Soon after my last post, I had a Monday morning when my alarm was set at 7am. I looked outside the window and it was still dark, my bed was so nice and warm, and then for the first time I realized that it really is normal everyday life here, not a holiday full of adventurous things, and that waking up in the morning would still be as hard as back in Finland. Yes I'm not a morning person.
On most weekdays my time is spent between the university and the campus. Couple times I suddenly realized that I'm actually living in Amsterdam, world-wide known metropolis, which is easy to forget when you don't visit the center or other busy areas for some days. The contrast between the area where I spend my daily life (south part of Amsterdam / Amstelveen) and the inner city is really big, but I like the nature and calmer environment that surrounds the campus.
Also last Sunday evening I cycled to a different grocery store for the first time, situated right next to the campus area. On my way there I noticed all the normal dutch homes next to a small river and the families inside of them (it's so weird that here you can see so well into the houses from the windows, i always feel like a creepy stalker) living their everyday lives. That gave me a really cozy feeling somehow.
That was also one of the only times that I felt like I should have worn gloves cause it was a bit chilly. I didn't realize it would still be this warm here, specially when yesterday it snowed all over in Finland.. What I really like is that it's not as dark here. Evening mornings seem better when it is not pitch dark at 8am. I'm even slowly getting used to the every-day rain fall..
But couple weeks ago two of my friends came here from Finland, and the weather was so nice the whole time! The pictures in this post are mostly from those days, since having them here gave me a good reason to just go around taking touristic pictures of everything, instead of studying.
Today I had my second and last exam of this period, and Monday I'll start two new courses. But before that we will celebrate Halloween this evening, hahaa! Have a good weekend everyone!
