On the first of August, I moved in to an apartment near the north edge of Delft (on the border with Rijswijk). I’m renting the room for the remainder of my stay, and it’s a huge relief to not have to worry about housing for the rest of my time here. I feel as though I’m just starting my main objective in earnest, which was to know what it’s like to live and work in the Netherlands. There’s something comforting about not having “hosts” but rather a “flat mate / landlord”. It was a bit uncomfortable for me to have hosts who felt the need to accommodate me in certain ways: like having dinner with me out of obligation and then refusing to let me wash the dishes afterwards. It didn’t feel right not to earn my stay, even though I was paying for it. Granted, I much preferred those situations over staying at a hotel. And my hosts were great – the situation just wasn’t what I was ideally looking for. Anyhow, now I can clean up after myself and call the place my apartment for two and a half months.

My flat mate, Florian, was going to be away at an ocean cleanup on my move-in day, so the day before, I paid my first month’s rent in cash, dropped off my overstuffed suitcase, picked up the keys, and got the intro to the apartment including such topics as “when it’s okay to run the dishwasher since there’s a family that lives right below it” and “don’t be surprised if you hear the toilet cistern refilling for several minutes after you flush it”. He saw my suitcase and asked, “is that all you have?” which was a nice contrast to Sipho, my host in The Hague, who insisted on carrying my suitcase (on his shoulder) up to my fourth floor studio and commented that I was a heavy traveler. I also saw Florian’s previous tenant moving out – he was a German architecture student named Henrik, and Florian described the process of him and his family loading the moving truck as “German Tetris”. It was quite impressive.

I came in on a Friday to an empty apartment and a note about how Florian set up a bike for me to use. The note had the key to my U-lock on it. This bike was left by a former tenant who had locked the bike and then lost the key to it. Florian borrowed an angle grinder in order to liberate the bike, and I had lent him my U-lock to put back on it in place of the destroyed lock: not that anyone would want to take the bike though – it’s absolute garbage, but it’s simple and would be nice just for getting around town. It’s a single-speed with a coaster brake (and no front brake). The chain is completely rusted but still moves to some extent. The rear wheel is so out of true that it rubs on the frame at certain parts of the rotation. I’m not sure if it will be salvageable with the wheels that are on it, but I’ll give it a shot soon.

After I set down my stuff, I went to Ikea Delft, which is a 15 minute trip via bus and a bit I a walk. It’s a different experience going to Ikea the way one would go to the grocery store, and it definitely feels like going against the grain. I had a short time to get a few essentials like towels, bed sheets, and another pillow for Em, so I swam upstream like a salmon through the checkout lanes, the stock area where people pick up the furniture, and into the section where one can both see and buy things (like bed sheets and towels) in the same place. Arrows on the floor pointed in the opposite direction, so I felt like an outlaw. I timed my trip to the bus that I would need to take back in order to get set up on time for an early work meeting, and I barely made it, with about 25 minutes spent inside the Ikea.

I should mention that Florian had actually put used but clean bed sheets and a towel (a very small one) in the room for me, so my trip to Ikea wasn’t strictly necessary. However, there were several factors that made me want to go anyhow: Florian wasn’t sure he would have bed sheets, so a while back, I had planned to obtain them myself; I felt a bit weird about using someone else’s bed sheets for 2.5 months; I desperately wanted to do something like this for myself after having been a guest for so long; and I wanted an excuse to go to the Ikea in Delft.

I was wondering if an Ikea in Europe would be any different from an Ikea in the US, and my conclusion is basically no. Aside from the languages on the signage (Dutch and English) and the presence of bike racks and bus stops right out front, this was exactly the same. My first hosts in Delft were surprised that I knew about Ikea since they didn’t realize it existed in the US.

Here are some photos of the apartment. The (real) cow hide rug is not my favorite, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make in exchange for a fully furnished room.

Also, there’s a bus stop literally right outside the front door. From my window, I can almost (but not quite) read the screen with the schedule of upcoming buses. With a periscope to stick out the window, I may be able to get the proper angle to read it. Or I could just use the Internet, but that would not be nearly as much fun. The set of three windows on the second story on the very left are in my bedroom!

The bed is on a DIY loft, which is fun, and I am excited about potentially doing some other DIY projects in the room (I think that may be a possibility since the precedent has been set for that), but this DIY loft has a few sharp edges. I cut my knuckle and didn’t notice it until I bled a bit on my new sheets, which was as annoying as it sounds. I was able to get most of the blood out with alcohol swabs though. Also, I learned that here, a loft I actually called a “high sleeper”.

Aside from the periscope, some other next steps are to get a laundry drying rack, attempt to restore Florian’s terrible loaner bike to rideable condition, and obtain a road bike and set up a place in the room to store said road bike. And I’d like to start getting out of my shell a bit and meeting some of the locals. I hadn’t really been keen on that up to this point being both transient and frantic about finding a more stable situation, but now I will be in a better position to do that (though I will have to push myself out of my comfort zone a bit for this). I also want to find a coworking space so that I don’t have to work in the apartment all the time, and I’d like to find a group with which to ride once I get a road bike, so those will be some good opportunities to get to know some locals as well.

Bonus fun fact: Florian’s toaster has bread holding slots that come completely out of the toaster and open up a bit to let the bread in and out. I suppose this is helpful for eliminating the need for toaster tongs and reducing the chance of self-electrocution when using a butter knife in place of toaster tongs.