I’m on my sixth glass of ginger tea, staring out a bay window with a brass Buddha sitting peacefully on the ledge. I didn’t think I’d this is what I’d be arriving to but I’m happy with the Dutch experience so far. In the three hours that I’ve been here, I’ve taken the train, eaten a stroopwafel and cardamon bread. And, I’m willing to put this out there, the Dutch, so far, seem nicer than Canadians purport themselves to be.
My flight on KLM was as good as a 7 hour flight could be, which is never actually enjoyable. Food was pretty good (chicken with spinach for dinner and weird yogurt for breakfast) and there was free alcohol even in economy class, though I didn’t imbibe. The entertainment console was pretty amazing though. I watched episodes of Entourage, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Simpsons, Futurama and also Superbad. That’s so dirty North American of me, but to my credit, I did try to watch some travel documentaries (but they turned out to be too cheesy.)
I didn’t sleep on the plane, so there’s going to be an inevitable crash in a few hours when the last two days catch up with me. Luckily, the entire process of getting to my destination has been so easy, it’s almost criminal. A Dutch girl from my class picked up at Schiphol at 8 AM and rode the train with me from Amsterdam to Utrecht. She volunteered to pick up the exchange students because she wanted to do for others what she would like for herself (Aww!) From the train station, my landlord drove me back to our house.
He and his wife are the cutest people ever. He’s Dutch and she’s Surinamese. When we were talking about the other tenants, she accidentally referred to them as “the children.” Right now, I’m waiting for my Spanish flatmates to wake up. They offered to let me sleep with them one night since the other room doesn’t become vacant until tomorrow. I know they’re Spanish so that doesn’t technically count under this Dutch niceness I’m making a claim about, but I’ll chalk it up to the Dutch anyways.
I’m haven’t figured out how I will spend my first day in the Netherlands yet: out and about or face down in a bed.
