It's Funny Because I Used to LIKE to Breathe...

It doesn't really matter where I am or what time it is. If I set foot outside of my house, it's very likely that I'll increase my chances of dying from lung cancer. Don't yawn at 7 am at the tram halt, because chances are the guy next to you is smoking and the wind is blowing it straight into your face. Don't enter a bar unless you want to come out smelling like cigarettes, and running up the back staircase of the school is also a bad idea. Bleehhh.

Wow my hands are ridiculously cold and my feet are ridiculously hot, because I'm typing in bed with my legs under the covers. So this might take me a while to write because I'll have to stop and warm my fingers occasionally. Anyways...

I went to Amsterdam with 7 other AFS students a couple of days ago. Three of us decided we would just spend the whole night there, because the trains and trams and busses all stop running around 12 am, and we didn't want to go home then. Basically all we did was sit around in bars, talk, play in the snow... yeah. And at two bars the eight of us sort of tried to dance but it was kind of awkward - well, for me anyways. The kids from South America were just tearing up the dance floor, but I was just like.... ughh... I can't dance. I actually really like dancing, but the thing was that we were the only people dancing in the whole place. If there were 30 people doing it, then I would have been like, "WOOOO!"... but not when everyone else is watching! So that was weird. (I know these are lame excuses, or "smoesjes".) But anyways, later a few of us went into a gay bar, which was really interesting. The people there were all really nice, they were like, "Yeah, I'll take a picture of you guys, but only if my friends can be in it!... No, YOU - SMILE! Smile or I won't take it! There you go! Okay, great, have a fun night!" I wish everyone was as nice as these guys were. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it was COLD because it was SNOWING so hard. Well, at about 3am, the three of us (me, a girl from New Zealand, and a boy from Costa Rica) decided it would be a good idea if we slept for a few hours, so we went on a search for a youth hostel. We found one, but it was full, so we stood around talking for a while. Just then, this guy on a bike with a sort of tent on wheels attached zipped up to us and asked, "Taxi?" And we sort of stared at him then said, "...yyyeahhh.... do you know where there is a cheap youth hostel?"

"Yeah, there's one pretty close by that's one of the cheapest in the city. It's big, but I can't promise there will be a room right now."

"Can you take us there? How much would the ride cost?"

"For the three of you.... 10 euros."

So we squeezed onto the bench inside the tent on wheels and went on our merry way. We found out the guy biking us was Irish and had been living in Amsterdam for 5 years. He said something sort of funny and true, which was, "This is so typical for the city. Nobody here is Dutch."

We finally arrived the hostel and got a room. By 4:30 am we were sleeping, but we had to wake up at 9 because we didn't want to miss the free breakfast (which was fantastic, by the way - I just love eating bread every day). That's normal though... you get free bread, hardboiled eggs, meat, cheese, and spreads at youth hostels and that's about it. At really nice ones you might even get cereal or juice.

Well, apparently it's going to stop snowing today. I guess that's good and bad. It was sort of nice but sort of not. In any case, my family will probably go ice skating on a lake soon. Well, I should probably go now... I have to take a shower, clean my room, make sure my family knows I'm still alive, all that good stuff. Tomorrow back to school....

BLEHHH I just put my face down on my bed and got a nose full of the smell of smoke - not kidding. Next time I go out for a night, I'll change my clothes before taking a nap. Until then....

Tot ziens,

Emily