Good Morning Sunshine!

2012-04-11

It has been cloudy and rainy for a few days and first time in a long time I was dreaming that I wanted to be in Summer Michigan. And somewhat I was stuck in my room and doing everything in my room. I didn’t have enough motivation to go out and do something outside. Then, I realized this might be the lowest point – unmotivated moment in the trip. So, I had to change it up! I was not going to let myself miss any opportunities around where I live.

So, I started jogging in the morning, very early – 7:30am. I bike to Amsterdams Bos, which is a big park close to my apartment. Then RUN! Now, everything is turning green and starting to bloom. I am amazing to see the nature – smell of fresh air, sound of birds, and warmth of morning sunshine. I could not stop smiling.

I know that it won’t be easy to get up early to jog, yet it was more than just exercising, way more. I am going to try 5 days per week at least a month, hopefully more and it becomes my habit.

Picture - Amsterdams Bos

Green

2012-04-07 Saturday

Yesterday, I arrived in Amsterdam. No? I know. It’s been already two months that I’ve been in Amsterdam. So, I’m half way through this semester – what do I think about it. First of all, I like it; I like the culture, I like the people, I like the transportation system, and I like living here. Every time when I go out to the city, I see and learn something new and enjoy what I see.

Volunteering is one thing that I put effort to do wherever I live, even in Amsterdam for semester abroad. And I started regularly going to English Reformed Church in downtown Amsterdam and, I got to meet Melissa who works in YWAM Amsterdam (Youth With a Mission). She told me about homeless ministry she is doing with her staff every Monday and Friday night. Three of us from Calvin group joined the volunteering group – we had to make three months commitment to come every Monday night. So, I will tell you what we do – we serve koffie, thee, cake, and bannan to homeless people at the square in front of the YWAM building after salvation army food van arrives and we share Gospel to the people around us.

Like I said, I appreciate the beauty of city, yet that is not all about Amsterdam or any cities. There is always dark side of a city, and I wanted to know a part of or at least I acknowledge it. If could help in any way, I wanted to try to help. Sometimes, we see only what we want to see and don’t realize what is really around us. In Amsterdam, we do not see or recognize homeless people, because they don’t beg for money and lay around, and more they look like tourists. A lot of them are from east Europe to find a job in Amsterdam, and end up not finding a job or okay with living on street.

Spring is here in Amsterdam. It is time that everything turns green. Yet, chilly wind is still bothering for me to go outside. I can smell warm spring is around the corner.

Pictures - in Urk

Another beginning

2012-03-02 Friday

I have been sick for a while from I don’t know what. Because of sickness, I went to see a doctor in Amsterdam who didn’t really give me what I had or have. I had some white spots on my tonsils with horrible pain and fever, so I thought I had strep throat. It looked bad. So, the Dutch doctor looked at my throat and said, “You might have strep or it might be just mono.” What! He didn’t even do the strep test. And he went on and said, “Yes, fever is your friend – that’s your body fighting against the bacteria or virus. And Dutch people don’t really take medicine, but I will give you three times a day and five days worth of penicillin.” Moreover, there was no one in the office except the doctor. It was the most interesting doctor’s appointment for me. I’m hoping to this is the last time I’m getting sick in Amsterdam.

It has been a month since I came to Amsterdam. Time has been gone by fast and slow. I feel like I have lost the excitement and appreciation of studying abroad for a bit – I think that the weather has to do with that a lot. So I’m writing my blog to remind myself how grateful to be in Amsterdam such a beautiful city. I’m trying to get out of my apartment everyday more than just going to my classes. I’m still in process of going to all the museums in Amsterdam with the museum card, which let me in for free. Once again, going to museums is one of my favorite things to do because I can learn about things in different era and subjects and even people. Also, it is a relaxing to just slowly walk around and read and look at arts. Sometimes, I get really excited, too. I should bring back the first motivation and enthusiasm!

Picture - Zandvoort

Hitchhiking

2012-02-11 Saturday

I’m just so excited to tell this story so I don’t know where to begin.

Anyway, Owen and I went to Utrecht, which is southeast of Amsterdam and takes about 35 minutes driving (23 miles). Few days before today, one Calvin student was visiting his friend in our group, and he was hitchhiking all around Europe. That inspired for Owen and me to hitchhike to Utrecht. We looked up the direction to Utrecht and put our thumbs up and smiled at the people in the car. Some people just waved and smile. About 20 minutes after we started, one lady stopped but she wasn’t going to Utrecht, and told us that this was not a good spot to go there so we moved closer to the high way. After moving three times, we ended up by the entrance to the express way to Utrecht, which was good.

Finally, one taxi stopped and asked us where we want to go, but we thought that we had to pay so we just said free? And he said yes! We hopped in and he told us that he was going toward southeast, not Utrecht but he would drop us up in the direction to Utrecht. So we were out on the nowhere. Just field and cars all around. Again, we stood on the roundabout to hitchhike. Fortunately, another taxi driver picked us up and said his was on his break and he would love to take us to downtown, Utrecht. That was so nice of him. He traveled a lot around the world and he could speak four different languages. We talked about places we’ve traveled and such. From Uilenstede to Utrecht, it took us about two hours.

This was something that I always wanted to do, but I didn’t know how to do about it. I think that the first time is the hardest like everybody says. Now I can go further just hitchhiking. This was a totally new experience that I had to be out of my comfort zone, which gave me a full of adrenaline until now. This feeling is difficult to share if you haven’t done it. It’s a bit a risk, but it was great. Now, I have to wait for what my mom is going to say.


Picture - Museum Speelklok, Utrecht

First day of School

2012-02-06 Monday

First day of school, I only have two classes, which one is in the morning and the other one is in the afternoon. I’m sitting in the lobby of the main building (like Spoelhof lobby) and watching these tall people getting coffee. My first class was electromagnetism class and my professor was not a Dutch nor American. Because I haven’t taken Calculus in three years, I’m probably going to ride the strug-bus. I hope to get help from my Calvin friends and professor, I guess. For the month of February and March, I only have three courses on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It will be interesting to have two days off in a week.  I am hoping to visit downtown Amsterdam as much as I could. It will much easier when I get my bike and weather gets warmer.

Here, I don’t see many Asians like I see in America, at least at Calvin. There are more different Europeans like east to west, not just Dutch people. Also, I definitely thought that America has higher obesity population than Amsterdam. This place is so foreign to me right now. New school for four months should be interesting. It’s weird that even though I’m at the café with a lot of people around me, I don’t know anybody. If I went to Johnny’s for lunch, I will see people I know everywhere. I wonder that the people around me know that I’m new. Probably, not.

I met some people from my floor and my floor is very diverse. There are Dutch, Romanian, German, Chinese, American, Korean and more. I like how we have a community kitchen so we can meet people on the floor. I get to cook and share food with other people. One Egyptian lady offered me some of her food one night and it was delicious. Oh, I was thinking that it will be chaotic without any RA, but it actually wasn’t crazy, which was interesting. I like the freedom.

Picture - Cafeteria in VU

On the way to Amsterdam

2012-02-02 Thursday

Right now we are in the plane to Amsterdam for spring semester. I have been excited and nervous about going. I was excited to live in Europe for four months and to experience something new totally different from Calvin College. In other hands, I was sad that I had to leave all my friends and school behind. Now I feel like I got to be close to all of my housemates and we could have so much fun. This is definitely a bittersweet thing.

I was in a plane to come back to Michigan from being in Korea for the Christmas break and Interim. And a week later, I’m back in a plane to totally different world. There are a few goals I have in mind for this semester. First of all I want to visit almost all the museums in Amsterdam. I found myself enjoying museums and love spending time in the environment. Second, I’ve never had a blog and I don’t really like writing, but I’m going to try write a blog every week and reflect myself what is happening and what I’m learning. And of course, I want to make friends from all over the world. At the end of this semester, I will be excited to read what I have done.

In the Netherlands, all of us are going to have a partnership with Calvin alumni. Annie and I are in one group with one person. We already email her about ourselves and check for a time to meet. She already had in mind to take us to Germany or Belgium. It will be great to know people who lived here for a while and show us around.

I can’t wait to see my apartment, school and where I am going to live for four months.



Picture - me and professor Aay in Schiphol