Sore legs.

Welcome pack

Thankfully, this weeks post isn't going to be about my decent into homelessness because I figured out how to pay my rent. Woo. Honestly, you have no idea how relieved I was when my card was accepted! I also managed to (almost) fully register at City Hall on Thursday. Got a few loose ends to tie up with that but I feel like I have had a very productive week. Go team Nat!

This week has been amazing.

We had the ESN Introdays, which kept me busy for the first half of the week.

Sunday got off to a slow start, with registration for the activities taking a while. But I suppose it gave us the chance to start introducing ourselves and getting to know each other, over a platter of sandwiches. After all the administrative nonsense was over it was onwards to Rotterdam Zoo - Diergaarde Blijdorp (apparently). I've not been to a zoo in years so that was pretty cool. Me and a few friends spent ages walking round it, taking a ridiculous amount of pictures (which is probably going to be a running theme throughout the year). My favourite animals to visit were the butterflies, rhinos and (of course) the elephants. Upon leaving the zoo, our little group of three decided to walk to Rotterdam Centraal. From there I cycled by myself to the Italian restaurant - amazingly I managed to find it without getting seriously lost (only mild, unplanned, detours were encountered en route). And I was ridiculously over excited about my margherita pizza, but for someone that doesn't own an oven, pizza is glorious. Not had any since I got here! The final activity of the day was going to a really cool lounge bar which overlooked the water. It was stunning. Then it was just a short bike ride home and in my bed for around midnight, as I had an early start the next day.

Monday started with successfully paying my rent *happy dance* then off to have brunch with the other international students. The next activity was a visit to the Euromast. Amazing. If I am not mistaken, it is 185 meters tall, giving beautiful views of Rotterdam. We went right up to the top of the tower, in some kind of ride that gave 360 degree views as it slowly spun around. It was a great day for it as well - the weather was perfect. After that we travelled onwards to Miniworld Rotterdam which was a bit of a waste of time. For me, it was the only boring part about the introdays. Me and a handful of others quickly left - giving us time to go home and freshen up before dinner and the pub crawl. Dinner was a buffet, which was nice, but the lack of labels led to a few surprises. My onion rings, for example, turned out to be calamari - bit of a surprise, but I actually really enjoyed it! Then a big group of us went to find ice cream for desert. What a great decision. I picked white chocolate. Delicious. 

Onwards to the pub crawl. We went 4 pubs then a club at the end. It was a good night, with some great music - and I was quite happy to dance the night away. =) We got a free drink at every pub, sadly it was only for beer and wine, and after clarifying that I do indeed hate both, it was onto the water for me! Not that I minded - I'm not much of a drinker anyway. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the final club of the night I was completely knackered. But, after reluctantly accepting a bike ride to go back and collect my abandoned bike, I was soon home and snuggled up in my bed. 

Tuesday started slowly with information activities at Erasmus University Rotterdam taking up most of the morning. Then we went on the Spido boat trip, which took us on a tour of Rotterdam's port. It wasn't exactly the most scenic tour, but it was cool to see all the container ships. Couldn't get my head around how big the port was! Initially, I hadn't been overly enthusiastic about the boat, but it was definitely worth while attending. Probably could have picked a better outfit though - the wind wasn't exactly the warmest once we were out on the river. And I had my wee milk-bottle-white legs out on display. So many goosebumps haha. 

Wrist band

Then it was the opening night of the ESN Social Drink at Bed. Was pretty cool. Everyone who was taking part in the introdays first got dinner then once people started to arrive the night properly kicked off. It was great to hang out with all the international students and it was so easy to get talking to people. In the end, I spent most of my night with people I hadn't met before or barely knew. Was a lovely evening.

Although, the journey home didn't go quite as smoothly. I ended up being a passenger on the back of my own bike. There was a few falls/crashes, balancing precariously and the pain of going over bumps. By the time I got home (at 3.30) the back of my legs were bright red. Not ideal. The disastrous bike ride combined with three days of walking made for a very sore start on Wednesday. My legs were like jelly. And so many bruises. Ouch.

After spending much of Wednesday recovering from the first half of the week I decided that I would have a go at volley ball on Thursday. That was pretty fun. I felt a bit daft being the one who couldn't speak Dutch and not knowing how to play, but it could have been worse. They were all very welcoming and I met someone who was nearly as clueless as me - which was lovely! Think I'll go back for the next open training! 

Friday was another lazy day. Just had a campus tour in the morning then listening to the boyfriend tell me about his Berlin ventures on skype.

In other news: We got a microwave. Yay! (My poor room-mate had to carry it home). But that also means that the kettle has now been demoted to the floor if we want to boil water. Boo!

Lesson of the week: Only accept lifts off Dutch people. No one else can cycle.

Sorry for being a day late with this post. I'm loaded with the cold though - need sympathy and virtual cuddles. Cheers.

Red Lights.

Amsterdam venture.
On Saturday me and two of my new buddies went to Amsterdam for the day. So that was cool. I was up a 7.00am, not ideal on a Saturday, but it was totally worthwhile to start the day early! The three of us wandered around the city enjoying the good weather and beautiful city sights. And, of course, I was a bit of a photo-addict (as usual)! Luckily one of the guys had been to Amsterdam before and acted as our tour guide - so we didn't have to worry about getting lost. Excellent.

So what did we do in Amsterdam?

Finding a little piece of Scotland
in the heart of Amsterdam!

The first thing was the train journey. Now, I wouldn't normally mention a commute but this was a double-decker train! Amazed. Of course, I made the guys sit on the top deck. Once the three of us had departed from the train we had a short gander about Amsterdam, marvelling at the sights and me, being the typical tourist, with a camera stuck to my face!

After that it was pancakes for lunch. American style: drowning in maple syrup and bacon. Beautiful (but we did have a mammoth wait for them). Our pancake scran led onto a wander around a market before venturing inside a beautiful church. Sadly we couldn't go up the tower - it would have been amazing to take pictures of the city from there, but that'll have to wait until another day.

After much walking around we found ourselves at the Royal Palace. We didn't go inside as it was quite pricey and they didn't allow photography - what's the point if you can't even take pictures? No thanks. But we decided to hang around in the square (just outside the palace), which was filled with performers - it was nice just to soak up the atmosphere. I even found myself a guy playing the bagpipes - very homely!

Then it was off to a brewery - not exactly my cup-of-tea, but the guys seemed to like it. I did appreciate the decoration in the toilets though - they had a beer tap at the sinks to wash your hands with. Pretty cool!

We continued our journey with a trip to the Red Light District to visit the lovely ladies in the windows. At first I was curious, but quickly grew uncomfortable with the set up. Just walking in a line with all the other tourists, gawking at them, it just felt so disrespectful. I couldn't handle it. Initially I tried to smile at them all but by the end my eyes were kept firmly on my feet. Strange. Very strange.

Finally, the three of us went to dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. The food was expensive but really nice.

Then my bed. Knackered.

I can't wait to go back when my folks come over in October, then again when the boyfriend visits. It'll be nice to see different parts and maybe go into some of the museums. Madame Tussauds is at the top of my list! It's going to be excellent!

VKV City Racing Rotterdam.
I woke up late on the Sunday after Amsterdam but eventually managed to drag myself out of bed and down to Blaak to watch the racing. I didn't stay for long, as it isn't something that greatly interests me, but I thought it would be nice to do something with my day since I didn't have much planned for the rest of the week. My favourite boyfriend pestering me to take photos of the cars was also a strong motivator to pick myself up and venture outside. It was an interesting watch and I took tonnes of pictures (typical Natalie move) although most of them were awful - it was ridiculously difficult to get a good shot. 

Oh, and remember the new cooker from last week? Broken.
That was an eventful hour. I was midway through making my dinner when there was a loud bang and all the lights went out. And because there are no windows in the kitchen I was plunged into complete darkness. I quickly dashed to my room to grab my torch (thanks dad!) and investigate the circumstances. It immediately became evident that there was absolutely no electricity in our little flat, and after ambushing a couple of people in the hallway it became clear that it was an isolated issue and everyone else in the building was blissfully unaware. I eventually managed to locate some building "staff" (if that's the right word) who helped me turn the power back on and figured out that the new hob was guilty in causing the power-outage. So, no cooker. I had throw my dinner in the bin, and go on another food-shopping trip to stock up on meals that don't have to be heated up. Not ideal, but a new one was delivered today (Friday) after various visits from electricians. Aha, 3 stoves in as many weeks - this is going well!

Is it shocking to hear that I sent my first ever hand-written letter this week? I promised to be my Grandpa's pen-pal since he has no idea how to work the computer (unlike my other set of relatively tech-savvy Grandparents). But I felt totally lost in the post office - especially a foreign one. I must have looked a right idiot - I even had to ask which way round the stamp went. Such a poor excuse for a human being. Disaster.

In other news I passed the Dutch language course. Yay! Not a hundred percent sure how it happened but I'm ridiculously proud of this achievement. Pretty sure that my mark of 7.1 (out of 10) was the lowest in the class - but considering my past record for failing miserably at languages, I am not complaining!

Thanks for reading folks. =D

Muddling through.

Week two has been weird.
And busy. Very busy.

I can't believe how quickly the Dutch course went. Two weeks definitely wasn't long enough! But I feel like I have, at least, some grasp of the language. I'm using English less in shops and trying to integrate Dutch into my daily life. I may not be able to give the greatest of responses but at least I'm understanding more of what people are saying to me now. Taking that as a positive! Here's hoping I've past the exam!

Isn't she beautiful?!

One thing that I have done this week is buy a bike. Yay! Managed to get myself a half-decent one for €100 which seems pretty good. I like cycling back in Scotland with my dad, but I love it here. There are almost no hills - which is a massive difference! It's so relaxing. And the roads seem to have been built around cyclists which makes it a lot safer than back home. I love my new bike too. That's is one thing I have noticed - the bikes are so pretty and quaint looking, with baskets and beautiful designs. Mine, is a little bit rough around the edges but it is still a very cute bike. Hopefully, it'll make carrying my food shopping back from the supermarket a lot less of a hassle! 

I'm also feeling much more at home in my little student flat and even filmed a (very) brief and impromptu tour for you to watch! Please feel free to ignore my ramblings in the video, in fact, I'd probably prefer if you muted it to be honest! Just felt the need to speak during the whole thing and now wished that I hadn't bothered! Haha. 

"Where did this come from?"

It's still strange living here. The electrician just lets himself in and fixes little bits and piece around the place without me knowing. So, I come home to find little changes. First, the light on the hob had been fixed - which I was very pleased with! The next day I come home from uni to find a brand new hob! It's brilliant! 

Don't know why I'm so excited though. I can barely prepare a meal for myself. I actually used to consider myself quite a good cook. But that was before I had to taste my cuisine every night. Yuck! The latest kitchen blunder was my attempt to make bolognese - think I'll just buy the jar of sauce next time. 

We had a "beach" volleyball battle at uni today (Friday), which was excellent. I've never played before, but it was so much fun. And I was on the winning team (not that I had much to do with the team success)! It was nice to kick back and relax after the final Dutch exam. Was disgusting afterwards though. There was sand everywhere. Yuck.

"Beach" Volleyball

Just a final note, which is actually something that I missed out of last week's post. My first visitor. So, I was sitting in my room, before I had started the Dutch course at uni. Now, bare in mind that my building is creepily empty, and at the time I had a grand total of zero friends. The doorbell unexpectedly rings and I rush over to answer it. There stands a monk. Not what I was expecting but I remained open minded, after all this could have been my new room-mate! It wasn't. He hands me a book about Buddhism and Hinduism. I was confused, yet slightly intrigued because I had studied Buddhism at school. The monk offers me the books, but knowing that nothing in life comes for free, I inquired further. Then too my dismay he starts trying to haggle for money and food. "Ehm, no!" But he wouldn't take "no" for an answer so I ended up just shutting the door on him. Oops. 

That wasn't exactly the best welcome to the Netherlands, but it has definitely grown on me since then! And between cycling everywhere, doing the language course and eating stroopwafels, I'm really starting to feel a lot more Dutch!

Tot ziens!  

Settling in.

So, I've been in Holland for just over a week now, and despite being here for such a short time, I think I can comfortably call it home (for now, at least).

My journey got off to a pretty ugly start, with mammoth additional fees at the airport with a certain unnamed "budget" airline, slight delays and floods of tears for my parents, boyfriend and an unsuspecting friend to contend with. It was pretty scary, as I've never negotiated my way through an airport alone before, but I managed to survive the short flight from Glasgow to Amsterdam! Success!

After that it was just a case of collecting my luggage and finding my university pick-up service. The pick-up service was incredibly helpful, as me and one other international student got a free taxi to drop us off at our accommodation. They also gave me my key - which was handy.

All of this was a huge time-saver and allowed me to dump my bags and rush out to the shops to find myself a few essentials.

Settling in has definitely been the theme of this week. I haven't quite got everything that I need yet, but my room is certainly looking a lot less bare. I have a duvet and bed covers for one thing - so that's a start!

A few home comforts make all the difference!

One thing I have loved about this week has been the social activities and the Dutch course. It's been an amazing experience meeting such a range of people, from all different backgrounds. And I'm really struggling to get my head around such a variety of nationalities and life stories. Everyone is just so different from one another. It's lovely.

It has been a hectic week and I've be struggling through the Dutch course every morning. Sometimes I understand it and others I spend the whole morning in utter confusion. But I'm glad that I decided to learn the language, however little I actually get from it. I'm really determined to pass the class though!

The ESN buddies have been great at arranging activities for us all, and I feel like I haven't stopped all week. They are a great bunch of people and made us all feel very welcome!

Monday was a kind of "getting to know you" lunch, where we were able to meet everyone and start recognising people's faces.

On Wednesday we had a "Getting to know the Netherlands" workshop followed by a social dinner which might have turned into a night out. This was probably my favourite day of the week because, although I was shattered by the end of it, it was when I first began to properly get to know all of the other students. It was excellent.

Thursday was a guided tour of Rotterdam South Bank and a great opportunity for taking loads of pictures.

And finally, we had a Pubquiz on Friday.

So it's been a busy week (and a lazy weekend). It's been fab! :)