Today was an amazing day! I can’t believe I’ve already been here for a week. Today we got to travel to the largest flea market in all of Europe, and it definitely was ginormous. We took the ferry to get to where it was and I was amazed by how accessible it was. The ferry was also free, which is unlike anything I would find in America. When we got to the market I felt very at home to say the least. I really love thrift shopping and although it may not be good for my pockets, it’s an amazing way to express myself. The market just kept going on and on and on. Overall, we had about two hours to explore and by the end of it I still wasn’t able to see everything. I feel like it was a very successful time however. I bought a nice brown polo, sunglasses, and a necklace for my girlfriend. Don’t worry I already got my mom gift for mother’s day. I think the entire flea market setup was very interesting, and the enjoyment of walking around and looking at the cool items is something I would definitely want to do again. There was even some bargaining going on as I was able to get two shirts for less money than they would be individually. Luckily, Drew wanted the other shirt and was able to pay me back for his half.

After the market, we got to meet up with a few Pitt alumni in the area. It was amazing to see how strong Pitt’s alumni network truly is. I got some insight on what they did at Pitt and what they do now. This helped calm my nerves about the future since many of them had several career path changes in their life. I learned about what it’s like to work abroad and how the work life balance is different than America. They have 25 holiday days off, which is definitely more lenient than in the states. One of the alumni was also telling me how different the wage gaps are here, and the history of the country’s wealth. Since the Netherlands had so much gold in the 1500s, they have been able to keep the wealth of the country relatively high. This makes sense since I do not see a lot of poverty in the city. A salary difference in the Netherlands that I found very interesting was an example that one of the alumni used. He told me, as a mechanical engineer, that a starting salary for one of my jobs in the US would be around $60,000 give or take, but in the Netherlands it would be about $35,000. Now, this is only one example and all cases are different, but he told me that the quality of life in the Netherlands is so great so the wage barely makes a difference. This was a very unique perspective and opened my mind as to why people move locations for their job, outside of a salary increase.

We finished the day with some more shopping since we still were in the shopping mood, and I bought myself some shorts from Hang Eleven. I think I’m going to get some extra sleep tonight to prepare me for an exciting day at Schiphol tomorrow!