Leiden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Saturday, August 23, 2008
As many of you know this is my first time in Europe, but not my first time away from home. First off I must say it has been much easier to adjust to a Dutch lifestyle rather than a Thai lifestyle. The English language is very popular and many Dutch people take pride in being able to speak English so it has been easy to get by, plus some words or phrases are similar. Such as, "thank you" in Dutch is " Daunk u vel" I don't know if that is how you spell it but that is what it sounds like. so.......from the start.... at the STL airport Elizabeth and I find out when checking in our original flight is delayed and we would miss our connecting flight, I gotta say united needs some more people on staff cause there were a lot of people trying to figure out an alternative to get to their destination, about two employees handling a bunch of people makes them pretty crabby. anyways got a different flight that when to Chicago then Amsterdam, set us back a few hours but we were on our way. ummm.. flying nothing exciting. had a lay over in the windy city for 3 hours, ate and watched some arrested development.
the long flight was about 8hrs. not bad at all. so arriving in Amsterdam. and I know what you all are thinking the second you would step off the plane there would be prostitutes and drugs and smoke filling the air. haha not the case at all.
so I wait for a suit case until every bag was cleared out and the baggage claim conveyer belt was just about empty with like one bag on it (not mine) and we are the only two standing there. at that point I was like well crap it is obvious my bag is not coming. so I talk with the united staff, the guy was like oh yeah we knew some bags weren't going to make it, "I made an announcement" haha, yeah like an announcement is gonna put my bag in my hands, plus he probably said it in Dutch. so I fill out a form and he was like it will be here today the bags were on a plane going to London. Ohh great! I was thinking well I hope my bag likes London. so I say a little prayer unfortunately having many doubts in the back of my head. well to the next part of our little adventure in the AMS airport, side note. the airport is like a freaking mall.
it was awesome!! they had like H&M and the only Starbucks in Holland is at the airport. no one wants Starbucks to take over every coffee shop. (sorry Pa, the Dutch aren't fans of your beloved 6 shot Americano). so of course as we guessed there was not a taxi to pick us up even tough they knew we were coming so we called from a pay phone to Webster to come pick us up cause we were not going to pay for a taxi or train. after a half hour we figure out that some lady is there to pick us up. we finally get to our housing building after some confusion since the lady wasn't to sure where it was and eventually an RA came to meet us and show us our rooms. the rooms are pretty "hip" and everything is from IKEA some store I don't know it but it seems everyone else does.
I unpack the one bag I have and then I took a nap for a while trying to get over some jet lag. later in the day after I wake up Liz's friend Greta came to our dorm with her friend Dylan and they showed us Leiden for the rest of the day. We bought a cell phone since it would come in handy to keep in touch with friends around here. We all then proceeded with our mini tour of the town, where groceries were, clothes, cheap stores to buy things, etc. Greta and Dylan took us to this bar where they knew the bar tender so we had a free drink, which was nice on our first day in Leiden. I was hungry as I always am so the important question, "where is there good CHEAP food?" well right around the corner there is a Turkish place called Doner Company. Well I must say these doners are amazing it is a bread in pita form but not a pita with beef in it and a bunch of veggies done up Turkish style. Since then that is like the only place I eat out at since it is cheap filling and good plus they stay open till really late for college kids coming home from the bars. I am determined to find some type of Turkish place when I return so I can fulfill my doner cravings. haha. well the next day/days consisted of Liz and I finding our way around/getting lost and more mini tours of Leiden provided by Dylan.
Oh I forgot to tell the details of my room/the building.. well to kick things off the building is an old hospital, I still haven't seen any ghost but I sure hope I do. so the set up of the halls and all do give a hospital feel to it. my room is on the ground floor, has a big window that looks out to this mini court yard that has a wall and gate to the sidewalk behind the main entrance and I have a walk out porch. I share with another Webster student so it is pretty nice we are friends and a bunch of us hang out on it. unfortunately it is one of the smaller rooms not a lot of floor space, my bed is lofted above the mini kitchen and bathroom. it is like an all in one thing ha. the pictures will better explain it. well to the toilet(bathroom), it is really small and the shower is hooked up to the sink, the whole bathroom is like one piece and all white it feels like being in a space capsule. the biggest compliant is how the actual toilet is set up. well the bowl isn't mostly filled with water, right under your butt is like raised, then slopes towards the front and there is a small amount of water.
I don't think I mentioned the bicycles here. basically everyone has a bike. yep. it madness. Thailand is big into motorbikes, Holland is big into bicycles ha. I haven't rode one yet but I think I will soon. but to buy one cost some money that I'm not sure about spending I can potentially sell it back so that is good.
I really am thinking about it, ill tell you that foot of mine with that metal or whatever they put in me is really killing me over here, we walk a lot on cobble stone and the weather constantly changes so I'm in a constant pain. but hey ya'll I'm alive. so.......well so far I have made some new friends that are pretty cool, traveled to Amsterdam once to go to this dance party club thing, that was a waste of euro. there were a bunch of DJs blasting house music and beats and crap, was not my scene, try picturing me at a place like that, ha. well it was a cool venue, it was an old church remodeled to a club and it is called hotel arena , go figure. I'm gonna wrap it up now and add some pictures and video.
much love everyone
-josh
