A long time coming.

OKAY! So I haven’t posted on here in awhile and I feel like I have a lot to say. Sorry to anybody who actually takes the time to read this.. but it will be long. 

 

So Thursday (8.29) 
We arrived in Dublin around 5am their time, a whopping 11pm our time. HOLY TIRED! It was a rough start and by that point we had gone through about 3 different “winds” of energy. Not only was it a bad time difference for us, but it was also a four hour layover with numerous flights leaving from our gate before us. Needless to say all three of us were out before the plane took off. It was a nice 90 minutes nap. 
When our flight landed in Amsterdam it was a race to the customs line, somehow we started in the shortest line, but were the last ones in the room.. turns out if you are not from Europe the line takes about 3x as long to get through. So once we got through we had to make our way through masses of Dutch speakers (who wouldn’t help us) to get a ticket to the train and then we guessed (correctly) which platform would take us to Zwolle. Oh and congrats to Sarah for figuring out how to read the schedule in 20 minutes.. big help from now on. But it did help our confidence. Oh and trains = small, my luggage = big. Funny sight for sure!!! 
Once we arrived we met our SUN advisors from campus and headed there for a brief meeting before heading to out apartment at Leliestraat. A cute little, very white, room. It is strange having a roommate again. 

Friday (8.30)
Rough day. 
We tried to use our credit card places… ahahah.. yeah no they only accept this thing called “Chipkip” here. I have one on my Bank of America card however it only works in a few different stores, and DOES NOT work at the grocery store where I need it. I may have to give it a shot at the school printers, but who knows. Otherwise it is all ATM and cash EUROS for me!  
We also got initiated into the “Flying Horse” which is the student pub in the city centre. It is very nice and I had a very good time with new friends, it is amazing how quickly everyone becomes close with one another. One of our favorites is Mariliza from Greece, a little gem if you ask me.  

Saturday (8.30)
We did a bunch of crap. Shopping in the city centre, sleeping until noon, ya know, jet lag college stuff. ;). WE also tried a croquette (kroket) which is a bunch of (random) meat with gravy that is deep fried… a popular fast food item that is eaten appx 25 times by each Dutch citizen a year.. we had been here 3 days and ate one. We are off to a good start I suppose. oh…we got BIKES! bikes are a vital mean of transportation in this country, basically they rule the streets.. better than cars and pedestrians. It’s crazy.

Sunday (9.1)
Oh yeah, we slept all day. Correction, we made our way to the school to see where it was for Monday…other than that we laid in bed and tried to cope with getting on the right schedule.. it kinda worked. 

Monday (9.2)
Met some of the students who live in Harm at our first orientation date. We also met with our business person to talk to. Oh and we planned a trip to Paris for this weekend :))))) 

Tuesday (9.3) 
Ah yes, today we went to school 40 minutes early to try and work the printers… and it took us all 40 minutes. We printed off our bus tickets and got our hostel, or so I thought. The card went through for Sarah’s room, but it did not work for mine, so after some trouble, I contacted my mom and she called the bank so I rebooked… hopefully it worked, and I will get a good email from them tomorrow during business hours. We are basically over jet lag now, a little tired here and there but nothing a little caffeine cannot fix. 😉 and the coffee was free today at class!! woo! Can’t wait for class tomorrow and Thursday so we can head out to Paris on Thursday evening.. with some small stops in Amsterdam before and after. Ready to start our traveling.