Tidbits and One-Liners

-Made it onto my flights without being tackled by security, check.
-Managed to somehow entertain myself for the 9 hour flight from Houston to Amsterdam, check.
-Luggage wasn’t lost, check.
-Semi-faked my way through international customs without having to provide a residence permit, check.
-Finally connected to wifi (and therefore messaging) in Amsterdam after deciphering some Dutch and haphazardly button-mashing my way through a host of foreign internet menus, check.
-Found an ATM and (eventually) remembered my PIN, check.
-Found and purchased a train ticket after wandering aimlessly for a time and asking multiple strangers variations of the same question, check.
-Boarded correct train after again asking various strangers what the heck I was doing, check.
-Mispronounced Dutch words, check.
-Mispronounced English words, check.
-Got off at correct Train exit and met contact, check.
-Somehow arrived at University College Utrecht, borrowed a bike, and did some quick reconnaissance, check.
-Managed to stay up late enough to where I’d be falling asleep at an acceptable time in the Netherlands, check.

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Some important lessons:

The best way to stave off jet-lag is to just not sleep at all, ever again.

The Netherlands has some pretty cheap waterfront property.  This is because the Netherlands is waterfront property. 

Swiss Army Knives and airports security terminals don’t mingle very well. Trust me. That 1-inch of sharp-as-a-semi-sharpened-toothpick can be deadly according to airport security.

Am I in Holland or the Netherlands?  Well.. it basically amounts to The Netherlands being the country’s official name, and Holland being two of the country’s main provinces where everything is located (North and South Holland, respectively).  In the Netherlands, they speak Dutch (along with English, pretty much everyone being bilingual), and they are called Dutch.  But those living in North or South Holland are called Hollanders. 

They speak Dutch here in the Netherlands, and they are called Dutch because they live in the Netherlands, but those living in North or South Holland are called Hollanders.  I could elaborate more, with name changes ranging from The Dutch Republic to the United States of Belgium to The Kingdom of Holland, but I’m just going to leave this handy resource here for your own amusement: http://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/the-difference-between-holland-the-netherlands

Ask Your Refrigerator

In an email from UCU, I was sent information regarding my on-campus room’s complete dependence on wifi.  Within this email was the following statement:

“The new thing about [educational buildings] is that these buildings are bristling with eduroam routers, even deep inside your rooms. This means that your wall outlet has been disconnected and closed, the Wi-Fi is the future, ask your refrigerator.”

I must admit that my confusion stems from the requested act of asking my refrigerator why exactly Wi-Fi is the wave of the future. I guess that’s just how it goes in Europe; refrigerators are all-intelligent beings, and I should defer to their judgement regarding such matters as Wi-Fi connection.

The Unexamined Life really Isn’t Worth Dancing To, Is It?

An eponymous first blog post is always the best kind of first blog post, am I right? And just because Socrates didn’t think up a spiffier, 21st century saying doesn’t mean I can’t embellish a tad. 

And to add some context to the whole scenario, Socrates’ quote – loosely, “the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being” – comes from Plato’s account in Apology of what Socrates said during his trial after choosing death over exile from Athens – a choice largely contested for answers, but basically coming down to preserving the belief of his own former choices, thoughts, and actions.

Thanks again, Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates
And Wikiquote – http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Socrates