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Well everything went very smoothly. When we got to the airport (where I was expecting them to say “your bags are too heavy” or “you can’t take this on the plane”) we had zero problems. We got through TSA with no probelms, and united didn’t even weigh our bags. Also, they didn’t charge us for our cat’s plane ticket, which is great!

When we arrived there were also no problems. We had to wait around for ami, who hadn’t messed his box up at all. There was *no* customs check for our bags or him, just a Dutch stamp on our passport. Henry (alyssa’s boss) had called a cab for us, and we had a nice ride to his place.

Upon arriving, Alyssa immidiately fell down the stairs and got banged up a bit (she’s ok, though). She went to bed and I ran around trying to figure out what was going on with my classes. Not to be outdone by Alyssa’s fall, I took a dive on a borrowed bike, and now I’m a bit sore. I also found out that they start on Monday, which is a day before my orientation. Joy!
So today we’re just settling in. We both woke up at about 9 am so hopefully we’ll adjust quickly to the time here. I need to go back to school and take care of some more administration crap, but I should be good to go for monday’s classes.

Stay tuned, more updates to come!

Well, this is it.  It’s 6:51 in the morning and my dad should be here any minute to take us to the airport.  The past few days have been filled with last items on the to-do list, last goodbyes, last meals, and (just a few mins ago) my last shower.  I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not dying, and will be back in the same house in 10 months.  It could be that I only got 3 hours of sleep last night that makes me feel that way.

We had an amazing going away party, and the pics are rolling in.  I’ll post them when I get some time on the other side of the world.  Now I have to go drink some coffee and give my housemates a hug… one last time.

Well, we’re really getting close now. With less than a week to go, the UvA finally got back to me about my courses. Looks like I’m taking Populism and Nationalism, Seminar on Conflict Negotiation, and 19th Century European Art. Should be a lot of fun.

Best part is, all of my classes are on Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, so if I should have a lot of downtime the rest of the week. Also makes for easy trip-scheduling if we want to leave the city/country for a few days.

Cat stuff is all taken care of, so Amedeus is all ready for his first (and very long) plane ride. Looks like it will be 20 hours in a box for our little friend

Packing is proving to be very interesting. We’re moving out of our bedroom, so we’re using this oppurtunity to get rid of stuff. Quite a bit is going to the salvation army, and the rest is going to get stored over at my dad’s house while we’re gone. I really want to get everything down to 1 suitcase and a carry on (for each of us) so that we can have a *whole* bag empty for the return trip.

Here’s a really handy tip: when sending books overseas, use the USPS “air bag” option. It cost me around $11.00 to mail nearly 15 lbs of books to amsterdam. Your box (full of only books) must weigh at least 11 lbs, and will take 4-6 weeks to get to your destination. What a deal. I only hope that the Netherlands post office has similar rates for the return trip!

Going away party is this saturday, so we’re trying to take care of as much as possible before then. My hope is to take care of all the errands an big stuff (including most of the packing) by Monday so we can just relax and enjoy our last day here. Here’s to wishful thinking!

“Hey babe, it’s me. I’ve got very bad news about Amsterdam, so call me when you get out of class.”

Not exactly a phrase I want to be hearing as we move into our last month stateside. Nevertheless, that’s exactly what was on my voicemail yesterday morning.

Apparantly a relatively popular DJ (our landlord’s brother) has been living in our apartment for quite some time. He’s so popular, that the police seized the place after they responded to too many noise complaints. It seems our landlord was subletting (she’s been renting the place for the past 10+ years), and the actual landlord didn’t approve of all the goa-psy-trance music.

Regardless, it’s pretty stressful to find out you don’t have an apartment 30 days before you move. Our landlord/friend was devastated that she lost her place, but nevertheless made it clear that she’d do everything she could to find us a new one. We tried to remain calm and started calling around to see what the next step is.

Turns out, she knew the lady who rented us a studio near the city center, and the place is available. Alyssa talked to her this morning, and it looks like that’s going to be our new home. It’s a whole lot smaller than what we were expecting, but at least we’ve been there before and know that it’s nice. It’s also going to be a bit easier for us to get to school and work.

Here’s the pictures I took when i was there last (it’s all one big room)

Dutch stairs are basically ladders.

So anyway, it seems that things are squared away. We do have to get DSL set up once we arrive (could take up to a month) but we still get to take the cat. I’m just happy that the situation was resolved so quickly.

Around the 14th of July I received an additional packet, this one sent directly to my house, from the UvA.  Thankfully, this packet included a course listing where I could check off my desired courses (first and second choices).  This was a major breath of fresh air for me, as I’m a planner who likes to lay things out ahead of time.  Not knowing how registration works, or what classes I’ll be taking when I arrive, or what days/times I’ll be in class, drives me totally insane.

The UvA came through, however, and I’m very much relieved.  It’s not exactly “online registration” (where I get to see “open” courses and I’m either in them or they’re full), but it’s good enough for me.  Drs. Hemming (my programme manager at UvA) has informed me that it’s likely we’ll receive our course schedules sometime after July 28.

As an interesting sidenote (I had to look this up) the title “Drs.” is a title in the Netherlands which is given to he who should become a doctor.  How cool is that?

Anyhow, my friends are probably wondering why I’m posting all this preperation/registration junk, and the simple answer is: to help future study abroad students.  The Bilateral programs (and especially the Dutch one) are pretty ambiguous and it would have been nice to read someone’s blog and have had a general idea of what was going to happen.

In other news I’m selling my car, getting shots for (and microchipping) our cat, and cleaning out all my stuff to make selecting what I’m going to take a bit easier.  I’m also trying (trying) to stay focused on my last summer class.

Well, on thursday I hopped down to the Study Abroad office to pick up my acceptance packet from the UvA. It’s very exciting to know that I’m officially in the program and everything is ready to go. I’m waiting to hear from my academic advisor over there, who will theoretically assist me with course selection and information.

Part of this whole process involved browsing through the course catalog on UvA’s website, selecting a few, and then asking my department chair to approve some of the courses I’ve selected. It’s all fine and dandy, but I’d sure like to know what days/times the courses are, and what I have to do if I want to change them. I was hoping for more information on course registration to be included in the acceptance packet, but I guess I’ll just take care of it all when I get to Amsterdam.

At the study abroad office there’s this chant which they make you perform, and it includes the phrase “I’m capable of dealing with ambiguity.” Turns out maybe I’m not.

What I am capable of doing, however, is procrastinating. Instead of doing the readings for my summer IPE class, I’ve been listening to Pimsleur language tapes and playing around with Rosetta Stone software. Both IPE and Dutch are important things to be doing with my time, but somehow I doubt that Joseph Stiglitz will help me find food in Holland’s supermarkets.