Sep 01, 2007 09:18
I have arrived safely in Amsterdam!
It is an extreme joy to be back in this city, particularly after such a personally challenging summer.
The journey was incredibly long, taking 27 hours door to door this time, the longest yet and almost double the shortest of 14 hours. I flew out of San Francisco this time which meant that I took the train and then Bart to the airport which added 3 hours to the flight time. I then flew to Houston with a short layover there and then to London. Going through London was a bit of a pain since it meant that I could only carry on one bag. When I got to London I also discovered that they use a smaller bag gauge than in the rest of the world just to be obnoxious. At first I couldn't fit my bag because of the feet that stuck out on the bottom but I refused to check it as it had my laptop, camera and many other valuables. So I managed to twist and turn it and get it into the gauge and the lady let me through with it. Still it was annoying. The flight was then delayed because it took them an extra 20 minutes to get the catering done apparently. Considering that the catering consisted of a juice box or half soda can and a bag of nuts I had a hard time understanding why it would take so long. We then sat on the tarmac for quite awhile making the flight a total of an hour late by the time I got to Amsterdam where it took almost an hour for my bags to come out. A train to central and a walk to my friends house and I was "home". That was Wednesday and Thursday.
Friday I got up early and went to the VU to meet with my professor and "defend" my thesis. It went smashingly well and he gave me a passing grade but asked me to make a few modifications to my thesis this coming week. He also asked me to write a grant proposal this month for a post-doc to work with me on my PhD. While apparently many find this to be a chore I am thrilled to get a chance to go through the grant process so early in my career. I think I can write a strong proposal and if we get money for it I will feel even better about my future ability to get grant money.
I then started looking online for apartments. I had hooked up an opportunity prior to coming for a house that would have started the 20th of September and run until the 15th of December. The trouble with this one is that it was more than I wanted to spend at 1000 Euro a month, the location sucked being WAY out of the city, and it meant I would have to rely on the hospitality of friends for 21 days, more than I wanted to rely on friends. So I looked around online finding potential properties in the 750-1000 Euro range but few of them were for short term. The thing is that there is a potential that Viola is going to come live in Amsterdam, and if she does I would really prefer that she be involved in the process of selecting where we are going to live.
So I got a reply to one of the places I emailed about, so I called her and she asked if I wanted to come over and see it last night, which I did with my friend Tom I am staying with after a nice, cheap Chinese dinner. The woman renting it has moved in with her boyfriend but isn't really ready to give up her apartment entirely in case it doesn't work out. So she is subletting it for the rest of her lease. I jumped at it. She agreed to let me pay 500 Euro for the first half month and then 1000 Euro for the next two months! I was thrilled as I have not a lot of Euro on hand here and I would like to avoid bringing dollars over since it is expensive to do so.
So I am pretty much done with my Masters, thrilled with the start of my PhD and overjoyed to have found an apartment in Amsterdam!
phd,
apartment,
amsterdam,
masters