Week's end: Amsterdam

As of today, I've been in Europe for a whole week. Man, life is awesome.
We got out bikes this week, and I while riding mine for the first time, I got whistled at by some guys. (Bram told me they were probably French!)
Though people went out Wednesday and Thursday nights, I felt an obligation to study and sleep.
This was also in preparation for Friday. Friday night I went out with Bram. We went to three different pubs, drank, played foosball (I won), talked and enjoyed ourselves. I made sure to only have one glass of wine and be home by 2, 'cause I had class on Saturday.
Saturday I was planning on going pub hopping my my friends, and Bram and whoever he invited, but all my friends bailed, so it was just me, Bram, and his friend from Singapore. His Singaporean friend left at midnight, because he had to go to mass in the morning, but we stayed out until three. I had my first real daquari and took my first European shot. It was so much fun.
A side note on going out with a Dutch guy (he's NOT my boyfriend, I'm only here for a few months after all...), "going Dutch" really is the norm here. He buys the first and third rounds, and I buy the second. But it's really interesting to talk and compare different cultures and stuff. He makes fun of me because of my very American accent and way of talking, and I just marvel at his amazing ability to pull off any accent and speak five languages. And he's trying to help me learn my way around Maastricht, but I am just not good with directions at night, or when I've had a few...
Yesterday I got up super early (I got about 3 hours of sleep) so I could catch a train to Amsterdam. I went with three other girls and we just spent the whole day there. It was awesome! We went to the Anne Frank House, van Gogh (which is pronounced more like a cough than anything) museum, another famous museum with a hard name, the Homo monument, and the red light district. The homo monument is great, and it is just what it sounds like. Its made of three pink triangles that form a larger triangle, and its a memorial for all the gays who have ever been oppressed. The red light district was interesting, and very sad. We went in the morning, to be safe, but there were still girls sitting in windows. It was just depressing. I got a shirt that looks like a von Dutch shirt, but it says "Gone Dutch". The train ride back was also lots of fun, because we were being loud, crazy Americans, and some Dutch guys laughed at our attempts to say things in Dutch.
Today I slept in, as it will probably be my only opportunity to do so all semester. I have to spend the day studying, to get ready for next week of class. It's going to be crazy - 6 full days of class - Tuesday through Sunday. But then we get to leave for London on Monday. Yay!
The party never stops.

Also, check out facebook for all my lovely pictures.