What a great first weekend...

Wow! I have barely been here 3 days and I have already done so much. Here is a quick list of my activities thus far in Leiden:

1. Met the people I am living with for two weeks (very cool)
2. Believed to have secured an apartment
3. Toured the city
4. Listened to a famous Dutch DJ
5. Saw an amateur club soccer match

So let me begin... I met the students I am living with for the two introduction weeks, Eric and Marion. They both attend the University and live in apartment with two cats. They have been most helpful and guided me to getting a cell phone already and have been my translators for all my Dutch questions. It has been already very enjoyable to discuss and share about ourselves and cultures. Something that struck me as interesting tonight was the fact that they have never met an American and I had never met a Dutch person.

Along with that they have also helped with finding me an apartment for the school year. As rental space in Leiden is very limited I have been worried about finding an available apartment. But thanks to my new friends' help I believe I have found the perfect spot located in the center of town on one of the main canals. I am going on Monday to sign the lease making, this one less thing to worry about.

I have also acquired a bike from my friends' and took it out for the first spin on Saturday morning. I went for a self guided tour of the town and was amazed at how historic Leiden is.
While I have not learned all that much about the city I did manage to capture some of it on film...

Your Dutch flower stall at the Saturday morning market


A View of the center canal in Leiden


One of the historic Leiden windmills


Another view of Leiden's canals


Then on Saturday night we went to a disco to hear a famous Dutch DJ. It turns out the disco is unique to the city (and also the first time I had ever heard of such a thing). It turns out the disco is run on a not-for-profit basis, thus meaning all of the costs to the visitor are as low as possible. When I asked my Dutch friends about this they simply said, "They [the disco] want everyone to have a good time." Talk about a nice city!

And lastly, on Sunday I biked 20 minutes to a nearby small town of Zoeterwoude. Here my friend Eric grew up and still plays for the amateur soccer club SJZ. What they are most proud about is the fact that they moved up in the amateur league for the first time in their club's 60 years and now play in the third highest Dutch soccer division. While it was only a practice game with a team from The Hague it was good to get out and see the national sport.

All in all a great first weekend. Tomorrow is the start of the induction program...