I'm Here!!!

Hallo!,

Well, I finally got here and I am moved into my dorm! The past couple of days have been kind of crazy, but incredibly exciting. I got in on Sunday afternoon, the flight was pretty easy. I had an aisle seat in the middle section and there was only one other person in the row of 5. I still didn't get much sleep, but that's ok. On Monday morning, I met my group at Schipol airport. On the way, my big heavy suitcase rolling handle decided to break, thus making me unable to carry all of my luggage at once (yeah, I definitely overpacked, but everyone else did!). Luckily, my Resident Director took pity on me and came up with the genius idea to tie a scarf around the handle, which made it a bit easier to roll around.

On Monday we had a pretty easy day, we stayed at a hostel in Amsterdam and just did a canal boat cruise around the city and had pizza for dinner. It was very beautiful, the city is currently covered in snow. It was a bit shocking since I wasn't expecting it, but driving from the airport into the city was pretty too, the Dutch countryside looks very picturesque with all of the snow. Needless to say, I am freezing to death and have been the entire time I've been here.

Tuesday was more Orientation stuff, we walked around the city for about 5 hours in -16°C weather. In the evening, we got our bikes, and a few of us brave souls decided we wanted to ride our bikes back to the hostel rather than walking them back with our leader. It was dark, and about the time when everyone was leaving work. So yes, of course we got lost. It didn't help that we were freezing to death, making the ride a bit more dramatic. I have never been that cold in my entire life, and I was wearing a long sleeved shirt, sweatshirt, down North Face jacket, gloves, and a hat. I could not feel the majority of my body by the time we got back to the hostel. But now I feel like I've had a great Amsterdam biking experience!

Today we got our survival Dutch lesson and set off to move into our dorms. Mine is called Prins Hendrikkade, which I finally think I can pronounce now. It is an incredibly nice dorm, right on the harbor and next to the building the majority of my classes are in and only a few blocks from the CIEE office. I have my own incredibly huge room and I share a kitchen and bathroom with a girl name Janna from Germany. At least I think that's how you spell her name. At least, I think that's her name. Needless to say, I've had to learn a lot names this week and start to grasp the pronunciation of the street names and locations around here. I still don't really know my way around the city at all.

But onto check-in, it was amazing (Mom, you're really going to like this process). They were expecting 300 students to arrive today, so they set up a heated tent outside of the building to serve as the staging area. Here, they made a copy of your passport and sent you to a colored table to wait to be called. While I waited, there was free food and beverages. But most amazing of all were the free massages. I didn't wait long, so I didn't get one. But I bet if I had waited just a bit later I would have taken advantage of it. One girl had just sat down when they called her, so they pushed her to the next group so that she could finish. The people we dealt with were really nice, and the process was smooth, organized, and efficient. Just my style. They even had representatives from the City of Amsterdam so that you could register as a citizen. You see, everyone who lives here has to register as a citizen. This involves bringing your lease agreement and passport to City Hall, but it worked out better at check-in because that is when we received our lease agreements and we needed our passports. They gave me a brochure about all of the great benefits about being a citizen of Amsterdam, however of course it was in Dutch. The woman said they'll be sending me a welcome packet in a few weeks with my Dutch Social Security number. AND, they gave me a free IAmsterdam bracelet. Yeah, that's right, they give free gifts to new citizens.

Tonight I am going out with my roommate and a group of students who have been here for 2 weeks for a language institute. I don't know where we are going, but she says it'll be cheap. Getting myself set-up here has not been cheap. Everything must be paid for in cash, even my bike (which cost €150 AND includes a Teletubbies bell). Luckily my program has a goodie box filled with things people have left, so I got a hair dryer out of there for free which will be quite nice. I got really lucky with that too, as apparently there were only 4 hair dryers in there. Books are apparently about €40-€50 each, which will get expensive. My books for Dutch class only cost €25 though and I can sell them back to the program at the end.

So to sum up the past couple of days, I'm here, I'm alive, the people are nice, the food is ok, but they have also been giving us a lot of traditional Dutch food. Which is bread and more bread, plus lots of cheese and milk. I discovered I really like Indonesian food, I didn't think I would because someone said it was similar to Thai and I've never really liked Thai. It's the best meal I've had here so far (the first fairly decent one too). I'm doing just fine here, and I think I am going to like it.

Tot siens!
Laura

It's Almost Time!

Hello,

So in less than 24 hours, I will be on my way to Amsterdam, well kind of. I'm not actually leaving the country until Saturday, but we're driving the California tomorrow. I finally feel like I'm really going, since today I found out where I am living and what my classes are. My dorm is called Prins Hendrikkade and I really don't know how to pronounce it but I'm sure that will change soon. I am currently enrolled in Beginning Dutch, Public International Law, Introduction to Sexual Studies, Introduction to Conflict Studies, and Dutch National Cinema. When I get there, I am supposed to drop one of the classes within the first 2 weeks since it is too many credits. On the bright side, I don't have class on Fridays which will make traveling much easier. On the low side, I have a 9 am class on Mondays. And class until 8 on Thursdays. So it's not the most ideal schedule, but I will still take it! Well, I have more packing to do, so my next post will most likely be from Amsterdam!