Schaatsen op natuur-ijs!

Hi everyone,

I have had amazing days yesterday and the day before.  Even with my time consuming research proposal-preparing, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to ice skate on the canals in and around Amsterdam.  Jose, Michal (a friend from Poland), and I went to go buy ice skates on Saturday afternoon.  It was crazy, by the time we got to the store around 3pm there were a few piles of skates in various sizes around the floor but there were people everywhere.  I started looking for my size but the closest I could find was about 2 sizes smaller in what looked like a pile of children's skates.  Luckily having very small feet does come in handy sometimes because they ended up fitting perfectly, and being the cheapest in the store at only 25 euro!  Jose and Michal also managed to find some nice skates in their sizes even though they weren't as lucky as I was with the prices, it still wasn't too bad.  We immediately decided to go to Vondelpark and give them a try.  Vondelpark has a few lakes and they are all frozen enough to skate on.  On our way to the park we saw a few men ice skating on a canal right in the middle of Amsterdam.  Most of them in the city aren't frozen enough for skating on, I would assume mostly due to the boats and everything passing through.  Still, Jose and Michal insisted on giving it a shot, even though I definitely wasn't going to risk it.  They managed to make it without falling through (which is especially good because I honestly don't even remember the number for the police station) and we packed up and continued on our way to Vondelpark.  It was so beautiful!  We got there right at sunset and there was a pretty full moon so we had plenty of light to skate around for a few hours.  This is the first time in 12 years that the ice here has frozen enough to be able to skate on so I feel really lucky to have been able to be here for it.  After skating Jose and I had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe Amsterdam, which honestly felt like just a little bit of home.

Yesterday I went to Zaandam to work on my thesis, it is a little easier there because Eric has a printer I can use and a desk with an actual chair that I can spread out in.  Even with all of the work I did have to take a little break and Eric, his family, and I went skating on the canals behind their house.  You can skate for miles on them (and we did) in pretty much any direction.  I haven't even fallen on my skates yet!  Not bad for someone from Arizona that has hardly ever even seen ice!  The pictures I am posting with this and the video were all taken yesterday in Zaandam.  Now, it's been back to work and I will be back in class officially this Wednesday.  We are only going to meet a few more times before I go to India though so that's nice because I have enough to do.  I hope everyone is doing well and I send my love to all of you.  Groetjes!