Hello and welcome to a lovely Sunday morning. Today, we met up at 10 in the morning to head over to a large vintage market. We got to go on a ferry which makes our 3rd boat ride of the trip. I love me a good thrift store so I was really excited to go to this market. Today was also mother’s day so I wished my mom a Happy Mother’s Day when it was about 4 am back home.

I was actually not prepared for just how large this was going to be. We had two hours to walk around and explore and I still could not get to everything. I have been looking for a corduroy jacket for a couple months now and I finally found one so I immediately made that purchase. I also found this really cool vintage floral vest. Along with clothes, I also picked up a cool chain and a couple pairs of earrings. Overall, I am very pleased with how my haul turned out.

After the market, we headed to the alumni meet up. Of course, we got a couple non-alcoholic drinks like soda and juice but they also had really good snacks that just never stopped coming. I had some really good conversations with a couple of the alumni. Unfortunately, I am very bad with names but I will do my best to summarize.

I met this woman whose name is Kira (pardon my spelling) and she shared how she ended up in the Netherlands. She originally got a major in political science but is now working in energy and developing sustainable energy. After she got her masters, she took a job in France and then from there met her husband and they both moved to Amsterdam. This just helps show who knows where we can end up after we graduate. Anything can happen depending on the choices and opportunities we have.

Next, we talked to a man who originally got his bachelor’s at Wooster in Ohio. His freshmen year girlfriend actually went to my hometown. He then got his masters at Pitt and eventually started working for an American company in Amsterdam. He had some incredible insight on working in the Netherlands and with Dutch people. They are very prideful and stubborn so they make a lot of choices that follow along with believing they know the best way to succeed. He also had some really interesting insights on how the Netherlands’ colonizing history and the fact that they had an extreme amount of wealth at the time has contributed to their success. This felt like a really honest opinion that almost felt refreshing.

Then, I talked to this younger couple that both graduated in 2015. We first bonded over how we lived in Lothrop. I was on floor 4 while they lived on floor 3. It was also refreshing to talk to people that were slightly closer to our age. By this time, we had to wrap up and so we took a pic and headed out.

My mission for the rest of the day was to do my laundry. However, the generator currently only has one set of machines for the entire building so that was not an option. So, to a local laundromat I went. This was not exactly the smoothest experience. I forgot to check what they took for payment before I put my clothes and everything in. So, of course, they only took Dutch credit cards and small bills. A woman from Washington saw me struggling and gave some advice. I ended up trusting a Dutch woman to watch my clothes so I could go to the nearest Albert Heijns and break up a 20 euro bill. On the return trip, I had less than ideal interactions with some older men and almost walked into a group of bikers but I made it back to the laundromat. In my clothes went and within an hour and a half I had sufficiently clean and mostly dry clothes.

I walked back to the generator and decided I needed to go on a run to clear my head after that stressful experience. I did 4 laps around Oosterpark. I love the area; It is so cute. I love people watching and see everybody enjoy their Sunday evening in the park.

I am now showered and dressed and ready to go find something to eat. However, it is quite late and a Sunday evening so we shall see what we can come up with. Until tomorrow <3