Rotterdam

I finally made it to Rotterdam!

The British Airways flight was pleasant, despite me sitting in the middle seat. The in-flight entertainment left a lot to be desired, although 3 servings of Johnnie Walker compensated for that. I have heard many horror stories about Heathrow and British Airways, but touchwood, I didn't face any issues. I was accompanied by Ashwin, from Chennai to Amsterdam. We arrived at Schiphol in the afternoon. The immigration was a breeze. It took me only 10 seconds to clear immigration! Sweet! We were then received by Jan, our RSM contact, who got us tickets for the train to Rotterdam. At the station we were joined by Derek, a fellow MBA12 student, from New York. Thanks to the amount of baggage, we couldn't find a place to keep them. As a result, we put ourselves and our baggages in the luggage compartment, which reminded me of the part in DDLJ where SRK meets Kajol for the first time.

30 minutes later, we were at Rotterdam and received by Rick who gave me the keys to my apartment. Abdul the driver of our taxi, was nice enough to tell us a lot about Rotterdam and Dutch people in general. As we drove through the city, I found Rotterdam to be a cozy, yet quite urban, and of course - quintessentially European. With KVD already having shown me pics of her room at the Erasmus International House (or I-House) I had a faint idea of what my room would look like. But yes, it was definitely bigger than my room in Jersey City.

Internet setup was quick and easy, thanks to the 30 ft cable (one of the zillion things my sis had left behind for me). A few phone calls later, I decided to unpack my suitcases. Halfway through, I decided against it. I then received an invite from a fellow classmate for dinner at Bazaar ( a Turkish restaurant), where I met some of my fellow classmates. We then spent a while at a pub for a drink after which we headed home.

Being our first day at Rotterdam, the end of the day HAD to be dramatic. Derek and a few others were "caught" travelling without tickets by inspectors in the Tram. In reality, they were only waiting in the queue to purchase the ticket. We tried to reason out but the inspectors appeared to be stickler for rules and they insisted on the fine - EUR 38.5. I was lucky enough to purchase my ticket as soon as I boarded the tram. Amidst this fiasco, we had gone one stop too far. Having lived/worked in Manhattan, Derek and I decided to walk back. The others were also up for it, as no one wanted to board another tram for the rest of the day! We shared stories of how we all had been fined at some point in our lives as we walked back to I-House.

That was quite an "exciting" way to end the day!