Day Three: Jet-Lag receding!

Day Three in Amsterdam.

Just so you know, this day count is going to die really quickly (probably when I hit double digits).

Well, a quick summary of my flight issues, since some people already know. The size of the plane I was supposed to catch from Houston to Amsterdam was downgraded because the larger one needed maintenance (a row of chairs, or two, were not properly attached to the floor of the aircraft. THAT makes me feel safe). 70-80 people were kicked off of the flight and moved to others. All of us were comped in a hotel with food. I used all my food vouchers on one delicious, but expensive, meal then hung out with a 21 year old girl from So Cal, a middle-aged dutch woman, and many others (26 year old dutch guy, middle aged business man on his way to Florida, two soldiery guys that were on their way to Iraq, etc. etc.) I caught a flight the next morning at 9:00 AM to Newark-Liberty Airport in New Jersey, then a 4:40 PM flight from New Jersey to Amsterdam, arriving at 5:00 AM in Schiphol Airpoirt, where I had to wait for two and a half hours until I could start making my way across the city to the IES Center. Once I made it there (it was so scary!) I had a full day of orientation and finally collapsed into bed around midnight.

So far, I have gone to my school (which is in the Nieuw Zuid section of Amsterdam, which is unfortunate since the Nieuw Zuid is in a separate transportation zone and thus costs me an extra strip when I travel on the trams and buses), met the international student mentor guy, gone out with the international exchange students, bought a bunch of art supplies so I have something to do on Monday when I start classes, and wandered around the city a bit. Once, I got lost and couldn’t find my way back; luckily, I had the number for the Taxi Centrale Amsterdam in my wallet. I called a taxi and took it home (apparently, I wasn’t that far away!)

I have found that I enjoy walking around the city (though, so far, I haven’t willingly walked any distance greater than 1.5 km) in part because I take the tram to my location, am there for less than an hour, and get back on without having to pay for another fare! I was tempted to walk home from the Stadhouderskade (where I had to register as a citizen of Amsterdam) but, after buying about 180 Euro of art supplies, decided I should take the tram to Centraal Station instead.

I bought french fries today! IN DUTCH! I was so proud of myself. They were delicious, too.

I now understand why my mom eats french fries with Mayonaisse. Over here, it is absolutely fantastic.

(Perhaps I will bring home a bottle of fritessaus for her).

That is all for now. I am going to try and figure out how to change the links over to the right and, once I do, my photobucket account will be linked.