Life begins to settle down..

Alright, I wasn't very happy in the 1st 2 days of my stay in Amsterdam.. disappointed with the apartment, roommate (I hadn't even met him yet, but just the dirty apartment with his betrayal on the 1st day leaving me at the behest of a taxi driver had left a bitter taste in my mouth), expensive though well-laid out public transportation system.. yet in the true Indian spirit of adjustment and jugaad, I bought some stuff - sheets, pillow, blanket, food stuff, toilet papers and hand wash, etc. to start settling in the apartment and try not to hate it anymore.. Then, I slept for almost 16 hrs at a stretch to, hopefully, feel fresh and relaxed (successful!! yay!!).. and finally, met my new room mate - turns out he isn't a bad guy.. in fact he is a very nice guy, helped me out and suggested to me what to do and what not in the city, etc.. hence, my anger just melted away.. as it always does - I am a nice guy, I don't hate people, I just hate circumstaances.. and I am not a complainer either - I just express my displeasure!! :D

Anyway, on the 3rd day, I began to feel good about my existence in the city, saw the light (literally - finally figured out how to switch on my table-lamp!!) and went out for a stroll around the city - especially the marketplace.. bought more stuff, new shoes (it was long time coming) for 30 euros.. but most importantly, bought an adapter US-to-Dutch converter and several attempts, finally got my computer to turn on and started using some randomly available wireless connection - good for me!! 

I also visited the Dappermarkt (not a spelling error) - the 2nd biggest farmer's market in Amsterdam, and had a hamburger there (partly because everything else on the menu was written in Dutch and I couldn't understand a word of it).. apparently brudjes means sandwich, and kaas means cheese.. patat means french fries.. the problem with this language Dutch is that there is so much phlegm involved that one doesn't know whether they are talking or just clearing their throat.. especially if you get a word like "Achtergracht" (which means something like canal or bank of a river).. both 'g' and "ch" are pronounced with a lot of phlegm and vibration in the throat.. Arabic sounds smooth in front of Dutch! Imagine that!!

On Sunday, a friend of mine decided to visit from Utrecht (20 min train ride) and we decided to hang out in the Centrum (downtown of Amsterdam).. walking around, we got lost so many times in our quest for Leidseplein (Leids square) that we just gave up its search and started walking around randomly.. but by stroke of luck, we finally found Anne Frank Huis ("house") and thereafter, Damplein (Dam's square).. Dam (pronounced dom) means a big church.. beside it was Madame Tussauds and next to it was the red light district.. we decided to venture into it, went into a pub as well.. and she picked up a "gay map" from a bar.. which was a simple map with some gay images on it.. and I made it a point not to be seen with it.. the area was heavily gay-friendly.. I am not homophobic, nor am I anti-gay.. it's fine as far as I am concerned, just didn't want to be hit on by guys - however hot they are.. :D

It was quite early in th evening, so not much was really happening in the RLD, hence we decided to go to Anne Frank Huis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank), which was the last thing on my to-do-list.. but she wanted to go, so what the heck!! Well, it was as I had expected.. a highly depressing place.. filled with objects, videos and writings about death of Anne Frank and her family (except her father) at Nazi concetration camps and Jewish sufferings.. people who know me know that I try to laugh my way out of anything uncomfortable like this.. but this was too much to be able to laugh away.. it may be hard for most people, who know me, to believe that I ever get serious or despondent, but videos and pictures of mass graves loaded with dead naked bodies and those painful words that Anne had written in her diary did give me jitters.. it was an eye opener, and I needed to shut them again.. for which i decided to go back to the RLD.. and since I had accompanied my friend to a depressing museum, she agreed to go with me to those streets... I guess part of the reason why I wanted to go there with a girl and not alone or in a groupd of guys was because while the enthusiasm was there, I didn't want to be judged by those girls who were standing in the window waiting to be judged and rated, or those people who were the members of jury for those girls.. I guess, when you are there to judge others, you yourself get a feeling of being continuously judged.. but when you see a group of Indian guys sticking their face on a window and salivating over a girl, and then leaving as a guy says to the girl - "Berry Nice" with hand gesture suggesting appreciation - you begin to feel those guys deserve to be judged!! I don't know, I felt very weird in there and after going through just 1 street I couldn't keep my head up and decided to go away.. the enthusiasm had died, taken over by some sort of shame or embarrassment.. suddenly, Anne Frank Huis looked more fun - and intellectual fun at that!! A good day was slightly tarnished by that short visit to RLD, but it had to be done.. for the sake of Dutch tourism and all my friends who have been here or wish they were here.. :)

However, before I saw my friend off at the train station, she helped make my day by trying to offer the gay map to a poor timid French guy (guessed from his accent) when he dared to ask us for the directions to a pub called St. Christopher's Inn.. His embarrasssment was quite visible as she explained to him - "You see, we are not from Amsterdam, but we have a gay map, which you can use".. :D.. As I could not bear the funny look on that guy's face anymore (I have a short laughter-fuse), I decided to step in and give him the directions (I had seen the pub on my way) and leave him a happy man.. :D.. Well, that was some day!! :)

Today, nothing special happened, except my boss took me to a basketball game between the teams from Amsterdam and one from some nearby city.. Amsterdam won comfortably 97-67, but it was fun drinking beer with my boss who's nearing 60 and is still fitter than most people of my age!! 

Tomorrow, the work starts which means working  my arse off during the weekdays while enjoying the weekends to hilt!! Let's see what this new week brings, wish me luck!! :)