Settling In

Hello! Sorrry it’s been so long- I’ve been super busy in the daytime and then really exhausted at night. My average bedtime in the past 3 days is about 8 pm, which is completely unheard-of for me. But I made it to Amsterdam! Because I'm sure everyone is wondering, yes, I have already seen prostitutes, marijuana, wooden clogs, herring, windmills, and many many bicycles.

My room is actually pretty nice. It’s really big! I have one roommate, and we have a small kitchen, storage room, and bathroom. My bed, however, is a different story The mattress is about 4 inches deep, and the “linen package” that IES sold me for 30 Euro included sheets and a pillow and blanket very similar to what I got on the airplane on the way over. But not as nice. Our microwave is also a mystery. There are no numbers on it, and the dial does not correspond to the cooking time. I have no idea how to use it. I should post a picture. I have taken a bunch of pictures, and soon I’ll upload some.

Every day since we’ve been here has been full of orientation stuff. Boring and a little frustrating. I got my course schedule today. I’m currently enrolled in Music and Cognition, a Dutch Cinema class, A Cross Cultural Perspective of Sexuality, and a Prostitution studies class. I will end up dropping one of them, but I can try them all out for 2 weeks. Each one meets just once a week, but for 3 hours. I really want to take a Dutch Language class, but I’m not sure I can fit it into my schedule. We will see. If I don’t get into it I might try to study it on my own, because I really need a bit of a handle on the language. I just did some grocery shopping, and I’m totally in the dark. I can’t rely on labels at all- I just buy things that look like what I want. It’s a little bit exciting. I am really hungry now but I’m way too tired to cook and clean, so dinner tonight is a granola bar and chocolate hazelnut pudding. Which is delicious.

I am having a good time so far, but to be honest I’m very unimpressed with IES as an organization. I have lots to complain about, but I won’t get myself started. I am making some new friends in my program. Most people are really friendly. There are about 50 of us, all from the US.

A lot of the other students are buying bikes already. I am very intimidated, but I think I’m going to go for it. But I plan on waiting maybe a week or two. Trying to deal with that right now might be too much all at once. Right now the most important things on my list are getting a real blanket and pillow, and getting our Internet to work right. Right now we don’t have a splitter so only one of us can use it at a time.

I hate to say it, but I think it might be about bedtime for me. Sorry- this post may have been a bit disjointed, but I’m very tired from walking all day and I don’t think my mind is all there. Disclaimer: not because of the coffeeshops. I’ll post some more details of our activities soon.

Morning update: I couldn’t post this last night because I didn’t have Internet at the time. But I thought I would mention that today we’re going on a trip to Utrecht. I don’t know anything about it yet, but hopefully by the end of the day, I will.