Nee. No Visa.

Today has been such a rollercoaster ride.

I woke up before my alarm went off, dragged myself out of bed, checked my email, talked to Lindsay for a while, and went to take a shower.

There must be some trick to the hot water I'm just not getting. I go in to wash my hands and its warm and steamy from one of my housemates' showers, and the water is warm, but every time I go to shower the water just won't heat up. It's frustrating, to say the least, and I haven't managed to pin down a housemate to ask yet.

By the time i left, I was running late and stressed out. I'd built extra time in my schedule to get to work, because I had no idea where I was going. Turns out work is less than a fifteen minute walk from home, so I was early. That was a pleasant surprise. The receptionist issued me a visitor's badge, and Ineke came and got me.

Less than an hour later, my backpack was full of signed contracts, HR binders, and guides to being an expat in the Netherlands. I had an appointment to register as a resident at town hall, an appointment to get the Dutch equivalent of a social security number, and the name of a bank that cuts Philips employees deals on accounts.

I met Jos, my boss. I met Martijn, the software architect I'm working with and talked through the project, started playing with preliminary coding work. This week is mostly to get settled, get everything worked out. I got my official badge printed--in the photo I'm half-smiling (it's actually one of the better pictures of me ever taken). I knocked off at lunchtime, came home, talked to Lindsay for well over an hour and headed out to get a bike and go to the housing rental agency. On the way home, I walked through the park (hence the photo). The sun was shining, there was a spring in my step...life was wonderful. Everything was coming together. I'm living here and starting to feel like I belong.

I couldn't figure out how to get into the damned bike shop. I think now I was pulling a puch-only door, but the only door I could find was around back and opaque, and I couldn't even tell if the place was open (even though their hours said they were) and...all in all it was frustrating. Eventually, I decided the 2 km from the bike shop to Rots-Vast wasn't too far, and walked it. I was a little late, but it wasn't too big a deal.

Wandered around downtown a bit. Parts of it are absolutely gorgeously picturesque--Europe is like no place else. There are maybe three skyscrapers, and the rest of the buildings are beautiful and old and brick. I'm starting to understand some Dutch already, especially written. Then it was time to walk home, and boy did I regret not having tried harder to get my hands on a bike. I was four and a half kilometers from home, and my feet started hurting about halfway there.

I came across a supermarket and decided to finally buy food. I planned out a whole meal for tonight--pasta with tomatoes and basil. I had yogurt for breakfasts, juice, mineral water...and then I got to the checkout and my card wouldn't run and the checker looked at it, shook her head at me, and said "Nee. No Visa." Turns out the company credit card was a great idea, but in practice, in a non-touristy town like Eindhoven, Visa isn't widely accepted. It's all Pin. So I'm stuck without money (I spent the last of my cash paying rent today--I should have insisted on using my card despite the 5.5% surcharge. There's no money in my account in the States. I have a slice of pizza and less than a euro to my name.

I trudged the rest of the way home, muttering curse words under my breath and trying to figure out how on earth I was going to survive the next week. Ugh. It's a setback, but I'll pull through somehow. I have a job, I can walk to town hall tomorrow to register as a resident (lord my feet are going to be sore...) and with any luck I'll be able to buy some food once Dad deposits some money in my account. I just need to scrape together enough for living expenses, eat a big lunch at Philips every day...it'll all work out.