Day 11

Today was the LAST day of orientation stuff- YAHOO! Luckily we didn't start the fun and educational activities until after lunch, so we all got to sleep in quite late :)
The day started off with this insane Mexican/Harvard grad lady who led us in these stupid bonding games. She was like a motivational speaker on drugs, no joke. She kept exclaiming about "Pearls of Wisdom" or whatever, so the kids sitting around me and I decided to change her name to Pearl, which was quite fitting. I got to bond with some other American students not from CIEE, mainly bonding over how dumb and pointless these "games" were. It was entertaining nevertheless. We then had to participate in a silly scavenger hunt around the city to find certain university buildings. It was pretty pointless but I got to meet some other fun people. One girl, Evelyn (something like that, not the same Evelyn as before!) was super bossy and condescending. Since she claims she is Dutch (well, her parents both are Dutch, so maybe she's right about that) she assumed that she was the most qualified to lead our scavenger hunt group around the city. She kept getting lost and whenever any of us suggested that we were going the wrong way, she would get all huffy and exclaim "well do YOU want to lead the way??" while thrusting the map at us. and then when I ordered a coffee at a cafe in Dutch, she sneered in a dumb, condescending manner " oooooh are you practicing your Dutch?" As you may all know, I don't get angry or pissed at people very often. However, this was one time when I just wanted to smack this girl or kick her in the shins. That obnoxious. But the rest of us bonded over her bitchy behavior, so it wasn't so terrible. I also met some lovely girls from Australia and England- Frankie, Thea, and Paris- so it was cool to meet people from places other than the USA! It was a fairly short but enjoyable day in the city. I finally learned where all of my classes are and saw the places, so hopefully I won't be lost on the first day of classes- another bonus.

Tonight I am off to make more din din with the roomie, then perhaps enjoying a night out on the town? We shall see.

I have decided to post random funny Dutch words that I hear/see on the streets in everyday life. There are especially funny phrases/words in the grocery stores
Here are a few for today:

rijst=rice
wafel=waffle
rijstwafel= rice waffle (literally), aka rice cakes
fiets=bike
party sticks = pickle spears


Dag! (bye!)