Nevertheless she.... Got covid

 K so I tested positive for covid on the 12th of July. That kind of ended the trip for me with the rest of the group. I’m pretty heartbroken that I won’t get to see everybody before they leave. I’ve met so many wonderful people through this program and I am comforted by the fact that I’ll get to reconnect with most of them in Eugene later this summer and throughout the year. 

Although I couldn’t participate with the rest of the group, by myself, I got to experience and explore a part of Amsterdam that I might never have before if not for having to move to a different hotel so I could isolate.

The day after I tested positive I had to move hotels because the place we were staying didn’t have room to give all three of us positive cases our own isolation room. So I booked a hotel room at a place in Amsterdam Noord and made my way over later that day. I was feeling a bit better than the day before but still was achy, congested, and ded tired. For this Europe trip, I packed really light. My parents instilled in me from an early age that “whatever you pack you have to carry”. And I’m lucky they did because this meant that I could bike to the new hotel and keep my bike for the remainder of the program. So I put my backpack in the large front wicker basket and kept my small duffle on my back. I biked from the Generator to the ferry terminal at Central Station and took the bike ferry across the river. I had been wanting so badly to take the bike ferry before we came to Amsterdam so I’ll call it fate that covid facilitated this trip. There are 2 ferries making constant trips across the river so you never have to wait more than 5 minutes to hop aboard and travel across. I waited probably 30 seconds. The ferry landed and maybe a hundred people on bikes, mopeds, and on foot poured off. As soon as the last person was off, everyone waiting to go back across hopped on. Most people stayed on their bikes. Undocking was so seamless and the ride across couldn’t have been smoother. From terminal to terminal, the trip across the river took no more than 5 minutes. If I hadn’t been so sick and paranoid about spreading covid, the whole thing would have been 5x as enjoyable. Still was really cool. It was another 5-minute bike ride to the new hotel once we hit the other side and the door went down. 

Pictures and videos below