The past week or so has been a huge blur, distinguished by an overall lack of sleep, a haze of altered states and a flood of new friends, locations and concepts. Amsterdam is beautiful. There are lovely canals (with swans swimming in them) laced with brick alleys and bridges, lined with green trees and gorgeous old buildings.

It is Wednesday and my second day of classes, but I had some trouble finding this morning's class and didn't end up making it. I am signed up for five classes now, but one of them does not start until the next "block" in November, and the way the school works I am required to drop one of them within two weeks. If I happen to drop one of my Tuesday or Thursday classes, I will only have class for two days a week, but this is unlikely. I'm probably going to end up dropping Amsterdam in the Golden Age, a history class that I hear is pretty intense.

There are many subtle differences in Europe/the Netherlands, but it is still a Western country and the basics are pretty much the same. The Dutch people seem very nice and like 85% of them speak English, mostly good English, which is very helpful. I've found that in Europe, I tend to not have full meals so much as modest snacks. My diet has mostly consisted of bread and cheese of various kinds, as well as small amounts of meat, fruit and vegetables. Eating out is incredibly expensive. We went to a mexican restaurant near Centraal and I got a burrito that cost nearly 15 euros, which is f'in ridiculous. Alcohol is nearly as pricey, costing anywhere from 4-7 per drink, so pregaming is simply more economical. Bud seems much more modestly priced, but that might be an illusion of confused exchange rates.

I haven't had as much time to listen to new music since I got here. I did listen to the new Apparat album, The Devil's Walk, and I found that every song sounded like it could be the last song, so I was always asking myself, was that the end? I don't think that is a good sign. I'm listening to the new Plaid album Scintilli now and I'm really impressed with it. Oh yeah, and the new album by the Field is pretty nice too.