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)!