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!