Andiamo Italia

So Christmas itself was not good other than the fact that I was going to Italy. Family and friends sent me gifts early and I being the shining example of restraint did not leave a single present to open on Christmas day. I do realize this was bad and in my effort to keep up appearances made it worse by lying to people and telling them that I did not open their presents early.

My colleague Brian took me to the airport. To thank him, we went to lunch at the local Chinese place before he dropped me off at the airport. I was surprised at the number of people eating there - there were more people there on Christmas day then I think I have ever seen there and I have been there during the lunch rush!

The nine hour flight from Detroit to Amsterdam sucked. Airplane seats - not so big to begin with and I need my entire seat. I had the luck of sitting next to a woman who also needed half of my seat so I sat with her arm resting on my chest for the entire flight. The flight was full so changing seats was not an option. Next time I am flying first class even if I have to take a loan out to pay for it!

We arrived in Amsterdam at 830am and it was still dark outside - the sun had not risen. Weird. In the bathroom, they had a toilet seat cleaner dispenser in the stall. Did they really expect me to use my hand and a wad of toilet paper to clean the seat of a PUBLIC toilet? Double Weird. On the plane from Amsterdam to Rome, they gave us this juice to drink. Cute bottle - strawberry orange flavor but it had square chunks of fruit in it. Um, triple weird.

Maybe it is the fact that it is legal to smoke some pot in Amsterdam cause they seem to be a bit - um, what is the word - oh yeah - weird.