And so it begins....

I've decided to heed my brother's advice (for once) and avoid mass emails. In lieu, a blog, filled with whatever verbal diarrhea I decide to post and you decide to read at your leisure. Truthfully, I will attempt to document my travels or experiences here in the dam---but you all know how good I am at sharing feelings, so don't expect too much. I welcome comments or emails.

With that said, its already been two weeks, so I have a bit of catching up to do.

So initial impressions: I arrived on the morning of August 29th, 2006 to rainy weather and overcast skies. I expected this much, so I was only slightly bothered when this pleasant weather continued for the next ten days. Thankfully, the charm of this city is not dependent on the weather. In fact, it's a bit like visiting London, something about the grey days adds character to the buildings. I don't think much could detract from the quaint houses that line the canals here-it really is charming. The Dutch have been so far among the nicest, most down-to-earth people I have met; always willing to go out of their way to help you out or explain something to you, like for example, what meat I was buying in the supermarket today (let's just say it wasn't beef as I had presumed).

The first few weeks were busy getting settled in and participating in the International Student Network orientation activities. I'm living with Sharon (my schoolmate from home) and two other international students. Elisa, hails from Berlin and speaks better English than I do, and Paola is an attorney from London, who (I think) may share my sarcastic sense of humour (love those brits!). We all get on really well and I'm sure that will be helpful in the months to come, should homesickness develop (unlikely but possible). Oh and we get BBC1, so I have officially starting watching Eastenders again. Woo Hoo!

Classes have begun, although technically I'm not registered in any because somehow the administration at the universiteit van Amsterdam faculty of law managed to forget or something.... Seriously, here's the culture shock: the school's adminstration staff office hours are 4 per week-- Tuesday and Thursday 10-12. If you have class during that time-tough luck. Nobody likes to respond to emails either, so it should prove interesting. When I realized that I wasn't registered in any of the classes I was supposed to be registered in, I approached the international student co-ordinator. This woman is a character and she's exactly the way I pictured her. She's probably in her mid-40s but looks like she's smoked the last 35 of her years on this earth, kind of dishevelled blond hair and smeared lipstick. She wears some funky glasses but is still the most frazzled person you've ever seen. Apparently, I wasn't the only one thrilled with her organizational skills but she reassured everyone in the same way, whatever the problem- "don't worry, it will all work out." Let's hope that is the case.

So, leaving school aside, Sharon and I went on our first weekend trip to Belgium last weekend. We hastily organized our travels to Brussels, Bruge and Antwerp when classes were suddenly cancelled on Thursday and we realized we had a four day weekend. Belgium was beautiful. Brussels was a gorgeous city and we managed to finally find "Mannequin Pis" by the end of our day in the city. Its the most disgracefully amusing statue I've ever seen. We also had the a really nice meal with Jean-Pierre, a director of documentaries from France, and Nick, the token Australian backpacker from our hostel. (Incidentally James, I swear this french guy could have been your brother...or well mine too I guess.) I also, proudly, enjoyed my first Belgian been and I say enjoyed because I have yet to do that in any other country. Next we headed to Bruge, a beautiful little town but FAR too touristy and expensive. Apparently, there was some military parade and Prince Philip was there, although we didn't see him (too busy getting ripped off). For all its charm, we were anxious to head to our next destination-Antwerp. Unfortunately when we arrived, we realized my hostel-booking skills were not so stellar and I landed us right in a ghetto. But, as I say, you don't come to Europe to sit in a hotel room, so off we went to explore the city. The funny thing is that neither Sharon, nor I had really done very much research on our impromptu destinations, so we didn't really know what there was to do anywhere. Once in the downtown, I realized that our hostel location was not representative of this city's atmosphere. I ended up really liking Antwerp, it was a hip city but still with the old buildings and beautiful squares. We wandered around the city, saw a few interesting museums and took in the sites before returning back to Amsterdam.

Coming back to Amsterdam on the train really felt like coming home, despite the fact that we've only been here two weeks. The city has a certain comfort to it and its easy to get used to, even though I am (still) constantly losing myself in its winding streets or "straats" (hey, I'm picking up some Dutch!). Anyway, we've decided to stay here this weekend and enjoy the nightlife A'dam has to offer. We've booked our tickets to Copenhagen for next weekend. Should be good. I promise not to make my next post, so bloody long. I'm boring myself. I hope everyone is well.