Well, my first week here, and I have gotten sick. It must have been because I was caught in the rain two days in a row while riding my bike! Of course it’s Sunday, and not much is open, but I at least brought cold medicine with me from home. Unfortunately, the way I am going through it, it won’t last long!
It rains here just about everyday, but not like in NC. Here, it rains for most of the day, if it does rain. In NC, it will rain in the afternoon for one to two hours, and then become hot again. It is chilly here and it’s only August! I worry about in the winter time! For those of you who know me, I stay cold, so who knows how I will survive!
Shopping for groceries was a learning experience. Basically, don’t buy the cart for 50 cents, a basket is free! Plus, there are no plastic bags to haul your groceries home with! I had my backpack, but was forced to buy grocery bags because I had bought a lot of cleaning supplies. But I will definitely get my €1.49 out of them during the year! Even though everything is in Dutch, if you walk around the store long enough, you will find what you are looking for. Asking is a fifty-fifty chance, because there are not many people here who speak English. There’s no tax on the groceries, and they don’t have pennies here, so sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.
The town central is huge! It has so many places to eat, cafes, and European boutiques! You could spend a lot of money here if you weren’t careful. They say there are about 300+ shops and restaurants. The cathedral in the middle is beautiful. They have speakers around it and play music (sort of jazzy music!) in the evening.
I hear American songs playing on people’s car stereos and the theaters here show American movies, so there is promise of not being totally isolated from America for the year. Plus there’s always MSN! I have eaten at Subway and KFC, and despite the subtle differences, it’s quite the same. (I don’t know about McDonald’s, yet!) But with the exception for my advisor, Brian Godor, I haven’t seen another American since I left Charlotte-Douglas Airport last Thursday! So I am completely immersed in the culture here.
I did buy a really cheap bike, but I believe it will need some work before the winter comes! Dr. Couture would really like it here; they really cater to the bicycle rider. There are special bike lanes and bike stoplights all over the city. And I hope that when I come home in July, I will be good enough to start a trek across America by bike! We’ll see!
Here is a picture of my bike. Amazingly it is purple – one of WCU’s colors!
Posted by T.M. on 08/27/2006 at 12:21 PM. Filed under:
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