date: 1097251579

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

wow, entry.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

so… yeah.

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

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

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

he had NEVER handed in a paper that is typed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ah, yeah, so the routine.

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

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

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

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

dutch have this most screwed up system, called chipknip.

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

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

anyway. that’s my rant. its annoying.

not end of story though.

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

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

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

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

me and simon do the dishes most often.

david is the scottish guy with the whiskey and potatoes.

aphrodita has the nice shoes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

anyway.

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

now the fun stuff:

photos

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

Le fin. The end.

date: 1097334122

mood:
listening to:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

date: 1097522835

mood: sick
listening to:

saturday

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

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

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

gave paper to holgar for him to hand in

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

go home

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

here is what i typed earlier:

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

tomorrow, i will be online between my classes.

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

date: 1097588098

mood: sick.
listening to:

mirjam is moving today.

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

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

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

-Nietzsche, from The Use and Abuse of History

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

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

i only googled lidocaine, and its a numbing agent.

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

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

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

*groan*

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

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

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

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

date: 1098132777

mood: happy
listening to:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

came home, fell asleep.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

so, checkmarks next to france and belgium.

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

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

italians really DO talk with their hands. hehe.

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

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

monday!

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

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

and next month i’m going to rome.

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

and finally.
quotes from chinese class:

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

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

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

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

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

YAY for being healthy(er)!

date: 1098281500

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

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

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

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

PHEW.

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

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

it was AWESOME.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

and, by the way, scarf:

i win.

date: 1098752960

mood:
listening to:

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

accidentally clicking a link i find out that

i somehow have internet from my bed

i am not breathing. i pray this stays.

date: 1099011930

mood:
listening to:chicane – saltwater

… is not yet finished.

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

and a final exam in psychology.

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

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

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

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

*yawn*

tired.

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

date: 1099571370

mood:
listening to:moby and common room sounds

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

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

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

and then french, extra class.

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

i been there:

date: 1099661713

mood:
listening to:

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

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

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

read a bit of my stupid art.

art.

ah yes.

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

… in theory anyway …

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

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

how many people did the reading?

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

so the discussion was great.

this class BETTER improve.

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

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

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

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

aand to finish off

have a great weekend everyone!