It poured rain in the morning so I missed my intake appointment - not sure how I'm going to deal with that. Aside from the fact that my exchange coordinator told me that there was no possibility to reschedule the appointment - I have none of the required documentation (because I have no access to a printer), I have no "Dutch" passport photos, and I don't have enough dough to pay the 433 euro fee for the resident permit. Well, I'm sure it will get figured out.
I left Stavangerweg this morning with the intention to explore the city a bit, eat some food, and read a bit of the book I was assigned for my Childhood class. I ended up not making it very far because I found a great cafe super close to home. I dont know why I didn't notice it before, but I'm in love. The place is called Bagels and Beans - my two favorite things.
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| From Random Amsterdam photos |
It looks pretty new, and has a vibe kind of like Einstein's bagels in the US. It was nice and quiet so I ordered my favorite kind of sandwich, avocado, tomato, and cream cheese on a bagel, and my favorite drink, iced vanilla coffee, got comfortable and read my book "Sleeping Rough in Port-au-Prince" (about homeless street kids in Haiti) for a bit.
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| From Random Amsterdam photos |
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| From Random Amsterdam photos |
At 5:30 the bagel&coffee shop was closing up but the sun was still high in the sky so instead of heading home I hopped on my bike and made my way to Westerpark, which is less than the length of a city block away from where I was. I had never been there before so I walked my bike around for a bit on the gravel trails. The weather was beautiful today, warm (maybe 68 degrees) and sunny until late in the evening - so lots of people were out. Toddlers and children were playing on the playground, couples were lounging on blankets in the green areas, all kinds of random people sitting on the benches, near the fountains and the canal, others jogging. One of my favorite things to see is parents with children on their bicycles. Mothers ride by with infants in tiny seats attached to the front of their bicycles, and fathers push the bikes while little ones sit on the back on the the seat with their feet dangling. Sometimes you see carts attached the front of the bicyles with a gaggle of children laughing and their mothers pedaling along. This is one of the sweetest things to see and is truly a departure from the typical babyproofed childhood lived out by little ones in the US.
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| From Random Amsterdam photos |
Back to Westerpark... I parked my bicycle next to a bench in the shade and sat down and began reading. As interesting as the book is, I was constantly distracted by the various characters that passed me as I sat. There aren't really regulations about "open containers" here like in the US so its common to see people drinking beer and wine in the park. In fact, a strange guy came and sat next to me on my bench and offered me a can of beer, haha. I declined but he stayed anyway. I found out that he was from Algeria - he spoke little English but fluent Spanish so we spoke for about twenty minutes in a mix of Spanish, English and Dutch. Every now and then, someone would pass and he would say hello to them. I found it kind of peculiar that there were so many people familiar to him walking around the park, until.... he called one of them a junky - and then everything clicked! I had been sitting in the park talking to a junky for twenty minutes. He wasn't dressed like a dangerous, homeless vagabond so I wasnt worried initially - but once he identified someone that he had said hello to as a junkie and accused him of "smoking crack" I started to notice small things that definitely indicated that he was a fellow junkie (dirty hands, junkie teeth). After the realization I told him I had to take off, and walked my bike away giggling to myself at how naive I am to talk to strangers at the park. Woops.
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| From Random Amsterdam photos |
I'm home now and I think it will be a quiet night. Planning on making chicken + veggie tacos for dinner and reading some more of this book.
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