(Queen's) Night + Day

SANY1892
Originally uploaded by sarahkatina

The night of April 29th is a special time in Amsterdam. Stages get set up all over the city, for Dutch pop stars to wail and gyrate on, expensive beer and giant inflated beer bottles can be found on every corner, and the Dutch go wild – dancing in the streets, decked out in orange (I saw some pretty choice outfits), drunken, uninhibited. It’s a sight to be seen, for sure. This is Queen’s Night, and the next day is Queen’s Day – all a big celebration of Beatrix, the current matriarch of the nation, and Wilhelmina before her.

Monday night I got a fuzzy phone call, and pulled an all-nighter to write a paper that (surprise!) turned out not to be due the next day. Tuesday I ran on adrenaline all day long, and well into the night, as we roamed around the city taking in/partaking in the spectacle. And around midnight, I went to meet Eleni and Anne, who came up from Maastricht for the big day and stayed with/wandered around with me. It was so wonderful to see them! These occasional appearances by Mac friends make me realize, cornily, what a special place our school is, and how cool it is that despite many differences we all share a certain sensibility – a sense of humor, an endless curiosity, a taste for the wonder in the everyday. Blah blah blah. But really, it was great to have them!

We did NOT stay up all night (some people did, but I don’t think I could have handled a double all-nighter) and had a leisurely start on Wednesday. Once we got going, we managed to spend almost eight hours walking (with the occasional dance or rest break), and hit every major square in the city. From Funen to Rembrandtplein to Museumplein, to Leidseplein to Spui (where we got some beer and chorizo and danced for a bit), to Dam Square (where Anne got “normal” sized Suikerspin (cotton candy) that was half her size), to Nieuwmarkt (through an almost-brawl in the Red Light District – racial slurs, a lot of shoving, and a man brandishing a banana liquer bottle over his head), and finally back home in the most glorious sunset I’ve seen in a while. Or rather, the most glorious sunset I would have seen in a while, until I got to Berlin (see next entries). There was lots of good food and good music and lots of people were selling their old junk on the streets – the city was sort of like a giant garage sale/block party – and it was really neato to see the Dutch go nuts, and to be a part of something with such an amazing spirit. Hopefully one day I can come back and do the whole thing again. So much to see, and you can barely even scratch the surface in one day. My camera died which I was super bummed about.

When we first got to Amsterdam, Queen’s Day seemed so very far away. It was almost unfathomable to try and imagine what our lives would be like three months after arriving. Now, it’s unfathomable to try and imagine what the next month of frantic finishing-everything trying-to-see-everything trying-to-bond-with-everyone will be like, and, even more frighteningly, what my life will be like upon return. If Glacier was any indication, I am going to have really severe reverse culture shock. Dang. Best make the most of these last few weeks.