Easter

Good Friday

On friday i dedicated my day to doing nothing in particular. I slept in. that was nice..I spent the rest of the morning kind of just roaming around doing all sorts...dishes..a bit of drawing..playing the piano...dancing around my room to music...talking to friends on msn...it was quite funny, i had really random bursts of heaps of energy..and bursts of being really really sleepy..so the activities i chose matched how much energy i had. School was not open today..so a nice excuse for not doing schoolwork because its officially a holiday! Talked to Jane Stewart in Australia today which was great. Cant wait to see her when i back in NZ. Exciting.

Later in the afternoon i felt energetic so i biked around to see Rosy. My bike had a half flat tire so it was a bit of a mission to get there..slower than usual. Nice to be able to ride my bike again though. On thursday i was all set to go to school in the afternoon when i discovered that my poor bike had a flat tire from having stepped on a pin..i was extremely frustrated because with everything so far away, im basically screwed if my bike is not in working condition. I was quite angry too..because i had no idea how to change a flattie. Rosy my hero came around to fix it for me, so now i know! Gone off track....anyway, feeling spontaneous i let Rosy try out her creative skills in giving my hair a bit of a chop. A bit of Risk taking, as ive never had my hair cut by anyone other than a hairdresser, but im just too stingy to pay the ridiculous dutch prices. Anyway, she did a great job of the back, and i had a go at the front later in the evening when i got home.

We went for a walk to Juliana Park for a bit of exercise. This is the park that we always bike past on our way to Thursday night lectures. Anyway, its a crazy kind of park..it has all these crazy birds, ducks and roosters roaming free, it has a playground for the kiddies, a deer paddock with a mini version of the huge rock formations in the lion king, and also some goats. As well as lots of paths to walk around, and a nice lake with a fountain. We had a nice time walking around and taking some photos of the first evidence that spring is on the way. My camera died though. (Photos - goats, a crazy rooster and a pretty blossom tree!)

After that we went to the nearest icecream shop! I havent got an icecream since i have been here so that was fun! Expensive though...five euro for this tiny little tub. It was heavenly though

By the time i got home it was 9pm! i couldnt believe it because i hadnt eaten dinner yet..it felt like it was only 6.30 or something crazy. So i had some veges for dinner and watched Lost at night!

Easter Saturday

Sooo incredibly tired when i woke up! not good..i actually slept through my alarm! Not good! Rosy and i had planned to go to Amsterdam this weekend so was rushed for time to get ready. Ive actually been feeling really tired lately...and im coming to the conclusion that i may be low in iron, because ive hardly eaten any meat since i got here...only the tiniest slices of bacon now and again. So ive decided that this week im going to have some good pig outs on red meat. I met Rosy at about 10 and we took a train to Amsterdam. Not such bad weather today...not really sunny, but it wasnt freezing cold like last time we were here.

First we went on a mission to the Stedelijk museum..we were quite excited because we saw a poster which said there was an exhibition with Klee and Miro..but it turned out to be in Schiedam, not Amsterdam. Guttered. I was not in the mood for looking at art at all because i was so tired and had a bit of a headache, and the museum guard kept picking on me.. I did see some cool stuff though, some Videos by Shirin Neshat, and some giant digital printmaking from Michel Quarez, and some cool lampshades made from paper cut outs.

About 1pm we exited the museum and went on an adventure to meet up with Karen, a friend from Christchurch who now lives in London. I hadnt seen her for nearly 4 years so it was a little hard to recognise her. But when i did, it was just like there has been no gap! We just both summarised the past four years in a paragraph..and got on as usual, it was great!She also had a friend Penny with her who was absolutely lovely (proper english pron: panny)We met at the information centre and lined up for nearly an hour trying to get some evening tickets for the Anne Frank house. Amsterdam is really insane at Easter time, all the hostels booked out and queues for something nearly everywhere. (photo - penny, karen, rosy and I)

It was about maybe 2pm when we had lunch. We just kept walking out of the busy part of amsterdam until we found a nice little cafe that had seat space for us.

After lunch we went on a walking mission around town to find the narrowest house in amsterdam, the flower market and Karen and Penny searched for people on bicycles to take photos of that fit into the following categories: someone dubbing someone on the back or handlebars, two bicyclers holding hands, someone biking taking another bike, a toddler in front of a windshield..theres always something funny going on. The funniest one ive heard of was from Rosy...she said she saw a whole family on one bike..the dad biking, toddler in front, wife sitting on handlebars, and another girl holding onto the back of her dad. hilarious. We all discovered we shared the same passion for spontaneous self take photos...so we passed alot of time coming up with inventive ways of taking photos....the favourite turning out to be the 'walk at the front, and shoot the camera over your shoulder of your friends walking behind you'. It was great...you never know what youre going to get. (photos - the narrowest house, and a self take)



On our way to the Anne Frank house, we stopped for a 'coffee' at a little cafe called Illy. Here i experienced the most strongest, most sweetest, most hot chocolate that i have ever tasted in my entire life! My head was buzzing! The Anne Frank house was a good time, very interesting story surrounding the Frank Story. I remember studying the book in highschool, so it was awesome to actually see the house where they hid out. A pity it was sooooo busy though, i got quite claustrophobic. Honestly the queue for the house went right down the street and around the corner. And every room that we went into was jam packed with people!

After this Rosy and I had to boost away on the train, for we were due at the theatre at 8.30. We made our way over to near the Amstel Station where we were going to stay the evening with Eavan, a friend of my brothers. Its so great having 'hook ups' in different cities, it makes life so much easier when you dont have to pay to stay at hostels! We had a quick bite to eat and went on our way to the theatre where we were going to watch 'Waiting for Godot', a play by Samuel Beckett.

Oh my goodness, 'Waiting for Godot' is the most insane thing that i have come across in quite some while. There is no particular plot to the story really, just these two men who are waiting for this guy called Godot...you dont really get any idea of who this guy is and if hes ever going to come. So these guys just wait, and get into the most crazy conversations to pass the time...they dont really talk about anything in particular though. And some passer bys come as well. Oh goodness, how do i explain. Its absurd. It was absolutely hilarious though. Rosy and I were laughing the whole way through...not at anything in particular...just stupid things people said, and funny facial expressions etc. One time we were in fits of laughter..people kept giving us odd looks wondering what the heck we were laughing about. I think we were the only ones who actually found the whole play very humourous! If it ever comes your way, id suggest you go see it, or watch the movie and make up your own mind.

Easter Sunday

Woke up early to meet Karen and Penny at the Amstel Station so they could come with us to church. After some problems with communication and dying cellphones we finally met on a metro sneltram and made our way to Church. The service was ridiculously short, a lot of singing and an easter story. It was so funny because they told the story in both dutch and english, and if you have ever heard the dutch telling storys its quite amusing the way their language works. Karen told me that it reminded her of the crazy chef on the muppets who is always trying to catch the chicken. I never thought of it, but totally agree.

After church, Rosy and I made our way back to Utrecht and tried to find our bikes at the station...i had totally forgotten where i had parked mine...And rosy's was totally jammed in the middle of millions of bikes and had to lift it out! It was lovely weather this afternoon, on my way home i stopped by the canal to take some photos of the pretty daffodils and tulips that are starting to appear. (photos - daffodils along the canal)

I sat outside for a while until the sun disappeared, and attempted to tidy our backyard a bit but that didnt last long. So i made some cinnamon pinwheels and then prepared my marvellous dinner which turned out to be pork chops and veges..mm. Then Rosy came around and we watched 'Anna and the King'. I had found a whole box of videos upstairs..im not sure whos they are. Anna and the king was a great movie, the only bummer was that alot of it was spoken in thai...and there was only dutch subtitles, so we felt we missed out on a lot of important conversations. I think ill hack my way through the rest of the videos this week before i head to Italy.