AMSTERDAM(!fail)
so basically, I slept through 98% of my time in Amsterdam.
now, granted, there were mitigating circumstances. after my parents flight was delayed 16 + hours due to the Seattle Snowpocalypse, the travel company tried to do something nice and got me an earlier flight to London. a much, much earlier flight.
including runway time, I spent probably less than 20 hours in Amsterdam.
this also has been a poorly fucked whore of a semester. nothing life-threatening, just - when it rains, it destroys your city with 17 inches of snow for weeks on end. unpleasantly challenging classes AND bizarre social karma AND sadistic professors AND repeatedly devastating experiences with the theater department AND infuriating experiments with birth-control AND I can never remember to eat or sleep or wake up AND simply becoming intimately aware of my own sense of self worth. finals week was made of coffee, wine, Bobst library, half a dozen essays, two seperate shows, and in the depths of the madness I - met. someone. and despite one incredible Gesture, geography plus all-of-the-above combined to determine it impossible and then I was at JFK, about to get on a plane and jet off to Europe.
in conclusion: I slept through 98% of my time in Amsterdam. what I saw of it was nice? all I remember is:
- KLM Royal Dutch Air is the nicest airline I've ever travelled on. However, despite the surprisingly comfy seats ('privacy hood'?) and eatable food and GREATLY pleasing in-flight entertainment (which included Doctor Who, oh yes) - there is nothing to be done about the fact that you're spending 7 hours in a metal box, breathing recycled air and praying something doesn't spontaneously catch fire.
- I can't even begin to describe the aesthetic of this place. from the moment we landed - the cloud cover was so low, it looked like it was actually growing out of the few multi-story buildings near the airport; but you could still see the skyline, out by the horizon, and the colors - !! It looks like an oil painting of itself, as painted by someone who read far too many YA fantasy novels.
- there are also more bicycles and smart cars here than I have seen collectively in my entire life. I saw a smart VAN. oi.
- though, okay, Amsterdam is The Quietest Place On Earth. Your average Buddhist temples ain't got shit. The only person I saw speak, actively communicate with anyone else, at a volume that could be registered by humans, was dressed as a christmas tree. There was a Swedish woman, dressed as a 15 foot tall Christmas tree, singing carols - in Dutch - to the masses. Without anything akin to art or skill. Did - did she win a contest? was this some national holiday I didn't know about? Everyone Shut Up Except For The Bellowing Bedazzled Evergreen Day? What?
- When I get tired and cranky, I start talking to myself. as anyone who's ever talked to themselves knows, you are actually engaging in conversation - just, no one else happens to be present. Since everyone in Amsterdam appeared to have taken a vow of silence, it got very lonely very fast. and, so. I began talking to myself. and probably said a lot of things that completely proved some nice Dutch persons' impression of Americans, as well. Having never been quite this geographically close to Belgium before (and also drugged/sore/sleep deprived) I was rather upset no one could sell me frites. and I had a very animated conversation about this. at a certain volume. with myself. oh yay.
- so much bloody granola. EVERYWHERE. I do regret not buying chocolate.
- THE TOILETS ARE NOT THE SAME SHAPE. Drugged, punchy, sore, sleep deprieved and wandering into a public toilet, I noticed this and could not handle myself. They are DIFFERENT. first of all, vaugely more triangular, and the water comes from a different place. also not white. none of the bathroom fixtures were that particular shade of white that just screams Public Facility. not even the toilet paper. that was a color that can only be described as 'Made With Organic Materials.' you know EXACTLY what I am talking about.
(- Drugged, punchy, sore, sleep deprieved and wandering out of said public toilet, the old woman at the sink rolled up her sleeve and I saw the faded numbers on her forearm and started crying for a lot of reasons, not all of them noble, but I don't think she noticed me.)
- having returned to the airport MUCH earlier then was expected, I immediately assumed every security official there would assume I was trafficing Something Illegal and so, spent the next two hours looking shifty and hyperventilating. like ya do.
- and the rest of the time, I was dead to the world.
in London now, and have much to report, but mostly just being slayed by jet-lag (still?!). nyrgle.
tomorrow I am going to do all the christmas shopping I didn't do because I wasn't here yet.
in the meantime, I've been doing cryptograms. ahaahaha. aha. ha. they are pleasing.
is it really four thirty? fucking...
nyrgle.
- hrkr.
now, granted, there were mitigating circumstances. after my parents flight was delayed 16 + hours due to the Seattle Snowpocalypse, the travel company tried to do something nice and got me an earlier flight to London. a much, much earlier flight.
including runway time, I spent probably less than 20 hours in Amsterdam.
this also has been a poorly fucked whore of a semester. nothing life-threatening, just - when it rains, it destroys your city with 17 inches of snow for weeks on end. unpleasantly challenging classes AND bizarre social karma AND sadistic professors AND repeatedly devastating experiences with the theater department AND infuriating experiments with birth-control AND I can never remember to eat or sleep or wake up AND simply becoming intimately aware of my own sense of self worth. finals week was made of coffee, wine, Bobst library, half a dozen essays, two seperate shows, and in the depths of the madness I - met. someone. and despite one incredible Gesture, geography plus all-of-the-above combined to determine it impossible and then I was at JFK, about to get on a plane and jet off to Europe.
in conclusion: I slept through 98% of my time in Amsterdam. what I saw of it was nice? all I remember is:
- KLM Royal Dutch Air is the nicest airline I've ever travelled on. However, despite the surprisingly comfy seats ('privacy hood'?) and eatable food and GREATLY pleasing in-flight entertainment (which included Doctor Who, oh yes) - there is nothing to be done about the fact that you're spending 7 hours in a metal box, breathing recycled air and praying something doesn't spontaneously catch fire.
- I can't even begin to describe the aesthetic of this place. from the moment we landed - the cloud cover was so low, it looked like it was actually growing out of the few multi-story buildings near the airport; but you could still see the skyline, out by the horizon, and the colors - !! It looks like an oil painting of itself, as painted by someone who read far too many YA fantasy novels.
- there are also more bicycles and smart cars here than I have seen collectively in my entire life. I saw a smart VAN. oi.
- though, okay, Amsterdam is The Quietest Place On Earth. Your average Buddhist temples ain't got shit. The only person I saw speak, actively communicate with anyone else, at a volume that could be registered by humans, was dressed as a christmas tree. There was a Swedish woman, dressed as a 15 foot tall Christmas tree, singing carols - in Dutch - to the masses. Without anything akin to art or skill. Did - did she win a contest? was this some national holiday I didn't know about? Everyone Shut Up Except For The Bellowing Bedazzled Evergreen Day? What?
- When I get tired and cranky, I start talking to myself. as anyone who's ever talked to themselves knows, you are actually engaging in conversation - just, no one else happens to be present. Since everyone in Amsterdam appeared to have taken a vow of silence, it got very lonely very fast. and, so. I began talking to myself. and probably said a lot of things that completely proved some nice Dutch persons' impression of Americans, as well. Having never been quite this geographically close to Belgium before (and also drugged/sore/sleep deprived) I was rather upset no one could sell me frites. and I had a very animated conversation about this. at a certain volume. with myself. oh yay.
- so much bloody granola. EVERYWHERE. I do regret not buying chocolate.
- THE TOILETS ARE NOT THE SAME SHAPE. Drugged, punchy, sore, sleep deprieved and wandering into a public toilet, I noticed this and could not handle myself. They are DIFFERENT. first of all, vaugely more triangular, and the water comes from a different place. also not white. none of the bathroom fixtures were that particular shade of white that just screams Public Facility. not even the toilet paper. that was a color that can only be described as 'Made With Organic Materials.' you know EXACTLY what I am talking about.
(- Drugged, punchy, sore, sleep deprieved and wandering out of said public toilet, the old woman at the sink rolled up her sleeve and I saw the faded numbers on her forearm and started crying for a lot of reasons, not all of them noble, but I don't think she noticed me.)
- having returned to the airport MUCH earlier then was expected, I immediately assumed every security official there would assume I was trafficing Something Illegal and so, spent the next two hours looking shifty and hyperventilating. like ya do.
- and the rest of the time, I was dead to the world.
in London now, and have much to report, but mostly just being slayed by jet-lag (still?!). nyrgle.
tomorrow I am going to do all the christmas shopping I didn't do because I wasn't here yet.
in the meantime, I've been doing cryptograms. ahaahaha. aha. ha. they are pleasing.
is it really four thirty? fucking...
nyrgle.
- hrkr.