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.
2014-02-17
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.
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