“So, how do you like Holland so far?” he asks. “Well considering I have been here about thirty minutes and have already been confronted with the possibility that I might have nowhere to stay twice, I’m doing very well, thanks.”, my sarcasm almost palpable. “Good, good I did not want you to think this a bad first impression.” He said heartily. The door swung open with a creak as we entered his cavernously dingy frat house, it was nothing like the ivy covered frat houses on UC Berkeley campus but instead it was more like a rundown co-op. We parked my bags in one of the vacant basement bedrooms and set off into the brightly lit Amsterdam street. As we walked my mind ran rampant with ideas of all of the amazing things we were about to experience. Red back lit windows and coffee shops with robust aromas pass in and out of my consciousness as we stride through droves of wide eyed tourists and surly locals. As we arrived at our final destination it seemed as though my cousin had different plans for my trip to Europe. “Here we are. This is Cuyp market.” Unfolding right in front of my eyes was a seemingly endless array of colorful stalls and lively shoppers. “Woah! What is this place? I asked incredulously.

“This is the market where I do most of my shopping on the weekends, it has everything!”

His smile widens “Buy whatever you want, it’s on me.” We trek through the maze of stalls with contents ranging from amazingly colored tropical birds and Belgian chocolate which is unlike anything I have ever tasted (as proven by the large bag of it in my hand,) to the downright bizarre sales of products like dried snake skins and things that in my imagination are confined to Diagon Ally. There is a cacophony of sounds in the market that is always changing and adapting the deeper into the labyrinth of booths. Smells of sweet flowers, aromatic saffron and pungent cheese hit my nostrils as we venture into the depths of the marketplace. “We have been here over an hour Aleksis, are you ready to move on?” I laboriously drag myself away from the exciting Mecca and though a little sad to be going, I set off eager to see what lays in store for us next.

CRACK! Suddenly a thunderclap leaves my ears ringing as the sky opens up and what was a few minutes ago was a nice day instantly gets turned into a dreary downpour. “Come with me!” Ben shouts through the heavy rain. He sets off at a sprint and all I can do is chase him through the now empty cobbled thoroughfares, my bag of food flying limply through the air behind me. I lose my footing on a particularly slippery rock and barely escape a fall that would certainly have been fatal to my pride. He ducks into an ally and keeps running, as I turn the corner I don’t see him anywhere and I feel my stomach sink.

“Over here.” I hear a voice and I look over my shoulder into a storefront and to my relief it is Ben standing under the awning of what looks like a sports bar. Now this is more like it. Since I have been in Amsterdam I have eagerly been waiting to abuse the sixteen year old drinking age. As we enter the bar a warm breath of air envelopes me and upon stepping inside the mass of human bodies within give the bar an eerie feeling like a humid, human sauna. Ben pushes his way through the crowd and I slip through in the wake he creates as he walks. We reach the bar and Ben asks the bartender for two 'Grolsch's. Instantly the woman slings two brimming full pints of the rich golden beer towards us. Startled slightly as the cold beer is flung into my hand, Ben and I go off into the crowd to find a table. We sit down, dripping, and dive into our pints. As we start talking there is an immediate realization that we have A LOT in common. Our conversation roams from chatting about school, discussing politics, and tracking family lineage. As the conversation progresses so do our drinks. "Let’s have one of everything they have on tap." Ben says nonchalantly. Though trying to look cool as I look over at the bar it looks to me as though there have to be ten or so and I cannot help showing my excitement at the idea of trying each one. The empty glasses at our table start to pile up and as we move through the Lefe's, doubles, triples and Pilsners. I am ready to get into our eighth pint when Ben exclaims "Look the sun is back out, let's go outside." We drop our money on the table and weave through the crowd on the way out. As we reach the street the sun hits me blindingly in the face and I flinch trying to get away from the light, adjusting to it I look around and see that we are in the middle of a crowded square which I did not see on the way into the bar. "Alright I have something else for us to do" as the train pulls up Ben hops on and I stumble after him.

We stood in the back of the crowded train car “Where are we going now Ben?” I asked eagerly.

“I have to make a quick stop at my university to pick up some things.” Ben said absent mindedly. ‘Oh! That wasn’t vague at all!”

“I was, well, I don’t know, hoping that we could maybe stop by a coffee shop or something I don’t know.” I said nervously excited.

“I would be happy to show you one though I myself do not smoke.” He said “You are eighteen aren’t you?” It was as though I had been sailing along at top speed when someone put an elephant sized hole in my main sheet. “Oh, no I’m only sixteen.” I said in a somber tone. “That unfortunately is a big problem because the government is so strict with the coffee shops they are equally strict about letting minors in.”

“So we can’t go?” I said in my most pathetic voice.

“I’m afraid not.”

“Oh that’s ok I don’t care that much” I said to Ben, meanwhile trying to convince myself that I didn’t mind too much either. “Oh look we are already here.” Ben said as he jumped off the train.

We walked a few blocks and as we rounded a corner my heart skipped a beat, Ben’s campus was a maze of old brick buildings and ivy covered walls, under which there was a group of roughly a thousand students having what looked to me like an amazing barbeque. We walked though a huge group of students standing around a keg and chatting, passing a game of Frisbee, and walking by the barbeque pit where it looked as though a whole cow was being cooked. “What is this?” I asked feeling as though I had just walked into Willy Wonka’s factory. “This is our weekly party, hosted by all of the fraternities in the university.”

“Wow this is great!” I said excitedly.

“First I have to pick up some things from my classroom.” He said as we walked by the party. I suddenly felt another opportunity start to slip through my fingertips. As we walked in the doors the temperature instantly dropped twenty degrees. Down a flight of stairs we were suddenly in the damp basement of this old building, the feeling in here was just about as far away as from the sunny barbeque as one could get. Ben asked me to wait outside of the classroom as he darted inside. As I stood in the flickering florescent light thinking about the barbeque and then thinking about how little I liked it down here I started pacing the hallway. I was getting more and more uneasy “Ok we can go now.” That familiar voice snapped me out of my spiral of self pity and we were back on our way to the party.

I push the door open and we shoot outside into the blinding light “Ben!” I hear a voice coming from the crowd. “Ehy! Frankie.” Ben shouts back as he rushes down the brick stairs. “Come on.” He calls back to me. “Hi everyone this is my cousin from America, Aleksis.”

“Hi.” Ten people simultaneously respond. Conversation starts up immediately and already I am feeling right at home, everyone treats me as though I was just another one of their frat brothers. We eat, we drink, we talk, even play a little Frisbee, by the end of the afternoon I am as tired as I am satisfied. Ben and I say our good byes to my new friends and set off back to his house. “So, what’s next?” I ask Ben as we climb back on the train. Ben turns to me, smiling ear to ear, “Guess.”