Dad Came to VISIT!!!!!!!

February 9-12^th

Thursday

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of my dad, I caught up on some work on Thursday when classes were over.

Later on in the evening my dad flew in from London, and we had planned to meet up later in the evening for dinner. As we were getting ready to leave, my dad’s hotel was very close to us (only about 2 stops down on the tram) so me and Jillian headed out of Funenpark and went to walk to the tram to meet him at his hotel and then find a restaurant from there. After waiting for about 20 min at tram 10 we finally realized that there was something wrong with tram 10 so we had to call a taxi to get to my dad’s hotel. The taxi came and picked us up and there was an easy drive to his hotel where dad was standing outside waiting for us! We went to this little Italian place that ended up being very good. Jillian and I both got pizzas and my dad got lasagna.

After dinner we walked back to his hotel where I had to get the bag of goodies that my mom had packed for us for our apartment. We took another taxi home and when we got back to Funenpark we got ready to go out for the night. A group of us went out (the rest of the group biked, we took a taxi) down to Chupitos, which is a small shot bar. It was a very fun place, and they would even light the shots on fire for us! While being there our friend Michael Rosenberg was flying in from Barcelona that evening, so he ended up meeting us at Chupitos and when he got there we left to go back to our apartment. On our way back we saw kids on the frozen canals and we decided to go out on them for the first time!

It was so fun and exciting, we took a taxi home and went to sleep to wake up for a long day of touring.

Friday

Early in the morning I had a meeting with my advisor, to tell her about how classes and my experience was going. It was very early at 10:15. After I was done with the meeting I called my dad to meet me in Dam Square – he had overslept a bit and we ended up meeting an hour later in the middle of Dam Square. While I was waiting for him I casually shopped around until he got there. Once we met up, we walked around Dam Square until we found a little “American Breakfast” place, we sat down in the restaurant, and it was nice to get out of the cold. We both got omelets and shared a pancake. The breakfast was very good. After breakfast we ended up heading to the Anne Frank Museum, which ended up being right by the hotel that Jillian and me had stayed at in the beginning of our trip. The line was surprisingly not that long so we ended up waiting in like for only about 15 min and were able to get right in. Walking through the Anne Frank Museum it was very interesting. The though of being in this place where these people hid for years was such an amazing experience. The only part, which was hard, was all the furniture was taken when they were found and captured and the Anne Frank’s dad did not want furniture to be put back in, so it was hard to really get a grasp of how they lived. While walking throughout it, I wish I had read the book again because I had forgot a lot about the story. When the tour ended we sat at the caf�, waiting for Jillian Rosenberg, and Cody to meet us because they had entered just about 10 minutes after we had. After the museum my dad and I went back to our apartment, while the others explored the city a little. My dad inspired me to clean my side of the apartment, which actually was very helpful. I hung up all my clothes, cleaned off my desk, and put the blankets and pillows on my bed, which was so exciting. We then decided to go down the road to the grocery store and shopping area, where we got food for the week, some plates and forks and knives and a brand new TOASTER OVEN!!!! We brought all this stuff back and finally I felt like our apartment was complete and felt a little more like a home than just a weird apartment. My dad went back to his hotel, while me and Jill showered and got ready. We met my dad later on at the Windmill Restaurant/Brewery, which is our favorite hang out place. We all got the freshly brewed beer, and ordered a good meal. Jill and I split the fajitas, which were AMAZING, and my dad and Rosey both got burgers. I forgot, we also ordered an appetizer called cheese fingers, which we thought were going to be mozzarella sticks but they were more like sticks with cheese wiz in them. After dinner we headed back to our apartment to get ready for the night. We went down to our friend Ben’s room, which is the party room, and found about 30 people in there hanging out. We were in there for a bit then headed down to the bar area. Surprisingly the bars were not busy where we went, and ended up getting tired and just went back to our apartments early because we knew we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow!

Saturday

Saturday morning we woke up a little later and met my dad again down in Dam Square. We wanted to go to breakfast or lunch at this time at the famous pancake bakery. The line was so long, but we decided to wait. It was interesting because as we were standing in line we saw about 10 Penn State kids studying abroad not in Amsterdam all in this area. After the long anticipated wait we finally got to sit down. The Dutch are known for their pancakes and this was the spot to be at. Half of us got sweet pancakes while the other half got savory pancakes. I personally got the savory pancake, which had chicken, mushrooms, pesto, tomatoes, etc. It was so delicious. My dad got an omelet and shared a banana and chocolate and whipped cream pancake with Rosey. We all ended up taking bites of each other’s pancakes, it was all so good! After our delicious breakfast we walked on the ice a bit, every chance we got to do this we did, because this was a once and a lifetime thing to do. We then decided to go to the famous Heineken Experience, we went to the Hotel Pulitzer to get our tickets and print them out because then we wouldn’t have to wait in the long line when we got there. We arrived at the Experience and this place was huge. We got two green bracelets at the beginning, which meant we would get two beers at the end of the tour. It was very cool to see how the beer was made and all the history about it, but my favorite part was when they would brew you into beer! It felt like we were all the beer getting brewed, they would spray water and move us. It was very interesting. We finally got to the last part, where we got two free beers. Once again we saw many recognizable faces in this part, we even saw Rosey’s roommate from Barcelona. After the Heineken Experience we were going to try and go see the famous I Amsterdam letters and then go see this huge skating race on the ice. Our advisors had emailed us earlier in the day about this Ice Skating Race that they said was a must see. The canals had not frozen over like they had in about 15 years, so it was a huge deal for the people of Amsterdam. In order to remember it, they organized this ice skating competition that took place on one of the famous canals! We absolutely did not want to miss the race so we ended up skipping the letters and headed straight towards the canal. As we approached the canal there were already a ton of people around. We stood in the front row along the canal closer to the starting line, anticipating the beginning of the race. People were all so happy around us, drinking beer, singing songs, and chatting with everyone. It was a really cool event to be at. When it came 6 o’clock the event started and the races began. We thought the race was going to be everyone going at once, but we were wrong. First the under 14 girl’s were up and they went 2 by 2 against each other.

Now it was very cold at this time, and our feet were freezing, we didn’t know how long we could last. We ended up staying till the end of the little girl’s races, and then we just got to cold and went to go find somewhere to eat. We were walking around, just looking for the first place to go in. We went into this one restaurant, and we walked up the stairs and then ended up having to leave because we didn’t know we needed reservations to go in there (it was a tad embarrassing). We continued down and again found a small Italian restaurant, we didn’t care how good or bad it was, we were just SO COLD and wanted to sit down. We all ended up getting meatballs and another dish. I got the pork, Jillian got some pasta, and dad got some sort of pasta too. It was way better than we thought it was going to be! After this we were so exhausted and just ended up going back to our apartments. I had to say goodbye to my dad at Central Station, because he was leaving so early in the morning I wasn’t going to be able to see him on Sunday. It is always hard for me to say goodbye to my dad, ever since I was a little girl whenever he would go to Australia I would cry my eyes out. It has gotten easier over time, but always is so hard for me, but I knew I would see him shortly in April when both my mom and dad were going to be coming out!! Later that evening we were very tired and just went down and explored a little and came home later in the evening to go to sleep.

Sunday

We got up early Sunday because Rosey had to take a flight home later that day as well. We went down to the Museum District where the famous letters were. We got breakfast around there and then headed to find the letters. We took pictures at the letters; it started to rain out though so we tried to do them quick! I thought the letters were going to be WAY bigger, but they were still cool. We then just walked around town and then dropped Rosenberg off at central station where he had to go on a train to the airport and then fly back to Barcelona. We went back to our apartments, completely exhausted and were ready for some time to relax. With our swollen feet, and tired bodies, we lied in our beds watching all the shows we had missed and catching up on some work for the upcoming week!

It was SO amazing to have my dad in town for this weekend; I was just wishing that the rest of my family could have been there as well to experience it all together! But thankfully my parents will be coming back in April to see the Tulips, and then we will also be going to Austria!!! My sister hopefully will be coming out in the beginning of June and we will hope to travel everywhere. On another note, it was very amazing to be here when the canals were frozen, it was a once and a lifetime thing to be apart of. This city is so amazing, and I am so blessed to be here. We are making our first trip next week to Paris, to reunite with our sorority girls from Penn State! Can’t wait, not I just have to get through this workweek and ill be free!