Update: Tuesday 3 Dec

Hello! I'm still alive! I hope you weren't worried. I know it's been a while but I haven't had a whole lot to say and I guess I just haven't been in the mood to write. I haven't been up to much of anything lately. It's been quiet. My roommates are as annoying as always, my school work is going as well as it ever is, there's just nothing eventful to report.

That said, last Saturday my friends and I made Thanksgiving dinner. It was originally Jennifer's idea, at the beginning of the summer she suggested that we celebrate American holidays, specifically 4th of July and Thanksgiving. For the first time I organized thanksgiving myself, and my first vegetarian Thanksgiving, it went really well. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, a salad, homemade dinner rolls that Jenn put together, green bean casserole that turned out really good considering I don't normally like green bean casserole, sweet potatoes that didn't cook very well but were still tasty, and baked macaroni and cheese because it sounded good and apparently that's a common thanksgiving food in some part of the US, so why not. Simona cooked a whole chicken (she didn't start early enough for a turkey) for the meat-eaters of the group (everyone but Jenn and I) and she ended up making a milk-based chicken gravy to go with it, and Tessa made us a delicious apple pie. We were only going to have regular (non-alcoholic) drinks but Jenn's father was joining us and wanted to make it nice so he ran to the store and bought some wine, and some Bailey's for dessert. We had pooled money, 7 euros apiece, to pay for the meal, and there was a little left over, so a couple people ran to the store for ice cream to go with our pie. Vanilla ice cream and cinnamon ice cream. I don't remember ever having seen cinnamon ice cream in the US and that's a shame because it was really good. So several hours after dinner we had apple pie, ice cream and Nespresso cappuccinos with Bailey's and whipped cream, and we sat around and played Tick for a while. We planned to have dinner ready at around 6 and ended up sitting down at the table around 7, which seems pretty good to me. It was a nice Thanksgiving. 

Now I have Christmas to look forward to. I have about a week and a half of classes remaining, and then less than a week before I leave for the US for Christmas. To see my mommy and daddy and sister and brother and… my cat and puppy. I didn't realize it was so close, I guess I had better start packing. I have so many things to do before I leave, agh.

Well, I have to go figure out what's for dinner. I will try not to take so long to write next time...

Update: Friday 25 Oct

Hi! I'm writing an essay. Tomorrow I will be writing an essay, and yesterday I was writing an essay. It has to be 4000 words, so I am going to try to squeeze out 1000 words per day and have it done Sunday. Honestly, I was going to try to write it all yesterday but after about a thousand words I couldn't take it anymore.

I'm listening to Christmas music. I wish I wasn't. It's only October. I kind of love Christmas music. I'm pretty sure this is around the time I started listening to it last year too. I do what I want.

I forgot to mention to my gerber daisy here that it is autumn. It gave me a pretty flower, and there are 4 more buds coming up. Keep going, daisy plant, you can do it! It's the happiest of my plants right now. Even though, in that picture, you can clearly see the leaf that Azazel chomped on. It's full of holes.

Speaking of the monsters, Ian and Amber went to London for the weekend, so I get to feed monsters for a few days—Ian and Amber took the bus like I did, except they took the day bus. I can't imagine why anyone would want to sit on a bus during the day for 10 hours when they have the option to do that at night and not waste daylight hours. Oh well, not my vacation, not my problem.

The monsters in the flesh. I had cheese, they wanted it. These cats are notorious beggars of food. If you even take one step in the direction of the kitchen, they come running. Then they stand under foot and meow at you if you don't give them food. I blame Ian. He gives them the juice from his tuna/salmon cans, he gives them his bowls and plates to lick out when he finishes eating, he gives them unlimited dry cat food plus a giant spoonful of wet cat food daily. I don't think the dry food and wet food are a problem. If he only gave them wet food once a day and nothing else, they would only expect it once a day and they'd probably leave us alone. Instead they are constantly begging and constantly thinking they are starving. Another case where they are not my cats, not my problem. Ian can feed his cats however he pleases. But he really shouldn't be surprised when they are begging for food all day long…

I'm not sure if I already mentioned it here, I bought a new bike at the beginning of the month. My mom wanted to know about my new bike, and I don't really know what to say about it. It's a pretty simple, common bike… And while I realize that it's not nearly as common in the US as it is here, it's still not really anything special. I'm pretty sure it's what they call here an "omafiets" which means grandma bike. I don't know how to explain that, it's shaped kind of like this. It has a bell on the handlebar, but nearly every bike around here has a bell on the handlebar. I never use my bell, some people use their bells way too much in my opinion. It doesn't have hand brakes, the brakes are on the pedals—something I haven't experienced since I was very little, but again it's pretty common here. I've gotten used to it already. It also came fitted with a ring lock, which is a ring that is attached to the frame above the back tire and loops through the tire. You can open the loop to unlock it. Kind of like this. That's also common here. I have that lock and also a separate chain lock so that I can chain my bike to something instead of only locking it to itself. What else is there to know about it? It has lights, of course. The back light is battery-operated, the front light is Angie-powered. It has a little thing that rests on the tire so that when the tire rolls, it generates enough electricity for the light. My bike is nothing special. But I do love my bike. Mainly because it takes me 45 minutes to walk to school and only 15 to cycle. I'm a bike-riding pro. And no, I don't wear a helmet. Sorry Mom. And I'm not going to. Again, sorry Mom. I wouldn't even know where to buy an adult-size helmet that wasn't an overpriced racing helmet. Nobody wears helmets, so stores don't carry them.

If it's any consolation, I rarely ride where there are cars thanks to an excess of bike paths/sidewalks, and when I ride through a city center I am more of a danger to pedestrians than they are to me. I ran into someone the other day, I felt really bad, but I'll probably never see him again so I guess it doesn't matter. Something was up with my chain, I was looking at my feet while cycling instead of looking where I was going… I only hit his arm, and only with the side of the handlebar, but… Poor guy.

I think that's all I have to say. I haven't written in a while, so there you go. Nice big update.

Update: Wednesday 2 Oct

Yesterday when I got home this lovely note was on the door to the living room.

So I suppose I have a new cat. I guess it was only a matter of time. Gaddafi went to Belgium to live out the rest of his cancer-ridden life with Ian's parents, but unfortunately two days after he arrived one of the construction workers building their new kitchen left a door open. Gaddafi took off and hasn't been seen since.

Ian doesn't like Theory. He doesn't like Theory because Theory is not as "perfect" as Gaddafi was. It really ticks me off. Sometimes Theory does something that is very cat-like behavior and Ian will punish him. For being a cat. What, you left your food unattended and the cat started eating it? Yes, throw him across the room then. He will definitely understand that. Ian and Amber typically give the cats their bowls to lick out when they have finished eating. If you condition the cat to like/want people food, of course he is going to eat from your bowl when you leave it unattended. The other day, Theory tried to jump on top of the dragon cage, which is where he sits all the time, and he accidentally knocked something off because it was in his way. Ian grabbed him by the neck and threw him, yelling at him that he was a stupid cat. Yes, because the cat did it on purpose and that is going to teach him to not accidentally knock things over. So naturally, since Ian doesn't like Theory and his baby is gone, he brings home a new cat.

Azazel is the cutest cat ever. He looks like he probably has some British shorthair in him. He has that shape, and the right color eyes. Even though his hair is short, it's super fluffy, which means he is very soft. He is black but when the light hits him right you can see gray stripes on his legs, neck and belly. Ian got him from a couple in Leiden who lived in a small flat and had a dog. The cat didn't get along with the dog, and they claimed he was miserable because he couldn't go outside. He has only been here for less than 24 hours and it is evident to me that this cat doesn't need to go outside to be happy, he just needs space to run around and things to play with. He was pretty frightened of us to begin with, he would arch his back and run away when we came near, but now he doesn't care. He still runs from us, but that's because he's being playful. Once we start petting him, he flicks his tail and circles around for more pets.


Theory is pretty unhappy right now. Azazel loves Theory and tries to follow him everywhere and Theory will not stand for that at all. He had it rough with Gaddafi around because in the last year or so Gaddafi got really hissy at Theory when he came around. Ian and Amber assumed it was because of the cancer—before, the two cats would sleep together and stuff. Now he's been Gaddafi-free and stress-free for a couple weeks, and then an energetic new kitten shows up. I think he's just trying to show Azazel his place, which is fine. Ian tried to smack Theory away when he was giving the new cat a warning meow for coming to close, and I told him off for it. Theory wasn't doing anything wrong, and they're cats. They know how to sort things out themselves. I can tell from the way he is meowing at the other cat that it is just a warning, and he does swat at him too but Azazel knows exactly what that means because he gives Theory a bit more space now. Ian should give the cats a little more credit, they can handle it on their own.

Anyway, when I'm on my computer I always sit in the same spot on the couch, and Theory and Gaddafi always knew where to find me. If I wasn't in my spot, they'd sit in my spot and wait for me. It seems that Azazel has already figured this out too. Right now he is sleeping beside me—he doesn't seem like much of a lap-cat like Theory and Gaddafi. That'll probably be disappointing to Ian because Gaddafi was super cuddly.

Update: Friday 27 Sep

Hi. This is a photo dump.

Jalapeno poppers. Recipe HERE. Except with Gouda instead of Cheddar. You know the drill.

Noodle soup prep. No recipe, it came out of my brain.

Finished product. It was very spicy.

We went out for sushi. This was round one.

This was delicious, recipe HERE. Except I used spaghetti for noodles, and bell pepper in place of zucchini, because those are the things I had. I love it, I might have to make it all the time from now on. I've also made it a second time with peppers, carrots and regular onion, no green onion, and Indonesian mie noodles, also good. Picture is blurry, sorry.

That looks kind of unappetizing. It was good, though. I threw red bell pepper, onion, mushrooms and carrots in a pan with some oil, stuck a lid on and left it for a bit, stirring occasionally, no seasonings added, threw it on top of some brown rice, added cheddar and green onions and called it a day. It was good enough for me…

This looks unappetizing too; today's lunch. Oven fries with salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and rosemary, and these bean burgers. They are not the best bean burgers I have ever made but they are decent. I made them a couple weeks ago, they have been hanging out in the freezer.

A couple weeks ago we had Prince's Day and all the trams had cute little flags on top.

Ian made a strange meal out of green lentils, canned salmon and canned pineapple chunks. Theory kept trying to sneak up and eat it so Ian decided that this was his punishment. He stayed like this for a while before he wiggled out upside down and went off to the other side of the apartment to sulk.

Update: Tuesday 24 Sep

As I'm sure you may have noticed, I have a kitchen obsession.

Now, I don't mean the obsession with food/cooking, although I have that too and I know you've also noticed that. No, what I mean is that I have this obsession with starting with a clean kitchen and finishing with a clean kitchen. You can imagine that this causes a few problems.

I don't live with clean people. I think that at my age, hoping to live with cleanly people is asking a little too much. College students are not clean. Amber and Ian are not too bad, they clean up after themselves for the most part. Amber loves doing laundry, which results in me never having to do any. If Amber is washing dishes, she will wash mine as well if there happen to be any.

The problem is that I cannot do anything in the kitchen unless the sink is completely empty and the counter is completely clean. I use the kitchen upwards of 2 times a day, between my morning coffee, dinner, sometimes lunch and sometimes other random things. Amber sometimes tells me, don't worry, I will clean the kitchen. So I go sit in the living room to wait and use the kitchen when she is finished, but then she gets distracted and wanders off to do something else. So I wait, and wait, and wait, and eventually I just go wash the dishes and clean the kitchen myself.

She never says anything about it, but Ian does. It has only happened twice now, but sometimes he finishes with his cooking, throws everything in the sink and goes in the living room to eat his dinner at his desk. Then when I go in to cook, I wash all of his dishes because I need space. Both times, he has yelled at me for it. The first time he only told me, "I was going to do that, you didn't have to." Today, he said, "What the hell is wrong with you? Why do you keep washing my dishes?"

I try. I try to leave the dirty dishes in the sink, and the messiness on the counter, I really do. I start pulling out my things to chop and cook and try to utilize the smallest amount of space, but somehow always end up with a sponge, wiping the counters and washing the dishes. The counters are another story and probably a harder thing to get them to take care of. Ian makes protein drinks all day long, and when he pulls down his enormous tubs of protein powder he spills some on the counter and just leaves it there. If they drip things on the counter while they are cooking, etc., they leave it there. To me it seems simple: if you spill something, clean it up. Cleaning things up when I spill has become habit for me though, and I don't have the energy to get on their cases every time they spill something and leave it.

But the dishes. Eventually they will learn. They will learn that if they don't want me cleaning up after them, they need to clean up quicker. They can be lazy all they want, I don't mind washing their dishes. They do so much for me. But if it bothers them, they'll have to learn to be lazy only in the areas that don't affect other people.

And when I say that they do so much for me, it goes beyond the cleaning. I think Ian is accustomed to buying all the things for the apartment himself. Of course, I'm not really used to that, or comfortable with it. Ian drinks boxed milk that doesn't have to be refrigerated (which I find distasteful), but Amber and I drink refrigerated milk, which Ian buys. I can't buy milk separately because there is no space in the fridge for that. We also share sugar, and any time I need something that I happen to not have, Amber readily offers it up to me from their supplies. I know for a fact that Ian does all the grocery shopping between the two of them, Amber spends no money on groceries (they eat out a lot though, and she spends money on that). He also buys all the dish soap, laundry soap, toilet paper, etc. I offer to contribute for these things, and he appears to not hear me (though I think that is selective hearing). If we happen to be out of milk or sugar, I will go out and buy some and no one seems to mind that, but Ian makes it to the store more often than I do so it doesn't make much of a dent in anything.

So, yeah. For now, I am going to continue washing their dishes because it doesn't bother me a bit to do so, and they are going to continue to not like that until the figure out that I'm not going to stop doing it just because they tell me to, and an easy way to solve the problem is to get to it before I do. Simple stuff. :)

Update: Monday 2 Sep

Pickles, pickles, pickles, pickles.

Yesterday I went to the supermarket and bought a jar of beans and a jar of beets because they were in the jars I wanted. For dinner I had burritos with beans and fajita-style veggies and cheese and lettuce. Uh, I still have no idea what I will do with those beets. I put them in a container and stashed them in the fridge. I wanted the jars, and I didn't want to wait until the middle of the week when they would be empty. Yea, and then today I went to the market and bought cucumbers and carrots and cauliflower and  onions and a bundle of fresh dill to put in a jar for pickling. I'm a little sad, I failed. I cut too much cucumber. None of the cauliflower or onion ended up making it into the jars, there wasn't enough room.

Even still, look how cool it looks. I guess the recipe I used is a quick recipe, because it said they'd be good to eat within a couple hours, even better in a few days.

And, yes. A few hours later, look! They look like pickles! I tasted them, they seem pretty good. I don't know. I think they're good enough to make again and make some changes. And they'll be better tomorrow. And the next day. I think.

I chopped up the cauliflower and roasted it with some fresh dill instead, since it didn't make it into the jars. It was delicious.

Excuse my messy kitchen. I live with slobs. I can't fix them.

While I was writing this, Amber came home and with her came Gaddafi. Since he's locked out of the bedrooms, he thinks my lap is the one place he should be, and no matter how many times I shove him off he comes back. Which means my laptop had to go elsewhere because I don't want him on my laptop… Ugh, cats.

Meow.

Update: Saturday 31 Aug

Hi. I have some things to tell you. Or show you. I was going to post a second time yesterday, but I don't like posting twice in one day because of the way I title my posts. It's too confusing. Plus, I don't want people who check daily to not realize that there are two, and miss one.

Anyway. Yesterday I was browsing a food page on the internet, I really like to look at pictures of food. I spend a lot of time doing it. Anyway, yesterday someone posted this picture:

And I thought, it would be fun to make pickles, I should try it… Then I started looking at recipes for pickled vegetables (not just cucumbers but many different things) and I got myself really excited to make pickles. So now there's no avoiding it. Monday when I have money I am going to go to the market and find a bunch of vegetables that can be pickled and I'm going to dump them all in some jars and pickle them. Maybe I can take stuff like that to school for lunch or something. I always have trouble figuring out what to do for lunch.

Anyway, Item Number Two on the list of things to write about today is my bedroom.

I moved in a month and a half ago, but I was gone for a month and lazy for the other two weeks so I didn't really do any arranging or unpacking. When I came home from my vacation, there was cat hair everywhere because Ian and Amber seemed to think that it would be better to let the cat shed all over the place in MY room than in their room. It seemed like it would be a huge pain to deal with, so I just left it for another week.

Today I decided to clean and organize a bit. Now, it's not perfect. I need to buy some things to further organize (Jenn suggested a trip to IKEA but I don't know) but it's as good as it gets for now.

This is my guest bed, I suppose. Along with the washing machine, that table there which is half-full of washing detergents and half-full of my things that need something to organize. That little table where my printer is used to be over by the closet, where it was absolutely no use to me. So I moved it here. Also, I'm very happy that my windowsill is big enough for my plants. I want to also note that I thought for sure that my basil was dead and it is not, in fact, dead. I'll show you that later. Now, it seems to me that it would have made more sense to put a desk underneath the loft bed, because as it is right now I have a guest bed but no desk. That's okay too, I will learn to live without a desk.

My card string and posters, seems that my string is almost full. If anyone wants to send me post cards, I'd be happy to put them up there. I love post cards. :) Even though the birthday and Christmas cards are lovely, I would like to replace them with post cards.

Umm, I don't know why I took a picture of my bed but I did. I also took a picture of my closet area but apparently my phone didn't think it needed to upload that one to my computer, so I can't show it to you because it's not here. Featured on my bed are the nice duvet cover and pillow cases that my mother bought me for Christmas 2011. The bed is very sensitive to movement and squeaks a lot but I pushed it against the wall when I was cleaning today, so I guess we'll see if that made a difference.

Last but not least, Theory the hallway guard. He was a little offended that I was in his face taking a picture…

And I almost forgot to tell you about my basil plant. A week ago, this thing was completely brown. I was going to throw it out and plant a new one now that I am back in town. Imagine my surprise, it starts leafing again. I didn't know it would do that! I am very grateful though, because I was so sad that in leaving for a month I killed the plant I was most proud of. It was so full and green, and now it's struggling to survive. I will remedy the situation though, and next time I leave I will make sure someone will water it. I didn't bother to ask last time…

Amber seems super excited that I am here, and she wants us all to eat dinner together some nights. She is very enthusiastic about making vegetarian meals, last night she dug up a recipe for these zucchini boats stuffed with tomato, onion, garlic, mushroom and cheese, and I helped her make them. They were pretty good, actually. She doesn't really know how to cook and Ian has been teaching her but I guess it's hard for him to teach her because they just end up arguing a lot. So whenever she comes up with a recipe, I supervise while she makes it and last night she asked Ian, "Why is everything so much more complicated when you teach me? I'm learning so much right now!" Anyway, Ian is much less enthusiastic about vegetarian cooking. He snapped at her about it last night, he said he's not ready to make vegetarian food. Oh well. I like cooking and I don't want to eat together every night… Then I'd never have time to make my own things.

Update: Friday 30 Aug

I came home to a new roommate.

This is… Um, well. Not-yet-named Bearded Dragon. She doesn't have a name yet. Amber got her while Ian is gone and she's supposed to be a surprise. It doesn't seem like an appropriate kind of surprise but I guess we'll see what happens. He gets home today or tomorrow.

Anyway, she's a cool dude. She snacks on crickets and grasshoppers and vegetables. Not my kind of meal, but I don't have to eat it so I guess that's okay. She has helped me reaffirm my hatred for bugs. When you take her out of the cage she turns orange and red and yellow. I read that she does that when she is stressed, so I guess it's not a good thing, but it's pretty. Her previous owners didn't care for her very well, so she's not used to being handled so much.

Bearded dragons are expensive pets. Luckily, I don't have to pay for any of it. She's not my pet. I just get the benefits of having her without having to buy tons of crickets. And then take care of those crickets as long they're still alive…

(I know, you probably don't think there are any benefits to having a big lizard in your house.)

ROAR! We should just name her Godzilla.

So… I don't want to sound ungrateful or anything, but I'm really tired of all the attention I've been getting lately… I want to be able to sit at a tram stop or walk down the street without some creeper making kissy noises at me or trying to talk to me. I'm not really sure there's anything I can do about it… I could gain back a ton of weight, and shave my head, and destroy my face? Surely no one could find that attractive. I don't even know how to gain weight… When I got back to The Hague from Jenn's, I was waiting at the tram stop by Centraal Station and this guy starts talking to me. I was trying to act disinterested and stuff but I guess he didn't get it. He kept asking me questions. Then I decided enough was enough when he mentioned my boyfriend, and started ignoring him. Well, I don't have a boyfriend, creepy guy. But I'm sure you are just waiting for me to say so. I should have just told him my boyfriend is on his way, or waiting for me somewhere… Ugh, leave me alone people. Then a couple days ago I was walking to town and there was this guy standing in a doorway, a really old guy too. When I walked by he made kissy noises at me. Most people are a little more subtle with their kissy noises, but not this guy… Leavemealoneleavemealone… Guess I have to adopt a better poker face and ignore them better. Not sure there is any other option.

Update: Tuesday 20 Aug

I don't really know what to write about today, but I thought I'd write anyway because I haven't in a while.

You know, seven years ago when I was an 8th grader trying to decide between taking French or Spanish the next year, you probably never could have convinced me that one day I'd be sitting at a table in a campground in the south of the Netherlands with my Dutch best friend and her Dutch family, listening to them converse in a language that I would never have given a second thought even two years ago, and… understanding. I mean, I don't understand everything but I understand the majority of what is said, and I've learned a lot of new words and phrases in the last three weeks since I've been here.

I guess it just feels strange to me. I never would have imagined that I would be doing what I am doing. I took French because I couldn't take Spanish that first year. I took Spanish because I realized how much I liked to learn languages. I didn't initially plan on taking it much further than just learning them for fun… And I think I take it for granted, because it rarely occurs to me that the fact that not everyone can listen to and understand conversations in not only English but also Spanish, French and Dutch, and sometimes German, and sometimes Italian. And when I read the ingredient labels on food packages (which is something that I do often anyway) and have the option to choose between French or Dutch, it doesn't matter which one I choose because I understand them both just as well.

I start classes again on the 9th of September. I guess it's about time, I guess I'm ready for classes to start.  I have to go tomorrow to Tilburg to meet up with Hanna and sign my apartment contract and some tax forms for her. She works in Tilburg, lives in Poppel. Amber says Ian grew up in Tilburg, so I guess they're actually Dutch. They just choose to live in Belgium. Sure, I guess. Why not.

Umm. That's it. Have a nice week! Bye.

Update: Thursday 1 Aug

Hello!  I just wanted to come here and tell you about my trip to London. Because Jenn and I had an awesome trip to London. We had this goal, before we left, to use the Underground rail system as little as possible. So we walked. A lot. Then after we got there, we made another goal, to eat lunch for no more than £3 a day and dinner for no more than £10 a day.

So we went to London via bus, and it was the most interesting trip. Our bus left Amsterdam at 9:30pm and drove all night. It had two stops (okay, technically three) in Brussels and Gent, where some passengers got off and new ones got on, and in Calais, France where we all had to pile off the bus, go through France's border control, and then through the UK border control for passport checks, and then they shuffled us all onto a ferry for a 90-minute trip across the Channel. Then we got back on our bus and continued on to London from Dover. We arrived in London around 7 or 7:30 in the morning.

Then more fun stuff. We hadn't gotten much sleep all night because, well, sleeping on buses is hard. Our hostel check-in wasn't until one in the afternoon, so we went to the hostel to drop things off and then we wandered all over the place. It was exhausting, but during this week in London we learned just how small London really is when you are willing to walk. We walked from our hostel, about half an hour to King's Cross station, then another 10 minutes to Euston station, and then another half hour to Camden Town. Then we took the Underground (we had a three-times-a-day limit, because one trip on the Tube in central London is about £2 and a full day Underground pass is £7.30) to Covent Garden, and then to Leicester Square, then Picadilly and finally to Green Park and St. James Park around Buckingham Palace. I realize that none of that will make much sense to you if you are not familiar with London, but if you were you would know that on that first day, with less than an hour of sleep, we walked a very long way. And it felt great.

Anyway, that's just an example. Other days we walked from Covent Garden to the far end of Oxford Street and back, from the London Bridge to Westminster to Leicester Square, etc. We did a lot of walking and slept very well every night.

Then there's food. We saw so many places and things that neither of us had ever seen before because we had only ever spent our time taking the Tube from place to place. I didn't know that London had a Chipotle restaurant. What's more, I didn't know that London had… like, 10 Chipotles. We were going to go there, but then we found a local Mexican grill of a similar style and decided to eat local instead. You see, on the first night we went to Pizza Hut (because all-you-can-eat salad bars are not something that are cheap or easily-found in the Netherlands) and the second night we went to Five Guys. I had discovered just a couple weeks before we left that Five Guys opened their first ever restaurant in the UK in London, and told Jenn about it. We decided we had to go… And then we went back another day for lunch (just for cajun fries. Sandwiches don't fall under £3).

So… Yeah. We found this restaurant one night that had delicious portobella burgers. Another night, we found a London chain restaurant that had a really big salad bar (I was craving vegetables, it seemed like the best way to solve the problem). The Mexican grill restaurant that we found was called Benito's Hat, and we went back there another day for lunch as well. When we went for dinner we got burritos… And watermelon martinis, because it was happy hour. And of course, they carded me. Legal drinking age in the UK is 18. I have never been carded in the Netherlands… When we went back for lunch, we got nachos because they were only £3.

As for what we did all week, we mainly did a lot of exploring. Like I said, avoiding the Underground meant that we saw so many things that we had never thought to look for before. We explored the market at Covent Garden. I never even knew there was a market there. We found a Moomin store and bought thermoses, one of the few purchases I made in London. Oh, and on day one in Camden we both bought bags. I had come with a goal to go home with a new bag because my old one was tired. We found Hamley's, an enormous toy store between Picadilly Circus and Oxford Street.

That's my bag. And my thermos. In case you were wondering.

Let's see. We got 2-day London passes and on the first day with the pass we went to… The Garden Museum, the Churchill War Rooms, the Guards Museum, and the Royal Mews, and then we met up with one of our UK friends and his brother to go to the zoo. I love zoos. We dragged them to an vegetarian Indian buffet that night. On the second day with the pass we went to the Kew Gardens because those are beautiful and then the London Bridge Experience & Tombs, which was pretty creepy. The last two days we were in London were scheduled as the free museum days because we're not a big fan of museums anyway and we knew we'd be exhausted. On those two days, we went to the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum.

So… We had a pretty awesome week. On the last day, our bus was meant to leave at 9:30pm again, so we checked out of the hostel early and paid to store our luggage at the Victoria Coach Station (that's where our bus left from) and then at 9pm we happily climbed in the bus to go home. We arrived in Amsterdam at 9 the next morning, took the train to Jenn's where her dad picked us up and brought us to their camping home in the south of the country. So that's where I've been since Monday morning. Yesterday we went into Breda to do some shopping and other than that we've just been hanging out. And… well I would say we've been chilling but it's so hot. It was hot in London too. We thought we would die. Get this: it was between 75 and 85 all week! See? So hot! :P Right now it's approximately 87.8 degrees (I don't know, 31C) and I'm trying to decide how to turn off the sun.

So I think this weekend we are going to Belgium for a day, and some time next week I guess I'll have to go home. I have an apartment key to turn in before the 9th of August. There are seven of us here at the camping house, Jenn, her two brothers, her father, myself, the youngest brother's friend, and Jenn's cousin. Tomorrow Jenn and I are making burritos for dinner. Burritos for seven, yay.

Update: Sunday 21 Jul

Hi! I've been posting a lot this week, but that's because I've been doing a lot this week. 

First of all, happy birthday Aunt Leslie!

Okay. Good. Yesterday, I had to go downtown to try to get my phone account finally switched over to my own name and bank account. And I was successful. Or at least, that's what the guy at the store said. The general overview online has Jenn's mother's name, and her address, but my email address and client number, and when you click to get more details, it has her mother's full address, client number, etc. But it has my bank account. I'm confused. I don't know, maybe it will fully update later. I'm just happy it is switched to my bank account so I don't have to keep paying Jennifer so that she can pay her mother. Because that is confusing. Especially since her mother doesn't live with them anymore.

Another thing I did when I was downtown yesterday was visit the Bijenkorf. Bijenkorf means beehive, and I feel that it is very appropriately named. I had never been to one until yesterday, so I thought it was kind of cool to look at. De Bijenkorf (according to wikipedia) is a "chain of high-end department stores in the Netherlands" and there are 12 of them total. The oldest and largest ones are in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. It is basically like a mall, except there is no divider between shops. They are all just one big shop. I think the one in The Hague that I went to yesterday is 5 or 6 storeys. It's right in the city center and I've walked past it a million times but I do know of it as a very expensive place to shop, which is why I never went in.

I took some pictures.

This, I just thought would interest my momma. There is a Nespresso store in the Bijenkorf. It's like any other Nespresso store I've been to. You take a number and wait for it to show up on the screen and then you tell them what kinds of coffee capsules you want and they punch the order into the computer for you and then pull the boxes out of the slots on the wall behind the counter. Most other Nespresso stores I've been to also have coffee tasting and machine demonstrations but I was too distracted by other things to pay it much mind.

Um, that was the floor I spent the most time on because it had the kitchenware and I love that stuff. 

Anyway, after that I went to Albert Heijn to get peas because I had a random craving and decided that I would have peas for dinner, and I just happened to glance at the Coke bottle display they had out. 

I have not purchased any soda-like beverage since December 30, 2012 but I have been looking so hard for my name on a bottle and had given up all hope of finding it. I almost cried.

Anyway, now I have to go. London is calling~

Update: Thursday 18 Jul

Hi. Like I said in my last post, yesterday was moving day. I thought I would introduce you to two of my new housemates.

This is Theory. He is… kind of stupid. But very cute. He followed me around all day yesterday. Every time I pet him he would start headbutting my leg and demanding more. He likes back scratches.

This is Gaddafi. I avoided him yesterday, he was in his cranky mood. Gaddafi has cancer. He's super friendly and super cuddly but sometimes (like yesterday) his cancer is really painful and all he does is hiss and bite (not hard, though).

As you can see, I couldn't avoid him for very long. I was trying to get some of the mess cleaned up in my room and get some things put away, and sat down on the bed with my laptop to take a break. Gaddafi comes wandering in, climbs in my lap and starts rolling around on my computer. He closed every program I had open, then opened a few new ones, and renamed all of the files on my desktop. He is apparently very skilled at computers. I wasn't sure how to get him off because I didn't want to hurt him but eventually he went off on his own.

Then he curled up next to me like this. I miss having cats around…

Update: Tuesday 16 Jul

Hi! I'm moving tomorrow. I'm not sure if you knew that. I have a key to a new place and when I picked it up, I told Amber "um, so I guess I'm moving in… tomorrow." Yeah, surprise! They didn't know that. It's strange though. I've mostly finished packing, and everything is so empty. Except the kitchen and living room and bathroom, because Alicia will be back. I just decided I don't want to be here when she comes back. I'm going to write her a letter and leave it on the table.

So, it's really hot. Not really. I think it got up to 75F today. I walked to the new apartment to get my key in that heat. It's a 40-45 minute walk, I was baking. When I came home I put on a dress, but I have to change back into my jeans to go to a movie tonight because I don't have any shoes to go with a dress… It's just that, I was trying to pack and stuff and it was impossible to do that while sweating in my clothing. You probably think I'm crazy, and exaggerating a lot. I'm just really not used to it being so humid and so warm at the same time. Plus, I think I was built for cold weather. It agrees with me.

Anyway, I'm kind of proud. I haven't gone food shopping since the beginning of the month, partly because I wanted to save money for London (leaving in five days, yay!) and partly because I didn't want to have to haul a bunch of food to my new apartment. The fridge is almost empty, it shouldn't be too bad.

Oh, yeah. I remembered that I was supposed to tell you about that grill-your-own barbecue thing we did. It's kind of a funny story, really. First they brought us the grill, which was this cute little table barbecue. I assumed it would be charcoal but it looked like there was wood in there as well… I said before that I wouldn't be able to tell you what kind of meats they had because we were going to be getting the vegetarian meal. Well, we told them a million times that we want the vegetarian version (including in the reservation email) but they still brought out a tray that was… well… Not vegetarian. It had these two sausages (one for each of us), two ground beef patties, two skewers of chicken, and two whole shrimps (legs, tails and heads included). Oh, and maybe 4 or 5 little chunks of bell pepper.

Jenn told them we had asked for the vegetarian meal and they tried to argue with us that we were supposed to have told them before, etc. But we did, so they have no excuse. They brought back the proper tray, which honestly would have looked a lot tastier even if I were still eating meat. It had two pumpkin burgers (they had onions and walnuts and maybe chickpeas in them? I don't know, delicious), two halves of corn, two giant portabellas with a spinach blue cheese mixture in them, a huge pile of eggplant, bell pepper and zucchini slices, and two tomatoes stuffed full of olive tapenade. Since Jenn and I are silly people, instead of separately cooking each of the things and eating our own, we split everything in half. And I guess Jennifer is even sillier because she wouldn't handle the tongs on the grill, she let me do all that. They also brought us some garlic in oil, with a grill brush. After the first portabello mushroom, we decided that the blue cheese was entirely unnecessary and got rid of it. Besides, we couldn't cook it on both sides when it had that stuff in it. I still don't like eggplant, but luckily we got an unfair share of eggplant (there was only one little slice) in comparison to the amount of peppers and zucchini. We did cook and taste the eggplant but neither of us cared for it… Everything else on that tray was delicious. Including the cole slaw that I forgot to mention. I always have hated cole slaw. This cole slaw was tolerable though.

That was our grill-your-own barbecue experience. It was pretty fun, and really good, but if it hadn't been for that special deal we got it would have been expensive (the menu said €19.90 for one person. We got it for €12.50 for two. Good deal).

Yesterday Jenn and I went to a movie, and after the movie we wandered around town a little. There is this kind of park called Lange Voorhout, and they tend to have exhibitions and host parties there. My school's start of the year party was there. Anyway, this week they are doing some kind of art exhibition, they have all of these sculptures that were done by Russian artists. We walked through and looked at everything, there were some that were very cool. I didn't get a lot of pictures but I did get a few. Sorry, I don't know the names of the artists or the pieces.

Okay. There were two gates and two arches by this guy. I don't remember exactly what it said, but it was something about how the artist likes to make gates and arches that aren't connected to a fence, just a gate that leads from nothing, to nothing, through nothing. It had something to do with the unknown. That was a very obscure description, sorry. In the background, you can barely see a big ball of what looks like paper scraps. They're strips of metal that are woven around to look like a giant senseless mess. They have words written on them, but since they're cut in strips you can't read any of them. The description said something about how the artist was criticizing the way people talk about art.

This artist apparently makes a lot of statues of people, animals and objects breaking through walls. I don't know why. It was the first one we looked at, I read a lot of descriptions after that.

My favorite was one I didn't get a picture of. It had a bunch of empty oil barrels stacked on top of each other. When you looked at it from the front, you could see that the five in the middle had no top or bottom, and they were the colors of the Olympic rings. Behind them, there was a really pretty landscape. It was meant to make a statement about the 1980 Olympics, which were hosted in Moscow. During those Olympics, the city looked beautiful. But as soon as all the foreign athletes and spectators left, the city fell back into its state of despair.

Anyway, I just looked it up and this website says the sculptures will be up in the park until September, and then they will go to the museum in Scheveningen (the beach section of The Hague) that is hosting the whole thing, until October. I'll have time to get more pictures later.

This is long, so let's just call it quits.

Update: Wednesday 10 Jul

Good evening! Uh, afternoon. Or is it morning? Well, whenever you are reading this. I don't have much to say. I'm hanging out in an empty apartment. My jalapeno seeds came up, but I planted a lot. Knowing that when they sprouted I'd have to pick which ones I want to pluck out of there. Now I don't know how long I should wait to start plucking… There are probably fifteen little sprouts. They are very cute. I would show you a picture but… wait, I think I can dig up a recent one.

Found one. You can pretend my floor isn't really dirty. I promise I vacuumed after I took that picture. Unfortunately when I watered the lettuce shoots, they fell over and the roots weren't deep enough to stay in. They all dried up and died… I cleaned them out and planted new ones—fewer, because I realized that they grow very well—deeper in the soil like they were supposed to be to begin with. Those jalapeno sprouts are so cute. I hope they don't die.

I made a mushroom soup for dinner tonight because all I had was a ton of mushrooms, plus some celery and onion. I'll have you know that I hate celery, but I eat it because I can.

It's a bit difficult to take a picture of steaming hot soup… The steam kind of gets in the way of the camera… This was extremely delicious. The recipe I followed (very, very loosely) suggested serving it with wild rice and I was very sad because that sounded like a great idea, but I haven't been able to find wild rice.

I emailed Ian several days ago to ask when I would be getting my keys. He didn't respond, so I intended to email his mother today. I want to move in on the 17th and that will be very hard to do if I don't have the keys because Ian and Amber are unavailable for whatever reason. I forgot to email her today, so I'll have to do it tomorrow if I don't forget again. 

Jenn and I are going to this fancy cook-your-own barbecue restaurant on the beach tomorrow for lunch. We payed for it months ago (it was half-price, and Jenn also had a €5-off coupon, so it was only €6 apiece instead of €17.50) and we have reservations. I guess they have little grills on each table and they bring you raw foods on skewers. Maybe they'd bring whole steaks and fish too, but that doesn't really apply to us so we may never truly know. I assume we'll just be getting veggie skewers, but I haven't been yet. I'll let you know later. ;)

Update: Friday 28 Jun

Hi. I just wanted you to know that Alicia leaves in two days (Margaux left a week ago) and since she is only here for a little longer, she has decided that she can be a bigger slob than she normally is. I am avoiding the kitchen as much as possible so I don't have to look at the disgusting state of the counter, stove and sink. I thought I would be lonely after the two of them left but… Ugh, can you leave sooner please? Good riddance.

I'm just kind of tired of feeling like I'm an unwanted guest in my own home. She acts like this is her apartment more than anyone else's apartment and therefore she can do whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Like, thanks for asking me if you could have a party until 2am when I have classes the next day at 8am (no wait, it wasn't supposed to be a party. It was "I'm having some friends for dinner tonight, just to let you know" but dinner doesn't start until 10pm, it involves a lot of alcohol and no cleaning up after yourself, and ends in a late visit to the club, after which you sleep in until 2pm and then go to class, still without cleaning your disaster in the kitchen). Or, no I don't mind if your brother comes to stay for two weeks in July, and I definitely don't mind that I don't get a choice in that matter, and that you didn't tell me about it until after it was a done deal. And I really appreciate that you leave your shampoo and soap bottles scattered all around the shower floor all of a sudden, when for the entire last 9 or 10 months we've all always put them back on the shelf after our shower. I also like it when you put on loud music in your bedroom and then leave the door open so you can hear it while you go across the hall and cook and eat dinner in the kitchen—yet when I'm in the kitchen with music on, you make it a point to come close the door so you can't hear it. Also, if it weren't for the huge pile of dirty dishes in and around the sink and the food caked onto the counter and stove, I'd probably forget you are here so thank you for the reminder.

I'm a little bitter. I don't know if you noticed that. I shouldn't be, because I should be just grateful that she leaves in two days and I don't have to deal with all of that anymore. But I'm not sure how I will even survive the next two days.

She is leaving in two days, but she is not turning in her keys. This is so that her brother can come crash here for two weeks in July, and then in August right before our lease ends she will come back to take the last of her stuff and make sure everything is clean. Since I'm hoping to be moving out on the 17th of July, I figured that I will throw out any dishes that she and I both don't want and just leave what she wants in the apartment for her to take in August. So I asked her yesterday if before she leaves she could put her things in a separate spot so that I know what not to throw out. By separate spot, I was kind of thinking "in your own cupboard space" but already yesterday afternoon she went and separated all of the dishes into two piles—what she wants and what she doesn't. Problem with that is that I don't know which is which. So I guess if she doesn't solve the problem before she leaves, after she leaves I'm going to scrub out her cupboard (it's kind of nasty… wait, really nasty) and then put what I assume is her stack of things in her cupboard. I'm thinking it'll be obvious which is hers, but in the event that it's not obvious she cannot go blaming me because she should have thought of that before she made it so ambiguous. I feel that she misunderstands me every time I try to talk to her about things, so I don't think there's really any point in asking her to do anything differently. Typically she either misunderstands, or gets really defensive. Mostly, I'm tired of having to deal with it and I don't feel like going to the trouble of trying to talk to her. She'll just have to suffer the consequences.

That's kind of all I had to say today. I just needed to let off a little steam. Sorry that my post wasn't more exciting, and I haven't been posting a lot lately. I guess I could come up with some things to talk about that don't involve Alicia.

Well, like I mentioned before, Margaux left last Saturday. She had quite a few things that wouldn't fit in her bags and she didn't want to throw them out, so I offered to keep some stuff. One of those things was a twin-sized duvet. I know, I just bought a queen-sized one that I will use when I move to my new apartment because it has a bigger bed. But it has a loft bed, and under the loft bed is an extra twin-sized bed, so now I have a blanket for it in case I have someone over, I guess. The only blanket I've had all this time is the really crappy one from DUWO and I intended to get rid of it because it's terrible. Now I have a replacement. Margaux also left me a bit of food; yesterday I had lentils for the first time in my life. Not bad. Unfortunately she left me a bag of flour, and Nora also gave me a bag of flour… Now I have four bags of flour. What am I going to do with four bags of flour?

I bought some seeds (loose-leaf lettuce and jalapeno) and I'm trying to grow things, I guess we'll see if that works. As it is, I have a very happy basil plant which I rarely use, a decently happy chive plant which I also never use, an orchid that I need to find food for, a mini-tree that belongs to Nora and I am plant-sitting for the summer, and a gerber daisy that I bought at IKEA. I think the daisy is pretty happy too but I can't tell. I've tried planting lettuce in my pots before and the roots always deteriorate. I'm not sure how that happens, but it's made me sad and it's happened three times now. So I decided to try seeds. Maybe they will be more successful. Maybe they won't… I guess I don't care. Maybe lettuce just can't grow in a pot. Maybe there are insects or something that is eating at the roots…

My grades aren't all in yet, but I think I have 45 out of 60 first year credits, and 65 out of 80 total credits. I think I'm okay. We will be getting our "non-binding study advice" next week and then if we don't like it, we can go argue it to the examination board. Then after that comes binding study advice. If binding study advice says you shouldn't continue with the program, then you aren't allowed to. Legally, if you have less than ⅔ of the first year credits, you will receive negative BSA. I have more than ⅔ so I think I will be getting provisional BSA, meaning that I have one additional year to make it positive. That just means I have to get those 15 extra first year credits that I missed out on. It means I didn't pass every class, and it means I screwed up… But I'm hoping it means I'll still have a chance to make it up to myself. I don't want to go home yet.

Update: Wednesday 5 Jun

Hi!

So today my hair was cooperating nicely, and it's so warm out (ha, ha. By that I mean 70F) that I wanted to wear this nice dress that Mommy bought me in Ocean City, Maryland. I decided I look nice today. But there are no roommates in the nearby vicinity, so I had to take pictures with my webcam… for you. Because you don't get to see my face often enough, I think. ;)

So I kind of still look terrible anyway, but I feel overwhelmingly happy sometimes about my weight-loss progress. Then I start feeling like I should cry or something. I love walking around downtown, or even walking to school, because I walk past all these massive store windows that are very reflective, and then I can't help but keep looking at my reflection and marvelling at how far I've come. That's probably not a healthy thing to keep focusing on, but it just feels good to know that I'm not overweight anymore. Really, my BMI is finally in the "healthy weight" range, although I know BMI is often terribly inaccurate. I haven't been this weight since I was 16 years old, maybe even before that. I wish I had some decent "before" pictures, but if you've known me all that time, maybe you don't need it. I think over the summer I am going to start going out for a few hours on my roller blades, or at least go jogging a bit, and see how much better we can do with that. It's hard to motivate myself to do even more when I've already had this much success just by eating better, but I do know that there's only so much that diet controls and it's probably time to step it up a bit.

So uh, anyway. Yesterday I made this terribly not-exciting meal that was very yummy regardless of its simplicity. It's just quinoa seasoned with only salt, and steamed veggies. They'd have been roasted veggies, but it's so hard to roast veggies without an oven… Margaux has two friends visiting from France and Alicia had told Margaux a while back that she wants to try ratatouille. I never really liked ratatouille (just because I really dislike eggplant) but she asked if I wanted to join them and I said sure, why not. So tonight we're having ratatouille, and I have leftover quinoa to eat with it. I'm going to be very sad when I run out of quinoa…

Hanna emailed me this morning and suggested that Amber and I come visit her some time in August while Ian is in the Middle East, so that we can complete the tax forms that she will need us to sign. But uh… I guess I have no reason to say no to that, I'm sure a weekend or something in Belgium would be nice. I guess one day I should tell these people I don't eat meat…

Update: Monday 3 Jun

Hello!

Okay. So I'm a silly person and I've already allotted all of this month's budget out so I have nothing left. Granted, I haven't actually spent it yet, I have just already planned where it's going. Well, I have €110 left. €30 is for the market later this month (I'll probably have a little of that left over), €40 is for IKEA (Yeah. Need a flowerpot. Flower pots are only a euro, I can afford it. Oh, and I need a Queen sized duvet for the duvet cover my Mommy bought me. They have one I like for €30. I also want a new pillow. Feather pillow. I'm so spoiled, eh?), and the last €40… Well, I lied. It's not all planned already. That last bit is for whatever I want to use it for. Or my phone bill. Whichever comes first. I also still have €50 of this month's budget that I didn't put in my account yet (it's in savings) because I'm hoping I can save €50 every month to have for… Well, did I mention I'm going to London in July? To save for special occasions or moments of need, I suppose.

I made fajitas for dinner. I really like fajitas. They had mushrooms and onion and red pepper, and also some avocado, green onions, lettuce and tomato as toppings. They were good fajitas. I bought an 18-pack of large tortillas at the Asian supermarket (who'da thunk it…) and they are much much better than the tortillas in the glorified "Mexican food" section of Albert Heijn. To be fair, the Asian supermarket does have a lot of "foreign" foods besides just Asian stuff. I can get worcestershire sauce and American cake mixes and big boxes of baking powder/soda. I don't know why, apparently those are not things one uses in the Netherlands. Typically if you want baking soda around here, you should probably look at the drug store or pharmacy. You can get baking powder in the stores, in little packets that contain about a tablespoon. Also, it took me forever to find cocoa powder. Hint: it's not in the baking section. It's in the coffee section. Next to the Nesquik.

I also bought a cantaloupe at the market last week. It's a cute cantaloupe… I know that makes no sense, but if it helps at all it's also tasty. Remind me not to buy Spanish strawberries at the market ever again. They were okay on day one (okay, but not delicious), but they got icky pretty quickly. Moldy strawberries. The Dutch strawberries I had were much sweeter. And just generally more yummy.

So I'm halfway done with the things that are due this week. One deadline was today, another is tomorrow so we spent all day working on it. Friday, the other two are due. That's for writing class and European Business Management Review. Writing class involves three essays (a summary, a news article and an argumentative paper, 500 words each) and a reflection on each essay (400 words each). If I wanted, I could be done with those tomorrow but I'm super lazy. I've already done the essays, I don't feel like doing reflections on my work. I really should work on things though, so I'll probably work on EBMR because that's a 25 page business management review… Which I'm halfway done with. It's group work, but I've done most of it… And Sabine did most of the research paper that is due tomorrow, so I guess we're even.

Update: Friday 24 May

I keep buying plants that need homes. It's problematic because I want homes that match, so I have to go back to IKEA for pots. I guess the good thing about it is that the pots that I have been buying are cheap, they are just one euro apiece. But you can't go to IKEA and just buy a pot or two… No, you have to buy a pillow and some cutting boards and a knife and… Yeah. The last two times I went to IKEA I really wanted to buy a new comforter because I still don't have one to fit the duvet cover Mom bought me. I have a feeling it would be harder to resist this time.

Especially since yesterday I went and looked at that apartment and I really liked it. But the bed in the room that would be mine is a double bed, so I will need a new blanket to fit it. So, I went and met this guy and his girlfriend, their names are Ian and Amber. And they have two cats, whose names are Gaddafi and Theory. One of which has cancer. :( The guy currently living in that room keeps to himself when he is home, apparently he is extremely asocial. (I learned a new word this week. Someone who is antisocial is "detrimental to social order or the principles by which society is constituted" and asocial is what people mean when they misuse antisocial: not social, or "unable or unwilling to conform to normal standards of social behavior") Amber said that even when he's not in his room, if they say hi to him or tell him his food smells good, he just responds with something along the lines of "hi… yeah…." and then he goes to his room. I would love to have roommates I can talk to and hang out with on occasion. They have a living room! With a couch! Yeah, I emailed Ian's mom and told her I would take the room. I don't want to have to keep looking, the price is right, and the distance is something I can live with.

I think the last time I posted, I forgot to tell you about my pigeon. I know, at first I hated that pigeon and wanted her gone. Then she had an egg and quieted down and I decided I could live with her. Then some sad stuff happened: another bird or a cat knocked the nest down. One day Margaux came in from the balcony and told me that the pigeon was gone. We were both very sad. I guess it's all for the better: as soon as the eggs hatched they would have been very noisy again. Still, I was beginning to like that pigeon.

Here are my plants. My basil is doing awesome, the chives are outside on the balcony doing okay. There are some green onions there that were once doing awesome, but now they're not. I don't know what happened. I think if they die, I will pull them out and try again. Green onions are supposed to be very easy to replant. Maybe I didn't bury them deep enough. Finally, I have these two lettuce plants. I really wanted a lettuce plant because I can't buy lettuce and eat it fast enough before it all goes bad (from the market, anyway. Two heads of iceberg or romaine lettuce for a euro is nice, but they don't last forever after all). I saw these plants at the market for 50 cents apiece, so I thought I would try to grow them. Unfortunately, the green one wasn't happy staying in its plastic pot and I haven't been able to go buy them homes yet, so I had to steal the orchid's pot. Means I can't water my orchid for a while, but my orchid doesn't like being watered anyway so I guess it's okay. The red lettuce plant is next… I have my own little garden in my room. Margaux probably thinks I'm crazy. That's okay with me.

Update: Monday 20 May

Hi! Remember when I said that posting so often would probably come back and bite me in the butt? That I'd run out of things to say and then you wouldn't see me for a while? That's what happened. I've just had nothing to say for a while.

Now I'm apartment-searching, though. I'll be moving out during the first week of August, and I was going to wait until it was a bit closer to that time because I know that people wait until about a month before to start posting their rooms. Then I had this sudden panic that I won't be able to find anything at all and I'll have to move out of my apartment and onto the streets and… well, that just didn't sound like a good idea for some reason. I have only been scanning the posts on this website for about a week, but when things come up that look really good I feel like I should jump on them, because who knows how long they'll be available before someone else wants it. The problem is that I know half of them would rather take anyone else besides me because if their apartment is available from May 25, they want someone paying from May 25. They don't want someone who isn't coming until August.

But… I have found an apartment that is right near the market and it's within my price range. They wanted someone from the first of July but she told me that if I like the apartment, maybe I can pay half price for July and then move in when my current apartment contract is up. I emailed to set up an appointment to see the apartment but no response yet, so we'll see. I want to not have to worry about this anymore.

Last week I bought inline skates. On marktplaats, which to me feels like a combination of a Dutch version of craigslist and ebay. I bought them from a lady in Tilburg for €7.50 and she shipped them to me, they look and feel brand new so she probably never used them. I want to use them as my main mode of transportation so I need to go use them more often to get accustomed to it. I went out and skated for a couple hours the day after I got them, it was pouring so the ground was slippery. Probably wasn't the brightest idea to go out at that time, but I didn't fall so that's a plus. I think it's been years and years since the last time I skated.

Update: Tuesday 30 Apr

Hello! Today is Koninginnedag, or Queen's Day, here in the Netherlands. It's a complicated thing to describe so I hope I don't leave you confused.

Queen's Day was first started in 1885 to celebrate the fifth birthday of a princess on August 31. When she became queen, it was changed from Princess's Day to Queen's day. When her daughter Juliana took her place as queen, the holiday was moved to her birthday, April 30. Then when her daughter Beatrix became queen, she left the holiday on April 30 as a tribute to her mother. (But also because Beatrix's birthday is in January and no one wants to celebrate in the cold.)

This year was a special Queen's Day because today the former Queen Beatrix passed the throne to her son, Willem-Alexander. It's the first time the Netherlands has had a king in 123 years. He is also very young to be king, only 46, but I guess that feels young to me because he's even younger than my parents and I don't think my parents are old. Apparently he is the youngest monarch in Europe now though, so there is that.

Anyway, basically today is the last Queen's day there will be in a long time. Next year it will be Koningsdag, King's Day, instead. It will be celebrated on his birthday, April 27 (starting in 2015 because next year that day is on a Sunday, so April 26 will be King's Day).

So here's how it basically works (and I only know this from what I've heard, so sorry for lack of detail): On the night of the 29th, everyone goes out and parties to bring in Queen's Day. The next day, there are carnivals and fairs and parties all over the country. Everyone wears orange and hangs their Dutch flags outside of their homes (hanging your country's flag outside is not nearly as common around here as it is in the US) and some people dye their hair and wear fluffy orange feather boas and orange cowboy hats, etc. They have "free markets" on Queen's Day, which is basically a nationwide yard sale in the streets. I guess it's the one day that they are allowed to sell items in the streets without a permit and VAT.

Now, I really wanted to go out and see some of this stuff firsthand but… The ceremony for the king was at one and I really wanted to watch that, so I did. It took a couple of hours. All of the free markets were so far from me that I couldn't walk to them and didn't want to pay for the tram, so I couldn't go to those. Since The Hague is such an international city, not a lot of people are into the whole "wear orange and go crazy" thing but when I left my apartment around four there were still plenty of people all over the city. The crowds in Amsterdam that I saw on TV were rather orange, though. Later, Jenn and I went to a movie and then walked out to the huge carnival that is set up near the parliament building. They were already getting ready to close for the night but it was still nice to look at while it was still there.

Update: Thursday 25 Apr

Remember those pigeons that I was having problems with on my balcony? Here, if you don't remember, I have a better picture now.

Why do I have a better picture? Well because there's an egg in there now, so she's not leaving for any reason whatsoever. Really. I stood there and poked at her for about five minutes while she stared at me with a "why are you touching me?" face… Then I tugged on her tail and she left, only to come back a minute later. She was gone long enough for me to look and confirm that there's an egg there… I guess I give up. They don't make noise in the morning anymore. Only when the other one (which is still afraid of me, and that's how I can tell them apart) comes back, then he stands around next to her and makes this all this noise and leaves again. Ugh. Pigeon. Why there? Why don't the humans running at your five times every morning for two months clue you in that this is not an ideal spot to raise babies?

I know I just got done with spring break about a month ago, but I'm on break again. May break this time. I don't really have anything to do for break though. Jenn was going to ask her dad if we could go spend a weekend or something at their camping house but I don't think she ever did that. The weather has been so nice lately, I guess I'll just have to spend the week enjoying the spring weather from The Hague.