Day 87 - 96

Hello again my readers, due to the massive amounts of work plus fun that has been happening for the past week, trying to report the sequence of events this week has been anything but possible.

In no more than 5 points, these are what happened in Amsterdam this week.

1. Queen's Day
2. 10 friends from different exchange universities sleeping over at my place over 4-5 days.
3. Keukenhof, in my opinion 100000000000000 times better than Botanic Gardens.
4. Scheveningen beach, in my opinion 100000000000000 times better than Sentosa. I've been there once, and revisiting it made me feel that it was 100000000000000 (instead of 10000000000000) times better than Sentosa. Hahaha okay I've super-exergerated.
5. A trip to space, which was kinda bumpy but good.

Yeah, will elaborate again when I have the time.

It really sucks to be not able to share so many stories to all my dear friends when there's so much more other important things to be done. But I'll still try my best to blog about it when I have the time to!

*Updates*

Day 87-91

The weekend 2 weeks back saw us do alot of shopping to prepare the meals for our guests who would come visit us during the Queen's Day week. Our fellow Economists from NTU who are based in Denmark and Sweden respectively were coming to celebrate Queen's Day as well. I also spent the sunday trying to shop for my orange stuff (instead of doing my work), which ended on a not-so-fruitful note considering I failed to find my orange jeans. I did eventually find it in the Hague, but it was well past Queen's Day already. Since Queen's day is also pretty close to Liberation day (which Netherlands celebrate its liberation from German invasion during WWII), our RAs also oragnised this plantage tour, where we got to know alot more about what exactly happened during WWII in this very neighbour where we are spending 5 months of our lives here. Absolutely thought-invoking and the atrocities of war have never resonated so strongly before.

I also tried smoking weed the first time proper, thanks to Peter who taught me a whole deal more about the different types of weed and how to smoke them. (to my sisters who might be reading this, do not mention a word of this to the mum, or face my wraith when I get back. hahaha)


The different types of weed as seen here. The one in the joint is White Widow mixed with tobacco, while the other two are Jack Herrer and something else. These are some of the most popular weed among consumers here. In fact, every year in Amsterdam, the Cannabis Cup is being held. Smokers can sign up as judges by paying a sum of about S$300-400, they will be given this pass where they can flash it to all the participating coffeeshops in Amsterdam, and each coffeeshop will bring out their own competing product to let them have it for free. The coffeeshop that has got the most popular product will win this Cannabis Cup, and it also means a huge doze of advertising and revenue, since everyone will literally want to try this award-winning weed.


Smoking the weed from a pipe. There are many ways to consuming weed, of which this is one of them.

Comparing smoking weed, and eating weed disguised in a cake, smoking is definitely less enjoyable. This is given by the fact that it causes quite a fair bit of irritation to the throat (maybe less to people who smoke cigarettes) However, the advantage to smoking lies in that you feel the effects almost instantly. It took me just 2 puffs to feel the typical 'high' sensation, drifting between moments of sanity and hysterical laughing at anything that I set my eyes upon (including my watch). The other good thing is that effects come and go quickly, like 5 minutes to get high, but it will last like 40 minutes maximum. Before accusations of GH turning into a junkie surface, I would like to say that weed is by no way an addiction like heroin or hard drugs. The media that we have been exposed to for so long usually paints that picture of people getting wasted on anything labelled as drugs. It is an extremely false accusation on what is otherwise something as enjoyable as clubbing, swimming, or playing mahjong.



Day 92

Well, Wanteng arrived on tuesday to join us for the Queen's day potluck party thrown at Sebastian's place. Turnout was fairly good, and I cannot express the sheer delight of trying out a good spread of international food, of which all are unique and delicious.


My curry and tom-yum combo. Hurhur.


Daniela and her authentic Italian way of preparing pasta.


Marcial from Texas and his delicious wrap!


Richard, this friendly Dutch who made some really good stoompot the last time round!





Quite the kind of potluck I was expecting. This kind of thing is only possible when everyone brings a dish so that everyone else can get to try. An international one is all the more interesting and diverse! Surely this will be something I will miss when my exchange comes to its end.. and it ain't that far away =/