I AMsterdam

I’ve decided to try to blog- let’s see how this goes.  To catch up, I flew to Amsterdam on Monday night, the 21^st, with Laura.  I didn’t get much sleep on the plane and arrived in the Netherlands at 11:00am (5:00am our time—whoa)—so I have been very jet-lagged and sleep deprived but am mastering the art of rallying because we’ve been so busy!

The hostel we are staying in is quite possibly the strangest place I have ever been to and in terms of class…. puts the Stube to shame… but I love it.

Day one was kicked off by an announcement over the PA system- yes, there’s a PA system- broadcasting the beginning of happy hour at the hostel bar- 2 for 1 beers!  All 25 global players filled the place before we took off to a comedy club for the night- so funny!  After the show we reconvened at the hostel to check out the basement club.  That’s right- the basement is a full out club- disco balls, strobe lights, techno music, the whole nine yards.  We then took it to the bars for the night and quickly found that “AmsterdamED” was going to be our favorite place.  As a night cap, my roommates and I decided to hop on the wi-fi, only available in the lobby.  Since at 3:00am the lobby is closed, we had to resort to the empty, but still fully functioning, basement club.  The four of us sat in the middle of strobe lights and loud music checking e-mails, facebook, twitter, and even skyping.  It was a sight.

The next day my only concern was making sure I got a nap in—didn’t happen.  After the complementary breakfast, which consisted of your choice of bread, a peanut butter substitute, jelly, a hard-boiled egg, or a slice of cheese, we had a 3 hour orientation, held at the Amsterdam Business School.  We got to walk around a little to get there- this was when I first fully started to understand the intensity of biking in this city.  The amount of children that a person can fit on a bike with them is unreal.  After orientation I took it to the streets myself!  We had a four and a half hour bike tour where we rode through the city and out to the countryside.  Our tour guide gave us history on the city and held back nothing when showing us the Red Light District and explaining the origin and importance of the “coffeeshops.”  On the tour we visited a cheese and clog factory— deeelicious cheese and clogs are actually more comfortable than you would think!  The tour was fun, but I could have done without the monstrosity of rain that we biked through for the entire 3 hour trip out to the country.  Even through the rain, though, the city is beautiful!  We checked out the bar scene again at night and of course ended things with free wi-fi in the club—classic.

That takes me up to today.  We had a free day and afternoon so a group of us rented bikes and pedaled out to see the Anne Frank House.  We ended up taking a very roundabout way to get there—I can now bike and read a map at the same time—but we got there nonetheless.  We waited in line for about an hour but were finally let in.  It was both interesting and very sad to see the space where the Frank family lived behind a bookshelf door in a little house in Amsterdam.  After the house we found or way to the Heineken Brewery but only checked it out from the outside (decided to forgo the 15 Euro tour… and actually couldn’t hand the thought of having a beer at the time).

After our first practice tonight we are headed back to the Red Light District area for a team party where we’ll get to meet some of the international teams that we will be playing against tomorrow!