Alex: Is Officially Abroad

Hallo! (See that Dutch I used there)

Where should I start? This week I have been in the Netherlands. And I know we kept saying that I was going to be here, but I'm not actually here. Bad news- (but is it really bad?) we are not in Amsterdam yet. Our orientation takes place in this little village by the coast. I'm pretty sure they put us here so we don't get in trouble our first week. The hostel is a 13th century castle. I'm not lying.  There's a real full moat around it. I should've taken a picture and put it on this blog post. I'm really bad at pictures... I'm gonna get better. I promise. And I will update you on the look of this castle because I just reminded myself to take a picture in the morning. We move to Amsterdam TOMORROW, we haven't really seen the city yet so I am really excited. We stay in another StayOkay Hostel until Saturday where we will then proceed to move into our home stays (which I will talk more about later).

There's a few points I want to hit on my first week abroad. I don't want to bore you with a detailed step by step of what we have been doing every day so I'll hit that culture shock thing on the head.

1. FORGET what all of those haters say about studying abroad in an European country. 

This sh*t is still hard. People know that you are not from around here and they allllll stare at you on the streets. Sidewalk conversations with strangers are really not a thing here. Also this part of the Netherlands is extremely blonde so basically the whole group sticks out. We had our first Dutch class this morning. I felt oddly comfortable in a language class because I've been in one every semester at GW. I'm not saying that means this language is going to be easy. Good news (or bad depending on how much Dutch you want to learn) my professor said that if any Dutch person hears your accent they're going to want to start speaking English with you. The hard part is integrating into the community and realizing you'll never eavesdrop on a juicy conversation at a coffee shop the whole time you're in this country. Every conversation around me is in a language I couldn't begin to understand. I feel we had our first real community immersion today when we went to the local neighborhood carnival. Everyone around you is speaking Dutch, the music is in Dutch and we couldn't play any of the fair games because all of the rules were in Dutch. It was kind of disheartening, but hey, that's what I signed up for, right? And I better be getting use to it. All of the street signs, stores, everything is Dutch. Why I wasn't expecting that I'm not sure. But living, eating and bicycling in Amsterdam sure is going to be an adventure. So stay tuned for that. 

2. Just because it's hard, doesn't mean it's not worth it.

The rumors are true folks- The Netherlands is a bea-u-tiful country. Everything is so simple here, because the Dutch are not big on showing off. So houses are quant, but still have a lot of character. We're learning a lot about the culture, but haven't gotten really to test how true everything is. We'll see tomorrow in Amsterdam! THERE ARE ALSO CHICKENS RUNNING AROUND EVERYWHERE. It's really proved to me that I have Ornithophobia. They get this - close to you. We had class outside and I tried to avoid it, but then it tried to fly and I ended up screaming and crying in front of the group. So. That was fun. Our event coordinator (who is Dutch) probably thinks I'm a freaking lunatic. Luckily, the group was very compassionate and comforted me through this really hard time. Besides the chickens that don't respect personal space, I think I love love The Netherlands. 

3. Real World: SIT Netherlands

There are 18 other students on my program. All from different majors, sexualities, ethnic groups, cities and universities. It's literally like we all applied to the Real World and made it on a study abroad special. The program is set up where the 19 of us are going to be spending basically every week day (and lezbihonest probably all weekend as well) with each other. I'm really thrilled that this is the group I'm going to be spending that time with. It's different to be in a room full of students who have the same passion and drive for Gender and Sexuality studies as you. It makes extremely interesting conversations and I feel like I have already learned so much from my peers. 

We're only 2 days in and it feels like we've lived in our castle for weeks. Things are gonna get so much more intense when we live in the city, stay with our home stays and start having closer relationships with each other. I'm still very excited for this journey. I had a personal conversation with my Academic Director today of how I went from studying in Egypt to being with SIT in the Netherlands. At the end of the conversation she simply said, 'I think you're exactly where you need to be.' I would simply have to say that I absolutely agree. 

** I don't really know what to blog about. So, if you have any questions about my life in Amsterdam just comment or send me a FB message!

*** This has been an exhausting day and this post has not been 100% proofread.