July 19, 2005

Amsterdam so far....mariah carey and the hague

Quick note: We stayed the first night with a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar living in Amsterdam from El Paso, Texas. She introduced us to her friends and showed us around.

Saturday we went to a hookah bar, a couple of great resturants, and got kicked out of a bar at 1am when they closed. That is sooo early compared to Spanish time!

Sunday we went on a canal tour of the houses then I spotted Mariah Carey and our tourguides ran after her. We went to an Australian rest. and had half price cocktails at happy hour. It was my first pina colada in ages.

Monday, Larae (the scholar), and I went to the Hague just an hour from Amsterdam to the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia to see Slobadan Milosevic. He was there and he looked so relaxed. We stayed for a couple of hours and fun listening to a general answer the lawyer's questions. There a ton of translators from Serbian to English and also the two languages into French, etc. We went home and made an Italian dinner for her friends and Burak joined in on the fun.

Tuesday, I went with Larae to her club, the Rotary Club of Amsterdam. It is the oldest club in Holland. I spoke briefly in English and then they went back to Dutch. They had bread, meat slices, cheese, and croquettes. They served milk and coffee. I was having culture shock. After all my Rotary mtgs in Spain, I excepted wine to be served a least. Milk for lunch!

Tonight we are going to do some last minute Amsterdam stuff and we are off Wed am for Copenhagen to stay with a friend for a night.

Sorry I wish I could write more. Oh yeah they have an animal ambulance and pudding in a milk container called 'Vla!'

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