Movin' In

My phantom roommate never showed up last night so I had a hostel room to myself. Sadly, after all the hospitality shown me by Jeanette and the StayOK staff, I left StayOK and moved into my apartment. It is right next to the Central train station which will be convenient for taking the tram and exploring Europe. The apartment is surprisingly nice. My “bedroom” is more like a closet and may end up being losing its job to the futon that sits in the living room. I have internet access and a television with several channels including CNN and MTV. I will be able to keep up with the RNC to see if McCain can capitalize on the DNC’s lackluster performance. I am also interested in his Vice President. I suppose everyone is since she has no public history. Just in case you were wondering, the Europeans love Obama and don’t understand why we don’t skip the election and name him king. I think that’s how they do it over here.

Betty was gracious enough to meet me again and show me the town. I had already seen most of it but she explained exactly what I had seen. She also taught me how to use the tram. It was like the first time you jump into the water in the spring. You know it is going to be cold but that once you get in everything will be fine yet you sit on the edge of the boat and fret over those first few moments. The tram isn’t really all that hard except you have to know how far you are going before you board. It’s not like every subway in America where you pay two dollars and go as far as you want. You have to pay for how many “zones” you are going to travel and you do so by stamping a long ticket with perforated slips on it. It looks like those labels that you get when you buy dividers for a binder. You know the ones that you put in the plastic tabs so you can mark each section. It looks like that but each one is numbered. This may sound confusing. It is. I am not entirely sure how to use it. Cross your fingers that I don’t end up in Dutch jail tomorrow for improper tram riding.

Tomorrow is my first day at the ICTY. I’m ready to get in a routine. Cheers.

American Betty

I had drinks with American Betty tonight. She was out with her girlfriends who are also Nannies (au pair in expat talk). Mel is from New Zealand and Abbey is from Australia by way of London. All three were gracious hosts. I tried to find the Gator game but it looks like I will have to miss the regular season. No one seems to know where I can find an American bar that plays American football. In fact, while asking around town I got responses like, “are you looking for baseball?” and “no American sports here”. Most of the bartenders do not know what American football is. Abbey says it’s confusing since Europeans call soccer, football and Australian’s call Australian Rules Football, football. She suggested calling “our” football, gridiron. I like it. I’m gonna steal it.

When I got back to the hostel there was a note from my roommate. “Roommate, I will be out quite late tonight but will try to be quiet when I come in. Cheers.” I hope he doesn’t breathe like a gay Darth Vader.

Apartment

I move into my apartment tomorrow so I went looking for it. It is right next to the central train station which will prove useful for trips to Paris and the like. I also walked to my work which is a mile or so away. The Dutch think a mile is an eternity. If you ask where something is located they might say, “Oh, it is far, maybe like ten minutes walk.” I walked from one end of the city to the other in an hour, not knowing where I was going and strolling very slowly. It would take about three weeks to do the same thing in Jacksonville. I’m going to meet with an American friend of a friend for drinks tonight.

Den Haag

The Hague is a different place. It is only 45 minutes from Amsterdam by train but they are quite different in atmosphere. The Hague is a very modern city. Some historic buildings still exist but much of the city is populated with modern buildings and amenities. I am staying at the StayOk hostel. I got into The Hague on a Friday morning an set about finding this hostel because it was recommended by Ronnie’s angel of a wife. It took about an hour to walk from the train station to the hostel because: 1) I didn’t know where I was going and 2) my backpack contains three months worth of stuff. I would later discover that it is about a ten minute walk from the station and that I walked the wrong way but this is the story of my life. StayOk is a network of hostels exclusively in Holland and they are amazing. It only costs 29 Euro a night. After checking in I walked around the town for a bit before calling it a night. Homeboy on the bunk under me was about four hundred pounds and snored like a polar bear. I knew I was in trouble because he breathed like a gay Darth Vader. It took him about thirty minutes (rough estimate) to start snoring but once he did he made up for lost time. I’m pretty sure the bed was shaking. I was too tired (lazy) to get down and wake him so I just endured it for an hour or so. He finally stopped snoring or left and I got some rest. I woke at 7:30 and was thrilled to find that the StayOk had vacancy for one more night. This time I get a room with just one bunk bed for a maximum of one other roommate.

Peeosk

The Dutch do many things better than us. My first impression of Holland was the airport in Amsterdam. They have a toilet seat cleaner/disinfectant dispenser above the toilet. In The Hague I saw a kiosk with four walls that meet in the middle. You just walk up to the kiosk, pull out your junk and urinate in a hole. Why do we not have these in America?

One thing they do not do well is tell jokes. It’s not as if something is lost in translation because they all learn English by watching American films and most of them speak the language very well. The train ticket attendant pointed behind me and said, “Look at them in the queue.” He was right. There were in fact people standing in line to get tickets. Apparently this is an abnormal sight to a Dutch train ticket guy.

Amsterdam is an interesting place. It is smaller than I thought. Its winding canals and carefree attitude are indeed charming but, as with many tourist hot spots, the number of visitors can wear on you a little. I was fortunate to find a place called “Café Zool”. I would later learn that it is recommended in the Let’s Go to Western Europe guide.

I never got the names of the Americans who were sitting outside of the café. I underestimated the man. He seemed timid and uninteresting. His wife was the interesting one, Irish and vibrant. As I opened them up I learned that he was far from boring. Dude is a cartoonist/musician/dental prosthetic technician at Creighton University which is apparently in Omaha. I’ve never been to Omaha but I just met Nebraskans in Amsterdam.

I was hesitant to talk to this couple because while I knew they were American, I did not want to interrupt them. They seemed to be self absorbed, much the way Jami and I can be at a bar. She looked younger than him. He would later say that he is 60 and I would put her at about 50. The three of us talked for about 45 minutes before we engaged another American sitting to my right. She is from Tarpon Springs and now works as a “law enforcement liaison” at the U.S. embassy in Bulgaria. Surprisingly, she does not know Cuyler. They were all interesting people and are appropriately pictured to the right.

Café Zool’s proprietor is a man named, Ronnie. He and his wife run the bar which offers free wifi and some ridiculous number of tequilas and absinthe. I had a Belgian beer that was 11% alcohol. You could actually taste the alcohol, much like drinking whiskey. I drank it like a glass of wine. It took about an hour to finish a beer. Ronnie gave me an education in all things Amsterdam. Ronnie is everything I could have wanted from the Dutch. He is friendly, well traveled, and obsessed with football. He and his wife (whose name escapes me but I think is, Laura) eloped to Vegas. She is a flight attendant. While visiting L.A. she got the idea that it would be nice if they got married in Vegas. She called Ronnie and he agreed, in Dutch.

Ronnie gave me my first taste of absinthe. He is a connoisseur. I tried the one with some marijuana in it. I didn’t hallucinate or start laughing at everything he said. It just gave me a really good buzz. Of course this could have been due to the 11% beer I was drinking but either way I was having a good time. I stayed there until late and walked back to my hostel. Amsterdam is not dangerous at night. I expected drunk hooligans to be running around everywhere, having sex with prostitutes and smoking drugs. That wasn’t the case. I felt perfectly safe at all times.

Amsterdam

I just saw a Dutch tv ad for ringtones. We have them in America featuring 50 cent or Lil Wayne. The difference is that this ad featured a skeleton head saying "Silence! Silence! I kill you!" in a middle eastern accent. Other than that blatant insensitivity for the tragedies of 9/11, Holland is wonderful. Details to follow.

Camelot

Are you serious, Democrat Party? A tribute to Ted Kennedy featuring John Kerry? This convention highlights why the Democrats will lose the election in a huge way. Obama will lose this election not because he is inexperienced, not because he is indecisive, not because he is a socialist, he will lose because his political machine is completely out of touch with the American public. Put policy differences aside. The Democrats should win this election by a landslide. The war in Iraq is unpopular, the economy is in the tank, oil prices are through the roof. How can they mess up this election? They can mess it up by doing the exact opposite of what the textbook requires. I watch this convention in amazement.