Regen

I have always loved rain. Always. The way it sounds when it gently taps your window panes, the smell of it, the taste of it...

But that was before Amsterdam. This place has a serious rain culture. The people here have this heightened awareness of the weather and always have umbrellas with them. Apparently, it rains only 7% of the time in Amsterdam, but it seems hard to believe. They say it rarely rains all day. Instead, it'll rain a few hours. or minutes. Or all the time. It's crazy. But the true mystery is how the dutch people handle it.

They stay dry, they stay gorgeous. They ride their bikes while holding umbrellas and cellphones and still manage to have perfect hair. I can barely ride my bike without crashing into cobblestones, cars, mopeds, other bikes, pedestrians, tourists, and the odd irregularly-placed tree, let alone hold two things and manage to look beautiful in a grey, pressed suit. But I digress.

I'm learning a little bit more every day about traffic laws and bike rituals. I've biked in the rain, alone, from school to home, and made it just fine but I looked like a cat that was thrown into the canal.

Even today, I found out something new about the route I always take to school and made it in under 15 minutes. You also have to add 5 to 10 minutes to your travel time for locking up your bike. I've already (thankfully) gotten much better at managing my two bike locks, and my rented bike hasn't been stolen or towed or destroyed yet, which is always a plus in my day.

I've been "living" here in Amsterdam a week now. I feel like I'll never get it right, but at the same time I do feel a gentle kinship to this biking, hectic, crowded, canal of a city. So different from Philly, so different from DC.

The Netherlands is so teeny tiny, yet  people think of Amsterdam AS the Netherlands. And trust me, Amsterdam is not this crazy opium den that Russ's mother has in her head. Children ride in little boxes on the front of bikes, or other times two or three kids in special seats on mommy's bike. People here really try to save the environment. They have picnics in parks. And they don't overdose on drugs half as much as they do in the States. Because soft drugs and alcohol are easily available for teens, it's not this "dangerous, enticing" thing that teens in the states grow up with.

I won't even start on the amazing sex positive sex education these kids are getting in schools and museums and from their parents....

Just some things to think about.