I just got back from my first (and longest ever) presentation in Universiteit Maastricht! I went solo for about 40mins talking impromptu about bonds and the different pricing mechanisms and stuff, and though my classmates came up to tell me that i did a good job, I thought i could have done a whole lot better. I wasn’t well prepared at all cos i only knew i was presenting at the very last minute (on the way back from Amsterdam last night), and was so dead tired. Oh well, I’ll try my best to ace my next presentation then. Some of the students are excellent presenters, the key really is to: 1-know your stuff well. 2-ooze charisma. =)
In all my classes, I’m the only Asian student so I inevitably get questions on Singapore, which I have to say, more than happy to introduce and extol. We haven’t broken our stereotypical image of being really tightly controlled and policed. At least they know we’re really clean, haha. Just as long as I don’t get any questions on which part of China Singapore is in. It is pretty telling that we see ourselves as Singaporeans first, and aren’t too eager to be associated with China. On my end, I have pretty interesting and nice group mates from all over the world too.
Anyway, this post is about my trip to Amsterdam! Nancy and Peggy came from Copenhagen to visit us in Maastricht, and we brought them around town for a day before heading to Amsterdam, which was fun and a real eye opener! I know I haven’t blogged about Madrid, Porto, Brussels, Brugge etc. but i think there is a noticeable lack of photos with people in them and you’re getting bored. I don’t like taking photos of myself as I think I’d spoil the picture, but under the coercion of the girls, i did take a few pictures with me inside. Another reason why I blogged about this first is Peggy and I had a competition to see who can take the nicest peektures in Amsterdam.
Peggy, this is why i win.
Maastricht
Nancy and I on a cruise on the River Maas. None of the Maastricht exchange ppl have ever been on this cruise, and since we had guests, we took the opportunity!
Yinghan (“Boss”) and Peggy. The most important guy in Maastricht – the gourmet cook. Nancy and Peggy wanted to bring him back to Copenhagen. As if we’d let them. Siao. Yinghan and I hatched a grand plan to go to Italy to drive a Ferrari, haha. We’ll see if that comes to light.
i amsterdam
We went to lotsa places in Amsterdam, such as the Anne Frank house (really moving), the Heineken Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Diamond Museum, the Torture Museum, the RijksMuseum, the Amsterdam Historical Museum, House of Bols (a cocktail feast), the Red Light District and Chinatown (with authentic Chinese food!). Basically, we went to almost all the touristy sites but left out shopping.
Typical Amsterdam canal view – the iconic image of Amsterdam, apart from the red light district. It’s as beautiful as it looks.
I was trying to take a shot of the really cute little boy behind. The river canal cruise was wonderfully leisurely and enchanting.
Amsterdam Centraal Train Station. Too bad it was under renovation.
I think the Heineken Experience (as they call it) was a great piece of marketing. They had many interactive stuff, such as asking u wave at a monitor to give your greetings to the brewer, and then finding out that you actually looked very stupid further into the tour when you could see on another monitor, people standing where u were and doing the same silly thing. There was also this video which we sang to a famous Amsterdam pub song while rocking on a boat. I really hope I don’t find it uploaded on YouTube.
House of Bols – a cocktail museum. We got to try different kinds of cocktails and see the different ingredients and subsequent concoctions. Really interesting, and their bottles looked super colourful and attractive.
The Diamond Museum!
Peggy as usual, trying to be extra. I think i have around 5 shots whereby she just popped out of nowhere to be in my pic. =)
Wishing that she’ll fulfill her dream of marrying a prince, preferably half Danish half British. =p
A pretty gruesome torture musuem. Peggy, and especially Nancy were rather traumatised. I think the picture speaks for itself. Ouch.
The Rijksmuseum, showing many collections of art from Rembrandt, Vermeer etc. Just like the van Gogh musuem, we breezed through this one as none of us were exactly art connoisseurs, and we had limited time to visit all the attractions before everything closed at 6pm.
No trip to Amsterdam would be complete without a walkabout of the Red Light District. It was an eye-opener, to say the least. Pictures were strictly not allowed to be taken when the girls were in the window. Soliciting was very blatant, and the quality of the girls varied tremendously. Its quite a seedy place though, not very recommended for the faint hearted. Prolonged exposure to sex and drugs does desensitize it, which of cos isn’t good. I guess when compared to Amsterdam, Geylang looks like a kids playground. And that ain’t a bad thing. It was some experience though.
Cotton candy clouds.
wait till i post MY PHOTOS!