Ik ben Zach en ik woon in Amsterdam!
The title of this means "my name is Zach and I live in Amsterdam," but pronouncing it would probably sound like an abomination of Dutch. I had my first Dutch language class yesterday at the "absolute beginner" level. Oh and you know that we watched Sesame Street where they sing the Dutch ABCs! The class was also quite the mixed bag of people who have all either decided to finally learn Dutch after living in Holland or was taking classes at UvA or VU. That is what made the obvious debauchery of the language that much funnier as all of us had completely different language backgrounds, yet were all failing equally as miserably. The majority of the class is spoken in Dutch, so it makes more of an incentive to learn. I also thought it was funny how most of us had no idea what she was saying, but she was the encouraging language mother who kept trying to help us understand.
Today was a day full of errands. I did some grocery shopping at the Turkish market and Albert Heijn and also purchased my Dutch language textbook. It has been consistently rainy and windy which has really warmed my budding Dutch spirit. But Syracuse is no paradise either, so I think I will survive.
Tomorrow I will be going canoeing if the weather holds up during the day which will be a nice change of pace outside the city. I have been getting some Thoreau angst; wanting to get back to nature and out of this concrete, brick, and cobblestone world.
