Hey!

Alright, so I decided that I should probably do a blog to let everyone know what I've been up to. I've been in Amsterdam for about 5 weeks now and I love this place. Everything is backwards and upside down but it works. Everyone (myself included) rides a bicycle. All of the roads cater to cars, pedestrians and bikes. Biking is really the best way to get around here as I can ride to the complete opposite side of the city in 20 minutes or less, making all of Amsterdam easily accessible.

So I've been keeping really busy. I'm taking four classes that require lots of work. My favorite is Dutch Social Policy. Topics that we cover include drugs, prostitution, gender & sexuality, etc. As I'm sure you all know The Netherlands have very liberal views on just about everything. Drugs are legal. Prostitution is legal. So it is interesting to find out the effects these laws (or lack thereof) have on society and see if their way works. I'll talk about that some other time if you're really interested. My class took a trip to a homeless/drug user shelter. These are your typical homeless shelters except many of them are equipped with what are called "user rooms" for the purpose of providing a safe and clean environment for the drug addicts to come and, well, do their drugs (we're talking hard drugs here, not marijuana). That was very interesting because in America, they would be thrown in jail and rehab and be forced to quit whereas the Dutch let people live life however they choose (even if they don't agree with it) and try to make it as safe as possible. Today my class took a walking tour of the red light district. Oh yeah, our tour guide was a prostitute. She talked a lot about prostitution from her unique perspective and then opened up a window for us to go in and check out. So technically I was sitting in a window in the red light district. Ha.

I've also done a lot on my own outside of class. I've been to the Van Gogh museum. That was very cool. I went to a city about 1.5 hours away called Den Haag or The Hague. The International Criminal Court and the World Peace Palace are just some of the many important government buildings in this city. I also got to see the capital of the EU and the Queen's palace at The Hague. Anne Frank used to live right down the street from me. I pass by it everyday and there are usually massive lines out in front of it. I haven't been inside yet only because I'm sure some of my visitors will want to.

The nightlife is fun. The beer is great. There's live music everywhere. Everyone speaks English. The Dutch are very nice. There are a whole lot of coffee shops. I've had 3 friends come visit already, that was fun. I don't really know what else to say. Hopefully I'll keep this up and let you know what it's like to live in The Netherlands. I miss being home, but I don't regret doing this.

That's all for now, thanks for reading.