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.

Update: Friday 19 Apr

Hellooooo.

It's Friday. I'm so glad it's Friday, I've had a rough week. I'm not sure why, I just have.

It would appear that this week, I am the queen of vertical pictures. Vertical pictures are rarely unnecessary…

Last week, I went to a classmate's house so we could make dinner together. We made a big quiche, over-stuffed with zucchini and tomatoes. And also feta and gouda. It was interesting, to say the least. It was also really good, though. Anyway, as a side we had salad. Nora bought this lettuce that came roots-attached. She was going to throw the roots away, so I stole them. To see what happens if I plant them. That's the one in the bottom left of this picture, if it's not obvious. It seems to be growing nicely. Might be a while before it grows to an edible size, but I don't care. Maybe every two or three weeks I can have a salad! Ha. Anyway, I also bought a chive plant and basil plant, and neither of them were very happy so I repotted them. They look mildly happier now that I've chopped the chives down to an inch and let the basil dry out a bit (I guess it doesn't like being over-watered). Still have a way to go before my basil is at 100% I think, but trust me when I say it looks much better than it did. It helps that it's been fairly sunny this week.

I was going to show you the bookmark that my mother made for me and then mailed. And I was going to hang it over my laptop screen to take a picture… when I discovered that my laptop screen is super-magnetic. The bookmark even matches my blanket. Camouflage bookmark. Thanks Momma!

I signed up for another gift exchange… I know, I shouldn't do that, but I thought maybe it'd be fairly cheap because if the person I have to gift to lives in the US I could buy online and shipping would be massively cheaper… It was a condiments exchange. The exchange started on the 15th, and the person who was meant to gift to me only pulled my information on the 16th, and I already got my gift yesterday. Super-fast shipping, from California. I only wanted to tell you about it because they sent me two bottles of vegan/vegetarian barbeque sauce and now I want to go put it on everything. Or drink it. I can't decide which. The website they used provided me with a $5 discount code for my own future shopping, and they ship world-wide for $4 so I used that website for my own gift… Because I failed at my objective, and my person is not in the US but rather in South Korea, and believe it or not there aren't many websites that are willing to ship to South Korea… That was probably the cheapest gift exchange I've done yet. I'm proud of myself. ;)

I really miss him. :(

Update: Sunday 7 Apr

It's actually not Sunday for me anymore, it's half an hour into Monday. I'm going to pretend it's still Sunday though, partially because I don't want to go to bed yet.

Margaux is on her way home from France, she texted me around 6pm saying that they were leaving and that it was a 12 hour drive. So I guess she'll be home around 6am. Can't wait.

I called my sister today because I missed her. I frequently miss my sister. I guess I should be lucky, because I always hear from other people how they really hate their siblings and their parents. I mean, I guess my siblings and I argued a bit when we were younger but we don't hate each other… Usually? And I definitely never hated my parents.

Last Friday, Jenn and I went for a wander around the outskirts of downtown The Hague. Downtown is rather large and we only ever stay in the center, so we wanted to see if there were any small and/or cheap places to eat that we might be missing out on. We actually saw a lot of interesting places, and might go back to a few if we ever have the time and money. We ended up eating at a place called Burgerz (link) which was a very interesting place. Step One was to pick your burger, Jenn got the pumpkin and chickpea veggie burger while I got the spinach and chickpea one. Step Two was picking a bun, they had Italian rolls (which is what I got. You could pick white or brown, so of course I got brown), a sesame-seed covered brioche roll that Jenn got (I guess that one was an extra cost. I don't know, I don't like sesame seeds on bread anyway). Step Three was where you specify how well done you'd like your burger but that doesn't really apply to us. Step Four dealt with sides (regular fries, salad, garlic fries, sweet potato oven fries). Step Five was for adding things, like extra cheese, bacon or an egg.

It was pretty good. Definitely exceeded expectations. But it wasn't very burger-like at all, and I've been craving a burger for so long. So today, I made my own burgers. I made baked black bean and quinoa burgers and they were soooo good.

Mine are not as pretty as hers and my toppings are not the most exciting (only gouda cheese, grilled mushrooms and onions, avocado and romaine; I was trying to avoid condiments) but that was the most delicious burger I ever could have hoped for. Oh, and I just chopped up a head of romaine to go in a bag, so that's back there on a towel, drying. Now I have 4 more burgers and, if I want, I can use them for… well, more burgers, or tacos, or… whatever I want. Pretty yummy.

Update: Wednesday 3 Apr

Hello. I have an exam tomorrow. I do not feel at all confident about my exam tomorrow. I have been studying all day. I am going to go back to studying soon. I really do not want to take this exam tomorrow. I will probably not pass it this second time any more than I did the first. If you do not see me after tomorrow, this is because the exam has killed me. This has a likelihood of about 90%.

I did, however, receive my final schedule for the 4th term and I get Fridays free. Yay, free Friday! Maybe I'll have to make Fridays my new market days. I really prefer Monday but you take what you can get, I suppose.

Tessa's birthday is on Friday, and Jenn and I have come up with a pretty amusing birthday gift. While I don't think that Tessa reads my blog anymore because she is SOOOO BUSY doing other things, I don't want to tell you about it until after. So I'm not going to. Ha!

I don't have much to say today, I'm just procrastinating. Do not want to study.

I am hanging out in the kitchen, and have been for the past several hours, and Alicia doesn't seem to understand the concept of doors. I had the door closed, she keeps coming in to get something and then leaving right away. She doesn't close the door after herself. I know, not a big deal, but it lets in this cold draft and I was comfortable, come on. :( So I keep closing it, and she keeps coming back and leaving it open...

It's not an isolated event, she's done this every day for the past… forever.

I only bring that up because she just did it. Now I don't know what else to talk about. Study time, bye.