I am safely installed in Leiden, the Netherlands. It has been a long journey, but I've finally made it here for school. I will be here until mid-May taking a variety of classes which have not all yet been decided upon. I'm at an internet cafe updating this, and I just want to put down for people that I am safe and everything is well.
The city of Leiden is literally dripping with history. It is a beautiful place with wonderful architecture. As well, so many things symbolize what a place was used for. We looked at a building today with some strange statues at the top. Then, our teacher pointed out that the left part was Neptune, the middle is a turkish man, and the right is Mercury. Thus, this means whoever built the place was a trader with Turkey (Mercury for trade and Neptune for the ships -- the Turkish man should be obvious).
I will update more later when I have better access. I should have free internet in the next week or so at a university near my school. Then, I can type posts on my computer and put them up here. I hope everyone out there is doing well.
PS to Izzy -- I found shower gel/shampoo. It's really not too expensive here -- Should I bring some back for you?