Ik ben aangekomen!

I hope that that is the correct way to say, in Dutch, “I have arrived!” If it’s not, I hope I didn’t just say something bad.
I got into Amsterdam just fine. Going through Iceland, I only had an hour-and-a-half lay over and, since they made us go through customs and additional security “before being released to mingle with the general airport population,” I only just had time to get to my gate before my flight to Amsterdam left.
Coming into Keflavik Airport (the main Airport in Reykjavík) was pretty interesting because the airport is right on the edge of the island. Flying in, you are right over the ocean and you fly in very low, over the edge of the coast and land right in the middle of a giant marsh.

Keflavik Airport and IcelandAir are very psyched about being Icelandic. They have all kinds of “fun facts” about how amazing Iceland is on their napkins, walls, and on television commercials. Many of the commercials make fun of Americans and the fact that they do not know that Iceland is part of Europe/is very cool. The Airport itself was very different than your average airport. There was no seating at the gates—the gates were just holes in the hallway between the “Iceland Experience—See, buy, remember” gift shops. Also, there were no boarding instructions—all 180 people on the flight boarded in whatever order they preferred. It made things take a little longer.
I took the train from Amsterdam to Rotterdam Centraal Station. I then took a taxi to my hotel. My taxi driver was very nice. He pointed out several weird buildings (for which Rotterdam is apparently known), suggested good places to catch the tram, and pointed out the local Aldi grocery store.

The Building on the left is the headquarters of a Dutch software company and the slanted face is covered with lights that flash is a variety of patterns all day long.

 This is the newest, and fanciest, bridge across the Maas (also called the Meuse) River which runs through the middle of Rotterdam and which I will have to cross every day on the way to and from school.

 This is a block of “cube” houses. One of them is painted dark purple. They are part of a large apartment complex.

This is a very tall, unbalanced looking building. Apparently, shortly after it was built, they wanted it to be elsewhere, so they put the whole thing on wheels and moved it over a hundred feet or so.