My trip to Amsterdam by Aaron Jude St. Pierre.
I had to go to Amsterdam for my job because they wanted me to go there to do work. I went there on an airplane. Airplanes go very fast. The airplane stopped in Iceland, where it is very green.
The flight was not very long because I brought my favorite book. I read it over and over and it made me fall asleep. It was then I had a dream:
It was Sunday and I was in Amsterdam with my co-worker and we started working to install switches and do the work that we had been flown there to do.
We completed the most tedious part of the work fairly quickly and ran into some glitches for the next few days.
I went through my normal life struggles and finally took some time to go to a meeting, connect with other addicts, and get some relief.
Man did I want to smoke. Argh.
All of the work got done in its due course and everyone involved was a hero.
It was pretty baked to see people walking around getting baked. Whatever. Heh. That is probably the least interesting thing about the acceptance that is part of their culture. As a friend explained many things are not allowed but permitted. I really like the idea “You can do what you want in your own house but don’t advertise it.”
I could tell it was a church, but I didn’t see any crosses or any of that stuff…
I could tell they sold weed there but they didn’t have a sign that sayin’ “Skunk” or “Kind”.
I could tell those women were selling sex. OK, maybe they advertised standing there under their red light casting a pink shadow on their bed.
Here is a fact: 80 percent of the people in Amsterdam live in 30 percent of country.
Riding a bike is part of Dutch culture.
A friend took me around on my last night there we rode around on bikes and he showed me all of the sites. He had a wealth of information about Amsterdam and all of the things we rode around to see. It was inspiring to me to listen to him and take in all of the attractions.
As an aside I feel the need to make sure I do the same for others when they come here. I really appreciated him taking the time out of his life to show me around. That was really fucking cool in my book.
Anyway we ended up in the canal on a boat. It was really great going through the red light district on a boat. By the way the red light district is really small, like maybe two blocks. I am glad that myth was busted.
On the way to the meeting I met a cool woman named Eileen. She was from the Netherlands, and born in Amsterdam, but hadn’t lived there for many years so it was all new for her. I asked for directions we talked for a bit and then I was off to the meeting.
It was then I was cast back into a hotel room and it was 2:13 in the morning.
I was awoken by a plane person. She told me I was on my way to Boston. I told her about my dream and she smiled and said “It will be OK.” I looked out the window and someone told me we were flying over Greenland, but it looked very icy.
I liked Amsterdam. It was a fun trip. The people were nice, and the dream was good.