| | i'm at the airport in amsterdam now, about to fly to moscow to meet up with frances. the last few days here have been a big whirlwind tour of amsterdam, with a couple very frustrating snags regarding my flight to moscow. i won't go into the details, but FYI NEVER FLY LOT POLISH AIRLINES! well, the name says it all. i will probably be flying on a paper airplane for all i know. first off, i have some big news: change of plans for me regarding grad school-- i'm going to columbia instead of emory!!!!! long story short, i decided i reaaaaaly didn't want to go to emory and reaaaaaly wanted to go to columbia/nyc, and last month submitted a new application for review (again, which is silly since i was already accepted months ago and decided to go to emory). the admissions committee met yesterday and i am officially going to get my MPH through the department of epidemiology! i was so worried because the program is already more than full this year, and that's why i haven't mentioned it... anyway, i have been jumping for joy and so relieved to be excited to go to grad school. ok, back to travel stuff. a few things i forgot to mention from london: i saw the play Avenue Q , and it was great! i highly recommend it-- i enjoyed it a lot even though i usually don't like musicals. another random fun thing was i finally played ultimate frisbee for the first time (and hey i wasn't as bad i thought i would be) in the park with raj and a group he plays with, and some other random folks who joined. i was so incredibly lucky with weather in london-- no rain and lots more sunshine than expected. finally, i'd forgotten to mention one of the most interesting touristy things i did-- i sat in on the house of commons debate in the parliament! and just by chance, they were debating expanding the NHS (national health service) to include increased services for stroke patients--a topic that is actually relevant to my work and study. i was hoping more for the debates where they start screaming and cursing at each other, but i'll was alright with health care discussion.
as for amsterdam, i've been here sunday noon to early wed morning. a friend met me at the airport and we went to his house about 30min outside downtown amsterdam (once again, not quite backpacking yet when i have friends to meet me at the airport, stay with, and take me around-- especially here when i don't know any dutch). it was great to see daan, the 4th person of our group of travellers in vietnam (i saw the other 2 last week). from his house, we biked to the beach, about 8 miles away. it is SO bike friendly here-- all separate bike lanes and flat trails, and everyone seems to commute by bike. the beach he took me to was so local and euro, in the sense that it was a strip of clubs/bars right on the water, only open in the summer, blasting dance music even in the afternoon. i don't know why we don't have anything like this in the US! it would be so fun to have a beach only filled with young people (families go to a different one) and not of the frat variety. as i'm running out of internet time-- highlights included chatting lots with daan and his very friendly family (yay for getting the local point of view and history!), doing the usual touristy stuff (canal boat, museums, lots of walking and stopping for beers and coffee, eating dutch cheese-yum!, heineken brewery, walking through the red light district), and meeting up with roman, anne's little brother! daan was great about showing me/us around, and it was so random that roman was here on the same days as me! love random travel... i have to run. love and miss you guys! |
