2 january 2005
I’m sure that sooner or later I will stop waking up alert and ready to start my day at three a.m., but that time has not come yet. Take the normal jet lag, immediately follow it with an all night new year’s eve party, throw in some ramped up alcohol consumption and sporadic meals, and here I am. Seven thirty p.m. and fighting to keep my eyes open.
Today was the Day of Small Victories.
1. properly set the cell phone alarm
2. properly turned the cell phone alarm off, and went back to sleep
3. still managed to wake up during daylight hours
4. found the Verzetmuseum, which chronicles the history of Dutch resistance during WWII
5. found the bank machine; withdrew half my first month’s rent
6. found the public library, after approximately nineteen stops to consult my small map, and enjoyed twenty minutes of free internet access
7. stumbled upon a drug store; successfully purchased toothpaste
8. stumbled upon a grocery store; successfully purchased dinner ingredients, a bag of clementines, and this particularly fantastic yogurt that I last ate while living in Greece circa 1999 and have been dreaming about since
9. got all these items home, despite the fact that, as it turns out, Dutch grocery stores do not provide grocery bags.
“Bought toothpaste!” you may be exclaiming right at this very moment (really, exclaim away), “Wow Jenn, that Amsterdam really is a world of excitement! Don’t overdo it!” But let me tell you. If I can find an appropriate store, locate a desired product, exchange the correct amount of relevant currency, and return to the street within one hour without anyone thinking I am a clueless foreigner, all within the first week of arriving, I consider that a victory.
And now I am back home, in my unnecessarily large room in a dorm for foreign students on Plantage Muidergracht. The University of Amsterdam is on vacation until February 2, so the building is almost entirely deserted. This is very strange. It is essentially as if I have moved into an empty apartment building in the middle of the most densely populated city in Europe.
Though it would be marginally less creepy if I occasionally encountered another student, this set up isn’t so bad. The last time I did the foreign study thing, as a college junior in Melbourne, about half of my “cultural exchange” experiences involved exchanging culture (i.e. cds, beer recommendations, bodily fluids) with other Americans. Not that my NYC worldview wasn’t constantly challenged by my exotic University of Pennsylvania boyfriend, but I’m aiming a little broader this time around.
Other goals for the trip:
*see things like a manic tourist
*sketch a lot
*experiment with maps
*paint a little
*learn passable Dutch
*find out where the big / ugly / dangerous / exciting nonmuseum art is
*avoid becoming a regular cigarette smoker
*see more of the Netherlands than Amsterdam
*get a sense of Dutch history, politics, society, and culture
*understand Dutch urban planning and public space
*work on my thesis
*learn about urban soil science
*write about it
That’s a start. Time to get busy.
Today was the Day of Small Victories.
1. properly set the cell phone alarm
2. properly turned the cell phone alarm off, and went back to sleep
3. still managed to wake up during daylight hours
4. found the Verzetmuseum, which chronicles the history of Dutch resistance during WWII
5. found the bank machine; withdrew half my first month’s rent
6. found the public library, after approximately nineteen stops to consult my small map, and enjoyed twenty minutes of free internet access
7. stumbled upon a drug store; successfully purchased toothpaste
8. stumbled upon a grocery store; successfully purchased dinner ingredients, a bag of clementines, and this particularly fantastic yogurt that I last ate while living in Greece circa 1999 and have been dreaming about since
9. got all these items home, despite the fact that, as it turns out, Dutch grocery stores do not provide grocery bags.
“Bought toothpaste!” you may be exclaiming right at this very moment (really, exclaim away), “Wow Jenn, that Amsterdam really is a world of excitement! Don’t overdo it!” But let me tell you. If I can find an appropriate store, locate a desired product, exchange the correct amount of relevant currency, and return to the street within one hour without anyone thinking I am a clueless foreigner, all within the first week of arriving, I consider that a victory.
And now I am back home, in my unnecessarily large room in a dorm for foreign students on Plantage Muidergracht. The University of Amsterdam is on vacation until February 2, so the building is almost entirely deserted. This is very strange. It is essentially as if I have moved into an empty apartment building in the middle of the most densely populated city in Europe.
Though it would be marginally less creepy if I occasionally encountered another student, this set up isn’t so bad. The last time I did the foreign study thing, as a college junior in Melbourne, about half of my “cultural exchange” experiences involved exchanging culture (i.e. cds, beer recommendations, bodily fluids) with other Americans. Not that my NYC worldview wasn’t constantly challenged by my exotic University of Pennsylvania boyfriend, but I’m aiming a little broader this time around.
Other goals for the trip:
*see things like a manic tourist
*sketch a lot
*experiment with maps
*paint a little
*learn passable Dutch
*find out where the big / ugly / dangerous / exciting nonmuseum art is
*avoid becoming a regular cigarette smoker
*see more of the Netherlands than Amsterdam
*get a sense of Dutch history, politics, society, and culture
*understand Dutch urban planning and public space
*work on my thesis
*learn about urban soil science
*write about it
That’s a start. Time to get busy.
posted by tortaluga at 8:17 AM
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