Welkom

Good afternoon, America!  If you haven't heard, I made it across the pond to my quaint Amsterdamian apartment.  Uilenstede (pronounced owl-en-shted-a) is my new home for the next four months, a small collection of student apartments that house those who study at the VU (pronounced fvooo).

After a sleepless 7 and 1/2 hour flight, Emily and I arrived by bus to an afternoon full of information about our new home, a multitude of new accents (along with language barriers), and way way too much information to simply share all.  This being said, my plan tonight is to update you on what, to me, has been the most different from the states.  Any complaints you might find in this post should be taken as sarcasm, as I am trying to stay extremely optimistic, and realize things will eventually get easier.

After 24 hot, sleepless, and tear filled hours, as soon as I made it into my apartment all I could think was SHOWER.  However, this was extremely difficult seeing how I had no shower head...not to mention towels, shower shoes, or wash cloth.  What I did seem to have though in the corner of the sea-foam green tiled cube was a cold water running faucet.  Literally it was a faucet, and I managed to bathe my individual body parts with it for as long as my flesh could stand the needle-like sensation.  Okay, it wasn't THAT bad, but if you know me and my OCD with cleanliness you realize it was a little difficult.  And I'm sure you can imagine how clean I am today.... yuck.

So, Emily and I dealt with a stream of various feelings yesterday.  From sadness for leaving, to frustration with our rooming situation, to hunger from the lack of food, to extreme fatigue from the lack of sleep, we were basically one big, smelly, shit show.  Add one Heineken purchased LEGALLY from the pub down the road and I was essentially in a coma.  My weary soul passed out about 2 minutes into The Holiday.

This morning, after a warm welcome presentation at the university, we took a little walk around the town scoping out some restaurants, markets, and sights.  Now I shall simply list the vast differences I have noticed from my 48 hours of taking it all in:

1. The cars are smaller
2. The roads are skinnier
3. The biking
4. The amount of shrubbery
5. Everyone seems to say "Oh, I should have guessed" after I say I'm from the US
6. Everyone has a distinct smell
7. I have a distinct smell
8. No one seems to care about what they look like
9. The Cokes are smaller
10. There is almost always access to a pint of Ben & Jerry's (not just a pint of Heineken)

Alright so obviously there are about a million more things than this, but for my brains sake I'll save those for more in depth posts, I just wanted to give y'all a rundown on what Amsterdam has been like so far!  Aside from being overwhelmed, I am as I said still very excited and optimistic about what's in store for the months ahead.  It's kind of hard to see, via various social media, that life is still going on back in the states, just difficult for me to feel like I'm missing out; but I know that after the adjustment process I won't feel like I'm missing out on a thing.

Your prayers, emails, and even snail mail are always welcome, and appreciated!! My email address is jbmunn@butler.edu

if you're down to be a pen pal email or Facebook message me and I'll shoot you my snail mail address!!

Much love from Europe!  Afecheid!