Aix-en-Provence 2013: ADVENTURES ABROAD!!!!: The Weekend That Changed My Life

As you know from last week's blog, I traveled to Amsterdam with some friends over this past weekend. To say I had fun would be the understatement of the year.

Those of you who actually read what I post on Facebook know that I desperately want to move there in the very near future.

Now, I realize EVERYONE says something similar to that when they visit a city they particularly enjoy and then the novelty wears off in a few days.

It does not truly capture the emotion I felt walking around the city when I say I fell in love with Amsterdam. I fell harder for this city than I ever have for a person, city, or a sport...yes, I fell harder for Amsterdam than I ever did for baseball or hockey...

As many of you know, I am an Accounting major at the University of Denver (I have so much pride in one of the top 10 accounting programs in the country!!!). I plan on spending a few years after I graduate working for one of the Big Four accounting firms.

Why does this matter, you ask?

As soon as I returned to Aix, I started looking at the Big Four to find out if they have offices in Amsterdam. What did I find? I found that the firm that has been at the top of my list for a few months now (you're welcome, Mom and Dad) has a major branch located in Amsterdam and its headquarters are located in Amstelveen...just south of Amsterdam.

That is what I mean when I say this past weekend changed my life.

So, fine, I had a life-altering experience while abroad? Who doesn't?

I have been thinking about that fact nonstop since returning to Aix on Sunday.

I've been asking myself this question for the past 72 hours: WHAT MADE AMSTERDAM SO DAMN SPECIAL?!

One answer I came up with is that it 100% changed my study abroad experience. I'll be totally honest, before this weekend, I was starting to question the value of study abroad. I was thinking, "Great, so I'm going to school in a city that is different from Denver. Had I gotten in to Notre Dame, I would be doing the same thing there..."

However, I don't know what happened, but while in Amsterdam, something clicked and I thought to myself, "Oh! THIS is what study abroad is all about! Learning to get along on your own, traveling alone/with others, and finding out truly how independent you are; this is what it's all meant to be!"

I was satisfied with that answer for about 5 minutes. Then I realized that it didn't answer my yearning question as to why Amsterdam was so great.

I don't know that I have found the real answer as to why I fell so hard for the city yet, but I will walk through everything that I thought made it so great and maybe it will help me come to a real answer to that question.

I'll start by giving you a quick rundown of everything we (there were 12 of us in two different hostels) did while in Amsterdam.

To begin our trip, we spent Thursday night in Eindhoven, a city about an hour train ride outside of Amsterdam. This night gave us a nice preview to what was in store as far as a Dutch city goes. Eindhoven was very clean and VERY well-kept.

That night, we went out and went to a street with 58 bars on it. Yes, 58 bars. I promise I'm not exaggerating. That night was fun, but we all knew that it was no Amsterdam.

The next day, we boarded our train and headed to the greatest city on Earth.

As soon as we got out of the Amsterdam Centraal station, we were struck with just how great this city is. Huge, gorgeous buildings lined the main streets and very northern European buildings lined the smaller side streets.

Yes, everywhere we went, we smelled it. What is "it" you ask? It's Amsterdam. Do you really need to ask that question?

The first thing we did was find our hostel, which was 2 miles south of Centraal Station (yes, that's Dutch for Central Station. It's a really difficult language...).

After we found our hostel, we decided to indulge in the local legal delicacies that Amsterdam had to offer.

We got pretty tired after that...traveling to Amsterdam that day really took it out of us. So we went back to our hostel to take a nap before heading out for the night.

Because we didn't know exactly where to go, the nightlife was nothing to write home about. I am sure it is much better than I'm giving it credit for, but we just didn't experience it.

The next day, Saturday, was when I really fell in love with Amsterdam. On Friday, I stepped up to be my group's navigator of the city, so by lunchtime on Saturday, I knew the layout of Amsterdam just as well as I know the layout of downtown Denver and remember, I was a delivery driver in Denver this summer.

After lunch, we went to the Anne Frank House which moved all of us to tears. If I had to choose one highlight of the trip, I think I would have to say this is it. I have never before felt as though I was hit by a bus when reading something until I read a few of the select quotes from The Diary of Anne Frank on the walls of the museum.

The one quote that hit me the hardest was this: "The English radio says they're being gassed. I feel terrible."

In the moment I read that, I realized that words cannot really capture emotion.

After the Anne Frank House, we wandered aimlessly all over the southern part of the city trying to get a grip on the sadness we all felt. Finally we decided to add a direction to our wandering. We went to Vondelpark, a GIGANTIC park on the southwest side of the city.

It was a gorgeous park and it was well worth the time we spent there. It is a park that anyone could spend HOURS during day just walking and thinking about life (just another reason why I want to go back) while never seeing the same part of the park.

After that, we went to another coffee shop (yes, a coffee shop in Amsterdam is different than a cafe) and indulged again in Amsterdam's delicacies before heading to dinner.

After dinner, we went back to the girls' hostel and played a drinking game before heading back to our hostel to turn in early...after all, we did have to wake up early to head back to Aix.

Now, onto figuring out why I fell so hard for Amsterdam:

In a sense, I think the emotions I felt while in the Anne Frank House helped me to realize the emotions I was feeling for Amsterdam as a whole.

Obviously the emotions I felt in the Anne Frank House were different than the ones I experienced while just walking and leading my group around Amsterdam, but the degree of emotion I felt was quite comparable.

BUT WHY??

The answer that I keep coming back to is far more simple than I thought it would be: I simply adapted more quickly to Amsterdam than I have to any other city. The way the canals and the streets are situated just clicks with my brain, I suppose.

I wish I could give you a deeper, more philosophical answer than that, but I can't. I fell in love with Amsterdam because it just clicked.

As far as I'm concerned, that's definitely a good enough reason to want to move to a new city.

If there is one thing I can promise you now because of my study abroad experience, it is this: within the next 5-8 years, I will be living in Amsterdam, if it is only for a few years.

This weekend changed my life. This weekend changed my study abroad experience. In fact, this weekend changed what I am looking to get out of life as a whole.

Experiences like these just don't come around very often. I am not taking this one for granted.

AMSTERDAM, HERE I COME!!!