tavie.com

American tourists flock to Amsterdam because of its lenient policy on _____________________, which is illegal in the United States.

Let's fill in the blank with "making popcorn".

Have you ever made popcorn with your mom? It's very surreal. We went into a popcorn house name Ben's, which was run by Americans, and I let her take control. She wanted to eat the popcorn back in our hotel room, even though it was a no-popcorn floor.

First my sweet old mom went over to a fridge and pulled out a can of coke and a can of cherry soda. She brought them over to the counter and the lady behind it immediately flipped over the popcorn menu. (So wise, so knowing.) After buying a bag of ready-popped (we could've gotten kernels, but since I don't know how to pop my own popcorn, we decided to get some pre-popped) and brought them back to our hotel room, where I taught her how to eat popcorn properly. We stood by the open window and ate the popcorn. Then we giggled a lot, and watched Law and Order, and fell asleep.

It was sweet.

The best part of the trip was the baby goats, though. We walked metres and metres through the cold Amsterdam woods, which were beautiful, all yellow and gold and full of people walking their dogs, and eventually we came to a goat farm where we cuddled the baby goats and let them eat from our hands with their warm baby-goat lips. That's the sensory experience that stands out before all others: cold hands being nibbled at by soft, warm baby-goat lips.

One of the goats actually leaned into my arm when I scratched his neck, the way a cat will lean into your hand when you pet him. I fell in love with that kid.

There are pictures that I'm sure I'll eventually upload, if only so you can all see Sinterklass's friend Black Pete. Blackface is so disturbingly popular in Europe. I'll never understand it. A bunch of white people in blackface handing out pfeffernusse to children would never fly here. My mom went to the Santa parade, and one of the Black Petes gave her a rose and some cookies. I slept in that day. I like to get my sleep.

I'm very tired now so I'll go to bed. More later.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 9:31 PM | shower me with attention