The start of a new life

Wow, I just realize that I am in such a writing mood. Well, let me jot down something about my move so far. 

I really like my new place-The location is amazing. Close proximity to tram, metro and train station. The neighborhood is fairly quiet, but full of exciting little stores: I have convenient access to a shoe repair store (very handy for the lady), bakery, a flower booth, a fish booth, butcher, and a news agent. 

And because I live on a high floor, the view is simply BREATH-TAKING. From the hallway I can see the Phillips building (tallest in Amsterdam), all the bizarre office buildings in Zuid, the ING shoebox, and Vondelpark :D, not to mention a sea of typical Dutch houses. I need to nail the local geography a bit better to tackle down which is which :)

For the past 5 days, Niels and I have been travelling back and forth from Amsterdam to Groningen, as well as going to Delft, both in order to pick up my stuff. And my lovely boyfriend has assembled like what, 20 pieces of IKEA furniture? And his next item on the to-do-list is to hook up a yet-to-be-delivered washing machine. Trust me, it seems absolutely like a mission impossible to me, especially given that my new flat does not have the right layout to set up a washer. So thank you, dear, you're truly the saving grace to the least handy person in the world who does not even know the name of different tools in her native language. 

One thing I've noticed about living in a big city: Time flies by a lot quicker. When I ran errands in Groningen and Cambridge, it always seemed that I did a lot of things in 1-2 hours. In Singapore, Amsterdam and my hometown (for those of you who don't know, one of the biggest cities in China, although much smaller than Beijing and Shanghai), I feel like one day just pass by so quickly. Too much time spent on transportation? Or is it just because I am more bee-zy in the big cities? Might be both :)

Despite the workload, we have made some nice progress, and if I could stop facebooking heavily or watching Team China winning gold in the Olympics there is a chance that everything will be set up by the end of today.