date: 1097522835

mood: sick
listening to:

saturday

wake up
eat breakfast
etc etc, blog from library
study for an hour
attempt to print – 5 minute before closing, timer shuts it off
download file from wireless
come home, 6:30, study until 1:30, with an almost 2 hour break to talk to parents and then maha. best moment of the week, seriously.
ate potatoes (breathed hot potatoe air) with eggs. completely ran out of products: tomorrow morning its cheese or oatmeal :)
continued studying until 1:30, wrote half of paper, with plan for the next half.
went to living room, watched drunk people finish their drinking game. francesca got drunk first. sandra n eeds very little to get drunk
-> water given to francesca who fell … erm … sick…
-> russian games explained
-> apparently drinking games aren’t fun if you’re not there from beginnig, not that i care
-> 2:30 – go sleep. set alarm for 7:30, to start writing paper, again.

woke up at 8. had small breakfast. went to write paper. finished at 4, went to library, printed, met holgar who i take bus to french with and who is also in soc sci

found out can’t hand in paper in the afternoon, only monday morning at 8:30

gave paper to holgar for him to hand in

talked ot him – he has computer laptop – i offered he borrows my laptop for the night so he can finish his paper

go home

at home: get completely and utterly sick, again. fall asleep very early. wake up at 11, give laptop to holgar, go back to sleep.

wake up at 6 from disaterous throat pain, to the point where i can’t speak or swallow anything. thirsty like hell – drink a tiny can of coke cause thats all the energy i have to get – its on my window shield.

at 6:30 after giving up on the battery actually working, feel the battery turning on. feel warm and fall asleep.

11 – tom wakes me up, asks if i want to go shopping. i say yes. wake up. drink, with huge pain tea. go back to my room, fall asleep. at 12, tom leaves to shopping with a list of what i want (written by me). i go back to sleep.

1 – tom comes back, i eat nutella sandwich, ham/cheese sandiwch, grapes. he bought medicine: against throat pain, that plainly numbs the area on which the tablet lies – so in this case, its back of my tongue as well, and some strong painkillers, ibuprofen 400.

2 – i take medicine, get laptop back from holgar, feel happy and mellow due to no pain and generally no feelings. hate the feeling of numbness, i prefer feeling something!

2-6: talk to mirjam cause she is moving to a different building tomorrow. borrow her my old coolpix, explain how to use it, talk about her family, generally have awesome bonding time. sucks that she’s leaving!
i’m not giving her my camera, juts borrowing for a few weeks so that she cna try if photography is for her.

6: help tom finish his law paper.
6:10: take shower
6:20: burn chinese cds, dry hair, dress
6:45: leave with tom who’s driving me cause i’m too sick to bike or take bus. he will pick me up at 9:30, which is in 6 minutes.

go to chinese, spend 2 hours on tylenol, redbull. fun! yeah.

now to go home. tomorrow: 6 hours of classes. i’m chairing 2 hours of those! have to read 30 pages for tomorrow! and then go to the other side of the river for french.

here is what i typed earlier:

the tv brings people together. i’m sitting in the living room, hopped up on painkillers of various kinds, eating grapes to get some vitamins. rammstein’s “amerika” video comes on – if you haven’t seen it accidentally, don’t really bother to d/l it, but it basically displays the influence of americanized culture on the world (a muslim bowing to the smoke stacks, tibetians eating macdonalds, chinese guy on a motorbike). the whole floor joins in for this song.
also “follow me” or “come to me”, i’m not sure. the video displays a whole bunch of half naked girls exercizing to this really awesome dance tune, so obviously all of the guy population of the floor gathers to drool and listen to the song when it starts playing.

tomorrow, i will be online between my classes.

time for a new poll! apparnetly most people are liars according to the last poll.

date: 1097588098

mood: sick.
listening to:

mirjam is moving today.

i had 4 hours of classes. i was chair of a very unproductive pbl discussion.

in the end after everything everything my prof mentioned this quote by nietzsche, and i immedeately thought how perfect it is for photography, as an artist.

But in the smallest and greatest happiness there is always one thing that makes it happiness: the power of forgetting, or, in more learned phrase, the capacity of feeling ‘unhistorically’ throughout its duration. One who cannot leave himself behind on the threshold of the moment and forget the past, who cannot stand on a single point, like a goddess of victory, without fear or giddiness, will never know what happiness is, and, worse still, will never do anything to make others happy.

-Nietzsche, from The Use and Abuse of History

anyway. i have 2 more hours of classes today. i had 2 trachitol to freeze my throat (and some mouth incidentally) from pain, one 400mg ibuprofen, and one can of red bull to make sure i’m on my feet.

i quickly googled trachitol, and asked my prof for some translation. here is the list of ingridients:
lidocaine hydrochloride-1-wate r / aluminiumkaliumsulfa at 12-water / propylparahydroxyben zoaat / pepermunt olie / sorbitol / magnesiumstearaat / paraffine, vloeibaar /

i only googled lidocaine, and its a numbing agent.

by the way:
ibuprofen (advil, hinthint): “Prolonged use can cause gastrointestinal problems, even liver failure. If you’re taking ibuprofen consistently, talk to your doctor. You can be monitored for problems. ”

okay. quick summary of the day so far and i’m off to home.
woke up at 6 (again) from thirst. drank warm water that i put on my bed stand from night before. went back to sleep. woke up at 9, with a killer headache (and other joys of being sick, like nausea, weakness). took the pink pill, made tea, studied, made sure to hit my head twice against stuff (honestly, i’m so freaking clumsy! i’m sick, so its not helping, but argh, bumping into stuff full speed when you have a headache is sooo unconductive to good mood, especially in the morning), borrowed francesca’s bike and ran to lecture after realizing ishouldn’t miss it as its important, and relevant to the discussion which i’m supposed to chair.

2 hours class, 30 min break – i review for my discussion, drink my red bull, then 1 hour discussion, with prof greately assisting me. now its done, i write this and i’m off to home, where i’m going to go with thomas who is driving mirjam to her new home on the other side of the river, and dropping me off next to my faculty (i hope). and then, the joys of joys, 2 more hours of classes (french), and then i wait 30 minutes for bus and come home.

*groan*

i want to get better. i want to sleep. but i really can’t miss any more work, and i can’t just do nothing, and i’m sick and tired of feeling so numb from the painkillers – at least i’m on my feet, but goddamnit, i want my body to obey me and stop being so weak, and sick, and ARGH.

it is very good that everyone are so understanding (while being slightly sceptic of the fac ti’m still sick, but i dont blame them), and are willing to help as muhc as they can.

if i don’t get better tomorrow… i will… i wil… …

i don’t know what i’ll do, but it’ll be something bad! like chips. mmm, chips.

date: 1098132777

mood: happy
listening to:

wow, so many things happened in the past weekend (and not the week). let me attempt to piece them together:

the last thing from the disease that i have, is this horrible, horrible cough, and im sniffling a bit, but i’m actually finally feeling BETTER. today was day one without any painkillers! it is scary – i was sick for basically almost 2 weeks (if you don’t count coughing right now as being sick), to the point where i couldn’t function properly. kinda sucks, missed basically 2 weeks of stuffs. however, the good thing is that i bonded closer with everyone, cause its like … you know, people become closer when they are sick.

anyway. exciting stuff!
friday, despite feeling better, i stayed home in the evening, as i still felt worried that i would be sick. however, the more important thing is that instead of staying online for 5-6-7 hours like i did for the past few weeks, i left pretty much right after my philosophy class (i really will be glad when the course is over – it is interesting, but honestly, i find it way too difficult. i don’t see the point of people being so … smart. i mean, it is great, interesting, but when i’m graded for it – yuck! i think this applies to many things. hmm… maybe i should CONTEMPLATE that! */sarcasm*) to finally talk to the russian prof that i think i’ve mentioned before.

so here’s the deal. i am 100% sure that the credits that i will get for ANY of the courses that i am currently taking or will take here will be completely, totally, useless. like, 0 use. none. because philosophy, is well, philosophy, languages will not count towards my degree at ALL (like, i’m not even getting an abstract credit for them), psychology is one level below what i need (i made sure with the prof here and the prof in toronto – i stand no chance), and i highly doubt that “european miracle” or “the presence of art” qualify as courses relevant to my degrees.
therefore, in no fear to load on more work, i seeked out a russian prof here, who apparently does research in machine learning. we set out to meet – 2 weeks ago – but i was sick.

so, on friday, after a 2 week delay (with explanation of course, but i was not surprised to find out he was skeptic), i went to his office. i will be assisting him on a project! it involves decision trees, programming in java, and “Version-Space Support Vector Machines”. which tells you nothing, but honestly, i ain’t going to try and explain it here. i am extremely enthusiastic about it – i’d rather work on that or any of my other courses, and the fact that it is actually highly and perfectly relevant to what i study is just a great bonus on top of the fact that it is INTERESTING.

anyway, after talking to him, getting a lot of cool stuff to read, i went out into – the pouring rain.

yes, netherlands is finally showing its real face. i forgot the umbrella at home (you kidding me? it hasn’t rained once in the week i stayed home! the week before that i don’t remember, but MAYBE it was once or twice…), and being the genius that i am, didn’t have a jacket with a hood.

so i set out to search for a store with a cheap umbrella. instead i have found that:
-> rain didn’t stop
-> a great truck with some vietnamese snacks which was DELICIOUS – 1.50 for two crunchy rolls with sweet sauce, and very hot, perfect for this weather.
-> a store with an expensive umbrella (12 euros), and a 12 year old golden retriever who was SO friendly
-> a store with a LOT of cheap stuff and no umbrellas (as i found out after bringing 6 euros worth of stuff to the counter, talk about shopping by proxy: i FINALLY got 2 cheap kitchen knifes for our kitchen, which aren’t falling apart. of course it is a matter of time before they do, considering the fact that we only have 4 knifes for 11 people… and we all cook things that, surprise surprise, require cutting. not sure what the guesthouse was thinking on this one…, also some hooks for the wall, as well as a cup for my pens/pencils (30 cents, yeah!), and some socks. socks are always useful.)

after visiting the last store i realized that it is pointless for me to try and find a store with an umbrella as i don’t see any more stores – only bars which i didn’t really want to sit in alone, even to drink tea. therefore, since i didn’t want to get sick, i treated myself to a cab ride home – except, the treat turned out to be very reasonable and pretty much as expensive as the bus, and DEFINITELY worth it, considering i am still .. sick … ish.

after coming home, i did a bunch of reading (of interesting materials that i quickly downloaded after the class), and basically stayed home, as i said before. i think i cooked – and i think it was GREAT. yes, i am now a fantastic cook. everybody says so. and i’m not even sure WHY, but … it works.

saturday i woke up way too late for my own good, vaguely attempted to study for most the day, did laundry (that is an exciting event with a rare rate of occurrence: this time it was blacks and blues which transferred into blacks and dark colors. i bought detergent, as the free one that comes with the coin that you get at the guesthouse has bleach sparkles in it and i kind of prefer my black clothes to stay black). i also used the FREE dried to dry my bed sheets and towels – the experiment succeeded and nothing broke. i am very happy.

saturday evening i hung around being very unproductive (more reading of slashdot, watching tv, eating unhealthy snacks), until my unproductivity reached critical point and i had to do something SO unproductive that it would become productive – in this case, it was going out dancing! i went with francesca, sandra (the spanish girl) and chris. it was exciting, in the sense that i haven’t went out in about forever (2 weeks seems like that here), and that i felt up to the task of going out. we left around 12:30-1, went to twee haren where we had 2 beers (we walked there, it was easy: and yes, i wore 5 layers of clothes, with 2 of them being sweaters, 1 being a thing sweater, one a shirt, and the last one a nice jacket. i looked like a snowman, but seriously, i could care less, i’d rather be healthy), then to de allah, where i sacrificed a euro for the sake of putting all my layers (almost all, except the thing sweater) int he upstairs wardrobe. we danced for about 2 hours – the music became very … bad … here nowadays. very rarely there is a song that i REALLY like, and usually it is stuff that is too cheesy for my taste. next time we’ll try something else.

anyway, we left around 3-3:30, and again there was a line up to get in. it feels SO nice to leave a club and see this crowd of people trying to get in… you feel like … you are elite (1337) for some reason.

anyway. took a cab home – 7-8 euros, we took it from a further point. chris and i were for taking a cab home, francesca and sandra really wanted to stay for more dancing, but i just said “you can stay, but i must go because i am tired and don’t want to feel sick”, chris agreed with me, and they just kinda tagged along. for 2e/person, it is really very nice to have a quick ride home… it is like a beer, and saves so much cold after leaving the club!

came home, fell asleep.

sunday: woke up early, around 10-11. why? because sunday i planned to go with mirjam to liege to do some shopping in the market there!

woke up, had quick breakfast, took the bus to the train station. met mirjam there – her and her estonian friend also came along. we went to liege (7 euros return!). walked around the city until we found the place where the market USED to be – i asked a woman (oh! oh! it is BELGIUM! so it is in french! so i spoke french and EVEN got to assist/correct her friend in french cause i speak better! it is so exciting – english, russian, french, i feel very … much as an exchange students) when did it close, she said it closes at 1 on sundays and it starts at 8am.

supposedly the market is VERY cheap, so next sunday mirjam and i planned to go there again.

after walking some more, and finding everything but bars which were too expensive food wise closed, her friend had some french fries (which were tolerably okay, not great) and i had a tea (LIPTON!) before we jetted back to the train station to make the next train to maastricht. we made it, even with the fact that we stopped in the only convenience store that i saw open on the way, where i found the holy grail of them all:

a 100 bag box of lipton. i bought that, a box of matches (for my mom), and two bars of belium chocolate (which are great by the way – i am quietly eating away at them over the past day).

the trains are great. remind me of russia. the sound, the fact we ate peanuts and drank juice on the way to liege was awesome, like in russia, when you board and pretty much right away start eating…

liege gave me the impression of being dirty, high in crime. it was raining, cloudy, and despite a HUGE carnival on the main road, 5 steps to the side and i didn’t feel comfortable (not unsafe, just uncomfortable). shoes are nice.

so, checkmarks next to france and belgium.

after arriving home, thomas picked me up (wohoo! i still don’t have a bike, and couldn’t buy one at the train station as the guy wasn’t there), drove me home. mirjam’s friend went to den hague, where she studies, and mirjam went home as well. i will see her again on tuesday after my french class.

at home, i studied for a bit, again read more fun stuff. then went to have dinner with francesca, julien, simon and nicolas at the C building (building next to ours, also part of guesthouse). nicolas cooked real italian pasta with some interesting tomato based sauce. i brought grapes for desert, simon brought wine, francesca brought some pasta, not sure what julien brought… anyway, it was fun. the floor is very italian. out of 16 people 10 are italian… heh. jennifer, the scottish girl who i am going to rome with (did i mention she is cool? she is COOL!) also lives there – she laughs about “what were they thinking when doing the placement!”.

italians really DO talk with their hands. hehe.

came home and pretty much right away went out with simon, andy (american) and … another guy whos name i can’t remember and who is german. they are part of simon’s study group. we just went to a nearby pub for a beer – so came home in an hour, around 12:30. ended up standing outside and just chatting for about 15 more minutes – great people, but the american swears a lot!

came home, watched tv for a while, then went to sleep.

monday!

woke up early. studied philosophy (arendt, labour, work and action), and chinese (for a little bit) for the whole day. took a shower and ran to class.

ah, but i missed a very important part. i am going to switzerland! (very likely) this week! thursday to sunday (or monday). with simon. he is going there to see his girlfriend, i am going there at the great chance to see the alps, bern, and generally surrounding areas. wooohoo!

and next month i’m going to rome.

all i have to do is organize a trip to germany and denmark and i would have covered everything! of course the more the merrier, but … still, i feelt very happy, i made friends, i am/have travelled, i am studying okay, my language courses are fun, i haven’t died of hunger or eating junk food yet, my room is cosy and clean… you know. i can survive in a new country where i don’t know anyone. it feels like a nice accomplishment.

and finally.
quotes from chinese class:

“next class i will teach you how to send a package. of course almost nowadays no one mails letters anymore, but pakcages are useful. bombs for example!” *astonished silence from the class*

“i have a hard time buying pants here but an easy time buying pants in hong kong, because here they are always too long”

that’s it. no photos, this time around. no emails either – sawwy, when stuff happens i dont have the time and when stuff doesn’t happen i just want to vegetate. at least ya’ll getting a comprehensive update ;)

plans for this week:
tuesday: philosophy x 2, say i’m gone friday, french (yikes, i missed 2 classes in a row), mirjam dinner.
wednesday: psychology. say i’m gone friday.
thursday: 8-9 hour train ride (homework time), swizterland
friday, saturday: yay, swiss alps
sunday/monday: ride back

and next monday is a week from now so i don’t know what will happen.

YAY for being healthy(er)!

date: 1098281500

mood: totally hyper on redbull
listening to:mythos n dj cosmos – don’t smile (tim thaller theme)/george thordgood – bad to the bone

okay.
tuesday:
woke up (too) early. washed dishes (yuck), not all, i’m annoyed with people who hadn’t washed their dishes in 2 days, so i kinda gave up. the kichen is more often a mess than it is not and honestly it drives me up the wall now, but i can’t even improve it cause when i clean it (like tuesday morning i cleaned the counter) a day later (today morning) it is back to the same old state.

anyway… then i had class, then i came home, quickly ate two sandwiches with this spread of … thing… like, pashtet like thing. tom wrote a quickndirty french presentation for me just in case mine was supposed to be today. which made me late by 4 minutes to a bus that would have taken me to my french class on time.

so i ended up going to the central station, catching a wrong bus to my class, getting off a station later, 5 minutes to class time and no bus that i know going there within the next 20 minutes, giving up hope, some random odd number stopping at the stastion, me quickly checking and seeing its going directly to my stop, jumping on and getting to french on time.

PHEW.

despite missing 2 (maximum) french classes, the class was easy and boring.

after class, i walked to mirjam’s place and had dinner (estoninan: mashed potatoes, some meat/onion sauce, pickles). i brought canned pineapple for desert and watched a new episode of sex and the city with her.

it was AWESOME.

went home… way late. went to sleep after having a cup of tea.

morning wed: woke up, (too) early, went to class.

after class, spoke to my advisor. so next semester i’ll just take one class (plus two language courses), cause it makes my schedule that much better, and i’ll be able to concentrate on my machine learning work that much more. (and travel). so its cool.

then i spent a ridiculous time online, being overly hyper due to a redbull and a nice sandwich (1 euro, w00t). finished all stuff i wanted to do online EXCEPT email.

i have three superlatively long emails from [people who know who you are]. i cant reply to them. i can’t even click reply. its too much of a scroll.

nah, seriously. email is over. i am having so much trouble getting well, writing emails, keeping up with studies, and managing to LIVE here that i have to give up on something. so first i gave up on getting well, so now its the emails that have to go. obviously next step is studies. heh.

anyway… i’m going to go home now. tomorrow i likely leave to bern until sunday. so, no expectations, please. ;)

and, by the way, scarf:

i win.

date: 1098752960

mood:
listening to:

it is 3 am.
i helped julien with his paper. he helped me with mine. i had a cup of tea and unpacked, brushed my teeth and settled in my bed to read some /. articles i had saved for reading.

accidentally clicking a link i find out that

i somehow have internet from my bed

i am not breathing. i pray this stays.

date: 1099011930

mood:
listening to:chicane – saltwater

… is not yet finished.

paper in philosophy due tomorrow (no final exam, just a paper, 5 questions, each worth 2 points).

and a final exam in psychology.

my paper about condom use got a 9. (thats 90% – but they never give 10). i was the only one in class to get 10/10 on my proposed intervention!

i’ll tell you about it more when i’m not trying to read these dense philosophers. argh, so difficult.

everyone else are in a bar, with the exception of sandra and francesca who also have an exam tomorrow. so does simon, but he is out anyway.

everyone else had their last exam today, and david had his on tuesday, so they are rightfully slacking off.

*yawn*

tired.

i’m sorry for no updates; i have no excuse. rest assured, i will write if anything exciting happens, and i will update on the merely a little exciting stuff when i’m not cramming/writing.

date: 1099571370

mood:
listening to:moby and common room sounds

i am keeping point form notes of my days on my computer. they would be boring for you to read i think – just “went there, did this, ate this, went to another place”.

high lights: submitting my philosophy paper at 11:45pm, due time 12.
going out same night until 5am.
going shopping next day.
going out next night until 6am. but realizing its 5 with the rollback! woohoo.

now i’m going to go meet the machine learning prof.

and then french, extra class.

ah yes, and i slept for 3 hours in the common room today cause the prof slept through our 9am meeting time. hehehe.

i been there:

date: 1099661713

mood:
listening to:

friday morning. waking up at 7:30… why? against all reasonable impulses and sanity i decided not to go out last night. i’m still not sure why – any reasonable person would have, as most of my floor has shown. but being the nutso that i am, i went to bed at 1am. and woke up at 7:30.

which gave me plenty of time to shower, and make oladushki, eat them, drink milk on the side, enjoy morning tv (enjoy uses for various values of it). meet simon, who was going ot the fish market to get fresh fish. why fresh fish, you ask? i mean, we are losers, we don’t even have freezers in our friges.

well… a few weeks ago, he lost me on a bet about pratchett’s books. the bet was on a dinner. seeing as simon knows how to make SUSHI, tonight he is making for myself, possibly chris and for others to try. woohoo!

read a bit of my stupid art.

art.

ah yes.

so okay, the class that we have here are based around all of us reading a “task”, which brings questions and ideas to our minds, and thus challenges us to discuss it. after discussing the “task”, we form questions. go home, read the assigned reading, answer questions, and discuss the answers in class.

… in theory anyway …

so first of all, all the freaking tasks for this class are QUOTES. BIG quotes. which are undigestable unless you know what you are talking about, in which case its counter intuitive as you’re not supposed to know what you are talking about!!

second of all, we had almost 100 page (95) of reading assigned on wed. afternoon for friday morning.

how many people did the reading?

well, if we sum up all the reading done in the class, i think we read maybe 40 pages total. that’s including overlaps. yeaah….

so the discussion was great.

this class BETTER improve.

due for next class: 140 pages of reading. at least the next class is on wednesday… and i don’t really plan to cover it all. i’ll read what is intersting. most of it is, thankfully.

anyway… i typed a huge entry and lost it, and my paste turned out to have gotten overwritten with something else. argh. so the above is what i had before, kinda, reworded.

anyway, after class… i typed the entry, twice, downloaded all the articles (as internet seemes to not work anymore. packets can be sent but not received. blah). and now i shall head home with a stop at hairdressers to see if i can afford some moral boosters.

received and replied to emails from parents. my mom got me a bunch of stuff (in india), yayness. can’t wait to see her photos!!

aand to finish off

have a great weekend everyone!

date: 1100194558

mood: barely productive
listening to:my other music off external harddrive, right now russian, cause i miss the language.

it is tuesday “morning”. my sleeping schedule is absolutely messed up.

…

it is thursday. you know your schedule in general is messed up when you had the modblog add entry page open with the above phrase for … 3 days.

yeah, so my sleeping schedule. i fall asleep by 3, wake up by 12. i had an 8:30 class on wednesday, but i STILL went to sleep at 3am, without a day nap or anything.

my most major concern for this week was me spending a massive amount of money as of before this monday. in two weeks i spent [way too much, no numbers]. today, i wrote out all my expenses, neatly, and everything adds up. most of money was spent reasonable, on one time things (bus tickets, text book, stuff like that).

anyway… so my challenge, is to live on my current groceries for another day or two, so that my expenses become more reasonable. except i wanna go shopping and buy TASTY STUFFS. argh.

i have a soy sauce bottle on which it says “made by foodstuffs”. isn’t that neat?

yeah…

i’m 2nd best in my french class. the french guys are asking “why only 2nd!”. i should speak french to them more.

chinese is blaaaah. i should work more.

art class is fun-ish. last class i was praised by prof for an excellent explanation of why duchamps readymades are art/nonart at the same time. (they “blur the line between art and life”). which was nice. i still hate the 8:30 lecture… except the material is interesting.

today was laundry/coding day. i finished my large load of colors, waiting for a drier to free up to dry socks and such, all major stuff (coats, sweatshirts) are hung out on the outside line. as part of my washing i decided to wash the whites in my sink, cause i had very little. proceed to begin, then go to google out of curiousity.

there are a lot of articles describing how to do laundry, and even some that describe how to do it by hand. what i found hilarious was this article

the fact that people who so seriously discuss washing laundry in a tub with a plunger are posting online shocked me. as well as they have a computer and a functioning internet connection, but still wash by hand laundry for their families. “I wash all our things out by hand in the kitchen sink with hot water, using homemade soap. And let me tell you, it sure is nice to have running water!” i am not sure if that was sarcasm on part of poster.

but then i looked at the states.

ohio. oklahoma. florida. kentucky. kansas, tennessee, georgia, texas.

you see anything in common among those of the above?

make your own conclusions…

and no, i’m allowed to do laundry by hand, i scirbbled last spare change to buy the 3 euro laundry token. i’m currently down to exactly 2 euros and 35 cents. tomorrow i shall take money out and buy [a little] food.

the weather is becoming colder… and wetter… and greyer… blaah. maybe that’s why i’m craving nice foods.

au prochain!

date: 1100699159

mood: in pain. tired. happy. missing home.
listening to:construction workers

i am so long overdue for an update, that i feel highly guilty.

…

well, not guilty, just bad since time is flying past so, so, fast. it feels like just yesterday the november was in the single digits…

internet from my room has weakened to the point where i am not sure when i can get it anymore, which is quite a shame. however, tom and jerome got new laptops this weekend, whose wireless reception is much much better than mine. they can catch stuff, so there’s hope for me yet.

lets see… last 5 days.

last post was on thursday.

friday! morning class. i dressed nice! even though it is cold, i still wore my “french” skirt – anyway, it’s called that now because it has been deemed french by julien when he first saw it (way back in september), as well as a hong kong girl who met me after french class and thought i am french (seriously, would i be taking french?). it was nice though.

friday.. well, i remember it being fairly quiet. we went out, but just to highlander, for a few hours. not everyone went. i THINK there was a sangria party, but i also think i was tired that evening so i stayed in my room reading before going out. anyway, friday is inconsequential (although going to highlander is becoming more and more fun, its really like our own place).

saturday is the day i really want to remember! saturday morning was boring, with me waking up far too late, again. the whole day was wildly unproductive, with nearly nothing getting done in any of my courses. i think i cleaned up my room, which is nice – i enjoy being there now, it is cozy and cute, and feels like my own. later in the evening, julien’s three friends from paris came over – well, they were over for the whole weekend, however they spent the time before travelling.

the three guys, whose names i was obviously unable to remember after seeing most of them for the first time in my life (one of them we met in paris, when we went there), lets call ’em paris guy (the one we met, curly haired, has a girlfriend), short haired (tall, shorthaired, very french), and guitarist (curly hair, plays the guitar, is in engineering!). all three of them very nice, friendly, considering they lived on our floor for 3 days, its nice. friday they went out independently with julien.

so, yes, saturday. ate dinner, took shower, successfully missed going out to play pool, but no big loss. went out around 12 to highlander with chris, simon, myself and patricia. there we met sandra and noyla (who went to cologne that day, due to a supposed parade happening there, however as it turned out there was no parade, it was cold, and they were very tired. they tried to persuade other people to go but i successfully resisted their charms! i think for the best; but i do want to go there before i leave europe), julien + 3 friends, francesca, nicolas and aphrodita, and jerome. conspiciously absent: thomas (paris, vising parents), david (out with his friends from eindohven – he came back right as we left, but he was dead tired and didn’t want to go), aaaand that’s all. so, LOTS of people.

ah, yes. fast forward 2 fantastic hours later, a few beers, an AWESOME conversation with kris (that’s how you spell his name! kristian. i keep forgetting!) about russian culture (about guy/girl relationships in russia, sexual “harassment”, general attitudes between the sexes, and general social behavior among those who lived there and live there), and then i grilled him about norwegian society and culture (so. interesting. honestly, its aewsome fun to ask people about their countries and all. with the right questions you can get some awesome information! and personal too!), we finally packed up and went to meta – everyone except jerome who only listens to reggae.

this saturday night was seriously one of the greatest times i went out. i mean, the first time i really danced was great also, but this time it was the same only with more people! everyone were dancing, every single person, and we stayed out until 5:30 am. highlight of the evening: dancing to “i will survive” with this remix version, which had a chorus going in the end “naaana na na na na na, na na na naa na na na na na na” in this melody … erm, yeah, text is superb for transferring the melody names. so to this kinda russian chorus sounding melody we formed a looong cancan like line and we all were throwing our legs up in the air. so a chain of like 10 people, after 2 hours of dancing and 2 hours of bar hopping (we also stopped by the … place that’s decorated with faeries, has neat lighting, and a lot of gaming machines, can’t remember the name). hehehe, it was fantastic. just awesome.

anyway, so we arrived home at 5:30 – that would be me and chris. everyone else – 8 people! – fit into julien’s car and went that way. sandra took my bike (tom’s bike while he’s gone, actually), so i guess we were 11 people total.

upon arrival home, we stayed up until 8:30 (8:30! saw the sunrise! argh, pics are at home). i showed my photographs, people were impressed. it brings such joy to me! the guitarist was in shock “what are you doing studying computer science, do photography!”. he says he works with designers/art designers, and my stuff is better than theirs. w00tw00t. gives me nothing but pride, but that’s also good.

so, yeah. we were drinking french absenth with tea (made on top of the electic plate in a pot, our kettle is broken for like 2 weeks now). francesca made risotto, and they ate at 7 am. nuts!

at 8:30 i went to sleep. woke up at 12:30, woke up chris (who REALLY didn’t feel like getting up, but we arranged the night before to force eachother to wake up), went to the library around 2-3. library: studied chinese, in the sense that i translated a chinese text that i had to. like 6 sentences took me 1.5 hours! aaay! *sigh* i apparently need cantonese and not mandarin in order to speak chinese in downtown toronto, so its completely useless anyway. at least the characters will hopefully come in use!

after library, came home, had a shower, dinner, finished chinese, did some programming. pretty uneventful day.

monday: woke up too late, programmed some, went to chinese.
tuesday: woke up too early, met professor, had a great meeting with him, came home, went shopping for food with tom (yay for aldi + car). came home, prepared for french.

borrowed tom’s bike to go to french.

this is where my luck failed me.

after about 5 minutes on the bike, before even reaching the first interesection (however leaving the parking lot), something happened, the back wheel of the bike locked, and i flew on the ground.

first thought: “i don’t have my laptop with me. PHEW”

next thought: “OW”

big big shock. i fell hard. on my legs, arms, and worst of all, my back, which still hurts. i don’t think its serious, just probably a bruise. but its NOT nice.

what happened is that somehow the brake cable got tangled around the backwheel and thus locked it after spinning around it.

i limped home, kinda carrying the bike. obviously didn’t go to french, which sucks, cause this would make it a 3rd miss and thus i’ll either fail or have to do an extra assignment. i think she will understand though…

anyway. so last night i was in bed for the whole evening, no moving, everything hurts, a complete shock for the first hour.

today, morning, wednesday, 8:30 class, walked to school (ouch). almost fell asleep too many times during lecture. tutorial was okay.

it sucks; lectures are interesting but are toooo damn early.

anyway… typed this long entry to keep up to date.

coming home, helping tom with his paper, helping julien with his paper, helping noyla with her papers (she speaks english very poorly. i’m the only one not getting annoyed, so i help her out a lot. well, i think same goes for chris.). reading my readers for tomorrow’s art group meeting (blah, presentation on friday). possibly cooking very very tasty stuff in order to use supplies before rome.

and, yes!. just 2 more days until rome.

…

*adds 2 and 2*

shoot. and i had the fantastic luck to hurt myself to the point where walking is NOT fun. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

well, i hope i’ll get better soon!
—

quote of the week, from early morning (tuesday) advertising:
“and remember everyone, there is nothing more powerful than the statement the woman makes with her hair!”
– toni pony creator.