Day Three

I'm baaaaack! I might have lied about updating yesterday, so yes, my word is technically useless by this point, but hey, I was studying for my learner's permit...*grins*

DAY THREE, AMSTERDAM:

I was fully asleep when the hotel room phone rang and jolted me awake. I was thankful for it, actually. I was having a terrible dream about checking in my luggage at the airport. There was a lady with a really big black hat in my dream, and she told me that my luggage was too evil to pass through the force-field of good, past which was where all the luggage was kept. And then all my delegates were all like, "Boo you, Esther! Boo!" Anywaaaay....

Breakfast! It was in a dining hall and was a large, white table laden with food -- mostly bread. Europe likes bread, I really must say. So I had a bowl of unsweetened cornflakes (the only cornflakes Europe has, because Europe is also health conscious) and ham. I LOVE ham!

Shortly after this, we got on our bus for our tour of Anne Frank's house. I was really looking forward to visiting Anne Frank's Huis, because there is so much history rooted in such a small building. I used to read a book about Anne Frank's life when I was young over and over again, so I had sentimental memories attached to it as well.

We stopped in front of an Anne Frank statue to regroup.

Anne's house is right around the corner.

And then we took a thirty second walk to the real-deal.

Ain't she a beaut?

I've seen pictures, but the house is definitely smaller in person. There was already a massive line building up in front of the museum, and it wasn't even open yet! But being an all powerful people to people person (P2PP) we got to bypass the line and head straight in. Myahahah.... Before we did that though, we all paused to take pictures.

Me and a friend on the front steps of Anne Frank's house.

And then in we go! We had a short presentation on the history of the place, which was interesting to say the least. Past this point we weren't allowed to take pictures, so I took pictures of the ... pictures on the wall. I have a tendency to take pictures of pictures, a habit that you will be familiar with by the end of this blog.

Diagram of the main house and annex.

Time line. The picture above 1941 really had an affect on me: I loved the wistfulness of it.

Next we had our tour. Wow. Everyone was still tired from jet-lag, including me, but you just had to wake yourself up for something like that. I wrote something in my journal that kind of sums it up:

I knew of Anne Frank because I had read of her, but as I walked through that house I felt as if I actually knew her. It was great, and it was depressing. . . When I looked in her room and saw all those pictures glued to the walls, (Note: all cut and pasted by her from books and magazines) I realized that she was real. She had to go through all of it.

 I learned a lot about how she lived, and it was a very small space to live in, yet she made in bearable. I have yet to read her actual diary, which is kind of shocking because I have wanted to read it for so long.

We saw the toilet, which is an odd thing to say, but I thought it was interesting because they could only flush it when the building below was closed, which was very late at night. They also had to be dead-quiet, no sounds or anything to give their position away. I couldn't imagine living like that, especially for so long like Anne and her family did. A life like that should be the stuff of fiction, but it isn't.

After our tour, we exited through the . . . Okay, I'll give you a chance to guess. . .

We exited through the gift shop! Shocker! It was actually really neat. They had Diary of a Young Girl in every major language, and lots of post cards. I grabbed a couple of the latter, but when I got home I realized they had been smushed. A shame, since they were some of my favorites. A friend of mine grabbed a muffin, and shortly after declared that it was the best muffin he had ever had. I never throughout the trip bought food, which is a good thing because my money ran out at the end. Instead, I feasted off the snacks of richer, junk-food-loving delegates like a vulture. Good plan, right? P2PP TIP: Spending-money is important. You get three square meals a day, but sometimes breakfast won't be enough for people with big appetites.

We had lunch next! We had to do something new where we had to pick someone we had never talked with before, and talk to that person throughout lunch. I got a tall guy named Tre, who had a one thousand dollar camera.

Word.

We got to choose our meal. I chose the giant bowl of Ramen.

I think that green stuff is grass.

My ramen tasted like grass. I think the green things were chives, but they tasted like grass. I filled up fast though, since the bowl was the size of my head. The chicken was good.

Tre messing with my camera.

Next up, canal tour! The canal tour was a lovely chance for all the delegates to unwind, or in some cases, fall asleep immediately.

"Lullaby, and good night...oh, they are already asleep."

I got some good pictures of Amsterdam.

A boat!

A boat house!

Anne Frank's house.

The world's largest floating Chinese restaurant..and possibly the only floating Chinese restaurant.

Next up, diamond factory! I have to say that I don't really care for diamonds. They are basically just very shiny rocks, and I would actually rather someone buy me a PS3. But after the tour, I was enlightened a little bit. A lot of hard work and talent goes into making the perfect diamond, so I respect those shiny rocks a bit more. I have tons of pictures, but I will only show a few because my internet has a horrible upload speed.

After learning a few things, we went upstairs where our guide locked us in a room so he could show us the pretties. We were all still tired, so when we weren't going crazy over the shiny beauties, he declared that we must be very bored. I was actually quite interested, but like I said, but I didn't go bombastic.

Our guide pointing out the various carat sizes.

My favorite necklace. I liked the ruby.

Here I learned that the price of a diamond is not determined by its size, but rather it's clarity and color. Interesting, huh? That's why the black diamond isn't valuable.

After our tour, we went back to our hotel. Yay! I had a very nice day that day, and learned a lot. Amsterdam is one of the most interesting cities I visited. Just don't visit the gift shops, unless you want to buy something X-rated, ha.

I'm off to bed!

Esther