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.