last day in holland

first of all, sorry for the break. it's tough finding internet cafes sometimes!

the day after my last blog was our last day in holland, and stuart's 16th birthday. the choir had a concert in the morning in downtown amsterdam and one in the evening in a little town between amsterdam and brugge, belgium. before the concert, we went a couple of houses down from the church to the anne frank house.

as i have said on many occasions about this trip, wow. a term that, for me, at least, is not losing any steam anytime soon. the way of life, the detail, the explicitness, the reality of it all...wow. if you're ever in amsterdam (ma, pa), come see the frank house. well worth the eight euro or whatever it was to go through it.

after that, i had to do laundry. i found a little dry cleaner shop a little ways down the street. i think i got taken on it (iman, my buddy originally from egypt that has been in amsterdam for the last 18 years originally told me it would cost eight euro for me to do my load, then charged me 15 - i still paid, 'cause i wanted the clean laundry - but, dang!), but at least i'm not as smelly as i could be.

afterwards, i had to do what the netherlanders do (it's the whole "when in rome" thing, of course): went to the red light district and kicked it in a coffeeshop. certainly, both of these things were merely for the opportunity to say that i did them, i didn't get a contact high or even slightly aroused by the women working behind the plexiglass windows, but, hey - i walked the red light district and kicked it in a coffeeshop! who's jealous now!?!

that was actually much more difficult than one may imagine...i had about an hour or an hour and a half and was given general directions. unlike the westerkerk, where the group was playing, there were no signs saying, "red light district, three blocks." i had to meander my way there - and back, another fairly amazing feat, by 2:00 pm. and, i'm happy to say, i did so. champeen, that's what i am!

the group wraps up and we head to...some little town. once there, we unloaded the bus and the group had a little time to practice. i tried to snooze, but, shortly thereafter, martin came through.

now, martin is an interesting little fellow. he's working with, i think his name is cole porter, but i have not been upholding my end of the bargain when it comes to names, the bell ringer from here. first about the bell guy, whatever the hell his name is. he has three cases of bells that are combined to create an organ-like instrument that plays bells. i'll get some pictures in here sometime soon. hopefully. anyhow, the cases are pretty heavy (as i was walking up to the church after the anne frank house before doing my laundry, "cole," martin, and some lady that was helping them - maybe his wife? - were unloading this case, i happened upon them and they asked for my help; little did they know that i was traveling with the opening act!). he plays them beautifully, which is quite a sight to see and a sound to hear.

back to martin. he's wearing jeans, a camo shirt that says something about holland on it, and is generally quiet. his hair is parted down the center, a little overdue for the black coloring that's starting to show his natural colors at the roots in the part, falling almost to his shoulders. after he starts talking, i noticed that he is a little weird, a little awkward, but still a cool guy. we end up having a conversation about metal (music) later and are quick friends...-ish...

so, when he strolls through the church, we talk for a moment. "cole" is finding a parking spot, and soon i will be helping with these heavy ass bells. my nap is cut way short, but, alas, that's cool. i like being useful, so this works out well. for a moment, we thought that we may not be able to bring them in as the stairs were far too steep and those silly architects didn't build the church with an elevator back in the 1300s or whenever the hell it was that this church was built. jerks. we found a way around it, then brought in the bells.

after practice is over, we walk across town to have supper. chinese food tonight. we sit down at one of the three tables, and they start bringing out dishes. omelette with a red sauce (tomato-y, kind of), szechuan beef?, almost a sweet-and-sour-chicken, fried pork, chop suey, a terrible satay chicken, a salmon dish of some sort (i even tried it - not too bad), and a shrimp and mussels plate (i think - i did not try that). with the rice and noodles (in separate bowls), we had a very filling meal. dessert was not included, so we had a beverage as well. i had a heine, of course, the rest of the crew had sodeys. mostly.

back to the church. the group gets changed. i read my book. concert starts. there's about 35 people in there. not too bad for such a small venue! afterwards, they give norbert an offering of 300 euro and compliments abound for the group. many people are interested in these bells! unfortunately, we have little time as we have to drive to brugge, belgium, which will take about an hour and a half to two hours, and our driver (whose name i butchered, it's simply gerard, but pronounced much harder than that with a strong "h" sound, as though saying the "j" in spanish) has little time before he has to park the bus.

we make it brugge (on the way, i finish my third book on this trip, thank you very much!), gerard parks the bus at his time limit on the dot, and we get settled in. even though the day was almost over, we still wanted to celebrate little (and weird, the boy is very, very weird) stuie's 16th birthday. we got some clarification from norbert on the drinking rules over here (at 16, kids can have beer and wine, the hard stuff has to wait until 18), so we meet up in the lobby to go for a beer.

we have about 15 people that head out to find a bar a little after midnight in the small town of brugge. everything is quiet, but, luckily, there was still one place open across the plaza from our hotel. we get there, and kelli's step-dad goes in with norbert to order the first round. not a hit. we're drinking bavaria and, woe is me, i have to finish about three of the beers. forced to. not by choice, of course.

well, this is stu's first beer. his mom, an admitted "beer snob," thought it was a good beer, but everyone else disagreed (not tops, but it was alright, in my humble opinion, of course). stuart, on the other hand, only got about halfway through his beer. i caught his mom stealing a sip, and gave him hell for it (hey - it's his first drink, the yungin had better be able to choke it down!). we all laughed at his expense. now, isn't that what friends are for?