Amsterdam again???? Maybe, if we get there

Ah yes, how the wonderful world of mass transit works. In theory it is a wonderful system, and in reality as well I am told it is wonderful. Yet, as we all know I am not exactly always living in reality, and in fact this past month often feels like a dream and I have a feeling the remainder of this trip will be just as good. Still, even dreams have twists, and wow did we go for a ride yesterday!
So we had a class outing to Amsterdam to check out a Christian organization working on the Red Light district, go to Rembrandt’s house and then proceed to the Rijks museum, it was a day I was definitely looking forward too. Thus, when I found myself on the train to Utrecht instead of Amsterdam I was a little perturbed. Dang these trains can be confusing despite their apparent simplicity. So what actually happened was that Bryan and I got on the train with the class and had to move to a forward car because of the congestion of people. We were properly situated and I slowly drifted off to sleep only to wake up with the train stopped in Amersfort. The thing that amazes me when I look back on it though is the fact that it didn’t really even dawn on me that I would have to switch trains when In fact every time we go to Amersfort we usually have to switch trains or at least be on the right half of it when it splits in two. No matter what you want to be on the right side of the fork in the railway in order to head to Amsterdam, we were on the left, and the train on the right slowly pulled away leaving us heading to Utrecht with no way to contact the others being as we no longer have a trusty cell phone.
Upon finally arriving in Amsterdam we were soon faced with the situation as to how to find our group. We tried making phone calls (even the pay phones here are complicated) and getting information from the tourists office with no help in sight. Then, was we turned a corner two wonderful people came into view as I jumped for joy as I found two more NSpicers hopelessly lost in Amsterdam. And together we left for the Red Light district and with the help of some friendly locals and a few other Christian organizations we finally found our group. We were joyous.
Anyway, after this Christian organization which worked with prostitutes in the area, we went to Rembrandt’s house which was a pretty cool place. We got to see where he painted a few of his masterpieces and how he made some of his etchings and other works of art. Heck, I even began a masterpiece of my own (I am guessing that when I die people will finally realize my genius).

Next we visited a park dedicated to Rembrandt’s painting “The Night Watch” and we were able to step inside the action as only stupid American tourists would do.

The Rijks museum was another stop and we actually were able to view most of Rembrandt’s masterpieces in one room which was simple amazing. Also there were a few Vermeer’s in the adjacent room and I can’t explain how much more amazing these paintings are when you can experience the depth and color of the actual paint instead of the inkjet posters picked up at a souvenir shop. Another amazing thing about this museum is that it answered a question that has been bothering me for years now. Do angels have human tendances and annoyances such as itches and boogers? Well apparently they do have boogers, the answer as to whether or not they have itches continues to evade me.

Oh yea, that night we stayed in Amsterdam with our host sister Elize, and while we waited for a tram we were approached by an Irishman who noticed we spoke English, and he asked if we wanted his left over weed as he was now going back home and didn’t want to mess with customs. He reassured us that he would not make us pay for it but he just didn’t want it to go to waste. Don’t worry mom, I didn’t smoke it. But the fact that in Amsterdam weed is given away made me laugh. Anyway, the travels are going well and life is good. I was hoping to make it to the Olympics and watch some good ol’ curling this weekend but I was too late on getting train tickets so that sadly wont happen, but on Monday we leave for Prague for a whole week! Life is good!