Blog Entry 1 - Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The city of bicycles and sunglasses

Somehow the air smells different in Amsterdam.  This is going to sound weird but in Dallas there a certain smell of money all over the place. It’s all about landing that great job or getting hired by this big company. That is something I cannot feel at all in here, personal life and enjoying different social experiences seem to override the professional hunger. Something I noticed, in here you don’t see as many overweighed people as you do in America (I don’t think I saw even one person like this). This is because over 60% of people in Amsterdam use their bikes daily, something that would be awesome to replicate anywhere in the world. I saw a couple of McDonalds but neither of those really had any people inside. The whole ‘fast food’ culture is not appealing for people in Amsterdam, they will always have time for a coffee though, and if possible accompanied by a cigarette. A lot of people come to Amsterdam because of the coffee shops culture, and I found it amazing how they can mix both their professional lives with their personal lives. People in here are very used to meeting people from all over the world so they have no issues in speaking either in Dutch or English, and the city is somehow a mix of business and nature. You can see giant trees and integrated biking paths as well as rivers all over the place and you can see as many old buildings as modern ones. I got to see the Van Gogh Museum which was something I always wanted to do, so that’s something I could finally scratch out of my “things to do before I die” list J. 

I know I don’t look too happy but that’s because if the jet lag, inside I’m jumping like a 5 year old on a brand new trampoline.

A park where a lot of people just go to meet new people, take a nap, study or just think about random things.

I was amazed by how many people had bicycles and how well their roads were instructed everywhere

A small view of how the city was planned not to avoid, but interact with the nature

A really cool Mickey and Minnie Mouse sculpture we found in here

Last sunset in Amsterdam