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Zo! Hier ben ik weer. I’ve been in Holland for one full week now, and on the whole it’s great. This will be a fairly long entry so I can catch you guys up. I’ve also decided that I’m only going to refer to other people on here by their first initials… privacy and all. :-)
Anyway, so D picked me up on Thursday and I stayed with him for the first 4 days. It was so good to see him again! He had just worked a night shift of work and I had just flown all night, so we both crashed around 17.00 that day, but after that I had no more problems with jet lag. We just did normal stuff, like going to the movies, eating out, swimming, etc… oh, and I went to football practice with him on Sunday and somehow got recruited to be a box coach… ??? Oh well, we’ll see if I actually end up doing that. Long commute every weekend…
Anyway, then on Monday we drove to Utrecht (and got horribly, horribly lost trying to find Rheyngaerde… I think we circled Utrecht about 4 times, LOL!) and I finally got moved into this apartment I’d heard so much about… and, surprisingly, it was great. Big windows, bigger rooms than I’d expected… really cool! My housemate, S (friend from UF) was in France with his girlfriend, or so I was told, so the place was empty. But because it had taken us so long to find it, D had to leave right away for work and I had a bit of a bad moment… the toilet was stopped up (thank you S, for leaving me such a nice present), I had no food and no Euros, I didn’t know where anything was, or even really where I was… and then to top it all off, I tried to turn on my computer and reconnect with the outside world… and discovered that my American-bought converter wasn’t working. Prima, nog een probleem! Finally I just decided that I’d been enough of a baby about things already and that nothing was going to get done unless I did it, so I went to the office of this apartment building, got someone to unclog the toilet, borrowed a map of Utrecht, asked a bunch of questions about where things were, and then went outside, got onto the first bus that came along, and went to the city. I bought a new computer converter, changed my travelers’ checks, and just generally ‘got my bearings’ a little bit. Then it turned out that S wasn’t going to France until the next day, so I had some company after all, for one night at least. The rest of this week has been fine – I’ve been here alone, which I don’t like, but I’ve gotten a lot done – found the supermarket, opened a bank account, gotten my stuff put away, etc. And yesterday I went to Aalten with P and we had dinner at her mom’s house, which was gezellig (closest possible translation: cozy).
So I’m settling in, and getting more comfortable speaking the language. But I’m still having a few problems with loneliness and feeling isolated. I’ve been to this country before – twice – but I’ve never, ever been alone here. L or P or D or someone, some native, was always with me to take the lead. I can speak the language enough to get by – enough to buy food, strippenkaarten and train tickets, enough to get onto the right bus and tell the driver where I want to go, etc… but I’m not comfortable with it yet, and depending on people’s accents, I often don’t understand everything said. Therefore I don’t really carry on any everyday conversations with people yet, and I miss that. In America I talk to everyone - cashiers, librarians, anyone and everyone. But here I don’t feel comfortable doing that because I don’t always understand people and I don’t want to get into something I can’t finish, so I’m missing a big ‘chunk’ of my normal social behavior and that makes me feel really isolated. (P says she thinks that’ll change in a month or so, and I agree, but that doesn’t make it any easier right now.)
The other thing I just thought of is, though I’ve been away from home a lot, I can’t remember the last time I’ve been alone. Growing up in Jacksonville, my parents and sister were always just a shout away. I’ve been at different summer camps ever since I was seven, but of course we share sleeping spaces there too. Then at UF, I had a roommate, K. Then there was camp again this summer, and I shared a cabin with 14 campers. Then home again, with my parents and sister once again close by. Then here in Nederland, at D’s house, with the two of us always together. But now I’m here and I am really, truly alone. Sure, there are people I can call on if I need help, but I mean… I’m in an apartment alone, I do my shopping and daily activities alone… and I don’t think I like it. I mean, I can do it, but I wouldn’t choose this for myself. I’m glad S will be back in a week or so. I’m a people person, I know, but I’m starting to see that more clearly than I ever did before. I need human contact, simple as that. I better start working doubly hard at this language.
Speaking of which, I can’t wait for my Boswell classes to start. I really need that practice. I wonder how I’ll be in relation to the rest of the class? In A-level I was one of the best, and S tested into B-level and I’m better than him too. But I don’t know anyone in C-level. Wonder how I’ll ‘measure up’? But I’m not really nervous about that… I just can’t wait for it to start, so I can finally get into a ‘routine’. As much as I love change and new things, I do like to have a daily routine.
P said something else interesting yesterday on the way to Aalten. She said she thought I would adjust really fast to being here because, among other things, “You’re used to adjusting. You go to camp… you adapt. You see something that needs to be done and you just do it, you face it.” And that’s funny because Mom says that about me all the time too. Anyway, that did make me feel better. I hope she’s right.
Random thought: how do you get rid of bums in the bus station? A woman asked me for a Euro yesterday “so I can sleep inside tonight” and I didn’t understand her Dutch, so she said it in English and I actually gave it to her. I probably shouldn’t have, but she was very polite (“May I ask you something?” “Sure.” “Thank you.”) and her English was surprisingly good – better than most of what I hear these days, with no hesitation. I was impressed by her. I know nobody has to be homeless in Holland and that I shouldn’t be giving away handouts, but she seemed different than your usual street bum. Oh well. Just thought I’d mention that.
Anyway, I better go down and pick up my laundry. I fought with those machines for 15 minutes earlier before I got them to work (silly Dutch machines… who knew that dE means ‘door open’?? Must be from ‘deur’…), and I still don’t know if I put the soap in the right place… guess I’ll find out in a minute. ;)
Stay tuned: next time I’ll move on to comparisons! Everything from public transportation (awesome) to my cheapo bed (sigh…). Tot later, allemaal!
Zo! Hier ben ik weer. I’ve been in Holland for one full week now, and on the whole it’s great. This will be a fairly long entry so I can catch you guys up. I’ve also decided that I’m only going to refer to other people on here by their first initials… privacy and all. :-)
Anyway, so D picked me up on Thursday and I stayed with him for the first 4 days. It was so good to see him again! He had just worked a night shift of work and I had just flown all night, so we both crashed around 17.00 that day, but after that I had no more problems with jet lag. We just did normal stuff, like going to the movies, eating out, swimming, etc… oh, and I went to football practice with him on Sunday and somehow got recruited to be a box coach… ??? Oh well, we’ll see if I actually end up doing that. Long commute every weekend…
Anyway, then on Monday we drove to Utrecht (and got horribly, horribly lost trying to find Rheyngaerde… I think we circled Utrecht about 4 times, LOL!) and I finally got moved into this apartment I’d heard so much about… and, surprisingly, it was great. Big windows, bigger rooms than I’d expected… really cool! My housemate, S (friend from UF) was in France with his girlfriend, or so I was told, so the place was empty. But because it had taken us so long to find it, D had to leave right away for work and I had a bit of a bad moment… the toilet was stopped up (thank you S, for leaving me such a nice present), I had no food and no Euros, I didn’t know where anything was, or even really where I was… and then to top it all off, I tried to turn on my computer and reconnect with the outside world… and discovered that my American-bought converter wasn’t working. Prima, nog een probleem! Finally I just decided that I’d been enough of a baby about things already and that nothing was going to get done unless I did it, so I went to the office of this apartment building, got someone to unclog the toilet, borrowed a map of Utrecht, asked a bunch of questions about where things were, and then went outside, got onto the first bus that came along, and went to the city. I bought a new computer converter, changed my travelers’ checks, and just generally ‘got my bearings’ a little bit. Then it turned out that S wasn’t going to France until the next day, so I had some company after all, for one night at least. The rest of this week has been fine – I’ve been here alone, which I don’t like, but I’ve gotten a lot done – found the supermarket, opened a bank account, gotten my stuff put away, etc. And yesterday I went to Aalten with P and we had dinner at her mom’s house, which was gezellig (closest possible translation: cozy).
So I’m settling in, and getting more comfortable speaking the language. But I’m still having a few problems with loneliness and feeling isolated. I’ve been to this country before – twice – but I’ve never, ever been alone here. L or P or D or someone, some native, was always with me to take the lead. I can speak the language enough to get by – enough to buy food, strippenkaarten and train tickets, enough to get onto the right bus and tell the driver where I want to go, etc… but I’m not comfortable with it yet, and depending on people’s accents, I often don’t understand everything said. Therefore I don’t really carry on any everyday conversations with people yet, and I miss that. In America I talk to everyone - cashiers, librarians, anyone and everyone. But here I don’t feel comfortable doing that because I don’t always understand people and I don’t want to get into something I can’t finish, so I’m missing a big ‘chunk’ of my normal social behavior and that makes me feel really isolated. (P says she thinks that’ll change in a month or so, and I agree, but that doesn’t make it any easier right now.)
The other thing I just thought of is, though I’ve been away from home a lot, I can’t remember the last time I’ve been alone. Growing up in Jacksonville, my parents and sister were always just a shout away. I’ve been at different summer camps ever since I was seven, but of course we share sleeping spaces there too. Then at UF, I had a roommate, K. Then there was camp again this summer, and I shared a cabin with 14 campers. Then home again, with my parents and sister once again close by. Then here in Nederland, at D’s house, with the two of us always together. But now I’m here and I am really, truly alone. Sure, there are people I can call on if I need help, but I mean… I’m in an apartment alone, I do my shopping and daily activities alone… and I don’t think I like it. I mean, I can do it, but I wouldn’t choose this for myself. I’m glad S will be back in a week or so. I’m a people person, I know, but I’m starting to see that more clearly than I ever did before. I need human contact, simple as that. I better start working doubly hard at this language.
Speaking of which, I can’t wait for my Boswell classes to start. I really need that practice. I wonder how I’ll be in relation to the rest of the class? In A-level I was one of the best, and S tested into B-level and I’m better than him too. But I don’t know anyone in C-level. Wonder how I’ll ‘measure up’? But I’m not really nervous about that… I just can’t wait for it to start, so I can finally get into a ‘routine’. As much as I love change and new things, I do like to have a daily routine.
P said something else interesting yesterday on the way to Aalten. She said she thought I would adjust really fast to being here because, among other things, “You’re used to adjusting. You go to camp… you adapt. You see something that needs to be done and you just do it, you face it.” And that’s funny because Mom says that about me all the time too. Anyway, that did make me feel better. I hope she’s right.
Random thought: how do you get rid of bums in the bus station? A woman asked me for a Euro yesterday “so I can sleep inside tonight” and I didn’t understand her Dutch, so she said it in English and I actually gave it to her. I probably shouldn’t have, but she was very polite (“May I ask you something?” “Sure.” “Thank you.”) and her English was surprisingly good – better than most of what I hear these days, with no hesitation. I was impressed by her. I know nobody has to be homeless in Holland and that I shouldn’t be giving away handouts, but she seemed different than your usual street bum. Oh well. Just thought I’d mention that.
Anyway, I better go down and pick up my laundry. I fought with those machines for 15 minutes earlier before I got them to work (silly Dutch machines… who knew that dE means ‘door open’?? Must be from ‘deur’…), and I still don’t know if I put the soap in the right place… guess I’ll find out in a minute. ;)
Stay tuned: next time I’ll move on to comparisons! Everything from public transportation (awesome) to my cheapo bed (sigh…). Tot later, allemaal!
stormed at 08:29
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