Hello to all you crazy Globalites out there. The 28th marked two full months of my stay here in London-town. Boy oh boy how the time does fly. Top news stories since my last post include a big win on the lacrosse field, and a trip to Amsterdam. I'll begin with the latter.
Last week was my first vacation since I arrived here and I joined some of the other Americans here for what turned out to be an incredibly interesting and entertaining vacation. We boarded a plane on Tuesday for a shockingly short flight (only 45 minutes) over to Amsterdam. We arrived late Tuesday night and checked into our hostel around 11. First thought: I've never seen so many bikes in my life. Second thought: Its cold, I wish I brought warmer clothing. Third thought: David Krejci is a fantastic hockey player. We then went out for a couple drinks and attempted to situate ourselves in this strange city. Wednesday brought buckets of rain but we soldiered on and were able to do some solid sightseeing. My favorite part of the day, and what turned out to be my favorite part of the trip, was the Van Gogh Museum. I splurged for the audio tour and spent a lot of time learning about all the incredible artwork. Now I've never pretended to have an eye for art, but these paintings were amazing. With the audio tour providing me with, for lack of better words, an Idiot's Guide to Vincent Van Gogh, I was able to have a very interesting, fulfilling and educational experience. Next stop was The Heineken Experience, which was a tour of the Heineken Brewery. All in all the tour was entertaining, but in retrospct, I would have liked to have substituted it for something else. There was so much to see there and with only two full days to do so a big part of me wishes The Heineken Experience didn't make the cut. But what can ya do? I had fun regardless. After some dinner, we wandered into the infamous Red Light District. I will not go into full detail about the debauchery that goes on in that place, but I remember asking myself 'Is this real life?' I promise you though Globalites, no window shopping for this guy. My dignity remains in the hands of you Ungy. But it was a strange place indeed, and I'm glad I got to see it with my own two squinty eyes. Thursday ushered in some much better weather and a chance to walk around more and do some exploring. We started by going to the Rijksmuseum, which is a museum dedicated to Dutch life in the 16th century. Unfortunately. a good portion of the place was closed for renovations, but the parts that were open were definitely worth the visit. There were all sorts of weapons, artwork, clothing and treasures on display and I had a great time taking it all in. From there we walked around for a while taking in the beauty of the city and attempting to avoid the thousands of cyclists flying down the streets (don't need a repeat of the events that transpired in Croydon a couple weeks ago). I then made the solo-trek down to the city centre for a canal cruise that lasted about an hour. The boat took us through most of the city's canals while we were told about it's unique history. I later met up with the rest of the group and we went out for some drinks and had a jolly ole time Thursday night. After a 5 am alarm Friday morning, it was time to make the journey home. Looking back, I'm really glad I went. Its a unique opportunity I've been presented here with so many amazing places in such a close proximity. I can't wait until I get the chance to ramble on to the next one.
On to our glorious lacrosse victory. Saturday we played a team called Hampstead, which consists of American players that are living here in London. They had loads of talent and, from what I am told, really had a field day with Purley last year. But our team is slowly building and improving and I felt confident going into the game. The game went back and forth and towards the end of the fourth, after a knee injury to our goalie, they battled back from a 4 goal deficit to tie the game. Visions of losses I'd suffered through at St. A's were slowly creeping into my mind as we tried to get the momentum back. But we won a timely faceoff and were able to get a big goal with 30 seconds left to regain the lead. After withstanding a barrage of shots towards the end of the game, the final whistle blew and sweet sweet victory was ours. It was a huge win for the club and hopefully we can build on it going forward.
A comment must be made about the Boston Bruins, number 7 on ESPN.com's Power Rankings, number one in our hearts. I've only been lucky enough to watch 3 or 4 games in their entirity, but these boys sure are playing some great hockey. If you're not on the black and gold train yet, hop on, theres always room.
Thats it for the real newsworthy events in the life of old csbs here. This week I'm back to work for another 6 week period before I get to come home to all you great people for Christmas. Happy November to all, I really wish I could spend Thanksgiving with you. And bundle up Globalites, the cold is a-comin.
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