I arrived in Nijmegen on Thursday afternoon, so I'm alive and all that good stuff.
Other than that, being here is incredibly lonely. I forgot how scary it is to be completely and totally on my own, and not knowing a word of Dutch isn't helping. I got here early thinking that I'd want to have that extra time to acclimate myself, but right now, the days of absolute nothingness are making me crazy. All I can think about are the things I'm missing: BC, Langhorne, friends, English, Cheerios.
Nijmegen is the oldest city in the Netherlands (it's over 2000 years old) and accordingly, its streets are winding and oddly organized and are therefore kind of difficult to navigate. Nearly everyone has a bike here. There is, of course, traffic, but not nearly as much as you'd expect in a small city. I did manage to find a grocery store, a cell phone, and bed sheets via the bike that was so graciously left for me by Kacey (who went to Nijmegen last spring). This makes life considerably easier.
I'll probably have more to say in a few days, once the culture shock wears off.
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don't worry, maggie; i felt the same way. when i first arrived, my flat was abandoned and my luggage was lost and all i could think about was why why why i did i come early when i could have spent another day or two hanging around pennsylvania (though admittedly i didn't have the language barrier.)
ReplyDeleteyou'll be ok though. hang in there :)
i miss youuu! hang in there and once classes start i'm sure it will be much better. you could get a portable dictionary and if you needed to tell people things you could point at the words in the dictionary? and you have linens YAYY. so you can nap! how is the weather??
ReplyDelete-vish