Week One

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I'm here in the Netherlands and everything is incredible! I've been here for a little over a week, and I'm just now getting over the shock of being abroad. For the last few days, I took part in the local international student organization's introduction week, full of parties and tours etc (so now I'm exhausted from going to pubs every night ;-) )

Groningen (the city i'm in) is very close to Germany (a little over 30 minutes by train), 2.5 hours from Amsterdam, and about 6 hours by train from Paris and the UK, so hopefully I'll get to travel all around, especially because the railpasses are relatively cheap. For now, I've been exploring the city on my new bike (EVERYONE has a bike here) and on the busses (my first time with mass transit!)

Everyone has been so nice and helpful, the Dutch are great, and hanging out with all the other international students in my building has been a blast, at one point we had about 30 people in the common room from about 20 different countries, but everyone speaks english, so thats good. When I got here, they had a mentor set up for me, and he is awesome, so I don't really feel like I'm here all alone cause I've got a bunch of people who are so helpful. It has been interesting adjusting to not always knowing whats going on, though, because even though everyone speaks english, the Dutch speak Dutch to each other, and all the signs and groceries and everything are in Dutch... (i don't know why that suprised me... duh) Its fine though, because the Dutch don't think of anything as a stupid question, cause they respect everyone's desire to learn and they're very used to tourists and exchange students (its a total "University Town")...

I have a totally tiny room (a little bigger than the walk-in closet in my apartment at home...) but I don't have a roommate, and I've got my own balcony and great housemates and I'm only a ten-minute bike ride from the city center, so I can't complain...

I've made a bunch of new friends (one even asked me "How do you always know everyone in the room?") Its kinda funny how even in an international community, people tend to stick with people who are from similar areas (my best friends so far are American, Irish, Canadian, English and of course Dutch). The Italians spend most of their time with the other Italians, as with the Germans, etc... I think language is the major spur for this, though, because everyone can speak enough english to get by, but much of the subtleties and nuances don't translate well... I've been working hard to branch out, too, though.

But for now, today was my first day of class (yay for my british prof who is really easy to understand!), and my Italian neighbors just cooked lunch for me so I'm super sleepy and I'm gonna take a nap. I'll write again soon with some adventures...

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Photos

The Introduction Week Group
This was (most) of our group. Our Dutch leaders are the two in yellow and the one in light blue. Good people :-).

My mentor and Me (and Natalia)
Siward is the best Dutch mentor anyone could ever ask for. He totally rocks.

Comments

[Brent]

Sup
I love that you are writing in a journal all the time. I love you bunches. I miss you!!