Well, today was a bit...all over the place.
I got royally chewed out by a lady in the International Department, here at the University, because apparently, I was supposed to have gone to Washington DC (like that's something everyone does in America, on a regular basis) to get a special stamp in my passport. The stamp was supposed to allow me to work right away - without it, I have to do a whole new set of paperwork, and I'm not allowed to work in the lab. Email me if you want more details on the complexity of the situation. I think she was really confused (but would NEVER have admitted this, of course) about the kinds of distances involved in the US to get from one city to another, and was very upset that I didn't seem to grasp the gravity of not having this stamp. When I tried to plead that no one had ever told me to get this stamp, she almost leaped across the desk in anger and incredulous righteousness, insisting that she HAD told me, and that I was irresponsible and unprepared, and that I was lying to cover my ass. Well, yes. As you can see, she was incredibly pleasant. No, I never got an email saying I should go all the way to DC for this stamp. Yes, I did check all the emails I've received from this woman. And folks, this is the lady who is in charge of all the international student's paperwork at the university. This woman's job is to help people who are new here!!
But, there are a lot of angry people in the world. I went back the next day (I'm finishing this blog later because I didn't have time to finish it that day) and had a little more time to look around her office - the woman had no decorations, no plants. Just a stark office, with one sad painting that kind of looked like a blurry self-portrait. She had no pictures - and she even had a picture stand that instead of holding photos, had rubber bands in it. Now, just because she's probably lonely, and self conscious, and bitter doesn't excuse her abhorrent behavior towards me. But it does help me to understand why she did what she did, and not take it personally. The long and short of it is that I now have to wait to go into the lab (so you won't hear anything on here about my work for a while, sorry!!) and I had to file new paperwork. The new paperwork allows me to live in the Netherlands longer than three months, without the little sticker. Why we didn't just do this from the beginning escapes me.
Now! I have had many excellent experiences in the previous days, and my faith in humanity has, for the most part, been restored. A nice Dutch lady gave me directions to the university on my first day there (I really should have just used my eyes and followed the giant, heaving line of people with backpacks on bikes through the city). As it so happens, my ride to school is really neat. I ride right through the city center, so yes, it is pretty hectic (one of these mornings I'm going to take a video of my bike ride so you can see just how hectic), but it's sooo beautiful. Even when it's cloudy, it's beautiful. I ride over hundred year old canals, and past a giant, beautiful cathedral. I bike past flower stalls, and markets, bakeries and old men arguing about the weather. In the morning, bakeries waft delicious smells over me on my way to campus, and the tantalizing thought of delicious bread with butter is what prompts me to, as Eliza Doolittle would say, "move my bloomin' arse." ;)
I have a ton of pictures, but I'm always finding myself with too little time to put them up, so unfortunately, you'll all have to wait to see images from my adventures on here. I will definitely have them up by Sunday.
I am going to Amsterdam tomorrow, to set up my Dutch bank account and to go to my first Fulbright meeting - and then, after all that excitement, I am going to Paris with Siri and her family to go to Disneyland, which, really, would have been exciting anyway, even if I was just a normal European, but as I am a foreigner, and I haven't been to Disney World in years, and I am still so totally psyched that going to FRANCE is a weekend trip possibility, it's like, at least twice as awesome. At least. You know what I can reach for a weekend trip? Cornfields. Or small hills. Or the back roads of Pennsylvania. Or the lake. That once caught on fire and smells of nasty fishes. I mean, actually, don't get me wrong, I actually love Ohio with all my heart, and miss it very much, even the stinky fish lake. But it's just a totally unique (I know, I know, something is either unique, or not unique, it can't be totally unique. Except this is.) thing to be able to go to completely different country for a weekend.
In any case, hopefully I will be writing about how amazing going to France was, and how psyched I am about traveling all over Europe, and how many pancakes I ate, etc. Till next we meet, and with much love!!
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