This weekend I am in Amsterdam, and I went with 3 other people from my IIP group. When we got here, we met up with one of our friends from Pitt, who also happened to be doing IIP in Dublin. This is the last trip that I will be taking since our program is done in 2 more weeks, and I was very excited for this trip because I have wanted to come to Amsterdam for many years. After landing at the airport, my first impression of the city was that it was quite impressive. For some reason, I thought this city would have more of an older and more historical “vibe” to it, but it’s really very modern and reminds me a lot of a US city from the exterior. Another impression I immediately got, was that the Dutch language was very similar to German, it just sounds a little bit different and they use one or two new letters. I thought this was interesting because I could almost understand or sort of tell what a sign would said because it looks so similar to German. Also the place that we are staying is an airbnb, but it is unlike any I’ve had before. Instead of a hostel or apartment, we are staying on a 42′ yacht in a marina outside of Amsterdam. I’m the end, it ended up not being more expensive that normal, and the experience is so much cooler. We’ve had unbelievable weather so we were able to relax and hangout on the boat during the day and explore the city at night. The city itself we didn’t see too much of yet, but we’re excited to continue this weekend and get to see all of the awesome stuff this city has to offer!