This is a mysterious bottle of Jeruzalem Ormoz the last tenants left in the cabinet. It has a hand-written sticker with "VSE I Naj Naj Naj" scrawled on it. Google says this means, "All I should look forward to," but I'm hoping that this is a joke/ mistranslation and that I can look forward to much more here than drinking alone. However, it does fit perfectly in the coozy Anna gifted me before my departure. A sign? Perhaps. But of what...
I suppose I would consider today pretty satisfactory, in a To-Do List sort of way. Since I only had a granola bar and the mystery bottle of alcohol, I got groceries from Albert Heijn, the Kroger of the Netherlands. I made sure to bring a list of ingredients with me to watch out for (no melk, eiern, or boter for this vegan). Excitingly, they carry tofu, soy milk, and what looked like fake patties. Hopefully I can figure out this stove so I can fry up some cubed soycurd tastiness! Like an angel from God, Alex's mom gifted me some cold hard Euro cash before my departure, which was awesome because I did not know that my cash card is not the same as a credit card. So after it was declined, I decided that my first grocery shop would be on her. (THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU SAVED MY LIFE.)
I did get my cash card sorted after wandering around Amsterdam for 4ish hours trying to figure out how to use said cash card. No pics, because what was supposed to be a quick trip to the ATM turned into a 8+ kilometer trek to various ATMs from the website and to Centraal Station to the main office. Finally did get some cash, which I intended to use for a bike but couldn't find any stores within my price range (though my method of finding a store consisted of walking down the road for an hour and just looking for shops that sell them...only found two, but there are plenty more roads to wander down!). Got another 3 km of walking in, so that's nice for my heart health.
And now comes the dorm tour. First, we have the stairwell. All of the floors look like this, and have elevator access to the right.
You can't see from here, but at the end of this view from my room is a wall of glass next to the door to our hall. There is also a smudge on the glass wall from where I myself did not see the glass wall and tried to walk through it when I was bringing my luggage to my room. I have already left my mark here!
The building has a rooftop terrace, which is really nice because the weather has been super pleasant. It has picnic tables and a place to grill. I was more interested in the view off the top though.
And finally, for your viewing pleasure, please enjoy a 5 minute room tour, complete with delightfully awkward intro and outro.
Tomorrow, I'll try again to get a bike, though it's Sunday so I'm not sure if anyone will be open. Hopefully I can get the location down though and return Monday to make a purchase. Google has surprisingly not been very helpful. I guess this is part of the adventure I was seeking when I signed up for this.
Love to you all,
xoxo
C
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