25 Juni - Loooong day

Lectures are from 08:00 - 17:30 and then group work until 18:30 today.  Even I won't bore you with all the details. There were many breaks though which was nice, but all that was offered was coffee, so I started to shake by the end of the day. We had a photo session and when I tried to hide in the back, they moved me up the very front. They also provided us with lunch from the chaotic cafeteria.

My part of the group work was to prepare and present the similarities and differences between the five laboratory systems in the different countries. People already say I speak too fast to understand and when you add in nerves, even English speakers have trouble understanding me, so I'm a little nervous. I've always found it easier to present to strangers than peers though, so I feel somewhat OK. We all made a table of all the similarities and differences and when I got back to the Hostel, I put it on slides to present.

For Skylar's patient and mostly good behavior, I promised him dinner at the Pancake Bakery.It was pretty amazing of him to sit in a lecture hall for an entire day, so he deserved a treat. He invited a few of the other students and after a short time walked over there. I had been there the last time I was in Amsterdam and it was awesome, so got the directions from the Hostel to the Pancake Bakery before we even left Germany because I knew we would go there. The streets in Amsterdam with all the canals are a bit confusing, but we finally found it. It was well worth it.

As we were walking home at 22:00, it began to get a little dark (not much, but enough) and the red lights began to come on making us walk a little faster. Once back at the Hostel I continued working on my presentation and and went to bed some where around 00:00. Shortly after I laid down, the other students came back and I couldn't fall asleep. I may have drifted off a bit, but then was awake again at 04:00. The hardest part about sleeping here is getting used to sleeping when it is so light outside. I tossed and turned for an hour or so and then just got up and ready to go.