After Day One consisted of flying for an entire day from Pittsburgh Airport to Boston Logan Airport, and then from Boston Logan Airport to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, we finally arrived in Amsterdam. Day Two began at approximately 6:00 in the morning, with our arrival at Amsterdam Schiphol. While on the flight from BOS to AMS, I met a Dutch student that was attending the University of Providence in Rhode Island. It turned out that they were also a freshman student, and we got to talking about the Netherlands and Amsterdam. Upon our arrival in Amsterdam, we met our tour guide, Raha, who showed us to our hotel and toured us around the area of Amsterdam Centraal Station in the form of a scavengar hunt. After we finished the scavengar hunt, the class split into smaller groups and I had a great lunch along Damrak. Finally, we enjoyed dinner at Coco’s Outback after spending a few hours at the Menninger Hotel to relax.

Some factors of the Netherlands that immediately stuck out to me was the prevalance of English in everything from signs, banners, announcements, to even conversations. After traveling so frequently to Japan, I had become accustomed to the occasional English subtitle on a sign or Latin text on advertisements, but the absolute dominance of English as the secondary language to Dutch (with Dutch being completely absent at times in favour of Enlglish) was suprising to me. For example, I passed by a Dunkin Donuts in Amsterdam Centraal Station and noticed that not a single piece of text in the entire store was written in Dutch; in fact, it may as well have been the local Dunkin’ in my New Jersey hometown. Almost everybody that I talked to today has also understood English to some extent, which is in stark contrast to Japan, where fellow English speakers are rare to come by.

Another interesting observation that I made was the stark difference in approach to infastructure between the the Netherlands and the United States (and in many ways, Japan as well!). After stepping out of Amsterdam Centraal Station, it became immediately obvious to me that bicyles and public transportation were of the highest priority for Dutch city planners. Additionally, it seemed to me that brick appeared to be the preffered choice of material for sidewalks and roadways, compared to the common asphalt and concrete materials used in American and Japanese cities. While I agree that public transit should absolutely take priority over vehicles in dense city areas, and that excellent biking infastructure encourages more trips with bikes over personal vehicles and promotes a healthier society, I can’t help but feel that many of the streets in Amstedam feel cluttered and confusing. With seemingly arbritrary bike lanes, roadways, and tram tracks criss-crossing each other and unexpectadely short pedestrian traffic lights (that nobody was using), I think I prefer the clear seperations between motor vehicles, transit vehicles, and pedestrains that is built into American city design.

Overall, today has been fantastic and I am excited to see what Day Three has to offer! Some things that particularly excite me about Day Three is the canal cruise and the early dismissal from planned activities, meaning we have extra time to explore the city on our own!