Passports

IES recommends that at least one parent of a student studying abroad have an up to date passport in case of emergency. My mom got her new passport in the mail today, along with her old passport that’s at least thirty years old.

I have to say, I was somewhat appalled by the patriotic bullshit that is now considered the United States Passport. Let’s do a before and after comparison.

I got my passport about three and a half years ago. Here’s an image comparable to what my passport looks like. And here’s an image of what the current passport looks like.

See if you can spot ten differences.

I’ll even give you two. Notice the incredibly garish American flag and bald eagle? Those weren’t there on the first passport. Since when has Fox News designed government documents?

I couldn’t find any images online of the inner pages of the new passport, but rest assured, they’re just as hideous. It doesn’t even look like an official document anymore; it looks like a cheap imitation someone would buy from a gift shop in Epcot.

I’m just glad I won’t have to make excuses about how “all Americans aren’t really like that” when I show my passport at customs.

Skype

I just made my first successful phone call on Skype- that was exciting. I was messing with some settings and Marissa just happened to log on. We talked for a few minutes before she had to leave to eat. She’s doing very well, thanks for asking. The call was crystal-clear, which I thought was fairly amazing, since I’m using my laptop’s built in microphone, not any sort of fancy headset. The things we can do…

Once in Amsterdam

I’ve already bought tickets to see two shows during my time in Amsterdam. My first purchase was to see Radiohead on July 1 at Westerpark. Looks like a pretty nice place. It’s open air, so I hope the weather is nice. Apparently is can hold 10,000 people, so it should be a fairly rockin’ good time. My brother suggested I try to give Thom Yorke my WristStrong bracelet after my attempts to give it to AC Newman of the New Pornographers failed miserably. I think I might just try to do that.Almost as exciting as seeing Radiohead (not really, but still pretty cool) is the Okkervil River show I’ll be going to on February 9th. In and of itself this may not seem especially exciting, but the lead singer, Will Sheff was an English major who graduated from Macalester a few years back. I figure I’ll try and get in touch with him beforehand (via MySpace?) to see if us two brothers (in a spiritual sense) can hang out and comfort each other in a strange land (that sounds more homoerotic than I was intending…). Maybe I’ll get to experience the rock and roll lifestyle for a brief moment and trash a hotel room with him or something. Or maybe I’ll learn a cruel lesson in how fame changes people after he doesn’t respond to my repeated inquiries. Could certainly happen.In any case, they’re playing at the Paradiso which looks like a damn nice place.I leave you with my favorite tune off of Okkervil River’s most recent album, The Stage Names:

For the love of God, a little civilization is all I ask

I’m fed up with all of the American airliners, so of course instead of booking a nice British Airways or Virgin Atlantic flight, my dad gets me a United ticket to Amsterdam. Anything to save a buck. It’s a non-stop flight from Dulles to Amsterdam, which is nice, I guess. The flight will be seven hours and thirty-six minutes long, and I’ll be flying on a Boeing 767-300. The 767-300 is a mid-size plane, which I guess places it somewhere between a single engine Cessna and an Airbus A380. It can hold up to 245 passengers according to Boeing. The plane will of course be set up in the typical three-class layout, using five-abreast, 747-sized first class seats; six-abreast business class seats and seven-abreast economy class seats. I will, of course, be in the bitch end (economy class) of the plane.

Mennonites

Jason also suggested I visit a Mennonite Church near campus. Apparently they have a very active youth group, moreso than churches in the US, he said. Most intriguing was that the meeting room had a fully stocked bar. He found that odd, I find that to be a compelling reason to become a believer.

A bit of advice

According to my cousin Jason, who spent a year in the Netherlands during college, the best way to endear myself to the Dutch is to make fun of Belgians. Or Germans; apparently they don’t like Germans, either.

Where I’m living

I got my housing assignment from IES a week or so ago.

My address is: Funenpark 10, 1018 AK Amsterdam

Here’s the location:

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It looks kind of like an empty construction site, so I’m assuming the apartment building is to the north west.

Here’s my building in relation to the University of Amsterdam campus:

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It looks like it’ll be a bit of a hike, but I’m hoping that it’ll be a fairly quick bike ride.

I was scheduled to live with a dude named Daniel Prager. Facebook told me he’s a junior at Kenyon College. I messaged him about living together, and within about a minute and a half, I got a response saying he had actually decided not to go. So, Dan, it was nice knowing you.

I am, however, hoping this means that I will have the entire apartment to myself. That would be reasonably kickass.