Amsterdam!

So I am in Amsterdam this week. I just love this city. Somehow Amsterdam reminds me of my hometown Ningbo. It has the same small-town feeling. Everybody minds their own business, and nobody is pretentious. There are many bikes on the street. The style of the bikes looks like the one you will normally see in China. Steady structure, a back seat to carry bag or a person, a ring to warn pedestrians, no speed change. A lot of beautiful people in the city, but they are so nice and humble that I fit right in. Sometimes I walk on the Amsterdam street, and small traces of childhood memory will float by, reminding me of an innocent age with no worries of work, no stresses of travel, and no pressures of being alone.

My passport was held by US embassy for one extra day, and it totally destroyed my travel plan. However, I am very happy about it. I was supposed to leave last night, but now I had the chance to visit my former roommate, Marty. Marty was in my co-op dorm for a quarter only as a visiting student. A total dude. He always get 8 hours of sleep a night. His life and his room is super organized. He uses him time at school just to relax, and that is why it takes him 6 years to finish a master. And he told me that in his Dutch program, he is the first one to graduate. Slackers! He is a very typical dutch. Pale, tale, blonde, and can pass as a movie star. I used to think he is lazy, but I changed my mind after I experienced Amsterdam. That is just the way they are.

I met Marty in his bank. He showed me about the trading floor and his office. Very impressive stuff there. He then carried me with his bike all across the town with rather flat tires. We first went to a bar to get some beer and snacks. We got this Belgium beer (La Schoffe?). The legend is that it used to be made by midgets. We then went to a Turkish restaurant. According to my Turkish taxi driver, it is not good at all. For Marty and me, it is good enough. At 9pm, we returned to his apartment, which reminds me of his room in my co-op, very clean and stylishly decorated. His girlfriend finished Italian lesson, and we all went out for more drinks. I like his girlfriend a lot. She is tall, pretty but down-to-earth. Her English is not good, but she has this natural charm and bravery to speak a foreign language. We spent most of the time in the bar talking about gambling and beer commercials.