Bad Luck

I had a tight deadline to meet. Mainly, I had to pick up my residence permit before I became an illegal resident. Since I missed the normal pickup date I had to travel to Rijswijk, which is a small town (all places in the Netherlands are small) near the Hague. I had been planning the trip -- a desertion of my studies for the day -- for some time. It was only 9am when I woke up, since the governments work on some unknown schedule.

I travelled through time and space to the station, where I bought my ticket. I sat in my seat on the train like a half eaten potato and waited for it to arrive. I waited longer at the Immigration office with my numbered ticket in hand. Some little kids, from someone who had also just immigrated, were providing comical relief.

When that ordeal was done and I got back to Leiden, I had the unpleasant surprise that my bike was stolen. Actually, that comes later. First, I went to the bank, where my yet remaining patience was entirely drained, to present my newly obtained residence permit to them so that my account would stay active. I then went to the grocery store, because I had no food at home. Never shop hungry. But, since I hadn't eaten much yet that day I chose to overload myself with heavy food items.

It was then as I came out of the food library that I noticed my bike was missing. Me and some random woman were both missing our bikes. Thus, I walked home in a light drizzle. I didn't study much that day.

I found through much searching that the town had confiscated my bike because it's tire was sticking over the white line where bikes are allowed to park. As outrageous as this crime is, when I found my bike missing there was a bike parked exactly where my bike used to be. The town steals bikes, and sells them back to owners for nearly 1/3 the bike's value!

The next morning I arranged a ride downtown on back of a friend's bike. Well that didn't work, because their tire popped, and I had to walk the rest of the 6km in a down pour.

Well I have Adventure Lady back, my friend's tire is flat, and I missed nearly two days of research. Good score Karma!