Dam! We're here...

Friends, family, lost web surfers... welcome to the inaguaral blog of Criscross and Eparks, runaway Nlaw students out to take Europe by storm.

After confusing our departure date ("what!?! we're leaving Tuesday not Wednesday?!") and saying our goodbyes to both cat and friends (thanks to all who ventured out to Mickey's Bar!), we jumped on a massive KLM 747 en route to the Netherlands.

The first four days were a wee bit scary - 'dam ain't like the US where you can pull a sublet on the fly. There are so many international students and random foreigners looking for housing and so few Dutch who ever leave the city that housing is truly a nightmare. Plus, for every 20 apt postings we responded to, only one would be an actual apt. Most of the email responses we received contained some variation of "I'm in [insert faraway city] on a [insert some religious or noble undertaking] but if you send me your [passport no., dob, addy] and [ridiculous sum of Euros] I [promise/swear/guarantee] I will mail the keys!"

Luckily, we were blessed with a little British angel, a funky lady who owns super sweet digs only 10 min from our university, 25 minutes by bike to the center of amsterdam, and 15 min by tram. Come visit! We have a blow-up bed for visiters! (Although, we will require a block of cheese or a bottle of wine or something - the exchange rate is ridiculous and we can't afford to eat or over-indulge in drink... we kinda hope something awful happens to plummet the euro and mega-strengthen the dollar...).

Now, a week in, we are gonna focus on getting the lay of the land. We've unpacked, bought our bikes today, registered for classes. We've also been learning fast on our feet - like you have to pay for grocery bags, dutch is the dominant language and very few if anything is translated (some instances where we were foiled by our language abilities: when I accidentally bought buttermilk and watched it curdle in my coffee, when erica bought fizzy wine). Needless to say, we are headed to Dutch classes!

Amsterdam is a very liveable city. Pretty much every walk I've taken is postcard quality picturesque. Posh mansions, wine bars, shops and cafes line our commute into the city. Our particular neighborhood is ethnically diverse: we have two indonesian take-out places on our block. Also have two bars, one nudie club, one pot cafe, and a number of merchant stalls - so for a neighborhood, it's quite self-sufficient.

Right, well if you're contemplating a visit and want to assess the digs, check out our pics below. Othwerwise, stay tuned for more hilarity in erica's-yet-to-come posting. xoxox, criscross