Day 2 - Settling In

Today was interesting, and while I'm still nowhere near comfortable, I'm a bit less anxious. The need for Orientation (Thursday and Friday) to come and to make friends is dire.

Basically what everything looks like.

The day started out as an adventure. Severely jet-lagged, I slept all evening yesterday, and then woke up at 4 to blog. I wasn't able to fall asleep again until much later, which resulted in waking up at 9:10 - a bit off of the schedule I had proposed in my head. Because I didn't have a bike yet I had to make the 45-ish minute (according to Google Maps) trek to the International Office, where my registration appointment was scheduled to be held at 10. Of course I wasn't out the door until 9:30 and was reserved to being a bit late and pleading for understanding. Little did I know how horribly confusing the Leiden streets are. They're all very picturesque, but also very twisty and curvy and without signage in some cases. While Leiden certainly appears to be dense, the layout is pretty atrocious in terms of ease of navigation. This all made for adding at the very least an extra half hour onto my trip, and I finally arrived at the International Office a solid 30 minutes late.

The International Office

It was refreshing to hear English at the IO. Most people I've encountered speak English just fine, but everyone speaks Dutch as their first language, and combined with all of the Dutch signage it's a bit bewildering. There were a few South Korean girls, three or four Canadians, a girl from the Bahamas, and a handful of American students there while I was there. It was good to know there are other students from the States who are just as bewildered as I am exist, and a couple of them are living in the same housing complex as I am (more on that later). The girl from the Bahamas called it "the concentration camp," for reference. After I got registered I had to go get a Dutch passport photo, which lead to an interesting walk through some more of Leiden, and an amusing exchange with an older Dutch photographer who exhorted me to do things in Dutch when I clearly had no idea what he was saying. After I turned in my photo I was free for the day, with two main objectives in mind: purchasing a bike, and buying some groceries. First, though, I was ready to die of hunger, so naturally... I went to McDonald's.

The alleys are streets and they're charming.

Dutch McDonald's is actually a bit more upscale than the McDonald's back in the States. The seating was very chic, the dining room spacious, and if they delivered your food to your table. I was feeling really nervous, and it was good to down a Coke, and I took a nice long time, taking advantage of the free WiFi to check/send emails and put myself at ease. The first sign of America since I arrived in Leiden, besides the McDonald's itself, was Chris Brown's "Forever," of Doublemint Gum commercial fame. Katy Perry came next. Followed by Ashford and Simpson's "Solid." Needless to say, it was a bizarre radio station.

After McDonald's I set off to buy a bike. The first place I went was far too expensive, so I took to stumbling around more looking for a spot, and just so happened to recognize the Dutch word for bike ("fiet") on a small handwritten sign pointing down an alley. The man inside was nice and spoke good English, and I finally decided on a bike and got two locks - apparently bike theft is very common and also somehow tied to the drug trade? New bike in hand I set about riding around a bit and familiarizing myself with riding a bike in Leiden. Bikes, as far as I can tell, have the right-of-way in every situation, and take precedence over cars, buses, and pedestrians. I peddled over to what was described to me as the cheapest grocery store in town (Aldi!) and picked up a few things to prepare meals at home with. Eating at restaurants is quite expensive in Leiden, whereas the grocery store food was pretty cheap, so I imagine I'll be preparing my fair share of meals at home. After finishing shopping I made the 15-20 minute bike ride back to the Rijnfront, unpacked, and took a nap.

Oh hai bike.

Where I'm living.

That's basically where everything stands right now. I had a Skype conversation with the family, which was nice, and I've been going through some more technical matters regarding my stay. I'm planning on going straight to bed after this, so my clock may be slowly but surely aligning with the timezone. Tomorrow's agenda is pretty clear, so I think I'll bike into Oegstegeest, which is actually the town I'm living in, and try to get a little better idea of what that looks like. There's a apartment meeting scheduled at 9 pm tomorrow to meet the rest of my roommates and talk about some stuff, which I'm looking forward to, and if I can find anybody to go with me I think I might be checking out the international student night at a well-known Leiden pub. I'm not sure if that'll happen, but if any of my roommates are going I'll surely tag along. Thursday and Friday are my orientation days, and I hope to use that as a springboard into making some friends. My schedule looks like it's going to have classes on Thursdays and Fridays only - which is nice on the one hand, obviously, but I'm also unsure how easily I'll be able to occupy myself those other days of the week. We'll see.

Bullets? Bullets.

• One thing that's very obvious is that I need to come to respect the value of the Euro coins. They have 1 and 2 euro coins that I'm accumulating quite the collection of.
• The only Dutch peculiarity I've picked up is that they eat mayonnaise with their french fries.
• The weather was weird today. I'd been told that it was rainy a lot, and the day started out with rain, but by early afternoon it had cleared up into a chilly but sunny day.
• I was wearing a Tigers hat today, and already I've encountered some negative reactions to Detroit. I'll have to fix that.
• I'm really sore from my miles of walking and bike riding today. Maybe I'll get in shape?
• I'm still a bit concerned about making friends, especially because most students appear to have already been here since September, but my roommate Martin wrote a nice letter of welcome arranging the meeting. It was also good to find out there are other new arrivals in this housing complex. I also got hooked up with a pair of mentors for my stay, and both of them emailed today, so hopefully they're an asset. I'd like to get involved in the International Student organization as soon as possible.
• By far the hardest part so far has been being without my friends. I miss them/you all so much already. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to try to ignore them to help the adjustment process or what, but I'd give anything to have them all here with me right now. I just really really miss everyone. Special acknowledgement goes out to Mallika, who became the first person to Skype me from the States.

More tomorrow.