June 3 Orientation Day

June 3, 2012

Today is Orientation Day for the study abroad group at noon.  Renie and I slept until 9:00 and wanted to spend a little time wandering and figuring out the twisting streets, canals, and bridges of Amsterdam.  We bought Metro tickets that in Amsterdam are good all day.  Orientation is scheduled to last two hours and we want to see the city as much as possible since museums will likely be closed after our visits tomorrow. 

We rode the metro to the museum district and hopped off for about 20 minutes just looking at buildings.  Since it was after 11:00 we boarded the metro to return to the hotel for orientation.  I am shocked by the number of college-aged backpackers that are on the metros.  Though there are plenty that speak English there are many others whose first language is not English.  Amsterdam, more than Paris, seemed full of travelers.  We passed the flower market where we plan to return to find some 'customs safe' bulbs.

Back in the hotel we the cohort was gathered in the lobby awaiting preparation of our meeting room and lunch on the second floor.  Finally, lunch of cold cut sandwiches similar to our class weekends was ready.  We were introduced to Ingleborg who will be leading us this week.  We also went around the room and went over our hand out which were on the schools we would be visiting this week, the city of Ghent, the city of Amsterdam, Belgium, and The Netherlands.  My hand out was on University of Kent, Brussels and by the time we got to my school we were almost out of time in the room.  However, I was quickly able to touch on the major points in my narrative of Kent-Brussels.

One of the funniest things from the Orientation was the review of Ghent, Belgium.  Ingleborg happens to be from Ghent and she was unsure where many of the points in the hand out came from.  I am sure that was a challenging city to present upon with a long-time resident in the room.

After orientation we had three hours free to tour prior to a dinner canal cruise of Amsterdam.  Since my college mascot is 'The Bulldogs' I wanted a picture beside The Bulldog Coffee shop.  Coffee shops in Amsterdam are quite different than your local Starbucks...no, we did not go inside.

Ralph came with us to tour the Heineken Experience 'Museum'.  It was interesting and told of how the beer is brewed and the history of the company.  The tour ended in a bar and included two free mugs of Heineken.

The day concluded with a canal tour of Amsterdam.  Though I was not able or even trying to hear the tour it was a nice relaxing end.  Renie and I sat with Ken and Annie and ate the food that was brought to us...."Chicken or Fish?"  Once the canal tour concluded we were too exhausted to do anything.  Sherif was leading a 'tour' through the Red Light District but Renie and I had some apple pie and coffee in a shop near our hotel.