Bikes and Coffee..

I have never seen so many bikes in my life as I have in Holland... however they are put to very good use. We were able to rent bikes one day in Amsterdam, wow... its amazing how fast you can get around the city.. and when parking a car in the city cost about 4,50 euro(~$7.00 US) and hour its starts to make sense..

...and I believe I drank more coffee in the three weeks than I have combined in my life time... Any kind of event or meal that I was at regardless of how small, we were served coffee..

-AMSTERDAM-

The city of Amsterdam is now the most international city it the world, representing 179 different countries. The second being New York City. The Dutch pride themselves on their tolerernt 'live and let live' philosophy. The Netherlands is the only European country to have legalized soft drugs, legalized prostitution, and legal euthanasia.

I was part of the Drug Articles group for this class, we were given several articles regarding the situation of the soft drugs here in Amsterdam. The sale and consumption of Cannabis is legal when following strict guidelines here is the Netherlands. If following these guideline you can only really consume in a coffee shop, which the limit per customer is 5 grams. A Coffee shop can have a stock of 500 grams at any given time. There are a few others, but basically when a shop follows these guidelines it will not run into any trouble. The idea behind this an effort to seperate the hard and soft drug markets. The soft drugs are considered to have acceptable affects where as hard drugs are considered to have unacceptable affects on the body.

In the effort to seperate the drug markets, the Netherlands has actually received good results from various surveys regarding drug use, the numbers are far superior to that of the United States. As a percentage in population... however these good numbers are two faced. Despite the fact that the 'front door' policy is legal. The 'back door' policy is not monitored, meaning the government doesn't know where the coffee shops get their supply of cannabis. Which is a huge grey area in Dutch politics. However speaking with various residents in random Cafes around Amsterdam, the Dutch people are very aware of this issue.... if you want to discuss more.. feel free to comment..

This is a Cannabis Seed Shop!! However its illegal to grow it!

AMSTERDAM

Hey, well I'm new to this blog thing... had to keep up with siblings and get my own. So here it is.. Right about now I'm studying in Amsterdam over the month of January. However Amsterdam was not my first choice for study abroad options... intially I was going to try and visit the big sister down in Mexico and take a class at the school where Dominique teaches. When this fell through I went to the office of internatinal studies and found that the only study abroad program with open positions was Amsterdam. I jumped on the oppurtunity, the class will cover a gen ed. but I also desire the experiance of being abroad. I mean sure its a great time... but I also consider it a very valuable blessing to be able to increase my global perspective.

This is a picture of the YWAM(Youth With A Mission) building where my self and the rest of the Bethel students are living for the month of January. This building is located a few blocks away from Central Station, making it very easy to get around the city.

Hey I'll get more on here but my time limited on the YWAM computer, so this is it for now..

Transportation of Amsterdam