Life in Leiden

(Again, a delayed post from last week)Everything is like out of a book or a movie. The streets are mostly cobblestone or brick, the buildings are hundreds of years old (the building we live in is around 1650's!!) , and the bikes...oh the bikes. People are crazy here. Bikes are just like cars and have the same rights. They just whip right past you, whether in car or on foot. I can't even really begin to describe what it's like but I can't wait to get my bike!!!

I love our apartment! It's the perfect first home. It's a one bedroom, one bath(kind of...the shower and a sink and mirror are in one small room and the toilet and another small sink are right across the hall. Very interesting). We have 3 big windows in the front that over look the street below and 2 big windows in our bedroom that overlook a small, inner courtyard between a bunch of our apts.

We met 2 of our neighbors who are super nice. They are older and one used to be in film making(logistics coordinator) and the other appeared to be a retired stewardess. They brought us chairs to sit on, a small table, a lamp, some kitchen ware to get by on and helped connect us with another man who is getting rid of a full household of items!!!

We spent most of yesterday walking around and exploring the city. We bought a bed! After one night of sleeping on this horrible air mattress, it was our first priority! It's being delivered on Monday. Hopefully this week I will make it up to Ikea in Delft to get some other items for our apt. Did you know that when someone leaves an apt, they take the light fixtures?? That's right, we have no light fixtures in our house. So come 8pm. It's pretty dark. That worked out ok the first night because we went to bed at 7pm and slept until 11am:) and then last night we had the lamp from our neighbors that we moved around from room to room. We also lit candles and called it romance:)

It's been quite an adventure so far. Sometimes all the differences are overwhelming and I see how it can get lonely when everyone is speaking Dutch. Most people do speak English if you ask but just walking down the road, all you hear is Dutch. Tomorrow Dan goes back to work and I am going to try and organize all of the stuff in our suitcases and wait for our beautiful new mattress to be delivered! Then I'm going to venture out on my own and hopefully find a wifi area to post all this and then on to the store to begin the shopping process. Hopefully we will have internet this week at home.

 (our street)