Visitors!

Now for a little post about how wonderful it was to see familiar faces here in Amsterdam! During the month of August (can you believe it is almost over?!) 4 friends from San Luis Obispo, my college town, came to this crazy city for various reasons. I'll go in chronological order. The first visitors were Tim and Steven (Bessie). They had been traveling through Europe for sometime and Amsterdam was their second to last stop before heading back to California. Sadly, the two days that they were here it rained so much (what's new though) but we still tried to make the best of it. We were able to go to the Jewish History Museum together which was really interesting. Also, here's a great shot of Tim using one of the many outdoor urinals in the city(for this reason I am glad it wasn't hot because when it's hot you shouldn't get anywhere near these because it stinks!):

Hopefully you're not to embarrassed Tim, but you said I could! It was great to hangout with these guys - and feed them! My goodness, their idea of traveling was to not eat because that costs money - not the way I would do it. So, it was fun to feed them Shelter food. . and then they were off to Paris! Next came Kelly, while visiting her aunt and uncle she made the time to spend a day with me. First we walked around for a bit - stepped into the Westerkerk to get out of the rain as well as to catch a glimpse of where Rembrandt was buried and to hear a quick bit of an organ concert that was going on. We also walked into a Tulip Museum - which is where this picture was taken:

There is quite the story behind this picture because little did I know that when we came into this museum we would get into quite the spiritual conversation with the man running the place. Really something, to be used by God when you least expect it! Through the course of the day her aunt and mom ended up joining us and we had such a nice time walking through the Jordaan. There are so many fun little things to discover here. We also went out to Rembrandt Plein where they have created a lifesize iron version of the "Nightwatch" painted. The city is crazy about Rembrandt right now because it's his 400th Birthday - even some of the trams are covered with his artwork. After some more fun in the city we headed to Kelly's aunt's house and had such a nice dinner there (ah, Mexican food - it had been so long!) with lots of laughter and stories for dessert. What a fun day! And finally, Lauren came to visit for 3 nights before heading of to Florence to study architecture for a year. This was my chance to be a real tourist. We hit up the Rijksmuseum (with lots of art work, including Rembrandt and Vermeer), the Van Gogh Museum, and DNA Fashion Exhibit. We also spent an afternoon in Haarlem (gotta love Corrie Ten Boom!) followed by lots of walking through Amsterdam. We went to the Albert Cuyp market . . . where Lauren experienced her first fresh Stroopwafel:

Yum, a must-have while in The Netherlands! How nice it was to have each of these friends here - to show them where and how I have been living for the past couple of months as well as to talk about life at home with someone who has been there and has an understanding of what it's like - an understanding that is not based on what Hollywood depicts (people are quite fascinated with the fact that I am from California. . .I blame many misconceptions on the movies! Yes, we have snow and no, life is not like it is on the OC. . .but, alas it is true that Arnold is the governator). How blessed I am to have had this opportunity to see familiar faces here - I had no idea this would happen before I made the decision to come out here. . .but then again there are many things that I could never have expected. God's plans are so great - far greater than anything I could ever dream up for myself!