Friday, August 21, 2016
This past Tuesday, I got on my plane bound towards Amsterdam, Holland (or rather, two planes). I was very worried about making it to my next connection, but should not have been. My first plane landed at gate D3, and my second plane left from gate D13, so I had a ten minute walk from one to the other. I landed in Amsterdam at 7:30 AM on Wednesday (in Europe) and was met by Thomas, a friend of my friend Kelly’s. Thomas helped me carry my bags from Schiphol, in the Southwest corner of Amsterdam, to Amstelveen, which is where Uilenstede, the main living campus of my University appears to be. We picked up my keys there and moved on to West Amsterdam, which is where my apartment is.
My first day, after showering and unpacking, I wanted to get registered in the city as a resident (this is required by law). It did not go so well for me, because by the time I figured out where the office was, it was closed. On the way back, I did convert what cash I had, and buy toilet paper and a few necessities, and that was my first success. Thursday, I woke up and went to the city hall to register again, and this time was successful. I get my BSN number (like social security here) in two to three weeks in the mail. That will allow me to use all kinds of discounts, like a discounted OV chipkaart (for the public transit and trains), and a housing allowance (which will reduce my rent by about 40% or so). After I did that, I went and bought a wifi router for my room, and got my bank account set up here.
I also managed to lose my credit and debit card, which was not great. I called to cancel them, and promptly found my cards only an hour or two later in one of the banks I visited, but it was too late in terms of starting them back up. I will soon have money on my Dutch account, however, so that is good. Later that day, I met up with Stephanie, a girl in my major, and we walked around and talked a little bit, and had dinner. Earlier in the day, I had purchased a four day bus pass, which cost me 21 Euros. I dropped it as I was putting my coat on in the tram stop. A presumably homeless man then picked it up, and I turned to him and said, “Oh, sorry, can I have that? That’s mine.” His response was to say “F**k you!” and run away, multiple times giving me the finger while he did so. Welcome to Amsterdam!
Today (Friday) was my first day of activities related to the University. I am signed up for an Erasmus sponsored weekend, and I went to their introduction, as well as a comedy show arranged for us at a place called Boom Chicago here. The improv show was actually very very funny. These two things took from about 10 to 4, and afterwards I went home to take care of a few things at my apartment. Tomorrow I will see them again for an alternative city tour. Dutch is growing on me as a language, as much as it can, and so is Amsterdam! Look below for photos.
" and buy toilet paper and a few necessities, and that was my first success."
ReplyDeleteWay many years ago my first success in BP was buying három darab kifli (3
croissants) and I still remember it well. We are happy for you and proud of you
Julia. Good luck in this next phase of your life. Joe