Day 2...still in the airport...

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So I guess it's really 6am? But really 10pm in Minnesota, time, I'm so confused! We already had breakfast and let's just say that was easier to choke down than dinner, which was some chicken dish and some sort of awful potato and rice salad...apparently the diet has already started. I asked the flight attendant how impossible it would be to go into the city during my layover and she didn't think it was a good idea. Oh well. I had chicken McNuggets in the airport for lunch. It's really hard to believe how lonely you can get so fast when travelling by yourself. You can go a pretty long time without hearing the sound of your own voice.

later...

Great start to my trip. My passport was stolen/lost. I spent three hours calling embassies and such to see if I can still go to Ghana. I have an appointment with the U.S. Embassy to get a new passport on Monday and am going to speak to the Consulate of Ghana in Amersterdam immediately after that. Looks like I'm going to be seeing a lot more of Amersterdam and Holland than I originally anticipated. The first immigration officer I talked to was awful and told me I would have to go back to the U.S. I spoke to one super helpful guy after that who helped me call embassies. By chance, there was someone who worked for the U.S. Embassy at the airport. He was super helpful. He checked to make sure I was "really" a U.S. citizen and then told me some things that were really comforting. He told me he thinks I'll still be able to go to Ghana which was really nice to hear at that point. I was then given a special permit to get out of the airport (so my life isn't like "The Terminal"😊 and I was able to leave.

While I was waiting for my luggage I met two men from Scotland who purposefully missed their flight home to stay in Amersterdam...they were pretty entertaining.

I finally got to my hotel after over two hours of walking around the city with all my luggage by myself...their tram system is super confusing...nothing like Paris or New York, and nothing is in English. This is super stressful...

Should be going to the Van Gogh Museum of Art tomorrow and possibly Anne Frank's house.

Miss you all. Love.

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