Is this day one, day two, or day three? I'm confused.

Any way you count it, it's the first full day I've been in the Netherlands.

Last night, I went to sleep very early, and only got up once to check the time and answer the call of nature.  I couldn't find my watch, and my cell phone doesn't even show the time here--so it's useless as an alarm clock--so I went downstairs to ask someone in the lounge what time it was.  It was midnight.

Woke up around 8:30 a.m. (that's 1:30 a.m. back home) and got dressed before going down to the lounge for the free breakfast.  No poffertjes or lamatjespap (not sure how to spell that one), but it's summer, so I figure they wouldn't make those right now anyway.  They did have cereal, bread (plus toasters), coffee, various juices, jam, chocolate/hazelnut spread (a.k.a. Nutella), CHOCOLATE SPRINKLES, and some sort of cakey square thing which I'm sure tasted familiar but I can't quite remember the name of.  I didn't have one of everything, but I ate enough.

After breakfast, I went up to get my money and stuff before heading to the supermarket.  I needed bottled water and some lip balm.  I'd lost the tube of Blistex I keep in my backpack--and found it again after I'd been to the market anyway.  Started taking pictures on the way to and from.

Back from the market, I got my stuff together and rented a bicycle--8 euros, plus a 50 euro deposit per day--then headed out to see the cube houses.

I forgot to mention yesterday that, in all my frienzied, Monday night packing, I knew I was going to forget something.  Odd thing is, it wasn't something I missed until I got to Rotterdam Centraal yesterday: the Netherlands road map Grandma lent me.  It would have been nice to have, but I can live without it, even though the Rotterdam City map the receptionist at the hostel gave me isn't nearly detailed enough to be 100% comprehensible.

Anyway, saw the cube houses, then went back to the hostel for lunch.  Ate that, and then brought my computer downstairs to look up directions to the Peppels' house.  Walking would take over 5 hours, and biking about 1½, so I'm not sure I want to do even that.  Instead, I looked up where their ward meets for church.  Turns out, they're in the Rotterdam 1st ward, and their building is just a 9-minute bike ride away . . . if you don't get lost 3-5 times along the way, that is.

The biking directions I got online (at http://www.fietsersbond.nl/fietsrouteplanner/) were so convoluted, and I couldn't see many street signs when I went past a block or two, so I kept getting lost on the way to the church.  I finally got there though, and took the straight route back to the hostel.  Now I know how to reverse it and get to the church without trouble.

I decided that was enough biking for the day (it was 3 p.m), so I turned in the keys for the bike locks (got my 50 Euros back, too) and decided to bum around the hostel for the rest of the day.  I've been on the computer since about 4, and got my list of NPCs for the RPG I'm going to run this summer typed up.

I thought of typing up the new scenes I'd written for my fantasy story, but this chair is hard, and I need some dinner anyway. Right after I hit the "Submit" button on this post, I'm logging off.  Pictures are in my "Vacation in Holland" album on Facebook!

Maybe I should do some more Rosetta Stone tomorrow . . . nah.  I'd look silly talking to my computer in the middle of the lounge (wi-fi doesn't reach to the 3rd floor).