Update: Thursday 31 Jan

I'm feeling anxious about my money… Next time I buy groceries I'm going to go see what I can get at the market. I don't really want a whole bin of each veggie though, I know I won't eat all that before it goes bad. That's the bulk of what I buy though, vegetables.

Let's see, last time I went grocery shopping I bought….  A zucchini, a cucumber, two red bell peppers, 300g of pre-cleaned/chopped broccoli (I thought for sure the whole one would be cheaper, but it was 238g and half of that was the huge stem. They were the same price), some carrots, a box of mushrooms, mandarins, … wait. I just remembered, I took a picture. (I don't know why.)  This is what I bought last time I went grocery shopping, 28 euros. I want to see how much I spend at the market getting those same vegetables. I could probably get cheaper cheese and cashews at the market too. (Yes, I do need cashews. They are a good snack.)

It's just a long walk to the market, and I don't want huge bins of everything, but maybe I can barter… Well I mean, of course I probably can. It's a giant farmer's market. They're probably very accustomed to arguing prices. They're a little intimidating… I can speak enough Dutch to shop at the market though.

I am the ultimate pigeon terrorizer. These two pigeons have decided to nest in a planter that is on the divider between my balcony and my neighbor's. I can't reach it to see if they actually have anything in there (it's January! I know that last week it was -7 degrees and this week it is 12 but it's a lie, bird! It's still winter!) but every time they start cooing (they have a very distinctive sound that they make, it's so annoying) all I have to do is walk out my door and they take off for a while. They wake me up every morning around six. I hate them.

I've started my second semester classes… The nice thing is that I have no classes earlier than 10:30 so I get to sleep a little longer. The not-so-nice thing is that this semester is supposed to be a lot harder. Can't wait.

Update: Sunday 27 Jan

Did I show you my orchid? This is my orchid.

Today I bought a pretty blue pot for it. Oh, and it has 3 flowers which are not pictured here because they hadn't bloomed yet, but now they have and they keep falling over because they are too heavy.  I don't think I'm going to replant it in the blue pot though, at least not yet. I just needed the pot to keep the water off the floor since it's living in my apartment. I don't have any dirt to replant it with… And I don't want to damage it…  It's my new pet, I'd be heartbroken if it died!

I actually got it for free. Last week, we had our class project, and the PR & catering committee had to arrange to have some nice decorations and they thought flowers would be perfect. So one of my classmate's friends happens to own a flower business and offered to give us free flowers. Little did we know that not only are they orchids but they are potted. So about 10 of the girls in my class got to take an orchid home. I was the first one to grab one, because I really wanted one.

So we had part 2 of our Harry Potter marathon last night, we watched the last four movies. They wanted me to bring salsa again but I didn't want to make it, so instead I made dip. Like the french onion dip that you can make with Lipton onion soup mix, except onion soup mix is for lazy people so I made it from scratch. I had a lot of shallots left from making the salsa, so I caramelized them and threw them in sour cream with salt and pepper and garlic powder and celery salt. I am never buying shallots again. The way my eyes burned when chopping them, it so wasn't worth that. The dip was really good (actually I still have a little left and it has "dip mushrooms in me" written all over it) but I had to open the window and door to get fresh air in the room, plus step away from my cutting board several times. And that was after I let them soak in icy water.

Oooh, speaking of cutting boards. I went to ikea today. It's the first time I've been to ikea in the Netherlands. That's where I bought the pot for my orchid. Along with that pot I bought a new knife (it's amazing. I really missed cutting with sharp knives) and a sauce pan with a lid. The pans DUWO gave us are so thin and cheap that I can't cook anything in them without it burning to the side of the pan all the time. And forget cooking rice. That stuff is horrible to clean off the bottom of a pan. The only thing they've been good for is boiling things. Which is okay if you boil a lot of things but I like to make things that don't involve boiling everything. Thing thing thing. Anyway, apparently people like those really thin pans around here because it's practically all they sell in most of the places I've looked.

So, I have a new roommate Margaux. She is apparently uncomfortable sharing a room, she asked if she could move into the living room. She said she doesn't want to wake me up in the mornings when she gets up. Pfft, I just spent five months living with Snorey Sara. If you're not waking me up four times a night with your snoring, you're all right in my book. Alicia told her she did not think it was a good idea for her to move into the living room.

Honestly though, Alicia is a spoiled brat. She threw a fit when Sara had her bed in there, because she wanted to sit in there in a chair with a blanket and read a book. Oh seriously Alicia? We moved the chairs out of the living room to make room for Sara's bed, one was in Alicia's room. She could have done that there. But, whatever. Sara's theory was that Alicia is used to always getting everything she wants at home. She literally threw a tantrum when Sara said she would not move out of that room just for that reason. Stomped her feet and whined about "but I want to use it" etc. Sara brought up the fact that Alicia has a room private room for herself and it's only fair to let the two of us have a little alone time every once in a while. She stomped out and slammed the door. Same with how she doesn't do her share of cleaning the apartment, including cleaning up her own dishes after she cooks. She piles them in the sink for several hours. If she drops or drips anything on the floor, she leaves it there for whoever's turn it is to clean. Unless it's her turn to clean, of course. Then it stays there for a week unless I clean it up because I don't feel like we should even have "turns" to clean, we should all just clean up after ourselves and/or clean things when we notice that they are dirty. Believe it or not, that's what I do anyway. Turn or no turn.

Anyway, I haven't really talked to Margaux much. Her father was here for the weekend, he left tonight and then she and I ate dinner together. Classes start again tomorrow. I don't want to go...

Update: Thursday 24 Jan

Well uhh. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SISTER. She doesn't read this, it doesn't really matter.

Does anyone want to donate money to the Angie-wants-a-kitchen-scale fund? Probably not… I just want to weigh things, is that so bad? I guess I don't need it, you're right… How about Angie-wants-an-oven fund?

Last night I had a half-Harry Potter marathon with a couple classmates. I downloaded (YEP. THAT'S RIGHT. I ILLEGALLY DOWNLOADED) the first 4 Harry Potter movies on my HP laptop and then I made salsa and guacamole and then carted all of my stuff to Nora's house so we could stay up half the night watching movies. Since Hannah brought her computer speakers and my HP has a huge screen, it actually worked out very well. We're going to watch the next four on Saturday, I guess. Except I can't remember if I have anything already planned for Saturday. But I think not? I don't know. Nora told me to make more salsa because it was delicious but… Just to buy the stuff for the salsa and guacamole (about 10 tomatoes, 3 avocados, a red chili pepper, a lime, cilantro, 2 bags of chips and shallots because shallots) was about 10 euros and I'm not sure I want to spend that much for just one night again. Although, I still have about half the cilantro, a chili pepper and half a bag of shallots… Plus two tomatoes. I put the other half of the lime in stir-fry sauce, so I don't have that anymore. Which, by the way, was pretty good. Limes don't save very well, so I decided I should use it up.

I have to go now, so I'll write another blog post this weekend or next week.

Update: Sunday 20 Jan

I'm going to do something that I have become pretty good at: talk about food.

Remember I said I bought some beans and I had no idea what they were because they were labeled "speckled beans" and I couldn't find any information on speckled beans? They are cranberry beans. Apparently it's a bean somewhat popular in Italy. They're called borlotti in Italian. So with that knowledge, I went and searched for recipes with cranberry beans to get some ideas on how to use them (they were very good in the chili I made, but one can only eat chili so many times, especially when one is limited on chili powder). I did find this recipe right here for an Italian soup that looks good but I don't think I can make that, unfortunately. I've looked for kale in the store (maybe I could make it without kale but the kale was the reason I thought it looked so good to begin with) but I have never seen any around here. Also, parmesan cheese. Though admittedly it's not very much parmesan that is required. And even bay leaves?

I just want to tell you that I kind of felt a little bit of personal success this morning. When I stepped on the scale, it said 70kg. Might not mean a lot to you, but I was 90kg when I got here. 20kg is a lot. About 45 pounds. I'm almost to the point where I'm not really "overweight" anymore. Almost. Not quite, though.

This morning also Sara asked me if I am on a diet, because I eat salad for lunch every day. Pfft no, I just like salad. I guess I could lie and say I mostly eat healthy food because I am on a diet but… I just like those foods… And well first of all, I don't mostly eat healthy food. I just avoid processed foods… With the exception of processed grains in bread and pasta, and processed sugar, of which a tiny bit goes in my tea every day… And I avoid soda, because who needs that nasty crap. I wouldn't say the salads I eat every day are really that healthy but who can go wrong with lettuce, homemade balsamic vinaigrette, beets and cashews? ;) It's a strange salad, actually. Well no one said you have to eat it… It's my salad. I'm not sharing. Go away.  But, I do eat unhealthy stuff too! Like sugar and olive oil and butter and… That might be about all there is. Okay I only eat a little bit of unhealthy stuff. I haven't been to McDonald's or Burger King since July or August. And I'm never going back there if I can help it, which I can. Again, not that I'm trying to be healthy. Just that I know that stuff's not any good anyway. I don't think I need to eat preservatives… I can preserve myself just fine, thank you.

I can't say I don't eat any fast food… I think that Subway and Vapiano and Eazie all count as fast food… But they use fresh veggies and there's nothing else to it other than pasta, bread, pizza dough or noodles. Well, and sauce. Sauce is a luxury… I don't eat sauces at home because I don't want to buy things to make them from scratch and I don't want to buy anything that comes in a can or jar. (Except those beets. They came in a jar. That was necessary. Oh, and minced ginger. It comes in a jar too. But… the ingredients for that are…. like…. Ginger. Maybe they add water? I don't even know.)

So, sometimes I like to take pictures of my food.

For example, I said that I would take a picture next time I went to Vapiano and well… I ate my pizza before I remembered. But I did take pictures of this place where you can order pasta and this place where you can order pizza. That guy back there may or may not have been making my pizza… Most likely not. But if he wasn't he should have been.

But I also took this picture of pasta that I made which I'm only going to link to because it looks much more boring than it tastes… It's not like I went out of my way or anything… Bonus blurry background shot of my computer.

Update: Tuesday 15 Jan #2

Okay I give in. Scarves!

See previous post for context. ;D

Edit: It's only 27. I could probably use a few more. Looks like I need orange, yellow and green.

Update: Tuesday 15 Jan

If I go outside when it is snowing, I turn into a snow beast because the snow all sticks to my hair… and my hat, and my coat, and everything else.

I spent all last week drooling over the pictures of snow at my parents' house. Yesterday it started snowing here and it snowed on and off through the night. Sara and Alicia were in awe at the start of it all, but now they're grumpy because it's cold outside.

The problem is that the Netherlands is a country that does not know what to do with snow. We probably got about 6 inches of snow, and it's very nice snow but it's a mess. They don't have people with machinery out at four in the morning starting to clear the roads so that people can get where they need to go when eight o'clock rolls around. Also, they can't seem to run trains in snow. I walk through Holland Spoor station every day on my way to school and today every single platform board either said that the next train stopping through was either 10-20 minutes late or not going at all. The trams and buses also take a lot longer to get where they are going because the roads are full of icy slush, so they have to drive slowly. Today I had a cultural exam resit at 9am, some of my classmates made it on time only because they left an hour earlier than they normally would have. They live only ten minutes away by bus, but this morning 10 minutes turned into 50 minutes.

None of that really bugs me because I don't have to take a train, tram or bus. What bugs me is that… Well, the sidewalks and pedestrian roads (and some of the roads for cars too) are paved with either tiles or bricks. The bricks are okay but the tiles are these fancy marble-looking tiles that are really slippery when covered with an inch of slushy snow. Given the amount of rainfall here it doesn't really make sense to pave roads and sidewalks with slippery-when-wet tiles, but I guess the fact that they are pretty is more important.

So I've been posting a lot these last few weeks. At this rate, I'm going to run out of things to say and you won't hear from me for a month or two. Today I finished my last exam, I feel pretty confident about all of them but I only have one result (out of ten) so far. I got a 7 on that, so yay for passing marks!

I have this huge fear of failure lately. I love my study, and I'd be so upset if I didn't make enough credits to continue and they kicked me out of the country. Because I also love this country, and as much as I also love the US I don't want to go back there. Not yet, not now. I need 40 credits out of a possible 80 to continue on to next year. I guess I should stop worrying, because I can definitely get 40 credits without too much of a problem. I need 60 credits out of that 80 to get my first year diploma—I believe those 60 credits come from (of course) just the first year courses because since I am in the 3-year program I have some second year courses this year as well. In order to go on exchange next year, I have to have 80 credits. I'm not sure if I have to get them all this year or if I can get some of them in the first semester of next year as well, but I think it would just be better if I can get all of the ones for this year. I really do hate failing classes… Once upon a time I would have been pretty upset if I did not pass every single class with a very high score, now I feel like I don't care just as long as I pass the majority of them. That's probably not a good change of mindset but I don't even know what to do about it.

Okay. Saturday we went out to the all-you-can-eat sushi place for my birthday, and it was actually a very interesting experience. When they say "all you can eat" they don't necessarily mean it. We were allowed 6 rounds of 5 items per person. So basically 30 items total. A lot of things were included as "items." You could order miso soup, ramen, curry or fried rice. They came in small-but-not-too-small portions, and each counted for one item. Or you could order maki rolls, which came as three rolls and each roll counted as an item. You couldn't order just one roll, if you were ordering maki it had to be three items. There was also things like teriyaki beef, fried mushrooms, fried zucchini (both of those came in a really good sauce), and other things like that which were all a single item. Then, there were spring rolls and calimari rings which came in sets of three as three items each. And all the other types of sushi, which each were just one item. We had a slip paper with 6 columns for the 6 rounds, and we would put a tally mark next to what we wanted for round one, no more than 20 items per round because there were four of us. They would take the paper, put in the order, and then scribble out the column for round one and return it to us to fill out for round two, etc. We only made it to round five. Every thing I had was very good, and even though it was 19 euros it was well worth it for a birthday lunch. I wish I had taken a picture but you'll have to do without. I was too busy stuffing my face (literally. those sushi rolls were pretty big).

Alicia went to DUWO and asked them who would be coming after Sara leaves next week. Apparently my new roommate is going to be a French girl. I do not know how to feel about this. I hope she's not a party animal… I hope she cleans up after herself… I hope she's nice! :(

Last but not least, Moon gave me a scarf for my birthday (a really pretty pashmina scarf, it's so warm) and she also brought me a scarf as a souvenir from Barcelona where she went after Christmas and before New Year's. I now have almost thirty scarves. I love scarves… I would show you but Sara would think I am crazy if I start pulling my scarves off the wall and scattering them around the floor to get a picture. Maybe I'll do that next week after she leaves.

Update: Thursday 10 Jan

Yesterday, Jennifer and I went to see Les Misérables. It didn't actually release in theaters until today but they were doing an early movie premiere night. When we walked into the theater room they handed us glasses of champagne… Yeah, that was interesting. All through the movie we kept hearing people knock their glasses over or break them (the theater was packed). In many ways, it was pretty funny. Also, that was the first time I had champagne. I don't like wine and I didn't find the champagne to be that much better, so meh. Just drinking a glass of champagne in a movie theater seemed like a silly idea. I don't know.

Today, I weigh the least that I've weighed in a long time… Which is a good thing, but I still wish I could go get some blood tests done to see what my cholesterol and stuff looks like since I've been eating better. I guess I'll have to wait on that. The last time I had that done was before I left for France, but the doctor didn't say anything about my cholesterol then. A year or two before that I had blood tests and the doctor told me that (of course) my good cholesterol was too low and my bad cholesterol was too high. No surprise. She told me to eat more good fats like olive oil and avocado. Olive oil is the only kind of oil I ever use now anyway. Plus, I eat a lot of vegetables and fruit. So yeah. I am curious. But I don't know if I'd have to pay a lot to have blood tests done here just out of curiosity… I have insurance, but I don't know what it covers. Not to mention, they wouldn't have my previous records to compare it to.

I was going to go somewhere to make an appointment to get my hair cut, but the place that was suggested to me by a classmate looks expensive. Technically I probably don't really need my hair cut. Maybe it would make me feel better about it though? It's starting to act sad. It needs a refresher, I guess.

I have five tomatoes that have been in my cupboard for a week or two (I originally bought ten, so yes I have been using them) and I don't want them to get mushy or moldy, so I think I should use some tonight… I also bought some dry beans (speckled beans though, it'll be interesting to see how they taste) so tonight I will try to make chili for dinner… Chili with fresh beans and fresh tomatoes. I think it will work out just fine… I miss chili.

Now I've already discussed it with my friends and we have decided that we are just skipping tomorrow entirely because January 11 is overrated. I have a writing exam tomorrow, not looking forward to that. That's all I have tomorrow though. My classmates might try to convince me to go out with them… I don't know if I want to but I guess I'm not allowed to decide that today, because it's not tomorrow yet. So what if it's my birthday? I don't like my birthday anyway.

Update: Tuesday 8 Jan

I made soup yesterday. Sara said it was beautiful and that I had to take a picture.

I think it looked better in person. Doesn't matter, it was delicious. More than I needed for one meal, though.

Two exams down, six more to go. The first two were easy. French and economics. Most of the stuff for economics I remembered from my high school economics class. Good thing, too.

Tomorrow I have American Studies and Politics. They are both open question, I'm really not looking forward to that. American Studies shouldn't be too bad, and if I'm honest with myself Politics should be okay as well, but I worry myself over things that are not a big deal so. I'm worried.

Then! Tomorrow night Jenn and I are going to go see Les Miserables. I remember having to read parts of that in high school French classes… It looks really good, so I can't wait.

I really have nothing more to say. I was going to post the bit about the soup and leave it at that. You're lucky you got a bit extra. I'm going to go make tomorrow's lunch now, bye!

Update: Saturday 5 Jan

I just want you to know that for the first time in my life, I have New Year's resolutions.

I also want you to know that I'm not telling you what they are. I want to see how long I can keep it up before I go advertising it.

Because, you know how people are. Those people who actually make resolutions make the same ones every year and they last less than a month before they go back to their normal routine.

I don't even think I have a normal routine… Oh well.

I'm turning into a legal adult in all ways (in the US anyway) next Friday. Twenty-first birthday, nothing special around here really. I don't want to get older. I just can't wait because Tessa and Simona and Jennifer and I are going to go to this all-you-can-eat sushi place that I've been dying to go to, but avoiding because it's expensive.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to the bookstore and see if there are any cookbooks I can get that have simple enough things to cook in my limited kitchen, because the things I cook regularly are getting pretty boring.

I don't usually use recipes or cookbooks… I really like to improvise… It's nice to have a starting point though, I guess.

I'm not even sure why I'm writing this update. I'm kind of just rambling. You don't mind though, right?

I think I just have food on my mind, and Italian food at that because what sounds really good to me right now is a pizza, like the pizza I got from this really cool Italian restaurant here called Vapiano. Oh I think I could write a whole blog post about Vapiano. Okay fine, I'll tell you about Vapiano.

Okay, so Vapiano is this decently cheap Italian restaurant (probably not cheap in comparison to anywhere in the US but that eating out stuff is expensive in the Netherlands). They have really good pizza and pasta. So what happens is you walk in the door and they hand you a little electronic card. Two walls have counters where you can order pizza, pasta or salad, the third wall has a coffee bar where you can order coffee or desserts. When you order, they have you hold the electronic card up to a machine where they punch in what you ordered and it scans into the card. You can keep going to whatever counter you want and order whatever you want and they just keep tacking it onto your card. At the end when you walk out, you pay for it all at once.  Their pizza is very good, their tiramisu and hot chocolate are also very good. We haven't tried the pasta or salad.

So when we went to Vapiano the first time, we got pizzas. I got a veggie pizza, it had red and yellow bell peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, and eggplant (which I picked off because yuck eggplant). It's a thin-crust pizza, kind of light on sauce and cheese. My lovely Italian roommate is always whining that most places here don't have "real" Italian pizza because the crusts are too thick and they are drowning in sauce and cheese, etc. Vapiano pizza is good. Very good. I want that. Right now. Followed by tiramisu, which Jenn and I nicknamed Heaven in a Cup. Yes, it was good.

Next time I go to Vapiano I will take a picture for you, of my pizza and my heaven in a cup.

Update: Tuesday 1 Jan

Hi! Happy 2013! I hope everyone's New Year's was good! Mine was great. A few hours ago, I got home from a weekend in the UK and I had a great time.

So let's see then. To start off with, last Friday Jennifer and I went to the airport to meet this internet stranger for the first time ever. My Finnish friend Anni is very silly. Also, I will have you know that although we took tons and tons of pictures all weekend, this girl cannot take a good picture to save her life.

This is the best I've got:

And of course it's also not the best, but it'll do. Some runner-ups are…

This one which I only just saw now… It's grainy.
This one where I was talking and she was making weird faces.
THIS ONE that she wasn't supposed to even be in.
This one where… Well, there came a point some time last night where we all just started acting goofy… This was a long, long time after that.
Finally, this one featuring a silly face from Anni again.

Okay. So we met in the airport, flew to Birmingham, stood waiting for a bus for a long time (during which I sent a few voice messages to my parents just for fun using the airport's free internet). We had an awesome time wandering around trying to figure out where we were in Birmingham before just taking a taxi (about 10 pounds) to the hostel.

The next morning, we got up bright and early so we could get back to the center of Birmingham and figure out where we were supposed to meet our bus to London. We took a coach. It was cheaper than the train, and it wasn't too bad of a ride. Even if it took a little longer (three hours each way). In London, we met up with another internet stranger who comes from Wolverhampton in the UK and took a train to come meet up with us.  His name is Hal.

This is me and the side of Hal's face on a random bridge in London. It was a little windy.

Also not a great picture. What can I say, we had Jenn as our photographer. Never hire Jenn as a photographer. This one of Hal and Anni at Pizza Hut in London is quite a bit better, and I think this picture that I took is absolutely adorable but I might be biased... We met up with one of my American friends from France with her boyfriend at Pizza Hut though, it was nice to see her.

So we kind of just wandered around London. Anni had never been and there were a few places I hadn't been as well, and it was just something to do. Our day in London was pretty nice though, and we escaped without spending much money.

The next day we had to ourselves, because it was Sunday and the trains weren't running so much. We had reserved that day for exploring Birmingham, but we ended up spending most of the day at the mall. The UK has that annoying kind of rain that is cold and very light, like a constant misty sprinkle, and it was also windy. So spending the day inside seemed like a good idea. Not to mention, they have this really awesome mall and I haven't been to a mall in so long because the Netherlands doesn't have any. Neither does Finland, so Jenn and Anni were also equally happy to spend the day in the mall.

We bought a few too many books because the UK has very cheap books and they were having a lot of book sales. We also managed to find a Build-a-Bear workshop and well… These are just not the kind of things you can find in most of the world, so everyone insisted we make bears together. Which we did. I love them.

Monday, New Year's Eve, we went to Telford to meet the final two of the internet strangers that we were meant to meet this weekend. I know, meeting internet strangers isn't always safe, but we made it home alive and we had a good time. I wish I could show you pictures of all of us together but Anni has them and she went to bed before uploading anything.

Due to shortness of staff, the trains on New Year's Eve were often cancelled so we had to head back to Birmingham the first chance we got. We ended up back in Birmingham around four in the afternoon and were tired after a long weekend, so we went to Starbucks and sat there using their internet and chatting with each other for two hours until they closed, at which point we walked around the city a bit and then went to find dinner and sat around using their internet and talking amongst ourselves for several hours before they were closing around nine, then we walked to where we had intended to watch fireworks just to make sure we could find it.

We found it rather easily, so we walked as far down the road as we could (this road was lined with nightclubs and bars and lots of happy drunk people saying HAPPY NEW YEAR! It wasn't bad) before heading back down a side road where we found a café and sat around drinking tea and hot chocolate and eating bread until around 10:30 when we headed to Centenary Square. There, we sat around and waited, and took goofy pictures for an hour and a half, then the square filled up and people started counting down and then everyone yelled "happy new year!" and there was an awesome firework show, then we hurried down the street to catch a taxi back to our hostel to get ready to leave for the airport the next morning.

I had a great weekend. And I have some pretty great friends from all over the place. The entire trip was very well worth it.

So to my grandparents, thank you for the generous Christmas gift, and if you would like to know where it went, I have a picture for that:

Meet my lovely new bedmate Max, and my stack of 14 books that I purchased brand new for awesomely low prices. I love them both!