Monday, April 10, 2000

This was the semi-official getting-stuff-done day. All the non-dutch students went to talk to Jacqui in the Wiskunde (mathematical sciences, which appears to include physics) building at 8:30. I followed rather later, after what seemed a very brisk breakfast, shower, and dressing, but in retrospect must not have been, since it took me 45 minutes...

The whole group of us trooped into the Postbank (post office and bank combined!) to pay our rent. You can pay nearly any kind of bill via these types of transfers; I paid for my internet connection at the same time. Thence we went to the SSH (roughly: student housing service) to sign our room contracts. The SSH was kind enough to loan us their only other key for one of our rooms so that we can now arrange it for both of us to be out and for both of us to still get into either room. We weren't sure before how we were going to manage that. While we were getting the extra key, the rest of the group, panicked by the thought of only two and a half hours to shop, eat, and return for the first lecture, took off at high speed.

From there we went back to the shopping mall near the central train station (Hoog Catharijne/Utrecht Centraal Station) to do a bit more shopping. The store that had been suggested to us for bedding did not carry bedding, but we found a department store that had what seemed to us Americans to be reasonable prices on a duvet ("dekbed") and duvet sack ("dekbedovertrek"). At least, the prices in guilders weren't so much more than we would have paid in dollars for what looked to us to be similar duvets in the states. We couldn't avoid purchasing an extra set of pillowcases with the dekbedovertrek, but that's OK. We'll find uses for them. Perhaps to hold the extra pillow on the chair back?

We dropped off our new purchases in our room and went to lunch in the Educatorium. This time, it cost us only the equivalent of $1.45 per person for lunch. Kim went to the lecture and I went grocery shopping.

I don't have very much on my list of things that have to get done today. Start doing real work is a single large item; other than that, I have to do some laundry and wait for the phone connection so that I can test out my new internet account.

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Well, I don't know if the phone connection was ever made, because I wasn't given a PIN number to try it, so I don't know if my internet account works. Supper was cold bread and cheese in the room; too much work to go out. We'll at least go out Wednesday when we go to the concert... I started a little bit of work today, as well, and learned how to use the laundry machines (chose French as the language in the manuals I was most likely to understand) and re-discovered how long it takes to do laundry in Europe. I had thought that one washer and dryer for four people was plenty. Now I'm not so sure. There's time for a few loads of clothes in one day if you are there for hours to tend the machines.