It’s a Very, Very Small World

The second block has started. That means students often start or end classes to get the right amount of credits by the semester’s end. My Dutch history class is a two-part course, so on the first day of block two we added about a dozen new students.

We did the classic introductions of what we are studying and what we notice about Amsterdam. Halfway through class, our professor was generous enough to give us a break so we are able to withstand the next hour and a half of the three hour lecture. I began talking to my friend Hayden about the weather. Being from Syracuse, I am rather immune to the cold and grey that encompasses Amsterdam on the regular.

Some of the new students start to join our conversation. One adds that being from upstate New York makes living in the cold easier. Upstate New York is a big area with not a lot of people. There are areas that have more cows than people. I had to chase this lead.

Not only was he from Syracuse, but  he had gone to my rival high school. We spent our whole lives a few miles away from each other with dozens of mutual acquaintances, but we had to come to Amsterdam to meet each other. It’s entirely true what they say: it is a small world after all.