oktoberfest

First of all let me say that it was one of the best weekends I have ever had. Somehow I ended up there with like 25 boys and me. I stayed in a tent with my friends Matt and Chris and it was one of the funniest things ever. There's about a million tents everywhere and they are so close you can hear everything from everyone. I pillow talked with my tent neighbor. ANYWAY, the beer was fabulous :)

Yes, I know my eyes aren't straight in this picture.

And that picture definitely sums up the weekend. I managed to steal a stein and not end up in jail, go on bumpercars, and took naps on a hill. If I typed everything that happened to me, it would be a novel in itself. BUT my friend AJ did make the cover of the Munich newspaper. AND I gave my email address out (???) because I definitely had emails from Ben from England (who are you?). Also there are many people in my pictures that I never recall meeting.

Amsterdam

I finally made it to Amsterdam and it is definitely one of the most bizarre places on the planet. There are basically three types of shops in Amsterdam- bars, coffee shops, and sex stores. 

Let me just start by telling you some of the weird things I saw in Amsterdam. 

First, there was a MOB of 500 people (girls and guys) walking down the street shouting their love for Justin Bieber. I wanted to barf. I don't understand how this even happened because I am pretty sure he was not in Amsterdam this weekend. A video of it is on fb if anyone is interested.

In one of the squares were werewolves, everywhere. WTF?

Then there was the Red Light District. May or may not be one of the creepiest places on earth. The girls are eye level to you and some are really gross. I guess I thought it was going to be totally different than it was. In one of the Amsterdam books it says that pretty much anyone can be a prostitute if they wanted to. The rooms are rented out for hours and thats it. So if I really wanted to pay off college, I guess I could. Worth a try right? I heard you can make 500-600 Euro in a night. CHACHING.

Then there was this place. Fancy/decorative condoms? WHAT? 

Are you kidding ?

So, I went to this huge highlighter party at De Alla. I had a good night despite many...many unfortunate things that happened. I'll just get right to it. First, walking there was a disaster due to the pouring rain. Then, one of my friends threw up all over me. I was covered in red wine and jager vomit. After running upstairs to the bathroom to clean myself up, I went back and carried on with my night (wow right?). To help the situation I was also covered in glow stick juice and face paint so it didn't look that weird that half of me was red. Finally, I ended up dancing with this guy that apparently had cut his arm open unknowingly. When I got home, I also had blood all over me. Not to mention, this place was a sauna and I never dried off from the rain. So my shoes and whole outfit are ruined because they are ridiculously stained. My friend who vomited on me apologized many many times, but still cant look me in the eye.

I also went to a music festival and it definitely reminded me of Colorado. There was tons of stages on a huge field and lots of cool shops. I saw a poster promoting a reggae fest, will definitely be there.

I got a new tattoo! The guy that did it is named Wouter and he was such a funny, humble, dutch man. It was not as painful as I thought it would be.

I was going to make a trip to Rotterdam tomorrow, but once again I am sick. All of us keep passing around each others colds. Its stupid.

Some other random things I have done:
- Played Jenga in a coffeeshop
- Went to Highlander (bar) after a coffeeshop and walked in on some weird ass party and everyone was dressed as animals (creepy).
- Almost got kidnapped by three guys
- I officially have a stalker. His name is Gorkem (wtf)
- Found these cute boots (so expensive).. but a girl should treat herself once in a while right??
-I am going to the soccer match Holland v. Moldova. PUMPED

school

SCHOOL IS SO HARD. I am pretty sure just about everyone had some sort of mental break down in the past few days. They kind of just throw you into this business of PBL learning. I have class three times a week which is the most out of anyone I have talked to. PBL is interesting because you really don't need to attend lectures. What you do attend is student group meetings and debates. This has been very difficult to get accustomed to. Also, trying to listen and understand everyone's strong accents is so hard. I am the only person from the States in one of my tutorial groups. Huge pain in the ass.

I am going to the tattoo parlor tomorrow :)
I want to get a dove tattoo on the inside of my arm. I am hoping it comes out looking almost like a scar. I hear there are a lot of complications with white ink tattoos, but maybe something else can be done like a light gray or something. Who knows, I am just really excited.

At the moment everyone is getting ready to go to a highlighter party. SUPER EXCITED. I don't have class the next two days so I finally get to rage again.

I don't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I ran into the kid that did the drive by boob grab....with his MOTHER. HA

hungover

I still can't understand how everyone is so skinny here. Everyone eats french fries with mayonnaise all the time.

Sick.

This has been an unbelievable experience so far. There's this cool coffee shop called Cool Runnings after the Jamaican bobsled movie.

Everyone goes to this bar (cafe) called The Highlander pretty much every night. I have met people from all over the world. It's hard to keep track of all the people actually. Since there are so many exchange students from everywhere, it's easy to make friends.

Last night Maastricht University hosted a pub crawl. Each group was about 15 kids and 2 students chaperoned us. My group was obviously the best. The boys taking us to each bar were in a Dutch fraternity. I was talking to them about Greek life at DU and I can say I am grateful to be in a sorority. Hazing here is 4 months long. Yeah what the hell right?
Anyways, the pub crawl was the best decision I have made here. One of the best nights ever ever ever. After this trip, I am going to need a new liver.