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.
2013-06-28
2013-06-05
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…
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.
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…
2013-06-03
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.
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.
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