12.2.10
Pepperell to Bergwijkdreef
9:52 PM | 
Posted by
Maj
Oude Turfmarkt at Nieuwe Doelenstraat, Amsterdam, 12.02.10
There's obviously so, so much to talk about. Sadly, I've been looking forward to writing this post for what feels like so long now (about a week?) that it's hard to actually get down on, erm, cyberspace. I know there's no point in trying to go over everything properly in one post, so expect a series of posts about my first two weeks in A'dam (as all the cool kids call it.) Here's a (painfully thorough) rundown of my move. Do not expect similarly comprehensive posts in the future, as I'll surely let you down. Do expect some pretty hilarious anecdotes, though!
Interblagular friends, hello!
There's obviously so, so much to talk about. Sadly, I've been looking forward to writing this post for what feels like so long now (about a week?) that it's hard to actually get down on, erm, cyberspace. I know there's no point in trying to go over everything properly in one post, so expect a series of posts about my first two weeks in A'dam (as all the cool kids call it.) Here's a (painfully thorough) rundown of my move. Do not expect similarly comprehensive posts in the future, as I'll surely let you down. Do expect some pretty hilarious anecdotes, though!
Pepperell to Bergwijkdreef: everything looks better on a schedule.
January 29th
19h00 - Goodbye party begins.
January 30th
05h00 - Goodbye party comes to a messy, grinding halt when Stephen, Colin and Chris try to get me to go to McDonalds. (...Apparently.)
11h00 - Alex Campbell shows up to help me clean. And then goes to get me coffee. Amazing.
14h00 - Stephen and I go to Smitty's for one last breakfast together. We make shadow puppets and order way too much food.
19h25 - I'm still cleaning out my (now old) bedroom and trying to stuff everything into luggage. I throw out useful notebooks in the process... crap.
20h50 - On the way to Montréal.
January 31st
14h00 - Haircut at Coupe Bizarre. My stylist warns me that Dutch staircases are tough to climb (we're both under 5'5") because they're designed for the (on average) tallest people in the world. She also warns me that some Dutch walls contain food. Awesome.
18h55 - On the way to Amsterdam. My plan is to sleep, but I watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs instead. You should be walking to the video store to rent it right now if you haven't seen it. I took to it like Jared to Gatorade.
February 1st (Amsterdam Time)
07h45 - My flight arrives and man, am I in an ugly state.
08h30 - After putting my luggage in a locker and buying water in an exotic looking bottle, I take a cab to Binnengasthuisstraat. I hear the driver pronounce the street name and oh, the horror. It sounds nothing like what it looks like. I start to worry Dutch is just unlike German enough to fuck me up, bigtime.
9h00 - First sighting of mysterious black duck-goose things amidst some unmysterious white geese.
9h10 - Get out of cab. Dutch-speaking student comes up to me and tries to... get me to be an activist? Get me to go to a play? No one will ever know. ...I take his pamphlet, smile, then throw it in the first recycling bin I see.
9h15 - Undergo university intake procedure. Acquire free map (thank goodness.)
9h30 - Walk around the city for -- wait for it -- about six hours? Eight? In very cold rain, without an umbrella, trying to run all the errands I must in order to get my apartment keys. The rest of the day is a map-reading, passport-showing, foot-acheing blur, apart from lunch (2-euro Dutch wall-burger. Awesome.) I see about a billion of those weird black duck things, like them and resolve to find out what they're called.
18h30 - Cab to my new apartment in Diemen with my luggage from the airport. The cab driver asks me out to dinner...? Weird.
18h34 - I realize my microwave has dials. Weird.
18h35 - Glorious sleep.
More to come. :)
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