Update: Thursday 28 Feb

Hi. Hello. How are you? How's your week been going? You doin' okay? I want to know how you all are. Tell me.

I am on spring break right now, Margaux is in Paris and Alicia has six friends staying the weekend in our apartment. I am not sure where the six of them are sleeping but I don't really care. They seem nice enough, at least they make an enormous effort to be quiet when the seven of them (counting Alicia) are taking turns using the toilet at two in the morning. I appreciate that. It still woke me up, but I'm a light sleeper and I can't fault them for that. I could not sleep last night anyway, only two Tylenol PMs helped with that.

I made fried rice. I think it looks very attractive but that's just my opinion. It would probably look prettier with some green onions… I can't eat green onions fast enough to buy a whole bundle. Some day, when I figure out where to buy soil, I'm going to get a little pot and then buy some green onions and replant the roots. That way I don't have to use 6 or 7 stalks at once… In the meantime, looking at this picture is making me want more fried rice; I made this several days ago. Yum.

I have been buying milk lately (a liter for €0.59, which according to the math I just did would be approximately $2.90 a gallon, so I guess it's not as bad as I thought) but I don't drink it very quickly so I bought some instant coffee… I've always had this prejudice against instant coffee due to the fact that growing up, we only used it for ice cream, milk shakes, baked things, etc. It's not too bad though. Maybe it's just the brand I bought that isn't too bad. I'm not sure, it's the first time I actually drank instant coffee.

Tomorrow, I am going to my first ever IMAX movie. I hope it's as amazing as the extra cost implies it will be.

I asked my sister if she wanted to start a food photoblog with me… She said sure, but that's as far as we've gotten. Obviously I really like talking about food, I do it so often here in my personal blog. I love walking through the market to see what food they have, and supermarkets too. I thought it could be fun to take pictures of food stalls at the market and things like that… Maybe she won't have as much to take pictures of…

I've just discovered my local Asian supermarket. It's huge. And full of awesome things. A lot of brands that I recognize from home. So I'll have to do my shopping for things like soy sauce and sesame oil there, because it's much cheaper. Also, instant noodles. Like ramen. They have so many different brands and so many flavors. Jenn and I found a few favorites like "special chicken" flavor (What makes the chicken so special? It didn't say.) and vegetarian flavor. Neither of us could figure out what vegetarians might taste like. The problem was that a lot of them didn't have the flavors written in a non-Asian language, so they were a mystery. Same with the ingredients list. I look at the ingredients of everything that I buy, it's sort of become a habit. I like to know what kind of crap I'm putting in my body. Oh no, I can't read Chinese/Japanese/Korean! So much fun. Simona didn't understand my problem with soy sauce (too many of them had more ingredients aside from soy, water, salt and wheat).

Anyway, I meant it. I am always telling you about my day. Tell me how your day has been.

Update: Wednesday 20 Feb

Hi! Did you miss me?

Here, have some veggies. Just because.

Okay, so I told my momma this, I might as well tell everyone else too.

This year, I decided for the first time in my life to make some New Year's resolutions. I didn't want to tell what they were yet because I know that many people make resolutions and then two weeks later they forget about them. I wanted to see if I could stick with it before I go announcing it…

Mine were a bit easier than most probably are because in a lot of ways they were things I was already doing.

• No more sodas/caffeinated beverages. Where the line is drawn is a little iffy, I'm not sure where to cut that off, but basically no more: Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dr Pepper, any other kind of traditional soda, Ginger Ale, Fanta, etc. 
• No more fast food. With the same exceptions as before (Subway, Eazie, the good stuff) because I don't think those are nearly as bad as over-processed and grease-filled McDonalds, Burger King and KFC.
• No more meat. 

Okay, so the thing about that one. I had been thinking about going vegetarian for several months (since about the end of the summer I think), mainly because meat was too expensive to buy in a supermarket anyway and I wanted to experiment with it. I didn't think that was a good enough reason though. If I was going to start being a vegetarian just for fun, it seemed like that would make it too easy to say "oh, well, I can have meat just this one time, it'll be okay" and then that would happen so frequently that there's no point in pretending.

Some time around New Year's, I read a bunch of articles about how... true vegetarians tend to be healthier when it comes to heart disease, blood pressure, certain cancers, etc. and that, of course, vegetarians have to pay closer attention to what nutrients they are getting, so they tend also to eat healthier. And I like to eat healthier...

I was going to just do it for a year to see how it makes me feel but then other factors came in and I'm kind of enjoying it (it makes me feel nice, and I get to experiment with food) so I think I might make it a more long-term thing. Also because why not?

One thing, though, is that Europeans apparently have this funny idea about vegetarianism… It's related to the idea that fish is not meat. Which… I don't know, maybe by some biblical definition it's not but if you are vegetarian because you do not want to kill things, or you a vegetarian because you don't want to eat animal flesh, it makes no sense to eat fish too. Also, I'm not religious so I don't follow biblical definitions. Whether you are calling it meat or not though, it is still a living thing that has a heartbeat and protein-rich flesh (you know, meat), so if those are their reasons to be vegetarian, I think they are cheating. One funny description that I read on "pescetarianism" said that they just don't have what it takes to go completely vegetarian. ;) It's too hard. My French teacher told one classmate that she is actually vegan, because she doesn't eat fish. Oh geez… (Yeah, several of my classmates are also vegetarian. Most of them eat fish, though.)

I'm trying to think of the important things that have occurred since I last posted. There hasn't been much, which is why I haven't posted. 

I did get my hair cut though, which most of you have probably already seen. I like it. I mean, I really, really like it. I didn't think I would like it so short but it's actually very nice.

Oh, and. Those veggies. They made some pretty good fajitas, but I ate way too much. Because I ate all of it. A whole onion (the Dutch grocery stores call them large onions, but I would argue that where I'm from they'd either be small onions or medium onions. They are very small for large onions.), a third each of red, green and yellow bell peppers, and three mushrooms. And three tortillas. And also half an avocado. 

I made my own fajita seasoning (using some suggestions from other recipes) but I think it needs to be fixed a little next time. This one recipe I read said to use equal parts chili powder, paprika, sugar, salt, cumin, dry mustard and cornstarch. Instead I used equal parts flour, sugar, salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder and garlic powder. It was good, but too sweet so next time I will omit sugar, and use ground mustard because I forgot about that and I had actually wanted to try it. Oh well, next time. They were still very good. Maybe I'll put in the paprika too. I don't know. I won't be doing that again soon enough to worry about it. Mainly because I don't need to eat that much all at once.

Update: Thursday 7 Feb

Last night, my not-so-helpful kitchen assistant came over and we made pancakes.

With probably the simplest recipe I could find. I was surprised that they turned out so well. And then I threw strawberry jam on top and it was delicious. Jenn's roll in the creating of dinner: mixing the milk and eggs and butter into the dry ingredients. She did good. It was a very healthy dinner, I assure you. I had more for lunch today. Then tonight I'm going to have some leftover rice from the other night. And broccoli. And carrots. Because pancakes with strawberry jam are rather lacking in vegetables, and I like those things. 

After we made pancakes, we went to see a movie, The Impossible. I was a little iffy on seeing this movie, because I wasn't sure that I was really that interested in it. It turned out to be a very good choice. It was so… I don't know how to explain. It is a true story about this family, parents and 3 small boys, who go on vacation for Christmas at a beach resort in Thailand. This giant tsunami hits and they are all separated and they even don't know if any of the others are even still alive, and so it's the story of what happens to them after the tsunami. It's terrifying and sad and... so good. I think that it is not everyone's kind of movie though, obviously. 

Then, when I got home from the theater, I called my mommy and grandparents to say hello to them. Then I called my sister. That one was pretty funny. She was just getting out of class and she hung up on me at first because she hadn't left class yet, then she called back (she didn't know it was me yet) and when I told her who it was she freaked out on me. I guess I'm not supposed to be able to call her from the Netherlands. Fun fact: I have a Skype subscription (I didn't know I had one, I thought I only bought a phone number but it didn't take away any of my Skype credit when I made those two phone calls) and it will last until some time in March. So if you want to, you can call me at that number (you know, if I called you and you now have the number). For whatever reason.

Jennifer got me sick last weekend, so last night I took a Tylenol PM to help me sleep a little easier and I had some really strange dreams. I won't go into detail, mainly because I don't remember them too well. It was odd, though.

Oh. I just checked my Skype order history. So apparently, a year and a half ago when I bought a year-long unlimited calling plan for the US and Canada, it was set to automatically renew. Then this past September it automatically renewed for $30. I wish I had known that… I saw that $30 had been taken but I assumed it was something I had done intentionally and knowingly. Obviously I don't watch my bank account closely enough. I don't mind, $30 for a year of calling is not too bad, but I wasn't using it because I didn't know… I guess now I know. So I can make phone calls until next September. The phone number still only lasts until March, though. I don't know what happens then.

Update: Tuesday 5 Feb

This morning, around five, I was awoken by this enormous CRASH. Now, somehow there's always people crashing around in the courtyard. So that's why I thought it was. Then there was this sudden flash, immediate followed by an overlapping CRASH. I've never heard thunder that crashed like that. It was so different from the normal rumbling thunder that I love. Thus it was the strangest thunderstorm I have ever witnessed, but it was a thunderstorm nonetheless and I love thunderstorms so that's all right. It was very close, the thunder and lightning weren't at the exact same time, but almost. It didn't last very long though.

It was also hailing. Very hard. When I walked to school this morning, it started hailing on me halfway there. It's not even cold enough to freeze, why is it hailing? So it's been alternating between light hail, heavy hail and no hail all day. Right now we're on the "no hail" part and I think I see sun? I don't know, what does sun even look like? I forgot.

Every day when I come home lately, the apartment is empty. I am not complaining. I get a few hours to myself. It's nice.

My new roommate Margaux is a very nice girl. I cannot find any reason to complain about her. That said, I think I just don't get along well with others. I think I am just stubbornly determined to dislike anyone I have to share a home with, because I get annoyed by so many little things. I am hiding all of the dishes I have bought one-by-one. Now I feel like I can't hide anything more because they keep disappearing after she uses them. My frying pan, my big mug, my spatula. They are now stashed in my personal cupboard. The frying pan is just because Margaux used it one time. She did not mistreat it but I am paranoid.

The spatula is a different story. That one is hidden because Alicia tried to fry an egg on her electric skillet but she does not know how to cook so she burnt the egg to the pan (no oil/butter, I assume) and then she scraped it up with my spatula, covering it in burnt egg, and threw that in the sink and left it for two days, at which point I rescued it and scratched the egg off and scrubbed it, and then hid it. No more spatula for you. I don't know why she can't wash things right after she uses them. It makes life easier. Maybe it only makes life easier for me, and things that make my life easier are of no concern to her. How considerate.

Jenn and I are going to a sneak preview tonight… That means we have no idea what movie we are going to see at the movie theater, but we are going to see it anyway. It might be something neither of us even wanted to see… Oh well.