First Day in Amsterdam

Lala and I arrived in Amsterdam-Schiphol airport. We were picked up by Lala’s mom’s friend, Ety and her friends. We drove to Badhoevedorp, a suburb just outside of Amsterdam, where Ety and her Dutch husband live. –dorp, at the end of Badhoevedorp means village.



Both Lala and I were tired though from our flights, especially Lala. Her flight was 14 hours long, whereas mine was only 7 ½ hours. However, we said to each other that we could hardly sleep during our flights and actually had less than an hour to get any rest.

So now we’re at our destination, where we found that the place was extremely small. Our room was so small, that a single bed was the biggest furniture in it. Anything bigger than that would definitely not fit. There were many books on shelves attached to the wall. An exercise bike machine to add. A tall bookshelf at the end. And finally an old fashion heater, which may be familiar in some buildings in the east coast but totally unheard of in the west coast. There, we prefer central heating and cooling. After further observation, we decided that it would be best to only stay for 2 nights here, and we will book a hotel room closer to the city center of Amsterdam.



We thought about going to Amsterdam in the afternoon, but we were quite exhausted. So we slept for almost 6 hours. When we woke up, it was already near dinner time, by the hosts’ standard. We complied, because we were treated with homemade Indonesian food. We talked during dinner, partly in Indonesian, partly in Dutch, and very little in English.