First full day in Tilburg

It seems like everyone here but me drinks a LOT.  The day was pretty much devoted to hanging out at some bar for "Welcome Drinks."  We took a bus over to it at 3 (they start early!) and were just told we could hang out however long we wanted and go back to the apartments whenever we were ready.  A few people couldn't believe I didn't want to drink because as I was told on a couple occasions, "all the Americans who come to Holland just come to drink and smoke." When we were ready to go, Morris, some Norwegian guy named Martin and I talked to one of the mentors, and she told us to just take the 2, 3, or 4 bus back to Conservatoriamlaan (no clue how to spell that...), but she forgot to tell us which direction we needed to take it.  Needless to say, we walked to a farther bus stop then the really needed to and then took it in the wrong direction and had to sit on the bus as it went all the way to the end of its route and then back in the other direction.  Oh well, live and learn.  At least we got to see a little more of the city in the process

Other than a few restaurants and bars, EVERYTHING closes on Sundays.  Luckily we bought food yesterday, but a bunch of us really need to go shopping for a few things, and there is absolutely nowhere that is open on Sundays.  I miss 24/7 Walmarts and restaurants!

A couple hours later, we went to another building where a bunch of people were hanging out getting to know each other.  Everyone here is from all over the world, it's pretty cool.  I even met 4 or 5 Brazilians, so hopefully I can learn some more Portuguese while I'm here.  They thought it was pretty cool that I wanted to learn, and it turns out that 2 of them live on the floor right above mine.  I have probably met at least 40 or 50 people already, but I think I only remember like 10 people's names.  This is going to be difficult since there are about 150 of us, and a lot of the names are really really hard to even pronounce, let alone remember. Also, I've spent so much time talking to foreign people that when I finally met a few other Americans, it felt weird to hear people speaking without accents!