Paradise Re-found

Number One: I Got Paid in Pot
Two days ago, I gave a tour and there were 3 tourists from Miami.  They were very talkative to me and I enjoyed having them on my tour.  It was obvious through their laughing (err... giggling) that they were high.  Having high people on your tours is always a plus.  They will always laugh about everything and will usually tip you well.  So at the end of my tour, I collect tips from people and give them suggestions about where to go next, draw on maps for them, etc.  So I noticed that the three people from Miami were hanging around til the very end and asked me a lot of questions.  Then they said, "Hey we'd like to take you out to a coffee shop and treat you."  So of course I said yes.  They gave me the name of a coffee shop that was recommended to them and I helped them find it.  So we're chillin at the coffee shop: me, the 3 Miamians and an Aussie from my tour.  We had a blast.  This job is SO much cooler than being a teacher.  You can actually socialize with the people you are 'teaching.'

Number Two: What Cheese is Made Backwards?
Yesterday, I had the day off so I decided to go on a bike ride.  One of my roommies jokes with me about how much of an explorer I am - just going biking and not coming back for hours.  Well this time I had intend on just following one of the rivers near the house for about 20-30 minutes and then heading back.  But an hour or so later I'm still riding away from Amsterdam.  I found myself in a town called Purmerend.  I stopped to grab something to drink and saw an city information map.  On the map not far from Purmerend was the city of Edam (famous for the cheese).  So I decided that I just HAD to go there.  So the sign to Edam said about 6 kilometers so I kept going thinking that it wasn't really that far.   Edam was a beautiful little town with some cool bridges and shiny, happy people holding hands.  It was really nice.  I then decided to head back to Amsterdam so I started retracing my steps.  Not having even gotten out of Edam I saw a sign for Amsterdam reading that it was 20 kilometers away (holy shit!).  And that was going straight there.  The only way I knew back was to head west to Purmerend and then start heading south to Amsterdam.  So by the time I got back to the house, I had been bike riding for almost 6 hours.  I'm guessing that I probably traveled a total of 50 kilometers (about 32 miles I think).  If I don't end up loosing a ton of weight here then I just think that I'm meant to be overweight my whole life.