All Set Up

Happy Birthday, Paul!!!

Pictures of my new room are on facebook now :) here's a sample:

I was very lucky to have my Aunt Marianne give me a few of my Oma's watercolor paintings! The picture of the sunflowers was the one I chose to display first :) A lot of extra furniture and decorations were from the Dijkkamps and Sanders families, too. Much appreciated!

I'm glad to be pretty much set up, and my room is feeling more and more like home. Yesterday Pauline and Lisanne visited me and we had a wonderful afternoon shopping in the city center and cooking my first dinner here. It's so amazing to already have so many good friends and relatives here that are willing to help me out! There won't even be an opportunity for me to be lonely in this country. On Friday my introduction days will begin and I'll then be able to meet new friends in Wageninen. Until then, I'll be setting up all the legal matters and spending time with Mom before she goes back to the US a week from today.

First Look at the New Room

After a warm welcome to Holland from the Dijkkamps and a day of sorting things out on the internet at their wonderful home in Waalre on Tuesday, we decided to go get the key to my new room in Wageningen today. I have my own little kitchen and a fairly large room, complete with desk, bed, wardrobe and desk chair. I'm on the 10th floor, so the view is amazing and I can step out of my enormous window onto a small balcony that extends around the building. Pictures will come onto facebook of the room as soon as its better decorated and set up. We have a lot of shopping to do, to fill a whole kitchen and get some extra drawers and probably a couch. Having to bring my own TP and my keys with me every time I have to go to the bathroom will take some getting used to...along with sharing a shower with about 7 people in my corridor. Luckily (?) Europeans don't shower as often as Americans.


This first week of moving will be pretty stressful with all the registering and shopping and such, but once I'm settled in I think I'll love the adorable town of Wageningen. Today we stumbled upon the awesome market that happens in the city center every Wednesday and Saturday, and there are many nice shops and cafes. You can see campus from my window, and I can bike downtown to the city center in about 5 minutes.

Today I also bought my first dutch bike! A used, beat up bike for 65 Euros (originally 75, but my mom was able to haggle it down!) that I hope will blend in enough so as not to get stolen! I don't think I've met anyone here who HASN'T had a bike stolen, though, so we'll see how this goes.

Traveling from Portugal to the Netherlands on Aug. 8, 2011

Portugal will forever remind me of dirty toilets without locks and short hairy men. But besides that and a few sad moments about leaving the states for such a long time, it was a very nice trip. We stayed in a big villa who's rooms felt like a historical castle. In the yard there were grape vines and cages with at least twenty rabbits. The owners of the house apparently have so many rabbits because...well...they eat them. When we left, there were only 11 rabbits. 

Our villa was in a cute town called Viana do Castelo, and had a huge hill with a cathedral at the top, 3.5 miles from the villa. We biked up the hill on the first day to see the church. I also ran to the top one morning with Jef, making it to the top faster than the others who biked ;)

Another day we visited the beautiful city of Porto, where we walked around to some major sites, did a tour and tasting at one of the many wineries and took a boat ride along the river. 

Braga was another nice city that we visited, where there was a pretty flower garden and some shopping. In Viana do Castelo, there happened to be a festival going on while we were there, so we saw some classic carnival rides, music and fireworks at night. The other days were filled with nice bike rides and some relaxing beach time.

After a pleasant week with the Lemmens family, I'm ready to start my move to holland. After being without internet in such an unfamiliar place as Portugal, I'm so far really appreciating how much more comfortable I am in holland. Though I'm sure more culture shock is to come, I'm still excited to start building my life here. I don't know that I've ever been so thankful to have internet, so that a can pretty easily stay in touch with the tons of people in the states that I miss.