city center. We had to get back to Jo’s before she fell asleep, so we met her back at her apartment at about 11pm.

The next day we woke up and went straight to the Anne Frank museum. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to go first thing in the morning, because it didn’t set the best mood for the rest of the day. It was very heavy, and very surreal to be in her house. The weirdest point was when we were walking through the secret bookcase to get to the secret annex. I kept having to remind myself that this wasn’t just a book, not just a scene, not just a famous story brought to life, but this was real life, this is where people hid, where they had to hide from society without making any noises and barely seeing daylight. The annex was actually bigger than I expected, and some of the posters and pictures they put on the walls were still up there. The saddest part was watching a video of Otto Frank saying that he didn’t know his daughter until he read her journal after her death, and hearing his side of the story, because he of course survived the Holocaust. This was just another experience that heightens my interest in learning more about history and re-reading the Anne Frank Diary and reading other books about historical events and WWII especially when I get home.

Statue of Anne Frank outside her house

Anyway, after the Anne Frank House we decided to go see the Van Gough museum. Even though I said I’m over museums, Van Gough is an artist who I actually really like and since it was rainy out, we decided to do an indoor activity for the afternoon. The museum was really great, I saw his bedroom painting, his flower paintings, and his self-portrait. Those were the only paintings I knew specifically, but they were all great. After that we went to take pictures of the “I Amsterdam” sign and then got falafel for dinner. We met back at Jo’s house at about 10pm and she took us on a night tour of the city. Secretly, I had seen everything before that she showed us, but it was still nice to take a walk with her and have her tell us stories of the sinking houses and crazy stuff like that. Actually, on the walk we went back to the "I Amsterdam" sign, and we saw fireworks and crowds of people in the streets from afar. As we got closer we realized it was the "cover the night" event for the Kony 2012 campaign that's in accordance with the Invisible Children campaign. The "I Amsterdam" sign was filled with posters and supporters of the cause. It was very cool to see the protest: things like this don't happen very often. But ya know what, apparently for me they do: Madison strikes, Barcelona national strikes, and now the Amsterdam Kony event. Anyway, the next morning I got up at 6:30 am to catch my flight to Copenhagen wooooo! But I’ll save that story for the next blog.

Me in the "I Amsterdam" sign: can you find me?

Kathryn, me, and Kristin

Kony campaign

Kony posters covering the sign