Today marks several events in particular: 1, My first mandarin-orange-peeling experience, 2. My first time on a bike since sometime around early high school, and can I just say it was One Of Those Adventures. (Pictures will come for later events; I struck out on my own and oh what a plan that was...), 3. An introduction to checkers, and 4. My first night in a bar. The oranges require no further explanation than adorable, delicious, and everyone should try them.
As for the bikes, I was jumpy all morning, as Katie's advice had been "literally, RUN." This worked out to my advantage, because the minute my lunch was cleared, rainy, bike-laden courtyard, here I come. It was fairly expensive at once (€75 for the semester with a €55 deposit), but the 25 available bikes are now rented all semester rather than at €8/day. Although there was a purple bike with a basket, the frame was way too big for me so I have a lovely light fuchsia number sans basket.
After the initial garbled understanding of the lock explanation and wobbly mounting (or two), I settled into the basic movements left towards New Well, passing other students to practice in the grocery parking lot - unfortunately, there were about five teenage boys already there, so it wasn't really ideal. Back to Old Well it is, then. Despite increasing levels of rain and wind (and hat issues and allergy attacks), I wound up staying out for the better part of an hour. Granted, that was mostly because I went exploring down a back, as in no-longer-in-Well, road and then couldn't find a good turnaround for a good 10-15 minutes. It's just not a Bekka Trip until someone gets irrationally lost! Obviously everything was fine, but man will I be happy when that seat's adjusted.
I was planning to take a shower between dinner and the RA hall meeting to kind of clean out the agricultural perfume I'd accumulated from the afternoon, but wound up learning checkers. Apparently you're supposed to learn that before chess? Oops. It's basically like playing with only bishops, who then become "Kings," or (more accurately) archdeacons who become bishops. Somehow I managed to win the first game!
The bar, or rather bars, were very different but each worth a return. The first one many of us visited tonight, Café Vink, is actually a café (obviously) and restaurant by day, so everything was generally quieter, the tables were smaller, no smoking, vaguely audible music...
Then there was Linden. A proper European bar, with locals in the corner (watching the Bostonians raid the place), smoking permitted, a two-level table pre-worn with (likely) decades of dancers, everyone yelling over the music and screaming at the music, and every now and then you see a bartender winking or dancing along with us, or grabbing a (hands-free!) shot before her break. The only somewhat annoying thing of the whole night was my purse getting in the way sometimes.
So tomorrow is the last day of orientation before classes start, then we have a matter of days until our first group trip to Amsterdam. Ready or not...
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