Netherlands

Things have been good so far! The most confusing thing so far was trying to get from the airport to the hostel the other day. The process of going from a place that only writes and speaks in English to a place where they speak English but other translations are given (New York) to a place where it's mostly another language and English translations are usually given (flights over here) and finally to a place where they barely ever translate to English (once you leave the airport) is an intimidating one! You get there and all of the signs become meaningless jumbles of letters! Luckily most people here speak English as a second language, so you just have to work up the courage to ask questions, even if you know they'll make you look like an idiot! I'm working on that. It makes you wish that we were all taught to become fluent (or mostly fluent) in other languages at home. Anyway, figuring out public transportation has been a bit of a struggle, but I'm starting to get used to it already. All of the little cultural differences are so interesting to see and figure out.

I've been trying to mainly just relax this weekend because starting tomorrow, my class starts and things will be pretty busy for the next few weeks! The hostel I'm at right now is by the beach, a little outside of Amsterdam.

I had added the international plan to my phone before leaving, but it barely gives you any data and I quickly went through most of it just trying to get around, so today I bought a European SIM card that gives me almost as much data as I would have at home. It was a surprisingly simple and cheap process, and it includes a decent amount of international texts and minutes (which should be free for people at home to receive, but they probably just shouldn't send messages unless it's through the internet.).

It's pretty late here so I'm going to try and get some sleep!Read more