Day 2 – lost in the city

Day two in Rotterdam and guess how it started? I overslept.

Woke up at 2:30pm, probably because I was up til 4am yesterday due to jetlag (or due to this blog, hmm). I’d set my alarm for 8 but naturally I didn’t hear it. I had a crazy dream about a black woman who had AIDS but refused to tell her kids out of love. Seemed like a plot for a Hollywood movie.

Despite it being the afternoon I decided to eat cereal for breakfast. Apparently Dutch people really like to have shavings of chocolate in their breakfasts! So my cereal ended up being somewhat sweet. Traditionally they also put chocolate sprinkles on toast. How cute.

After an hour of loitering around I decided to go to the local Turkish market to buy some food. I bought quite a few things and it ended up totaling only 9.40 Euros, surprisingly.

Then I went and spent a third of that amount on a food container at another store nearby. Funnily enough the cashier spoke Dutch to me after speaking English to the woman before me. I could even understand when she asked me if I needed a bag. Haha, what a triumph. P:

The street with the supermarket, located just behind the apartment.

De Wijze Uil = The Wise Owl? (pronunciation wise, Dutch isn’t so different from English really..)

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Since I was only expecting to meet Julia in the evening I decided to spend some time exploring the city by bike.

Easier said than done.

Sanoera had told me that her bike tires were flat, and later I had learned that she hadn’t used the bike in some time. So naturally my first inclination was to fill the tires with air. I’m typically not this clumsy but trying to get her bike out of its’ parked space was a HUGE struggle. Not only did I knock down the bike next to it (breaking its bell by accident) but I also hit my head on a few bike handles. :\

Then when I tried to pump the tire, turns out the pump was broken! It took me 15 minutes plus the aid of another girl (who was so helpful, bless her soul) to realize my efforts were futile. So by her suggestion I stole the pump from the shed next door. Then it took me 30 MORE minutes to figure out that I was using the wrong pump valve. By then I was drenched with sweat and shame.

Damned things that ate up 45 minutes of my time.

After that whole ordeal, I hopped on the bike and was ready to hit the city. Sanoera is just about the same height as I am so I was (unpleasantly) surprised (again) to find that the bike seat was SO HIGH. Even at the lowest height it was too high for me, so I had to use a cement brick to boost my height, much to my embarrassment once again.

Other than that biking was a breeze. I didn’t have a clue where I was going but I tried to go along the bus route towards my school. I said earlier that the bike lanes were pretty well established, and this little trip confirmed it. Unlike in Canada, where bikers share the road with humongous, fast-driven cars, Holland has separate bike lanes for the most part which are smooth to ride on. And the cars drive slower too, so biking on the road isn’t a pain either.

For the next hour I rode to where ever I could go, turning here and there and every where, stopping every so often to take pictures. It was quite the adventure! And naturally I got lost. The surprising bit was I actually found my way home, without having to ask for directions or consult a map, and came home at 6:30 as expected. I’m feeling more and more street savvy these days.

Around this time I officially met my new roommate, Mary Alice. I found out that her parents, like Sanoera’s, are Surinamese. Looks like a lot of people here are from there, and I didn’t even know that part of the world existed. She’s doing her final year at a school in Utrecht. Anyhow I made pasta with a lot of carrots for the both of us and we ate in her room, chatting about certain things. Law & Order was playing on the TV with Dutch subtitles and it reminded me of Yasemin. Turns out they play crime shows from America this time of the day. It was around then I realized Julia hadn’t come knocking at my door like she said she would, so I decided to give her a call, and apparently she forgot as well. She then took me on a tour around and gave me the usual low down on rules and junk. She was younger than expected, and told me she came from Moldova. She said I probably didn’t know where the hell that was and she was right. (Psst, it’s in Eastern Europe!)

Mary Alice and I had made plans to see an outdoor cinema show at 9 pm but it rained. More like poured, plus thunder and lightning. So we ended up watching Seven Years of Tibet on her TV, with unwanted Dutch subtitles. It was really really long. Good, but long.

Anyhow, it seems my right wrist feels inflamed, so that’s a sign that I have to stop blogging and start sleeping. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be going to the city centre in search of a new phone, then later I might be meeting up with some other exchange students. Wonder what will happen then!

Day 2: Things to Do List

1. Get new phone. Screw trying to unlock the iPhone. (And screw you Steve Jobs!)
2. Meet up with exchange students at “19.00″ (a.k.a 7 pm)

Dutch Word(s) of the Day

goedemorgan: good morning
bananen: banana
peen: carrot (LOL)
uien: onion
ja/nee: yes/no

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