date: 1095176962

mood: horrible headache
listening to:

allright, time to write the blog.

first off, i have a killer headache, and i didn’t have time from last night to write anything. soo, this might be a bit convulated.

okay, so we left off on sunday evening.

monday morning, i woke up around 11, made toaste with milk and the last egg left, for myself and simon (who donated the egg and some bread). drank tea, ate that, then went shopping to the cheaper supermarket with simon and mirjam.
bought:
milk, juice (some new kind), SOURCREAMYAYFORCOOKING, apricot jam, eggs, bread (shared price and content 50-50 with mirjam), 2 packs of spaghetti (it was 15 cents, and its not like it’ll be a problem to have spaghetti twice over the next 4 months :) ), TOMATOES (YAY). i think that’s it.

anyway, after coming back, i did some reading, and just plain time wasting (tv, chatting, stealing other people’s chicken nuggets – not that they were good, mind you). then i went to univ, around 3 (an hour later than i thought). checked prices for hostels in amsterdam.

next weekend i’m going to amsterdam, with simon, thomas, and jerome. mirjam and her friend possibly will join us as well (likely). francesca can’t go, so can’t other people, but we’ll see, its not like we’re setting the plans in stone.

after that checked emails, quickly replied to some, ran to class. had 2 hour class of social psych – god, i love that class, so much fun. then an hour break, then 2 hour class of chinese.

maan, the prof is funnie.

we learned how to pronounce the 4 basic vowel sounds in mandarin, and how to draw some basic characters. one of the characters is horse (pictured on the left). he was walking around the class, looking over the shoulder and telling us what was wrong:

“that’s a might thin horse you’ve got there, olya”

at the end of the class, i asked him something:

“shut up olya or you have to write nin hao 1000 times!” and then he smiles. he seriously didn’t sound like he meant it in a bad way, more like a joke. but the rest of us just went and looked at eachother like, “WTH”.

also. he shows us how to write some character. difficult.

from the classroom: “oh god…”

him: “nono, not god. just me. who am i? i am teacher. got it? yes. good.”

at this point i just looked across the room and found someone else giving me the same “caught in the headlight sof a car” look. seriously. funny, but.. yeah. he is also very unorganized, but its still fun.

what i learned: nin hao (hello, polite version, pictured on the right), ni hao (normal version). other stuff. i have like 33 characters to memorize for next week. but it sounds sooooooo weird to hear myself speaking chinese! because, the prounciation is so distinctive, that its just… instantly recognizable as chinese. fun!

after that i biked home. it was dark, cold, 9pm, and it was raining. needless to say i think i caught a mild cold from that.

the rest of the evening was shitty. i had a rotten mood, i felt sick, and life just sucked (as it does sometimes). some people went out, i stayed in, did some of the reading for tuesday’s class (philosophy).

went to sleep at 2.

tuesday, woke up at 8, ate musli with milk, made a cup of green tea, studied more philosophy (i didnt finish the reading the night before). at 10:20, i finished reading, biked to school, sat online for a bit, just relaxing, then i had my lecture at 11.

tried to not fall asleep. the classrooms are tiny, 5 people today were in class, we are all sitting around the table, and i want to sleep. it really, really, suck. diny, i took a photo of the room for you, i’ll upload later.

more photos

there. its not mine, just uploaded from thomas’ camera last night, but still, fun for you to see.

uhm… after class (ended at 3:30), i wasted time (YAY FOR RELAX AND TIME WASTE) online until 5:20, when i decided i need to do the blog. so, here i am, 5:40, i’m done.

next: check if anyone replied to my emails, if not, go home. rest, eat, relax. no classes tomorrow, w00t!

date: 1095326537

mood: hungry
listening to:

“So you have a partner in crime. I just booked my flight. X”

Woohoo!

Okay, a bit pre history.

I have booked a flight to Rome, on November 19-22. it cost me a grand sum of 40 euros, (about 35 of them in fees – and 5 euros for the actual flight!). Plus the train to the airport (it is in Brussels), it will be 70 euros. That’s the return price. Yup.

anyway, i was happy with it and all, however i was going alone, as when i was booking, i couldn’t find anyone to join me. today, i was speaking with a friend of david (he is scottish, his friend is scottish as well, her name is jennifer), and lamenting that it is so difficult to find people to on trips, and that i booked my trip to rome, because i want to travel.

we spoke for a while (before that as well – talking about politics and psychology, sounds smart but seriously, its just dinner table talk ;)), she’s a very nice girl, and after complaining about rome, i said that i’d gladly not go alone, but i’d rather go alone than not go at all, and offered her (well, anyone else in the room as well) to join me. she said yeah, sure, give me the information.

i wrote down the time and the airpots (brussels to rome), and the dates, and explained to her how to figure out the screwed up website of ryan air.

anyway, before she left the floor, we exchanged numbers (weee, second person in my cellphone – first person is francesca, of course). and some time later, after i returned from dinner, i got the above message.

so, double w00t:

1. first sms message! yay! i can get sms!
2. yay i’m not going alone woohooo!!

okay, now more.

this weekend i am going to amsterdam! simon and myself organized the idea, jerome and thomas have agreed to go. both of them (thomas and jerome) came here by car, so chances are (well, basically, it is true), that we will go to amsterdam by car. we are leaving on saturday morning, around 7 am. oh, and fabio is joining us as well. there’s a chance that mirjam and her friend will join us there (i have no clue whats happening, it is difficult to organize everyone), but regardless, it is fantastic!

there have been talks of going to copenhagen. simon wants to go there, and chris has expressed “not minding” view as well. possibly we will rent a car (share the price) and drive up there. fun fun fun!!

okay.

now, in more mundane news (whatever you can call mundane here).

last i have written was tuesday afternoon. tuesday evening, after coming home and eating (i stole some of david’s food, and then had some more tomatoes. mmm…. im known as the tomato freak around here.), we have decided to go out. around 10 we have left, on bikes, to highlander (aka the bar with the female stripteseur, aka the bar that had a happy hour last night – 1 euro beer), and afterwards to shamrock, aka the bar NEXT to the male striptease bar AKA the bar with the footsball table where chris and i have beaten julien and francesca.

i’m sure in about a month all of you will know this city as well as me ;)

anyway, after coming to highlander, we got some beer, and for about an hour just drank beer and hung out. nothing special, just relaxing. it was fairly loud (duh, happy hour), and fairly crowded, but we all just kinda stuck together in our “cool” group. hah.

after abt 30-40 minutes, francesca joined us, and we have biked to downtown area, where for the next 3 hours, we proceeded trying to find a place that will NOT be SO crowded that it is impossible to walk in. shamrock was okay, but a bit boring. after walking from it towards another bar (can’t remember the name, been there before with peter and francesca, didn’t like it that much), we realized that it is SO crowded that it is impossible to walk in.

therefore, a bunch of us (chris, a new guy in our group, gere? or something like that, simon, francesca, myself, thomas) hung out outside. with about 30 other people. inside the bar, which has the square footage of … 2 of my rooms in canada, had about 80 people. TRYING TO DANCE. i stuck my nose in there once, trying to dig out simon (who went to dig out francesca who went to dig out jerome). it was NUTS!

anyway, after that, chris, simon, gere, francesca, myself, thomas, tried to find a better place. after walking around what seemed like the whole city (well, most of the downtown, which is tiny, but you get used to the size quickly), we gave up, met jerome and fabio, left simon with them, and the rest of us went home.

at home, watched tv, had a late night snack (seriously, its like a never ending food fest here, especially with nutella… it is crazy, even francesca who is allergic to wheat puts nutella on her glutten-free crackers. and no, its not the munchies, cause it applies to everyone – i guess its from all the walking), and fell asleep, around … geez, i dont know. 3 am is my best guess.

wednesday, blissful day, no classes. woke up twice, once at 9:30 (from a phonecall, at least it was from canada!), and once at 3. at 3 i decided that maybe i should get up afterall, woke up, walked around, had tea and lotsa jam (i’m finishing my second jar – well, i have 2 non finished jars, one with apricot and one with strawberry. i’ll probably finish strawberry this week. jam is my candy, with all the colds around this place, it soothes my throat.)

around 5, i realized i need to get reading. i decided to go outside, and apparently, weather decided that it should prevent me from doing so. (see left. i have a series for a fantastic panorama – it is bright blue on the right and dark grey on the left, but at the moment no software to create a panorama, and i am too lazy to do it for you atm, so a bit later) nevertheless, i go downstairs, look for my bike…

and not find it.

hmmmm.

i go upstairs. last night, julien has taken it, however we all came back together, so it should be in the shed.

i look for julien. instead i find thomas, i explain that i have to go to school to download ereaders to tomorrows 8:30am class. thomas volunteers to drive me (considering at this point outside is pouring down, and even after 4 minutes my coat is soaking wet – at least i’m dry). i say okay, wait for him, watch julien come in the elevator.

turns out he borrowed my bike this morning. grrrrr. anyway, i took my spare key from him, and explained what i thought had happened. regardless, thomas still agrees to drive me, so we drive to the campus, park outside, i quickly download ereaders, and fire off a fast email to mom + co (eliciting a question “who are you typing to?!” from him, rightfully so, considering he is waiting for me to finish!), and we went back.

anyway, i’m glad i got driven. tiny car, very european, fun fun fun.

after coming home, i watched some tv, studied for a while (read my psych book + notes + made notes for tomorrow, read some chinese pages i saved on monday regarding writing of characters). afterwards, i made mushroom soup, from a packet plus some fresh mushrooms. came out good… like, not bad, just good. i used too much water, but since it was actually …. good (can you feel how surprised and shocked i am at it being good? of course thomas and jerome – people who ate it – said it was good, but like… i cooked, duh. btw, i’m not the only one who cooks… for julien and simon, francesca cooked, and david, mirjam and aphrodita usually cook just for themselves. sandra either leaves to eat with other people, or cooks here for herself and her friends, but she always welcomes other to eat – even though i never did). err, that was a long digression. anyway, i will make it again, it was fine.

afterwards i was planning to make zhaki (which is apparently the french name for oladushki, a thing my mom makes and that i can make, except none of the french guys know the name), but it was kinda late, so i just decided to make them tomorrow after my class (since most people will wake up around 11, when i come back).

i use brackets, a lot. weird.

after that, i read some more (cause i had 35 pages of e readers), and wrote this entry, and watched miss italia with about half the floor (surprisingly enough not only guys, but girls were interested as well). funny, francesca – italian – was protesting the whole way about how stupid it is and how no one watches the show in italy. well, duh, not like you need italian to watch it.

anyway, it is 12:45, i believe my entry for tonight is complete, i have finished all of my reading, and since i have an early class tomorrow, i shall finish by replying to the saved emails that i have, and go to sleep, if i can.

to be continued!

date: 1095428672

mood:
listening to:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PHOTOSPHOTOSPHOTOS of the guitar playing

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

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

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

i forgot to link in the last entry:

more photos of floormates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

date: 1095776190

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

okay, people.
amsterdam was fun.

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

well, not now.

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

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

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

blah, headache.

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

uuhmm… that’s all. sowwy guys.

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

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

date: 1095870423

mood:
listening to:

okay, wow, this is going to be loooong.

lets see… i have 4 days to cover:

friday evening

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

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

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

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

turns out it was.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

saturday

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

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

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

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

drive there

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

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

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

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

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

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

finding the hostel

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

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

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

we get the keys, and bravely go in.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

all in all, awesome day.

continued in next entry

date: 1095871914

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

sunday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the way home.

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

monday/tuesday

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

so where does that put us?

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

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

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

it was SO worth it.

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

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

now here is the fun part.

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

found out that i have tomorrow off :D YAY SLEEP

friday i get paper info for psych and philosophy.

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

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

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

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

date: 1096036018

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

like, whoa.

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

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

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

but i’m also very comfortable and happy here.

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

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

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

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

puun!

*cough*

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

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

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

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

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

here’s how they work.

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

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

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

it looks like it started to rain again. boo!

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

rooooadtrippp!

or rather, train trip.

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

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

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

date: 1096292757

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

i don’t know.

obviously i want and will finish my higher degree first.

but i also want to do masters.

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

blah.

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

the hard part is organizing these images into categories.

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

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

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

what does then?

i don’t know.

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

date: 1096315002

mood:
listening to:

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

quotes from today’s chinese class:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

i got nothing.

date: 1096561491

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

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

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

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

i love 50 1.8.

diaries coming soon.