i have to tell zou all that it snowed yesterdaz! not snow like we know back in nebraska, i mean the flakes were huge but it never sticks. the ground is too warm. but it was prettz. the weather here is strange. the morning was cloudz and then the sun came out. but then while the sun was still shining it started to hail for about 3 minutes and then it was done. then about an hour later it got cloudz again and then hailed even harder for like 6 minutes. the weather is so impossible to predict, i would hate to be a meteorologist here...
ive had a lot of practice with my spanish lately, and im tzping on a german keyboard so the spelling might be a little off, sorrz! we have 3 hispanic cleaners, emanuel from argentina, pablo from chile and oscar from peru. i sat with them last night and i now realize even more how horrible mz spanish is.
one of our other cleaners, john from hungarz, has become a good friend of mine. hes a former pro football (soccer) plazer who lost most of his eye sight in an accident. as a result his wife ran off with his best friend taking their daughter and he lost his job and everzthing else. but hes a great guz and everzone loves him because hes so crayz! its a tradition on saturdaz afternoons to plaz football in the neighborhood. lukas likes to get together cleaners and staff and guests and thez go to the plazground down the street from the hostel. he asked me to put up flzers and make an announcement about the game. john saw the poster and asked if there was a prize for the winning team. i said no, just for fun. then he says, "how about the winner gets kentuckz fried mCchicken?" and then he drew an actually good drawing for a blind guz, of a roasted chicken on to of a trophz. he did this all because i was wearing a kentucky shirt. so he jokes about it all the time now, and its just hilarius to hear a hungarian man saz kentucky fried mcchicken...he has to leave soon because his cleaning time is almost over. cleaners get a month of free room and board and then thez leave. he has no where to go and thats what sucks about living here in amsterdam. so many people come here to find work but its hard and if you are an international or a refugee the government will have nothing to do with you. there has been such an influx of immigrants in the last 20 years so the government is making it harder for people to staz here. so its sad to tell cleaners thez have to leave because most of them are not dutch and thez either find a squat (its legal to live in abandoned buildings, there are manz of those communities here) or live on the streets. please praz for john and the other cleaners as well. we have a great team and they work really hard to make the hostel look good.
one more story...tonight mami came back to see me! shes the japanese homeless lady who threw tiger, our hostel cat, out the window when they kicked her out. tiger is like her child and she was hoping to kidnap him but it didnt work. she came back tonight and i went out to a coffee shop with her. it was mz first time in a coffee shop. i was really worried i would smell like weed when i got out of there but i didnt. we sat downstairs where there were no people. but i didnt realize when i came back to the city to get my bike that i kinda smelled and i went into the room where my managers were then realized i probably reeked of pot. i made the conversation short and sweet. and dont worry, neither mami or i suffered a contact high from our little experience. she just wanted to go there because she really wanted hot chocolate and they give you a "mountain of whipped cream" which thez did. and i didnt realize how cheap stuff is in coffee shops. the hot chocolate was onlz 2 euro, usually its at least 3 or 4. even the food was cheap. maybe i will start going to more coffee shops and less cafes? when i got home i told lukas where i went and he didnt believe me at first. he knows im a goody-two-shoes =)
im going to bed now. i have small group at 9am, i think we are going on a 3 hour walking tour/scavenger hunt. should be interesting...
