Okay, so now my journey really begins. So after the exciting journey over the summer (See Here) I finally started my year with Webster University in their Global MA in International Relations. My first stop was a 2 day orientation in Leiden, the Netherlands.
Woke up and dragged my luggage to the train station to catch my train to Amsterdam (well, okay I caught a train that took me to the train that took me to Frankfurt, which took me to the train that took me to Amsterdam).
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| Beanie is all strapped in and ready to go! |
6 hours later I arrived in Amsterdam. I then had to figure out how to get the train to Leiden from there. After fighting with the ticket machine for a bit (it wouldn't take my credit card) a Dutch guy behind me said "Do you need some help?" So he helped me with the machine, and then told me he lives in Leiden and is heading there now, so if I want to wait he will help me get there. He even carried my luggage up the steps for me, which was really very nice :-D
Don't get me wrong, I pride myself in being an independent girl, and up to that point I had lugged my nearly 30kg luggage (and backpack and purse!) up and down stairs in 2 train stations and on and off 3 trains, so I could do it, but after a day of doing all that - the help was great. We sat on the train to Leiden and talked about school, travels, the Netherlands, and he pointed things out to me on the ride. After we arrived in Leiden he walked me out of the train station and pointed out my hotel to me (which was visible from the station).
I got checked into the hotel and met one of the girls in my cohort, Mariah, who was my roommate for orientation. Then, I met with Kurt and Emily, also in my cohort, who I had been chatting with on Facebook a lot over the summer. Everyone got together to take a walk around the city.
Leiden is a gorgeous little city and super easy to walk, just beware of the bicycles! There were hundreds of bikes: people riding them, parked in front of restaurants and store, etc. It was a bit of a cloudy day, but it was still very pretty.
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| The Windmill |
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| There are lots of these riverside/boat restaurants |
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| Webster University Campus in Leiden |
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| Pancakes for dinner - holy cow! |
The great thing about the two days of orientation was the chance to meet the people from the other two cohorts! Since we travel in cohorts you really get to know the group you are travelling with over the year, but you don't get a lot of time to mingle with the other people in the program. It was kind of sad though too because you get the chance to met some awesome people and two days later you're all saying 'goodbye'.
I wish I had more photos but the saddest thing happened. At the end of the first day we went to the beach for a barbecue. I had been using my canon earlier that morning, but when I went to take a photo of everyone on the beach - the camera would not turn on. I figured it was a dead battery. But, when I got back to the hotel and put a new battery in, there was still no life. Three batteries, none worked.
I called Keith (former boss) in tears. He said to me "Carrie, you did this for seven years, you need to troubleshoot the camera the same way you would for any other customer with a camera that won't come on." Yes, but they've never come in with my broken camera!!
A former co-worker found me an address for a camera store in Vienna (since I didn't have the time to do anything about my camera while still in Leiden), so I spent the next two days sulking.
I do have my Olympus PEN as a backup camera, and I do love that camera - but, the Canon 40D is my *baby*. I worked very hard for that camera, and it has been a lot of places with me. I have a very sentimental attachment to it!
So, Saturday morning the majority of the people in my cohort had all booked the same flight to Vienna. We flew from Amsterdam to Belgrade, then Belgrade to Vienna. I am not entirely certain what they put in the water in Serbia, but the male flight attendants were *gorgeous* and then some of the guys at the airport were gorgeous too. I think I want to take a trip to Serbia!
Next post will be my first week in Vienna!
You can see the rest of my photos from Leiden Here
I wish I had more photos but the saddest thing happened. At the end of the first day we went to the beach for a barbecue. I had been using my canon earlier that morning, but when I went to take a photo of everyone on the beach - the camera would not turn on. I figured it was a dead battery. But, when I got back to the hotel and put a new battery in, there was still no life. Three batteries, none worked.
I called Keith (former boss) in tears. He said to me "Carrie, you did this for seven years, you need to troubleshoot the camera the same way you would for any other customer with a camera that won't come on." Yes, but they've never come in with my broken camera!!
A former co-worker found me an address for a camera store in Vienna (since I didn't have the time to do anything about my camera while still in Leiden), so I spent the next two days sulking.
I do have my Olympus PEN as a backup camera, and I do love that camera - but, the Canon 40D is my *baby*. I worked very hard for that camera, and it has been a lot of places with me. I have a very sentimental attachment to it!
So, Saturday morning the majority of the people in my cohort had all booked the same flight to Vienna. We flew from Amsterdam to Belgrade, then Belgrade to Vienna. I am not entirely certain what they put in the water in Serbia, but the male flight attendants were *gorgeous* and then some of the guys at the airport were gorgeous too. I think I want to take a trip to Serbia!
Next post will be my first week in Vienna!
You can see the rest of my photos from Leiden Here
