Goedenmiddag!

SANY0752
Originally uploaded by sarahkatina

I was in Vondelpark to see Twelve Angry Men at the Filmmuseum for one of my classes. The Filmmuseum is this beautiful old building with a huge collection of old movies that they play in rotation - right now they are also playing Adam's Rib, and I don't know what else. You have to wander through the park for awhile to get there, including a circle of highly accomplished rollerbladers doing tricks and blasting reggae, and then (if it is a beautiful day like it was today, and maybe even if it is not) you see this old marble structure covered in people sitting and laughing and eating and drinking and smoking and talking. I gave myself an extra hour to get there because I was taking a new tram route (this is why I am chronically early, in case anyone was wondering), and so I had a solid forty minutes of sitting and writing in the park and watching all the Amsterdammers playing in the sun before I headed to the movie. At some point this group of young Dutch people walked past me with a soccer ball and this girl was looking at me intently and smiling, and then I looked over my shoulder and noticed this guy crouching there reading what I was writing! And I looked pretty shocked, I bet, and he flashed a big smile at me and gave a thumbs up and said "Good!" and then he ran away. Bullshit, Dutch people aren't friendly. He was lying to me, though, what I was writing wasn't good at all. It was no more and no less than a ramble about what I was seeing, which was mostly bikes and dogs.

The morning I spent in the ultra-modern, ultra-hip Bibliotheek (the new public library) on Oosterdokskade, writing a reflection about "crossing the first threshold" on my "hero's journey" as a study abroad student, eating chic cafe food in the chic rooftop cafe with Hallie and Christy, tricking the cashier into thinking I spoke Dutch (this is the first success I have had in such a venture) and failing to access the wireless. In theory, I am sort of opposed to hypermodern minimalist libraries (mostly just because I associate age and wood and dust with books). In reality, I would like to live in (this) one. Check it out at http://www.oba.nl.