Alleen Allison

Hello from Holland! Today has been the longest day of my life. Or so it seems. The past few days have become smushed together in a massive blur. Concert Choir left the Minneapolis airport at 330 in the afternoon on Tuesday and arrived in Amsterdam at 615am this morning(1115pm Central Time). After going through customs as quickly as possible (with 50 people), we met up with our tour guide and were squeezed into our tour bus. At 730am we were at the world's largest flower auction house. The variety of flowers was incredible and the smell was overwhelming. We then moved on to downtown Amsterdam where we took a canal boat tour of the city. Lunch was on our own, so a couple of us stopped in a sandwich shop/bakery on a corner to grab something for our starving stomachs. The weather today was beautiful, warm and sunny with a little wind. Amsterdam was a whirlwind of pedestrians, streetcars, small cars, and BICYCLES everywhere. The bicycles are more dangerous than the vehicles, I swear, if you get in their way beware! After lunch we were able to view some fine works of art in the Rijks museum, including some original Rembrandts, which I was pretty thrilled about. We then had a short walking tour of more of downtown, before leaving the city at 330. I slept on the bus all the way to Gouda, where we are staying the next two nights. My roommate Kelsi Kamper and I are staying with an English teacher and his wife: William and Gerta. A very sweet couple, his English is impeccable, hers is non-existent. I was excited when she let me use her wash machine tonight. My full bottle of hairspray exploded in flight, made several things very sticky, and caused some brightly colored clothes to bleed into my khaki pants. We'll see if those stains come out :S After only sleeping a rough total of 3 hours in the last 36, I'm exhausted. But Kelsi and I are going to go on a walk soon and explore some of the town before bed :)