First Impressions

So today was my second day in the Netherlands--well, my first FULL day. Thusfar things have been great, though I suppose I am still in what AFS calls "the honeymoon stage" and have been seeing the world as I want to see it. Or whatever. Still, though, so far I am quite enjoying myself. All I can think to say is that it's very European...cliché, I know, but that's the first thing that springs to mind.

Yesterday was long. I could not sleep at all on the overnight flight from the States, so at around 9 AM Dutch time (I set my watch ahead during the long, dark, boring hours on the plane) I gave up trying and went over to a window area of the 747 (heh!) with another AFSer named Andrew. He showed me the ridiculous pictures he had taken of himself in the plane bathroom when he also couldn't sleep, and we played around with each other's iPods, took pictures of the cool clouds, and discussed random things. (I do have pictures to post, but I haven't figured out how I''ll do it yet...perhaps later.) Our plane was an hour late getting in to Frankfurt, and we had to run through customs and security as we didn't have much time to catch our flight. Half of us were through security when an airline worker told us to go ahead and get on the plane; she said she'd wait behind for the others and make sure they got on. To make a long story short, she did NOT do so, and five of the ten in our group got stuck in Frankfurt waiting for another flight to Amsterdam. Ouch. I'm just glad I wasn't one of them. Even with five of us getting left behind, though, I was amazed at the courtesy shown by the airline: they actually waited for us because they knew our connecting flight was delayed. I don't know any American airline that would do that...then again, every flight is at least an hour late so there's not really any point in waiting around some more, I guess.

We arrived in Amsterdam at about 1:30, I guess, but HOORAH my luggage and Amanda's (Amanda is another AFSer and was my roommate at orientation) got lost. We had to spend a good deal of time talking to lost-luggage people, but at least AFSers Caleb and Mikaya had the decency to wait with our carry-on bags. Zach, on the other hand, decided that he was going to go through customs by himself, causing a general outrage among the 4 remaining AFS kids. We had already agreed to stick together, and as one put it, "Yeah, like we didn't wait for him on EVERY OTHER PART of the trip." Whatever. We made it. Customs was a breeze; we just got in the "nothing to declare" line and were waved ahead without even a glance at our passports or our bags. How very trusting. AFS Nederland was waiting for us immediately outside of customs with signs, gift bags, and our host families (most important). My host mother, father, and sister were all there, as was my German exchange sister (? I'm not sure how to describe her relation to me haha) Julia. Yoo-lee-ah, get it right, Americans. =] My host family signed me out with the AFS Nederland staff and we were free to go...straight into Amsterdam's Friday rush hour. Brilliant. We did get to drive through Amsterdam to avoid a traffic jam, though, and what I saw of the city before falling asleep was absolutely beautiful. I don't know if I'll get a chance to go there for an actual visit, but I certainly hope so.

We arrived at home sweet home, Huszarlaan 16, around 5:30 PM. Julia and I sorted out who got which room; I got a nice little room with a lot of light on the third floor. I don't have a window, but I do have an EXCELLENT skylight that opens and allows in air and sunlight. I am pretty sure my room is south-facing (the most sun) but my sense of direction might be a little messed up from the flight. Anyway, last night I unpacked the few things I had in my backpack...my suitcase wasn't there to unpack, of course, but we expect it to arrive between 2 and 7 PM tomorrow. We all ate dinner together...my host mom Renee, host dad Hans, host sister Leonie, host sister Julia, and me. Twas a nice pasta dish with cheese, tomatoes, walnuts, and more cheese. Quite good. Dinner conversation covered a variety of topics, including politics and religion, heh. Fortunately no one here is particularly fond of Mr. Bush either. After dinner, Leonie and Hans left to drive back to Amsterdam, as Leonie lives there and Hans has a conference there until Wednesday.

Today was an interesting day. I got up around 9:40 so that I can try to get used to Dutch time. I was not really hungry when I came downstairs, so I attempted to read some brochures in Dutch lying on the table. Renee was practicing her piano and Julia was still asleep. Things continued in this fashion until about 10:30, when Renee finished piano and came out of the music room. Julia got up soon after that. By this time I was somewhat hungry, so I had a rather tasty bread-thing that I guess was muesli-style? I don't know, I didn't really understand what I was eating, but it was good.

After breakfast Renee went to her Kinesis class at the Wageningen sport school--kind of like an American gym, but not quite the same--and I took a shower. When she returned, we all had a look at the spare bikes. There were two spares, one of which was suggested for Julia and one for me. The bikes here are VERY different from American bikes! I'm not quite sure how to explain it, but perhaps I'll post a picture when I can figure out how. Anyway, my bike worked fine but it was a bit too low; Julia's worked fine but was a bit too high; we resolved to go to the bike shop in town while we were there for the Saturday market. (Everyone, but Paige especially, I hope that you appreciate my use of two semicolons in one sentence there. Raha. ENGLISH REBEL.) Into town we went, bicycling of course, and soon arrived on the shopping street. The first bike shop we came to was closed, so we proceeded to a second. I stopped someplace where there were a lot of bikes out front, but soon realized that this is Holland and there are a lot of bikes out front EVERYWHERE. The bike shop actually had zero bikes out front (they were all in a side alley and back courtyard). Go figure. The man at the bike shop was easily able to lower Julia's seat. but said that mine was too tight and we'd have to leave the bike there for a week. He added that the bike was too small for me anyway, and it was suggested that I look for a secondhand bike. I did not have a problem with this, as AFS had told me to have money to buy a bike. The bike I got was actually only 70 euros, which I considered quite inexpensive, and it does work well for everyday use. It has coaster brakes (more common in the Netherlands than in America, to be sure), but I'm sure I'll get used to those soon enough.

After the bike shop we went on to the market to get fruit and bread. I'm amazed at all the different shopping options Dutch people have! On Wednesdays there is the big market in the town center, on Saturdays a smaller one...there are also supermarkets, and last night we went to a store called HEMA to buy underwear and batteries. HEMA was one of the strangest, yet most charming shopping experiences I have ever had. Renee explained to me beforehand that it sells a wide variety of things...meat, cakes, clothes, jewelry, paper, and so much more, all for a reasonable price. Sounds like Wal*Mart, yeah? Nooo. It's a kooky little place that does indeed have many random things for a reasonable price, but there is something about it that is not at all Wal*Martian. For one thing, it has NO logical order. None. Want to find the underwear? Right next to school supplies and home furnishings, of course. Also there was a strange doll showing internal organs, perhaps for the budding doctor. I really cannot explain anything that happened in HEMA. Perhaps I will comprehend it with time. Anyway, the market. It was a stereotypical European open-air market, selling everything from apples to white zinfandel, bread to belts. We bought some small rolls to snack on at a bread stall, then some fruit from a produce stall. Of course there were about five cheese stalls, but we didn't need to visit any.

We biked home after the market because we needed to take the car to the supermarket...too much to bring home with only our bikes. The supermarket was also a weird but pleasant experience. They had pretty much everything that an American supermarket would have, with perhaps a little less FATTENING JUNK FOOD heh. Julia and I did find a strange children's food brand (not baby food, but food aimed at children, comparable to Kool-Aid or Lunchables or something) that made things in tubes...things that generally don't come in tubes. There were toothpaste-like tubes filled with strawberry jam, an unidentified brown paste, and, most disconcertingly, cheese in a tube. We're not talking Cheez Wiz (which is disgusting as it is, oh my god Nasty McGrossface), we're talking like, squeeze this toothpaste tube and cheese comes out. Something about that is just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Needless to say we did not buy any. I saw a few things that I did not recognize from the US: "gegrillde stukjes" (literally I think it means "grilled little things/pieces"), romaatjes (baby roma tomatoes), and vla, for instance. Samples of the gegrillde stukjes were being offered...I had one and it was actually quite good. When I asked what vla was while we were in the dairy section, Renee exclaimed, "Oh! It's very Dutch. We'll buy some vanilla and you can see if you like it." And so it was. We did have the vla for dessert after dinner, and it was quite good but quite unlike American food. Let me explain this food a bit. It comes in a milk carton (always yellow, as I had explained to me. Milk is blue, buttermilk is red, yoghurt is green, and vla is yellow. Always. What a system.) but, when poured, looks like pudding. I really expected it to be pudding, but it wasn't. I don't really know how to classify it...it's eaten like pudding and looks like pudding, but it's much lighter and very sweet. It's almost like a sweet milk, but again, it looks like pudding. It's one of those "ya-had-to-be-there" foods. Actually, that's not really applicable to foods, but I don't care. It is now.

After the supermarket we came home and Julia and I helped to put away the groceries. It was, and still is, a glorious day outside, with weather I am told is very uncommon for the Netherlands. It was a perfect temperature for me, perhaps 68-75 degrees Fahrenheit, with only a few clouds in the sky. It was sunny, but not so sunny that it made me tired and annoyed, as some of you know sun tends to do to me. Stupid vitamin D production! I'm convinced it's sapping all my energy on those silly over-sunny days. Anyway yeah, it's amazing outside right now. Therefore, after putting away groceries, I embarked on a bike ride around the neighborhood. It was incredible. The neighborhood is great, with stone houses and brick streets, narrow pathways, fountains, and parks. There's even an animal preserve just across the canal from my house! During my bike ride, I went out on some bike paths nearby that run by fields, trees, and cute Dutch farmhouses. No, I have not seen a windmill yet! The biking is amazing, though. Everything is flat so biking is easy and enjoyable, routes are well-marked, and off in the distance I could see a nice row of trees shrouded in mist. I followed some kids with fishing poles for a while, wondering if they were headed to a pond, but when they went out on a main road I turned around and followed some other bike routes. Here in the Netherlands almost every weg has a roadway, a bike route (paved in red and made very smooth to make biking effortless), and a sidewalk. There are rotaries for cars and bikes and even special traffic lights for bicycles! Everything is very bike-oriented, and it's easy to see why biking is so common here: it's much easier to do than in America.

Well, I don't really want to sit at the computer for much longer. I'll just say that I refuse to believe Dutch food is bad! So far it's been remarkable. Dinner tonight was a light salad with strawberries, cashews, and brie--a combination I never would have thought of myself that turned out to be delicious. Of course, the bread from the market (YUM) was served with butter.

Parting thought from my host mother: "With me it is always teatime." Heh heh heh. Goodbye for now, silly Americans who don't drink six cups of tea a day. Seriously, I think that's how many I've had so far, and I just got another offered to me. Bahahahaha.