Hi. I know I haven't posted in a while, but the last month has been extremely stressful for me. I didn't want to write anything until I sorted out what I was doing, and got things figured out.
So that last first year exam that I needed to pass, I didn't pass. This means that a couple days ago, my advisor forwarded me an email contain my Negative Binding Study Advice, which means that I cannot re-enroll for this same study program at this university. The email wasn't a surprise, because I got the exam result about a week earlier, but all in all it's a pretty big let-down.
The thing is, I was having so many doubts about it. I didn't feel any better about the exam the second time than I did the first time. I guess I have good reason to trust my gut, because I got a 4.7 on it the first time and a 4.8 the second time, so I really didn't do much better. Not only that, but I had been so behind on the credits that I needed from my second year, on top of worrying about my first year. Everything was piling up and it was becoming so very stressful for me, and I realize that it was all my fault because I could have stayed on top of things better, but I didn't. By now, there's no going back. There's just starting over, and trying to do better next time.
Even before I got those test results, even before I knew for certain that I wouldn't be allowed to continue, I applied for the University of Idaho and bought a plane ticket back. I don't ever for one second regret making the decision to come here to the Netherlands to try to earn a degree here. The restrictive nature of universities in the Netherlands has changed the way I look at school in the US. It's a bit complicated to explain, but I had a really hard time caring about the classes I was taking at Boise State 3-4 years ago. In the Netherlands, there is no class options. You don't get to choose what classes you take. You are assigned classes, and you have to pass 100% of those classes to graduate. I liked that at first, and I guess it made me take things a little bit more seriously. When I was at Boise State, I didn't put much (if any) effort into my "general requirement" classes because I wasn't taking them seriously. I feel a little more prepared for that this time around, for U of I. I'm actually excited for general requirement classes. Do you know I haven't taken a math or science class in over 4 years? Not that I ever really liked math or science that much, but that's beside the point.
Also, I think if I hadn't come to the Netherlands I would never have gotten into things like marketing. Now, I don't know if I'm going to stick with that in the long run, but for now (and looking at the degree requirements on U of I's student portal), I'm so excited for it. My study here in the Netherlands was more like an everything-about-the-EU-study-with-a-hint-of-international-marketing. Before I came to live in Europe, though, my focus was on foreign languages, and to be honest I just really don't know what I would do with only foreign languages. I never wanted to be a high school foreign language teacher, and while interpreting does sound interesting I just don't think it's what I want to do. From high school, though, I never had much interest in anything else.
Not to mention that I've experienced so much while living here, and I've become so much more independent. I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to be here and learn all the things about myself and about the world that I think would have taken me much longer to learn from where I was before. No, I don't regret the time or money that I've spent here in the Netherlands. I'm a little sad that everything I had planned didn't play out, but I'm excited to make changes and move forward.
Long story short? In 9 days I'll be on a plane back to the US, and I'll get to see my parents and my cats, and legally drive cars, and not worry about converting currencies, and all the other things you can think of that make it nice to be coming back.
2014-07-13
2014-06-15
Update: Sunday 15 Jun
Sometimes I wish I had the time, money and patience to just go to school forever. The time and patience thing are tied together; I don't want to spend the rest of my life going to school, and I don't have the patience to keep going to school forever without any breaks. The money part, I believe, is pretty self-explanatory. It's not that I want to keep going to school just to avoid having a real life… Actually, I can't wait until I've graduated so that I can get a job and start really living… But I want to learn more. I want to finish my European Studies degree, but I also want a degree in linguistics, and a degree in marketing; I just want to study everything. I'm thinking that maybe I will, but not any time soon.
I don't know if you think that I don't write because I forget to write, or because I forget I have a blog, or maybe because I forget you guys are looking out for updates. It's not any of that. I think about it quite often. I just struggle sometimes to come up with something with which to fill these pages. I would rather write to you guys about something than give you 5 paragraphs of nothing, and I think I've been going the "nothing" route too much these last few months.
I've been thinking about things lately… Making backup plans. I hate to both acknowledge and admit that I'm making backup plans. I don't want a backup plan. I want my current plan to work. I'm not saying that it's not going to work; I'm still doing everything I can to pass all of my classes. It's just that I would hate for it to end up not working, and then I end up with no plan. See, the IND (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) here in the Netherlands decided that there were going to be new rules this year; initially, in order to continue my program, I only needed to be sure I get my first year diploma within two years, and then make sufficient progress the following years. Now they've put a stricter guideline on it. They say I have to have earned half of my credits each year in order to retain my residence permit. The part that makes this difficult is that even if I pass half of my exams, it doesn't mean I earn half of my credits. Some modules have multiple exams, and I have to pass every exam within the module to earn any credits; even though those exams count as separate courses. It's really complicated to explain, but for example one of my minors this term, American Business and Politics, has three parts. There's an American Business class (5 credits), an American Politics class (4 credits) and an American Culture class (6 credits). In order to earn all 15 credits, I have to pass all three exams. I already passed the Business and Politics classes, but I think the American Culture exam is going to kick my butt. On the exam, they will give us 20 quotes from 20 different literary texts that are "important to American culture" and we have to identify the name of the text and the author. The remarkable thing is that I'm not familiar with a lot of these texts. This course was supposed to give us knowledge that would help us relate to Americans culturally, and I don't even know most of the reading material. They're all historical texts, quite a few dating back to colonial days. You would think that as an American, I should be able to find relevancy in the study material. Of all the things I should have to worry about…
Anyway, this means I have to pass at least 40 credits this year, and I'm sure I have passed the equivalent of that much, but I haven't actually been credited with them because I didn't pass all exams in the module. Heaps of frustration and stress involved in that. The lovely part is that we have to have passed these before July 1 apparently, and they only informed us of this at the end of March. Which, by the way, we had 40 credits worth of exams in January, and another 15 credits of exams in March. We can't resit any of those until August. I am supposed to go talk to someone about it, the dean of my academy, but he's never in office when I go by (even though it's during his listed office hours). If they really expect us to have gotten that done by July 1, they should have told us sooner…
The thing is, I have 11 credits from my first semester (I know, 11 is really lame) and my minors should give me 30 credits this semester, so I should be fine, but if I can't pass that American Culture class, or if I mess up with one of my other courses? Maybe I have no reason to worry, but I worry anyway. Worry, worry, worry.
And backup plans.
I don't know if you think that I don't write because I forget to write, or because I forget I have a blog, or maybe because I forget you guys are looking out for updates. It's not any of that. I think about it quite often. I just struggle sometimes to come up with something with which to fill these pages. I would rather write to you guys about something than give you 5 paragraphs of nothing, and I think I've been going the "nothing" route too much these last few months.
I've been thinking about things lately… Making backup plans. I hate to both acknowledge and admit that I'm making backup plans. I don't want a backup plan. I want my current plan to work. I'm not saying that it's not going to work; I'm still doing everything I can to pass all of my classes. It's just that I would hate for it to end up not working, and then I end up with no plan. See, the IND (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) here in the Netherlands decided that there were going to be new rules this year; initially, in order to continue my program, I only needed to be sure I get my first year diploma within two years, and then make sufficient progress the following years. Now they've put a stricter guideline on it. They say I have to have earned half of my credits each year in order to retain my residence permit. The part that makes this difficult is that even if I pass half of my exams, it doesn't mean I earn half of my credits. Some modules have multiple exams, and I have to pass every exam within the module to earn any credits; even though those exams count as separate courses. It's really complicated to explain, but for example one of my minors this term, American Business and Politics, has three parts. There's an American Business class (5 credits), an American Politics class (4 credits) and an American Culture class (6 credits). In order to earn all 15 credits, I have to pass all three exams. I already passed the Business and Politics classes, but I think the American Culture exam is going to kick my butt. On the exam, they will give us 20 quotes from 20 different literary texts that are "important to American culture" and we have to identify the name of the text and the author. The remarkable thing is that I'm not familiar with a lot of these texts. This course was supposed to give us knowledge that would help us relate to Americans culturally, and I don't even know most of the reading material. They're all historical texts, quite a few dating back to colonial days. You would think that as an American, I should be able to find relevancy in the study material. Of all the things I should have to worry about…
Anyway, this means I have to pass at least 40 credits this year, and I'm sure I have passed the equivalent of that much, but I haven't actually been credited with them because I didn't pass all exams in the module. Heaps of frustration and stress involved in that. The lovely part is that we have to have passed these before July 1 apparently, and they only informed us of this at the end of March. Which, by the way, we had 40 credits worth of exams in January, and another 15 credits of exams in March. We can't resit any of those until August. I am supposed to go talk to someone about it, the dean of my academy, but he's never in office when I go by (even though it's during his listed office hours). If they really expect us to have gotten that done by July 1, they should have told us sooner…
The thing is, I have 11 credits from my first semester (I know, 11 is really lame) and my minors should give me 30 credits this semester, so I should be fine, but if I can't pass that American Culture class, or if I mess up with one of my other courses? Maybe I have no reason to worry, but I worry anyway. Worry, worry, worry.
And backup plans.
2014-05-25
Update: Sunday 25 May
Hi! I made a scarf. Now it's too warm to wear such a scarf. But I made it nonetheless. It looks kind of like the one in that picture. Actually, it looks exactly like the one in that picture. Except minus maybe the crochet hook hanging off the end. It's not the best scarf ever, but it's the first thing I've ever completed, so whatever.Uhhh. I don't have much to say. I just thought maybe you missed me and wanted a blog post.
I have been playing with my digital camera lately. I guess I forgot that it focuses so much better than my phone's camera. I thought I should take the camera and go for a walk around the city but I'm so lazy. Besides, I never know what to take pictures of. Maybe I should just carry it with me all the time.
This is a picture I took of Lola the bearded dragon, in the kitchen. You can even see a piece of hair stuck on her nose. Oops. She is a very photogenic reptile.
Aphids! On the plant in the kitchen. Not the prettiest sight, I know. I've never seen aphids before… It's Ian's plant, I showed him the aphids and told him they will kill the plant and that made him sad because he thinks the aphids are really cool. I'm not really sure if it would be smart to put ladybugs on a houseplant, so I don't really know what will be done about them…Last but not least, cat. He just went in on Friday for a… gender-altering operation. He seems unaffected. He's a cat, not sure what else would be expected.
Those are all the pictures I have to share right now. And I have nothing else to say.
2014-04-30
Update: Wednesday 30 Apr
Happy I-haven't-updated-in-a-long-time Day!
Uhm, so hi. I haven't posted mostly because I haven't been doing much. I'm not sure if I mentioned that I passed my first year exam? I did. I passed. I was so happy. It took almost three weeks to get my results and I was so anxious. But then I got them, and I passed, and now I have only one more to pass and I know that I will.
Last weekend, the Netherlands had its first ever King's Day. King Willem-Alexander's birthday was Sunday, but they can't celebrate on a Sunday, so King's Day this year was April 26. This means that Friday, April 25 was King's night, and we happened to go to a movie that night without realizing/remembering that it was King's night. It was very crowded when we went to the movie, but that was nothing compared to after the movie. Try riding a bicycle through the city center at 11pm when most of the people are wandering down the main street towards the main bar area and they're too drunk to realize that bike paths are for BIKES. Bikes. Not people. It was kind of cool though, there were so many people out and a huge carnival over by the parliament building, and bands playing in various different places around the city center, so it was loud and crowded but nice to see that kind of patriotism for once. In general, extreme patriotism (outside of football aka soccer) is kind of frowned upon in Europe, following the two world wars… You don't see people hanging their Dutch flags outside their homes year-round. I've heard from a few people that they find that little fact kind of endearing about the USA. They think it's cool how proud people are to be American. I think that's kind of cool too. That's why I like King's Day. For once, people go out and hang Dutch flags, wear orange, celebrate their royal family. They get to show their pride.
What else did I want to write about today? Oh, right. For the past year or so, I've been trying really hard to like more foods. I figure that I might as well try to like as many foods as possible, because there's no harm in broadening my horizons, right? For example, I already mentioned that I tried and liked the Brussels sprouts, which I had never liked before. I have had them in the past; specifically, I remember one night staying at a friend's house, and her parents made Brussels sprouts for dinner. They told me I could eat just one and that was fine, but they made her eat a whole helping of them and we were at the dinner table for quite a while that night. That was a long time ago though, when I was 15, and I just remember how much I really didn't like the one that I ate (I did eat it though, because I have always made it a point to eat what I am given when I'm at someone's house). Anyway, other things. I never used to care for avocados unless it was in guacamole form, but now I buy one every once in a while and just put it on everything and I love it. Avocado sushi is delicious. Uhm. There are quite a few examples, but the main thing I wanted to talk about was pineapple.
I've never liked pineapple. My dad used to put canned pineapple in his sweet and sour stuff when he made it, and while I love his sweet and sour sauce, I could never eat the pineapple pieces. I would pawn those off on my sister. Anyway, for the past month or so I had been eyeing pineapples every time I was in the store. I couldn't rationalize buying a big pineapple for €2.50 though when I thought I didn't like them… But the main reason I resisted was because I had read that a pineapple is ripe when it smells sweet—when it smells like a pineapple even through the shell. It's hard to find a ripe pineapple around here, apparently. I also read that pineapples do not and can not shelf-ripen. Okay. So two weeks ago, I finally found one that was ripe. I bought it. I took it home. I chopped it up and put it in a container to stick in the fridge. It didn't work, though. I thought, a whole pineapple should last at least a few days right? I ate the whole thing that day. It was so good. And then I thought, I don't need to do that again, I just ate €2.50 in one sitting—which maybe doesn't seem too bad, but it's all sugar. Anyway, two days later I was in the store and found another ripe pineapple… I couldn't pass it up. I bought two pineapples in one week. The second one lasted me a few days, at least. Then I wasn't going to buy any more pineapples, but surprise! Last week, one of the grocery stores had pineapples on sale. They didn't have any ripe ones though, but I bought one anyway. I guess I learned my lesson—that one wasn't as delicious as the other ones. But still. In the last two weeks, I bought and consumed 3 whole pineapples. I guess I can't say I don't like pineapple anymore.
Uhm, so hi. I haven't posted mostly because I haven't been doing much. I'm not sure if I mentioned that I passed my first year exam? I did. I passed. I was so happy. It took almost three weeks to get my results and I was so anxious. But then I got them, and I passed, and now I have only one more to pass and I know that I will.
Last weekend, the Netherlands had its first ever King's Day. King Willem-Alexander's birthday was Sunday, but they can't celebrate on a Sunday, so King's Day this year was April 26. This means that Friday, April 25 was King's night, and we happened to go to a movie that night without realizing/remembering that it was King's night. It was very crowded when we went to the movie, but that was nothing compared to after the movie. Try riding a bicycle through the city center at 11pm when most of the people are wandering down the main street towards the main bar area and they're too drunk to realize that bike paths are for BIKES. Bikes. Not people. It was kind of cool though, there were so many people out and a huge carnival over by the parliament building, and bands playing in various different places around the city center, so it was loud and crowded but nice to see that kind of patriotism for once. In general, extreme patriotism (outside of football aka soccer) is kind of frowned upon in Europe, following the two world wars… You don't see people hanging their Dutch flags outside their homes year-round. I've heard from a few people that they find that little fact kind of endearing about the USA. They think it's cool how proud people are to be American. I think that's kind of cool too. That's why I like King's Day. For once, people go out and hang Dutch flags, wear orange, celebrate their royal family. They get to show their pride.
What else did I want to write about today? Oh, right. For the past year or so, I've been trying really hard to like more foods. I figure that I might as well try to like as many foods as possible, because there's no harm in broadening my horizons, right? For example, I already mentioned that I tried and liked the Brussels sprouts, which I had never liked before. I have had them in the past; specifically, I remember one night staying at a friend's house, and her parents made Brussels sprouts for dinner. They told me I could eat just one and that was fine, but they made her eat a whole helping of them and we were at the dinner table for quite a while that night. That was a long time ago though, when I was 15, and I just remember how much I really didn't like the one that I ate (I did eat it though, because I have always made it a point to eat what I am given when I'm at someone's house). Anyway, other things. I never used to care for avocados unless it was in guacamole form, but now I buy one every once in a while and just put it on everything and I love it. Avocado sushi is delicious. Uhm. There are quite a few examples, but the main thing I wanted to talk about was pineapple.
I've never liked pineapple. My dad used to put canned pineapple in his sweet and sour stuff when he made it, and while I love his sweet and sour sauce, I could never eat the pineapple pieces. I would pawn those off on my sister. Anyway, for the past month or so I had been eyeing pineapples every time I was in the store. I couldn't rationalize buying a big pineapple for €2.50 though when I thought I didn't like them… But the main reason I resisted was because I had read that a pineapple is ripe when it smells sweet—when it smells like a pineapple even through the shell. It's hard to find a ripe pineapple around here, apparently. I also read that pineapples do not and can not shelf-ripen. Okay. So two weeks ago, I finally found one that was ripe. I bought it. I took it home. I chopped it up and put it in a container to stick in the fridge. It didn't work, though. I thought, a whole pineapple should last at least a few days right? I ate the whole thing that day. It was so good. And then I thought, I don't need to do that again, I just ate €2.50 in one sitting—which maybe doesn't seem too bad, but it's all sugar. Anyway, two days later I was in the store and found another ripe pineapple… I couldn't pass it up. I bought two pineapples in one week. The second one lasted me a few days, at least. Then I wasn't going to buy any more pineapples, but surprise! Last week, one of the grocery stores had pineapples on sale. They didn't have any ripe ones though, but I bought one anyway. I guess I learned my lesson—that one wasn't as delicious as the other ones. But still. In the last two weeks, I bought and consumed 3 whole pineapples. I guess I can't say I don't like pineapple anymore.
2014-03-27
Not an Update: Thursday 27 Mar
This is not an update, it's a food dump.
Fried rice! I'm pretty sure this particular one had multigrain rice (white rice, brown rice, wild rice, barley and wheat), onion, broccoli, green beans, brussels sprouts, asparagus, carrots, red peppers, garlic, egg, and the kitchen sink. Oh, and ginger, mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha. I've been making a lot of fried rice lately. I love fried rice!
This is that same multigrain rice, and some random vegetables sautéed with tomato paste and Indian spices. I made this one quite a while ago, and all I remember about it was that it was delicious.
Soup. Obviously. This one was also quite a while ago, and I don't remember exactly what was in it, but obviously it had corn and diced tomatoes and zucchini and onion and pasta and mushrooms. Also, Italian herbs.
Potato chips, baked in the oven. They were awesome, but time consuming and honestly a pain in the butt to make. I would make them all the time if it wasn't for that.
Applesauce, which I made yesterday. I used 3 sweet apples and two sour apples and it didn't end up needing any sugar at all.
This is chow mein, even though it's the wrong kinds of noodles. It was really good. They don't make/sell chow mein here. They sell some kind of Indonesian fried noodle dish instead, because there is a lot of Indonesian influence in the culture here.
I don't think that anything can really make split pea soup look good. I have to admit, I contributed nothing to this dish, you can buy a package in the store for "Dutch split pea soup" and you're supposed to add smoked sausage and bacon but I don't need those. Basically I chopped everything in the package and cooked it, but that's about it. Delicious anyway.
Noodle soup, and a softboiled egg. First time making softboiled eggs, I wasn't sure if I would like that yolk like that. I did, so it all worked out perfectly.
That's all the pictures I could find. One day, when I actually have fridge space and cupboard space, I will be able to buy the stuff I need to make nicer dinners, but I think I do pretty well with what I've got. Tonight I'm making chili, with black beans and kidney beans and sweet potatoes and quinoa, and a chipotle bouillon cube (among other things). Sounds kind of busy, I know, but that's okay.
This is that same multigrain rice, and some random vegetables sautéed with tomato paste and Indian spices. I made this one quite a while ago, and all I remember about it was that it was delicious.
Potato chips, baked in the oven. They were awesome, but time consuming and honestly a pain in the butt to make. I would make them all the time if it wasn't for that.
Applesauce, which I made yesterday. I used 3 sweet apples and two sour apples and it didn't end up needing any sugar at all.This is chow mein, even though it's the wrong kinds of noodles. It was really good. They don't make/sell chow mein here. They sell some kind of Indonesian fried noodle dish instead, because there is a lot of Indonesian influence in the culture here.
Noodle soup, and a softboiled egg. First time making softboiled eggs, I wasn't sure if I would like that yolk like that. I did, so it all worked out perfectly.
That's all the pictures I could find. One day, when I actually have fridge space and cupboard space, I will be able to buy the stuff I need to make nicer dinners, but I think I do pretty well with what I've got. Tonight I'm making chili, with black beans and kidney beans and sweet potatoes and quinoa, and a chipotle bouillon cube (among other things). Sounds kind of busy, I know, but that's okay.
2014-03-24
Update: Monday 24 Mar
I spent all week looking forward to Sunday so that I could post, and then when Sunday comes I forget to actually post.
Hmm, what did I want to say? Well, I discovered that I got a 7 on the report that I turned in last week. I'm so proud, I thought I wouldn't be able to turn it in at all, but then I did and got a 7. He told us our scores this previous Monday, after we took the open-book exam in class. That was a bit strange, I've never had an in-class open question exam at this school before. It is a minor though, and not part of my actual study, so I guess things may work a bit differently. I don't know how I did on the exam, but our final grade is 50% exam and 50% report, so he said as long as I got at least a 4, it's a pass. I'm pretty sure I did much better than 4. The exam had 9 questions and the last question was worth 10 points and asked "What did you think of the course?" Yeah, if I don't at least get that question right I think it'd be pretty sad.
Exam week was supposed to start today, but didn't. I'll tell you why. I'm not sure if you know this, but the Netherlands is hosting the Nuclear Security Summit this year. Yeah, that's a pretty big deal. This apparently is the largest world conference that has ever been held in the Netherlands, and they have dignitaries from all over the world here. Oh wait, did I mention that it's actually being held here, in The Hague? Yes, so as we speak the president of the United States is right here in this city with me (Jenn just told me she saw his helicopter, in fact), along with the president of Finland and France and Armenia… and you know, just a lot of countries in general. What does that mean for me? Well, it means that today and tomorrow half of the roads in the city are closed, all the bus and tram schedules are delayed, rearranged or cancelled, half the trains are not going, and just everything in general is in chaos. The school initially thought that they could still hold exams today and tomorrow and just let everyone know to leave a few hours earlier than they normally would, but then it was decided that having exams on these days would not be feasible. So… they've all been postponed.
Now I have 3 exams to take, on Wednesday, Friday and the following Wednesday, and then I'm ready to start the next term. Or at least, I hope I'll be ready. The Friday after my last exam, we're going out for sushi for Tessa's birthday, and also that week there is a movie coming out that we've all been looking forward to. Should be a good end to the term, especially since I'm going to pass all of my exams.
Hmm, what did I want to say? Well, I discovered that I got a 7 on the report that I turned in last week. I'm so proud, I thought I wouldn't be able to turn it in at all, but then I did and got a 7. He told us our scores this previous Monday, after we took the open-book exam in class. That was a bit strange, I've never had an in-class open question exam at this school before. It is a minor though, and not part of my actual study, so I guess things may work a bit differently. I don't know how I did on the exam, but our final grade is 50% exam and 50% report, so he said as long as I got at least a 4, it's a pass. I'm pretty sure I did much better than 4. The exam had 9 questions and the last question was worth 10 points and asked "What did you think of the course?" Yeah, if I don't at least get that question right I think it'd be pretty sad.
Exam week was supposed to start today, but didn't. I'll tell you why. I'm not sure if you know this, but the Netherlands is hosting the Nuclear Security Summit this year. Yeah, that's a pretty big deal. This apparently is the largest world conference that has ever been held in the Netherlands, and they have dignitaries from all over the world here. Oh wait, did I mention that it's actually being held here, in The Hague? Yes, so as we speak the president of the United States is right here in this city with me (Jenn just told me she saw his helicopter, in fact), along with the president of Finland and France and Armenia… and you know, just a lot of countries in general. What does that mean for me? Well, it means that today and tomorrow half of the roads in the city are closed, all the bus and tram schedules are delayed, rearranged or cancelled, half the trains are not going, and just everything in general is in chaos. The school initially thought that they could still hold exams today and tomorrow and just let everyone know to leave a few hours earlier than they normally would, but then it was decided that having exams on these days would not be feasible. So… they've all been postponed.Now I have 3 exams to take, on Wednesday, Friday and the following Wednesday, and then I'm ready to start the next term. Or at least, I hope I'll be ready. The Friday after my last exam, we're going out for sushi for Tessa's birthday, and also that week there is a movie coming out that we've all been looking forward to. Should be a good end to the term, especially since I'm going to pass all of my exams.
2014-03-16
Update: Sunday 16 Mar
Did you know?
My parents' anniversary is in 2 days. They've never actually told me how long they've been married, although I've asked. I figured 25 or 26 years, because my brother will be 24 years old in July. I have to stalk my own parents' Facebook pages to figure out what year they got married. 25 years of marriage is definitely something to look up to. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. I love you.
Also, I had to steal that picture from my sister because pictures which feature my father are a rare and valuable artifact.
Let's see. No news back about the report yet, but it's only been a few days. I have an exam for that same class tomorrow, it's open book. Wish me luck that all will go well?
Tonight for dinner I'm making pizza. I made dough a few days ago, and I wasn't going to actually use it for pizza, but now I really want pizza. I have no idea if I even have any cheese. I do have cheese but I've had it forever (I don't eat cheese very often) so I'm not sure if it's any good. That's okay though, I can eat cheeseless pizza no problem. I have in the past, although that was with pesto in place of the sauce, and onions and tomatoes. I don't have pesto today, I have tomato paste. I would rather have cheese than no cheese but I'm not going to go out and buy any just for that. Don't worry, I am sure it will be delicious no matter what.
Do you know what would make my pizza even more delicious though? A cast iron skillet. I desperately want a cast iron skillet. I could buy one, for only about $10 on Amazon (of course shipping is another issue, but never mind that). The thing is, I don't want to have to transport it to the US if/when I move back, and I don't want to buy cast iron just to sell it. I have more than enough things to worry about transporting, and there's not much point to buying cast iron cookware if you're not going to keep it for… forever. Anyway, I have a few recipes for pan pizzas made in cast iron skillets, so I guess I'll save those for the day I have one.
Anyway, I have books to read. Have a nice week!
My parents' anniversary is in 2 days. They've never actually told me how long they've been married, although I've asked. I figured 25 or 26 years, because my brother will be 24 years old in July. I have to stalk my own parents' Facebook pages to figure out what year they got married. 25 years of marriage is definitely something to look up to. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. I love you.Also, I had to steal that picture from my sister because pictures which feature my father are a rare and valuable artifact.
Let's see. No news back about the report yet, but it's only been a few days. I have an exam for that same class tomorrow, it's open book. Wish me luck that all will go well?
Tonight for dinner I'm making pizza. I made dough a few days ago, and I wasn't going to actually use it for pizza, but now I really want pizza. I have no idea if I even have any cheese. I do have cheese but I've had it forever (I don't eat cheese very often) so I'm not sure if it's any good. That's okay though, I can eat cheeseless pizza no problem. I have in the past, although that was with pesto in place of the sauce, and onions and tomatoes. I don't have pesto today, I have tomato paste. I would rather have cheese than no cheese but I'm not going to go out and buy any just for that. Don't worry, I am sure it will be delicious no matter what.
Do you know what would make my pizza even more delicious though? A cast iron skillet. I desperately want a cast iron skillet. I could buy one, for only about $10 on Amazon (of course shipping is another issue, but never mind that). The thing is, I don't want to have to transport it to the US if/when I move back, and I don't want to buy cast iron just to sell it. I have more than enough things to worry about transporting, and there's not much point to buying cast iron cookware if you're not going to keep it for… forever. Anyway, I have a few recipes for pan pizzas made in cast iron skillets, so I guess I'll save those for the day I have one.
Anyway, I have books to read. Have a nice week!
2014-03-13
Update: Thursday 13 Mar
I'm sorry I didn't write this past Sunday, but I'm making up for it now. I did open my blog page and intend to write a post, but I've been working really hard this week to get my priorities in order and writing a blog post just wasn't at the top of the list.
Last week, I told you about my current struggles. I don't want to downplay those at all, because I feel like at least for now they're going to remain a constant threat. I'm handling it way better right now than I was a week ago, though. This week I spent probably just over 20 hours at the school library, working on a report that was due yesterday. I also worked on it this last weekend, which is why I didn't write a blog post. There are so many things I want to be doing instead of work, but none of them are even that big. I'd rather be watching a movie, or writing a blog post, or doing a sudoku puzzle, or plotting out my next meal.
I've never actually been able to get any work done at school. This is why, Monday after classes, I went to the school library and combed through it looking for a quiet place to work. I found that I actually really enjoy sitting downstairs in the silent section of the library, at one of the little private study carrels. Yeah, sure, I still had distractions, that's what happens when I'm doing my work on my computer—the internet is a very large distraction. So maybe out of 20 collective hours, I only worked for about 15 of them. It doesn't matter, I still wrote an 18 page strategic business report and turned it in.
So my next thing to focus on is a couple of book essays due next Friday. I'm a quick reader, so that's not a problem, and one of them is to be done with a partner, so that also eases a little of the stress off me. After that is exam week, and the exam that I need to focus on is Friday, so I have about a week to study after I get the book reviews turned in, and I think it will work out just fine.
I managed to get myself my own cheerleader to help me stay focused and positive. I was talking to my friend Morgan at some point last week, and I told her that I was stressed and overwhelmed. She told me to tell her about it, so I did. Now she's been checking up on my progress every day, and just being extremely helpful overall. I was feeling pretty hopeless before, and I'm not sure that I could have snapped out of it without her to encourage me. Yay, Morgan.
Now, I'm getting really excited. Ever since I adopted this more positive attitude, I can't help but think of the future and how close I am to where I want to be. If I can continue getting back on track, a year from now I will be in the middle of an internship and only a few months away from graduating. That's absolutely insane, I feel like I just started yesterday. So now I've been spending quite a bit of time looking for internships in various cities in the US (in order of preference: Seattle, San Francisco, and NYC), because I want to do my internship closer to home. I want to move back to the US after graduation, and I feel like an internship in the US would help me make my European Studies bachelor degree a little more relevant to an American company. I really love living in the Netherlands, and I'm really not looking forward to leaving it behind, but I am looking forward to going somewhere new. As much as I do want to live in the Netherlands, I don't want to work in the Netherlands. Besides, I miss Mom and Dad, and if I get a job doing what I want I can save money to come back and visit every once in a while. And I'm sure my friends would come to visit me. It'll work out in the end, I'm confident of it.
I'm a work in progress, guys.
Last week, I told you about my current struggles. I don't want to downplay those at all, because I feel like at least for now they're going to remain a constant threat. I'm handling it way better right now than I was a week ago, though. This week I spent probably just over 20 hours at the school library, working on a report that was due yesterday. I also worked on it this last weekend, which is why I didn't write a blog post. There are so many things I want to be doing instead of work, but none of them are even that big. I'd rather be watching a movie, or writing a blog post, or doing a sudoku puzzle, or plotting out my next meal.
I've never actually been able to get any work done at school. This is why, Monday after classes, I went to the school library and combed through it looking for a quiet place to work. I found that I actually really enjoy sitting downstairs in the silent section of the library, at one of the little private study carrels. Yeah, sure, I still had distractions, that's what happens when I'm doing my work on my computer—the internet is a very large distraction. So maybe out of 20 collective hours, I only worked for about 15 of them. It doesn't matter, I still wrote an 18 page strategic business report and turned it in.
So my next thing to focus on is a couple of book essays due next Friday. I'm a quick reader, so that's not a problem, and one of them is to be done with a partner, so that also eases a little of the stress off me. After that is exam week, and the exam that I need to focus on is Friday, so I have about a week to study after I get the book reviews turned in, and I think it will work out just fine.
I managed to get myself my own cheerleader to help me stay focused and positive. I was talking to my friend Morgan at some point last week, and I told her that I was stressed and overwhelmed. She told me to tell her about it, so I did. Now she's been checking up on my progress every day, and just being extremely helpful overall. I was feeling pretty hopeless before, and I'm not sure that I could have snapped out of it without her to encourage me. Yay, Morgan.
Now, I'm getting really excited. Ever since I adopted this more positive attitude, I can't help but think of the future and how close I am to where I want to be. If I can continue getting back on track, a year from now I will be in the middle of an internship and only a few months away from graduating. That's absolutely insane, I feel like I just started yesterday. So now I've been spending quite a bit of time looking for internships in various cities in the US (in order of preference: Seattle, San Francisco, and NYC), because I want to do my internship closer to home. I want to move back to the US after graduation, and I feel like an internship in the US would help me make my European Studies bachelor degree a little more relevant to an American company. I really love living in the Netherlands, and I'm really not looking forward to leaving it behind, but I am looking forward to going somewhere new. As much as I do want to live in the Netherlands, I don't want to work in the Netherlands. Besides, I miss Mom and Dad, and if I get a job doing what I want I can save money to come back and visit every once in a while. And I'm sure my friends would come to visit me. It'll work out in the end, I'm confident of it.
I'm a work in progress, guys.
2014-03-02
Update: Sunday 2 Mar
Warning: Very long post today.
Hey. I guess Sunday (or Monday, some weeks) are post days now. I missed last Sunday, but I've been busy this week. By 'busy' I mean I haven't really been doing anything at all. I've spent the week relaxing, which is not what I intended, but after a lot of thought I think it was the right thing to do. I think I really needed that.
I want to start off by saying how actually really lucky I am. I have two parents, who I've always got along well with and who I know support me no matter what I decide to do. It's strange to hear someone say that they hate one parent or another (or both) because they've just never gotten along. I've never experienced that. My parents are awesome. I have four grandparents, which in-and-of-itself is saying a lot, because so many people my age have never even gotten the chance to meet half of their grandparents. My grandparents are all also really great, and support me so much. I also have really amazing friends, which is not something I've been lucky enough to say in the past.
Also in the last two years, I've improved my hygiene and lost about 50 pounds. Now you may not really care to hear this, but I admit that I used to be very bad at taking care of myself, and it's so nice now to just look forward to taking a shower every day. I feel like that 50 pounds should be more—it's still a work in progress—but honestly I think it's amazing as-is. Why? Because I lost those 50 pounds without really trying, and it was really all within the first year that I lost it. Imagine what I could do if I put more effort into it.
I've been having a really bad school-year. I thought that I could get my first year exams out of the way while also passing my second year exams, and then be on track by the end of the year. It's not working. I passed two of my first year exams without a problem, and the next two are coming up soon, but I've failed probably half of my second year exams so far. That shouldn't have happened. Obviously, that wasn't the plan. But things rarely go as planned. The stress from the first-year exams carried over to the second year exams and my little snowfall turned into an avalanche and now I feel completely overwhelmed. That was what I was going to do with my spring break. I was going to get caught up on assignments and things to try to be more on track. Instead, like I said, I've been relaxing. But I think it's okay. I've been so stressed that I really needed a little bit of time to breathe and not worry.
Why else has the year been bad? Well, I'm broke. I know, college life is supposed to be about being broke. It's part of the experience. I'm not complaining about that. And the obvious solution is to get a job, but remember how I said I'm really stressed over school? I don't need to add to that right now. I'll be honest with you, I do kind of want to be broke anyway. Just because I have access to more money (thank you AC) doesn't mean I should go out and spend it all. It's a privilege, not a right. The thing is, last month my bicycle started breaking down. I had to pay to have it fixed, but that wasn't too bad of an expense. It works so well now, and I really do need it. Last week though, my phone fell from my loft bed and the screen shattered. It was still mostly usable (other than the random glass shard that would fall out every once in a while). Unfortunately, it turns out that the touchscreen was also broken, and I tried to have it repaired, it only broke further. My phone was then unusable.
I know that having a phone on you at all times is kind of a new thing, but I really don't feel safe not having a phone when I leave my house. I didn't feel like I had a choice but to go out and buy a new phone, and since my phone contract is not due for renewal for another 6 months (and I don't want to pay for a plan that involves payments for a phone, I'll explain further down) I had to pay more for it than I ever want to pay for any phone ever again. I put a lot of thought into it though. I bought a phone that is unlocked—you can put a SIM from any carrier in it—and I bought insurance so that if my phone ever breaks again, I have to pay only €25 to replace it, and that's only if they can't repair it in-store. I plan for this phone to last me a very long time, and since it's unlocked I will be able to use it regardless of which country I end up living in or what phone company I end up using. Also, not getting a new phone when I renew my contract means that my phone bill won't include phone payments. I currently pay €43 a month for phone service, because I got my phone with my contract. When I renew, I can get a SIM-only plan that will only be around €25 a month. If I had included a phone in that, it would have ended up being over €55 a month (I want only a one-year contract, I don't know how much longer I'll be here. I wish it could be forever, but I don't want to work in the Netherlands, and I miss my family).
So I realize that purchasing a new phone is counterproductive to the whole broke situation, but I'm prepared to account for that. I don't typically spend outrageously—I'm pretty good at telling myself no to unnecessary things—but it means that buying lunch at school once a week is not very practical, and going out for a quick coffee or snack with my friends isn't terribly necessary. I still have my movie card, and we go to movies very often. In reality, there's no reason I can't go out for coffee and just not order any. The whole purpose of going out for coffee is to sit and chat, right? One thing it definitely means is that I don't need the pretty new ceramic pan I was looking at this week. I have pans! I just bought some new clothes recently, for which I'm very thankful. Really, the only things I need to spend money on in the coming months are food, rent, phone and movie card. As long as I can actually adhere to that (and avoid buying candy every time I'm in the store) I don't see it being much different. I came to this realization Friday evening and really I'm kind of excited about it. I haven't been very good at trying to make my money last the month, but now I'm going to have to, so I look forward to the challenge.
As far as school goes, thanks to my week of stress-free relaxation, I feel really motivated to get my work done and get on track. I spent the weekend also doing nothing really, but Tuesday and Wednesday, my free days, I'm going to start writing a report for my American Business class (I have chosen to do it on Delta Airlines, because we're supposed to do a Fortune 500 company and I really like Delta). I just got the textbook in the mail last week, finally, and the teacher is so vague on things that I found it hard to get started without my text book. I'm also going to start reading the books I have to write a report on. We have to do it in partners and my classmate Julija (who is a really good worker, so that's a good thing) and I chose to use the books Ragtime, by E. L. Doctorow, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. This is for my American Culture class. Since they're both short books, we had to choose two. None of the longer books on the list seemed very interesting to me, and we felt like two shorter books would be easier anyway because if we really don't like one, at least it's only 250 pages.
This is already a very, very long blog post, but I had a lot to get off my chest, and I felt like it was all really important to say. But now, if you want, I will tell you about our trip to Maastricht. Actually, I'm going to tell you now whether you want or not because I don't have time to ask you if you want, but I guess if you don't want, you can stop reading here.
Thursday, Jenn and Tess and I met up at the train station here in The Hague to travel to Maastricht to visit Simona. Normally we would have to take the train from The Hague to Eindhoven, and then switch to a train to Maastricht, but the train to Eindhoven goes through Rotterdam, and they were having track problems somewhere in Rotterdam and those trains weren't running. That trip would have been pretty direct. Instead, though, we had to get on a train from The Hague to Utrecht and then switch to a train to Maastricht from there. It ended up taking about the same amount of time (almost three hours) but it was exhausting either way. We got to Maastricht at about 10 in the evening. From Utrecht to Maastricht we shared seats with a girl from the Maastricht area. The first thing I want to tell you is that the Dutch accent in Limburg (province where Maastricht is located) is very different from the accent in South/North Holland (provinces with The Hague and Amsterdam). Well actually it's very different from any of the accents in the country, but the Hollander accent is the one I'm accustomed to. I found it very comical—I couldn't understand anything that the Limburgers said in Dutch, but it sounded very funny anyway, so I just had to laugh afterwards. Anyway, this girl was quite the character. She informed us of many things of which we weren't previously aware. First of all, Limburgers hate all people from other provinces because I guess the non-Limburgers assume that they should throw beer on Limburgers and ask for sex. That one's quite a complicated generalization, but she seemed very bitter about that. Second, the girl really loved Americans. She was so excited about me being American—she seemed to be directing everything she said at me the entire two hours we rode with her. (Uh. Did I mention she was drunk and very loud?) The most important thing that came from that was that she said her best friend is American—from Louisiana—and he's here because he is air force. She then told us that her Louisianan best friend took her to the military base in Schinnen. That. That right there is the important part. Military base in Schinnen. I didn't know there was one. It's an US army garrison in the south of the Netherlands, not too far from Maastricht. I desperately want to go, and she said that he got her in as a visitor pretty easily, so now I'm really excited to take someone and go some time. I should be able to get into an army garrison, right? I JUST REALLY WANT TO GO TO A COMMISSARY. Uh. The third thing we learned is that this upcoming week is Mardi Gras (Carnaval in Dutch). I guess Limburg is a very Catholic province, and they start their Carnaval celebrations on… yeah. Thursday. The day we arrived. The entire train ride, we could hear drunk people in other sections of the train singing very loudly (yes, this is also the reason the girl we were sitting with was so drunk), and people kept walking through the train in full costume.
Okay. So we finally got to Maastricht, Moon picked us up and took us back to her apartment, and by that time we were all really keyed up so some pretty amusing conversations ensued. We played a few card games and ate a bunch of snacks and then crashed for the night. We had a double air mattress and then Moon's single bed. Three of us squished onto the air mattress, it was rather crowded. The next morning, we all gradually woke up (and talked silently in a phone chat until everyone was awake because we didn't want to wake them up), ate breakfast, and somehow managed to get out of the apartment before noon. We went to the center of Maastricht, surrounded everywhere by red, yellow and green Carnaval flags. There were signs on a lot of the bar doors that said no entry without a costume. In the center of Maastricht, they had a big market, which Moon says they set up every Friday and Saturday. Most of what I saw was textiles—fabrics and such. Some were expensive—€9 a meter for any type of fabric. Some were really cheap—€2 a meter, €4,50 a meter. That market is also where I saw the really nice ceramic pans. I really wanted one. I was saved by the fact that I had no cash on me. We found an Oil & Vinegar shop, I really like those. They have them in the US as well, if you ever come across one you should really check it out. They sell all sorts of oils, vinegars, dips, sauces, spreads. Not only that, but they usually have tons and tons of samples set out for anyone to try. I wanted to buy some balsamic, but balsamic is easy to get in a normal grocery store and I know I don't need any… Simona did buy some mango vinegar that I found for her, though. She loves mangos. I saw it, tasted it (eww, mango), and called her over. She was very happy. They have their oils and vinegars on tap, and they sell it per 100ml. You pick out a bottle, they'll fill it up for you and away you go. Later, we had sandwiches and cappuccinos for lunch, and then we went off in search of the frozen yogurt place because we've all been saying for the last month that we really want frozen yogurt. If you get a medium cup of yogurt, you can choose three toppings, which is what I got—cinnamon flavored yogurt with strawberries, kiwi and white chocolate. The people at that shop were very cheerful. After that, we dropped into a couple more shops just to browse, and then headed back to Moon's apartment. That's when we tried to have my phone repaired. Then around six or seven we packed up all of our stuff at Moon's apartment and headed to the train station—Moon came with us—for a 3-hour train ride back home. On the train we saw about 20 loud, drunk penguins. I don't know where they were going, but there must have been a party somewhere that was missing its penguins. I was a little disappointed that they didn't stop and do a Happy Feet song and dance for everyone in the train. I got home around 10:30 that night. All-in-all, it was a really good trip.
All right, the first half of this blog post made me cry (talking about feelings always gets to me) but the second half reminded me of happiness so I think this roller coaster of a blog post has run its course.
Hey. I guess Sunday (or Monday, some weeks) are post days now. I missed last Sunday, but I've been busy this week. By 'busy' I mean I haven't really been doing anything at all. I've spent the week relaxing, which is not what I intended, but after a lot of thought I think it was the right thing to do. I think I really needed that.
I want to start off by saying how actually really lucky I am. I have two parents, who I've always got along well with and who I know support me no matter what I decide to do. It's strange to hear someone say that they hate one parent or another (or both) because they've just never gotten along. I've never experienced that. My parents are awesome. I have four grandparents, which in-and-of-itself is saying a lot, because so many people my age have never even gotten the chance to meet half of their grandparents. My grandparents are all also really great, and support me so much. I also have really amazing friends, which is not something I've been lucky enough to say in the past.
Also in the last two years, I've improved my hygiene and lost about 50 pounds. Now you may not really care to hear this, but I admit that I used to be very bad at taking care of myself, and it's so nice now to just look forward to taking a shower every day. I feel like that 50 pounds should be more—it's still a work in progress—but honestly I think it's amazing as-is. Why? Because I lost those 50 pounds without really trying, and it was really all within the first year that I lost it. Imagine what I could do if I put more effort into it.
I've been having a really bad school-year. I thought that I could get my first year exams out of the way while also passing my second year exams, and then be on track by the end of the year. It's not working. I passed two of my first year exams without a problem, and the next two are coming up soon, but I've failed probably half of my second year exams so far. That shouldn't have happened. Obviously, that wasn't the plan. But things rarely go as planned. The stress from the first-year exams carried over to the second year exams and my little snowfall turned into an avalanche and now I feel completely overwhelmed. That was what I was going to do with my spring break. I was going to get caught up on assignments and things to try to be more on track. Instead, like I said, I've been relaxing. But I think it's okay. I've been so stressed that I really needed a little bit of time to breathe and not worry.
Why else has the year been bad? Well, I'm broke. I know, college life is supposed to be about being broke. It's part of the experience. I'm not complaining about that. And the obvious solution is to get a job, but remember how I said I'm really stressed over school? I don't need to add to that right now. I'll be honest with you, I do kind of want to be broke anyway. Just because I have access to more money (thank you AC) doesn't mean I should go out and spend it all. It's a privilege, not a right. The thing is, last month my bicycle started breaking down. I had to pay to have it fixed, but that wasn't too bad of an expense. It works so well now, and I really do need it. Last week though, my phone fell from my loft bed and the screen shattered. It was still mostly usable (other than the random glass shard that would fall out every once in a while). Unfortunately, it turns out that the touchscreen was also broken, and I tried to have it repaired, it only broke further. My phone was then unusable.
I know that having a phone on you at all times is kind of a new thing, but I really don't feel safe not having a phone when I leave my house. I didn't feel like I had a choice but to go out and buy a new phone, and since my phone contract is not due for renewal for another 6 months (and I don't want to pay for a plan that involves payments for a phone, I'll explain further down) I had to pay more for it than I ever want to pay for any phone ever again. I put a lot of thought into it though. I bought a phone that is unlocked—you can put a SIM from any carrier in it—and I bought insurance so that if my phone ever breaks again, I have to pay only €25 to replace it, and that's only if they can't repair it in-store. I plan for this phone to last me a very long time, and since it's unlocked I will be able to use it regardless of which country I end up living in or what phone company I end up using. Also, not getting a new phone when I renew my contract means that my phone bill won't include phone payments. I currently pay €43 a month for phone service, because I got my phone with my contract. When I renew, I can get a SIM-only plan that will only be around €25 a month. If I had included a phone in that, it would have ended up being over €55 a month (I want only a one-year contract, I don't know how much longer I'll be here. I wish it could be forever, but I don't want to work in the Netherlands, and I miss my family).
So I realize that purchasing a new phone is counterproductive to the whole broke situation, but I'm prepared to account for that. I don't typically spend outrageously—I'm pretty good at telling myself no to unnecessary things—but it means that buying lunch at school once a week is not very practical, and going out for a quick coffee or snack with my friends isn't terribly necessary. I still have my movie card, and we go to movies very often. In reality, there's no reason I can't go out for coffee and just not order any. The whole purpose of going out for coffee is to sit and chat, right? One thing it definitely means is that I don't need the pretty new ceramic pan I was looking at this week. I have pans! I just bought some new clothes recently, for which I'm very thankful. Really, the only things I need to spend money on in the coming months are food, rent, phone and movie card. As long as I can actually adhere to that (and avoid buying candy every time I'm in the store) I don't see it being much different. I came to this realization Friday evening and really I'm kind of excited about it. I haven't been very good at trying to make my money last the month, but now I'm going to have to, so I look forward to the challenge.
As far as school goes, thanks to my week of stress-free relaxation, I feel really motivated to get my work done and get on track. I spent the weekend also doing nothing really, but Tuesday and Wednesday, my free days, I'm going to start writing a report for my American Business class (I have chosen to do it on Delta Airlines, because we're supposed to do a Fortune 500 company and I really like Delta). I just got the textbook in the mail last week, finally, and the teacher is so vague on things that I found it hard to get started without my text book. I'm also going to start reading the books I have to write a report on. We have to do it in partners and my classmate Julija (who is a really good worker, so that's a good thing) and I chose to use the books Ragtime, by E. L. Doctorow, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. This is for my American Culture class. Since they're both short books, we had to choose two. None of the longer books on the list seemed very interesting to me, and we felt like two shorter books would be easier anyway because if we really don't like one, at least it's only 250 pages.
This is already a very, very long blog post, but I had a lot to get off my chest, and I felt like it was all really important to say. But now, if you want, I will tell you about our trip to Maastricht. Actually, I'm going to tell you now whether you want or not because I don't have time to ask you if you want, but I guess if you don't want, you can stop reading here.
Thursday, Jenn and Tess and I met up at the train station here in The Hague to travel to Maastricht to visit Simona. Normally we would have to take the train from The Hague to Eindhoven, and then switch to a train to Maastricht, but the train to Eindhoven goes through Rotterdam, and they were having track problems somewhere in Rotterdam and those trains weren't running. That trip would have been pretty direct. Instead, though, we had to get on a train from The Hague to Utrecht and then switch to a train to Maastricht from there. It ended up taking about the same amount of time (almost three hours) but it was exhausting either way. We got to Maastricht at about 10 in the evening. From Utrecht to Maastricht we shared seats with a girl from the Maastricht area. The first thing I want to tell you is that the Dutch accent in Limburg (province where Maastricht is located) is very different from the accent in South/North Holland (provinces with The Hague and Amsterdam). Well actually it's very different from any of the accents in the country, but the Hollander accent is the one I'm accustomed to. I found it very comical—I couldn't understand anything that the Limburgers said in Dutch, but it sounded very funny anyway, so I just had to laugh afterwards. Anyway, this girl was quite the character. She informed us of many things of which we weren't previously aware. First of all, Limburgers hate all people from other provinces because I guess the non-Limburgers assume that they should throw beer on Limburgers and ask for sex. That one's quite a complicated generalization, but she seemed very bitter about that. Second, the girl really loved Americans. She was so excited about me being American—she seemed to be directing everything she said at me the entire two hours we rode with her. (Uh. Did I mention she was drunk and very loud?) The most important thing that came from that was that she said her best friend is American—from Louisiana—and he's here because he is air force. She then told us that her Louisianan best friend took her to the military base in Schinnen. That. That right there is the important part. Military base in Schinnen. I didn't know there was one. It's an US army garrison in the south of the Netherlands, not too far from Maastricht. I desperately want to go, and she said that he got her in as a visitor pretty easily, so now I'm really excited to take someone and go some time. I should be able to get into an army garrison, right? I JUST REALLY WANT TO GO TO A COMMISSARY. Uh. The third thing we learned is that this upcoming week is Mardi Gras (Carnaval in Dutch). I guess Limburg is a very Catholic province, and they start their Carnaval celebrations on… yeah. Thursday. The day we arrived. The entire train ride, we could hear drunk people in other sections of the train singing very loudly (yes, this is also the reason the girl we were sitting with was so drunk), and people kept walking through the train in full costume.
Okay. So we finally got to Maastricht, Moon picked us up and took us back to her apartment, and by that time we were all really keyed up so some pretty amusing conversations ensued. We played a few card games and ate a bunch of snacks and then crashed for the night. We had a double air mattress and then Moon's single bed. Three of us squished onto the air mattress, it was rather crowded. The next morning, we all gradually woke up (and talked silently in a phone chat until everyone was awake because we didn't want to wake them up), ate breakfast, and somehow managed to get out of the apartment before noon. We went to the center of Maastricht, surrounded everywhere by red, yellow and green Carnaval flags. There were signs on a lot of the bar doors that said no entry without a costume. In the center of Maastricht, they had a big market, which Moon says they set up every Friday and Saturday. Most of what I saw was textiles—fabrics and such. Some were expensive—€9 a meter for any type of fabric. Some were really cheap—€2 a meter, €4,50 a meter. That market is also where I saw the really nice ceramic pans. I really wanted one. I was saved by the fact that I had no cash on me. We found an Oil & Vinegar shop, I really like those. They have them in the US as well, if you ever come across one you should really check it out. They sell all sorts of oils, vinegars, dips, sauces, spreads. Not only that, but they usually have tons and tons of samples set out for anyone to try. I wanted to buy some balsamic, but balsamic is easy to get in a normal grocery store and I know I don't need any… Simona did buy some mango vinegar that I found for her, though. She loves mangos. I saw it, tasted it (eww, mango), and called her over. She was very happy. They have their oils and vinegars on tap, and they sell it per 100ml. You pick out a bottle, they'll fill it up for you and away you go. Later, we had sandwiches and cappuccinos for lunch, and then we went off in search of the frozen yogurt place because we've all been saying for the last month that we really want frozen yogurt. If you get a medium cup of yogurt, you can choose three toppings, which is what I got—cinnamon flavored yogurt with strawberries, kiwi and white chocolate. The people at that shop were very cheerful. After that, we dropped into a couple more shops just to browse, and then headed back to Moon's apartment. That's when we tried to have my phone repaired. Then around six or seven we packed up all of our stuff at Moon's apartment and headed to the train station—Moon came with us—for a 3-hour train ride back home. On the train we saw about 20 loud, drunk penguins. I don't know where they were going, but there must have been a party somewhere that was missing its penguins. I was a little disappointed that they didn't stop and do a Happy Feet song and dance for everyone in the train. I got home around 10:30 that night. All-in-all, it was a really good trip.
All right, the first half of this blog post made me cry (talking about feelings always gets to me) but the second half reminded me of happiness so I think this roller coaster of a blog post has run its course.
2014-02-17
Update: Monday 17 Feb
Hi. Did I mention my bike was giving me problems? If I didn't mention that before, I am going to mention it now. (And if I did mention that before, I'm still going to.)
A week or two ago I was cycling to school and the chain randomly comes off of one of the gears. It came off the gear with the pedals on it, so that was easy enough to get back on. Then, last week, the chain comes off again, only this time it came off the tire gear, which means I had to take it off both gears so that I could put it back on the rear gear first and then pedal it back onto the front gear. Not only that, but the chain guard broke. I am not sure why nearly every bike in this country has a chain guard on it, but I wish I didn't have one. It makes it hard to fix the chain when it comes off or has other problems (for example, a few months ago I was having problems because the chain guard was sitting lower than it was supposed to, and the chain kept running against the bottom of the guard and making a lot of terrible noise). Anyway, now the chain guard has broken entirely, and there's a part of it that gets in the way of the chain somehow. I haven't been able to tell how exactly because when I have problems, I am riding my bike, and I can't very easily look at what it's doing while trying to also look where I am going. But I think every once in a while the guard catches on the chain, because the chain will "jump" while I'm pedalling. Okay. Then, last week, I thought maybe my rear tire was going a little flat. Last night I discovered that I didn't really have to worry about that, because my front tire now is completely deflated. I have a little tire pump, so I pumped it up to go to the store, and when I came out of the store it was already completely deflated again. Ugh.
The good thing is that Ian still has Amber's bike, and I can use that until mine is fixed. The bad news is that I'll have to tap into my emergency money to have mine repaired because I don't have any extra money this month. It's really frustrating that all of this is happening at the same time, but at least then I can take it in to have it all fixed and not have to go back every 2 months for something different.
In other news, this is my last week of classes before break. I'm not doing much during break. Jenn and I have talked about going to Rotterdam but I don't know if we're actually going to go. Also, we're going to go to IKEA because we love IKEA and why not. Other than that, I'll probably try to get a lot of school work done. Yay, school work. My exam schedule for this year is sort of odd, because thanks to a lot of people being gone on exchange the resits for my January exams won't be until August. Which means I have a lot of time to hold the information on those exams. Or a lot of time to forget. I don't particularly like either option, but I have no other choice. Unfortunately, I have a lot of resits.
Anyway, have a nice day. I'm off to class now.
A week or two ago I was cycling to school and the chain randomly comes off of one of the gears. It came off the gear with the pedals on it, so that was easy enough to get back on. Then, last week, the chain comes off again, only this time it came off the tire gear, which means I had to take it off both gears so that I could put it back on the rear gear first and then pedal it back onto the front gear. Not only that, but the chain guard broke. I am not sure why nearly every bike in this country has a chain guard on it, but I wish I didn't have one. It makes it hard to fix the chain when it comes off or has other problems (for example, a few months ago I was having problems because the chain guard was sitting lower than it was supposed to, and the chain kept running against the bottom of the guard and making a lot of terrible noise). Anyway, now the chain guard has broken entirely, and there's a part of it that gets in the way of the chain somehow. I haven't been able to tell how exactly because when I have problems, I am riding my bike, and I can't very easily look at what it's doing while trying to also look where I am going. But I think every once in a while the guard catches on the chain, because the chain will "jump" while I'm pedalling. Okay. Then, last week, I thought maybe my rear tire was going a little flat. Last night I discovered that I didn't really have to worry about that, because my front tire now is completely deflated. I have a little tire pump, so I pumped it up to go to the store, and when I came out of the store it was already completely deflated again. Ugh.
The good thing is that Ian still has Amber's bike, and I can use that until mine is fixed. The bad news is that I'll have to tap into my emergency money to have mine repaired because I don't have any extra money this month. It's really frustrating that all of this is happening at the same time, but at least then I can take it in to have it all fixed and not have to go back every 2 months for something different.
In other news, this is my last week of classes before break. I'm not doing much during break. Jenn and I have talked about going to Rotterdam but I don't know if we're actually going to go. Also, we're going to go to IKEA because we love IKEA and why not. Other than that, I'll probably try to get a lot of school work done. Yay, school work. My exam schedule for this year is sort of odd, because thanks to a lot of people being gone on exchange the resits for my January exams won't be until August. Which means I have a lot of time to hold the information on those exams. Or a lot of time to forget. I don't particularly like either option, but I have no other choice. Unfortunately, I have a lot of resits.
Anyway, have a nice day. I'm off to class now.
2014-02-10
Update: Monday 10 Feb
Hello!
How are you? Doing well? Good, I'm glad to hear it. I'm sitting in school right now, I have an hour to kill between classes. Actually, I have 40 minutes. I already killed 20 by getting lunch (which was some kind of rice with green beans and fake meat because the school for some reason doesn't think food can ever not have meat so all the vegetarian options always have mockmeat, with satay sauce on top, and an apple for dessert) and reloading the chip on my bank card so that I could get a chocolate espresso from the vending machine. And possibly tea from the same machine when my espresso is gone.
A few months ago I decided I wanted to start going running every day again, and I made a plan to start when classes started back up. I didn't manage to do that though. However, I did start Saturday. I always had a problem with shin splints so even though I really like to go for a run every day because it makes me feel good, once you get shin splints you have to stop and let it heal. I wasn't stretching well enough to prevent it before, so this time I decided I would stretch a lot better. As a result, my legs are so sore right now. It's a good sore though. I have this running tracker app on my phone, which I used yesterday when I went running. It tells me how long I was running and how far I ran… There's also a map that shows where I went but that map isn't very exciting. I ran to Zuiderpark, and then ran to the 500m mark on the path, and then turned around and ran home.
The other night I really wanted rice and I really wanted to use these mushroom bouillon cubes I had, so I made risotto, with a side of roasted candy. I mean, roasted Brussels sprouts. It was probably the best risotto I've ever made, and the best risotto I've even eaten. It's also the only risotto I've ever made or eaten. I also never really liked Brussels sprouts before but last month I decided I wanted to like them, so I bought some and roasted it because I had read that when they are crispy and roasted, they can be pretty good. They were. Now I'm looking at the Wikipedia page for Brussels sprouts and it says that in continental Europe, the Netherlands is the largest producer of Brussels sprouts at roughly 82,000 metric tons of Brussels sprouts per year. I guess I now understand why they're fairly cheap. I can get a 750g bag of Brussels sprouts (enough for three or four meals probably, but I usually eat it in two…) for half a euro. Anyway, I like them. They're very cute, and I love cute food.
Uh. What else do you want to know about? My bicycle has a flat tire. My espressochoc (that's what the machine calls it) is gone. I don't have a grade for one of the exams I wrote, so I went to talk to the teacher and he told me to email him, I found that annoying. I now only have 15 minutes left before class. I'm going to go grab that cup of tea from the machine and head to class. Bye!
How are you? Doing well? Good, I'm glad to hear it. I'm sitting in school right now, I have an hour to kill between classes. Actually, I have 40 minutes. I already killed 20 by getting lunch (which was some kind of rice with green beans and fake meat because the school for some reason doesn't think food can ever not have meat so all the vegetarian options always have mockmeat, with satay sauce on top, and an apple for dessert) and reloading the chip on my bank card so that I could get a chocolate espresso from the vending machine. And possibly tea from the same machine when my espresso is gone.
A few months ago I decided I wanted to start going running every day again, and I made a plan to start when classes started back up. I didn't manage to do that though. However, I did start Saturday. I always had a problem with shin splints so even though I really like to go for a run every day because it makes me feel good, once you get shin splints you have to stop and let it heal. I wasn't stretching well enough to prevent it before, so this time I decided I would stretch a lot better. As a result, my legs are so sore right now. It's a good sore though. I have this running tracker app on my phone, which I used yesterday when I went running. It tells me how long I was running and how far I ran… There's also a map that shows where I went but that map isn't very exciting. I ran to Zuiderpark, and then ran to the 500m mark on the path, and then turned around and ran home.The other night I really wanted rice and I really wanted to use these mushroom bouillon cubes I had, so I made risotto, with a side of roasted candy. I mean, roasted Brussels sprouts. It was probably the best risotto I've ever made, and the best risotto I've even eaten. It's also the only risotto I've ever made or eaten. I also never really liked Brussels sprouts before but last month I decided I wanted to like them, so I bought some and roasted it because I had read that when they are crispy and roasted, they can be pretty good. They were. Now I'm looking at the Wikipedia page for Brussels sprouts and it says that in continental Europe, the Netherlands is the largest producer of Brussels sprouts at roughly 82,000 metric tons of Brussels sprouts per year. I guess I now understand why they're fairly cheap. I can get a 750g bag of Brussels sprouts (enough for three or four meals probably, but I usually eat it in two…) for half a euro. Anyway, I like them. They're very cute, and I love cute food.Uh. What else do you want to know about? My bicycle has a flat tire. My espressochoc (that's what the machine calls it) is gone. I don't have a grade for one of the exams I wrote, so I went to talk to the teacher and he told me to email him, I found that annoying. I now only have 15 minutes left before class. I'm going to go grab that cup of tea from the machine and head to class. Bye!
2014-02-02
Update: Sunday 2 Feb
Hello!
Yeah, I know I don't write often enough. Really, I'm sorry.
I started my second semester classes this past week. Since most of my classmates went on exchange this semester, the rest of us get to take minors. So that's all I'm doing this semester, is minor classes (and resits). I'm taking American Business and Culture, and Society and Culture in the English-Speaking world. The Society & Culture one is going to be really interesting, I think. For the first 6 weeks we are talking mostly about the UK and Ireland. We have to write a book report on some English or Irish novel (we have a list to choose from) and there's an exam at the end of the term. Not too bad.
The American Business and Culture one seems like it will be annoying. The business part is probably okay, it lasts for 6 weeks and we're going to talk about different American/international companies based in the US, and their influence on the rest of the world. But for the culture portion, apparently we're going to be reading a bunch of texts and things and talking about how they relate to American culture. For example, in the first class we read a page from the Mayflower Compact and a page from the New England Primer. Then we talked about pilgrims and Puritans and stuff. For the exam for that class, he's going to give us 20 quotes from the various texts we've read and we'll have to identify in which text they were found. I'm not really looking forward to that.
Tonight, Jenn, Moon, Tessa and I are going to a restaurant out at the beach. My very late birthday dinner. It's called Rodizio, and it's a Brazilian churrasco place. I haven't been to one in a long time, and I really hope that it's comparable to the one in Boise that we used to go to. And I hope they have enough vegetarian options for Jenn and I.
Azazel has been sleeping up on my bed with me every night lately, except that he always wants to leave the room around 7 in the morning and I don't want to make him stay because I don't know how good his bladder control is. So I have to climb out of bed with a cat every morning and then let him out… And he really hates being carried down that ladder (and I hate carrying him down, but I'd rather he not jump). I think he fell off the other night, and ever since then he always acts like he will jump down himself and I grab him before he does because I don't want him to hurt himself. I don't know how I always wake up when he wants down, but I do. He doesn't touch me or make any noise but somehow it always wakes me up. This morning he was more determined to jump than normally, and I was watching to see if he would because he was aiming for the washer machine, which is not as far to fall. I was standing on the ladder waiting to see what he would do, and he gave up and came directly to me to let me carry him down. He's a smart cat.
He's on the windowsill watching me right now. Meow.
Yeah, I know I don't write often enough. Really, I'm sorry.
I started my second semester classes this past week. Since most of my classmates went on exchange this semester, the rest of us get to take minors. So that's all I'm doing this semester, is minor classes (and resits). I'm taking American Business and Culture, and Society and Culture in the English-Speaking world. The Society & Culture one is going to be really interesting, I think. For the first 6 weeks we are talking mostly about the UK and Ireland. We have to write a book report on some English or Irish novel (we have a list to choose from) and there's an exam at the end of the term. Not too bad.
The American Business and Culture one seems like it will be annoying. The business part is probably okay, it lasts for 6 weeks and we're going to talk about different American/international companies based in the US, and their influence on the rest of the world. But for the culture portion, apparently we're going to be reading a bunch of texts and things and talking about how they relate to American culture. For example, in the first class we read a page from the Mayflower Compact and a page from the New England Primer. Then we talked about pilgrims and Puritans and stuff. For the exam for that class, he's going to give us 20 quotes from the various texts we've read and we'll have to identify in which text they were found. I'm not really looking forward to that.
Tonight, Jenn, Moon, Tessa and I are going to a restaurant out at the beach. My very late birthday dinner. It's called Rodizio, and it's a Brazilian churrasco place. I haven't been to one in a long time, and I really hope that it's comparable to the one in Boise that we used to go to. And I hope they have enough vegetarian options for Jenn and I.
Azazel has been sleeping up on my bed with me every night lately, except that he always wants to leave the room around 7 in the morning and I don't want to make him stay because I don't know how good his bladder control is. So I have to climb out of bed with a cat every morning and then let him out… And he really hates being carried down that ladder (and I hate carrying him down, but I'd rather he not jump). I think he fell off the other night, and ever since then he always acts like he will jump down himself and I grab him before he does because I don't want him to hurt himself. I don't know how I always wake up when he wants down, but I do. He doesn't touch me or make any noise but somehow it always wakes me up. This morning he was more determined to jump than normally, and I was watching to see if he would because he was aiming for the washer machine, which is not as far to fall. I was standing on the ladder waiting to see what he would do, and he gave up and came directly to me to let me carry him down. He's a smart cat.
He's on the windowsill watching me right now. Meow.
2014-01-12
Update: Sunday 12 Jan
Happy New Year! And Merry Christmas and all that stuff that happened since I last wrote.
I recently discovered that shipping to the Netherlands via Amazon is not always as expensive as I had always thought. Not that I currently have anything to buy on Amazon. It's nice to know if and when I do want something from Amazon. I even have a few Amazon gift cards for that.
I'm making a scarf. Crocheted. And I like the yarn, and I think I will like it when it's finished. The problem is that I will do a huge section, and then set it aside and forget about it for a while, so it may never be finished. Well, that's not the only problem. The other problem is that I think that I am making it too wide, and I don't want to pull it all out again and redo it. The only reason I anticipate this being a problem is that I'm worried I will run out of yarn before it's at a length I am happy with. And my momma bought the yarn, so I can't just go get more. I don't even know where she got it.
I've had a very interesting weekend. I won't go into detail other than to say it's been an interesting weekend. Amber and Ian have broken up, Amber is returning to the US (for good) on Thursday so right now she is packing up everything that she wants to keeps and setting aside everything she doesn't want so that Ian can sell it. Ian and I had a very long talk Friday night (he did most of the talking, he was in quite a talkative mood). I was making food for Saturday and he was sitting on the floor in the kitchen talking. And then Saturday was my birthday. So Tessa and Simona and Jennifer came over and we played games and ate food. That was a nice birthday.
Then, last week I had exams, and next week I have a couple more exams. I don't even know when classes start back up. I can't wait for that though, I'd rather have classes to worry about every day than exams to stress over. Actually I just checked, classes start again on January 27.
Also, yesterday instead of birthday presents, we all exchanged Christmas presents. Moon got me a really nice knife set, and Jenn got me a scent warmer (kind of like the Scentsy stuff, except it uses a tea candle instead of a lightbulb), and Tessa got me slippers. I don't know how they all knew that those were exactly the things I wanted but they were.
So! I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year and all the other fun things and bye talk to you later!
I recently discovered that shipping to the Netherlands via Amazon is not always as expensive as I had always thought. Not that I currently have anything to buy on Amazon. It's nice to know if and when I do want something from Amazon. I even have a few Amazon gift cards for that.
I've had a very interesting weekend. I won't go into detail other than to say it's been an interesting weekend. Amber and Ian have broken up, Amber is returning to the US (for good) on Thursday so right now she is packing up everything that she wants to keeps and setting aside everything she doesn't want so that Ian can sell it. Ian and I had a very long talk Friday night (he did most of the talking, he was in quite a talkative mood). I was making food for Saturday and he was sitting on the floor in the kitchen talking. And then Saturday was my birthday. So Tessa and Simona and Jennifer came over and we played games and ate food. That was a nice birthday.
Then, last week I had exams, and next week I have a couple more exams. I don't even know when classes start back up. I can't wait for that though, I'd rather have classes to worry about every day than exams to stress over. Actually I just checked, classes start again on January 27.
Also, yesterday instead of birthday presents, we all exchanged Christmas presents. Moon got me a really nice knife set, and Jenn got me a scent warmer (kind of like the Scentsy stuff, except it uses a tea candle instead of a lightbulb), and Tessa got me slippers. I don't know how they all knew that those were exactly the things I wanted but they were.
So! I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year and all the other fun things and bye talk to you later!
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