I’ve been back from my vacation for a week now. Finally over my jetlag. Nothing too exciteing to report. Some friends of mine, two guys who are backpacking through Europe, just left this morning. They stayed with me from WEdnesday until today. They were completely independent tourists so I didn’t have to walk/bike them around the city. All they needed was a map and bikes and they explored alone! We did hook up in the evenings to experience the night life together. you know, because i’m a professional at that part! Had some interesting nights. Including one with a visit to a strip club. hehe. It was nice having them around. they’ve only been gone for an hour but it feels so lonely in my house. They’re heading to Copenhagen today and then to prague, berlin, budapest, and some more cities i forget. They will be hitting 12 cities for 4-5 days each until mid July. I would love to do something like that. Maybe when my visa expires I’ll plan a huge similar trip before I head back to the states.
On Saturday I auditioned for a play. The play is called “a string of Pearls” and is about a pearl necklace that gets around. It starts off with one woman, she loses it, another one gets it, it gets stolen by some bum and he sells it to some other woman. Anywho, you get the picture. The pearls go through a lot of hands and the play is about the lives of the women’s when they have the necklace. I did ok. could’ve been A LOT better, but i wasn’t prepared. Also, auditions were done in twos so you could interact with another actress. Just my luck i get paired up with Mrs. Talent herself. The girl has been in so many productions in just the last year! She was amazing. I know I was shit comparatively. I’m glad I auditioned even if i don’t get the part, but I really hope I do! I’ll find out on Saturday!
Not sure what’s on the plate for the week. My friend Christina, just moved back to the Netherlands. She and I met last Septemeber and immediately hit it off. WE became best friends and then for some unkown reason she went back to the states a month later. She’s back and i’m thrilled! WE made quite a pair and are meeting up again this weekend! To celebrate her birthday and I’m supposed to plan something….
I’m back in the Netherlands! For those of you that don’t know, I went to home to the states for a little over a week to visit family/friends. I had a good time. Enjoyed seeing everyone. I didn’t however, enjoy my luck with flights! Going to Memphis from Amsterdam I missed my flight! Why? As I was riding the bus to the airport they changed my flight time! They moved the departure time up by an hour. By the time I got to the airport my flight was gone. I was supremely stressed. So stressed that when I talked to a customer service rep about my dilemma, I couldn’t help an outburst into tears. She got me on the next flight(with a connection in Minneapolis) to Memphis. On the way back to Amsterdam my flight was overbooked and I wasn’t allowed to get on. I rebooked for 2 days later. Got to the airport and guess what?! Overbooked! Again! They even had to kick 3 people off the plane. I couldn’t believe my luck! I went to customer service and complained about the horrible luck I had been having. Customer Service guy sympathized and put me on the next flight to Amsterdam(no connections!). I arrived to Amsterdam safe and sound, but without any luggage! They lost my luggage! SERIOUSLY?! Can I get a break here? Apparently, my luggage was in Detroit. How and why I will never know. Today, two days later, my luggage arrived with a 25 euro voucher off of a flight. Thanks KLM. ughhhh
Koninginnedag, or Queens day, is a Dutch holiday celebrating the Queen’s birthday. It’s celebrated yearly on April 29th or 30th which is not actually the present Queen’s birthday. It’s her mothers birthday, but she decided to keep the holiday on that day as a tribute to her mom. How sweet. :P Queen’s Day is basically a big party. A big party where everyone in the Netherlands gets drunk and wears orange. Partying starts the previous night, Koninginnenacht. You party all night then wake up in the morning to attend the markets. My koninginnenacht was fun.
My friends and I pre-partied until about 11 then went out to hit the town. We lasted long, surprisingly, after all the tequila I had. Got home around 5 and woke up around 9 to head to the market. Markets are basically little kids selling their old stuff or services. My dutch family, my hungover friends, and I walked to Vondelpark(the central park of Amsterdam) to attend the markets. There were people everywhere and kids selling ANYTHING! Some kids along with their friends learned dance routines and put out a coffee can for donations. Some had “hit me in the face with an egg” booths for a euro. Some sold really shitty stuff, like coloring they did in a coloring book. I almost got ripped off by this kid trying to sell me a hello kitty McDonald’s toy for 10 euro! Luckily, her mom was there to calm her and the price down to 50 euro cents. I also scored a European adapter for my gameboy for 5 euro (score!). 
After 2 hours of marketing(not even over my hangover by this point!)my friends and I were ready to join the rest of the country in partying. We walked around…at a very sloooooow pace. There were millions of people(or at least that’s what it seemed like) in the city. We walked to the Jordaan where a DJ was playing and drank/partied/danced there all day. 
Half way through the day my friends left to head home for a nap. I, being the trooper I am, stayed out to enjoy the day. I met up with some boys I met on Queens night (hehe!) and partied with them until I was tired. All in all, my first Koninginnedag was a blast! Can’t wait to do it again next year!
Party boat! the canals were full of these boats! And they were full of dancing drunk people!
*note to self* procure party boat or at least hook up with someone who has one
An older woman lived above the bar on the street we were partying on. Every now and then she would come out and dance a little or cheer. Someone from the crowd even bought a beer for her!
The entire city was orange!
I am directionally challenged. I google map everything and I still get lost. It was no surprise when I got lost on the way to meet up with AJ for drinks. What was a surprise was what happened on the way. I had to wave a guy down for directions. When I looked into the guy’s face I froze! Not only was he completely gorgeous, but he looked so familiar. I don’t know very many people in Amsterdam so I automatically thought “omg, this guy was totally in my dream or something! omg, my dream guy”. You know, because I’m a lame-o like that. After he gave me directions (the wrong way!) and biked off I realized where I knew him from. Ha! Not from my dream, but as the star of my friend’s movie(coincidentally the friend I was meeting up with for drinks!). It’s a cool short film about “one man coming to terms with his past relationships and vertigo.” Check it out here!(wordpress wouldn’t let me embed it so click the link)
