Well my first day has been a complete whirlwind. At this moment I have been up since before noon on Thursday Central time. Right now its Friday night, at midnight. Discounting the two or three hours of sleep I accumulated during the flight, I have been awake for the entirety of two days on two different continents. During the flight I met an American woman who is currently teaching English to Dutch students in the Hague, the second biggest city in the Netherlands. She was very interesting, and she told me that all Dutch students are required to take English by the fifth grade. This is the reason that the large majority of Netherlands citizens speak English fluently. As we descended to Amsterdam, one of my first sights out of the window was the wind farms that the Dutch had created in the North Sea. Complete square miles were blanketed by thirty or more massive (modern) windmills. The woman beside me explained that the Dutch took pride in being one of the greenest countries in the European Union, although they consistently don’t have enough capital to act on their impressive progressive ideas. She went on to clarify that the same Dutch company that is making the expensive Dubai islands is planning on increasing the coast of the Netherlands by at least 5%. Pretty amazing when you think about it.

After going through customs and picking up our baggage, I met up with Renske, a cute Dutch girl that had been assigned to pick us up. She is twenty years old, is very friendly, and has made a job of coming and meeting the new students at Shipol Airport. After waiting for at least an hour for a Turksish student that she was supposed to pick up, we finally boarded a train for Middelburg with Kelly (the other student from NW), Renske and Veirtra, the Turkish girl who was incredibly nervous for her experience, which will last for a minimum of three years. Two and a half hours later, after many stops and towns, we arrived at Middelburg, a town bustling with more bikes than you’ve ever seen, as well as loads of people relaxing in the many cafes and outside restaurants of the city. Finally we reached the university from which forms a big market square where flowers and fruit are sold and as well as where many cafes spread their tables and chairs into the sunny day, each customer enjoying a coffee or glass of wine or beer. It felt weird to walk past these people, as you could feel their eyes you as you walked through as the typical American tourist, walking with ridiculously big bags rolling on the cobblestone and brick streets and sidewalks.

Finally we reached our destination, where we would get our room keys. The whole program is in mass chaos but after at last finding our keys , Alex, an outgoing student from Zimbabwe, showed me the way to my room. About a ten minute walk to campus, through the narrowest and quaint-looking alleyways imaginable, we came upon my flat complex. Although I have my own room, I share living and kitchen facilities with sixteen people, most of them new to the college and therefore just out of high school. We entered the room, only to find that it was completely empty, totally contrary to the furnished room that I had been promised.

(Okay now its 3 in the afternoon the next day after a very refreshing sleep)

Anyway Alex went straight to work. After a few unsuccessful phone calls, we headed to a nearby apartment. This guy literally knows everybody. There I met Arturs, from Latvia, and two German girls Inga and Jannica. Turns out I live across the hall from Inga’s boyfriend, King. Sweet name. And in ten short minutes they had managed to find me a spare mattress, a desk and chair, and some shelves. However they wouldn’t let me move the furniture into my room until I finished by beer…and some wine. Afterwards, Alex and I went to his place, where some Dutch girls had fixed dinner. They invited us to eat, which we did and it was very good. I can’t pronounce any of their names and they have real problems with mine as well. From there I showered up, (the shower is just a stall in a room the size of a cubicle) and went out to our living room where everyone was gathered. The new ones were all eighteen, and now live in this flat. A few were Dutch, but there also was a girl from Egypt and a guy from the Czech Republic. We all just sat around the table and talked and drank, then headed to a party across the street. There I met even MORE people. I don’t remember hardly anybody’s name, but everybody had a good time. The group wanted to go dancing, but the place they were going didn’t allow anybody wearing sandals. This was a convenient excuse for me to go to bed, as I was wearing flip flops. Sam, a Dutch guy, was like “What, you don’t have any shoes? What size are you, we’ll find you some shoes!” Despite his persistence, I went home and slept till about noon today.