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<\/a><\/p>\nAfter a 26 hour flight from Hawaii to the Netherlands, I made my way to my apartment building right outside the city center. It\u2019s in a great little area just a 10 minute bike ride from central station and the heart of the city. My program has been great so far, the whole first week has been full of orientation. Aside from all the practical matters that they covered (like buying a bike!), we\u2019ve been doing a fair amount of cultural activities. The highlight so far has been the canal cruise with a guided tour by a Dutch art history professor. On Friday we traveled North to visit the Zuiderzee open-air museum. This unique museum has actual houses from different eras in Dutch history, as well as lots of working windmills. The stormy weather that day was less than ideal, but the typical Dutch weather was bound to arrive sooner or later.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been doing my fair share of getting hopelessly lost. I\u2019ve been trying to orient myself with landmarks, but practically every street has a gorgeous old house, a canal lined with flowers, a bar with a Heineken sign out front, and a coffee shop. While it makes for gorgeous scenery, it doesn\u2019t really make for an easily identifiable route. Combine that with the fact that the street names change randomly and the circuitous nature of the city and you\u2019ve got a group of completely disoriented study abroad students.<\/p>\n
The Dutch often have the reputation of being rather direct (often interpreted by tourists as rude), but I\u2019ve been met with nothing but friendliness! When people see me on my bike with my map blowing about in the wind and a concerned (sometimes almost tearful) look on my face, they do tend to stop and help. A couple times these do-gooders have offered to bike me there and so, I must admit, I have ending up following a strange man home!<\/p>\n My Dutch is not quite as strong as I would like, but I\u2019ve been doing better than I expected. The Dutch do tend to speak English to you, though, if they think you\u2019re a tourist. I consider it such a success when they think I\u2019m a local and speak Dutch to me that I just go with it! There\u2019s been a lot of nodding and \u201cyah\u2019s\u201d on my part, but I\u2019m hoping they just think I\u2019m a quiet European rather than an utterly confused American. I had a whole conversation with this man on the tram about a Dutch movie star (I think?) that mostly consisted of me laughing when he paused and looked expectantly at me.<\/p>\n So far I\u2019m in love with the city– and positively enamored with the typical Dutch imagery of windmills and bicycles, which are everywhere! The Dutch are particularly fond of their drinks, their football (European football of course!) and partying until the wee hours– but more on that next week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been in Amsterdam for just less than two weeks and I\u2019ve finally gotten a moment to sit down and write! It\u2019s been quite the whirlwind of an adventure so far. After a 26 hour flight from Hawaii to the … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/studyingabroad\/files\/2012\/09\/UPSblog1-Windmill.jpg\")
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