I'm in Amsterdam! I arrived Sunday morning. The first day of the gamma-ray burst conference was today. I've seen, heard, and learned so much already!

The city itself is beautiful! The architecture is stunning, with different shaped houses and buildings overlooking canals with smaller boats and larger boathouses. The streets are curvy, encircling the city center. It's very maze-like, or like a spiderweb, as someone described it to me. At night, the bridges and arches are lit up and appear magical. I can't wait to explore more.

When I arrived at the hotel Sunday morning, Sandy introduced me to his friend Enrico from UC Santa Cruz, and we went out walking in search of a restaurant for lunch. The hotel had a dog running around and the restaurant had a cat roaming free. Lunch was nice.

Sunday evening was the Welcome Reception at the Artis Zoo. We were situated in a ballroom, a large open space and some tables containing hors d'oeuvres. I arrived with Sandy and met up with others from our Huntsville group, and I was introduced to several collaborators and people in the field whose names I hope I can remember. I also took it upon myself to strike up conversations with some random Dutch people who appeared to be only talking amongst themselves. There were younger people as well as older, but it was hard to tell who were the graduate students like me. Those who I was introduced to seemed to take a liking to me, which was encouraging.

The weather in Amsterdam now is cold (30s and 40s), wet, and windy. It hailed (or sleeted, I'm not sure) for a minute while I was settling into my hotel room on Sunday, which I thought odd. As we prepared to leave the zoo, a strong hailstorm appeared. We waited out the worst of it, but chose to brave the last of it, as the hail turned to freezing rain and eventually disappeared in the strong wind. Amsterdam lesson #1: At this time of the year, never go outside without winter attire and an umbrella. This ended up being a good rule, as it unexpectedly snowed all this morning and rained a little in the evening.

Seven of us met up for dinner Sunday night. Chryssa lived in Amsterdam for a period of time, so she took us to her favorite Indonesian restaurant here. I had never had Indonesian food before, but now I know it's spicy! We ordered a group sampler, where they brought out 7 or 8 dishes ranging in various spiciness for all of us to share. I can't handle spicy food. I was going to be brave and try most of it, but then Chryssa said I could not graduate if I didn't try everything, which sounded like a dare to me (she was joking, of course). So I tried everything, and my mouth burned, but I was okay at the end.

Next, we walked a while around the city looking for a particular bar Chryssa liked, which ended up being closed on Sundays. We found another bar and sat outside on the benches. We hung out for a while before the cold and exhaustion was too much and we walked back to the hotel.

Because of the snow, we took a taxi to the Rode Hoed conference center this morning instead of walking like we had planned. The conference center was a beautiful, large building that used to be a Catholic church that was hidden during WWII. The main area consisted of a stage with tall, elaborate organ piping and three floors with balconies. The conference was only on the first two floors (my poster was located on the second floor), but my favorite spot was the highest I could be, the third floor.

I tried as best as I could to listen to the talks and take notes. All the topics were interesting, but very dense and way over my head for the most part; I could hold my own on some of the topics that relate to my research. I enjoyed connecting faces with the names of people whose papers I've read.

At lunch I chatted with a few Dutch students who were helping out with the conference. The day ended at about 6:00, and a group of us walked to an Indian restaurant for dinner. I didn't like Indian food when I last tried it, but I really enjoyed the butter chicken I ordered.

We briefly stopped back at the hotel, and then five of us were off again to a nearby bar. We had a really interesting discussion about space policies and management at dinner, a topic I'm fascinated with. We didn't just talk about work, of course; topics ranged widely. I'm learning more and more about those I work with the more I socialize with them, which is quite fun.

I'd better get some sleep now while I still can! It's another full day tomorrow.