Ten Days in Holland

After traveling what seems like every weekend for the last few months, I've had the blessing that is ten straight days in Holland. Ten sunrises (of which I've seen a few), ten sunsets. Classes started again, which helps add some regularity to my schedule. My History of Economic Thought class will no doubt be interesting, as indicated by the first lecture. The professor is a very sarcastic, but laid back German. He allows for a little too much tangency in the class discussion, which gives one particular know-it-all many opportunities to inform the class of how well read he is, and argue some minute details related to a meaningless example. When we were discussing the reasons war occurs, from an economic/political vantage point. The Belgian girl sitting next to me, who had been scribbling a flower on her notebook for the length of the lecture, blurted out why she thought there was war. To paraphrase, some people in America want to kill some people, and steal their oil and diamonds. Being one of two Americans in the class, I felt obligated to remind her the largest diamond cartel in the world is controlled by Belgians, and if she would only check her notes she'd remember that. Oh wait, her notes look like a big flower.
My gym membership is coming to an end, so I've been trying to get there as often as I can, and I managed a few times this week. Early in the week I just spent a lot of time relaxing and reading. I'm doing my best to finish Catch 22 so I can start on Death in the Afternoon, Hemingway's bullfighting dissertation, before I go to Seville. I also checked out the Aboriginal Art Museum in Utrecht, which is very cool, and I plan to go back sometime.
The weather has been amazing here lately, and if I didn't know what month it is I'd think it's summer. So Thursday a few of us decided to head out to the water reservoir, which is just outside of Utrecht. It was about an hour bike ride, but very scenic, and flat. The ride followed a canal running north out of the city, and we passed the famous floating hookers of Utrecht. The floating hookers are a massive collection of houseboats on the canal near the city edge, probably about a kilometer long. Outside many houses stands your typical Dutch hooker. Think the Red Light District on water. We rode past around 1pm, and there were a surprising amount of cars circling the area. Once we arrived at the reservoir, we quickly discovered it was a clothing optional area, and sometimes that's not nearly as appealing as you think. We spent the afternoon swimming and kicking around a football, and headed back around six, as Barry and I were being treated to a Swedish dinner. On the ride back, I was involved in my first bike accident, caused by a scooter, a means of transportation that I've grown to loathe. Anyway, the scooter basically ran a few of us off the road, and I came out of it with some bumps and bruises, as well as giving up some significant skin and nail from my foot. Overall, everyone was a little beat up but ok. I of course believe in forgiveness, but that didn't stop me from wishing that moped takes a dip in the canal in the near future. After a nice Swedish dinner we enjoyed a few, and headed out to Tivoli, one of the local clubs.
A large part of Friday was spent sleeping due to Tivoli's 5am close, and Friday night I was pretty worn out, but the South Africans were leaving, so I went out for a bit to see them off. Saturday I went to Amsterdam to pick up a few things and visit the Rijks and the Stedelijk. It was a gorgeous day, and the place was already crazy in anticipation of Queen's Day/Night. That night we took the trek to Lombok, the turkish neighborhood, for a party some friends were throwing. The Swedes had some visitors, as did a few others, and the party was fun, apart from its resemblance to a giant sauna.
Sunday was Koninginnenacht, or Queen's Night, in Holland. It's a nation-wide party in honor of the Queen, held on the former Queen's birthday. It's also the 48 hours practically everything in the country shuts down (unless it serves beer), and the Dutch put on their orange garb and fill the streets. There's plenty of live music, most of which you probably don't want to hear. During the day their is a massive flea market in the four big cities. Utrecht was packed Sunday night, and I saw more than a few people fall into canals due to the over-crowding. We stayed out pretty late, but knew it was time to call it quits when the sun was peaking over the horizon.
But the party wasn't over yet. Monday was Queen's Day, and the place to be for that is Amsterdam. The city was absolutely crazy, and every street was filled with people toting Grolsch and Heineken, and wearing some pretty creative orange outfits. There was plenty of Dutch food, and live music at all of the major squares or places in the city. If I ever come back for this holiday, I'm renting a boat, because that looked like the way to do it. It was a long day and we headed back to Utrecht to have dinner, and soon after crashed, with a long week ahead.
Today I have a bit of class, and quite a bit of reading to catch up on before leaving for Seville on Thursday night. With any luck the toe will be healed up enough by then to enjoy the sandy beaches barefoot, and I'll be far enough into Death in the Afternoon to understand what's going on at the bullfight.