Hip hip HOORAY!
Posted by Stephanie Finnvik on Wednesday, May 25, 2011
I DID IT! I DID IT! I DID IT!!!!
This morning, I biked to the university, didn't take the wrong turn once, and had plenty of time to spare! I don't mean to gloat, but I am so extremely proud of myself. I have been so nervous about this endeavor since arriving here because in America, we mostly bike for exercise rather than transportation. In the Netherlands, there are 1.11 bikes per habitant (which equals a whole lot of bikes). I thought for sure it'd just be a quicker way for me to get lost or get hit by a car or ram bikes with someone, but it was all smooth sailing; a great start to my day.
Today I started working on reviewing pages and articles from the old UNAWE website as they will be launching a new website soon and everything from the old one needs to be gone through - all ~450 of them! (10 down currently). It is actually fun though because in the process I am learning a lot about the program and the different events and activities, literally across the world, that have been taking place.
As for my bike ride home, I have never had to go back home from the university because we went right to Brussels the first day and yesterday I came from the train station. I felt pretty confident though with this morning's turn out. It wasn't bad, except for the fact that I missed the bike lane in one intersection and cut off a volvo... woops! I was hoping that I could pull a Zoolander and only turn in one direction, right, so I wouldn't have to cross streets, but that doesn't really work unfortunately. It ended up being ok though because at the major street I had to turn left, they have lights for bikes, and they are legitimate street lights that run separately from the cars. Crazy.
Tonight I am going to meet up with Pedro and other people from the university. He sent me a map to get to the restaurant too after I showed him what maps I had been using and drawing... see below.
I think they are just fine. :) I marked water (as there's tons of canals in the Netherlands) and then the other lines are for how many streets I need to pass until turning and the scratches for tracks. There aren't obvious street signs here like in the US and many streets change names part way, but it got me where I was going! He also sent me a few locations of grocery markets - I'm running low on my granola bars and will need to go soon!
On Saturday I plan on going to the market and I intend to get a fresh stroopwafel of which I believe shortly after I will need to join the ASA (Association of Stroopwafel Addicts). True story.
This morning, I biked to the university, didn't take the wrong turn once, and had plenty of time to spare! I don't mean to gloat, but I am so extremely proud of myself. I have been so nervous about this endeavor since arriving here because in America, we mostly bike for exercise rather than transportation. In the Netherlands, there are 1.11 bikes per habitant (which equals a whole lot of bikes). I thought for sure it'd just be a quicker way for me to get lost or get hit by a car or ram bikes with someone, but it was all smooth sailing; a great start to my day.
Today I started working on reviewing pages and articles from the old UNAWE website as they will be launching a new website soon and everything from the old one needs to be gone through - all ~450 of them! (10 down currently). It is actually fun though because in the process I am learning a lot about the program and the different events and activities, literally across the world, that have been taking place.
As for my bike ride home, I have never had to go back home from the university because we went right to Brussels the first day and yesterday I came from the train station. I felt pretty confident though with this morning's turn out. It wasn't bad, except for the fact that I missed the bike lane in one intersection and cut off a volvo... woops! I was hoping that I could pull a Zoolander and only turn in one direction, right, so I wouldn't have to cross streets, but that doesn't really work unfortunately. It ended up being ok though because at the major street I had to turn left, they have lights for bikes, and they are legitimate street lights that run separately from the cars. Crazy.
Tonight I am going to meet up with Pedro and other people from the university. He sent me a map to get to the restaurant too after I showed him what maps I had been using and drawing... see below.
I think they are just fine. :) I marked water (as there's tons of canals in the Netherlands) and then the other lines are for how many streets I need to pass until turning and the scratches for tracks. There aren't obvious street signs here like in the US and many streets change names part way, but it got me where I was going! He also sent me a few locations of grocery markets - I'm running low on my granola bars and will need to go soon!
On Saturday I plan on going to the market and I intend to get a fresh stroopwafel of which I believe shortly after I will need to join the ASA (Association of Stroopwafel Addicts). True story.