Amsterdam- Day 1

Hey! Another update! Lucky you! Forgive the formatting- Blogger is going through some unexpected changes. Yes, so I'm in Amsterdam, visiting a friend from my semester in the Amazon. Holly is a lovely lady, and you should really get to know her. Here's the story from the last few nights: Carmela and I were in Berlin for about a week. She is still in Germany, doing her German thing. We stayed at a hostel for most of it, with two nights on a couch from couchsurfing. The couchsurfing experience there was sub-par, so we decided to stay near the center of the city in the aforementioned hostel. During the week ther I saw the Fernsehturm tower, Rathaus, the Berlin Dom, Zoo Berlin, the World Clock, the Congress Building and, obviously, the Berlin Wall (from several angles!). Berlin is a nice city, but my love affair with it quickly ended when I realized it was basically Minneapolis with a LOT more hipsters. Everytime I walked into a bar I felt like I was underdressed or something. Also, what's with all the Brazilian influence? Next time I'm going to Hamburg. Our last night in Berlin Carmela and I went on a pub crawl. This was a bad idea, since my flight to the Netherlands was at seven in the morning. There were six of us on the crawl and we had a Berliner as a guide. The other participants included three Brits and an Australian. We played ping-pong, went to an absinther bar and ended the night at a club. I didn't feel much like drinking and ended up spending the entire night talking to this awesome girl from London. She has a law degree, but apparently has been harassed at each job she's had for being from a working-class family. Woah, I didn't realize such blatant classism could still exist in a western country. I got back to the hostel at 2AM, packed, checked emails and then waited until 4AM for the trains to start running. It took two hours to get to Schonefeld Airport and when I did, it was packed. One things needs to be clear: I despise EasyJet. I slept on the plane a bit, but I was pretty much a zombie when I met Holly. I haven't seen her in two years and I was a bit nervous that we had nothing to talk about. On the contrary, despite not having slept for 24 hours I talked to her until I passed out aroun noon. I also got to meet her boyfriend, who, guess what, is a Master's Student in Evolution and Ecology at the University of Amsterdam! So there was much more talking after I woke up yesterday at 5PM, followed by a delicious, home-cooked dinner and then popcorn and Planet Earth before bed. I've only been here for a day and it's already been so lovely I might not leave. We're gonna get me a bike, and then I'll explore the city. No worries, Holly has a dedicated internet connection, so I'll be able to report back on my Dutch adventures with more frequency. Awwww yeaaaaah. Today's mission: Learn more about bees.