Borrels & Things

I'm doing my best to keep up with my blog; however, we just finished orientation week and we've been kept very busy! In exciting news classes start on Monday (tomorrow), and I still need to buy notebooks and other school supplies. The university buildings are spread through-out the entire city and a bike will be needed to travel between classes efficiently. I got a bike yesterday and I'm already very sore. There's a bike tour later today, but it's also supposed to rain. It rains a lot here. I'm finally getting used to it. I really don't mind the rain, and I prefer it to the heat.

I'm also finding it easier to make non-American friends than I was expecting. We had a "borrel" (I think that's how you spell the Dutch term for socializing with drinks) and I met some really cool people I've already had lunch with in the city!

I really do think that the city privileges bikers; there's a separate bike lane for them to use and they even have their own traffic signals! I'll have to take a picture of it soon. I've been really bad with pictures--I've even forgotten to take some of my food, and to make matters worse, my camera charger died. I think I've got it all taken care of now and I'll post what I do have so far.

Lunch @ Atrium: cold green bean salad, lettuce w/ basil dressing, yogurt w/fruit, and some yummy fruit drink I can't remember the name of at the moment.

Snack @ Cafe: hot chocolate w/piece of chocolate.

Lunch on boat: the meats! (Just for the record, the smoked turkey--second from the left--was by far the best!)

First home-made dinner in Amsterdam: scrambled eggs!

Lunch @ pub: cheese, apple, walnut, cucumber sandwich. Yummy.

Drinks w/Nicole: I got orange juice and Nicole got a dark beer of some kind.

Food @ Farmer's Market: (from left to right); carrots, lettuce, cucumber, apricots, raspberries, bananas, salted mixed nuts, bananas, and potatoes.

Second dinner in Amsterdam: salad! I used lettuce, cucumbers,  & carrots, and made a dressing with olive oil and ground pepper.