A very quick post...

Here is my very quick post to share with you a video I've made to enter a competition from lastminute.com...!

It shows some of the adventures I've had recently, mainly showing how bad I am at film making, it took me 6 hours to prepare a 60second film of photos! I probably should practice more!

http://youtu.be/lNBQpvQX660

Please go watch! :)

I have had a crazy amazing week which means I need to make some time to write about it up here, but at the moment I have to rush off - Sinterklaas is coming to town!!!

Louise  :)

Whoa, time flies...!

So, I'm now over 2 months in!

It's been absolutely brilliant so far!

Since I last wrote there's been quite a few weekends spent in the 'Dam and lots of evenings out!

Key things I've done/seen or that have happened:

• Edna, my first bike, got stolen. I now have Norman. Norman's tire burst on the first day I got him, but now he's ok (not taken any pictures so far...)

• MuseumNacht - a night when all the museums are open til 2am, with DJs, drinks and LOADS of activities, and strange things - like eating grasshoppers with chocolate... We went to 5 museums/places including: Nemo (the green building), the Ship Museum (the white building), saw some zombies and a glitter ball in foliage at De Hortus Botanicus (drinks and DJs too), a thousnad candles lit in the Portuguese Synagogue, and FOAM, a photography museum where there were silent disco, art installations etc.

• Lots of meals out, including: tapas, Mediterranean tapas, Italian tapas, katsu curry cooked by a Japanese expat, traditional Dutch food, Indonesian food, Vlemisch Frites and much much more! Some meals out have been a bit of an adventure, as there may be a reason why the Dutch are not famed for their food.....!

• Nights out, including in De Pijp, the Jordaan, Leidseplein and various other places! Lots of bars are tiny, or you stand outside under heaters! Also been clubbing with visitors from home, other expats and Dutch people too! This weekend have the MTV EMA awards to go to on the Sunday, and on Saturday going to see Nicky Romero at Club Air. 

• Museums: Other than museumnacht I've been to quite a few museums, for instance the Amsterdam Museum (opposite my house) and the newly opened Rijksmuseum. A museum of an old (apparently was very famous) brothel has opened up down my road, which we're planning on going to have a look round, and I still need to revisit some of the Dutch classic museums such as Anne Frank Huis and Van Gogh.

• My favourite place I've found at the moment, as it's so peaceful (if you manage to find some time without a bus load of tourists going through it) is the Begijnhof. It's better explained here, but is worth popping in to see, if you can find the doors to it! 

• I completed my first run in Holland - Run for the Hunger Project, which started and finished at the Olympic Stadium! I came 89 out of about 155 women so I was pretty happy! Out of the whole competition I was about 323....doesn't sound quite as good! It was a really good event, with free beer, ben and jerry's and food, which was quite ironic considering it was a run for hunger....

• I've also been to the cinema quite a bit, especially when raining as me and a few other expats have the pathe unlimited card which means you can go to any film, whenever you want! (Except for if you get to the cinema 10 mins after the film's published start time, which we all know is STILL when the adverts are on, and they don't let you in!)

• Erm, I'm sure there are a lot of other things I've done/seen since I've been here, like cycle through Vondelpark (which is amazing, especially now it's all autumnal colours!), which is so normal now i do not necessarily think to comment on it!