Nov 9: Americanism

It seems that everywhere I go these days, people congratulate me. It's wonderful.

On election night, all the relieved internationals congratulated us Americans.

At the end of an email from a friend about rowing club: "Woo, Obama!"

Walking into my Moot Court class, the TA says, "Hey congratulations. That's a big win." In fact, my professor used Obama as an example of a strong orator and said we should watch a speech and note the way he pauses for emphasis. Then when she asked one student what the Bush Doctrine was (he had referred to it in his arguement), he stumbled. She cautioned him not to be like Sarah Palin.

Friday night before going to see 007, some Dutch students were talking about how much fun they had on Obama night (and got a definitive glare from the American Republican in the group). But as I pointed out, it clearly wasn't Obama's night. The glare turned to me. As Kier pointed out later in the evening, we had quite a diverse group going to the movie: two Dutch, one Russian, one Chinese, one Mexican, an American Democrat and himself, an American Republican. Oh the discussions we could have had...but for the sake of getting alone, we resisted.

At an international student conference on Saturday, we painted wooden clogs. The girl next to me painted the Obama symbol on the top of hers. We got to talking - she's an American law student studying in Amsterdam - and she said she hasn't seen this much support for America since she was in Scotland the week after Sept 11 and 75% of the shop windows bore American flags. So much has changed in the past 7 years, but we're finally back on track.

In the church bulletin today: "Pope Benedict sent the newly elected President of the USA his blessing, expressing his joy to see the first black President taking the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King one step further. Our parish also congratulates the USA on this democratic achievement."

The world has been watching, and it cares! I've heard nothing but positive comments about America all week.

There is one discrepancy in the way I've heard the Obama win talked about in the news media versus personal discussions, though. That is, in the news, there's a large emphasis on the first black president. When Hillary still had a chance, there was potential for the first woman president. But we students aren't 106 years old. We don't remember segregation, lack of women's suffrage, or the civil rights movement in general. To our parents, it may be significant that he's a man of color. To us, he's young and fresh and new and a change. We didn't vote for him because of the color of his skin or for Hillary because of her gender. We live in a world that, at least in much of the USA, is relatively egalitarian. Sure, there is still racism and sexism. Blacks still comprise a disproportionate percentage of the poor and women are still underpaid relative to men. But it's getting better - somuchso that my generation doesn't quite understand why the older generations are making such a big deal about these things. And that's certainly a step in the right direction.

Nov 5: Election Night

Election Night 2008 began at 11:27pm on November 4 when my housemate Catlan banged on my door and woke me up from my nap to tell me to shower and get ready to go! Groggy, but excited, I did as I was told. I made dinner and watched Fox News with Cat, Josh, and Stoyan on Josh’s laptop until about 1am when we all got motivated enough for the 20 minute bike ride across town to the “official” Leiden University Students for Obama Election Watch party. It was pretty crowded when we arrived – I’d say maybe a quarter were Americans at the beginning. By about 3am the ratio was closer to half Americans and half international students. We watched anxiously, listening to Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper analyze the numbers. We counted down the seconds to poll closings each hour and cheered when Ohio finally turned from yellow to blue on the map. We sang happy birthday to Charlie, who couldn’t think of a better 21^st birthday present than a landslide victory for Obama. We watched with incredulous eyes as Anderson Cooper turned nearly every state red, illustrating the near impossibility of a McCain victory. I stood back as my Irish friend Gemma furiously explained the impact the US has on Ireland and how we don’t even know it. At 4am, they turned Iowa blue and I (literally) jumped for joy and got a round of applause as the token Iowan. I also got several pats on the back when Ohio turned blue, mostly from Americans who either couldn’t hear me say “I’m from IOWA” over the noise of the crowd or didn’t actually know the difference. Still, they’re both the right colors.

I was thinking last week about what an amazing opportunity it has been to be abroad during all of the election hype. I mean, as an Iowan, I’ve been experiencing the election for nearly two years. It’s been two State Fairs for sure. After our population diminished by half in January 2008 (as all of the candidates, staffers, and media moved on to the Super Tuesday states), the election wasn’t nearly as exciting for us Iowans. I went from talking to 3 candidates a week to zero. My summer in DC gave me an interesting perspective as I heard people who actually know the candidates personally talking about the individuals – not just the candidates. But being here… I just didn’t appreciate the way in which the US dominates international politics. I knew that we were “a pretty big deal” to steal the phrase from a friend. Yet I didn’t realize how invested the common European was in the election. Not even particularly politically-inclined people.

I first began to understand when some American ex-pats came to Iowa from England in January to do some campaigning for Richardson and Obama and attended the caucuses with us. But still I didn’t appreciate it. The international community follows US elections as much as Americans do – maybe even moreso. Maybe even more than they follow their own elections. I’m not suggesting that they know every detail, but they know that their lives will be affected by the next president. Bush certainly affected them enough.

As I made my way back to Leiden from Madrid this morning, I was at a bus stop and a man asked me a question in Dutch. I apologetically told him I only speak English. Oh, where are you from? he asked, switching to English as so many Dutch are able to do. America, I said. He grinned. After asking me who I was supporting and if I had voted, he expressed his own excitement over the change that will come. Then he unzipped his jacket to reveal a blue sweater bearing the American flag. A Ghanaian man living in the Netherlands wearing an American flag for Election Day – it was quite a sight.

Of course, the Europeans know who they’re supporting. In the Netherlands, throughout all of the political discussions I’ve had, and there have been many – there were 3 debate parties leading up to the election and that’s usually the default small talk conversation when an international student meets an American – I met only one McCain supporter, and he’s American. As one Dutch student told me, it’s ok that he supports McCain, because he’s American. He cares about domestic policy. I don’t know about domestic policy, maybe McCain is better. But for foreign policy, it’s Obama all the way. It’d be stupid for any non-American to support anyone other than Obama.

And last night, our dreams came true. In a landslide victory. The five of us from my house that attended the party waited until 4am when Iowa was announced, then rushed home trying to stay warm and get back before Obama’s acceptance.

We arrived back in plenty of time, but as soon as I sat down to keep watching I was out. I’d gotten 1.5 hours of sleep the night before and while the nap helped, it only kept me going for so long. I went up to my room at 5am and my computer started ringing (internet calling). I answered the phone to my sister Mary bearing the good news. Then Mom joined the video call and we shared our election night experiences. I hung up and not 3 minutes later my friend Amy called to share the excitement too. As I crawled into bed, I got a text message from my sister Helen saying “We did it!” And that’s exactly how it felt. Not “he” did it. “We” did it. Americans came together. My parents knocked on doors, my sisters made phone calls, I sent emails. We were behind him and we, we Americans, did it. We have a new President-elect. An African-American. A democrat. An American. A man that we believe in. He’s no messiah, but he has instigated the largest voter turn-out and made people believe in America again. Already, still two months before he takes office, Americans have improved their standing in the international community, a community that breathed a sigh of relief and said, Finally! Thank you, America.

I woke the next morning having slept through the alarm I had set to watch Obama’s speech live and through my 9am class as well. Oops. It’s ok. I figure last night was a better political science lesson than I would have gotten in class this morning. Watched the two speeches and was impressed by both of them. I expected Obama to impress me, but McCain came as a surprise. Whoever his speechwriter is has got a strong career ahead of him. And his response to the crowd booing Obama was classy. Barack was fastastic as well. Maybe it was just that they both were finally saying something new - finally. (See “Synchronized Presidential Debating”) Barack’s story about the 106 year old woman was well told and illustrated several good points. My favorite part, though, was when he said, “To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn: I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your President too.” Classy.

So now we celebrate. And recover. And in January, we begin anew.

Nov 4: Madrid – Maastricht/Achen – Eindhoven – Rijswijk – Leiden

At 3:15am I woke up, put on my shoes and coat, and headed to the bus stop. I arrived in plenty of time for the 4am bus, but Philip had warned me that if I missed this one, I would miss my flight and that just didn’t sound appealing.

The bus dropped me off at the airport stop, which, as Philip had warned, looked nothing like the airport. As instructed, I followed the two women who looked like flight attendants until they went separate directions. I took a chance and went left. Wrong. Oh well. Rather than catching the bus to the terminal, I walked another 20 minutes to the airport and through the other terminals, but I had time.

At the airport I checked in and bought myself a café con leche and a chocolate croissant for breakfast around 5:30am then made my way through the security line and to the gate. After waiting what seemed like forever, we were finally allowed to board the plane. I got to the front of the line and snagged a window seat up front. (RyanAir doesn’t assign seating, so you definitely want to be at the front of the line when traveling in a group so you can sit together. As a single traveler, it’s less important, but window seats are my favorite.)

I fell asleep before the rest of the plane was fully boarded and only barely noticed when the plane finally took off.

I woke up just as we began the initial descent. The pilot announced that we would be landing in Maastricht/Aachen shortly.

…

Now, I was groggy from just having woken up, but I knew that I boarded a plane to Eindhoven, the Netherlands. So why were we landing in Germany?!?

I turned to the girl next to me and asked, Porque vamos a Maastricht? Por la visibilidad. Oh.

…

A few minutes later I turned back to her, Y Despues….? Van a Eindhoven por autobus. Oh. I guess that works.

So something about the visibility in Eindhoven was bad, but they would get us there. I can handle that. It did seem rather silly, though, since it was so clear where we landed. I mean, it couldn’t have been that bad.

The bus returned us to Eindhoven on an endless journey – actually it could have been an hour or three hours – I was a bit delirious from exhaustion and continuously falling in and out of sleep. Realistically it was probably about an hour and fifteen minutes, maybe an hour and a half. But my bed was calling.

When we got to the Netherlands, I knew it. There aren’t really borders anymore now that the EU is in existence, but we drove right into a wall of fog. Thick fog. So thick that the bus slowed down. And that bus was moving – the driver clearly had places to be.

We finally arrived at the airport and I managed to get on the next bus to the train station and then caught the nearest train going in the right direction. I took the Innercity train from Eindhoven to Delft. The fog was everywhere. It was like a scene out of Harry Potter in which the Dementors descend upon all the land. I had planned to tour Delft for a couple of hours, but with the weather I passed that up. I'll go back on a nicer day. In Delft I transferred to a slow train to Rijswijk where the Ministry of Justice is located. After a brief wait, my number was called and I was given my official piece of plastic that says I am a legal resident of the Netherlands until January 2009. That way I can still travel without any re-entry issues. You can stay here for 90 days without a permit, but then cannot return for another 90 days. And it’s actually a pretty sweet souvenir. I waited with some friends who were also there picking up their permits, we commiserated about how far we had to travel for it, then headed back on the train together.

Another 10 minutes on my bike (which I found with relative ease given that I couldn’t quite remember where I had left it 4 days earlier) and I was home! I dropped off my bag, hit up the local Tuesday market to fill my shelf of the fridge and then went to bed for the rest of the afternoon/evening. I had to rest up for the big night….

October 31, 2008: Arrogant Dutch Doctor

This morning I woke up feeling sick for the third day in a row. Given my history of strep throat and the fact that I was leaving for Spain in 20 hours, I decided to call the GP (general practitioner/family doctor). That was at about 9:30am and they gave me an appointment for 10:10am. Perfect. I got my bag together (planning to visit the library afterward) and headed out, stopping by the ATM on the way because without Dutch insurance, I would need to pay in cash and seek reimbursement from the insurance company on my own.

I arrived at the doctor's office and after taking my address and phone number, the receptionist sent me to the waiting room. No insurance forms, no medical history, no paperwork at all. I waited just a few minutes in the waiting room before the doctor came for me - not a nurse. He took me to his office/examining room (all in one) and asked what I was here for. I told him I had a very sore throat and had had a mild headache for about 3 days and that I have a history of strep throat. You're American? Yes. And in America, they give you antibiotics after three days? Well, yes. This is not how we do it in Holland. Americans are too quick to prescribe antibiotics. It's different here.

Ok, I can understand his point of view. Maybe Americans are over-medicated. But I am not one to run to the doctor for every runny nose. I know strep when I have it. I could have waited until Monday in Spain or Tuesday when I returned, but there is a good chance I would have severe dehydration by then possibly leading to hospitalization and frankly, I want to enjoy my time in Spain outside of the hospital. He continued, In the States, how long does it take for your symptoms to go away after antibiotics. Um, a day, maybe two. Oh, you are a quick responder. So how long should I wait before coming in next time? Oh you are welcome to visit any time you are not well... He kept talking but said nothing else useful.

He looked in one ear. Good. He looked in the other ear. Good. I opened my mouth and said "ahh." Oh. Yes I see why your throat is sore. You still have your tonsils? Perhaps in written form that sounded like a rhetorical question, but by the inflection and the way he paused, he clearly was waiting for an answer. At this point, I am not only offended but also beginning to doubt his qualifications. Clearly, I still have my tonsils. Did you not just see them? I said, Yes. Here we remove them at 5. I realize that I should have mine removed, but I haven't found time for a 3 week recovery period yet. Irritated, I held that in.

He felt the outside of my throat. I flinched and teared up. That is painful? I nodded. Very. He listened to my heartbeat, my lungs, and poked my sinuses. Finally, he said Ok. I think your symptoms make you good candidate for antibiotics. What do you take in the States? Penecillin? I resisted rolling my eyes, took the prescription, thanked him and left. I paid the receptionist, biked past my house to the other side of town, picked up the prescription, and was back home and on meds by eleven - an hour and a half after calling for an appointment. Hey, at least they're efficient :)

Note: After talking to some Dutch friends, I learned that it is extremely difficult to get a prescription for antibiotics in this country. You can't even purchase DayQuil (or an equivalent over the counter medication) without a prescription here. Who would have thought in the land in which soft drugs are tolerated that it would be so difficult to get medications for an actual cold?

October 26: Finals and South Africa

[Excerpts from an email]

Life in Leiden is wonderful. It's so different from any situation I've ever been in. Friday night after we finished our exam, a number of classmates went out an a Dutch student told me about her experience working in Ghana last summer. Saturday night I went to Amsterdam with the ladies and during dinner with 2 other Americans and two Irish, we discussed the crisis in the universal Catholic church. During dessert one Irish gal informed me about how US policies have destroyed Latin America and why she supports Evo Morales in Brazil even if he is changing the constitution to remain in power. Then tonight I had a friend over who is Zimbabwean. As she talked, the looks on my housemates' faces were priceless. I'm sure I had the same look at times too, but I had heard her talk about life at home before and how she went with Mugabe's daughter to vote for the opposition party in the first election of this year. She couldn't believe I would travel to war-torn Uganda and I couldn't understand how she, being from Harrare, could say such a thing. I just love the environment and intellectual and cultural discussions that we can have. Granted, this weekend was quite the exception to the rule, but I get to have at least one of these discussions once a week. I don't meet many Dutch students, but the international students are so fascinating. [Note: in my courses 2^nd block, there are a lot more Dutch students and they are helping me learn helpful Dutch phrases!]

I got accepted to the program in South Africa last week and have been pretty much floating on the clouds since then. I keep coming up with all these amazing ways to spend my life and just can't wait to get there. But I am here now and need to remember to enjoy that too - and I am. I'll be in Stellenbosch, South Africa beginning at the end of January, and finals begin at the end of May. There is a possibility that I could make it back in May for Emily's wedding and for Helen's graduation and if I have that chance, it would be difficult to pass up. Roach weddings are such fun and I'd hate to let Helen down. She turns 18 tomorrow and I wish I could celebrate with her. Still, if I have the chance to work in Africa or to travel for a little longer, it would be hard to turn down. I know I'll miss home and maybe I'll be ready to go home by the summer - today marks one week longer than the longest time I'd previously been away from home - so there's really no way to know right now. Anyway, regardless of the length of time I'm in South Africa, I would love to have the chance to visit my Aunt Mary’s religious sisters who work there and/or in South Africa if possible. It’s still a long ways away, but I can’t help but want to plan it all – I’m so excited!

October 11: Katwijk Beach

After 7 weeks of living just 6 km away from the North Sea without having actually seen it, I decided it was time to experience the beach! I had a free Saturday afternoon so I drug my housemate Toby away from his studies and we glanced at a map and jumped on our bikes. There’s a nice little bike route that guided our way (thank goodness because we only had the vague idea that we needed to head North) and took us along the canals, fields of sheep, and through town. On the way, we saw a couple driving horses from their carriage – Toby thought they might have been Gypsies.

We stopped at a grocery store along the way for picnic food – bagels and lox, chips and salsa, baked goods, and grapes to give the illusion of a healthy meal – and continued on our way. We did find the beach and I finally saw what the infamous Dutch dikes that I’ve been hearing about in class look like. Much of the country is actually below sea level. In fact, 60% of the population lives at or below sea level. So along the North Sea, they built up the coastline to keep the sea from ruining the cities. There was a large hill that resembled the grassy sand dunes of west Michigan along with an overflow dam in case of a particularly strong storm.

It wasn’t a typical beach day, but the weather was nice, the sun was out, and in the evening a light jacket was warm enough so by Dutch standards, it was a gorgeous day. As we picnicked, we watched a wedding party take pictures and horses walk up and down the coastline. After the picnic, it was time to frolick! We wandered barefoot along the beach, waded through the cold water to a sandbar, watched a fisherman at work, posed in front of the sun and left cartoon drawings in the sand. The trip took a bit longer than the anticipated 2 hour study break, but was well worth it. I only wish we could have stayed the last hour until sunset. But now that I know how close it is and how easy it is to get there – just about 20 – 30 minutes by bike – I plan to return when I have a free day, even if it means I’m all bundled up in my winter clothes. I’m only here for the cold season, so I have to take advantage of it warm weather or not!

October 9: Weather and News Update

It's been rainy a lot here lately, but yesterday afternoon and today the sun came out! I have a lot of reading to do, and some papers, but I have finished enough on the computer that I can go out and read in the sun before I go rowing this evening :) The weather is usually in the high 50s or low 60s during the day - though it changes three times daily. So everyone is wearing jackets and lots of layers to adapt to the various temperatures throughout the day.

The election news is very popular here. I actually feel quite well informed on US politics, though I know little about the current events in the country in which I live. Last night I watched the Presidential debate online with 3 of my housemates - one is American, one is Bulgarian but studied at De Paw and Georgetown, and one is British. For the first debate since it was a Friday night we had a gathering of about 50 international students all sitting around the television watching from 3 - 4:30am! It was hosted by Leiden Univ Students for Obama (I believe the group is headed by non-Americans) and only a handful of the attendees were actually American. It was quite impressive to see how interested they were in politics. Many students here are studying politics, law, and international topics, so it's nice to be in an environment where I can have in-depth intellectual conversations with people who are actually well informed.

That's all for now - back to the books!

October 3: Leiden's Ontzet / The Seige of Leiden

Preface: I am adding a whole bunch of new stories all at once. I’m trying to catch up because, being me, I can’t put up stories out of order. Thus, they may not all be as creative as they could be, but you’ll get the idea.

October 3: Leiden’s Ontzet / The Seige/Liberation of Leiden

My high school friend Philip came to visit on October 3rd from his study abroad post in Madrid. He chose a great weekend. October 3rd is Leiden’s Ontzet (in Dutch) or the Liberation or Siege of Leiden – I’ve heard it translated both ways. It’s a huge festival celebrating the defeat of the Spanish in 1547. Think the 4th of July meets the Iowa State Fair.

The whole city was transformed almost overnight. There were carnival games and rides everywhere: roller coasters, a Ferris wheel, and various other highly entertaining Adventureland-like rides appeared in and around town square. Cotton candy stands and fruit-filled doughnut stands and stroopwaffels (a Dutch delicacy of a warm thin waffle – similar to a freshly-made waffle cone with a caramel-like syrup in the middle) beckoned on every street. Vendors called from their games to knock down bottles, shoot darts, or play bingo to win a stuffed animal. Heineken and other beer stands found every few feet had lines of customers waiting. Herring stands – the tradition food of October 3rd – had shorter lines, but lines nonetheless. Amongst all of the food and games vendors were stands selling anything else you could possibly want from scarves to raw meat or cheese to electronics to customized street signs to decorative toilet seat covers. Restaurants extended their storefronts to include tents to form outdoor patios and added Hutspot to the menu for the day – a meal of mashed carrots and potatoes served with beef. The streets were packed and it was nearly impossible to walk a bike through, let alone ride it.

The whole town closes on October 3rd. Shops and grocery stores close early the night before and the University cancels all classes. Festivities focus around the night of Oct 2nd. I’m not sure why, but I suspect it’s because everyone has Oct 3rd off, but not the 4th, so they celebrate all night Oct 2nd and recover on Oct 3rd. This year, however, the 3rd fell on a Friday so festivities ran all of both days.

Philip arrived around noon on Friday (Oct 3) and we walked around town for a bit, collecting my bike from the opposite end of town in the process. I managed to ride it in the previous night before the crowds got too large, but wasn’t able to get it home. My basket was a little bent, but the bike made it through the night in fine form overall. We got an appeltaart to go – the standard Dutch dessert – before I biked him back to my house to drop off his bag.

Philip had never ridden on the back of a bike (or at least not in the last 18 years) and I had only chauffeured Gul, my 110-lb, 5’1” housemate who is able to straddle the bike for even weight distribution. Philip doesn’t weigh much more than Gul, but his backpack did and he is significantly taller. It took a few initial attempts, but we finally made it home without any crashes, scrapes, or bruises the first time or any other time throughout the weekend, including when Philip took a turn to bike me. I live about 10 minutes by bike from the city center (15 minutes with a passenger) so I got my work out as we went back and forth all weekend.

After dropping off his backpack, Philip and I returned to town and explored the canals and enjoyed a couple of carnival rides. We also tried the herring sandwich. That is now crossed off my list and I need not do so again. The top of the tallest ride provided a great view of the city which I was able to capture on film, though I did fear for my camera as I took the pictures. We went back home for dinner then back into town for the evening. I was able to recover both my purse (left at a friend’s house the night before) and my phone (a friend had borrowed it and accidentally left it at a house party) and then met up with the gang at a pub whose name translates to “The Cow.” We stood under the tent there, specially erected for the Oct 3 celebrations, waiting for the downpour to subside before we headed back to town square for the carnival games and rides. Toby was determined to win a tiger, and I really wanted one as well, but we were unsuccessful. He was awarded a consolation prize – an oversized “Mr. Perfect” tie – for his effort. After exhausting the rides and our wallets, we turned in for the night. Poor Philip had been up nearly 24 hours because of his early flight but he was a trooper. We set the alarms for the next day’s Amsterdam Adventure and got some much needed sleep.

October 4: Amsterdam Adventure

Philip and I made our way to Amsterdam the next day a bit tired, but ready for some sightseeing. Knowing he would be visiting, I hadn’t done many of the tourist destinations yet myself. We started off the day at the Anne Frank House, grateful that the sun finally came out. The line wasn’t too long, just about a 30 minute wait, but since it was mostly outside, we were thrilled that it wasn’t raining.

Having acclimated to living 5 km south of the North Sea and being used to the temperate climate and frequent changes in weather, I was thinking how nice the weather was. Philip had also adjusted to his new country of residence and had been enjoying the warm Spanish weather. So as I basked in the sun, he bundled up in several layers, gloves, and even purchased a hat to keep warm as we toured the city. It was then that I realized that I no longer judge weather so much by the temperature as by whether the sun is shining and whether the sky is clear. The city isn’t so bright that you can’t see stars here, but the skies are rarely clear enough.

The Anne Frank House was fascinating to see. It’s a former warehouse that’s mostly the same as it was when she was living there, but the furniture was removed long ago and Otto Frank (Anne’s father) didn’t want it to be replaced – a symbol of the emptiness and loss. Nearly all Jews in the Netherlands were exterminated during WWII. The NL declared neutrality early on so the Germans stormed in and set up camp right in 1940. The completeness of the eradication of Jews was due in part to the Dutch bureaucracy’s detailed records and in part to the fact that there’s just nowhere to hide. It’s a densely populated country (population density = 480 persons/square mile) without mountains or a vast unpopulated countryside. The Frank family was discovered in August 1944, over two years after the family had gone into hiding. Anne died in March 1945, just weeks before the camp was liberated by the British in April 1945.

After visiting the Anne Frank House, we caught the tram to the Van Gogh Museum. I decided that I like the portraits done in Belgium and the paintings of Parisian scenery best. Then we walked through Dam Square and had a nice dinner at A-Fusion in Chinatown, including bubble tea – one of my favorite drinks back home. Philip hadn’t experienced bubble tea before and expected hot tea with fizz. The poor guy was so excited about a warm beverage on such a “cold” day rather than a cold drink of smoothie-like consistency with tapioca pearls inside. After dinner, we wandered around the Red Light District for a bit then headed back to Leiden.

The following morning we headed to Den Haag for mass at the English speaking church there before he headed back to Madrid in the afternoon and I went home exhausted. I’d been jealous of my European friends whose friends were able to visit so easily and it was fun to get to have a friend in myself too. It was a quick trip, but we did a lot and had a great time.

September

So it's been quite a month. I am very settled in and can't believe that October is just around the corner. I have a ton of photos to share and am trying to figure out the best way to post them. I am well into my classes and am learning about Dutch Culture, Politics, and International Law of the Sea.

I'm off to Germany for the weekend to visit Katharina in Essen, see Cologne and Dusseldorf, and possibly visit Munich with some friends if the travel works out right!

I'll do my best to update it next week, just wanted to write to say I am indeed still alive!

August in Oegstgeest

I arrived safely in Leiden on the morning of August 22 and after a few days of adjustment, I think it’s safe to say that I’m really going to like it here.

I live in student housing in a city just north of Leiden called Oegstgeest (pronounced like oh-st-heist, more or less). There are twenty or so international students here. I have my own little bedroom and there is a shared kitchen, common room, and laundry facilities on the first floor. There is one (small!) washer and one dryer for the entire building. So far today, I did one washing which took a little over an hour, and have gone through 3 one-hour dryer cycles and am hoping that my clothes will finally be dry when I check in about 10 minutes. But it is free and in-house, so that’s nice.

Last night, we hosted a gathering at our house to get to know each other which was fun. People are still moving in and out, but with classes starting next week, it should settle down after Monday or Tuesday. I now have a pretty good idea of which people live here now and which people are frequent visitors. It’s nice to live with so many people because there’s usually someone to go with to University events, activities for international students, grocery shopping, or to a club activity like rowing (I joined the club today!).

Since I live outside of Leiden, where my classes are, I bought a bike which shaves about 10 – 15 minutes off my commute in and out of the city each day. It’s a city of about 70,000 but feels much smaller than that. However, I was corrected when I called it a town – the people are very proud of their city.

After a week, I finally feel like I kind of know my way around. I haven’t gotten out of Leiden much other than spending two hours in the Hague – just a 20 minute train ride away – and 6 hours in Haarlem yesterday at Ikea with my housemates. My room is much more organized now and I have a lovely Guzmania plant.

Tonight's plan is to see Mamma Mia! in the cinema - I've seen it a few times and love it. Several of my housemates are coming including Thanos, whose hometown in Greece was used as the setting of the film. I'm off to get ready. I'll try to update this blog at least weekly. Please keep me posted on your lives too!