A Month of Mayhem.doc

The reason I haven't posted in a few days is because I had an accident on Monday. It was actually quite a non-event of the day (save that I thought readers would enjoy hearing about it). Unfortunately, it turned out to be quite the game-changer when I became aware of the consequences of the accident. Let me explain...

On Monday, I was biking to school on the seven minute route as usual. The sun was out and a boat was passing through in the adjacent canal. The road was strewn with some sand left over from the dump trucks working on construction the week before. Now that I've build up the seemingly perfect morning conditions, I can tell you about the actual accident. I rounded the corner much too quickly, buoyant and aggressive on a beautiful morning, and skidded my bike on the sand strewn road. I was able to slow the bike down with my feet, but did end up toppling over. I got up without a scratch - I was wearing my down Canadian vest which absorbed a lot of the soft blow. I chalked it up as my first official Amsterdam bike wipeout (every ex-pat has one) and laughed it off. A non-event, yes?

Wrong. Upon arriving at school, I took out my lovely macbook, and it wouldn't boot up. The usual apple screen would pop to the surface but what followed was a black screen with a blinking rectangle a la Microsoft Dos. Insert multiple expletives; not a good sign. It seems the damage in the accident was to my computer, rather than to me or my self-esteem. The mac shop here in Amsterdam diagnosed a damaged hard drive. It was a mix of emotions - I was gutted, frustrated, angry, and pretty much hopeless. You see, I hadn't done a good backup in a while (I don't want to hear about it either) so it seemed that I had lost all the school documents and the wonderful photos I had snapped in the past eight months.

Enter my Australian friend Bec, MW (mac wizard). She told me to buy a firewire cable and get over to her place. We docked my poor injured machine to her Macbook and went through five hours of digital surgery trying to retrieve important files. I was able to salvage the portfolio presentation I was working on for next week, the ten page essay draft I was working on, and a lot of other important documents. We tried to access the photos but to no avail. I'm going to try next week to extract them again. If worst comes to worst, I can keep the hard drive and then send it to a Disk Recovery company once I'm making a salary somewhere. I'm optimistic about the possibilities. Next week, I'll purchase a new hard drive and slip it into the machine to get back online. It has been a truly interesting experience (a blog post all its own in the coming weeks) full of ups and downs, but at the end of the day all that was lost (and possibly salvageable) was digital files. Life goes on.

And go on it did! I was extremely excited to host Graham and Leslie for two nights in Amsterdam. Graham and Leslie are two friends from the good old Queen's days. I lived with Graham on the third floor of the infamous 309 Earl St of 2nd year drama. 8 guys, one house, one rooftop...lots of jousting and parties. They are doing a five week tour of Europa and Amsterdam was the second stop along the way. I met them at the Centraal Station on Tuesday evening and walked them back to the apartment. I give them credit; they are authentic backpackers. Huge sacs filled to the brim on their backs (properly Canadian flagged) and small backpacks in the front. We had a quick little dinner before heading out to see what was going on in Amsterdam.

They arrived on a wonderful day in Canadian/Netherland history - Liberation Day. It's a national holiday commemorating the day the allies freed the country from the Nazis. And who lead the charge to free the Netherlands? Canadians, of course. I wore all my flag pins with pride. We wanted to check out a concert as part of Liberation Day, and arrived at midnight to see them closing up shop. I know it was a Tuesday, but that was a bit unfortunate. Never fear, we hatched an alternate plan. We sipped a few AH beers and I took them for a night tour along the Amstel, across my favourite bridge in the city, through Rembrandtplein, and all the way to my favourite bar in the city, The Neighbour. The place is just undeniably cool - a hidden gem. We watched the locals play pool, sipped on a few beers, and caught up with where everyone was. Graham just finished his first year of Law school in Ottawa and Leslie just completed her MA of Teaching at UofT. An impressive couple, yes?

The next day was a whirlwind. We woke up at a decent hour and toured the Albert (the largest market in Amsterdam) and then made our way to Museumplein. There, I wanted to offer them the opportunity to take photos with the I AMSTERDAM sign but it had disappeared for Lib Day festivities. A disappointment. What was NOT a disappointment was the free lunch time concert we attended at the Concert Hall. I figured it would be a nice treat, but I had no idea how special it would be. The concert that day was in the Grand Hall and there was not an extra seat in sight. We figured it must be a bigger concert than usual. Joining the orchestra for a lunchtime rehearsal of their concert that evening was none other than Lang Lang (worth a google) - he's was a child prodigy who is one of the foremost pianists in the world. He played at the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, has countless other honours, and just so happened to be performing in Amsterdam. It was magical - all the other orchestra members were watching him work the keys with his magical hands. A superb surprise.

Our day of culture continued with a visit to the Van Gogh museum - probably my favourite in the city. We saw the special "Colours of the Night" Exhibit and the permanent collection that traces the evolution of his work. We stopped for a coffee in a cafe that afternoon, and continued to tour the city. After enjoying a late lunch I took them through the school facilities and we passed a beautiful outdoor exhibit raising awareness for children with Downes Syndrome. After an afternoon nap, Graham and Leslie treated me for a dinner at a great Thai place. We then went on a leisurely tour of the Red Light District (no trip would be incomplete) and finished the night off in another Amsterdam pub.

The next day they continued to explore the city with a visit to the Anne Frank museum while I did internship work. I walked them to the train station at 5pm and saw them off to Bruges. It was great to re-connect with Graham and Leslie. It's such an adult thing to host "university friends" for a few nights but I had been looking forward to it for some time. As with any close friendships, we picked up right where we left off and it was great to get updates as to what they had been doing the past two years or so.

The visits continue! Tomorrow I head to Brussels to meet Michael and Paul for a weekend in the EU captial. I could not be happier to escape the city for a week and hang out with two more good friends from home. On Monday, Michael turns with me to Amsterdam for a week long visit. I'm extremely looking forward to hosting again.

Doc's Prescription of the Day: I've been waiting for the 'May'hem for months - I'm finally glad the visits are here. Visit with your family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, enemies, and nemesis in this wonderful sunshine.

Doc's Blog Prescription: I'm not sure who is and who isn't reading anymore. Comments and responses to what I was writing from friends is what initially inspired me to fit the blog into my already busy schedule. So, all I ask is, if you are still reading, just let me know sometime so I know it's not all for naught. I'm going to keep pressing through so I have a record of my travels, but if I know more people haven't tuned out, it will inspire me to post often and with pride. A lone Canadian half-way around the world just needs to know that his messages in a bottle find their way to shore. Yuck, how jam-down-your-throat poetic.