ohmygosh i'm here

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So this is my first day in Amsterdam. My flight was really great. Rode on an airbus and had my own television screen to choose movies and games to play. I watched RV - it was good, but not amazing. I also watched The Incredibles (pixar) which I hadn't seen before. I also watched some of Over the Hedge (another pixar) but then the plane landed. i slept for about 3 hours. the food was not fantastic, but you know, what can you expect from airplane food after all. I sat next to a guy that was going to study in Rome. And what do you know, he goes to UW too. No crying babies or anything. The only bad thing was when we were heading to the Amsterdam airport, we hit a big turbulent and the plane dropped about 20 feet. it was pretty scary but the poor lady behind me started puking. She puked for about 20 minutes after we landed. So the sounds right behind my head and the smell were not so awesome.

I had a bunch of directions to follow to take the metro. I got my bags just fine and got my metro ticket. now, i got mixed up between the tram and the metro. Tram is on the ground and metro is like a subway underground. The metro was supposed to be super easy - get off after 4 stops - but of course i thought that it was the tram. So i board the first tram i see and find myself going deep into the heart of Amsterdam in the complete opposite direction that i should be going. This is of course with my big 50lb suitcase, my 30lb hitchiker's backpack, my 10lb laptop bag and my 15lb school backpack. I ask the lady on the tram for Wiebenstraat or whatever and she says i'm heading in the opposite direction. So i try to get off at the next stop by the tram only stops for like 3 seconds and it took me longer with my bags. so then I get off at the next stop knowing i should head in some direction. I'd say i walked with all my luggage for about 25 minutes around town asking 10 people along the way. I finally talk to this nice lady who also has luggage but is dutch and she says to take the Metro (the real metro, a.k.a. subway in my world). I get down to the metro and what do you know, two stops later i'm at wiebenstraat. From there it was a piece of cake getting to vrolikstaat street.

My cousin leyla took me on a little errand run - of course done on bikes. so i rode a typical dutch bike which is not like the USA's at all. I mean it has two wheels but you sit a lot higher up and the handlebars are very long. the center of balance is definitely higher. i'm wondering how i'll do when it gets icy...
I took some pictures and i'll probably post them later. Doei

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