Arrival + first impressions

Hello there, lovely readers.

I have arrived in Leiden, safe and sound, but getting to this point has been a rather stressful experience. Not the traveling itself, per se, but actually finding a place to stay has proven more difficult than I had anticipated. In fact, I only secured a room to rent a week and a half ago, which was a lot later than planned. The impeding deadline that marked the start of my internship abroad –which I had been looking forward to as a nice change of scenery—soon became a stress-inducing sword of Damocles hanging ominously above my scalp.

I cannot say I enjoyed the first few days of the Easter break, as the days were filled with worry, stress, and frustration. Time flew despite me not doing much besides scouring the internet for available flats, room, studios or a cupboard under the stairs I could stay in. I must also clarify that a room I had thought would be mine was snatched away right under my nose at the start of the Easter break, which was rather devastating. Of course, I hadn’t been resting on my laurels while the landlady was considering me as the tenant, and soon after I got a response to two of the dozen or so messages I’d sent to people with a room for rent. One of which I can now call ‘mine’ for the time being.

Speaking of those messages, I figure I’ve sent around 50 or so, and I can count the amount of people who responded at all on my two hands. Those who didn’t respond with “I’m sorry, but two months is too short a period of time for me to rent out this room” and actually considered it, I can count on one hand. Seriously. I don’t like being turned down at all, but I prefer it to the informational void created by not receiving any response at all.

All that aside though, I am quite pleased with the place I found. It’s an old house which has gone through some renovations recently (and some of those aren’t finished yet), and there was a thick layer of dust on the floor and furniture of the entire second floor (where my room is), and first floor (which is the living room and kitchen area) to a lesser extent. First thing I did after unpacking was, of course, spend some quality time feeding the vacuum cleaner. I probably should mop the floors to silence that nagging little voice telling me I shouldn’t walk around without shoes on.

Despite this, I really feel like on holiday. Everything is new and foreign. For all intents and purposes, the people speak a different language. The weather’s absolutely fantastic. If I didn’t know where I was, I’d think I was in Spain or Italy. I feel like I might melt any second.

I’ve spent the afternoon outside, postponing refreshing my understanding of the R course, its packages, and commands (as any good student is prone to do) to see the sights instead. People have told me Leiden is a beautiful city, and now I seeing it with my own eyes, I do agree. It reminds me of Ghent, if I’m being honest. The inner core of Ghent has the same feel as Leiden. Both are cities defined by the amount of students present, and it brings with it a certain type of atmosphere. I can’t really describe it. It just makes sense to me.

From what I’ve seen here, most buildings are tall and thin, often boasting three or even four stories, but not being all that wide. The windows are large as well. I do like the unifying architecture, I recall Dublin being some sort of mismatch of different styles, which is just plain horrible. Leiden has some more modern-looking buildings here and there, of course, but in the center most adhere to one specific style.

All in all, I do think I'll like Leiden. I am looking forward to my internship, despite the thought of it makes me a little nervous.

I’ll end this post here for now.

Until next time,

Tibbert

PS. I noticed when unpacking that I packed the charger of my electric razor, but forgot to pack the razor itself (whoo me!). I hope that’s the only thing I forgot, else I might be in trouble.