Ron and I have arrived safely in Maastricht after being delayed on the tarmac at Pearson International for 3 hrs (we watched 2 whole movies before we took off!), a 7 hr flight to Brussels, Belgium, a 1 1/2 hr train ride to Maastricht, then a 15 min taxi ride to our new apartment. Neither of us slept on the plane, so we are now 36hrs and counting for being awake! (I don't have much of a circadian rhythm to begin with...so maybe that's why I'm coping so well...)
We LOVE our apartment! It's decorated very eclectically (doors are all solid colours but range from red to white to violet to baby pink to red to lime green!) It has everything we need and is very....European. We have a sink in our bedroom, the kitchen, the toilet room, the shower room, and the living room...which is very odd to us, but I'm sure we'll find a use for all of them! We have the upstairs flat (900sq feet) of a house and the people who own the house and live downstairs have loaned us their umbrellas and bicycles - both necessities in Holland! We have a fully outfitted kitchen, complete with a small fridge and dishwasher, and a washing machine upstairs for us to use. Not too much storage space, but we're making do with what we have.
I had a quick orientation today at Maastricht University; met with some of the professors and a few students. Both the campus and their website/web system are quite confusing, so I'm going to spend some time on it over the weekend figuring it out and learning where to show up on Monday morning for school!
Although incredibly exhausted, Ron and I walked about 3.5km from the University a stumbled upon a pub that had decent priced food and Grolsh flip tops on for 2.5euros! We are still trying to figure out the bus system and plan to go to the bus station tomorrow to pick up a route map that will help us navigate.
I doubt we are going to end up learning much Dutch while here....simply because everyone speaks English! It's even hard to practice my "Ik spreek een beetje Nederlands" ("I speak a little bit of Dutch") and "Dank u veel" ("Thank you very much") in the grocery line because people pick up on our Canadian accent.
Tomorrow we plan to go back into town and shop for a few necessities - a hair dryer, an alarm clock, and some substantial food and rest up.
Good night from "Nederlands" and we'll blog soon again!
Love,
R&R
It's such a good idea, starting a blog. That gives us a chance of staying on top of your dutch experiences. Margot posted on Ron's facebook page about bikes, also referring to a phonenumber you could try if you still want to buy something. Lending a bike on a regular basis is cheaper though. The Duth down there in Maastricht is Limburg dialect, don't cultivate that, I wouldn't be able to understand you people :-))
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