Amsterdamnation!

UGH! Stupid blogging site just deleted an entire post. Deep sigh. I can easily retype it (it was just a transcript of a written reflection on Amsterdam that I wrote on the plane) but I really don't feel like it. Here's the short version.

Went to Amsterdam. Abandoned silly plan to check my pack at the airport and party all night and instead used my mad map skillz to track down an Easy Everything (there called the Easy Internet Cafe) and booked a hotel room. Stayed at the Golden Bear Hotel [first time trying to do the link thing, may or may not have worked -Ed.] which was spacious, clean, and reasonably priced. It was almost strange being basically alone for 24 hours after the very close summer of bar studying with everyone. I naively figured that I'd make a friend, but it wasn't to be. Checked out the Rijksmuseum (Rembrandts are pretty neat); the Homomonument (actually called that); strolled the canals (particularly neat at night when lit up); and the Red Light District (so trippy to walk past window after window featuring a primping prostitute selling her wares). I spoke to exactly no one who wasn't selling me something. I even tried my hand at a few bars, but they yielded nothing more than a reasonably priced scotch. Still, Amsterdam was a beautiful city (quite clean, too) even if I had to traipse around in the rain (rain = theme of my trip). [Bombay teen at computer next to me is listening to Kelly Clarkson on his iPod at a very high volume.]

My reflective, solitary time in Amsterdam was capped with lots of interaction at Schiphol Airport. Miss Lauren Voss was there for a stopover on her way to Prague. We were supposed to have breakfast together, but a combination of gate bait-and-switching and, perhaps, a mild, dyslexic moment on my part had me looking for her at gate D27 when she was at D57. Starving and a bit tired, I momentarily gave up trying to find her and instead ate lunch at a busy airport cafe. Since it was packed, I sat with a pretty, blonde girl (you know how I roll) who was reading a Nicholas Sparks book in German. Obviously, we struck up a convo and I found out that Hannah was on her way to MISSISSIPPI for her junior year abroad. Her junior year of high school. [The boys would have been proud.] She seemed a bit nervous (particularly about her inevitably Jesus-freakish host family and the inability of 16-year-0lds to buy cigarettes in the states) so I gave her a pep talk over my chorizo sandwich and cappucino and then went off to find Lauren. It was SUPER fun to hang with the sisters Voss for a bit (both of our flights were delayed). I then got GRILLED by airport security as I boarded my flight to Bombay. A snippet:

Badass Airport Security Gal: May I see a copy of your itinerary?
Me: My what?
BASG: Your itinerary.
Me: What do you mean?
BASG: Itinerary. Yours. A printout of it.
Me: Printout...?
BASG: Yes.
Me: Of my trip itinerary?
BASG: Yes.
Me: This leg or the whole thing?
BASG: The whole thing.
Me: Right...uhm...I don't have one. I think I WROTE IT DOWN somewhere...[rifling through my bag]. Ooh! I have a printout of my trip home from Bangkok [handing it over]? And here's my ticket from Bombay to Bangkok [also handing it over]. Ooh! Here's my flight info for this leg of my trip [showing her scribbled flight info copied from Orbitz website]....

I eventually got through. I flew in a DC-10 (only 10 still fly and they're being retired in October) to Bombay. I have never, in all my years of flying, seen more people out of their seats and milling about than on this flight. While the "fasten seatbelt" light was STILL ON. I'm not talking about 2 or 3 people, I'm saying that it seemed like a good third of the plane was up and about at any moment. As a bit of a nervous flyer, I was not amused (at first) but later couldn't help but find it a little funny. (I, in fact, was inspired to use the lavatory while the fasten seatbelt light was still on. I'm so badass.)