Update: Friday 28 Jun

Hi. I just wanted you to know that Alicia leaves in two days (Margaux left a week ago) and since she is only here for a little longer, she has decided that she can be a bigger slob than she normally is. I am avoiding the kitchen as much as possible so I don't have to look at the disgusting state of the counter, stove and sink. I thought I would be lonely after the two of them left but… Ugh, can you leave sooner please? Good riddance.

I'm just kind of tired of feeling like I'm an unwanted guest in my own home. She acts like this is her apartment more than anyone else's apartment and therefore she can do whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Like, thanks for asking me if you could have a party until 2am when I have classes the next day at 8am (no wait, it wasn't supposed to be a party. It was "I'm having some friends for dinner tonight, just to let you know" but dinner doesn't start until 10pm, it involves a lot of alcohol and no cleaning up after yourself, and ends in a late visit to the club, after which you sleep in until 2pm and then go to class, still without cleaning your disaster in the kitchen). Or, no I don't mind if your brother comes to stay for two weeks in July, and I definitely don't mind that I don't get a choice in that matter, and that you didn't tell me about it until after it was a done deal. And I really appreciate that you leave your shampoo and soap bottles scattered all around the shower floor all of a sudden, when for the entire last 9 or 10 months we've all always put them back on the shelf after our shower. I also like it when you put on loud music in your bedroom and then leave the door open so you can hear it while you go across the hall and cook and eat dinner in the kitchen—yet when I'm in the kitchen with music on, you make it a point to come close the door so you can't hear it. Also, if it weren't for the huge pile of dirty dishes in and around the sink and the food caked onto the counter and stove, I'd probably forget you are here so thank you for the reminder.

I'm a little bitter. I don't know if you noticed that. I shouldn't be, because I should be just grateful that she leaves in two days and I don't have to deal with all of that anymore. But I'm not sure how I will even survive the next two days.

She is leaving in two days, but she is not turning in her keys. This is so that her brother can come crash here for two weeks in July, and then in August right before our lease ends she will come back to take the last of her stuff and make sure everything is clean. Since I'm hoping to be moving out on the 17th of July, I figured that I will throw out any dishes that she and I both don't want and just leave what she wants in the apartment for her to take in August. So I asked her yesterday if before she leaves she could put her things in a separate spot so that I know what not to throw out. By separate spot, I was kind of thinking "in your own cupboard space" but already yesterday afternoon she went and separated all of the dishes into two piles—what she wants and what she doesn't. Problem with that is that I don't know which is which. So I guess if she doesn't solve the problem before she leaves, after she leaves I'm going to scrub out her cupboard (it's kind of nasty… wait, really nasty) and then put what I assume is her stack of things in her cupboard. I'm thinking it'll be obvious which is hers, but in the event that it's not obvious she cannot go blaming me because she should have thought of that before she made it so ambiguous. I feel that she misunderstands me every time I try to talk to her about things, so I don't think there's really any point in asking her to do anything differently. Typically she either misunderstands, or gets really defensive. Mostly, I'm tired of having to deal with it and I don't feel like going to the trouble of trying to talk to her. She'll just have to suffer the consequences.

That's kind of all I had to say today. I just needed to let off a little steam. Sorry that my post wasn't more exciting, and I haven't been posting a lot lately. I guess I could come up with some things to talk about that don't involve Alicia.

Well, like I mentioned before, Margaux left last Saturday. She had quite a few things that wouldn't fit in her bags and she didn't want to throw them out, so I offered to keep some stuff. One of those things was a twin-sized duvet. I know, I just bought a queen-sized one that I will use when I move to my new apartment because it has a bigger bed. But it has a loft bed, and under the loft bed is an extra twin-sized bed, so now I have a blanket for it in case I have someone over, I guess. The only blanket I've had all this time is the really crappy one from DUWO and I intended to get rid of it because it's terrible. Now I have a replacement. Margaux also left me a bit of food; yesterday I had lentils for the first time in my life. Not bad. Unfortunately she left me a bag of flour, and Nora also gave me a bag of flour… Now I have four bags of flour. What am I going to do with four bags of flour?

I bought some seeds (loose-leaf lettuce and jalapeno) and I'm trying to grow things, I guess we'll see if that works. As it is, I have a very happy basil plant which I rarely use, a decently happy chive plant which I also never use, an orchid that I need to find food for, a mini-tree that belongs to Nora and I am plant-sitting for the summer, and a gerber daisy that I bought at IKEA. I think the daisy is pretty happy too but I can't tell. I've tried planting lettuce in my pots before and the roots always deteriorate. I'm not sure how that happens, but it's made me sad and it's happened three times now. So I decided to try seeds. Maybe they will be more successful. Maybe they won't… I guess I don't care. Maybe lettuce just can't grow in a pot. Maybe there are insects or something that is eating at the roots…

My grades aren't all in yet, but I think I have 45 out of 60 first year credits, and 65 out of 80 total credits. I think I'm okay. We will be getting our "non-binding study advice" next week and then if we don't like it, we can go argue it to the examination board. Then after that comes binding study advice. If binding study advice says you shouldn't continue with the program, then you aren't allowed to. Legally, if you have less than ⅔ of the first year credits, you will receive negative BSA. I have more than ⅔ so I think I will be getting provisional BSA, meaning that I have one additional year to make it positive. That just means I have to get those 15 extra first year credits that I missed out on. It means I didn't pass every class, and it means I screwed up… But I'm hoping it means I'll still have a chance to make it up to myself. I don't want to go home yet.

Update: Wednesday 5 Jun

Hi!

So today my hair was cooperating nicely, and it's so warm out (ha, ha. By that I mean 70F) that I wanted to wear this nice dress that Mommy bought me in Ocean City, Maryland. I decided I look nice today. But there are no roommates in the nearby vicinity, so I had to take pictures with my webcam… for you. Because you don't get to see my face often enough, I think. ;)

So I kind of still look terrible anyway, but I feel overwhelmingly happy sometimes about my weight-loss progress. Then I start feeling like I should cry or something. I love walking around downtown, or even walking to school, because I walk past all these massive store windows that are very reflective, and then I can't help but keep looking at my reflection and marvelling at how far I've come. That's probably not a healthy thing to keep focusing on, but it just feels good to know that I'm not overweight anymore. Really, my BMI is finally in the "healthy weight" range, although I know BMI is often terribly inaccurate. I haven't been this weight since I was 16 years old, maybe even before that. I wish I had some decent "before" pictures, but if you've known me all that time, maybe you don't need it. I think over the summer I am going to start going out for a few hours on my roller blades, or at least go jogging a bit, and see how much better we can do with that. It's hard to motivate myself to do even more when I've already had this much success just by eating better, but I do know that there's only so much that diet controls and it's probably time to step it up a bit.

So uh, anyway. Yesterday I made this terribly not-exciting meal that was very yummy regardless of its simplicity. It's just quinoa seasoned with only salt, and steamed veggies. They'd have been roasted veggies, but it's so hard to roast veggies without an oven… Margaux has two friends visiting from France and Alicia had told Margaux a while back that she wants to try ratatouille. I never really liked ratatouille (just because I really dislike eggplant) but she asked if I wanted to join them and I said sure, why not. So tonight we're having ratatouille, and I have leftover quinoa to eat with it. I'm going to be very sad when I run out of quinoa…

Hanna emailed me this morning and suggested that Amber and I come visit her some time in August while Ian is in the Middle East, so that we can complete the tax forms that she will need us to sign. But uh… I guess I have no reason to say no to that, I'm sure a weekend or something in Belgium would be nice. I guess one day I should tell these people I don't eat meat…

Update: Monday 3 Jun

Hello!

Okay. So I'm a silly person and I've already allotted all of this month's budget out so I have nothing left. Granted, I haven't actually spent it yet, I have just already planned where it's going. Well, I have €110 left. €30 is for the market later this month (I'll probably have a little of that left over), €40 is for IKEA (Yeah. Need a flowerpot. Flower pots are only a euro, I can afford it. Oh, and I need a Queen sized duvet for the duvet cover my Mommy bought me. They have one I like for €30. I also want a new pillow. Feather pillow. I'm so spoiled, eh?), and the last €40… Well, I lied. It's not all planned already. That last bit is for whatever I want to use it for. Or my phone bill. Whichever comes first. I also still have €50 of this month's budget that I didn't put in my account yet (it's in savings) because I'm hoping I can save €50 every month to have for… Well, did I mention I'm going to London in July? To save for special occasions or moments of need, I suppose.

I made fajitas for dinner. I really like fajitas. They had mushrooms and onion and red pepper, and also some avocado, green onions, lettuce and tomato as toppings. They were good fajitas. I bought an 18-pack of large tortillas at the Asian supermarket (who'da thunk it…) and they are much much better than the tortillas in the glorified "Mexican food" section of Albert Heijn. To be fair, the Asian supermarket does have a lot of "foreign" foods besides just Asian stuff. I can get worcestershire sauce and American cake mixes and big boxes of baking powder/soda. I don't know why, apparently those are not things one uses in the Netherlands. Typically if you want baking soda around here, you should probably look at the drug store or pharmacy. You can get baking powder in the stores, in little packets that contain about a tablespoon. Also, it took me forever to find cocoa powder. Hint: it's not in the baking section. It's in the coffee section. Next to the Nesquik.

I also bought a cantaloupe at the market last week. It's a cute cantaloupe… I know that makes no sense, but if it helps at all it's also tasty. Remind me not to buy Spanish strawberries at the market ever again. They were okay on day one (okay, but not delicious), but they got icky pretty quickly. Moldy strawberries. The Dutch strawberries I had were much sweeter. And just generally more yummy.

So I'm halfway done with the things that are due this week. One deadline was today, another is tomorrow so we spent all day working on it. Friday, the other two are due. That's for writing class and European Business Management Review. Writing class involves three essays (a summary, a news article and an argumentative paper, 500 words each) and a reflection on each essay (400 words each). If I wanted, I could be done with those tomorrow but I'm super lazy. I've already done the essays, I don't feel like doing reflections on my work. I really should work on things though, so I'll probably work on EBMR because that's a 25 page business management review… Which I'm halfway done with. It's group work, but I've done most of it… And Sabine did most of the research paper that is due tomorrow, so I guess we're even.

Update: Friday 24 May

I keep buying plants that need homes. It's problematic because I want homes that match, so I have to go back to IKEA for pots. I guess the good thing about it is that the pots that I have been buying are cheap, they are just one euro apiece. But you can't go to IKEA and just buy a pot or two… No, you have to buy a pillow and some cutting boards and a knife and… Yeah. The last two times I went to IKEA I really wanted to buy a new comforter because I still don't have one to fit the duvet cover Mom bought me. I have a feeling it would be harder to resist this time.

Especially since yesterday I went and looked at that apartment and I really liked it. But the bed in the room that would be mine is a double bed, so I will need a new blanket to fit it. So, I went and met this guy and his girlfriend, their names are Ian and Amber. And they have two cats, whose names are Gaddafi and Theory. One of which has cancer. :( The guy currently living in that room keeps to himself when he is home, apparently he is extremely asocial. (I learned a new word this week. Someone who is antisocial is "detrimental to social order or the principles by which society is constituted" and asocial is what people mean when they misuse antisocial: not social, or "unable or unwilling to conform to normal standards of social behavior") Amber said that even when he's not in his room, if they say hi to him or tell him his food smells good, he just responds with something along the lines of "hi… yeah…." and then he goes to his room. I would love to have roommates I can talk to and hang out with on occasion. They have a living room! With a couch! Yeah, I emailed Ian's mom and told her I would take the room. I don't want to have to keep looking, the price is right, and the distance is something I can live with.

I think the last time I posted, I forgot to tell you about my pigeon. I know, at first I hated that pigeon and wanted her gone. Then she had an egg and quieted down and I decided I could live with her. Then some sad stuff happened: another bird or a cat knocked the nest down. One day Margaux came in from the balcony and told me that the pigeon was gone. We were both very sad. I guess it's all for the better: as soon as the eggs hatched they would have been very noisy again. Still, I was beginning to like that pigeon.

Here are my plants. My basil is doing awesome, the chives are outside on the balcony doing okay. There are some green onions there that were once doing awesome, but now they're not. I don't know what happened. I think if they die, I will pull them out and try again. Green onions are supposed to be very easy to replant. Maybe I didn't bury them deep enough. Finally, I have these two lettuce plants. I really wanted a lettuce plant because I can't buy lettuce and eat it fast enough before it all goes bad (from the market, anyway. Two heads of iceberg or romaine lettuce for a euro is nice, but they don't last forever after all). I saw these plants at the market for 50 cents apiece, so I thought I would try to grow them. Unfortunately, the green one wasn't happy staying in its plastic pot and I haven't been able to go buy them homes yet, so I had to steal the orchid's pot. Means I can't water my orchid for a while, but my orchid doesn't like being watered anyway so I guess it's okay. The red lettuce plant is next… I have my own little garden in my room. Margaux probably thinks I'm crazy. That's okay with me.

Update: Monday 20 May

Hi! Remember when I said that posting so often would probably come back and bite me in the butt? That I'd run out of things to say and then you wouldn't see me for a while? That's what happened. I've just had nothing to say for a while.

Now I'm apartment-searching, though. I'll be moving out during the first week of August, and I was going to wait until it was a bit closer to that time because I know that people wait until about a month before to start posting their rooms. Then I had this sudden panic that I won't be able to find anything at all and I'll have to move out of my apartment and onto the streets and… well, that just didn't sound like a good idea for some reason. I have only been scanning the posts on this website for about a week, but when things come up that look really good I feel like I should jump on them, because who knows how long they'll be available before someone else wants it. The problem is that I know half of them would rather take anyone else besides me because if their apartment is available from May 25, they want someone paying from May 25. They don't want someone who isn't coming until August.

But… I have found an apartment that is right near the market and it's within my price range. They wanted someone from the first of July but she told me that if I like the apartment, maybe I can pay half price for July and then move in when my current apartment contract is up. I emailed to set up an appointment to see the apartment but no response yet, so we'll see. I want to not have to worry about this anymore.

Last week I bought inline skates. On marktplaats, which to me feels like a combination of a Dutch version of craigslist and ebay. I bought them from a lady in Tilburg for €7.50 and she shipped them to me, they look and feel brand new so she probably never used them. I want to use them as my main mode of transportation so I need to go use them more often to get accustomed to it. I went out and skated for a couple hours the day after I got them, it was pouring so the ground was slippery. Probably wasn't the brightest idea to go out at that time, but I didn't fall so that's a plus. I think it's been years and years since the last time I skated.

Update: Tuesday 30 Apr

Hello! Today is Koninginnedag, or Queen's Day, here in the Netherlands. It's a complicated thing to describe so I hope I don't leave you confused.

Queen's Day was first started in 1885 to celebrate the fifth birthday of a princess on August 31. When she became queen, it was changed from Princess's Day to Queen's day. When her daughter Juliana took her place as queen, the holiday was moved to her birthday, April 30. Then when her daughter Beatrix became queen, she left the holiday on April 30 as a tribute to her mother. (But also because Beatrix's birthday is in January and no one wants to celebrate in the cold.)

This year was a special Queen's Day because today the former Queen Beatrix passed the throne to her son, Willem-Alexander. It's the first time the Netherlands has had a king in 123 years. He is also very young to be king, only 46, but I guess that feels young to me because he's even younger than my parents and I don't think my parents are old. Apparently he is the youngest monarch in Europe now though, so there is that.

Anyway, basically today is the last Queen's day there will be in a long time. Next year it will be Koningsdag, King's Day, instead. It will be celebrated on his birthday, April 27 (starting in 2015 because next year that day is on a Sunday, so April 26 will be King's Day).

So here's how it basically works (and I only know this from what I've heard, so sorry for lack of detail): On the night of the 29th, everyone goes out and parties to bring in Queen's Day. The next day, there are carnivals and fairs and parties all over the country. Everyone wears orange and hangs their Dutch flags outside of their homes (hanging your country's flag outside is not nearly as common around here as it is in the US) and some people dye their hair and wear fluffy orange feather boas and orange cowboy hats, etc. They have "free markets" on Queen's Day, which is basically a nationwide yard sale in the streets. I guess it's the one day that they are allowed to sell items in the streets without a permit and VAT.

Now, I really wanted to go out and see some of this stuff firsthand but… The ceremony for the king was at one and I really wanted to watch that, so I did. It took a couple of hours. All of the free markets were so far from me that I couldn't walk to them and didn't want to pay for the tram, so I couldn't go to those. Since The Hague is such an international city, not a lot of people are into the whole "wear orange and go crazy" thing but when I left my apartment around four there were still plenty of people all over the city. The crowds in Amsterdam that I saw on TV were rather orange, though. Later, Jenn and I went to a movie and then walked out to the huge carnival that is set up near the parliament building. They were already getting ready to close for the night but it was still nice to look at while it was still there.

Update: Thursday 25 Apr

Remember those pigeons that I was having problems with on my balcony? Here, if you don't remember, I have a better picture now.

Why do I have a better picture? Well because there's an egg in there now, so she's not leaving for any reason whatsoever. Really. I stood there and poked at her for about five minutes while she stared at me with a "why are you touching me?" face… Then I tugged on her tail and she left, only to come back a minute later. She was gone long enough for me to look and confirm that there's an egg there… I guess I give up. They don't make noise in the morning anymore. Only when the other one (which is still afraid of me, and that's how I can tell them apart) comes back, then he stands around next to her and makes this all this noise and leaves again. Ugh. Pigeon. Why there? Why don't the humans running at your five times every morning for two months clue you in that this is not an ideal spot to raise babies?

I know I just got done with spring break about a month ago, but I'm on break again. May break this time. I don't really have anything to do for break though. Jenn was going to ask her dad if we could go spend a weekend or something at their camping house but I don't think she ever did that. The weather has been so nice lately, I guess I'll just have to spend the week enjoying the spring weather from The Hague.