The Beginning of an Eventful Weekend

Aside from Wisconsin breaking my heart by dropping one to Michigan State just after claiming the #1 ranking, it's been a positive week. I've been writing and re-writing my autobiographical assignment, which is turning out to be one of the harder assignments I've ever had. My economics course is plugging right along. (That was my academic bit, as prompted by my mother, who claims all I write about is "fun, fun, fun").
Tuesday night I had dinner with two Dutchies and Soila, a Finnish girl, at Guido's tiny Canaalstraat apartment. It was a rather uneventful night, though I got my fair share of excitement in the form of a four minute bike ride from Guido's to the Centraal Station. Tessa, a Dutch girl, needed to catch a bus, so I got my first taste of what is pretty common around Utrecht, riding with someone sitting on the back of your bike. It adds a whole other element to the ride, as the weight distribution is all different. Turning is difficult, and stopping is pretty much out of the question. So between encouragement to "hurry up," and "pedal faster," I was told whenever a police officer was spotted, which is something you'd rather not hear when you know you're going through the stoplight, thanks to inertia. Long story short, she made the bus, and I got my workout for the day.
Wednesday had some great potential, as I was headed to Amsterdam for my first concert abroad. We hopped the train around 5, and arrived in Amsterdam in time to find a water closet in centraal station and lock up a backpack in the obscenely over-priced lockers. I have found that in Amsterdam, there are very few places where it is free to use the bathroom. A bathroom trip will typically run you about fifty cents. The upside is that there are a number of public urinals, which are basically large slabs of concrete surrounded by a fence. Nice, I know.
It took about fifteen minutes to cross the centrum toward Paradiso, where the concert would be held. On the way, we must have been giving off the heavy American tourist vibe, because three bums offered directions for cash. As the Netherlands has the most socialist welfare system in the world, these guys must really be doing something wrong, at least that's what I gather from my Dutch friends. Once in the area, we stopped in at a bar/coffeeshop near Chinatown called Rookies. It turned out to be a very cool place, good menu, and reasonable beer. After catching a good buzz we crossed the street to the Paradiso, which is what used to be a 16th century Catholic church. The interior is really amazing. Two floors of balconies that wrapped all the way around the building to the sides of the stage, like a horseshoe, and large stained-glass windows behind the stage. We grabbed a few brews and found a place to stand right near center stage, and about two meters from the stage. The opening band was called Velvet Diamond, and the lead singer had amazing range, but whenever she quit singing to talk to the crowd, nothing normal came out of her mouth. She continually addressed the crowd as "you strange and mysterious people of Amsterdam." She was also wearing a prom-like dress and a silly smile for the entire show.
The Decemberists put on a great show, and it was good to be so close. They're one of those bands who like to have a good time on stage, and it shows. The encore featured a Willie Nelson cover and half the band members coming into the crowd to reenact a Dutch naval victory over the British, using crowd members to represent ships and a large harbor. Hilarious.
After the show we headed back to the station to find the lockers closed down for the night, which was frustrating, as well as confusing as they were completely self-service. Needless to say, I had to go back to Amsterdam today to retrieve the contents of the locker. Anyhow, we made it back to Utrecht around 12:30, which made us right on time by Dutch standards for a big international party at City Hall, which is a large dance club under what used to be, you guessed it, the city hall. It was a good time, and we ended up staying until four. Now one would think if you have the drunk munchies this late in the evening, you're going to have to dig something out of the cupboard at home. Not so. Falafel City, comparable to Ian's of Madison, is open until 6am, every night of the week except Sundays. We all enjoyed a healthy Falafel and made it back to Parnassos in time to see 5am.
Tonight our flat is having a going-away dinner/party for our Italian roommate, Dario, who I haven't seen sober since he finished his master's thesis on Sunday. After we're headed out for a pub crawl, and I hope to spend Friday recovering and being mildly productive. Then off to Antwerp for the rest of the weekend. Be sure to cheer for Bucky Sunday in the big game vs. the Buckeyes. I'll be watching the live updates on ESPN.com.