Day 21 (R): Packer's Block

Alright, so that moment I never thought would come (or rather hoped would come in another month at least) has arrived.

I can't decide what to pack.

For some imbecilic reason, I neglected to pack more warm-weather clothes, assuming that winter would be on its way out for the next 40 months of grey drizzle, because la la la it doesn't get below freezing in Europe, it just rains nbd

WELL THAT WAS A LIE.

Apparently we came during the coldest year it's been in six years or something perfectly brilliant like that; of course, I only brought one sweatshirt, 2-3 longsleeves, and two coats - a trench coat, which is now missing a button (I still have it but don't know how to sew, so oops), and a Northface, which is the king of warmth but unfortunately does not sync up with the various cuts of my sweaters. It's going to be 34 degrees F/0 C the entire time we're there, so the Northface is probably the better idea - however, here comes the problem. 

We're going to Italy. 

I know that in Well, it's absolutely impossible to avoid being instantly recognized as An American College Student, primarily because we're the only actual college-age people here (whoops, sorry Linden boys; or as Dubliner Matthew so eloquently explained, "If she's got lights on her shoes, she's too young for you!"). However, I was hoping that while I may not necessarily osmose my way into Luccan society, it might at least be possible to meld, or perhaps blur, my intrusion. About that. I have kicked myself (repeatedly) for forgetting my brand-new knee-length winter coat - currently, it is snuggled away somewhere with the other winter coats, wondering quietly to itself what it may have done to make me not want it.

On the other end of the spectrum, I'm also kicking myself for not bringing a bathing suit. Guys, Spain is hot. We're going there in March. They have beaches in Spain. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME. Granted, I don't have a one-piece (yet), so maybe it's not that big a deal...

No it's still kind of a big deal

While it doesn't help that packing was interrupted by several hours of hilarity upstairs and Sweeney Todd (I forgot how gory it is, my god they must've used enough corn syrup to make McDonald's jealous), tonight was still pretty fantastic. I think people went out to the Linden but I honestly don't know; we were all joking around upstairs, making Lion King videos and whatnot. 

Yet again, we've reached that point where it's suddenly 1:30am. Oops.

So coat tragedies aside, this weekend should be fun. I'm going to a gorgeous town in a gorgeous country with awesome people, and let's face it: I'm a blond chick with a German spelling of a Jewish name who can barely speak Italian anyway - that disguise was not going to last very long.

Next update will be after Lucca, and then next week: Carneval in town. We're doing "Around Europe In Eighty Days," each of us dressing up as a country('s stereotype). Guess which country I picked.

As for Bella Italia, I suppose this means no more afternoon cappuccinos. Drat.

-Bekka

PS, To my coat, wherever you are:

Dear Winter Coat,

To quote 10 Things I Hate About You:

"I want you. I need you. Oh baby, oh baby."

Seriously though

It's freaking cold in Europe

We should hang out sometime

-B

15 (F), 16 (S), 17 (s), 18 (M): Prague It Out

Somehow I made it back alive.

Actually, Prague was a wonderful city in every way except the temperature. Well, and that whole part where I can't speak or read or function in Czech and now between Czech money, Spanish/Portuguese music, and Japanese habits I can barely function in English, let alone Dutch, but that's beside the point. (From yesterday: I've been awake since 4am (not counting several 3-20 minute travel naps) and have a bit more work to do, so this is going to be (somehow) concise.) Wait! Concise... with pictures.

We met up at 7:45 in the courtyard to walk to the 8:00 bus. At 7:53, Chris B remembered that he'd forgotten his passport in his room. Strike 1. Then it was 40 minutes on the bus (minus Chris) to the Venlo train station (turns out I was in Venlo after all!), for breakfast (mine was a bag of sliced apple and a small coffee) followed by 45ish minutes on the train, 15 minutes on the bus to the airport by 10:40, negligible but annoying passport drama, then takeoff at 12:20. We arrived in Prague at 1:45 and went to meet the taxi driver, but while we were all getting our crowns out Stephanie realized she'd left her wallet somewhere. Strike 2. About a half-hour taxi drive later (complete with Adele, Michael Jackson, and Moby on the playlist), we landed at Sir Toby's - only to find that everyone had actually made their reservations separately, which I hadn't realized. Strike 3. Fortunately, I was able to make my reservation that day, so no harm done.

While we were waiting for the Wallet Party to arrive (they stayed an extra 15-30 minutes to recover the goods), I divvied out the cookies I had oh-so-cleverly bought and packed the day before from my favorite bakkerij ever. Turns out, the second group's taxi driver was super cool and told them about cool spots in the city, such as the pizza place next door to us (actually one of the best in Prague, go figure). We saw the very happy Happy Hour sign and finally sat down for food: Mine was ram's horn, egg, sort of hot pepper, and basil.

I ate the whole thing except that giant pepper

The whole thing was about $8 with water and tip. WHAT

Our receptionist, whose name I don't think we ever got, mapped out directions to the city, sold us the (1-time, weird) tram tickets, and off we went into the 9 degree cold.

We stopped at Dojna's favorite bar, Coyotes - Chris said it was "basically Coyote Ugly," but I honestly wouldn't know. The drink menu was absolutely incredible, but I didn't really love my selection much. C'est la vie.

After debating (and unanimously agreeing against) going clubbing, we stayed at the hostel, loitering as a group in the downstairs lounge (with 2/€5 wine, cheapest ever) until 2:30am. An organizer from the local pub crawl tried to get us to come, but we were all exhausted and rainchecked for the next day. For the rest of the night we talked, played the Sticky Head Game, met travelers from Utrecht, Ireland, and Rome, and generally chilled out; I discovered my new favorite drink, B-cola (Becherovka with Coke and lemon; unfortunately, Becherovka is going to be pretty hard to find in the US, and I'm not allowed to look until June anyway), and we had a sudden Hallelujah jamsesh when one of the other hostelers started strumming from across the room. Chorus throwback!

The next morning we all woke up starving (at about 10...); our receptionist told us about a restaurant nearby with good options, so we scurried through the cold, complete with police directions, to the spot in question. It took about an hour for the food to get to us, but god, was it worth it. Michelle and Stephanie split the 2-person Czech meat skillet, with about 8 different kinds of meat (duck, beef, ham, pork knuckle, chicken etc). I had " Holešovický flák z vepřové krkovice " - Traditionally prepared pork neck, with bacon-onion roasted potatoes on the side. AHaekfna;slkdfma

This one's for you, Dad

After lunch, we went out to face the cold (Stephanie lent me her extra beanie, so at least my ears were managed). 7 hours of walking later, we'd seen:

A Mucha/Dali exhibit in the Staromestske Namesti,

I was on my own for Mucha but it was so worth it. I also got my (own) hat here!

The Charles Bridge,

 

The Lennon Wall,

Not to be confused with Lenin

  

 A view from Prazsky Hrad (Prague Castle),

 

St Vitus Cathedral,

We went inside the next day, but my camera had died. The stained glass was stunning though.

And a lot of absinthe shops.

Absinth ice cream, that's a new one

The next few hours were recuperating from the walk with a 2-hour sieste (sorely needed) and surprisingly fantastic pasta from the restaurant a 40 second walk from our beds. None of us took pictures of the food this time; by the time we remembered, everything was already gone. Oops.

We finally got out at 9:00; the seven of us doing the crawl sprinted back to prep for call time at 9:15. At 9:20, the receptionist took our Before picture and we headed out to the Mosaic Hostel to collect the other crawlers.

Chris B, me, Erin, Michelle, Chris M, Stephanie, Bryan/Big Papa

The lineup:

1. Mosaic Hostel

2. U Sudu

3. Heaven

4. N11

 5. Karlovy Lazne (5 story club)

U Sudu, the first bar - Robbert's favorite in Prague, and for good reason. Get Mojitos here!!

On the Oldies Floor (3) of Karlovy Lazne

All in all, it was a pretty fantastic night - we met crazy boys from Dublin who knew Jersey Shore better than we did, one of whom rooted for Giants, and somehow stayed until 4:30. The only bad parts were that 1. I didn't get the True Prague Experience of "go out all night and buy a street-vendor sausage for the trip back" and 2. We got back at 5am and it looked like someone had been added to the empty bed while we'd been out. (As it turned out, Kleoniki and Katie decided to have their own fun and stuffed the bed to prank us. Needless to say, it worked.)

Sunday morning arrived (well, re-arrived) with Stephanie screaming "GIANTS WON GIANTS WON SUCK IT BRADY HAH," from the bunk above me - one hell of a way to wake up, just saying. It was with a heavy heart that I headed out to Old Town again for breakfast; however, my schnitzel, for whatever reason, came with a surprise beer. Unexpected but delicious. 

Next year, Brady. Next year.

On the way, I found an old friend.

It's so much better here though

We explored some more, I bought a replacement hat (the pink one from Saturday is now roaming the streets of Prague on someone's head), and we avoided the snow flurries - yes, snow - with frequent dips into cafés, trams, a street-corner food stand with chocolate-drizzled waffles on sticks (messy but so good; we had chocolate smears for hours), and eventually a Starbucks. Yeah, yeah, I know. At that point on a Sunday, most of the museums were closed and we didn't want to walk outside much anyway. Back at the hostel, we packed up, got dinner at the pasta place again (I had a Stella Artois and it was magnificent), and went back to U Sudu to show Kleo and Katie, despite the horrendously early morning Monday was going to be. The mojitos (and my caipirinha) were just as good tonight as yesterday, if not better.

Everyone (well, Erin's taking the picture) on the way to U Sudu

None of us were tired by 12 when we got home, but the lights were out and we were all trying our damnedest to fall asleep without laughing - somehow we all finally fell asleep, then within hours we were all up again at 4am to journey home.

From 4-11:50am, we taxied, bused, flew, bused, trained, bused and walked back to the Kasteel. 

Things that I missed about the castle:

1. Horizontal surface

2. Free water

3. Hot showers

By now (now being Wednesday the 8th), my poor immune system is so shot. I moved from a slight post-smoky-club cough to a full-blown cold, but it already seems to be ebbing off. My Stalin presentation for history class this morning went pretty well, then directly after lunch it was three-hour-naptime. Maybe when I was little I was too cool for naps, but those days are gone now. Naps are where it's at. At this point, I have a day and a half to continue healing before Lucca on Friday - something tells me it won't be quite the same experience as Prague, although it's supposed to still be pretty cold.

In the meantime, someone's singing Cinderella and Beauty & The Beast upstairs and it's almost dinnertime. Maybe it was a quiet 7-hour break this week but it was well spent.

So much for concise, right? HA.

-Bekka

Days 12(T), 13(W), 14(R): Well That Was A Quick Week

And by "week" I mean "three days." However, these three days were spent without or with extremely limited access to (3:1 respectively):

1. My camera (until Candace lent me her charger!! <3)

2. An OV ChipKaart with a positive or at least neutral balance, despite numerous attempts to reload

3. Temperate weather

4. The Internet.

So in a way, while the last few days somehow passed in a blur, during the process it was a bit more like watching paint dry. Kind of like getting a tooth pulled: at the time it seems to take forever (or at least it did for mine), but when you look back it's all sort of fuzzy and you're not sure how you got from Point A to Point B but obviously it must've happened somehow and here you are, ready or not for the next adventure. Thankfully, my next adventure has nothing to do with dental procedures.

In a matter of hours, I will be waking up with a pack of 8 (maybe 9?) people to head over to Prague. Yup, Prague as in Czech Republic. (And I was finally getting somewhat functional with Dutch...) I'm crazy excited about this, as it's a completely new experience for me and those are always interesting; granted, OSA probably still has doubts about my travel skills from the Venray Incident. Honestly, they should just talk to Sensei, she'd sort them out. Yeah, the speed bumps on my travels tend to occur with a bit more frequency and drama than some, but I usually land on my feet somewhere in the correct vicinity.

For those who are wondering, yes I'm slightly terrified.

However, my bag is successfully packed for the weekend, at a perfect 6 kg (WizzAir only allows 10 kg) with room to spare for squishing under seats or a shirt to start my new collectible project. After much deliberation, I've decided that rather than highly breakable shotglasses or a billion new necklaces, I'll get something with the country flag or coat of arms for each city/province on it, then cut & quilt it all to make a giant blanket. Hopefully I can also find the flags of everywhere that I've lived already, but that part'll have to come later. Looks like someone's going back to Amsterdam for a bit...

As for the last few days, things have been fairly stable: homework's piling up, American Night is magnificent, the potatoes at dinner were great, and oh yeah the moat's frozen over. (Woohoo!) It's cold and my money's making a lovely wooshing sound as it flies away to this country or that weekend, but I also didn't realize how wonderful the Linden's prices were until we came back from Amsterdam. (Small beer at the Linden: €1.70. Standard beer at The 3 Sisters: €5. Gahhh.) It's supposed to be around 15 Degrees F for the weekend, so I'm taking my nice new super-thick scarf and maybe I'll find a hat there. Meanwhile, about 85% of Kasteel Well is heading to Belgium, split between Brussels and Bruges. If they come back without having Leffe, rabbit stew, or far too many pictures of the Manneken Pis, I will be very disappointed.

Well, it is very much past my bedtime; good night and good weekend!

Days 8 (F), 9 (S), 10 (s), 11 (M): Welcome to Amsterdam, a.k.a. Where Traffic Is The Hunger Games

Well, I have a presentation on a Russian dance producer tomorrow morning, but I really just need to talk about this weekend.

 This weekend: Amsterdam.

Friday, up at 6:45 for 7:00 breakfast. 2 hour bus ride in, which consists of telling Dojna The Venray Adventure (it was initially called the Venlo Adventure, but then she told me I actually went to Venray), attempting to read The Odyssey, and sleeping. Right off the bat (after literally dropping our stuff in the hostel storage room and getting out fast), we're on a tour of the city, dodging bikes and getting trapped on sidewalks left and right. Guess who got Chester Lee, the guy who's lived in Amsterdam for years and literally wrote the test on it for tomorrow (a.k.a. later today)? This kid. Mel and I had a fantastic chocolate cake during the lunch break, and afterwards we all saw the Rijksmuseum, walked (somehow without casualties) to Rembrant Square, and as a group inhaled some of the best Indonesian food I think I will ever have. There was a terrifying TV screen across from the bus stop, which we all tried to avoid watching and all failed miserably. Then I landed what is probably one of if not the best possible roommate situation in our program and later went out with Mel, Alessandra, Lane, Najah, Lucas, and Riley to see the Red Light District and find a bar.

Frankly, the Red Light District was interesting to see but definitely bizarre. We left after a six-minute tour to find the 3 Sisters Pub back in Rembrant Square, and didn't wind up getting back to the hostel until 3:30. We were waiting for the night bus, which was supposedly going to come but never did; meanwhile, Johnny was talking to locals about the bus schedule and René was singing, at first things like Hotel California and classics, then just singing about his life. We finally started walking after being outside for nearly an hour - my good humors had completely run out by then - and within two minutes found a string of taxis on the next block. OSA Chaperone Fail.

Saturday: I saw the Anne Frank house, which was (for lack of a better term) astounding. The model gave it quite a bit more space than in real life, and the walkthrough was honestly terrifying to imagine as real life.

After the book shop (moral opinions withheld), a group of us went out hunting for lunch. Lars is gluten-free, so the Pancake Shop was out, but two stores up was this fantastic place with GF options called Utrecht - they even let us upstairs to reorganize the tables for our group! 

As for the food, feast your eyes.

Front: Pan-fried chicken w/feta (Sat); Back: goat cheese with apples, honey, and walnuts (Sun)

Discuss.

 I had a fantastic Belgian beer on the side - or rather, a half beer - which nobody could pronounce, then we all split into smaller groups back in the Dam Square for our respective museums. Mine? Baroque Flemish art. I actually didn't know it was going to be Baroque. My life just loves me like that sometimes. Right after dinner was prepping for the 20th Century concert - for anyone who thinks they've heard accordions play, you actually haven't unless you've heard Aydar Gaynullin. (This wasn't what he played for us but he's still amazing). We headed out afterwards for Chris B's 20th birthday at Club Escape - my first time clubbing, and apparently the first for many others too (not Mel or Lucas, obviously, as they've been doing this since around 2007). We met up with a huge chunk of the Emerson population in the line. Guess what the female to male Emersonian ratio was? 

Around 40, maybe 50, to 4.

I think we did it right.

This time, I didn't get home until 4, then (after a shower) finally crashed at 4:26. I dreamed I was still at Escape and woke up more tired and yet somehow energized.

Sunday was my no-requirements day, so while some classes had museum trips, Lane and Alessandra and I went out for coffee/Dam Square exploring while Emily E. was in the Frank House. We met up and decided to just go back to Utrecht for lunch (as Emily hadn't gone), this time on the ground floor. Turns out, the ground floor has a cat.

Alessandra and Emily keeping our new friend far away from me

We named him Bailey; the waiter (same guy from yesterday!) told us that Kitty didn't have a name. The sandwiches picture also includes my Sunday selection. Nom.

 We poked around a department store, grabbed some delftware and postcards, then headed over to the Royal Palace Museum.

This. Please.

 I want to live here.

The tour took a good two hours or so, during which time we tested and collaborated our art history knowledge to figure out which statues meant what based on their locations, how room styles affected uses, etc. Unfortunately, my camera died in the sixth room, so everything after 4pm is on someone else's camera.

Alessandra suggested Turkish food for dinner, so we found one (opening later in the night) and in the meantime wandered around the city finding vintage shops, accessories, and a wonderful place called Sabon. 

So. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Lush junkie; there is a specific, sizable section of my heart set aside for natural bath & beauty products. This is a known and widely accepted fact.

Well, Sabon has now nestled itself into that spot and is currently taking up about 25% of the assigned space.

Not kidding.

We pitched in on an actually magical Dead Sea mud mask for girls' night, only €7.50 each. My face is still softer on the tester side. You'll find out why this is sad later.

About 45 minutes of walking/shopping later, we finally found the Turkish restaurant and then let Alessandra pick everything because nobody else knew what was what. €21 (each) later, we've had some of the best food & wine I think I might ever eat.

4 hours of screaming, running, dodging bikes, laughing, confusion, exhaustion, semi-terror, and general exhilaration later, we land in Well. Somewhere during the train ride, we misplaced the Sabon bag and apparently our sanity; it's also snowing.

I'm still in a skirt.

Dojna said that any of our troubles were because they were traveling with me.

As for today, let's just say that 8 hours of sleep was not enough. However, Prague is set for Thursday and next week's Lucca trip is almost completely solid. I can't believe this is my life.

Days 6 + 7: Explorations and Exhalations

Clever, huh?

Seriously though, yesterday was pretty crazy. I had class at 10-12, then decided to go get my OV ChipKaart and maybe go exploring to Venlo - so I did. Parked my bike, bought the card, got on the bus, and then I realized something.

I didn't know what stop Venlo is.

... ADVENTURE!

So I rode for about 40 minutes until I saw a marketplace in a square surrounded by clock towers, stores, and vaguely metropolitan lifestyle, then got off the bus (apparently tapping my card once too many times because I surprised the busdriver by getting off so quietly and he almost shut the door in my face). It was kind of chilly but otherwise perfect, with a huge spread of scarves, charms (several of which I quite liked), and bags (one of which I particularly wanted, aided by the €2 price tag). Then I realized something else.

I didn't know how to ask the price.

.... WINDOWSHOPPING!

To elaborate, I didn't know how to say "how much is that?" in Dutch; rather, all I could remember was "これはいくら出すか？” which frankly was not going to help anybody. So, the meandering went on until I came across an H&M, going inside on a whim that they might have my favorite tank tops in the colors/sizes I needed. They did! Nederland H&M 1; MA & NH H&Ms 0. Yesss. Walking went on to a gorgeous little square including a storefront sign of "Chocolaterie" on a beautiful old door - now I have a little bag of chocolates and the knowledge of "Hoeveel" for "how much." A bit later I was right freezing and saw a sign for "Chocolademelk binnen!" outside of a café called Milk & Cookies. Somehow I managed to order and pay for "a small dark hot chocolate for here please oh and how much is it?" in almost complete (but likely butchered) Dutch. Turns out the chocolate was all at the bottom and I stirred the hot milk part of it all together, with a tiny, kind of floury-tasting, chocolate chip cookie on the side. Best homework session EVER.


Then came the trip home. Unfortunately, the market was being packed up when I got back, so that bag'll have to wait - got on the bus, no problem, waited, and hit "STOP" when the LED screen above the broken map read "Klein Vink," because OSA keeps saying "It drops you off right at Café Vink!" Turns out, Klein ≠ Café, it equals two stops before Café Vink, and two stops in the Netherlands is VERY. VERY. different from two stops in Boston. As in, I waited for 10 minutes, then walked for 45 and still was only about halfway from my stop back to Well when a car honked behind me and pulled over. He asked me where I was going and (from the other side of the road) I said "Well." He said something in Dutch, then when I made no forward movements, said, "Oh, sorry. I ... I drive? You back? It very cold!"

Okay, I know what you're going to say, but after a minute or so debating, I figured that he seemed like any normal person taking pity on an obviously rather lost student walking along a several-mile-long bike path near twilight. So I got in, with my hand on the phone in my pocket just in case.

He asked my name, if I was on vacation (all in Dutch), then (another 10-15 minute!! drive later) dropped me off at the bus stop. I think he was asking for my telephone number, but I told him I didn't have one, sorry, yes it's weird, thank you so much; he said to take care, then I got back to my bike at Spar, biked home and sat in my room with a hot chocolate thinking "wtfwtfwtf" for the fifteen minutes until dinner.

Lucas later told me that I #1 am the stupidest person on the planet and #2 could have, in fact, called OSA, as the red card we are all required to carry has their numbers on it. Mine was, apparently, tucked away behind some card or another in my wallet. Bekka Fail.

Later that night: Red-White-Blue Themed First American Night. Let's just say there were about five times as many Dutch boys as on Saturday, and of course they are all, surprise surprise, around 16. I'm assuming that the people from around here who are actually our age are, you know, in college, but that didn't stop a fair number of girls from flirting. Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Alessandra and I are avoiding the smoke and excitedly discussing the Lucca trip, Italian food in general, and how fantastic Jamie Oliver is. Oh yeah, and the bar owner gave us all free Flugel shots, toasting to the new semester and doing his shot hands-free standing on the table. #Likeaboss

AS FOR TODAY
I was woken up by my music group members each showing up 30 and 25 minutes earlier than I thought we had agreed on, then finally met up with Taryn (who lives on my floor) but never managing to find Emily until lunch. After lunch, I picked up my package from the mailroom - from Miss Kate et al.!!

My life can always do with more #1 Chokotoffs, and #2 Kindergartener signatures.

By the way, between breaking in the boots and breaking in the flats, it is wonderful that EUOR has athlete tape. I grabbed some after class and rushed back for our second attempt at a group meeting; Group Meeting turned into Girl Talk + some talking about the project for the next hour and a half (thank god for GoogleDocs so we don't have to waste time on organizing meetings during Amsterdam), then dinner time, pre-packing, and yoga with Lars from 7:30-9.

Can I just say, I have not been worked that hard in YEARS. On top of that, although rumors had been that only two people were going, by the end all 11 or so of us had basically turned the Barbetta Room into a Bikram studio. My favorite part was during Shavasana, where after a long week topped with a long workout had my mind wandering but unfocused at the same time; It was sort of like listening to myself list my worries and stressors from across a foggy swamp - it's there, I can hear it, but not really and it's not that important anyway. Granted, the room temperature probably had a say in that, but it still felt wonderful. (Wheels and Shavasanas have always been my favorite parts of yoga practices, honestly.)

Well, tomorrow is Amsterdam. Rooster-call at 6:45.
With that, I bid you adieu.

Day 5: It's Like The Flight of the Bumblebees Over Here, I Mean Honestly

Last night, I finally read Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman - Larisa's been telling me to read it since I borrowed Drew's copy of Smoke and Mirrors after Christmas, and last night I found it online. While I want to say that it was a beautiful story, I honestly can't - because of the story's content, it was more fantastic. However, it was definitely beautifully written.

I found my bracelet! It was right where Lane had left it, although it was rather cold and damp from the morning mist, but that was fine. Originally, I had intended to get up at 7:45 to get it before any potential children and/or magpies found it first - although I didn't get out until after breakfast (which included discussing/generally being in love with Prof. Shrinivas's class last semester) and signing up for the Amsterdam activity (which was later changed due to scheduling errors on OSA's part, whoops), there it was! Yay, bracelet.

Today was generally pretty busy - class from 10-2 (Music), another class from 2:30-4:15 (Ethics), another class from 4:30-6:15 (The world since 1914), dinner, get my phone... rush rush rush. And yes, you read that right - I have a phone now. Woohoo!

Music class was fine, although I was tired all day - we listened to Stravinsky (among others), and can I just say that he is probably the most amazing man ever? From what I could tell, he was about 4.5 feet tall, but he was also a magician with sound, astoundingly old, and adored by the audience (for good reason). The class was a bit long, but we were also sitting in the dark for a lot of it. That class has now been moved to across the courtyard, so as of next week we're in a charming - no, really - atticky space above the computer lab.

Ethics was initially slow (I was still groggy), but we talked about what we'd each do if we had an Invisibility Cloak and future trips to a zoo where the monkeys can climb on you if they so desire. During the ten-minute break, I learned water, which is actually pronounced more like vataar, but definitely not like "Um... wasser, alstublieft?" which is what I tried. The "alstublieft" part was correct, but "wasser" is another country over. Oops. The bartender/ deBuun owner and my professor both told me not to worry about messing up, and I even got a thumbs up for pronunciation anyway. That class, for whatever reason, has been moved to KB 1 now, so there goes the perfect bike route.

History was fun! I'm doing a presentation on Stalin, who Ralph says was "sent to us from The Planet of the Assholes, and we had quite a few of those in the 20th century. I guess they thought one wasn't enough and sent the whole damn class." Something tells me this is going to be a very interesting class - for example, he started the class while we were still talking amongst ourselves by starting a video compilation of people dancing to I Will Survive, later with subtitles naming each of the concentration camps in the video. As it turns out, the older man was in Auschwitz and escaped, to later bring his daughter and granddaughters to the camps "to basically say, F*ck you Nazis!"

Currently, I'm sitting in Sophie's Lounge (after forgoing the flopped dodgeball attempt) surrounded by the cacophony of piano, speakers, trip planners, and students (mainly the first three), trying to do homework and meet up with Melanie to plan Italy in a few weeks. This is possibly the first time outside of mealtimes (and the fire drill, obviously) that almost all of us have been in one place at one time. As Najah said, "if OSA asks, we had a group activity tonight!"

Day 4: The Day of Questioning

You know what's awesome? Your Monday schedule involving a trip to the bakery (pizza roll and a half loaf of bread that makes my entire desk smell amazing), one class, and an hour long bike trip around the (entire) town with classmates. Said bike trip included a stop at the the Spar*, for stroopwafel, cookies, or (in my case) a small jar of Nutella that actually fits perfectly in my desk drawer. It's almost like they planned it. *Spar = the local grocery store


You know what's not awesome? Losing one of your new bracelets during said hour-long trip, then fruitlessly walking around for 20 minutes in the dusk looking for it with a flashlight.



However! There is something even more awesome than part one: One of your bike buddies saying "Oh my god we found it and put it on the rail next to the Spar!" Guess who's getting up wicked early tomorrow morning to find it? This kid.



In the meantime, we had three hours between dinner and the pre-Amsterdam info meeting - I'm finding some really awesome-looking places to visit in the Amsterdam Made By Hand book I got for Christmas two years ago too, so I have a wonderful list in the workings for cool places to go when we're released on Sunday. I've also been searching for tickets to Slovenia, but one of the only plane tickets I've seen is over €1000, so... maybe that could be a 21st birthday present from Dad or something, but definitely not right now.


I have to say, though, there is one food that I miss about America: hummus. I searched high and low through Spar for a savory spread to go on my bread (poet don'tcha know it) but couldn't find anything potentially what I wanted other than "Now Pizza!" which may or may not actually be a spread, it may just be a condiment like mustard or something and honestly who wants to eat plain mustard bread? Not me, that's who. Nutella it is, then.

We do have a communal fridge on the third floor but I'm not sure about leaving things up there; maybe next week I'll try putting some cheese and/or meat in there for the midday snacks and we'll see what happens, mold or midnight munchers or what.



Oh, and class was fine. Actually, I'm pretty excited about reading everything but wish I could've gotten a copy of Dante for myself; translating the pages or codes is one of my favorite aspects of reading books like that, particularly Beowulf. Turns out our professor does not like Beowulf and has never heard of Wishbone, so when I mentioned how I'd studied "Beowulf proper" but had always loved the Wishbone version, she needed a bit of an explanation. I forgot to mention Gaiman's "Bay Wolf," but that'll definitely come up in later discussions.


Oh! Picture:

The sun came out today!! At least for a bit, and then it was suddenly raining again, but after class it was gorgeous and sunny again until we got back - hence the bike ride, and hence the new rouging in my face. I am just so good at being outside!