Waking up for the first introduction day at my exchange school, NHTV, ridiculously early and seeing the dark clouds for the first of many times here in The Netherlands was not great at all. But hey, me hearing Nuria's voice during the night was not a dream, she really was there! And she was standing right in front of my room's door and I remember being shocked to notice how much taller she was than I expected.
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| nurimodo |
All five of us were ready to leave to the main campus, and Rebecca first as the map master. It felt like a long trip not knowing where we were heading, just following the leader. I was really terrified thinking that I for sure would get lost, if I had to go around by myself. Finally we made it and the school looked really nice from inside with walls painted in different colors. Why my own school JAMK doesn't have colorful walls like the NHTV does? What we lack in color, they lack in not causing head aches...
An auditorium full of international students and basically just introduction by the international office and awful short impros by the school's theatre telling when to call the school's emergency number and when not. Look at the bright side; at least they have an emergency number! After that we were divided into groups according to our study programs and toured around the campus. Just remember one thing; if you have a problem, go to the service desk. Yup, that's the way to summarize the campus tour. The most interesting fact was that at some point I realized that there should be a Finnish guy there with whom I talked to on Facebook. And the point was when I noticed this guy, who looked really shy and wore shorts, a t-shirt and worn out shoes as others had a bit more on. When I pointed and looked at him, he did the same thing at the same time and we both let out this silent "hey". The guy turned out the be the Fin and really cool. I think his name was Janne.
We were served sandwiches, fruits and coffee and tea in the cafetaria, which was a really nice surprise, also considering the cheap reputation of the Dutch. After eating we were introduced to our tutor teacher, and to a bunch of students, who happened to be buddy tutors. There was this weird trio in the corner; a skater girl, a leopard stuff wearing girl and a girl. Last mentioned was the actual buddy and the other two the assistants. They just happened to be the buddies for me, Janne and this geeky American guy called Troy. As I talked about wanting to go see Interpol in November, Troy mentioned that he loved Interpol too and wanted to go see them. Not only was the geeky impression swapped into "hey musical soul mate, I'll be surely exchanging music with ya!", I also finally got someone to go see the gig with me, which I had been worrying about for the past few months.
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| buddies from left; britt, niki & jolien |
There was an international student party coming up at bar Speeltuin, so we decided to have a pre-get to know each other- party at Janne's place later in the evening. I was supposed to meet Henna, at the central park before that and it was raining really bad as I left with my bike. She had to patiently wait for me for 15 min outside. oops.
Without Henna's good map skills and yelling, we would have been more lost in finding our way to Janne's. Being the first time there with some of his flat mates Philip, David and Maren was a bit ackward, until the buddies started to talk about some crazy Greek girl, who they had as an exchange student. And it was time for the Speeltuin! The rain still didn't stop.
First time in a Dutch bar. It was really small, had only one girls' toilet and you just hang your jacket in a rack. It was also very full and had bad air con. So everybody was all sweaty. We saw some stuff what only can be seen here and Janne had these outrageous dance moves. Troy came much later and left really early, I guess he wasn't the party guy.
We stayed there until the bar closed and it was a lot of fun!
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| sven |
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| henna |
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| britt |
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| janne |
August 27th, 2010
School at 12.00 for reason unknown. Me and Janne were wondering where Troy was, probably he just forgot to come to school. There weren't really that much people. We found out that they were taking us for a city tour and we had some papers to answer questions about the city. It was interesting to hear that the bowling alley, cinema and jail were all at the same square. The jail, WHAT?! And the military school or whatever just in the center. You Dutch are weird.
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| cinema on the left, jail back, bowling alley front |
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| recycling is fun here |
As I got home and checked my Facebook, Troy's status said something about him waking up in a park somewhere with his bike stolen. Wrong again.
Later in the evening I had my first döner with fries. Weird that it had melted cheese on the lettuce, but it was gooood. And you also got garlic or chili sauce. Chili with anything -> +5p. After that we went to Speeltuin again with buddy Jolien to meet up with Janne and his flat mate Philip. The bar was a bit empty and people just tired. I was tired too, so it was better to go to bed.
The first moments were great. I miss that.
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