Maybe It Was the Tulips?

After an uneventful flight to Amsterdam (one which, I might add, included zero hours of sleep), I made my way through customs, bought a train ticket, and headed to Leiden.  Simple enough.  While at first I wasn't terribly impressed by the Netherlands upon arrival (mostly unimpressed by the rather brusque attitude of passersby), I am pleased to say that I immediately found Leiden to be a delightful, beautiful town.  

The Golden Tulip Hotel, our accommodations for orientation, was a mere block away from Leiden Centraal Station, and even though I was tired after a long night/day, I found the journey there to be very easy and stress-free.

I arrived about two hours too early to check-in, but I was able to store my suitcases and used that time to walk around the city.  

                                                                                     

    

I stopped and had a Diet Pepsi Light (no Coke Light, sadly) at an English pub called the Cider House.

Here's a picture, in case you didn't believe me.

After that, it was time to head back and check in.  I arrived before my roommate, so I was a little unsure about where to put my stuff. I decided to put it on the far side of the room so it wouldn't be in her way.  I also used the opportunity to take lots of pictures, which I knew my mom would appreciate at least....

I was pretty shocked when I walked in and it looked like there was only one big bed.  There are two separate beds under the quilt.  Odd.

    

Pretty good size for a European hotel room.

The view from our window.  I believe the interesting new building will be a new train station.

Had to show off my "Dutch Tulips" nail polish in the Netherlands!

There was no free wi-fi at the hotel and I was not about to pay €17 for a mere 24 hour connection.  I discovered later, however, that the computer labs at the Webster campus were available for use, and I was able to inform my family and the rest of the world that I did, indeed, make it safely to my destination.  After settling in and taking pictures of the room, I tried my very best to stay awake, but I was beyond tired at that point and decided to take a quick nap in the hopes of waking up before my roommate arrived.

So what's the first thing my roommate sees when she walks into the room?  Some random stranger sleeping in what looks to be a single bed, covers drawn up to her nose so she can't even tell if it's her roommate or not.  She told me later that she first thought she was in someone else's room and was trying to come up with the least embarrassing apology.  Luckily, I woke up in time to exclaim, "Oh! Tabitha!" and apologize myself for my extreme fatigue.  After that rather awkward episode, we quickly bonded and spent the evening hanging out.

The next few days passed by in a whirlwind of information, packets, handouts, discussions, etc.  To summarize, I'd say the highlights of those days of orientation included: free breakfast at the hotel (including European yogurt, which is seriously my favorite yogurt in the world), meeting and bonding with members of my cohort and other cohorts (but mostly mine 'cause we're the best =P), and going for a morning run with Tabitha and Thuy on Friday.  Also, there was this:

The world's biggest stroepwaffel.

Thuy told us all about this amazing Dutch sweet called "stroepwaffel," which is basically two thin waffles with caramel in the middle.  We found a place where they make them fresh right in front of you, and they only cost €1 each!  It was so big and so sweet, I couldn't even finish the whole thing (but just you wait, stroepwaffel: I'll be back in May and I will take you down!).

Sadly, I can't say the orientation went exactly swimmingly for me.  In reference to the title, I became a bit ill on Thursday, and got worse on Friday.  My whole body was itchy, my throat felt sore, and my muscles ached all over.  Not good, right?  I felt so bad by Friday evening that I even had to miss out on the beach BBQ that was planned (and if you know me, you know I'm not one to miss a BBQ!!).  But I rested up a bit, and, while I still felt pretty bad the next day, I was a little bit better.

On Saturday, the cohorts that were leaving met in the hotel lobby at 7:30 am to walk to the train station together.  We all made it safely to the airport where, after much frustration and difficulties with obtaining our boarding passes, the two cohorts went our separate ways and headed to our first destinations.

My cohort had a layover in London, and by that time I was feeling very ill again.  There's not much you can do when you're stuck in an airport, though, so I had some soup (after much complaining to members of my cohort about feeling crappy - thanks for understanding guys!) and I felt a bit better.  The plane ride to Vienna wasn't too bad.  Unlike the flight from Amsterdam to London, where none of us were sitting together, a few of us had seats next to each other.  Chatting definitely made the time fly by (no pun intended) much quicker.

We arrived safe and sound in Vienna, and I will leave it at that for now.  Vienna deserves it's own post.  It is with much joy that I can finally say, "bis später"!