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Published: September 26th 2008
Amsterdam!
Note the cool pointy roofs/rooves.So! I am finally here in Bordeaux. I got in at around midnight Wednesday night. Where shall I begin?
Perhaps with my flight. I am happy to report it was uneventful. KLM is far, far superior to American Airlines. Here's a brief list of notable facts about my flight:
1. I got an aisle seat. hallelujah.
2. They served almonds instead of peanuts. Woot.
3. The food was barely edible but it was plentiful and it didn't kill me (it included a warm mashy substance with raisins in it for breakfast that may have been part of the oatmeal family. It was the consistency of really grainy mashed potatoes. Not delicious.)
4. There were two babies in the aisle next to me, but they were reasonably quiet and only mildly stinky.
5. I couldn't figure out what language the couple next to me was speaking, and it drove me nuts the entire 11 hours. No, it wasn't Dutch, I promise you.
6. It occurred to me that an international flight is one of the only places in the universe where you might find yourself watching a muted version of Speed Racer while listening to A Perfect Circle and amusing
yourself by using your very limited knowledge of German to guess what the Dutch subtitles might mean while drinking a small bottle of cheap Chilean wine. I didn't even know Chile produced wine. It wasn't very good, but it was free!
The Amsterdam airport is a confusing place. The guide book I was reading on the plane told me it only has one terminal. Not so. And it's not a language thing, everything is in English. It's a bad map thing. And a they-put-stuff-in-weird-places thing. Silly me for not knowing that the luggage lockers are actually located behind the Dutch cheese stand. Silly me for not knowing the that map they handed out of the "arrivals" area is not actually of the place where I arrived or where they handed out the maps. It's the floor below that. It took me over an hour to figure that out, which as you may imagine, made my search for various things rather difficult. I did eventually leave the very confusing airport for the very confusing train station, though. The train station really isn't that bad, but lets just say I'm glad I had a good 15 minutes to figure out what
train I should be getting on.
Amsterdam was awesome. As many of you already know, I was only there for a 10-hour layover. I spent my time going to the Anne Frank Huis (moving, incredible, a must-see) and walking around the city being in awe of things. I took a ton of pictures, this is just a sample. I couldn't get enough of the canals. What a fun method of public transportation! LA should have some. Yes, I realize that would be impossible on many levels. Amsterdam is full of tall narrow buildings with fancy pointed roofs (rooves? Shouldn't it be rooves? Why is it not? Someone explain this to me), bridges, hippies, and tons and tons of bikes. I have never seen so many bikes in my life. When I walked out of the train station I thought, huh, what a convenient place to have a bike rental place. No. Just a huge, jumbled bike parking lot. And these jumbly masses of bikes were every 100 feet or so. And bikes with one, two, even three people on them at a time (two on the seat, one and the handlebars, I swear to you) went whizzing by me
constantly the whole day. Once I got my bearings, it was a pretty easy city to navigate. I'm reading a book on European history, art, and architecture right now, and I had fortunately just read about the Dutch renaissance on the plane, so I was able to appreciate the sights even more. I also stopped by the Red Light District just to check it out. Very surreal. Here I am walking through clouds of smoke that are clearly not tobacco, right by windows unabashedly showcasing (often very unattractive) prostitutes, and it's totally legal! No one is hiding, no one is pretending to be a masseuse or whatever (although apparently weed isn't actually legal there afterall, it's just not something they'll cite you for unless you have a bunch of it. So, places where they sell marijuana products are called "Coffee Shops". I wonder if anyone ever goes in there expecting a latte?). I kept half-expecting a caravan of (bicycle) cops to come pouring in and arrest everyone.
I also ate while I was there. My meal was not impressive, unfortunately. I ordered what started out as a tasty cheese and ham crepe thing (except they call them pancakes there),
shutters
I just thought this looked cool, while walking to the Anne Frank Huis but after about four bites it was totally inedible. Like catsup. The first spoonful of catsup might be kind of delicious (if you really like catsup), but no one wants to consume a whole bottle in one sitting. I paid good money for it though, so I choked down about 2/3 of it and washed it down with the world's tiniest beer (which cost me the ludicrous sum of 6 Euros). I picked this restaurant out of a guide book, so I probably screwed myself by picking someplace uber touristy. I probably could have gotten a more filling, less pricey meal elsewhere, but, well, live and learn.
My flight from Amsterdam to Bordeaux was only about and hour and a half, but I was so tired, it seemed like it took about three weeks. But. When I got the airport, something amazing happened. That's right. MY LUGGAGE WAS THERE. All of it. No problems. Oh my god. Amazing. Then I took a cab ride that reminded me very much of the bit of Speed Racer I'd seen earlier to my hotel. Definitely the most terrifying part of my trip. It must be a French taxi thing, because the same
beautiful canalness
I think this one is desktop-worthy thing happened to me in Paris last year. That same panicked thought of "Oh God, after all this harrowing air travel I'm going to die in cab on my way to the hotel" ran through my head. There was no death, though, fortunately. I made it. I was finally in Bordeaux.
So, that's how I got here. Since then I've been praying to the apartment gods, feeling awkward, wishing my French were a lot better, realizing I have a very limited French vocabulary, trying not to panic about various things, spending sooo much freaking money just trying to get things taken care of, praying to the apartment gods some more, not sleeping well, not eating enough, wondering what the HELL that thing in my room is that makes that awful noise every 20 minutes from 4am to 2pm (see photo... maybe it's a air freshener?), getting my cell phone set up, trying to contact my schools, emailing potential roommates, trying to figure out how to recharge my cell phone minutes, looking at maps, googling things, walking around downtown Bordeaux, moving to my new hotel and hoping it doesn't have one of those air freshener things, and feeling very, very
gross lunch
simultaneously delicious and repulsive cheese and ham pancake, tiny beer. tired about 90% of the time. It's all very overwhelming. But it's ok; this was all part of the deal. Have you ever seen "L'auberge espagnol"? In the beginning, Xavier gets to Barcelona and is so stressed and lost, but his voiceover says that in no time at all, all of it would become familiar, like home. That's where I'm at right now; I'm early Xavier, freaking out a bit, but I know it will all get so much easier. I just have to make it through this first month, and then everything should ease up a bit. I'm going out to dinner with one of the other American English assistants tonight (she'll be the first person I've met), so hopefully that will give me some time to relax a bit, speak some English, eat, and not think about apartments too much.
On the brighter side, this city is beautiful. Today I was walking around downtown looking for a Monoprix (kind of like a classier version of Target) and I stumbled upon a gothic cathedral. Where in the US could one ever stumble upon a gothic cathedral? That's right, no where. So awesome. I also like that this city
is actually not very big; I can walk a lot of places. It is definitely way different here than what I am used to. Mostly it's the little things. If I were in the US and wanted to buy, say, an umbrella, I'd just go down to the nearest Longs, or RiteAid or whatever and pick one up. But where do I get one here? How do I send a letter? How does the tram work? The buses? Do I have to wait to be seated at this cafe or do I just sit down? So I pay inside or at my table? Why can't the guy at the post office process my credit card? Where the hell are the street signs? Why do the streets change names every fifty feet? What does 20 degrees celcius mean? How far is a kilometer? What does THAT road sign mean? And so on. But I'm learning a lot too. Here are some things I've learned so far:
1. The check you ask for at the end of dinner is called "l'addition"
2. "Excusez-moi" is something I will be saying a lot. I feel like a good 80% of what I've said
Dam Plaza
I know Rob will have something to say about this one aloud in the last 2 days is "excusez-moi".
3. "Jambon de Pays" is totally disgusting. Tastes like salty, rancid shoe leather. At least it did at that one cafe.
4. Parking on the sidewalk is completely acceptable. So is driving on the sidewalk.
5. Americans drive giant cars.
6. I should acquire a French credit card.
7. My shoe size here is 38. Whoa.
8. My jacket size is also 38. What? Although this is apparently a good thing, because I saw an ad for some weight-loss thing that advertised as being able to get you down to a size 38.
9. French people like to put the light switched for their bathroom lights outside the bathroom.
10. People here DO wear shorts! I haven't seen very many, but I've seen a few!
11. It's a good thing I'm not Rebecca. If I were not a good map-reader with a good sense of direction and a decent memory for landmarks, I would be sooo lost right now.
12. All the of the assistants are having a really hard time finding housing. Eek.
Ok, that's all for now! A bientot!
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Sam!
non-member comment
Gross Lunch
OMG can I just say that was entirely entertaining! You have a gift for subtitling pictures like no one I've ever met. Miss you, have so much fun! Love, Sam P.S. Hotel de ville is the government building and you can also say "pardon" if you want to mix it up.