Alright so maybe it's because of the shitty weather, maybe the constant rudeness from the Dutch citizens, maybe it's the lack of anxiety medicine in my cosmetic bag, but a combination of these and other little tickers are really irking me today. I don't want to complain, so I'm just gonna lay it all out, because someone aught to know. You also aught to know that I'm blasting Alanis Morissette to fuel my angsty attitude.
I'm not saying I don't like Amsterdam, because I do, it's freaking awesome. But I'm tired of being stuck in this white prison cell of an apartment. One of my American friends told me the other day that she is living downtown in the center. For perspective, my complex is about a 20-30 minute tram ride from the center. Anyway she mentioned that her rent is *significantly greater than what I'm paying, but then I saw some pictures of her place on Facebook and it's like a real life house. She had a queen sized bed with a real comforter, decorations that weren't just cards taped to the wall, and an actual kitchen WITH (get this) an oven! Who knew ovens existed in the Netherlands?
I'm not sure why I woke up in such a weird mood this morning, oh, maybe it was because I overslept my alarm? Or could it have been because I was reminded again that I couldn't use my bike? In case you missed that story i broke off the only two keys I have to my bike lock, and one of them is currently residing inside the lock. Which is locked through my tire so it's immobile until I find the jaws of life to saw through the chains that are the lock.
After lunch we went to the bank to finally figure out our internet banking information because we're supposed to get our stipend from the study abroad organization today. But oh, surprise surprise we STILL HAVEN'T. That's right, folks. We have been here for over a month in a half and have yet to receive any of the thousands of dollars our parents paid to Butler for us to be here. 2 months of that money I might add we just lose because we have to leave in December in order to get back to the states in time for second semester. And when I asked who got that leftover money/where does it go if we don't get it, guess what? The lady didn't even know. Responsibility at its finest.
So, sans stipend, I managed to figure out how to still set up my online banking account. This might not sound like that big of a feat, however I should mentioned that all I had to go off of was 8 pages worth of information in Dutch, and a website with no translation option. Most of the .nl sites have a little Union Jack flag up in the right hand corner, which signifies that if you click it the page will be translated into english, but usually the most important ones don't.
Please explain this to me:
So the influx of student applications for bank accounts at the beginning of the fall is all exchange students, the majority of which DO NOT speak Dutch (seeing's how Dutch is only spoken in the Netherlands and exchange students come from everywhere but). What then, would possess ING bank to send out hundreds of envelopes of information to unknowing exchange students in a foreign language, WHEN I might add we all have to know English to be here? Everyone here knows English. Literally everyone. So excuse me if it's a teensie bit frustrating when people assume first that I speak Dutch, or just expect me to figure it out because they don't really give 2 shits if it's in English or Dutch.
All I'm asking is for is English. I know you can speak it, it's really not that hard. Like if foreign people are such a freaking hassle then why do they even let exchange students come here? It would be different if we were in Spain, or Germany, or a country where you go to learn the language. But no one is here for the sole purpose of perfecting their Dutch. Come on people.
I'm drowning in a river of frustration today, praying for a lifesaver. Sorry for the harshness, just what's goin' on in my noggin. Peace.
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