My first fall from the bike or how I crashed my bike...

I know that the title suggests I should talk about my bike accident but I will first start with my last days and then, I will get to the most important part...

Change

It is almost unbelievable how adaptive I am. I don’t know if you are the same, but I have totally different feelings about Amsterdam and my staying here than I had the first two days. I feel really happy. I remember exactly that I was complaining a lot a few days ago and I feel different - totally. Nothing changed. I am just getting used to it. In addition, I realized that the time goes by really fast. I've been here for two weeks already. In fact, it seems to me that I already spent here more than months. Firstly, I am grateful I am sharing the room with Romca and I like it a lot. By the way, I am planning to write a whole story about our flat. Secondly, I set the priorities and I think I made a good choice about my studying program. Lastly, we are meeting new people every day which is really important to me – to be surrounded by people I feel good with.

On Sunday, we had a really lazy day. Since morning I wanted to study for my classes because it is getting busy but I could not. I needed to have some papers printed so we went to find a print shop which was located really far. Later, we did the laundry and it took us much more time than we expected. In addition, we needed to finish our Valuation homework. We checked the results with Jonathan and we put all answers into one file. Actually, we spent quite a lot of time with it. Hopefully, next time it will be better.

I decided to ignore my appointment for the City Hall and I went there directly to get the working permission earlier. Unfortunately, it did not work. I don’t know why we have everything organized in a different way than students had it last year. They did not need any appointment for the bank and they also did not need any appointment for the City Hall. The guy just told us that the earliest date for an appointment is 29th of September (in two weeks! ) and that´s all. I seriously hate this system! Therefore, we just got up early for nothing and we could go back. I immediately sent a message to Gwen but it seems that we will find a way for me to work there. Actually, I am officially starting to work there soon but I dont want to cheer before I really start.

On Monday we had “only” four hours class of Real Estate Markets and then we decided to check the gym. I think I already decided to buy a whole membership there! Even if I compare prices to the ones in the Czech Republic for group exercises, it is a good deal! They have six locations in Amsterdam but only four of them provide group exercises. Anyways, we can buy a membership for a whole year for 160 euros and we can go there whenever we want to. Since I totally fell in love with Fit Fight, I have nothing to think about. I really liked the class and my body hurt two days after, which is a good sign, I guess. When I went to Fit Fight for the first time, I did not know what to expect. I just thought we would do some boxing, but the trainer prepared everything in advance and the music was really motivating and it was hard training! Moreover, I did not experience that a guy would lead the class which is a nice change.

The Gym

This time we went there directly from class and it was a mess. I hate when I am late for exercising because there is no time to change the clothes and everything is in a hurry. When we entered the place we wanted to do a registration for free trial. The guy already told us that it would take some time but we would be able to catch the class we want to try – BBB. It was supposed to be working out focused on belly, ass and legs. The guy was quite funny. The registration was not short because we also had to do our finger print! I was so surprised. Normally, we could just change card for the gym in the Czech Republic but they have it properly made here and nobody cannot enter the gym without buying the membership. When we were done, the guy just told us we had only four minutes to start. We were running like crazy to the changing room. The place looked like a labyrinth! Seriously! When we were changed, we tried to open at least three doors but they were the wrong ones. When we finally found the right room, people were already warming up. We joined them and the class went quite well except for the fact that the teacher was speaking only Dutch! It was crazy. I don’t like the sound of the language at all. Moreover, it looked like she was really angry or something. When she found out we spoke only English, she did not care much. She just continued saying instructions in Dutch. I think that the class would be fine with English speaking lecturer. I was quite annoyed to watch everybody what to do. Moreover, it was only a normal work out. For me, Fit Fight was the way better! Nevertheless, I will probably buy the membership. The class went quite fast and we were going home to change and have something to eat because we were planning to have some drinks.

We met with few people from our building and when our RA team kicked us out we went to the bar. It is funny that we always know we are allowed to stay in front of our building until 10 at maximum but we never listen and RA team has to come to say that we should leave. This time we were going to the bar called Amstelhaven. I have to say that the bar looked really nice because it was all on the water but the service was not so good. We had to wait for a long time to order. We did not stay for a long time because we were quite tired and we had a big day (8 hours at school) ahead.

I thought that being at school for a whole day would be more than terrible but in the end it was a nice day. In the morning we went to the experiment which took place at our university. I already did these experiments in Prague and it is a nice way how to earn extra money because you just register for it, then you go to school usually for one hour and then you will get some money for answering the questions. This time the experiment was amazing! We had to do sum of five numbers and then we had to decide if we think we were better than half of the people attending the experiment or no. I decided to risk a little bit and I said I would do it faster and better than half of the people and then I tried and it went well. Therefore, we already received 25 euros after this experiment and we felt happy.

This day was supposed to be terrible because it was probably for me for the first time when I spent 6 hours at classes at a stretch. And you know what? It was not terrible at all. I was so surprised! It was a great day! It is completely different. I remember that I was a terrible student in Prague. I was so lazy to go to the classes and even if I went there, I did not pay attention much. I remember that I did not have problem to spend 2 hours on my mobile phone instead of listening to the teacher. It happened really rarely that I would listen to the teacher whole time. Maybe never. That´s why I did not go often to the classes because I knew that it was useless and I could go for example working instead because I did not pay attention. I cannot say that it is different here because I am here only for 2 weeks but so far, I was acting differently. I am really interested in the topic. I don’t want to miss any class. The lectures are really interesting and they are more practical than all classes I had in Prague. Moreover, even if we have four hour class, the teacher gives us a lot of breaks which helps and we can get the coffee during the break and it is all right. So if I count also experiment we spent 8 hours at school on Tuesday and I was in a good mood. The teacher even let us go one hour earlier go but we had some econometrics class afterwards.

We decided to go to the café and have a coffee. We saw three our classmates from Real Estate Finance track and they told us to join them. Since they were having a beer, we also took some. It was nice to talk to them because we did not know each other before. They were really friendly. They are from Holland and they all study dual track. One of them spent one semester in Prague so we had a lot of things to talk about. One hour went fast and we had to go to the class again. It was so hot weather this day! Seriously, it was unbelievable! We were wearing just shorts and we still felt hot. We went to another building where we had classes of Econometrics. It was quite difficult to be focused after the beers at 5 pm but the teacher was really good. Again, if I compare him to the teachers in Prague, he really answered all questions and he explained everything well. I had mixed feelings from this day because I really liked it and on the other hand, we felt totally swamped with all homework, readings and information. In addition, I bought the most expensive book in my life – Real Estate Valuation – for 60 euros! I hope it will be useful.

Dappermarkt

On Wednesday, we decided to explore new places in Amsterdam and we went to the Dappermarkt. We already heard a lot of information about it from our friends. We went there by bike and it was quite close to school. We were so happy! They had orange smoothies for 1 or 1. 5 euros so we immediately took one. I am already missing my mixer where I did smoothies all the time.

They were selling a lot of things – mainly clothes and fruit and vegetable. We were interested in fruit and vegetable. We were really successful and we bought big mangos for 0. 75 euros, some avocados for 50 cents, some raspberries for 1 euro and a big piece of watermelon for 1 euro. Normally, we pay much more for this in Albert Heijn. It is a good place!

This day we also went to the experiment but it was quite boring and we did not get much money as the day before. We already read our instructions for the valuation case and we went to check the building we are going to appraise. It is located in Java Island. We were surprised that it is a big complex and not only one building. We checked the location, the state of the building, restaurants, surrounding and we took some pictures. We also saw the beach we went to last time and we regretted we did not take our swimsuit because it was crazily hot and the beach was overcrowded.

When we were back, we decided to work a little bit and as a reward, we took our fruit to study outside in a bench. I did not expect it to be so demanding! The sun was shining and we felt exhausted. We managed to finish one of two homework. We already did it during the class but we checked all the answers and we put it into one file. We also wanted to finish the second one but it just made us angry because it was quite hard and the teacher did not talk about the things from the homework much. I think we will try it tomorrow because we need to read some examples before.

Potluck dinner

We agreed with Romca that time here goes by so fast. We are always in a hurry and we don’t have much time to relax. We always have a lot of things to do and a lot of things to plan and a lot of places to go. It was the same this afternoon. We wanted to do some exercise so bad, but there was no time because we were having a Potluck dinner during the evening. This event was organized by our RA team for people from our buildings. The main idea was that everybody should cook something from his country and share the food with another people. On the event, there were not so many people but when we came we were nicely surprised! There were already many people sitting on the benches. We did not really expect to meet new people but we did! There was a new guy and girl from Bulgaria and they were friendly. Next, we talked to Italian girl. Later on, we also talked with people from Turkey and there were also people we already knew. The food was delicious! I was so worried that I would eat too much because I remember exactly our French Tasting in Lille. The school paid for whole evening and we had unlimited drinks and food for free. It was crazy! I was just running from one table to another one and I did not have enough. It was a disaster when the evening finished because I was so full. I have to admit that it was too much. Seriously! I was not able to walk! Since that time, I promised myself I will never eat so much. This time, I was trying to control myself but we tasted a lot of delicious food!

We were thinking what to cook from the Czech Republic. After long consideration, we chose dish called “bramboráky” which is made from potatoes. When I went to visit Lucy in Luxembourg, we also wanted to participate in international dinner where everybody should cook something from his country. We prepared potato pancakes with no problem but when we started to taste what we cook we could not stop and we just ate all of them and there was nothing left for the dinner and we did not go there. This time it was different. We prepared dough and made it from 3 kilograms of potatoes. We were quite late. In our flat, we have a small kitchen and it's warm every time when we cook. This time it was insane! The cooker is crazy! We already burnt ourselves many times!

We borrowed the second pan and we were frying as crazy. We had many potato pancakes! We had to change in the kitchen because there was around 35 degrees. I guess that we looked so funny because we could not survive cooking in the kitchen and we were totally exhausted after. When we were finally done we just went downstairs where few people were already having dinner.

There were many types of food! Few of our Czech friends prepared Czech dumplings with apricots and potato salad with schnitzels. It was delicious! There were also Swedish smoked salmon on bread, sandwiches with chicken and avocado, Bulgarian cheese, Chinese chicken, fish, egg with chicken, Turkish dish, Spanish tortilla and Polish pancakes and French crepes. Last but not least important were Dutch specialties prepared by our RA team. We tried fricadelle, meat balls and their dessert. I hope I did not forget anything. For me, the best things were Polish pancakes! If I say pancakes I mean the small ones! We also have them in the Czech Republic but these were made with apples and it was just super tasty. I am also happy to meet our Polish friends because they are easy going, friendly, talkative and in for every fun! I felt terrible because I was changing the food like crazy. I started eating salty things, then I had dessert. It followed with the second round of salty food and dessert. And this repeated at least three times! We were so delighted that many people came and that so many people brought the food. The weather was so hot! I felt like being in Spain or Italy because we were just wearing dresses whole night with no sweatshirt.

Bike fall

I appreciate if you still read this because I was describing everything in detail and I am finally getting to the most important point of yesterday´s night – bike fall.

During our last party – Barbecue – a lot of shitty things happened. When I was skyping with my mum I had a list of at least three things that happened to us and I was exactly saying: “Well, so Kristyna dropped her phone and she had to pay a lot to repair it, then she fell from her bike and she was bleeding the whole night. Later on, Romca´s phone got stolen and she had to buy a new one. In addition, it happened to us twice that two people locked their bikes together at the party and then they lost each other and they had to walk home. Once it was John and Jeremy. Last time it was me in Romca. What the hell is wrong here? We are here for two weeks and we experienced all kind of disasters”. I continued: “I think I was lucky. Locking bikes together and then not being able to use it is not a catastrophe. I am now waiting what will follow“. I think I exactly said:” I am just waiting for what will happen to me next time”. I guess that I brought the bad luck to me while saying this because…

We did not plan to have a party after the dinner but it turned into a party really easily. As always, we were “forced” to leave our courtyard at around 11 pm. Jeremy had an amazing idea – to go to the closest shop to buy some alcohol because we'd already drunk everything. I was just following the rest. I don’t know why but everybody was riding quite fast. At least that was my impression. Fredrick was actually riding like crazy. He was going from left to right and it was fun. I was the last one with Mikael. We were heading to the Central Station to go to the supermarket. I was just biking and suddenly I saw many tram lines in front of me. I remember all the details that were in my mind at that time. I was thinking that I should be really careful because Kristyna said it is easy to fall. I was thinking that one girl at the introduction day warned us to be careful with tram lines because it is easy to get stuck there. I remember that many people told me they fell from their bike. Everything in my head suggested that I should pay attention and that I should slow down.

I was watching the railways and they were twisting to the left. I was in the middle of them and I knew that it was time to cross them. I knew exactly that the only way how I could cross them was at a right angle. Unfortunately, I was not able to do it. I knew perfectly how not to do it and that´s what happened. Then, I just saw my wheel tyre stuck in the whole of tram line and I knew I was going to fall. And I did.

You have no idea how it hurts! I was surprised that Kristyna fell last time and in fact, I thought it was mainly because of alcohol but now I know that it was not. I mean, it is not so safe to fall on the road, with bare legs (I was just wearing a dress) when you speed fast. I got up quite quickly and I told everybody I was totally okay. Not really. It hurt so much. I was not even able to bike back home so I decided to walk with my bike aside. It took us ages to get just from the Central Station to my accommodation. Tyna promised me to give me disinfectant on it. When she put there one tiny amount of that liquid I could not stand it! It was awful! I wanted to go directly home but other people convinced me to continue with them to Coco´s and I just went. (The picture does not look as horrible as it was).

Coco´s

We were heading to Coco´s. It is one famous student bar in the city centre of Amsterdam. Since I arrived, we already went there at least three times. For me, I quite like the place. The first reason is, that they have 9 shots of Jägermeister for 10 euros and the second reason is that they are playing great music. This time it was not so comfortable to be there. It was overcrowded there and moreover the air was sultry – totally. We had to go outside at least three times to cool down because of the hot weather. We had some problems to get inside because we still did not get our student card with girls! This time the girls decided to leave their phones at home to avoid losing or stealing it. I might do it also next time because I already got to remember the way to this bar and back to my place. Finally I can dare going alone with no maps! Few days ago I had still no clue where the club is located even though we went there many times. I almost forget about my injury but when I was at home washing it, it hurt like hell.

We did nothing today (the day after). In the morning we just went to check one apartment for David and when I was back I experienced an annoying thing. A few of my friends told me that they often wake up early after a party and they are not able to sleep anymore that day even though they are more than exhausted. I did not believe them and I did not take it seriously because it never happened to me. I am always willing to sleep after the party whenever I want and wherever I want. This time it was different. When we came back from our flat search, I was looking forward to be again in my bed but when I was there I could not fell asleep anymore. I was tired as hell but I was still thinking about many things and I was just lying there. After one hour I decided to wake up and do something.

We managed to do cheap shopping in Dirk and we had some school classes. Actually, the whole day was about my “big” dilemma with registration at my university in the Czech Republic. It got so complicated and I was not able to decide. I hate when I do it. And it is happening often. Therefore, I was just exploring all possibilities and I talked to everybody about it and I still haven’t found a perfect solution. I should go to Prague because of it, but I need to do a lot of school stuff and I am supposed to start working next week. On the other side, I already decided to register at the university in Prague as well and I don’t feel like changing my mind. Tomorrow I will make a decision about it. Now I should finally go to sleep. I have a lot of things ahead. In the morning, some people are coming to repair our hood in the kitchen, we are planning to finish our homework for Valuation, hopefully I will manage to go to the Fit Fight class and we are going to a Mexican party (finally) in the evening to celebrate Mexican Independence Day!

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