Paradise Re-found

[Cue sappy music]

Yesterday, my roommate James left for the US and from there will be go to Taiwan for several months for an internship.  He was my closest friend here and I REALLY hated to see him go.  It will be a long time before I get to see him again (if ever).  He was probably one of the only reasons I was able to stay in Amsterdam so easily. 

Here's the story:
On my first day here, he was my tour guide and showed me around the city.  I blame him for making me fall in love with the city.  A week later, after I had decided to stay in Amsterdam, I went back to the meeting point for the tours and asked him if he knew of a place where I could live.   It just so happened that he and his girlfriend Cindy were moving to a new place and they needed someone to sublet their old apartment.   So I rented out their place for the last month of their lease.  During that time, James helped me get a job as a tour guide with his company.  By the time that month was up, I hadn't found a new place to live yet so James let me stay in their attic until I had found a place.  Well after two weeks of living in their attic, they told me that they wanted me to just move in permenantly (he needed another American to balance out all the Dutchness of the household).   James and I started becoming really good friends on top of being coworkers.  Then, in November, he took over as branch manager of the tour company that we worked for (now becoming my boss).  A few weeks later he was chosen for an industrial design internship in Taiwan.  It was wonderful but devestating news.  Since then we've been hanging out a lot and having a blast.  We made good use of his last few weeks here.

Yesterday, he had to fly out at around 3pm.  I had to give the morning tour so I wasn't able to see him off at the airport.  This was probably a good thing because I had to concentrate on the tour and it kept my mind off of the fact that he was leaving.  I know I would have been a wreck coming back from the airport. 

I've been living in Amsterdam now for 5 months.  During that time, he has been my tour guide, my landlord, my best friend, my roommate and my boss.  I'm having a hard time imagining life in Amsterdam without him.  He is wonderful guy and will go on to do great things in his life.  And he isn't hard on the eyes either.  He is the most beautiful person I've ever known - both inside and out.  His integrity and morality made me feel like the most horrible person sometimes.

Okay... just in case I haven't been sappy and emotional enough, I've been listening to the OBCR of Wicked.  I started crying when I got to the song "For Good"
My life has definitely changed for the better because I knew him.

[End sappy music]

(see previous public post and comments)

I wish I could say that I was in an apartment because I was having a meaningless one night stand with a hottie but alas this was not the case.

Just to prolong the agony for those that actually care about the answer to this question, I'll just give a hint:  My time in the apartment was this past Wednesday night which was the night before my flight back to the US. 

Hmm... Why would I stay in an apartment on the last night of my trip?

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Because I decided to rent an apartment for a month and stay in Amsterdam for a little bit longer.  :-)

That's right... I'm still here.  With my luck, I found a couple that need someone to rent out their old apartment for a month so they could move into their new place.  So I've now got my own place in Amsterdam.  I was having too much of a blast and I couldn't seem to get my body to head towards the airport.  :-)  So my three or four night visit to Amsterdam turned into a two week stay and then turned into a total of 6 weeks.  So now I'm considering my "trip" to be over with as I am now just temporarily "living" in Amsterdam.  

Side note:  I told someone in my family that I was just too high and couldn't find the airport (they didn't think it was too funny).

Anyway I'm having my laptop sent to me so that I won't be bored to death.  Also I'll be able to upload pics from my trip so don't worry (all 1000+ of them).  I should be back in the US sometime in September (maybe).  We'll see what fate brings my way.