Thursday, August 27, 2009

still playing tourist in the city i live in

yesterday, i had a Dutch man explain to me that the Dutch are just the victims of Calvinism. it was his theory of the Dutch. if you believe that hell is an exclusive room with four chairs and you're 99% likely to go to hell unless you work really hard and don't have fun, then the idea of building an entire region that is UNDERWATER by slowly, painstakingly draining all the water from the swampy land (that is located below sea level) actually seems like a good way to spend your time.

i saw the strangest thing at the karaoke bar the other day. i kid you not. a female urinal. i kid you not. complete with a sign demonstrating how to use it. i was going to use it, just to say i did, but there was no toilet paper.









judith and hilde took us on a tour through the grocery store. it was so useful to learn which milk is milk and which is buttermilk, a mistake you do not want to make in your cereal. we bought some delicious dutch waffel cookie things and ate them in the square while playing some game that involves hitting each other on the head. we got a lot of dirty looks from tourists, which may have been because we were rough-housing at a religious monument. but thank God the Dutch are liberal.