Amsterdam & the election

Last weekend I had Friday off, so I went to Amsterdam with Erica and Alee. Alee left Friday morning while Erica and I left Thursday night. It was really fun!! The first night Erica and I stayed in a hostel that was surprisingly nice and clean. The next day (Friday/Halloween) Erica and I met Alee at the Anee Frank house which was really cool but depressing! I always thought that the Anne Frank house would be like really small cause I always pictured her staying in like a closet with 8 other people, but as it turns out, the part of the house/store where she stayed was really big! I was surprised -- not that I would want to be couped up in a house for two years, but still. I was surprised. It was cool but kind of a Debbie Downer. oh well. So after that we went to go get lunch and then we wandered around and took pictures. We found a cookie bar which served really yummy cakes and cookies, tea and hot chocolate and had a wine cellar which is just weird, but it was really cool. The architecture was amazing, it was very European, small, cozy and quaint (yes I did just use the word quaint). After the cookie bar, Erica and I went to meet Maurits, her friend who lives in Amsterdam, at his house.

Oh my goodness, his house is amazing! It was really old, had amazing architecture and he had a library!! And Erica and I didn't just get to stay in the guest room, we had essentially the whole floor to ourselves, it was really cool. So Friday night was Halloween and one of Maurits' friends was having a halloween party so we went out to a bar and then to the Halloween party where we stayed until like 4:45 in the morning and then went back to his house. The next day we slept until about 10 and then we went to go see the Saturday market kind of thing which was really cool. After that we wandered around and took pictures and his dad got us tickets for a canal tour so we went on a canal tour which was really cool! We saw all these historic buildings, and there was one part of the trip where we saw seven bridges that go over the same canal (which is supposedly really rare because the canals turn so much) so that was really cool! After that we went back to his house for dinner then we left again because it was museum night in Amsterdam.

Museum night is when (if you have tickets) all the museums are open and you can go to which ever museum you want, so that was really cool. We saw a whole bunch of museums whos' names I can't remember right now. I wrote them down but I don't have the list with me. The last museum we went to that night was the Van Gogh museum but by the time we got there it was closed so we went to a bar and then home. Then Sunday morning we got up early and went to the Van Gogh museum quickly before having to catch the train back to France.

I have lots of pictures, and I'll post the link to them later.

So as I'm sure you all know (unless you've been hiding under a rock, lol) Obama won the election. The French are going completely crazy. Well not really, but they're all really happy that he won, which makes life easier for me. I'm really glad it's all over now though because I was sick of trying to explain the American electoral process to them without the necessary vocabulary and even if I did, they wouldn't understand it anyway -- they all think it's way to complicated. So anyway, I'm glad that that's over.

Oh and I went to the Prefacture again yesterday (where I get my carte de sejour) and they told me to come back sometime after 28/10 so I decided to go back yesterday and I took my receipt and everything and they told me it wasn't ready, they didn't have it and to come back after the 13th of November. How dumb!! If they don't give it to me soon, then I can't re-enter the country after Christmas! And I'm getting really annoyed because they keep promising me that the next time I come I can get it, but they keep lying. So in total I've been to the Prefacture 10 times (once for the actual request, four times for my name and five times because they keep telling me to come back to get my carte de sejour). I'm getting really irritated, but whatever. Hopefully I'll get my carte de sejour before my visa expires. Although I know it doesn't expire until the first of December so I have until then to get it otherwise once I leave France I can't come back! :-(

I miss you all and hope you're doing well!