I'M HERE!

I'm in the Netherlands now and I'm not sure how I feel about this yet.

On the one hand, I love it. The people, the cafes, the bikes, the sun (so much sunnier here than in Utrecht).

On the other hand, the Dutch propensity for bureaucracy is liable to drive even a level-headed person like me downright insane. Case in point:

I arrived 25 august (see that - I even write the dates the dutch way :-)) and had pre-booked a hostel for 4 nights while I planned to visit a few rooms and make a decision about where to live while I stayed there. Ha. Haha. My naïveté is laughable now. So much for plans...

Although, in my own defense, I was told by multiple people in the know, that it would be "no problem" to find a room in Maastricht. It was way easier to find a room here then, say, Utrecht or Amsterdam. Back to the story of my million homes...

So, I wrote to someone at the University, who got me a room at a hotel apartment. It was nice - a 2 bedroom pretty decent sized apartment totally furnished except for anything in the kitchen. It was a nice kitchen with a little cook plate and a huge refrigerator to put all the food I couldn't cook because there weren't any pots or pans! The only good thing to come out of this experience was meeting my roommate Krasi - she's from Bulgaria and such a sweetheart.

And now I am staying at the house of a staffmember of the University. Very close to the Belgian border (read: not really close to anything else, like the Uni or the city center...). I will stay here until Tuesday when I will move into place #4 - a fabulous apartment I have no business living in, but "know someone" hence can swing it.

Place #5 (no joke) if I'm lucky enough to be chosen (chosen!) will happen on November 1.

Ahh, the life of an expat/nomad. Always interesting...