I skateboarded to the tune of Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance WIth Somebody along the bank of the Maas River as the sun was setting over Rotterdam. The late 80’s jam and the skateboard made me feel like some stud rolling along the Miami boardwalk back in the golden days of the 80s. Skateboarding isn’t so popular in the Netherlands so I often rolled by people waving in awe of my superstar skills and I even got an occasional “yolo” called out at me. It was pretty awesome. I’m really lucky to have my radius and ulna intact, though.

Earlier in the day yesterday, I helped the Erasmus rugby team recruit freshman in the club fair. The event was similar to the Bowdoin activities fair, but much much bigger and much more european–house music was penetrating from every corner and there were bars dotted between the societies’ booths. It was very impressive and put together entirely by students. It was held in Excelsior’s stadium, the division two football (soccer) stadium in Rotterdam.

This week I’ve had such a good time, partly because I met so many more people my age. One thing my rugby coach Mark told me was that the best part about knowing how to play rugby is that you are welcomed into any club and any community of rugby players anywhere around the world. Now I definitely see what he was talking about.

My dad will be very happy to know I finally shaved my scraggily beard. I met some people (not on the rugby team) that are worth cleaning up for.

This week I started studying some Spanish in preparation for Argentina in November and planned out an itinerary for seeing Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Hamburg in October.

Here is a drawing of the apartment I did two days ago:

I’m working out a composition of a painting of the Rotterdam cityscape. Hopefully I’ll get that to you soon.