Amsterdam!

Went on my first trip to Amsterdam, I doubt it will be my last. Highlight of the trip was the Anne Frank House. That was amazing. It was an Erasmus Student Network trip so I went with a lot of other international students, it was nice to not get lost!

Before I left I took a picture of the double decker bike racks at the Groningen train station, it is such a cool idea. It took me a minute to figure out how to work them, but it was pretty easy after I figured it out (at first I thought I had to literally lift my bike over my head....that would not have worked out). Apparently there is space for 10,000 bikes...that is so awesome, it is basically a bicycle parking garage. Check out this video: http://wn.com/Groningen_Railway_Station_Cycle_Parking

Once in Amsterdam, we started with a canal tour by boat, cheesy but necessary.

It was a nice tour. However, after being in Groningen for 3 weeks already I guess I wasn't "wowed" by the canals and architecture--Amsterdam and Groningen look very similar (except Groningen is cleaner, nicer, and less seedy....).

After that I went to the Anne Frank House. I don't have any photos of that, but it was an amazing experience. In middle school I remember we spent so much time learning about the Holocaust, but it is totally different to be in a country where it actually happened. Being in the house was very sad, but what struck me the most about the trip was a register they had listing the 100,000+ Dutch Jews who had been killed. I looked over one of the pages and there were a lot of people listed who were from Groningen...it is very striking to think that I might be living on a street where Holocaust victims used to live.

Moving on from the heavy stuff....we got lunch at a pancake restaurant. I'm used to thinking of pancakes as breakfast food but I had a mushroom pancake for lunch...it was really good!

After that we walked around a bit and went to a street market. Unfortunately I have to say that I was maybe a little disappointed by Amsterdam. Groningen is such a beautiful, pleasant, and clean city that by comparison Amsterdam seemed dirty. It was obvious that the tourist parts cater to the people who are there to smoke pot, with coffeeshops every ten feet. I am very happy that I am studying in Groningen and not Amsterdam...all the beauty of canals, bikes, and Dutch architecture with less of the seedy side of things. However, it was a fun trip, and I was only there for one day. Maybe on a future trip I will like it better. On to more pictures!

\

The Rijksmuseum, I think I want to go here next time.

 Random streets and canals...

Sweet houseboat....

And me!

One other interesting thing that happened was an intense conversation with some student from Canada about educational costs. It was strange for me to hear people saying that $10,000 dollars was too much money for a bachelor's degree...what! I'm practically jealous! I always thought it was cheesy when people said you learn about yourself and your country by studying abroad, but it is SO. TRUE. I've never had the opportunity to see the US "objectively" before and it has really been enlightening...also a bit frustrating at times. I never realized how "uptight" the US is (even New York!) is until I came here, that has been one of the most striking and educational things I've gotten from this experience so far.