25-26 august
Ah the first morning in my new country....
....was spent asleep.
now before you start judging me thinking i'm just a lazy person, let me just say that jet lag will sneak up on you and just destroy you. after getting to bed at 2 am the night before i opened my eyes at 9:30 only to close them again until 2:30 in the afternoon!
the night before everyone would ask when i had arrived and when i said just that afternoon. they would always be shocked and ask if i was tired from jet lag. i'd respond with an "oh no i'm great!"
yeah it definitely caught up.
yeah it definitely caught up.
well i thought sleeping til 2:30 was enough sleep for the time being so i got up and tried to figure out what i should do with what little time was left in my day.
i needed food and had found a list of libraries that would be open so i took off towards the city center.
just before i left i figured just in case i don't find internet i should just bite the bullet and send my parents an expensive text to tell them i'm alright. so i turned on my phone to see i had no service! so to seek out the library it was.
the library address said it would be the same street as the place i had gone the night before so i figured i'd just head that way. well the street kinda ended and suddenly i wasnt so sure of that decision. but i thought how hard could it be to find?
next thing i know i'm lost. and i just kept going thinking maybe it's this way until i decided that was very much not right and had to figure out a way to get back to the area i knew. all of a sudden i came out in a shopping area. and as i looked around there was a grocery store and oh my word! the library! so i made my way in and figured out how to pay to use the computer. i plunked down and started typing emails to a couple of people and was even able to fb mom for a bit.
after finally letting them know i was alright i picked up a few groceries and came out to pouring rain and a small sense of the direction i needed to go. luckily there were signs pointing which was to the Holland Spoor station and that it was only 1 km. the rain even stopped about halfway home which was lovely.
the rest of the evening was simply spent relaxing and getting to know my roomie a little better. and going to bed plenty on time!
Sunday wasn't very exciting as i spent most of it either wandering the way i knew to the center to pick up some things i had forgotten/was too tired to worry about as well as just relaxing.
i thought i would be all up and fine especially after that first night but i needed the time to chill and slowly absorb into the timezone and city. so it may have been rather quiet but it was nice to explore the city. so don't worry about just taking some quiet time alone in a new place. you'll meet people soon enough and then you'll wish you had this time to reflect and sleep!
i needed food and had found a list of libraries that would be open so i took off towards the city center.
just before i left i figured just in case i don't find internet i should just bite the bullet and send my parents an expensive text to tell them i'm alright. so i turned on my phone to see i had no service! so to seek out the library it was.
the library address said it would be the same street as the place i had gone the night before so i figured i'd just head that way. well the street kinda ended and suddenly i wasnt so sure of that decision. but i thought how hard could it be to find?
next thing i know i'm lost. and i just kept going thinking maybe it's this way until i decided that was very much not right and had to figure out a way to get back to the area i knew. all of a sudden i came out in a shopping area. and as i looked around there was a grocery store and oh my word! the library! so i made my way in and figured out how to pay to use the computer. i plunked down and started typing emails to a couple of people and was even able to fb mom for a bit.
after finally letting them know i was alright i picked up a few groceries and came out to pouring rain and a small sense of the direction i needed to go. luckily there were signs pointing which was to the Holland Spoor station and that it was only 1 km. the rain even stopped about halfway home which was lovely.
the rest of the evening was simply spent relaxing and getting to know my roomie a little better. and going to bed plenty on time!
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| couple of views from my walk to the centre. the canal. |
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| the little eatery i can see from my room. through the arches is the school. i have such a long 30 second walk to class everyday. |
i thought i would be all up and fine especially after that first night but i needed the time to chill and slowly absorb into the timezone and city. so it may have been rather quiet but it was nice to explore the city. so don't worry about just taking some quiet time alone in a new place. you'll meet people soon enough and then you'll wish you had this time to reflect and sleep!
1 comment:
I had a friend who travelled a lot. Her grandmother had travelled a lot. Her Grandma's advice: "You have twenty minutes to cry, then go downstairs and meet new people." I think it's 20 minuts for every timezone you've been through. Plus a couple of days. And Sundays don't count.
So you're just grand.
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