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Ron and I went to Amsterdam for Christmas. It was my first time there, and his second time. Amsterdam is super weird. I thought it was really cool, just really weird. I actually didn't take very many pictures because its pretty sketchy.... of course I had Ron with me, so I felt very safe, but I didn't want to make it really obvious that we were tourists. Here are some pictures I took, along with some others I gathered of the places we saw - and some interesting facts about Amsterdam.......

When you land at Schiphol Airport, you are actually four meters below sea level.

Amsterdam boasts more museums of any city in the world, measured per square meters. With over 70 major well know museums in Netherlands of which over 40 are in Amsterdam. They cover every sort of weird and wonderful topic, from famous painters to museums on the history of sex and marijuana.

The Van Gogh collections in the Van Gogh Museum and the Kröller-Müller Museum are the largest in the world.

Prostitution is legal in Holland, and in Amsterdam most of it is concentrated in the Red Light District where it has enjoyed a long tradition of tolerance. Since October 2000, window prostitutes have been allowed to legally ply their trade. Today, prostitutes in the Netherlands are also taxpayers.

Amsterdam has over 300 coffee shops which can legally sell up to 5 grams of soft drugs to each person.

The Netherlands has more than 4,000 km of navigable rivers, lakes and canals.

Amsterdam has a house boat known as the Poezenboot which acts as a house for stray cats. A woman who had been re-housing stray cats had the idea of getting them a houseboat – after all, if people can live in them, why not cats? Now gone, the idea lives on as volunteers now look after a boat full of cats.

Amsterdam has 70 glass-topped canal boats.

This is the hotel we stayed at...

Every Dutch person has at least one bike and there are twice as many bikes as cars. Amsterdam has over 1 million bikes but only 700.000 Amsterdammers.

MMMMmmm, I fell in love with this desert cart that sold waffles - they tasted like funnel cakes from the fair!! It was really close to our hotel.

We also ate at a Japanese restaurant, and an Italian restaurant!! We were so excited to have a variety of restaurants with good food!!

I had soo much fun being there - its a really unique place. Alot of the shops were closed since it was Christmas, but EVERYTHING is within walking distance, and the buildings are so strange and fun to look at - they are really tall and skinny and they look like they are tipping over! Ron and I really liked walking around and just being there - I think it made for a memorable Christmas.

Its weird that a place can have so much history and such amazing buildings - and also have weed shops and random casinos and hookers in windows and sex shops ... but I guess thats what makes it so unique! I wouldn't want to live there, but its an interesting place to visit. =)

Wow, I cant believe I haven't posted a blog since October! Time flies!

Well, I started SFI and things are going great, well - as great as they can be considering the fact that my brain is trying as hard as it can not to retain any foreign languages. The hardest part is the grammar. Basically I'm trying to avoid saying things like "The cars is nice". Plural, present tense, past tense...all kinds of nonsense that people learn in grade school. And very difficult to learn at 25, but I'm doing the best I can.

I have noticed that in just the short amount of time that I have been going, I can already read and understand so much more - its amazing. And its so cool to meet people from all over the world - and everyone in my class is really nice and we are always asking each other questions about other country's and the different cultures,there is so much that I never knew. And the best part is that we are different people from all walks of life and the only common thread is that we all want to learn Swedish. So, if not for SFI - none of us would have ever talked to each other. Its a weird thing to think about.

Ok - now some pictures. First, I will share some photos I took a few weeks ago in SFI.

Here is a picture of me and my two SFI friends, Azi and Elize. Elize is Polish and moved here from Poland with her husband and son because her husband is working here in Sweden. And Azi is Persian and she moved here from Iraq with her husband so he could study at the university.

Here is a picture of Azi, Elize and Mhah. Mhah is from the Philippines and she moved to Sweden because she married a Swedish man, right now she is pregnant for the first time with twins! =)

Here is a picture of me and Katia. Katia is from Brazil and speaks Portuguese, she moved to Sweden with her husband and four kids - and she was a lawyer for 15 years in Brazil.*I met two of her daughters - they are sooo cute!

Here is a picture of Elize and Azi sitting in class.

This is what my classroom looks like.

We just had our Christmas party two weeks ago. Well, it was a "Julbord" - and since we are in a Swedish for Immigrants class, we called our Christmas party "Julbord för Invandrare" ..... Christmas party for Immigrants! haha. Here are some pictures....

We all had to bring a dish that represents the food in the country we are from so I was going to make cheeseburgers and french fries, but then I wasn't sure I could pull it off and I really didn't want to poison my class!!! So, I went with tortilla pinwheels - they turned out really good and everyone loved them!

Here we are setting up and getting ready for our Julbord.

You are probably wondering who all these random people are, allow me to introduce you to my classmates...

Well first, this is a picture of me with my teacher Marjo. She is from Finland and moved to Sweden to go to college. She spent 12 years studying Swedish and married a Swedish man. She has a daughter and a really cute dog and she loves golf and owns her own business. I LOVE her - she is so nice, and she is really funny too!

This is a group picture of Elize, me, Valentina, and Dija. Valentina is from Venezuela, and speaks Spanish. Dija is from Albania and I think she speaks Arabic. They are both married, but I cant remember why they moved to Sweden. Almost everyone in my class moved to Sweden with a significant other, whether that person got a job here or is going to school. But overall, everyone is here to have a better life away from the country they lived in before.

This is me and Joseph in the kitchen. He is from an island near Thailand, I don't know very much about him because he doesn't speak very much English, but he is really nice.

Here is Joseph and Rezni. Rezni is from Sri Lanka.He speaks about 4 different languages, but mostly he speaks English. He is currently trying to find a job in Textile design, and might be moving to Switzerland. And, he brought a super yummy curry dish to the party.

Here is a picture of me and Aida in the kitchen. Aida is 23 years old, she is a Muslim and moved to Sweden with her husband. I'm always asking her tons of questions about being a Muslim because I had never met one before and didn't know anything about it really except that you have to cover your entire body. She is really easy to talk to and doesn't mind telling me about her beliefs. She is actually really sweet and one of my favorites in the class. This day was particularly funny because everyone was taking pictures and I was going to take a group picture with her, and this guy in our class went to put his arm around her for the picture - pretty normal - well, she was like "Ahhhh!!!! Don't touch me I'm Muslim!!". I almost DIED laughing! She started laughing too because she really startled the guy! Your not allowed to touch a Muslim woman, only her husband can touch her. I personally think you would have to be nuts to be Muslim, but I love Aida and I respect other peoples choice to be Muslim. She seems really happy.

This is Janusz and Elize. Janusz is Polish and lived in London for three years before moving to Sweden with his girlfriend. Him and Elize taught me how to say a few things in Polish!! =)

This is a picture of me and Yali. She is from China and speaks Chinese. She actually taught me how to say "Hello, how are you" and "I'm good, thank you" in Chinese! I think the food she brought was the best!!! I was in heaven! Its funny, everyday she brings in this small jar with a liquid in it and at the bottom it looks like there is grass.So one day I finally asked her what it was (science project or something?)...it was green tea!! I'm not used to seeing people drink tea without using a tea bag, but she swears its the best - and I believe her.

Here is a picture of Yali, Audriana and Aida. Audriana is Romanian and moved to Sweden from Iraq with her husband. She is older, but she sits near me in class and we always talk, I really like her.