Week 1

It's taken me almost a week to get settled in to the point where I have had time to sit down and start this blog, which I have appropriately titled "The Amsterdam Chronicles". So tomorrow, February 3rd will be the official one week mark of my time spent here in The Netherlands. And it's been a hell of a first week. The city is absolutely amazing. The people here are all super friendly, and fun to talk to. My apartment is pretty nice. It's in a massive apartment building located in a large area of apartment complexes called Funenpark. The building where I live is almost entirely made up of American kids from the IES program, so it has been and is going to be a really fun time.

Last week Wednesday to Friday, was all this 'orientation' bullshit where we either listened to lame presentations on shit they think we should know or played ridiculous "ice breaker" games. No one took it all very seriously as we were all just counting the hours until we were free to do what we wanted and the fun shit could really start. Saturday we had this field trip to some town 45 minutes away called Utrecht. Due to an alarm clock malfunction I missed the bus by a mere 5 minutes. But I honestly didn't care very much. It gave me the whole day to do whatever the hell I wanted. So I went took a short 5 minute bus ride to Centraal Station and explored the downtown area. Longstory short I walked around for like 3 hours exploring the main streets and hidden alley ways, and ended up hanging out at some bar called the Beer Temple talking with the bartender and the other locals who hang at a bar at 3 in the afternoon on a Saturday. I had a great time. Eventually everyone returned from the field trip in the late afternoon, and after making myself a delicious chicken and brocoli teriyaki dinner, it was time to start drinking beer (Heineken of course). The details from there after will remain undisclosed but I got home at 5 am and passed out until about 1 in the afternoon the next day.

Sunday was a real slow day for everyone, for obvious reasons...but it was weird for the first Sunday in like 3 months I didnt watch and NFL games. But not to worry, we have already been doing our research as to wear we need to go to watch the Super Bowl next week....although with the 6 hour time difference to watch it live here the game would start at like 3 am, so I'm pretty sure it's not televised here until the next day. Anyways yesterday I went on a mission to try to buy some of my books for my classes and to find myself a decent bike to buy. I was successful in only one of those goals--the bike. Unlike 90% of the half a million people riding bikes here, I got myself a yellow mountainbike. It's a sweet ride and I fly past those people rolling around on their 1950s Peugeots.

In trying to maintain some level of responsibility, I made sure Monday night was a fairly early night so I could get to my 11oclock class Tuesday morning, which I first needed to find the building for. It was a good thing I did so because getting up at 10 am this morning, showering and getting dressed, getting on my bike and riding for 30 minutes in the pouring rain and 30 degree temperature, as I tried to find where my class was, was no easy task. Lucky for me, I found my class just 5 minutes before 11. The class is Spatial Implications of Environmental Change. It's the only class that I am able to put towards my major at Ithaca, so it is an important one. It seems like it is going to be a very good class though so I am excited. I am also only one of two American students in the class so it should be a pretty interesting experience.

As I write this entry I am laying in my bed trying to recover my body warmth from the bike ride home. I have a 3 hour class on Dutch history from 6-9 tonight and I seriously need to remember to wear my gloves this time, so my fingers don't fall off. At least its hard to imagine the weather in Ithaca is any better. Hmmm, I wonder how Joe Smith is enjoying the weather is Barcelona??? Haha, oh well.

That's all for now.
Peace & Love