Wow, it's hard to believe that just yesterday, I was sleeping in my own bed dreaming of Europe. The Netherlands is 7 hours ahead of the Central Time Zone, USA, so while I'm writing this blog at 8:26 PM, it's only 1:26 PM in Texas... I still can't completely wrap my head around it right now. I'm just glad to get off those planes and that long bus ride. But I guess I should start at the beginning.
My parents and I drove to the DFW airport early in the morning, like 7:ish. To me who's been waking up around 9-10 ish, that's really early. But sacrifices can be made, especially when you need to check in by 11:10. So after I checked my bags in and was thoroughly checklisted by my parents, I happily went through security to join some other eager, Maastricht-bound students. It was like freshman year all over again. Everyone was asking for names, class year, and major. After learning and promptly forgetting some of my fellow classmates names, we boarded and flew from Dallas to Houston.
That didn't take long. The flight from Houston to Amsterdam was waaayy longer, bout 9 hours. Funny thing: before I boarded the Amsterdam flight, I was stopped and asked a ton of questions. Ah, racial profiling... I watched three movies, on the flight and didn't get much sleep. I saw Easy A, Wall Street, and the Owls of Gahoul (however that's spelled), which I surprisingly enjoyed the more I watched and the more tired I got. I only got bout 2 hours of sleep that flight but it was worth it just to see Amsterdam from the sky.
We landed in Amsterdam around 8:00 AM, Amsterdam time. It's weird to think that it was only 1:00 AM in Texas. Surprisingly, it was not that cold in the Netherlands, my fleece and henley were enough to keep me warm. We took a bus from Amsterdam to Maastricht. The Dutch driver was hilarious; he kept on trying to make jokes that only seemed to make sense to him--perhaps it's because his English was a little broken so only a few people could understand what he was saying but not what he meant. It was bout a two hour bus ride from Amsterdam to Maastricht, and we stopped halfway to eat. It was my first time eating Dutch food. Overall, it's decent, but the bread is rock hard. I don't know how anyone can enjoy bread that's not soft and warm. I had some weird kolache that was delicious--I don't even know how to pronounce much less spell it. During the course of the bus trip, I got to see much of the Dutch landscape. The Dutch are very artsy people and eco-friendly as well. I saw walls made of pipes, streetlights bent into odd shapes, and barriers made of tinted green glass that gave the landscape a kind of surreal look as you drove by looking into the glass. They definitely like their art and their windmills. I saw a few old-fashioned ones but no giant ones. Disappointing.
When we got to Maastricht, we checked into our rooms with our roommates. The rooms are really nice, much more spacious than the ones in the Baylor dorms. Also, every room has a stove, pots and pans, a sink, and a TV. We took a tour of the closest mall after people got settled in a bit. I bought a mattress cover and tried to pass of as Dutch... It didn't work, the cashier asked me something in Dutch, and I responded--typical American-like--"I'm sorry, English?" lol Good thing most everyone in the Netherlands knows English. After that eventful escapade, I headed back for a quick nap and then dinner. I was a little anxious about how the dinner food would taste. Luckily I had nothing to worry about, everything was delicious. Some of the best cafeteria food ever. Well that was pretty much most of my day. Now I'm just chilling here, typing, listening to Coldplay's Amsterdam, and wondering how everything happened so quickly. Tomorrow, we're all headed to London. I'm soo excited.
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