For May 27th-FIRST DAY IN UTRECHT-Max Arifin

HALLO everyone!

So the day basically started off with us getting up bright and early and meeting at Amsterdam Central Station to go to Utrecht, a mid-sized city just outside of Amsterdam. Something really funny/interesting actually happened to Jess and I while we were waiting at the train station entrance. This guy from Suriname all of a sudden came up to Jess and just started rambling on to her about random stuff. He was obviously under the influence of marijuana (he admitted it himself) and kept on saying how he wanted to go for a sex change and how Americans ''played with people's feelings'' etc. He meant no harm, and was probably just spouting inane things, but I guess I wanted to share this with everyone cos it's just an example of the many colorful characters that we've encountered so far in Amsterdam.

So when we arrived in Utrecht we immediately went to a mosque. It was actually my first time inside a mosque (and also a lot of other people's first times) so it was really interesting to see the whole religious service where the Muslims all prayed in unison. After the service a man came and kind of gave us a lesson in Islam, and there were a lot of mixed feelings about his ''lecture,'' as some people felt that he was trying to impose his religion, but I personally did not see it that way.

Anyway, after that we had a debriefing session in a park before meeting up with our homestay parents. I'm staying (together with Adam) with two Dutch men who are married to each other and have 2 kids. One of them, Jan, is very friendly and generous and cooked for us a great pasta dinner. His house is hands down the most beautiful house that I have lived in, compelete with a spectacular garden and filled with animals of all kinds- dogs, birds, rabbits, fish. The rest of the people stayed with other homestays; most of the girls stayed with a Turkish family.

After dinner Adam and I walked around the city center for a bit, found a nice bar to chill in, before finally heading back at around midnight. All in all, it was a fantastic start to our time in Utrecht.