Orientation Week!

Today was the first of three days of orientation.  The first event on the agenda?  "A gentle waking up with bagels and coffee."   Sounds more like a resort than college, lol!

Turns out there are only 5 people in my cohort.  I hope we all get along!!  

Our group consists of a guy from Egypt - Muhamed.  It's his first time traveling outside his country.  He was a bit shy and nervous at first but he's becoming fast friends with the group.  There is a guy from Taiwan who insists we call him 'Tom.'  Also a guy from LA, Jack, who used to be a collegiate pitcher.  Rounding out the bunch is a girl (whoo-hoo!) Monica, from Ghana.  She is on the ball and knows all the details of everything.  She's my new best friend, lol.

They have all the grad students together in one room, so I'm also meeting people from the other programs: International Relations, Psychology (most popular!), and the other business major, MBA.  I immediately bonded with this awesome Armenian girl, Evelyn, a Psych major, and fellow curly girl.  Her curls are AMAZING.  She reminded me very much of the character Cosima on Orphan Black. I think it was the glasses and the 'I don't give a sh*t' attitude, lol.  She gave me all the insider tips for being a student in Leiden.  SUPER helpful!

Icebreakers weren't as painful as I thought they may be. The faculty all seem to be very nice and super helpful.  I'm not sure if it's the small community of the school or the location-based Dutch influence, but everyone is so nice.  It's incredible.

I love the international composition of the whole graduate student body.   There are students from everywhere. Lot's of different languages and lots of different backgrounds.  What I have found very interesting, is every time I ask a fellow student how they found themselves here, every single one of them has a story about not being satisfied with their existing situation and having a desire to find a way to live their dreams.  All very inspiring!

Welcome to My New Home in Leiden!

My building is the one with the yellow trim around the windows.  My unit is in the back though, no canal views.  But everything else about it is pretty darn amazing, and VERY Dutch, just like I wanted :-)

The unit itself looks onto a shared patio for the building.  The neighbors regularly have BBQs out there.  Instant community!  

Despite it being a very rainy and overcast day, the unit was rather bright and light.  The kitchen and dining room are on the ground floor.  Take the winding stairs up to the living room and bathroom.  Take the winding stairs up again and you'll reach the bedroom (not pictured) where there is a private terrace.  Super cute!!  It's not available until September 8th, so it'll be another AirBnB (this one will be in Leiden!) for me until the unit is ready.  I'm so excited about this place, I can't wait to move in :-)

 

The Universe Delivers

When I came here, I had this crazy notion that if I were physically in Leiden, and allowed myself to be drawn through the town, that my apartment would just reveal itself to me.  Don't get me wrong, I was also doing my due diligence by emailing and calling on good housing leads.  I also arranged apartment viewings as well.  But I still had this unshakeable belief that I'd find my new home by walking around the city.

So that's what I've been doing.  And in doing so, last Friday I came upon a Spanish restaurant that smelled amazing.  I ended up chatting with one of the waiters and of course mentioned I was new in town and looking for an apartment.  He said he knew a guy who could help me and offered to send me the info over WhatsApp.  Great!! I love a good lead!  Remember this guy (Roberto), he'll be important later in this post.

Monday I had an apartment viewing.  Very cute property, but a little too far outside the city center and the neighborhood had a very low energy feeling.  I knew I wouldn't be happy there.

Today I had another apartment viewing.  But first I stopped into a few shops as I am on the lookout for a good pair of boots.  In one store, a really good song was playing on the radio.  The singer sounded familiar so I Shazam'd it - turns out it was Elvis Crespo (my favorite Merengue singer) and the song was AWESOME (it's so good at 00:44 into the song). I took this as a good sign for the day.  We'll see!

On to the place I was viewing... It was on Rapenburg, a very good street and close to the city center.  This place had a lot of potential.  Except once I got into the apartment, the property manager informed me that it was being rented as unfurnished.  UGH!  Furnished status of a unit was something I'd been looking at very carefully.  Unfortunately, this place was labeled incorrectly on the housing site.

*sigh*  Another dead end.

After I left that viewing, I had this sense that I needed to walk around the city.  I felt like the apartment that was meant for me was very close to revealing itself.  That song I heard in the shoe store earlier that morning had to have meant something... right?  

So I found myself on Middleweg and decided to walk the whole thing.  Then I decided to go right.  Then left.  And then I saw a sign for a property management company.  Turns out it was the same company Roberto (from the Spanish restaurant) had told me to call.  A sign perhaps??

I popped into their office and said that Roberto sent me.  The guy at the front desk said 'Oh yes, Roberto! Great guy!'  Ok - maybe this is going to work!!

I explained exactly what I was looking for and we flipped through many properties.  No real winners, but some good potentials.  Those were listed with other companies though, so he gave me their info so I could contact them.

He was about to send me on my way when his office mate started chatting with him about potential units.  Turns out, they just received a new property that morning (it wasn't even posted online yet!) and it had many of the key details I was interested in.

He pulled up the property on the computer and it was love at first sight :-D   I'd found my place.  And the price was right within my range, utilities were included, and I could rent it furnished.  SCORE!!

We arranged a time to view it tomorrow (Thursday).  If all goes well, I'll sign the papers by the end of the week!!!

The 23rd Mile

Self doubt has crept in.

Like the 23rd mile in a marathon, I'm starting to feel a little defeated. 

I'm struggling to find a place here, and I just received an update from the property manager for my house. He said the latest prospective tenants want to repaint the place before they'll consider renting it. 

It took me so long to find those colors and get the house painted the way I wanted it. There is also a strong emotional connection with the colors in my house as my late Uncle helped me to pick them out. I think my heart would break if I had to let someone else paint over it

So there's stress coming from home, stress and anxiety coming from Holland. It can be difficult to keep up the sunshine when you're feeling so gloomy.


***UPDATE***

Cue my amazing friends...

Suddenly my phone and computer lit up with pings and messages asking after my well-being, checking in on my progress and offering many kind words of support when they heard I was feeling down.  I don't know how they all knew, but that was exactly the kind of morale booster I needed in the 23rd mile :-)

Observations

In traveling the same route everyday by bus, I've become quite interested in several shops, based solely on what I've observed in the 3 seconds it takes the tram to pass by. Gomsa - seems to be a shop completely filled with giant, decorative metal balls. And the shop 3 doors down, Big Babylon, seems to be in competition with it. These are the only two shops I've seen so far with this type of product. Funny they're on the same block!


I've also discovered there's a Shabu Shabu in the Hague. They have all you can eat sushi at this location. Normally I'd never agree with all you can eat sushi. Some things are too delicate to be offered in that format. But Shabu Shabu? I'd be willing to try that. Plus, I AM a 'starving student.' Unlimited portions at a reasonable price could come in handy.


More observations...




I find myself eagerly awaiting 3pm every day.

When it's 3pm here, it's 6am back home and that means my best friend Frankie is awake and getting ready to leave for work. It means I get an hour or so window where we can chat and catch each other up on everything that's going on in our respective locations.

I wait for 3pm like a kid waits for the ice cream man to appear.

I love 3pm.

My First Day

I am in Amsterdam!!!!

All bags arrived safely!  I met my friend just outside customs, and we were off to their house for an early lunch.  After lunch comes the 'reset nap' for about 3 hours. This is the key to avoiding jet lag.

 I'm loving the art in their spare room



After naptime, we went on a bike tour of Amsterdam.  My first official Dutch bike ride!!

We had dinner at this delicious tapas place:

...and I promptly passed out once we got home.  Not too bad for the first day  ;-)

Déjà Vu

The benefit of reliving the same day twice is that you can plan for it a little better ;-)

Bags repacked, items forgotten the first time around were packed this time, and everything went off without a hitch.  Flight left on time and I was finally on my way :-D

                                                         

A quick stop over in Chicago with just enough time to snag a chair massage (GENIUS!) and take a quick walking tour of the terminal.

Hopped onto another plane and it was bye-bye USA!!


Enjoyed several glasses of free champagne and an 'amenity'.

Apparently this is what they're now calling the goodie bag you get when you fly Business Class.  Most useful item included in the tin?  Socks with sticky pads on the feet.  Those will definitely come in handy.

I think I was most impressed with the food offering.   All very delicious!


    


I'm going to sleep well tonight in my fully reclining seat  #humblebrag  Lol!

Today's the day!

After months of eager anticipation and two weeks of hurried packing...today's the day!  In just a few hours I'll be enjoying business class on a one-way ticket to Amsterdam.  I'm so excited!!!

***UPDATE***

So...I'm still here. It's 1pm in the afternoon, and I'm still here.  My flight was supposed to leave at 9:52am.

I had a nice little send off at the airport with my parents.

A good friend dropped by with my favorite breakfast sammie to start my trip off right. I got to hang out with all of them for a good hour before we parted ways and I went through security.

Frankie reminded me to make use of the United lounge (good call!) and I spent the remainder of the time prior to my departure relaxing in a leatherbound seat, eating free food and sipping free coffee.  Felt a lot like Google! Haha!!

9:20a rolls around and I wrap up the call Frankie. A few more 'miss you's, 'love you's, and 'sending hugs' and I was finally ready to walk to the gate and step on the plane.

Except, United had other ideas.

Turns out my flight out of SF was now delayed 2 hours.  This meant it would now arrive in Chicago at 5:57p. The problem?  My connecting flight to Amsterdam was scheduled to depart at 5:50p.  Only a minor inconvenience.  The woman at the ticket desk directed me to customer service around the corner...me and about a hundred other people impacted by this change in flight schedule.

 

This was only half of the line. The other half extended behind me and on through a zig-zag maze making its way to the customer service desk.

Luckily, the line for 'Premiere Access' was much shorter.  I KNEW it had been a good idea to book business class for this trip!

While waiting in line I also called United customer support, just in case that went more quickly.  Turns out it did! By the time I got to the customer service agent in real life, I'd already spoken to one on the phone and gotten my flight rebooked.

The only challenge is that flights getting me to Amsterdam for the rest of the day were pretty full already.  The only option was a 1p flight on Delta out of SFO connecting through Detroit (oh yay :-p) and traveling on to Amsterdam.  Ok fine, I'll take it.  I just want to get there already!

Rebooking on a different airline required several steps on my part. I had to go down to baggage claim and submit a request to reclaim my bags.  I ended up packing 2 suitcases, with 2 backpacks as carry-on.  I loaded everything onto a trolley and schlepped that all the way from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1.  Nowhere near each other.  Then I had to check in with Delta and recheck my bags.

Done and done and I'm on my way through security for the second time that morning when I noticed my tickets.

I was now sitting in the MIDDLE seat of the BACK ROW of both flights on Delta.  Hold up!   I went back to the ticket agent and asked about my previous business class tickets on United.  Turns out, business class doesn't transfer when you're rebooked on another airline. You automatically get put in economy.  Gee, thanks United agent for informing me of all the implications of changing my seat to a different airline.  #customerservicefail

This was a special trip and there was no way I was going to fly in anything other than the business class I'd paid for.  How do we fix this?  Delta agent:  we can't help you, you have to call United.  At this point, I almost cried. I'd been awake for about 29 hours by then and just wanted this next chapter to start already. Exhaustion and frustration were competing for control of my tears.

On the phone for the second time that day with United customer service. After 20 minutes on hold, finally got an agent and explained the situation.  He offered to rebook me on a flight the next day (same flight I was supposed to have left on that morning). Ok fine.  Business class?  Yes.  Great!  But now I had to reclaim my bags yet again, and schlep them BACK to Terminal 3 for United.

*sigh*

So now I have 6 boarding passes, I've checked my bags twice, reclaimed them twice, and been in 2 different terminals....and I still haven't left SF.

Called my mom to come pick me up.  After a quick bite (I hadn't eaten since 8am), I completely crashed at 1:30p.  I'd officially been awake for 31 hours at that point.  Definitely needed the rest.

Let's try this again tomorrow!

The Countdown Begins

My next European adventure is officially one week away.  I'll be enrolled in a Masters program for Management and Leadership at Webster University in Leiden (just south of Amsterdam).   

I've dreamt of this day for well over a decade, I knew it was a reality 7 months ago when I received my acceptance letter, and I've been blissfully unemployed for the last 3 months.  And yet, it's still a mad scramble to get ready to leave.  Who knew packing up the house you've lived in for 10 years would be such a daunting task!

As I attend one farewell/final brunch/drinks/dinner after another, it's getting harder and harder not to cry.  At brunch on Sunday, I outright bawled like a baby.  Today I got weepy just talking about these final hangouts.  

I love my friends.  They're the siblings I never had, but always wanted.  I will miss them terribly.  Much more than any American convenience I'll be foregoing in favor of a European lifestyle.

This post properly kicks off what will be 2 years of blogging from Europe.  Follow my adventures and leave comments as you like!  

Thanks for coming along with me on my journey - I'll try to make it interesting ;-)