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Published: January 22nd 2010
Comparison of cells
When I carry both phones, it's like David & Goliath in my bag...Today was an interesting day, for sure. I actually made some new friends! (Yay!) Both from Barcelona & are in Maastricht studying Economics. They're so incredibly nice. They just got here yesterday, so I went around with them today to help them find all of the things that they still needed (like towels, sheets, etc.). One of our stops was the cell place. Since they both had European cell phones, all they had to get was Dutch SIM cards in order to get a Dutch number & be able to call locally for pretty cheap. Apparently, however, American phones are blocked so my Blackberry wouldn't have worked anyway. (Plus, it wasn't like I was going to take out the SIM card I had in there since I'm already paying so much to be able to get my e-mails & everything). I had to get a cell phone, but it was pretty cheap. For a total of 50 euros, I got a Samsung phone & 25 euros worth of credit on my SIM card. Since I'll only be here for so short a time, I just got a prepaid phone. It's more or less a "pay-as-you-go" phone so I just buy credits
Het Grilkipke
Is this chicken promoting cannibalism? I mean, it's a chicken, holding a platter of hot cooked chicken... & he's HAPPY about it... & add it to the phone instead of having the hassle of contracts like at Verizon or AT&T. When I got home, I tried to assemble the thing myself but had an incredibly hard time (especially since the phone itself was set up in Dutch & the users manual was in Dutch) & decided that it was just a better idea to have the guy that sold me the phone set it up. I took it back to him & in a matter of 10 minutes, everything was good to go & he switched the language option to English so I could understand what I was doing. He was super nice, & I really appreciated his help. If only the phone people at home were as pleasant as him... haha
Someone had mentioned to me that Dutch people are considered to be very rude. Luckily, in my experience, I haven't run across any of that which totally works in my favor since I'm sure my lack of Dutch abilities would be sure to piss anybody off. Everyone has been very helpful & hospitable in my opinion. It'll be interesting to see if my opinion changes over the time that I'm here.
The market was in the square today, & I walked through it a little bit. There were a TON of tulip vendors which I thought was very nice. There was also a lot of fabric vendors & produce vendors. It must close at 2 pm because right when I was looking around is when they were taking everything down to close up shop. For lunch/dinner I bought some chicken from a lady who has a cart out on the square in front of my building. I walked past it so often & it always smelled so good that I thought I'd just stop & try some. I got 4 drumsticks of considerable size for 3,20 euros. So cheap. It was really good, too.
More & more people should be coming to Maastricht in the next few days. Our orientation begins on January 28, so it will be nice to get back to a schedule again. It really makes it hard to just get up with nothing really to do (other than work on this independent study, yuck). Who thought you'd see the day that I was actually EXCITED for school to start?!
Adnan & I went out to an Irish pub called "The Shamrock" on the Brusselsestraat tonight. It was exactly like any bar in the US... for example, they even played "Sweet Caroline" just like they do at Alibi's in Carlisle EVERY weekend, haha. It caters to US & British exchange students so everyone was speaking English. The problem is that essentially anyone can go to the bar (I think the age is 18 for it to be legal), so needless to say we were some of the oldest people in there. It was mildly depressing, haha. Oh well. It was a good time. On the way home, we stopped at a kebab place, & I got french fries with mayo. I love the Dutch for thinking that's OK. I looooooooove fries & mayo @ home, but everyone thinks it's weird. Here, it's totally acceptable. haha. Thank you, the Netherlands, for providing a delicious snack after having a few beers. 😊
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Alice B.
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KEBABS!!
I LOVE and MISS Kebab stands! Absolutely DELICIOUS!