Week One

My first twelve hours in the Netherlands were frantic, frustrating, and sleep-deprived, but luckily I made it to the Erasmus Lodge on time and without too many hangups. After wandering up and down Struisenburgstraat and Struisenburgwaarstraat, two little lanes that wind in strange ways around offices, canals, and student housing, I finally found my building and lugged my 75 pounds of luggage up three flights of stairs to my apartment, only to be greeted by a familiar face- Jen Nguyen, another fine arts major from SVA. I was a little confused by the housing company's decision to put both American girls in the same apartment, but it's come as a relief that both my roommates speak English as a first language (my other roommate is Mair from the UK). The majority of exchange students in our program live in Erasmus Lodge, and it's great to be surrounded by people with the same problems, confusion, and excitement as I have as an international student...

How do I open a bank account here?
I can't do that until I have a number from registering with City Hall, ok, how do I do that?
I need an appointment, but I need to call or go online to make one?
I don't have a phone, and the website is in Dutch.
The trains stop running after midnight? Shit.
I never know what I'm eating since it's all in Dutch...
Everything is so clean and nothing smells!
You pay almost nothing for beer that's better than the cheapest Bud or PBR.
Wait, so when exactly do we have to show up for class? Never? We just do our work? huh?
All fine arts majors have studios!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the biggest bedroom I have ever lived in. This is way too much floor space for one person.
Get a bike. Everyone needs a bike- one that squeaks, has one gear and no handle breaks.
Why do people just leave their bikes unchained? I could have any one of these bikes.
The architecture is weird as hell here.
RAIN AND WIND ALL OF THE TIME WHYYYYYYY

Orientation was Thursday, during which we went over a lot of logistics and paperwork and took a tour of the two buildings at Willem de Kooning. One is a big, old squarish building with a high-peaked roof that used to be an old bank, and the other is a modern-looking one facing a canal. I am in awe of the facilities in both buildings- there is a fibers workshop that takes up two huge rooms filled with sewing machines, knitting machines, looms, neat rows of dyeing tubs, and spaces for felting. I suppressed a squeal as we walked by. My beloved fibers lab at SVA is smaller than my new Dutch bedroom! There is also an extensive ceramics workshop, photo darkrooms, a print shop, many drawing studios, and metal and wood shops. I am unused to the amount of common space there is at Willem de Kooning- at the SVA fine arts building all we had was a tiny room with two tables and a snack machine, and here you can hang out in lounges on every floor or in two cafes which are both cheap and have healthy options. It's going to be difficult to leave here.

After the tour our advisor took us all out for drinks at the Witte Huis (White House- no, not THE White House) where we all got to know each other, talking about art, school, home, the Netherlands, and struggled with language barriers. Everyone is incredibly friendly, possibly because we are thirty people who have just arrived in a new place and want to make sure we are not alone here. There are people from Portugal, Switzerland, Finland, Ireland, the UK, Italy, Turkey, Korea, Australia, and Canada, as well as me, Jen (from Peabody, Mass), and a guy named Evan from Hollis, New Hampshire who goes to Mass Art! Small world, and way to represent Boston. I am hoping all of us internationals will be a close-knit group by the end of the semester, particularly the eighteen fine arts students who will be sharing studio space in an off-site school building.

I am constantly comparing Rotterdam to the two cities I know best- Boston and New York. Of these two it is definitely more like Boston, with its location on the ocean as a major port city, lots of waterways cutting though its streets, its modest size and population and winding pedestrian walkways lined with little pubs and rows and rows of brownstones. There's even a bridge that looks just like the Zakim Bridge! It's a world apart from New York, where I could feel myself get competitive just walking down the sidewalk to be the first to cross the street. Here the metro is devoid of urine smell and rats and I am astonished that my ride to school on the street tram is less than fifteen minutes. Living here for four days, on a similar budget as before, has made me realize how hard I have to fight to live in New York City, working to pay rent to share a closet of a room, riding long hours on the train, and existing in a place where ambition and success are prized over friendliness and a healthy state of mind. It can be wearing. On the other hand, it's two in the morning and I can't walk one block to the bodega to get Ben & Jerry's, and even if I did, it would cost 7 euros ($10!!) (they have Ben & Jerry's here!!!!!).

Overall I am surprised by how naturally I have slid into life in the Netherlands, though sometimes I remind myself that I could have ended up in vastly more different and difficult countries to get used to than one in Western Europe. I am excited to start traveling around the surrounding area (we have February vacation next week, what!) and meet up with my friends who are also abroad in the UK and Norway. I still have some headaches to work out: picking up my residence card, registering at City Hall, opening a bank account, negotiating paying my rent without a Dutch pin card, and figuring out when exactly I'm required to show up for class every week. I keep thinking that one month from now I will feel like I've been here forever and laugh at the things that are stressing me out now. I'm here, after months of preparation, and that's all that matters.

Photos to come soon!