I am completely new to this blogging thing, so it’ll be pretty simple until I figure it out. This is my attempt at finding a way to keep people updated on life while I’m gone. I hate the idea of mass e-mailing/facebook-inboxing to tell people what’s going on, so instead I usually turn the the polar opposite and do nothing - and end up with everyone mad at me for falling out of the communication world for a month or two. Since it’s 5 months that I’ll be gone this time, I figured I should avoid that path and… you know, not lose all of my friends by the time I get home. The awesome URL is courtesy of my amazing nerd pokemaster boyfriend…I’ll probably change it when I think of some English major worthy title. Time to join internet civilization and give this a try =)
So here I am, finally, in Leiden. I had a pretty hectic/exciting/scary/stupid arrival. For anyone who doesn’t know my style of traveling (i.e. anyone who didn’t go to China or Greece with me)… I don’t plan. I buy my ticket, read no travel guides, know nothing of the country’s language, and just go and hope that I’ll figure it out. Since I started traveling, I have been warned so many times against doing this… even this past summer, while everyone was practicing their “Yasas! Hello” and studying ancient Greek geography for our first quiz, I was thinking about when and where I was going to find a cliff to jump off of (in a totally not suicidal way - a sisterhood of the traveling pants 2 way. mission accomplished, btw). So far this strategy has worked pretty well for me… until now. Which means this is the start of my horror story.
There has been a ton of snow in London and across Europe, which means my original flight to London had to stay in the sky an extra hour and a half… which meant I had to literally sprint to my connecting flight to Amsterdam; I must have looked like a total idiot. Anyway, I got into Amsterdam and went to read the signs for the train (which I was supposed to take to the university in Leiden) and they were completely and totally in Dutch. florgan schmorgan, aka I had no idea what to do…. sooooo I ended up taking a taxi which was super expensive but luckily safe. Except for the part when he dropped me off in the wrong place and I had not a clue where I was. Super Jill senses kicked in when I remembered that the Visitor’s Center was supposed to be next to the train station, and so decided to problem solve and follow the sounds of the trains (like a stupid, lost American) and eventually, somehow, ended up in the right place. By the time I got to the Visitor’s center, which was about 3:00pm here (9:00am our time, and no sleep) the housing people had gone home. Apparently they have really limited hours? Who knew? Great. So I found a hotel that was close and not too expensive, right around the corner allegedly a 5 minute walk…that took me 20 minutes, since I stopped walking every 30 seconds to get there since no food + no sleep + luggage = extremely tired and zombie Jill. Again, stupid American. So much for my “I’ll figure it out when I get there” attitude.
Best part is, the phone that I just bought, for the sole reason that it’s supposed to work abroad, didn’t work. Verizon customer service was great in helping me make it work…on the hotel phone for an hour and a half, aka a $200Euro phone bill.
The trip sounds great so far right? Actually, it’s pretty awesome to be here, even with my disaster of an entrance. At least I made one =)
I met with housing today and got my apartment assignment, and can’t wait to move in to it tomorrow. Everything will definitely calm down once I’m no longer in the hotel (this is night number 2) so I can finally unpack, settle, and contact everybody I love. Luckily I got to talk to a few of you already, which is keeping me from feeling lonely despite the fact that I am, in actuality, completely alone in a hotel room thousands of miles away from all of you!
For my big sister Maya’s sake, I’m hoping that I remember to mention something new I did in each post. I did try something new today… even though it was by accident. Ever tried walking across a bike lane thinking it was a cross walk? Bad news. Don’t try it.
That’s all I can think of for today… Unfortunately I don’t have a camera (I know, I know), but I tried taking a picture of me in my hotel room on my webcam anyway. Usually I hate pictures, but (for Carl’s sake) it’s a start. For those of you who have been to the Zultanky residence, note the striped walls in the background (sorry Tanks, couldnt get the curtains in too, ethernet cable has me stuck where I am without the ability to turn my computer toward the window)… and the alligator =) I’ll try to get a camera as soon as I can!
Stay warm,
-Jill
