my personal timeline

date: 1094545375

mood:
listening to:

morning lecture – booooooooooooring
email checking.
pbl class, late again, was fun.
computer class, boring, checked email.
smirnoff talk
went to meet the computer prof, he is russian (belarus but speaks russian). he does machine learning, and i think i will be working on a project with him while i’m here. i am not in any of his classes, i just volunteered.

walked home, spoke with francesca for a while, left to school at 5 again, checked email, at 6 was dinner.
it was indonesian, and this time i got BURNED.
came home, met pieter on the way.
i again couldn’t have spent any time alone. met francesca with pieter. francesca was upset, she fought (simple misunderstanding) with her friends.

after coming home we all ate potatoes, met miriam (estonian neighbour girl), talked, then we dressed and went out, went to pieter’s home, drank apple liquor, very good (11 euroes for a bottle, im so bringing it back home, we’d all love it), then went out, went to one bar, was fun, (i danced!), drank 2 beers, then went to another bar (around 1am), much better, very crowded as soon as we arrived, i danced more again – it was AWESOME. had 3 beers. francesca’s friends came by, danced more (for a while, until 2:30), then went home (took an hour to get because we all were buzzed), had conversation about genders and women role in society with nicolas on the way home (nicolas is one of the italian guys), then came home at 3:30, now sleep.

date: 1094545407

mood:
listening to:

woke up at 8 (4.5 hours sleep)
went to another lecture. did the mandatory reading and then fell asleep right on the desk (i wisely sat in the last row) by putting my head on my folded arms. they were talking about things completely irrelevant to the exchange students! blah.

then we had some stupid participation class, where everyone felt like we were in kinder garden. “you can only talk when you’re standing up!” … ugh… yeaaaah….

then we went to get coffee and wraps at this cheap, awesome place VERY close to all my classes (woohoo!). it was awesome, we were all talking about different cultures, canadian versus dutch and all that. one guy lived in hong kong for a year, so he compared that too.

then we went to the last pbl class, which was very fun. my highly productive (sarcasm, eh) reading in the morning helped me out a bit as i could honestly said that i read (he asked! hehe) the material. my discussion was mostly bullshit though. aah well.

after the last pbl class, i was at the end of hte last series of lectures, but it was so informal that i just left. they didnt take attendance in the start, and it was all so spread out that… meh, screw it, i suppose. instead i went upstairs, replied/wrote emails, and realized that i’m GOING TO PARIS!! (i also got my schedule).

too tired to type things now as it is 1am, and i have to wake up at 8. fucking hell… i was going to sleep well tonight! ah well, 7 hours better than 4.

i’ll paste info from emails to parents.

after internet, went home, got francesca, immedeately left, went to central station, bought bike.

buying bike:

we approached this moroccan guy, evil looking person. “you sell bikes?” “yeah, how much?”

me: “uhm, 10 euros”
him: “noo, NOOO, 10 euros is insane!! 30 euros!”
us (me and f): “30?!@! you must be insane! 15 euros!!”
him: “15? you will NEVER find 15!!”
f: “my friends got bikes for 15, and other friends got for 10!”
him: “nono, that was before, but not anymore”
me: “we want 2 bikes, do you have another one?” (he was displaying a bike to us, old, brown, *shrug*, nothing special).
him: “yes, yes, lets start walking. so 25?”
us: “25?! nononoooo (f with italian accent “non! non!”), 15 euros”
him + his assistant: (while walking) “15 euros, no, you are crazy, no way. 20, maybe.”
us: “nono, 20 impossible. we are getting 2 bikes!”
them: “okay, 35 for 2 bikes?”
we look at eachother. we walk for a while just thinking. then we kinda nod at eachother at when we reach their little bike corner we go “okay, okay, 35 for two bikes”.

i honestly expected 15 euros, so 17.5 is pretty good.

after testing bikes and figuring out which one is better for our height, we took em and rode home. very nice, fast, easy. bike lanes are nice.

except we didn’t go home. we went to internet, first francesca went for 30 minutes while i sat with the bikes, then i went for 20 minutes while she sat with the bikes. htis is like 7:30 at this point. we ride home, then she says “i need milk, lets go the supermarket”. i go “okay, but it closes soon (at 8), so lets ride fast”. so we ride fast (careful, dont worry, just pushing ourselves on the hills and all. i felt strong! my legs at least. i guess from all the walking…). came to supermarket at 7:50. she got milk, bacon, cheese.

we ride home, make dinner.

i meet estonian girl, miriam, on our floor.
simon, switzerland guy.
they are both shy, but seem to get along with eachother well.

2 french guys who also will live on our floor.

during the evening (we ate pasta, other people nothing, they didnt want), i practiced french with french guys (they said i speak well!!! except i forgot all the vocab. but my grammar is apprently perfect, even though i dont remember it one bit! WOOHOO!), estonian girl was practicing russian with me, french guys, francesca and switzerland guy were praciting english with me, and i was explaining russian to estonian girl and english to everyone else.
yeaah… my brain is fried from all the languages.
but it was really cool to talk french to real french people.
they are from south of france, by the way.

anyway, francesca and pieter went out, mirian and simon went out too, i stayed up a little with the french guys and went to room. cleaned up a bit, prepared stuff i’ll want to pack tomorrow for the paris trip, entered my schedule into the palm, and then retyped entries for past 3 days in case i can email them tomorrow from the laptop.

moral of the story: i had no time alone in my room at all in 3 days. which is what i need to type entries.

date: 1094545445

mood:
listening to:

Trip to Paris
(typed from handwritten notes)

Since I am not taking laptop, the small handy booklet shall be my diary.

Before leaving the computers at UCM, I copied “iParis” from internet, to computer in UCM, to USB key generously provided by Ina, to laptop, and then I beamed it to palm. (All that could have been so much simpler if I just had internet on the laptop and installed the palm program! argh). I am so thankful I did that! It has a map of all Paris metro lines, with corresponding information about each station, which lines intersect at it, and a visual display of the location on the map.
I wil arrive at Gare Nord, via the pricey Thalys train, to quote Rick. Gare Nord est.. I mean, is, (for the unknowing: ‘est’ is ‘is’ in french) on line 5. My subway to hosten is on line 9. So using the program I calculaed the route! It has automatic route calculation, but there are only 6 free ones, so I will save them in case I will need them for an emergency.
I am technically in Belgim now. So far, the trip was fantastaic. At Liege, I got a croissant and a coffee. Even coffee at train stations, is so so nice, that even I can drink it. canadian coffee doesn’t even stand a chance!

I think after Brussles, to which we only arrive in 20 minutes – err, okay, maybe we’re arriving right now… Anyway, I shall go to sleep soon.
I am looking at Rick’s map of Paris. Paris overview. And it is incredible, how walkable it is. I am glad I shall already have a place to stay, and the rest will be fine. If my backpack is too heavy I can through out some of it (soap, toothpast), and wear the rest. [side note: I did not expect the security in the hostel to be good enough for me to leave stuff there!] (3 shirts might be a bit weird but … who cares.) [side note: at this point I had no idea what parisian weather is like, haha].
Anyway, I believe we are now in Brussles, I moved to the window since my neighbour left, and shall look asleep and hope to be left alone. Au revoir!

12:00am
wow. It is now exactly 6pm in Canada, and here it is officially thursday.
Holy shit, tea here is SO expensive! 4 euros! I am jumping between the wish to not do anything b/c even basic stuff is so expensive, and the wish to just forget about the conversion to CAD, and just spend money as I feel necessary.
The tea is lovely though. PERFECTLY sized mug, a fantastic tea bag (its like… special material teabag), and a small kettle with enough water for 2 perfectly sized cups. Considering I am not in the centre though – I just went to a place 2 minutes away from the hotel – it is likely as ridiculously priced in the center.

After arriving into Paris (I glimpsed upon the Eiffel Tower when the train was coming – BTW the speed of the train must have been like 300km/h, it was insanely fast, we passed with ease each and single car on the highway next to us) I went to the hostel, which was seriously too big for me.
I have a room with 2 twin sized beds, and I am alone there. Next time I must bring someone along.

I called dad and left msgs on his work machine, and then I called Luke and agreed to meet in an hour.

[at this point I switched to point form notes because it was late, i was tired, and i wanted to plan what i will be doing tomorrow. so i will retype my impressions from the point form notes]

The metro
The metro is absolutely humongous. I mean, it isn’t shocking, I knew it would be huge, but it is extremely cool to have all these amazing places to go to, and each has a subway station right nearby.
The walkways between the stations (when you transfer from line to line) are tiny. The constrast is like Paris – huge boulevards and tiny streets. Huge metro and tiny walkways.

The Louvre jumped out at me. Luke and I were walking towards the Eiffel tower (I think), and suddenly I see a building, and it says Palace Royal, and Luke says “oh, you definetly know this place”, and for some reason I kept thinking “the palace is versailles” and forgot that it is Louvre as well! So we cross the street, and he tells me it is louvre. That would make it the first thing that I have seen in Paris out of all the famous stuff. I was so surprised, that I had tears, like, I wasn’t crying, but I had many tears in my eyes, because it was just… well, something I expected forever, and suddenly it was here.
We walked around a bit, and the pyramids are fantastic. It was a pleasure to finally see some famous architecture that I studied in art oac, I.M.Pei. I have read so much about the controversy of the pyramids, so it was awesome to finally see them in real life.

Afte rwalking around Louvre (outside) for a bit, we continued to Champes d’Elysees, but it began to RAIN HARD. Of course when I was looking outside it was prefectly sunny so now I didn’t have a jacket, just a little shirt (the triped with white and beige). The street and the Arc looked fantastic, because it was already getting dark, and all the cars had their lights on, so it was extremely pretty. But also very wet. We ran for cover, found some sort of place to eat. Ate, it was too expensive and not that fanstastic. But I was tired, and hungry, so it was good for the time being.

After dinner I insisited that I go to see the Eiffel tower, because I always wanted to see it and I am my first day in Paris and still haven’t seen it.
the epxerience as fantastic. After coming out of the subway, I kept running around, becaues the tower was upposed to be like, right there. So the exit goes into an intersection of 4 streets, and I looked each and every way but I couldn’t find it. So Luke catches up to me, and we figure out which way to go. We follow one of the streets, and suddenly as we round hte corner, the Eiffel Tower, is right there. It was dark, and hte tower was lit up in tiny lights, and it just jumed out, and it was absoutely amazing, it just appeared in front of me. I took a lot of photographs, but I was really missing a tripod. It was absolutely breathtaking, though.

After that, I went home, got tea and wrote this, called home, and then went to sleep.

Next entry will come soon, I have them written, however I have to leave to class and to register for internet! It is 3:05, I shall dress and bike, so I will be there at 3:30, and class is at 4, so I have time.

date: 1094573945

mood:
listening to:

like, man, i never get time when i want it.
thank ya’ll for the comments! :D i figured people will be overwhelemed by the postage, so its cool if you can’t read it all.
i was writing an entry and before i even could start, peter (american guy, from a fairly good family, has apartment here an on the coast of the ocean in belgium, american girlfriend, they’re going to italy in november) sat down and we spent an hour talking about paris, rome, belgium travel, and he invited me to go with him and a bunch of other people to london (i’ll so go, free stay, i’ll just pay for food, and help cook, plus it’ll be fun to go with teenagers – no offence to parents ;)), and then said that i can go with him to belgium, cause his parents have a seperate room to stay in, so this weekend i might see brussels, and brugges and ocean, and stuff!!)

aanyway after that i had my chinese “interview”, but not really cause i dont speak chinese.

i had my philosophy course today, which was awesome fun, its very very very cool and mind bending. i can upload the niestzhe paper that we had to read, its actually quite easy reading and a lot of fun to read.

anyway, i gotta run home. i’m starving, i wanna take a shower, then eat, then peter, me, francesca, another girl, are going out to this thing where people figure out how to travel together to save money. and THEN there’s the 7 sins party, so it’ll be a night out! woohoo!

love you all! i’ll upload pics tomorrow, no classes :D

date: 1094658321

mood:
listening to:hackers – eyes, lips, body

http://www.olya.org/m_photo_aug/
http://www.olya.org/paris/

i read over my entries. i feel tired just thinking about doing the arrival here again! hehe

thank you all for the comments ;)

i made eggs today for the floor. i’m officially the breakfast queen of the floor, everyone loves the omelets i make with eggs (simple, but for them its good).

going out last night wasn’t nearly as fun as it was expected, the money could have been better spent. however spending time with people was fun, so we came home at 4 am, drank tea and went to sleep.

woke up at 11, biked to the store, bought some basic stuff for myself and 3 boxes of eggs (one for me, one for simon who borrowed me some eggs yesterday, and one for the whole floor for this morning). came home, made eggs, let other people wash the dishes for once ;) cause i did all the shopping and the cooking (stole someone’s tomatoe but its okay).

today’s eggs were potatoes (leftover from last night’s dinner, i just fried them), bacon, eggs with tomatoes and onion.

people loved it. it feels awesome to make food that like 6 people finish their plates to the last crumb and ask for more.

i hope all my good habits will stay with me when i get home. i bike 40 minutes each day, i wash dishes at least twice a day, i cook for myself and for others… study thing i’m not that well with, considering that’s what i’m supposed to be doing now =p

tonight, no plans, just going to study here for anohter 2 hours and then go home.

pics are posted, i still have to take photos of my floormates, i’ll upload them as soon as i get them.

oh cool thing, last night’s party was in a church. we were dancing underneath a huge cross with a rock band playing in front of it, with statues of religious figures on the walls. fscking weird, like a movie.

*goes to read social psych*

date: 1094752116

mood: muscles pain
listening to:

alrighty, in no particular order fun stuff

last night, francesca’s bike lock (i.e. my lock that i borrowed her), was stolen.

as in, she has the key, with her, at home. the bike was locked in the shed. after osme time, last evening, the lock disappeared. hte bike is still there. it is a mystery. considering that … well… why the hell would you want a lock with no key?!

had class today at 8:30, too early, woke up at 7:15, ate musli and biked to class. had some internet time beforehand, like 5 minutes, still nice.

stupid dutch system. i could have bought tea/coffee/hot choc/cappucino and/or snacks and drinks from the machines here BUT i have to have money on my chipknip card. to transfer money i need a bank account. i HAVE bank account, but in canada, so to transfer is to pay money. otherwise i gotta open a dutch bank account. can’t buy anything wiht cash.
anyway, we’ll see. i also need the card for printing, soooooooo i’ll be screwed if i dont figure something out in 3 weeks, cause that swhen my first paper (in social psych) is due.

after class i met anto, one of the indonesian people. he is a nice guy, doing his phd here, but as we have nothing in common i think we will not be able to keep up contact. still cool to make random friends in all over the place.

when we went to the food place (one of the 15 that are in 3 minute radio from my classes, and most of them are good and cheap!) i saw a bunch of my floormates, so after having the absolute polite minimum of conversation i excused myself, and went to talk to them.

francesca and i went to the centre to get cellphones and other stuff, the rest went to study.

french guys and francesca are having a hell of a time trying to figure out the difficult english that they are subjected to in classes here. they need to read like 40-60 pages (we have different courses), and are suffering.

me? i’m enjoying it. last night i read my social psych and made notes to discuss today in tutorial. i was one of the most prepared people, bringing up several good points. it is TOO easy, the textbook is FANTASTIC (so easy to read, well written), and after suffering through psych in u of t, here it is pure joy to sit around and talk very nicely about various theories and their effect on our lives. (effect or affect?)

anyway, center. we biked to the centre, locked our bikes, went to find a cellphone for francesca and myself. we walked around at least 5 different stores. she was looking for pretty, i was looking for cheap. after settling on choice between 2 stores, i ran around until i figured out where i get the best combo for prepaid, including timing, rate for sms, rate for talking, etc.

so i got a local cellphone for 35 euros, including 15 euros prepaid. not bad.
the phone sucks, but for 3 months, who cares:

yes, i really do need a cellphone. otherwise we all get lost, and its not like a constant thing, i just need to send an sms once in a while, type of thing.

anyway, after that we walked to bikes, stopping on our way in the euro-store, that’s like dollar store, only in euros. i got a multitude of useful things, a bowl for my cereal (we have one bowl between 12 people and we are all constantly trying to share it, its insane, i want my own), a cool sized tea cup (perfection1!), a rope and some clippers, body wash, soap, a notebook for taking.. err… notes. that’s all really. oh and a candle, cause i miss candles and fire.

so with all of THAT plus my chinese book… oh YEAH i am enrolled in chinese now :D, PLUS my laptop we walked back to bikes (i was dying at this point). we stopped for coffee/cola on the way, cause it was hot and we were dead tired.

after that she realized she got the wrong phone, so we biked back to the place, she exchanged her phone, then we went to phone unlocking place, she left it there to be unlocked so that she can use it with the italian card that she has, and THEN we went back home (this is like 4:30 now).

at home i ate 2 sandiwches with products that i thoughtfully bought for myself :D bread, ham, cheese, lettuce.

theen i went for my french interview.

i was actually quite nervous, cuase i wanted fr3, which is speaking french but no vocab. so i was nervous, cause i didn’t want fr2 (which is for, like, beginners… i dont wanna study all over the freaking verb charts). so i sat with her and spoke with her for a while, about how i love paris and i i went to paris, and i was born in russia, and i live in canada, with my parents, and stuff stuff stuff. she said i’m definetly fr3, and its all cool.

then i went here online, wrote email to parents, and now i am signing off (after checking email again). dinner will be served in like 40 minutes, i wanna get home beforehand to help them!

phew, that was a long one. i think i covered pretty much it all though.

date: 1094830390

mood:
listening to:

ah, so to save myself energy i am going back to typing my diary entries before sleep, that is when i am not dead tired.

after typing that entry and starting to talk to my parents via email and hesi via icq, peter plus julia (sweet, i remembered her name from the first try!! never met her before) stopped by. i was sitting outside with the laptop (you need the student card to enter and *exit* the building, mine doesn’t work for either, so i left when someone else was leaving as well), but they were leaving, and therefore i interrupted my conversations to figure out with them whats happening tonight.

we walked back to the bike stand, through the small courtyard and grass hill (by hill i mean a 4 square meter piece of ground with some soft green grass on it where students hang out when the courtyard is full), down the tiny paved roads. peter has spoken of an even that the student organization of the UCM is organizing for tonight: free entrance and free beer for UCM students.

considering i got my cellphone, i have taken his number and told him that i will sms him regarding my plans and the plans of my floormates. afterthat i biked home, as it was 8:10, dinner at 8:30 (we all jokingly call francesca mama, because she is so protective of the dinner time and her prerogative to cook), i had to get home.

biking home was as always nice and sad at the same time. it is odd, when i come home in the evenings after hanging out online, i always end up going around sunset time, so the sky and surrounding areas are fantastic (especially with the clear weather that we had for the past week!), but since i have just spoken to my friends and parents in canada i feel a bit nostalgic.

is nostalgic even the right word, considering im returning in about 3.5 months? hmmm.

anyway, came home, kinda didn’t help make dinner at all, cleaned up my room very nicely instead. after dinner i got a *horrendous* headache (probably from the bad spanish wine we had… nothing better than french wine, especially if you are living with 3 french people, so remember that!), and just really felt like reading something and not being with people. i gave francesca my phone so that she can activate it and sms her parents that she’s alright, went into my room and began reading my philosophy papers for tomorrow.

i am not sure for how long i was doing that, i took off my watch, so these events happened at some point from 9pm-1:30am.

francesca and thomas came in, took some photos with francesca’s film camera, then thomas brought his canon (cute camera), and i copied photographs from his camera onto my laptop.

before dinner i attempted to take photographs of some people but none of them really wanted to be shot, so i didn’t press it. however thomas’s photographs display life here fairly well:

http://www.olya.org/floormates/
(modified, link inserted. see it doesnt load for me, but it should load for you. let me know)

read the comments for explanations.

anywaaay, after all that i finished reading my philosophy (i have one paper left to read, considering i had 8, i think that’s pretty not bad), i went to the living room/juliens room where we all intermedeately hung out. julien and i spent some time talking about the difficulties that he has with english, and i can see how painful it is for him to not to be able to full express his thoughts. its like… when i was in paris i kept wanting to use verbs other than faire, avoir, penser, but i always had to, to explain to luke where i think we should go, type of thing. anyway, it pained me to be so limited, and i can see how it hurts him. i offered my most sincere help with any english difficulties that he might have, i think i have gotten through to him that he can ask him any questions.

it is freaky to realize that beside the irish guy (david) (he’s scottish actually), i speak english the best. and all of them are just kinda used to asking me now. feels nice, but seriously, lets face it, i’m not the best resource for good english. blah!

anyway, after that jerome and thomas and francesca and simon joined the conversation, but it got crowded and they all have early class tomorrow (mine is at 1, w00t), so we all went to sleep, and that’s when i typed this entry.

my attempts to contact family/friends through sms did not succeed. i wonder whether i am doing something wrong, or what.

i feel like i’m going to fall asleep in the chair, so i shall fall into bed (in a room this size it is literally falling into bed, hehe. seriousl though, i expected the room to be way tinier, it feels very spacious and nice.)

date: 1094833426

mood: horrible headache
listening to:

alright, this will be a quickie as i’m dying of a headache.
see http://www.olya.org/floormates/ for some photographs of life.

this morning i woke up late (11), jerome made me some coffee (i drank black coffee, yay), made toast like my mom used to (with milk, 1 egg, some sugar), for myself and julien. spoke to sandra for a bit. no one else was around – jerome left to class.

francesca is coughing and is very sick, now is jerome as well. i asked him if he thinks its a contagious disease, he says he is sick from the 7 sins party, as we were walking home, and it was very cold, and he was only wearing a tshirt. hmm. i’m still a bit worried, cause now i have a headache and feel weak… blah.

washed dishes, made kitchen look nice. julien put on “lets get retarded”, except here it is “lets get it started”. i mean, when we went dancing, it was that, and now on a *cd* that he has it is also that. how silly. i explained to him that its not really all that innocent of a song. who’s corrupting whom – europe america or vice versa?

it is actually a dillema, am i russian or canadian. when people ask me where i am from i say “russian canadian” to get the best of both worlds. it confuses them even more, but then so does my name.

studied for a bit before class, helped julien with his english problems – i am constantly offering my help as all of them are having *SUCH* difficulties with english in their reading! and their reading is extremely hard too – its law and philosophy combined, like top 2 brain numbing subjects. today the words i was asked before leaving were “whether”, “promote”. some others, but you know, its just … odd words that you need to know.
each time i get asked a word from french guys (cause they are the ones having most difficulty), i learn that word in french as well.

then left to class.

then – class, 2nd class of philosophy, its hard and brain numbing, i like it waaaaaaaaaaaaay less than i do social psych (which is fun, i wonder how my course is different from hesi’s course).

after class, sat outside, went online, uploaded photographs and realized i can’t access them. was battling this issue when i see a photographer with a huuuge camera and a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge camera bag taking a photograph of one of the guys i keep seeing around here. after he was done i spoke to him a little – turns out he is from the local student newspaper (where i tried to apply last afternoon, while speaking with a writer from it, but she told me that they have 2 photorgraphers that they *pay* (lucky bastards), so she can’t accept volunteers). very nice guy, classically photographer, big (in each sense of the word), messy hair, huge camera bag, messy.

we spoken for a while about photography, and how it changes and how hard it is to get a GOOD photograph… he made me feel better. i complained that after a year of taking photographs something changed, and i’m never happy with what i’m doing, and it feels like i lost the ability to take photographs that would make me satisifed, and its frustrating and depressing like hell. he told me that .. its normal. tha the has the same thing. and he thinks that 1-2 good photographs a year is a joy. i am not sure i even satisfy that, but at least i’m not as much of a freak as i thought.

anyway, his website: http://www.philipdriessen.com/

that was cool. then i started chatting on icq and other people came out and it was a mess and i hate triyng to talk to someone online when someone is trying to talk to me r/l, cause it seems very rude if i juts stick my nose into the laptop… so yeah…. i tried to balance that, didn’t work out, i ran back inside, on the couch.

on the couch, in the common room, i again found more trojans on my computer, even though i installed avg, updated service pack, and ran adaware 3 times a day, and was 100% clean on all parameters this morning. BLAH!

stupid unprotected wireless network… well it IS protected, i just guess not well enough/

anyway.. got rid of the 180search assistant popup, AGAIN.

wrote some emails to parents, friends. my head hurts, so my apologies if my email was short, uncoherent, or plain nonexistent. i’ll do better next time – it was difficult to concentrate to write this, but since apparently all of you are like, expecting this to be a novel and stuff, i went from 5 lines (which is all i had in the beginning), to this, cause… blah… screw you… stuffs…

i’m worried i’m spending too much on food (simple groceries). i want to buy chicken and stuff for recipes my mom sent me (and beef for the ones that maha sent me), but i gotta figure out a way to make others pay too.

anyway, tomorrow is saturday so building is closed, and we will see how i feel and how schedule is, and whether i’ll be able to update this. my parents have all my phone numbers and stuff, so ask them if you have questions =p
sanakoev, then the thing with the a and the circle, then mail, and then ru

okay, that’s all! i’ll try to update on my computer if i don’t go online. thank you all for reading! tell me what you want now pictures of/descriptions of.

date: 1095082628

mood:
listening to:

i wrote this before i got internet. this starts off where i left off last time – friday evening.

—
18:40 – going home

so, we left off at me leaving the common room/building.

well, not all things are as easy as they seem. after deciding to leave, i realize that my card doesn’t open the locked door (for some reason unknown to me), and that the last people just left the building about 20 minutes ago (the student committee that takes care of events and books and such – i got my books from them with a discount by buying a 10 euro membership card. over the 2 semesters i will definitely save money, as they have 10% off books, and my two books already saved me 8 euros). i email my parents that, hmm, i seem to be stuck, but i hope it will be okay. pack up my laptop, my stuff, and go to try the door again.

the door with the card doesn’t work, however the other door, larger front door entrance which doesn’t have the card, opens easily.

i go outside, take a breath, think, “how nice that i am free”. out of interest i try the larger door, and it opens. i think “hmm, i should go to the washroom before i bike home, i mean, the door is open so why not”. i open the front door, go to the washroom, walk back and open… hmm… well, nope. the front door doesn’t open. at all.

oh man.

so, i am alone, in the school building, on friday at 6:30 in the afternoon, when there is NO one else in the building, it is already locked (so my best bet is security coming at 11, but that’s a bit far away), and no one will visit until monday morning (with the hopeful exception of security guard).

i mildly panic.

i try opening the card door again. no luck.
i try opening the front door with pushing the sliding thing, trying various buttons on the walls, simply pulling on it reaaaaally hard. no luck.

i look above me, and see fire exit signs, but they point to these two doors. but i hope at this point that the building has another fire exit. i walk around, find a classroom on the ground floor (find is a big word for me opening the doors to the only 2 classrooms they have on the ground floor – pics coming up soon, diny), open the door and walk out the back.

pheww.

now, good thing: no alarm started ringing. i really expected it to start, because the other two doors have fire alarm handles encased in class, so i expect that if you break it the alarm sounds, which would make sense. but nothing rang.
i also had to walk a bit more, because my bike is on the other side of the building. but i think it was worth it, just to feel okay at being outside. hehehe.

i biked home, realized i don’t feel so well, so i just kind of sat in my room for most of the evening. i believe francesca made some spaghetti with some kind of special sauce, but i don’t remember the name, nor anything else. the rest of the evening was kind of blurry, i was tired and didn’t really feel like doing anything.

later on, closer to 10, the floor became alive, because the P building had a party that was permitted by the guesthouse. they all decided to go, and take my bottle of wine. however, to take my bottle of wine, they had to take me, therefore they persuaded me to go as well.

very reluctantly, i dressed (baggy black pants ala hesi, black sleeveless shirt, pink jacket, running shoes), we went to the entrance of the main building (which is connected to P, C and B buildings). there i sat on the little stone fence, waiting for the others to figure out whats happening. turns out the party isn’t happening, but they still want to go out.

at this point, i’m like “okay, fine, i dressed and everything, might as well walk”, especially and particularly due to the fact that we were walking to the bar which was about 5 minutes from our building.

—
12:00 – the bar

the bar is called highlander, and its a medium sized bar, with a pool table, a round bar stand, some interesting decorations on the ceiling (the photograph is courtesy of francesca’s camera phone… i sent the photos via infrared to my laptop. w00t!), fairly cheap beer (1.50 for beer of the week, 1.70 for heinken, which is what most people drink).

pretty much right after getting there i realize that i have lost my new cellphone.
i mildly freak out. tell simon and francesca (who were with me at the point) that i lost my cellphone.
we look around the bar on the floor, which is wildly unsuccessful, as the floor is literally foot-to-foot is full of people.

we decide to quickly walk back to the rez and see perhaps i left it at home or lost it when i sat down on the lawn. (i was fairly sure it was the 2nd situation, so i wasn’t that worried, but nevertheless…). we walk home, not finding it, i go upstairs, look in my room, chris hears the noise and pops out into the hall asking whats up. i say i lost my cellphone, he offers to use his to call mine, i give him the number, he starts dialing and the elevator doors open as simon and francesca come in with my found cellphone! we all decide to bike back to the bar, and chris joins us this time around. (photo courtesy francesca who i suppose took it right after finding it)

we bike to the bar, each one our own bike.

afterwards, i was fairly bored at the bar, however ending up not spending anything on drinks as i am sick. therefore i only had maybe half a beer, but its good, i didn’t feel like drinking in the first place.

the time we spent there wasn’t nearly all that exciting, i hung out with people who played pool, took 2-3 miserable shots, then hung out with other people who were standing next to the bar stand (chris and simon, and later sandra, francesca and julien). it wasn’t all that exciting.

until…

i hear some noise next to the door.
people are taking ceiling lights (like, soft chandeliers type of things on long strings) and aiming them towards someone.
i stretch my neck and see a female cop.

undressing.

yeaah.
here’s the rated x part.
for the next 15 minutes the music was played of some sort striptease type (“let me see you strip” by rob zombie, among others). the cop was blond, and underneath the fairly elaborate uniform that the guy for whom she was doing the striptease, she had white various clothes.

pretty much all of them save for a tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ny piece of clothing in the lower area was taken off during these 15 minutes.

i am not sure how many details i should even be divulging here, but it was fairly hilarious for me, as it was the first time i have seen a striptease. it was hilarious to see everyone around us (me and sandra, she was standing next to me and we were exchanging jokes about the event) going CRAZY, especially guys, and how everyone were trying to stretch out their necks.

the various props that were used included whipped cream, hand cream, various articles of clothing tying eyes/hands, and an american (??!?) flag behind which the guy took off her underwear (to reveal another, smaller, pair, hah).

there was also a HUGE bodyguard present, who looked fairly threatening and prevented people from coming inside. what was funny is that in this case the people were francesca and julien who went outside for a moment, right before this began. so when he DID let them in, it was like right in the middle, and you should have SEEN francesca’s face as she walks in and there’s this nearly naked woman shaking her goods right in francesca’s face.

afterwards, it was around 2:30am, and the bar began clothing. we all were shuffled outside, where we decided to go to a dance club.

and, then, it started to rain.

so we are standing outside, it is 2:45 or so, when we decided to go to the bar, and it literally started to poor (to use the russian expression, like from a bucket). we all became soaking wet with in seconds.

i am happy i had my jacket! this was the first rain that we have gotten in the past week. i believe we are very lucky, as even now, 2 days later, it is still sunny!

anyway.

obviously the bar was canceled as we are all sick. we bike home, some of us running, some of us sitting on backs of others bikes, and some just biking (like me).

i just now realized i’m overlapping what i had written later, so please pardon the repetition and continue reading.

—
05:10 – after the bar

i am writing the ending of this day without writing the beginning, since i am too tired to write more, but i wish to write at least the end when i am full of energy.

after leaving the bar, we went to our bikes and were discussing whether we will go to another bar (with more music, and still open), and who will go, when it started to really, really, REALLY rain.

i mean, it was POURING down.

you got soaked within 1 minute, flat.

this was the first rain i have seen in a week – it was fun but now i am worried i will miss the sun quite a bit when it begins to rain here. it was fantastic to have this wonderfully warm weather. (supposed to be 29 tomorrow and sunny, yay).

anyway… bar was canceled, since all of us were soaked (as it started to rain when we were outside). so we all biked home, as fast as we could. fabio and jerome ran, and the rest shared a bike or biked on their own (i biked on my own).

we all got absolutely wet during the ride, parked our bikes and went upstairs.

i changed into dry clothes, hung up mine to dry, and went outside to get one of my bananas. within about 5 minutes there is an influx of about 20 people, none of whom i know. i am not sure what nationality they were, but i believe they were accidentally invited by francesca.

they hung out (and annoyed me a bit to be honest) for about 15 minutes, after which the security guard came, and said that this is the 2nd complaint of the night, and the people who are not sleeping on this floor (how very delicately phrased!) should leave. almost everyone left right away, with the exception of about 5 people.

for the next 2 hours, we sat in the dining room, eating peanuts (courtesy me), and bread with nutella (EVERYONE eats nutella ALL the time, and we even have an expression now, “nutella party”, because its like 3 times a day, people eat nutella, all together), and playing guitar. it was absolutely awesome: because the italian people (who were singing), *absolutely* cannot understand the english lyrics of MANY modern songs, so it was sooo funny to listen to them mumble something along hte lines of what is actually being sung. sooo cute!

one of the highlights of the evening was the song “wish you were here” by pink floyd. i amazed myself, and i think others, but knowing all the lyrics. god, its a fantastic song. played by fabio:

so, do you think you can tell, heaven from hell…

anyway… people were slowly leaving, some to their own building, some to their own bed, and i believe, some to NOT their own bed. around 4:50 there were only 4 people left, simon, fabio, myself, and another italian guy whos name i dont know (but he’s from a different group of those that i met on my first nights here), but who knows guitar/music at least fairly well.

i sat there becoming more asleep by the second, and eventually gave up and went to bed – well, now, it’ll be bed, but that’s all for tonight.

what an exciting day!! and tomorrow, i sleep as much as i want. woohoo!

date: 1095083090

mood:
listening to:

alrighty, second day of the weekend: saturday.

given the fact that i can sleep as much as i want i woke up around 3pm, with one
fantastic interruption, around 9 am, when my dad managed to call my cellphone!
which is great, this means i now have a personal and private line for just myself.

after making myself some toasted bread, ala my mom’s style (in milk sugar and some egg),
i have went shopping for some supplies with mirjam and simon. we went to the larger, a
bit more expensive supermarket, where i have bought:

flour, a box with 6 varieties of tea (thats for you scarf, now i can drink some weird
screwed up tea with pineneedles and strawberries), chicken legs, this leaf that you use
as a spice, a small bottle of coke for me (it takes me about a week to finish it, and it
feels very nice), tomatoes (can’t get enough, they are SO AMAZING here), grapes (they
were half off!), some sugar cubes (we have ran out), strawberry jam (i wanted raspberry
but i couldn’t find), some soup mix (mushroom), some crunchy bread for tea. i THINK thats
it, feels like there’s more, but i’m too lazy to compare the receipt with my list.
i need to get eggs and milk, but that’s from the cheaper ardi’s on monday. all the things
i got in the supermarket are non existent in ardi’s, which has a much more limited
selection.

i love those tomatoes, man, they taste fantastic here.

after shopping, i came home (we all got soaking wet again on the way home, it was a
spontaneous shower), and my parents called me again! we spent like 10 minutes talking,
which was very nice.

today is saturday, the 11th, which means it is sandra’s birthday!

around 5 the preparations started. everyone wanted to order pizza, so my chicken soup got
a bit postponed (going to make it now, sunday).

i still didn’t feel so well, just wanted to be alone and relaxing, so i was in my room,
reading for school, sorting photographs, burning dvd, and the like.

the party slowly started to happen when i was sitting in my room (mirjam came in to chat,
we spent like 30 minutes just talking about stuff, family, traveling). i poked my nose
out when it was already full swing, around 20 people, and sangria, made by sandra and her
friends, which is a fruit wine:

get a lot of cheap wine
get a lot of cheap fruits (apples, oranges)
get some fanta (lemon i think they used)
mix

add people, big spoons to pour wine with, plastic cup

equals in a party (too big and loud for my taste).

i had some (2-3 small cups), it is extremely nice. must try when get home, even if we
have wine that is so cheap. oh, almost forgot!

i made a card for sandra: bought a card, and with my silver pen made everyone sign in
their language. i think she was very happy, we had everyone on that card.

most of the evening i spent with a smaller subset of people, the scottish party – david
invited his friends and there were maybe 7 people there, a girl who i already knew, and
simon (one of the quieter people) was hanging out with them as well. i took an advil a
few hours before that, so my headache wasn’t there, but i still didn’t feel like hanging
out with all the people.

eventually a group of us decided to leave the party for a while, as it was getting
louder. we quietly sneaked out, walked around for about 30 minutes. it was wet but not
raining, so not that cold, (i was dressed warmly anyway, but still). it was fun, we all
spoke about how we traveled here, since everyone are exchange students, some from
scotland, some from swizterland, some from austria. i was trying to explain russian
language, particularly the curse language (about which i know a tiiiny subset, which made
it a bit difficult, but i think i got the idea across).

when we were coming back, we see a group of 20 people and 20 people going downstairs,
among them peter , the american guy
who i mentioned before.

we have exchanged a few words, and he said that they are all going out, and asked me if
i’m coming. i said that not likely, i want to go upstairs first and i’m a bit tired.

anyway, we went upstairs, there’s a HUGE mess and no one except our floormates. they said
that everyone got kicked out for the noise (i’m not surprised, like 40 people on our tiny
floor!), and that they are all going out.

after debating for a while and realizing that everyone are going, i decided to join them.

my wardrobe: grey pants, white shirt with the pretty neckline, tielace black shoes (that
i got just before leaving), pink jacket. very warm for the weather here.

we biked to a bar, except i rode on chris’s bike, as i really didnt want to ride on mine.
after arrival it turns out that there are 2 bars, one with a footsball table, and one
with a dance place, and that people are evenly split between the two.

for the next few hours, francesca and i kept hopping between the two places, while
spending some time with francesca outside just talking.

we ended up sitting around a small table on the edge of the dance area, in the club with
the barstools (however i did play and win a game of footsball – i was the offense and
chris was the defense and we won like 10-5, to francesca and julien, hehehehe). we were
sitting there for maybe 20 minutes, the music was great enough to dance, when i hear the
familiar whooping, and i see a chair being rolled out to the middle of the “dance area”.

i’m thinking “what the hell”, look over at thomas and simon (who were with me the night
before when the striptease started), and see that their face reflects my exact thought:
“are we in for another striptease?”.

however, this time something is very very different.

the person on the chair, the person for whom the strip tease is being given, is …

a girl.

and the person doing the stripteasing, the stripteaser, is …

a guy.

at this point, i’m dying of laughter.

a circle forms around the dance floor, composed of girls, however i see some guys sitting
on the stairs next to us, with a video camera. i HOPE they were filming the girl’s
birthday, and not for any other reason… *chuckle*

anyway… the circle around the dance floor? guess who ended up being right in the
circle? well as i mentioned, our table is like right there, and due to how we sat
(seriously, thinking back, it was pure chance that i sat where i did, thomas was further
away and we just kind of randomly sat down there), i’m RIGHT there.

so, striptease number 2.

yeaaah.

it was a big, dark guy, with a black hood and some weird in a good way drawings on his
face, with leather everything. so for the next 15 minutes there was a different song
playing, something specifically for his striptease (much more choreographed too!).

the props was a bucket of water, whipped cream, some towels, and a sponge.

it was pretty interesting to see 2 stripteases so close after another, and to be able to
compare the difference in them.

but i seriously wonder.

this is like, 2 nights, 2 stripteases, and i’m not even here for a month. barely 2 and a
half weeks. and only a week of school.

anyway, after the striptease, we all left the bar and went to a dancing club. we just
walked there, the name is de alla, and its the one where i already went last weekend (or
so? it feels like a month ago) with peter and francesca.

there we danced for a while, and then left after the guys had a beer.

the song “lets get retarded” is seriously popular here. it plays at least once in each
place where we go.
i also heard a new song by the romanian band haiduchi (i’m fairly sure). i recognized the
voices, style and i THINK the language, but it was the first time i heard the song. i
wonder if its playing in toronto as well, or europe is ahead in that sense!

anyway, whats weird is that de alla charges guys when they LEAVE and not when they enter.
girls don’t have to pay anything. but the guys do.

anyway, after that we biked home (i went on the back of chris’s bike, he rides FAST). at
home we drank tea (i made some cold tea for francesca), and then went to sleep. it was
around 4am.

—
sunday

i woke up at 2pm, ate breakfast, drank tea, then cleaned up my room a bit, spoke to
francesca for a while, then around 4 i started typing the entries, and now, 1.5 hours
later i am done. its amazing that it takes me so long, but there was SO much to tell!

right now i shall change to street clothes, and go with thomas to the shopping center.
maybe i will get eggs after all, i need some for the chicken soup, and i’m running out of
bread. i dont really need anything, but the weather is so nice that a walk is good. when
it’ll start to rain… it’ll start to rain. heh.

that’s it, we’ll see if there’s more to write later, i hope not! hah, the weekend was way
too exciting!

02:00
thankfully the rest of the day was very uneventful, with the exception of me attempting to make chicken soup. it wasn’t thick enough, however people didn’t hate it.
i made just enough for 5 people from 5 legs of chicken.
i had potatoes, carrots, a garlic, chicken, water, some of this leaf that adds taste (lavroviy list, laurie list, i dunno), and some spices of various grasses, salt, pepper. it tasted and smelled fantastic, just wasn’t thick enough.
people liked potatoes.
who ate it: me, francesca, chris, simon, thomas.

i studied, for tomorrow’s classes. read psych and took notes. walked around, found francesca battling her reading, so i took her 4 pages and summarized them in about 10 minutes. easy reading, i think it was marketing, it was about brand image and how it is controlled for a specific company – NIVEA.

then i tried to help thomas with HIS reading, which is european law, and MAN that @$#% is hard. i mean, i can BARELY understand each sentence, because their language is INSANELY complicated… i can’t imagine how the french guys are reading it, it is so convoluted. i can’t imagine someone actually WRITING that. it is just CRAZY. anyway, i helped him with one question, out of 12… man… i feel bad, really, because if it is so hard for me, i can’t imagine it for them.

that’s all, really. watched parts of armageddon, nip/tuck, talked with people. very quiet evening, and everyone are already asleep! (i went to wash and put away my cup of tea, my perfectly sized, white cup. it is the small joys here… my candle, my laptop, my blankets, my pygamas, the cup which is normally sized – all the cups here are tiiiny. i really really miss my ansel adams calendar, and i really really miss my normal reading lamp. the one here is lower than my laptop, so it is difficult to point it at my reading.)

what i also feel like i miss: a place to have my clothes, i dont have enough clothes hangers, and no shelves to store clothes on. tomorrow i shall reorganize my closet and fold away the warmer sweaters, as the weather is still – knock on wood – hovering around 20 +/- 5 degs.

music on the laptop is definetly nice.

i cleaned out some photographs that i burned on a dvd earlier – old photographs, from my trip to denver. went through the gazillion photos that i took and tried to clean it up. i removed about a gig, i have 60 photographs that i deemed reasonable to look at. later i need to clean up the other 3 gigs that i have from denver, and keep burning older photographs from the harddrive.

the usb connector, for reading my external drives, is great (connects to my cd writer as well), BUT one of the connectors to the drive is REALLY REALLY tough (its the 4 pin one, not the wide one, but the smaller white one), and each time i try to take it out i’m freaked out that i’ll break something, because it is extremely difficult to pull out.

anyway… good night. tomorrow morning i will go to campus around 2pm and post these entries. hope you had fun reading em ;)