you down with OPP*?

*OPP=Other People's Parents.

I meant to write about last weekend, while it was still last weekend. It was Alex's birthday, and as such, his parents both visited. Justin's mom was also in town for the weekend. We suspect that she planned it on purpose, to be here for mother's day.

I had yet another reason to go to museums and eat delicious food. On Friday I went to the book market in Spui, then dinner at vapiano. I actually did a bit of work that day, which did not happen again all weekend. Saturday, we went to the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum, but not before filling up on nom nom pannekoeken upstairs. We had dinner at the Kantjil & de Tijger. My favorite! Then later that night everyone I know and their mothers (literally) went for a drink at a cafe around the corner. It was really nice to have actual discussion with people who have been in America recently. It also helped that they were adults and had anything to actually talk about besides getting really fucked up.

Mother's day was also Alex's birthday. We wanted to go to the Rembrandt house, but it was closed to prepare for some other exhibit. We went to this neat part of town that I'd never been to filled with galleries and antique shops. We looked at lots of old and new dutch art. I found it really interesting to look at art with someone who paints for a living. and by interesting, I mean secretly intimidating.

We met back up with Alex and his parents to see this art exhibit that featured the winners of a photojournalism competition. Some of the photos were heartbreaking, some of them were beautiful. It was really nice. We ended up eating dinner at this tapas place that I pass every time I go to Kantjil. It was yummy, but I still miss Bar Celona.

We were on a mission to get Alex uncomfortably drunk, because even though turning 21 in Europe is highly anti-climatic, you only turn 21 once. We had some drinks at home (specifically white Russians, because Alex likes them.) White Russians taste decidedly like a composed bailey's. You can taste all the different layers. We were going to go to this really cool bar, but as we rode past, it looked super dead. Not much came from the rest of the night.

Then it was Monday again, and I had to return to the realization that I had not fulfilled my quota of work. Oh well.

Last night, after the Dutch final I wrote about, our instructor took us out for drinks. I think it's partly due to the fact that my dinner consisted of [delicious] appetizer things like bruschetta and caramelized onions with blue cheese and pears, and champagne and wine [yesterday was my other friend caroline's birthday]. Anyways, I got really into taking to my professor, and didn't end up moving on with everyone else to another bar for her birthday celebrations. I also didn't have my phone or my keys, which were locked in Giulia's room. Everything worked out fine, and I hung out with some new peeps whilst waiting for urrbody else to come home. It was a weird night.

Tomorrow I'm going on a day-trip with CIEE to some windmills and something else that I can't remember. Hopefully it is another day well spent.


Oh yeah, in a moment of weakness the other night, I got a twitter. If you're into that sort of thing, or if you have a twitter yourself, hit me up.