On the first of September, I arrive in Schiphol (the Amsterdam hub) at 8:00 a.m. local time. From the airport I manage to catch the train that takes me into Delft by 10:00 a.m. My first impression of the Dutch countryside is that it looks surprisingly similar to the Midwest -- flat as hell-- the only real difference (besides being picturesque) is instead of cornfields the Netherlands has a vast network of canals spread across the countryside.
At 10:00 a.m. I step off the train into the quaint little city of Delft Holland. Immediately I am awestruck by the architecture, as many of the buildings here are centuries old. First order of business is to find the housing office (known here as DUWO) and get the keys for my room. This proved to be much harder than anticipated as I quickly learned that a tiny little map which shows the street DUWO is on is of little use when you don't know where you are to begin with. So after about an hour of schlepping my bags across town I manage to stumble into the DUWO office, collect my keys, and take the fanciest taxi I've ever seen over to Marcushof room #119.
First impression? My room is HUGE... too bad I don't have any furniture (a sink and a toilet would be nice too but its no big deal). Built in the 1960s as a nursing home and converted quite recently into housing for foreign exchange students, the Marcushof does not attempt to hide its age. About sixteen rooms on our floor all share a common kitchen, shower area, and half of the rooms (mine included) share a common toilet. The time is about 12:00 p.m. now and having not eaten since the plane I hastely unpack my things and set off to the market.
One thing I can say about Delft, they like their grocery stores to be close at hand. From where I live there are at least three within a 5 minutes walk. The closest, Albert Heijn, is about half a block from my building. I pull some money from the ATM and shop to the best of my ability (its tough when everything is in Dutch) buying only a few things for the next day or two. I am surprised to learn that in all Dutch markets you need to weigh your fruits and vegetables yourself before you get to the register. Needless to say, I embarass myself by holding up the line while I go back to weigh some tomatoes.
After shopping (and almost forgetting my envelope containing my passport, travelers checks and bank statements in the shopping cart -- good job me!), I head next door to the ABN-Amro to try to open a bank account and deposit my travelers' checks. I am however informed that this procedure requires me make an appointment one week in advance (my first of many encounters with Dutch ineffiency) and the only place in Holland that will cash travelers' checks is located in the Schiphol airport. Frustrated, I return home and while attempting to connect my American power strip to the European outlet, inadvertently short out the power in my room! Staying awake for 24+ hours has obviously taken its toll on my senses so I pass out in my bed... I awake six hours later and go to the kitchen where I meet several people from my floor. All of the people I live with are foreigners, mostly from Europe, with a few from Asia (I have only met two other Americans both of whom come from Iowa State).
Altogether my floor is a wonderfully diverse community of foreigners. Everyone is extremely friendly and outgoing (even the shy people will say hi to you in the halls) and certainly very different from my student housing experiences at UIUC where you could live on the same floor with someone for a year and barely even speak a word to them. In general my experiences lend me to believe that many American youth are too busy worrying about themselves to take the time to talk to someone they don't know -- even people living in the same building. Although the same may be true here, it is certainly the bond of being a foreigner in a strange new place with no friends and the language skills of a toddler which helps promote this sense of community and drives us to be more gregarious and outgoing towards one another.
Sunday I spend the day wandering around the central part of the city. There is a wonderful marketplace in the city center where you can buy just about any kind of knick-nack, chatchke crap you can dream of as well as many types of food (including the traditional Dutch raw-herring mmm......).
Monday I go to the aerospace facility and meet with Steven Mookhoek the phD student I met this past spring. The aerospace building is the furthest away of all the campus buildings and requires a 25-30 minute walk or a 5-10 minute bike ride. I will be working with Steven for the next three months to develop a method for testing and quantifying the self-healing characteristic of ionomer plastics (quite a mouthful). I'll spare everyone and bore you more about this later. The research group is also extremely diverse consisting of only two or three Dutch and everyone else hailing from all parts of the globe. I again, am the only American.
The rest of the week I spend traveling around the town meeting new people and exploring Delft's pubs, restaurants and coffeeshops (where any spice you want costs no more than 6 euro per gram). Next week I plan on heading off to see some of the nearby cities (i.e. De Haag, Rotterdam, Amsterdam). Oh... and I also need to find a bike!
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