Time flies, faster than a speeding bullet shot out of a gun by Superman...

I cannot believe that it has almost been three weeks since I first arrived in London! If you ask me, I'd tell you that I JUST got here a few days ago, but then when I look at a calendar, I realize that TIME FLIES! The concept of time is so strange if you think about it. As a kid and a young adult, school determines your length of time and is measured in semesters and in school years. Each semester, you are in a new class, with new classmates, a new curriculum, and new homework. This starts from the preschool days and goes all the way until university graduation. For most of us, this encompasses the majority of our lives! However, since work has started (wow, almost 4 years ago), the whole concept of time has shifted. There aren't any more spring breaks to look forward to, no summer vacations lounging by the pool, and not as many big changes that used to occur at the turn of each semester! This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but causes to you evaluate what time even means. Anyways, back to the point I was making - in no time, I'll have been living and working in London for one month, two, three...

...I must make the most of the opportunity!

On that note, last weekend, I went on a quick weekend trip to Amsterdam. When I got to the airport, I bought a train ticket to Amsterdam Central train station, but I couldn't get figure out how to pay using the ticket machine...no, not because I'm retarded or anything, but because US credit cards and debit cards don't have a chip that European machines require. After attempting for a few minutes, a very nice Dutch girl tried to help me out but to no avail. I'll be honest, at first, I thought she was going to steal my credit card, and only found out much later that the Dutch are known to be very friendly and helpful. So, after both of us couldn't figure it out, I went to the counter, bought a ticket, and specifically asked, 'what platform and what time'. I swear the person told me, 'platform 3 at 11:37am'. I went to platform 3, boarded the 11:37am train, and sat back to relax, waiting to arrive in Amsterdam city center within 20 minutes. 10 minutes into the ride, I'm very excited and looking ahead to see if I can catch any glimpses of the city. 15 minutes in, I start to get a little bit worried because I don't see much happening. 20 minutes in, I remember that I should already be there but don't think too much about it, thinking, 'meh, the train is probably just running a bit late'. 25 minutes in, out of curiosity, I pull out my blackberry and look at Google maps...to see that my location icon tells me I'm heading further and further AWAY from the city! Long story short, I end up in Aimere. I'll chalk up this first adventure as the 'scenic route' to Amsterdam. No worries, when these things happen, I just take an opportunity to laugh at myself, and then tell the world about my stupidity!

While in Amsterdam, I met up with Andrew (childhood friend and old roommate from New York) and met a few of his friends. (I can't remember her name, but he called her J-Lo, so I'll call that too...) J-Lo had been living there for 1.5 years now and is on her way to learn Dutch. She said, Dutch is somewhat like English. However, it is as if you taught a five year old how to speak English, and as soon as they started to grasp it, you forced them to live in isolation in the woods, only to allow them back once they were there for 15 years. Then, you ask them to speak, and that is what Dutch sounds like. I thought, 'no way', but then she told us a couple of phrases, immediately all of us said, 'YEP, I now know what you mean'!

Also while in Amsterdam, Andrew and I hung out with another one of his friends (Stephen) who is there doing his PhD program. While visiting his 'real dutch apartment', he explained that there is very few options for housing for a foreigner. The first way that Dutch people get housing is through the social system (?) but the wait line is incredibly long. As a matter of fact, most Dutch parents will sign up their children before they are even born. Then, 18+ years later, they have a chance to get a low cost piece of real estate. The other way to get housing is through the private system (?), but this costs significantly more. As a reference point, Stephen's apartment would cost around 250 Euros / month through the social system but somewhere around 2000 Euros / month on the private market! Unfortunately, this means the real losers are the foreigners =(

Aside from that, Amsterdam was a blur. And no, not because of what you think. All throughout college, when people talked about going to Europe, it was viewed as a 'big trip'. I've held Europe in the same light, yet found myself in flying over on Saturday morning, and flying back on a Sunday night. Living in Europe must be so great because you could do these weekend jaunts whenever you wanted to. No big plans, travel guides, 'see everything and do everything' mentality needed!

I'm hooked and already planning some other trips. Croatia? Portugal? Poland? So many choices!

What can I say, life is good. No, I take that back, life is GREAT!