Amsterdamming

OK, so backtrack to last Thursday. Miss Ants in the Pants, AKA me, didn't think her classes could go by any slower. But before I knew it, it was 4:15 and I was at Gare de l'Est. Just a hop, skip & jump to Gare du Nord, where I awaited my Bradley. The Eurostar came in, I stared at the gate searching-- but no Brad. Hm. I had noticed his flight was delayed but hoped it wouldn't have caused him to miss his Eurostar. As in all times of panic, I called Jess. "He had an HOUR to get from Heathrow to St Pancras?! No way," stated my London-savvy lad. Well, in all honesty that put my mind at ease for the moment. Assuming he caught the next Eurostar out, I bought an overpriced espresso and waited.

Bingo. Eurostar #2 rolled into the station and there was Brad. YAY! After several of Brad's awesomely wonderful hugs, we were on our way. Through the pouring rain we navigated the French, Belgian and Dutch freeways and got to Amsterdam around 1AM. Sadly, our target locales were closed by the time we got all checked in, but we were able to pop into a small club for some drinks. We were tired anyway and decided to call it a night. A big weekend lay ahead!

Day 2: We wandered. We ate. And man, did we find some coffee shops!!! We went to the Poezenboat (cat boat), wandered around town, drank Heineken, and coffee shopped it up. That night we attempted to go dancing. The club was OK, but the music went downhill and we took off. Honestly, don't remember much else. But I know Friday was a good day.

Day 3: Bikes! My third time in A'dam and I had never rented a bike before. Brad and I headed out across the big canal behind Centraal station and took off into the countryside. I can't remember the last time I rode a bike but MAN, I am so glad he talked me into it. So much fun. We stopped in a park area and ate the best Gouda ever. Mmm. Then back into town, I'm sure more coffee shops were involved. We found one that had games. We played a game of checkers, and were a good few minutes into it until we realized this was no ordinary checkerboard. Instead of 8 x 8, it was 10 x 10. Good game anyway, thanks in part to the vaporizer on hand. Hehe.

Day 4: Back to la France. The rain was back as well. We stopped briefly in Rotterdam, just because Brad wanted to, but other than a couple of spiffy bridges we weren't too impressed. We stopped again in Belgium for lunch-- again, nothing to write home about. We got back to Paris around 8PM. I helped Brad navigate the metro, find his hotel, and decided to stay with him because it was late and I did not want to deal with lugging baggage on a train back to Troyes. We spent the evening drinking an overpriced bottle of wine while walking along the Latin Quarter, had a yummy Italian dinner, and went to bed.

So Monday, back to Troyes for me. Was tough to get back to work after such a great weekend, but the pain was dulled by my lycee's St Patrick's celebration. I had invited Rich along, and it was a good time. "Traditional Irish" food (beef stew, with that distinct French beef-y taste that started making me nauseous), Guinness, Irish folk music and dancing. Wow was that a funny time. Rich tore up the dance floor. I did a waltz with my responsable, Patrick. I jigged with some of my students. It was hilarious.

I didn't have class today because, as Patrick told me last night, he was on strike and therefore I was too (I have 2 of his classes on Tuesdays). Then he continued, "I always go on strike the day after St Patrick's Day." Finally, some logic behind the infamous French laziness.