date: 1095428672

mood:
listening to:

after sitting online and enjoying fantastic time wasiting for most of my morning (and your night), my internet had very suddenly died. as in, my laptop seen the wireless connection but couldn’t connect. since i’ve been online for about 4 hours at this point, i decided it is a sign to go and do something productive.

peter’s classes ended, and i asked him if he knows where the nearest “shoppers drugs mart” type shop is. not in those words, of course, but i just explained what i needed (kleenex, conditioner, sponge).

we boarded our bikes, and went inside the net of shops that surrounds vrighthoff (i will never learn how to spell that word). he pointed me to two shops, said which one is better, and went off to do his things.

i went shopping for various supplies, got kleenex (2 for 1, yay), and such. reasonable prices, reasonable selection – they have my dove conditioner, BUT its like, different packaging and stuff. i got it anyway.

biked home, met julien on the way, very close to the house, walked with him for the rest of the way. there are a lot of tiny, annoying flies that go in large quantities. it is annoying.

after coming home decided to make oladushki, since i have all the ingridients. it was fun – the taste came out fantastic, which is great, cause that means i now can continue preparing them, but i really messed up the shape. no big deal, i will try again, and people that tasted (simon, david, thomas, julien) said they’re good.

during the day the floor is very quiet. most people are either asleep, in classes, or both ;) actually, you can’t sleep in classes here. they are too small.

after making oladushki, i watched some tv, minorly cleaned up around the place, went into my room, looked at photographs, but unfortunately did nothing productive. francesca came home, it was around 6 at this point, and due to lack of sleep the night before, i felt very tired, so i just went into my room and fell asleep.

woke up around 9, from lotsa noise from cooking preparations for dinner. helped out a bit, then went to take a shower (conditioner is okay, much more milky than the one in canada, but it still feels fine), dried hair, went to dinner. again pretty much everyone gathered around the table, we were watching miss italia (again), and just generally talking. a few people said my hair looks good! i’ll attribute that to the conditioner. :D

after dinner, some people made plans to go out. at this point it all became very confusing, i thought thomas and julien and francesca and myself will all go, so i went downstairs with thomas and julien, BUT i then realized that francesca isn’t going, so i stayed home.

good thing too! the evening was spent playing the guitar, first in francesca’s room, then in the dining room, then on the balcony, then in the dining room again. we all stayed up until around 1, playing old songs (and some new ones). funny thing, to hear english rock songs sang with a french accent. i don’t know WHY its funny, it just is. kinda, paradoxical.

PHOTOSPHOTOSPHOTOS of the guitar playing

as we sit in francsca’s room: chris comes in:

“papa became an uncle!” (papa is our joking name for him cause he is always mock arguing with francesca using this horrible italian accent)

his sister had a baby! last night! a 4kg boy! like, geez!

i forgot to link in the last entry:

more photos of floormates

around 1-2 we all went to sleep. i set alarms for tomorrow, tried to come up with a new design for my blog, was wildly unsuccessful, as i can’t stay within the set limits of modblog.

i really should just move back to b2 (php blog) on my own site. buuut then i have to figure out how to convert the database from modblog to b2 and install b2 and blah, so much internet time that i don’t have. buuut i’d have a pretty design. i don’t know.

fell asleep, woke up at 10 (set alarms for 9). studied for a while, then had spaghetti with julien for lunch, studied for a bit more (for today’s class, philosophy, i had to finish reading which i started a whiiile ago). i prepared the ingridients (the mix and the apples) for oladushki, and ALMOST started making them (heated the pan) but the lady who cleans the floor came in.

maan, she is … mean. like, she doesn’t talk. and she doesn’t answer. to ANYTHING. i told her i cleaned the kitchen (yeah, i spent like 20 minutes cleaning the kitchen, i got annoyed that we always have dishes next to the sink, dirty and/or clean, so i washed everything, waited until it dried and put everything away, and then washed all the surfaces so that it was clean AND i cleaned the oven, before she even came there, and i know she “cleans” it – runs a wet cloth over it :| ) , and like, no reply, no acknowledgment – not even like a nod, i’m not even mentioning a word. maybe she is mute? deaf? i dont know.

anyway, it is 1:07, my class is at 1:30, so i will leave … now. and oladushki will have to happen when i’m back. :| i wanted them damnit.

plan for the rest of the day: it is FRIDAY. so tonight probably we go out or something.

tomorrow morning at 7 we are leaving to amsterdam. and then – i have no clue. we’ll go see the van gogh museum, and maybe anne frank house, but i dont know what else we’ll do. i’m quite content with just going there, seeing the canals, and all that. so i don’t think it’ll be a problem to figure out what we want to do.

sunday, the tentative plan is to go outside of amsterdam to one of the neighbouring cities, like delft (where the classical blue/white china painting is done) or another city, more famous for its cheese. we’ll see!

monday i have no class, except chinese late in the evening. for which i have not prepared at all. ouchouchouch.

that is all. i shall keep you, as usual, posted. :)

date: 1095776190

mood: tired, headachy
listening to:faithless – drifting away (paradiso mix) (it is GOOD, scarf, get it, damnit)

okay, people.
amsterdam was fun.

but you will hate me. i can’t tell you about it.

well, not now.

since i done nothing productive over the weekend, all of monday and tuesday was spent being productive. i even did laundry! and studied (chinese, a lot, its FUN, i have more quotes from the prof), and bought food (i was all out). basically, i made sure i dont end up sitting in a corner, starving and insane.

today, i have an 8am-8pm type of day. woke up at 8, did reading for the class at 11, came to class (walked, bike broken, long story, will post), had a very boring lecture, then 30 mins break, then a 2 hour tutorial, now i barely had a 30 min break and i gotta take the bus to the other side of the river where my french course starts.

and AGH i have so much to tell but i literally had no time to do it! and i get home at 8 (if i dont come online, which i shouldn’t), and then i have class at 11 tomorrow as well, and i have to do the reading for THAT too… therefore next large update should come at 1pm my time == 7am your time, tomorrow.

blah, headache.

francesca left to rome until saturday. shame her bike is broken too, otherwise i could’ve taken it. her breakage is unrelated to mine.

uuhmm… that’s all. sowwy guys.

next update will be pretty, with pictures and stuffs. i prooomise.

i have 2 days off in the middle of the week in 2 weeks from now, wed and thursday. any ideas where i should go?

date: 1095870423

mood:
listening to:

okay, wow, this is going to be loooong.

lets see… i have 4 days to cover:

friday evening

well… came home, ate… honestly, its blurry right now, because so many things happened since then (and the start of blog is always a bit daunting).

the most important even of friday was the breakage of my bike.

francesca, simon, thomas and myself went out. instead of going directly to [some place, i dont remember which one], we decided to go to maarkt (martketsquare) and check out if anything is happening there. all 4 of us own bikes, so we biked there. nice, fast, easy (downhill).

maarkt was desolate and empty, and we decided to go back to … highlander, that’s the place (thats the closest bar to the guesthouse). on the way back, while biking on a bumpy street my dust cover was making an odd noise. it was making it for a while before that, but it just got weirder and weirder, like a part of it was rubbing the wheel.

turns out it was.

turns out, that it snapped, and cut into my wheel.

while, i am on the bike. pedaling. moving.

the front wheel gets locked. i hear a fantastic sound of metal breaking, barely have time to go “what the…” and feel myself flying upwards through air, with my bike, while seeing very clearly the front wheel unmoved, and the ground ohsoslowly coming closer to make contact with my head.

in the split seconds that my bike went from horizontal to vertical the following thoughts went through my head (in that order):

“i wish i had a helmet”
“i think i’ll die if i hit that pavement with my forehead”
“i dont have velocity to flip and land on my butt”
“therefore i must fall on the side now”

at which point i … dont know what happened. i dont have a clear recollection of what i did, i just know that the bike was broken on the ground, a few meters ahead of me, after making a 540 circle.

i’m on the ground. with my feet firmly planted on it. and me, not even having a bruise, not a skratch, not any pain. i seriously was born under a lucky star.

all that i had, was a mild shock that prevented me from standing straight for about 10 minutes. and, well, lack of bike.

we went back to highlander (i rode on back of simon’s bike), drunk a few beers, and then went home. all in all it was pretty uneventful, with the exception of the accident.

saturday

OMGOMGOMG! AMSTERDAM HERE WE COME!!
yeaah.. so we woke up at … 7? 7 or so. simon woke up first, knocked on everyone’s door. a few minutes later i dragged myself out of bed, crawled to the shower, more energetically crawled back. quickly packed clothes, took freshly charged battery (thank you nikon for making a battery that easily withstood 2 days of shooting/reviewing with no recharge!), packed soap, toothbrush, you know. ended up with backpack, plus camera back, plus jacket (which didn’t fit into the backpack, tsktsk, i shall improve).

anyway, went to living room. simon, thomas, fabio, me are sitting and waiting for jerome, who is hurriedly gathering.

man was i happy to NOT be the last one to be ready!

anyway, after waiting and finishing our lsat possible eadable supplies (all of us ran out of food, perfect timing), we deployed towards amsterdam.

drive there

thomas is driving, he’s french. i’m saying that because i was sitting in the front (jerome, fabio and simon are like 2 meters tall, so they were cramped at the back), and, well, french driving is all that it is rumoured to be.

laws are just a suggestion and blinker light is a decoration for christmas. apparently the air bags can be turned off (there’s a button that says airbag off…), but i decided not to inquire further into the matter. the seatbelt was working so i was happy.

of course his car is tiiiny :) fun, so.. european. and of course manual.

anyway, drive there was boring, backseat crew fell asleep. i listened to various music, nothing standing out.

we stopped for gas. it was 50 euros for the full tank. i think its like twice more expensive here. (netherlands, not sure abt the rest of europe)

anyway… amsterdam, we arrived. i figured out (without a map!) how to get to the centre (mmm, leet navigation skills). we parked (32 euros for 24 hours, 3 euros per hour otherwise), close to the centre, and as much later turns out, very close to our hostel.

finding the hostel

well, jerome had been in amsterdam previously. so we stumbled around for like 30 minutes, around hte area where he knew the hostel is. found some hostel. went in, they are full (looked COOL, free internet, huge area covered with pillows where people do what people do in amsterdam, lotsa students). we got directions to the hostel jerome was talking about. went there – blue sign on the door, “we are full”.

jerome says he will go to find another place, we sit/stand next to this place, and wait for the manager of it to return from lunch break (thats what they told us). about 3 minutes after he leaves, this COOL chick, with braided blond hair, pierced nose. fabio talks with her, and there are 5 beds! cool!

the price is 18 euros, and the breakfast is included.
later on i spoken to some girls that we met. they paid 24 euros, breakfast was NOT included, and the room had mattresses on the floor!

we get the keys, and bravely go in.

honestly, i was impressed. 9 double bunk beds, 1 shower/bathroom, with a locking shower, locking washroom, and 5 sinks (narrow room). VERY clean. like, i wasn’t going to be picky, but, its really clean.

after droping off our stuff in the locked wooden box that we all share (just my group), we went into the city.

it would be impossible to describe each conversation that happened, therefore here is what we did, and when i have the energy i’ll post some specific stories :)

-> left hostel
-> found major road towards central station, stopped in a sandwich shop, we were starving, but i twasn’t that good
-> walked around amsterdam for 2 hours, just looking at everything, with no real aim.
-> got tea/coffee/water (they had a neat thing where they put a metal plate on top of the cup, to keep the water hot – and you can reuse it to put your tea bag!)
-> walked around some more. found a floating band, listened to them. jerome/fabio are music nuts.
-> walked through the market as it was getting closer to closing time. it was FUN. i got a blanket, for 8 euros, yellowish with chinese characters on it. looks cool, i’m happy. the market was fun, and i’d love to come back and buy more stuff, but i was worried of overspending.

after that, we went home, dropped off bags, and went out. after having some too expensive showarma, (i bit my tongue, SO badly – i bought some cool, cheapish ice cream after that, to soothe it), we went barhopping. all in all i spent 10 euros on that, which is reasonable, cause i was enjoying it.

oh, how could i forget! after showarma but before the beers we went through the red light district! that was FUN. helped that i was surrounded by 4 tall guys, who are my friends, (and 3 of them are my floormates – like family), i didn’t feel scared. otherwise i would – the crowd is fairly diverse and … yeah. scary. i’m glad i didn’t take camera but its not like i couldve gotten photos anyway – they dont like it.

so, yeah, girls, almost naked (like, tiny bikinis), in windows, with red lights. its shocking to a canadian girl (even if she is russian rooted), and its pretty fun to watch and be there.

we stayed out until 3am – i dont have the exact timing for any of the above cause – well, whats the point? :)

came home, fell into beds, waking up half the people.

3 minutes later, some germans came, fell into their beds, waking up half the people.

all in all, awesome day.

continued in next entry

date: 1095871914

mood: tired, headachy (was happy)
listening to:faithless – i want more (GET THE VIDEO, YOU, YES YOU!)

sunday

woke up at 10. brushed teeth, brushed hair, washed contacts. quickly packed bag, made sure i forgot nothing, and left to the reception.

now the reception is really cool. the breakfast was scrambled eggs, 2 pieces of bread, one white one brown, some jam, and butter/salt/pepper on the tables. and free tea. coffee cost 50 cents. but i dont drink coffee. and you all know how much i ADORE scrambled eggs! matter of fact i had some this morning (wednesday :D)

anyway… we get there, get free breakfast, and head out (dead tired from not enough sleep) to van gogh.

we arrived to van gogh around 12, spent 4 hours there… walked out DEAD tired.

the museum was nice, huge, a lot of paintings, a lot of information. i enjoyed it, but i liked orsay (paris), much MUCH MUCH more. however they had an exhibit of manet, in addition to van gogh, so it was fairly nice as well.

after that, we were starving. thomas and fabio decided to eat in the first place they found, i refused to eat in that overpriced tiny crappy (pardon) box, and asked to find someplace better.

we didn’t REALLY suceed. went to burger king, after about 10 minutes of walking. food is expensive, and it fed me, so i guess it was fine. you have to pay for ketchup while you’re there!

after burger king, went downstairs, watched people do weird things (like, a guy doing weird stuff with a soccer ball, i’ll post pics when the server is back up), some guys dancing (breakdancing), magicians, that sort of thing. jerome and simon had a capuccino (i didn’t), and after about 30 minutes of basking in the sun, we moved on to the next point of our trip.

the way home.

the sun was setting, it was 5 pm, and we were all DEAD tired. like, falling off our feet. so we shuffled towards the car (we reparked it after leaving the hostel), sat down, and basically (i) fell asleep for the rest of the way.

monday/tuesday

i had no classes in the morning. just chinese in the evening. anyway, my last blog describes it well.

so where does that put us?

ah, tuesday evening. after french (it was fun, but i’m running out of steam to type anything up), took bus home. 40 frigging minutes. 2.40 euros. grrr.

well, came home. ate. felt dead tired. did nothing for an hour or so.

people were going to go out, sooo i decided why the heck not.

it was SO worth it.

we went to highlander (meh, full), twee harem (meh, even MORE full – we just stood outside), then de alla, which was AWESOME. i DANCED! like, pair dancing! with twirls, and moves and stuffs. and just regular dancing. and i felt good, and it felt like i was doing it right! after de alla we moved to metamorphosis (its just another club next to maarkt), and danced more there (mostly dance music that i like, with a little bit of modern dance/hip hop), it was fantastic.

we came home at 4 am. went to sleep at 4:30.

now here is the fun part.

woke up at 9 (ouch, 2nd day of 5 hour sleep). read my psych textbook for today’s class. walked to class, coming like 4 minutes late (10 or more is a miss! again, ouch). had cool 2 hour class.

found out that i have tomorrow off :D YAY SLEEP

friday i get paper info for psych and philosophy.

and if i understand correctly, i will not have any classes in philosophy/psych next week, and no classes in psych the week after that as well.

anyway… i spent 6 hours here. not just typing this entry, talking to people, trying to relax. i’m hungry and not relaxed at all, but i wanna go home, i’m starving. people here ate pizza. my stomach is dead.

all in all… last 2 days flew by, the weekend flew by, today crawled by. i’m tired, so no emails (sowwie). i will do tomorrow, as i can be home :D and no chores to do!

i hope this was good enough. i barely have the energy to finish this sente

date: 1096036018

mood: *YAWNS* | w00t, weekend
listening to:hackers – stumble you might fall

like, whoa.

bad thing sout of the way. i’m just out of my philosophy class, and i’m falling asleeeep. it is too long, it is too boring. the stuff we’re talking about is cool, but the way people talk and phrase stuff just kills me.

something crossed my mind yesterday. when i am at home – notice, i already have been calling hte guesthouse home! – i really feel at home. its like a family. we cook. we clean. we play soccer in the hall, for who gets to cook dinner. we watch tv and make fun of stupid movies. we ask for help with homework, we make fun of girl cut outs that the guys have stuck on the wall, we clean rooms, iron shirts, greet guests, and borrow ingridients for food. we ask “who else wants pasta” and “does anyone have eggs”. we whine about classes that are too dutch, about the dutch bureaucracy, about money and lack of thereof. we discuss trips, listen to music, plan tomorrow, and go sleep at different times. we make fun of the silent housecleaner (well not while shes there, duh), and the 20 security warnings that we have gotten in one weekend.

anyway. i miss home like crazy, i guess this is the stage when i have to miss it. [reference]

but i’m also very comfortable and happy here.

while my last 2 posts were really depressing in their mood, it was because i was tired and depressed and hungry when i was writing them. in all honesty, the amsterdam trip was fantastic – first trip i had that was outside of “safe” areas and with people my age!

last morning, as i had nothing to do, i made oladushki in the morning. it was absolutely awesome, cause this was the 3rd time i’m making them, and they came out peeeeeerfect.

i feel like i should have taken different clothes. i want more skirts (duh), and some shirts i took i’m unsure about. oh well, i guess i’ll just have to go shopping ;)

the highlight of yesterday was the light going out when we were sitting at the kitchen table at 3 am ;)

puun!

*cough*

yesterday was very quiet. it was raining very badly outside, and the weather was miserable, therefore i gladly used the opportunity to not go out anywhere. i woke up around 1, made oladushki, drank tea, read some, played soccer in the hall, chatted to people. basically, i was the least possibly productive human being.

i lost to thomas *twice* in scoring goals, so i owed him 2 dinners. now its one, i made mushroom soup lat night. but, ARGH, not fair. i’m taking him up in tennis. i offered chess but for some reason he was scared ;)

anyway, later in the evening, before dinner, i studied, again, very unproductively. ended up launching into this discussion of europe/northamerica and canada/us and like stereotypes, media, how similar/different they are. it was fun, but not superbly good for my education ;)

what else… tonight we might be going out. probably will since didn’t go out for (gasp) 2 days.

also, today i got my paper subjects for psychology and philosophy. psychology is COOL and philosophy thankfully seems easy.

here’s how they work.

in psych, we got individual data sets, and software to analyze them. the data sets are from 150 real students who replied to a simple survey of about 15 questions about condom use, and their Beliefs, Social Influence, Self Efficacy on it. therefore we have 3 factors that influence the INTENT (of using a condom). and our paper has to analyze our individual data set, see which factors influence the intent the strongest, and using the additional papers and research that we are given, write a paper that proposes a solution to imporve the intent.

so i.e. my data set has social influence and self efficacy as highest influence, so i have to write a paper that would influence people on these two factors. and i get to come up with anything i want, with unlimited funds/time/people, but i have to base it on real theory.

the philosophy is not as interesting to me but its easier. its 3 questions, with some subquestions, regarding the material that we read, mostly dealing with modern/postmodern thought, wittgenstein, lyotard, habermas.

it looks like it started to rain again. boo!

next week i got NO classes except for french and chinese on tuesday and monday (in the evening), and on friday, philosophy (the paper is due). the psych paper is due a week later. and both this and next week i have wed/thursday with NO classes!

rooooadtrippp!

or rather, train trip.

speaking of trips, simon also bought a ticket to rome, so now its jennifer, me, simon, david. awesomness!

i gotta run, i wanna go into a dept store and get stockings and an umbrella.

have a great weekend everyone! i sure hope i will.

date: 1096292757

mood: pensive
listening to:crystal method – bad stone (live)

“Photographers start as ‘assistants’, who do anything that needs doing, carrying gear, painting walls, sweeping floors, making tea, chasing up deliveries, fetching sandwiches – and they may occasionally touch a camera, if only to load or unload film. As they gain experience they can expect to do more of the actual lighting and photography.

As well as making everything run smoothly, assistants are also learning in a practical manner how the job is done. Permanent assistants are often allowed (if not expected) to make use of the facilities to develop their own skills and build their own portfolios when not working on a job, and eventually may be able to take on small jobs themselves using the studio facilities before they branch out as photographers in their own right.

Assistants are usually poorly paid, the hours are long and unpredictable, and work is generally hard to find. Most hirings are on a short term basis and if you don’t fit in and pull your weight you will not get work again. Until you have experience it is hard to get work at all – you may have to start with unpaid ‘work experience’. A good ‘book’ (portfolio of work), a good interview manner and tons of persistence are needed.”

all the showing of my photographs to people who i’ve never met before (and who therefore have no preconceptions of who i am and what i do) made me think of photography and my future.

i’ve gotten the question of “you study this, right?” from each person.

i’ve gotten the question of “so why don’t you work in this” from at least 2 people.

i don’t know.

obviously i want and will finish my higher degree first.

but i also want to do masters.

and i also really, really, REALLY like photography, as much as i am disappointed by what i’m doing lately. is it good to not like what you do and push yourself further? or perhaps i’ve exauhsted what i can do and now i’m running over the same track – and that’s why i don’t like what i do, as i’m not doing anything creative and new?

blah.

i selected images for an updated portfolio. i have around 160 images + what i already have up online. the selection doesn’t include many photographs that i’d like to have there but can’t find originals on harddrive and too lazy to dig through cds (i don’t think i even have the cds with me). regardless, 168 is too much, but the photographs that are there i feel well represent the diversity of what i have done (and where i have been) over the past 2 years.
its beside the fact i only REALLY like, like, 4 photos. i can’t have just 4 photos online. i want my portfolio to promote me well.

the hard part is organizing these images into categories.

which brings me back to the original paragraph, taken from How to become a photographer. do i really want to seperate my photographs into art and commercial? because according to that link it wouldn’t be even art and commercial, but like art and advertising, since all my “commercial” work is for advertising (humane society, soil products, dance teams).

and if i don’t (or even if i do) make that seperation, what do i do next? should i stick with my “themes” of visuality (reflections, structure), or switch to dates (like seasons?) or … what? subject matter ala deviantart?

most photographs can be stuffed into folders like “denver”, “cuba”, “toronto”, “london”, “paris”, “amsterdam”. does that mean that’s what i should go with? but it doesn’t accurately reflect the purpose of each photograph.

what does then?

i don’t know.

if you want to see the (roughly, plus minus 10 images) selection please click view this folder. damn,i just realized paris, denver, and amsterdam aren’t there. well, add another 100 images to that (denver has like 70 photographs that i like!)

date: 1096315002

mood:
listening to:

hey hey.
update for today will be short. i tis 10 to 10pm, i stlil have a 30 minute walk home, and there really isn’t anything funny to update.

quotes from today’s chinese class:

“olya, do you drink”
“drink… *confused face* drink? yes, drink”
“so, drinkdrinkdrink – i take it you drink a lot?”

(in chinese to say yes to a question you use the verb)

*in next door room very loud noise, french movie or something*
*he walks up to the door to the next room and VERY loudly goes*
“AS I WAS SAYING, THE PRONOUNCIATION OF THIS CHARACTER IS LI, YES, LI

*practicing numbers – from 1 to 10*
he says the number in chinese or english and you say it in the other one. we only did 1,2,3 at this point:
him – person
yi – one
san – three
two – er
one – yi
er – two
three – san
one – yi
yi – one
er – two
two – er
san – three
three thousnd six hundred and five – *?@$#@*

also, practicing numbers: he is asking people which floor their bed is on (presumably won’t be more than 3, considering the architecture in europe – my guesthouse is the tallest building all around, but he doesn’t know that!) – asks first girl, second girl.. yi, er, er, asks me..

i look at him, and raise 5 fingers
he just grabs his head and sits down “aah this is impossible”

practicing pronounciation of new words:
“dutch laugh at chinese and say that they don’t have the sound R! well, yes, we DO have that sound, it is just it is pronounced differently – now if you look at symbol “er” …”

i just think its funny cause, its not r if you pronounce it differently.

…

i got nothing.

date: 1096561491

mood:
listening to:pink floyd – another brick in the wall

i dont have time to write an entry. last 2 days uneventful but i’ll write more … err, later. sometime.

i’m leaving tomorrow to paris with half of the floor. we’re going by car.

i miss all of you. happy birthday to those who shall remain nameless.

i love 50 1.8.

diaries coming soon.

date: 1097251579

mood: pensive
listening to:swish – better believe (its a 40 minute file i have, with all the good songs)

wow, entry.

alright. so it is 6:26am, and you’re about to feel very miserable for me. i’m awake cause i have the flu (i believe), and the cough has been waking me up, so i made some of the strong canadian lemon medicinal tea.

i haven’t written a proper entry in days, so while i’m gulping the tea, i grabbed my laptop to attempt to form osmething coherent. considering the state i’m in, forgive me if its not as coherent as my other entries. :)

alright, so fun stuffs! last week has been awesome, if only for the fact that nothing changed. life is still amazing and crazy. i feel like the floor has grown even closer, and even more like a family we are finding out eachothers likes, dislikes, annoyances and such.

we now have a sign in the kitchen that says”isn’t it NICE to cook in a CLEAN kitchen”. mirjam spent her time to clean off the kitchen stove from all the junk/stains that formed on it over the previous week(s). judging by the results right now, the sign is working – even though people dont REALLY care (based on what i am overhearing).
in the similar vein of things, we now answer the phone with “fifth floor, hello”, cause we’re getting SO many calls. really popular place, seriously.

a few days ago it was full moon and we were in the dining room, watching tv, eating, you know, the usual things that people do around here at 12 (i.e. not being asleep). as simon pointed out it is full moon, the tower clock starts chiming 12, and chris just went “awoooo” and started very well mimicking being a werewolf. i mean, my description doesn’t do it justice – really, it should have been filmed! – but he was jumping around the balcony clawing at hte window and then ran into the living room and with the very image of werewolfness lifted up a chair and went “arrrrrgh”. we were dying from laughter!

when i went shopping a few days ago, i went in the car (well with thomas, HE went with the car, i came along), and when we got to the shopping centre he took a cart, so i ended up buying a LOAD of supplies – about twice more than usual, causae usually i carry everything by hand. but the best part of that shopping trip was going into a house and home type of place, and getting a BASKET, which is not nearly as cool as the ones i have at home, but is saving my butt with storing all my wires, harddrives, cd drives, usb boxes, and such. i also got candles (4 in a box, and one big black one), an umbrella (funny, i didn’t get one until now, but i have NO umbrella!), and a BOWL. it is light blue, made of glass, and makes me happy. the previous one got cracked cause it was made out of plastic and its highly tasteful acid green color made sure everyone used it. the screwy thing is that i have this awesome cereal i bought in the same trip (quauker apple musli – it was on sale! i now look at this stuff! do you?), and i have milk BUT my throat hurts so i’m not should be eating cereal with milk. arrgh.

another weird dutch thing: i can’t find my favourite antipersperant here – secret. in toronto we have like a cubic metre of the stuff on the shelves. here? not a SINGLE one! it kinda sucks, i mean, i’m not that brand loyal, but i’ve been using it for 9 years with maybe two interruptions by force and not choice! weird.

generally, i’m getting used to shopping here. while pretty much everything is different, i am figuring out what goes (pretty much everything, as i’m not spending more than 1 euro/trip on things like cookies, and i never had more than 1 trip in 5 days), and what goes better. unfortunately, the cheaper and easier food, PASTA, is also unhealthy, and i’m feeling like i’m not really living a very healthy life style. i would prefer buying more meat and vegetables, but its kinda expensive. not that that stops me, but you know, its still a limiter!

paste from a saved file:
“okay, this is so shocking.
i’m typing my philosophy paper on my laptop, thomas sees me typing, and we exchange a few words about how fast we type. i say that why doesn’t he type just as fast.

so… yeah.

apparently in his faculty ALL papers are handed in written by HAND.

this is due to the fact that the education is free in france, and therefore it is not possible to assume that everyone will have a computer.

he said he doesn’t have a computer just for him at home. *shakes head* that’s i guess can be considered normal, not EVERYONE has that, but seriously.

he had NEVER handed in a paper that is typed.

i cannot get over that. like, at all. i guess it is the difference between continents and cultures… at least their higher education is free! ”

okay, i hope the quoted paragraph shocked you as much as it did me. they hand in PAPERS BY HAND. at least here its normal – my philosophy paper was to be handed in digitally:

“so… i’m in thomas’ car, we drove up to my school so that i can quickly check my email and HAND IN MY FIRST PAPER. first as in my first philosophy paper, and first as in my first paper here and first as in first assignment handed in here.”

except i never finished typing that entry either: after coming home, we packed and went to paris!

alas, i finished my tea and feel drowsy (as promised by the warning). it is 6:55 (AM, argh), and i will go back to sleep. needless to say, no classes yseterday or today – no chinese, no philosophy, no french. to my utter amazement, that doesn’t make me happy (the way it would in toronto – or maybe its hindsight which is blind and i’m like that in toronto).

stupid discovery advertising internet. and a thingie for making dips (www.telsell.com) and milkshakes (gosh, i haven’t had those in a month), and avocado (i want my special sandwich with the shrimp).

okay. i’ll continue writing this .. today, when i wake up. hopefully, long time from now.

yeah, okay. so i’m a liar. i didn’t finish the entry when i woke up… problem is, that i don’t have wacky stories to write anymore. we have this nice, abnormal routine for the past 2 weeks, as i had no classes (with the exception of chinese and french) last week, and this week i missed all my classes up until my philosophy on FRIDAY (just finished), because i felt sick. the worst thing is that after getting to this class i feel sick again.

ah, yeah, so the routine.

wake up around … 12? 2? somewhere there. stumble to living room. see people hangning out. make breakfast (if i didn’t feel sick), eggs/cereal/oatmeal/sandwich, eat it. do one of the following:

• clean room
• watch tv
• play sims (guilty pleasures)
• study one of the courses
• go shopping for food
• talk to people
• try to fix jerome’s computer
• help people with their homework
• whine to people about my own homework

then, leave to class (if monday/tuesday), or eat dinner. hte nice thing lately is that more often than not someone else cooks for me – of course i return the favour, but it is very nice nevertheless.

back in the vein of lack of computer literacy and generally technology.

dutch have this most screwed up system, called chipknip.

first english google result will give you a page from maastricht university (unimaas), which makes sense, cause they use the stupid system everywhere, and as lately it is highly relevant to my life, i must rant to you about it ;) (and you get another insight into the dutch system). basically, since i dont have a dutch bank account, i must buy a card from the university which costs 30 euros, and i get 10 euros back when i return the card, and i get 20 euros on it. using a machine, i must transfer money from that card onto my UCM card.
after transferring money to the machine, i am able to print, get tea/coffee/snacks from the machines here, make phonecalls, basically, have a productive healthy life as a dutch student.
however, the machines which you use to pay for hte products, are all in dutch, despite the university being english based, and they have very sensitive, precise, and picky regarding when you take the card out. so if you take it in the wrong millisecond you lose all the money on the card.

point being i almost lost all my money twice, and today i wasn’t that lucky, so i lost 4 euros. (6 were spent on printing). apparently everyone goes through that, including dutch students (a girl i’ve spoken to said she lost 5 euros twice). so i will transfer very little amts of money onto my ucm card, use that and use the rechargable chipknip to only transfer money to ucm, in order to avoid losing all my money, again.

anyway. that’s my rant. its annoying.

not end of story though.

so, wednesday night, thomas asked me for help with computers. granted, i still felt sick, but basically what he proposed is that he drives me to the library, i help him print out his law case he needs to study, and my benefit is that i get to email everyone letting them know i’m alright, check my email, and not have to walk/bike as he’d drive me.

so, we came to the library. it was really funny seeing how he got mad at the machine (computer), i snatch the mouse, click 3 times (well, not randomly), and then go to pick up the print out. (or something like that… heh, there is of course hte chipknip, which ate my money, but then returned it). i dont know, i feel like a computer genius. but then again, i looked at his law paper, and man, i will never get that. even with his imperfect english his law writing is just amazing.

the differences between all the people on our floor are starting to come through, in an interesting way. most people came out of their shells, and we have formed a joking stereotype about pretty much everyone. the funniest and easiest going is chris. we call him papppaaa (with italian accent), and he generally always jokes with everyone, and is very easy going (pretending to get mad very often of course, but it is still nice because he is equally cool with making fun of other people and people making fun of him).

aphrodita is the most studious one. her and mirjam always go to sleep earliest, and are the ones who are annoyed by jerome, sandra, + co playing soccer/flying dish in the hallways.

me and simon do the dishes most often.

david is the scottish guy with the whiskey and potatoes.

aphrodita has the nice shoes.

sandra has the spanish friends who all come to the floor and cook cool foods (for themselves but still)

jerome makes omelets (which i dont really like cause he burns them on purpose!)

francesca cooks pasta and doesn’t eat wheat but still makes awesome sauces

chris mooches food off other people but is a great cook himself

thomas gotten the reputation of making me dinner (cause for past 2 days he was seen preparing food for both of us while i was correcting his law paper, mwahahahaha, he was made fun of ;) )

in canada when we want to show that someone is a doormat, we make this whip sound. here they make the “good doggy” and pet the head gesture.

anyway.

i think its enough goodness for you. i’ll write abt people more.

now the fun stuff:

photos

amsterdam snapshots
paris art photographs
photos of my changed room and new shoes
group photo, 1
group photo, 2

Le fin. The end.

date: 1097334122

mood:
listening to:

i’m not sure if it is good to have many short updates, with no real content, or what.

so, i think i might have bronchitis. i might have picked it up from francesca. chris possibly has the same thing – we discussed it last night while we went out together.

last night, after going home (late! 8pm!), ate dinner (penne with some interesting sauce), drank lotsa tea, then went out – highlander, where i found a computer with internet – shame it is a bar, where i can’t really sit down, nor i’m sure if i’m allowed to actually use the computer, then shamrock, where we had a beer and i watched some foosball, then de alla where really sucky music was playing most of the night. we left around 3am, came home, had our traditional midnight (well, late night) snack/tea (yay for twinnings earl grey – i have 1-2 packets left, booya, can’t find good teas here, or they are REALLY expensive!), watched the live presidential debate (4 am! ouch!), than sleep.

woke up at 1, had coffee, read slashdot (saved articles), had some eggs (nothing else to eat, shopping tomorrow), then went to the library. to study. except i have a feeling they are closing in 5 minutes. which means i shouldn’t even bother beignning studying. except people don’t seem to be leaving, even though 10 minutes ago this computer had a message that the library is closing in 10 minutes. i thought its closing at 6, and its only 5… anyway, after i finish this entry i’ll start studying.

kev pointed out last entry that even regular is not regular. it is very true – every single mundane thing still shocks me with its unmundanity. that’s exactly what i was trying to point out in my previous entry, that i cannot find things as shocking as they used to be, and yet each mornign when i open the SHARED fridge, or brush my teeth in the sink in my room, or take a shower in the SHARED shower, or watch european tv with 6 different languages spread among 20 channels, or go outside to see the bike lanes and the bike shed, or simply hear the vast internationality that is on my floor, i am very acutely reminded that i am infact not in canada, not anywhere where i expected to be 5 months ago.

the library is very quiet – the air conditioning went off. but people are still here. i don’t really get it…

someone told me that they expected an entry about paris, and i realized i haven’t said anything about my *2* trips there! shame on me. i will make an honest effort to finish my paper tonight, and THEN, IF i have time, i shall type something up. however, to summarize, it was FUN.

okay. i guess that’s as many things as i could think of to say here. have a great weekend and wish me luck with my psychology paper!