The Sandman Slowly Slips in our Schedule

Exhausted from our Bruges trip, I forced myself awake to get to my noon course, whereas Sean slept in till beyond when I left. We arranged a meeting spot, planning to see the Rijksmuseum and get lunch after my course. That day, I was exposed to more mind boggling exercises in my pursuit of knowledge of advanced rhythms.

Inconveniently, I received an email Sunday night to begin lessons with my piano instructor that evening, which initially seemed to take away from how much time we'd have at the gallery. We made a joint decision that lunch near the museum was the plan, and sat at a friendly cafe, where I was met with one of the most overly packed sandwiches of my semester on the continent so far. I was able to maneuver the Goat cheese, lettuce and local veggies overstuffing the French roll, I was outdone in my estimation of the quality when we first arrived, which was already high.

The gallery of the Rijksmuseum was stunning, albeit small. The museum had plenty of small hidden gems, something I was keen to notice after only expecting to see Night Watch, Rembrandt's piece of great magnitude that deserves some recognition. There was a collection of art truly inspired by and made by the Far Eastern countries that the Dutch had contact with. One item in the style of the fine China designed with blue paint on ceramic was a violin constructed so masterfully and beautifully that it was my favorite thing I saw. There were baskets made exclusively of ivory, Rembrandt masterworks and other very characteristic dutch art.

Despite our worries of my constricted schedule interfering with our museum visit, we left the sliding glass doors so typical of the European castle with more time than we could have expected. I departed Sean and had him meet me in front of the Conservatory and Library area of the dock, where we left to go see a showing of Roman Polanski's newest film, Carnage. This film peaked my interest, since it featured some of my favorite actors to watch and I had previously no awareness of its release. The humor and screenwriting were so entertaining, the performances excellent (with the Jodie Foster character's out-of-control-crazy personality) and the environment, a lavish theater that allowed Sean the luxury of drinking a terrible glass of wine in a movie theater. It was one small step for Sean, one giant leap of stress on his liver for organkind.

Still exhausted from the Bruges excursion, we called our night early and finished Jaws which was started on the way to Amsterdam from Bruges. With the still potent horror of Jaws, I attempted to go to bed and get ready for my early afternoon class and my meeting with Sean later in the day.