Long time, no blog (thanks for noticing!)
Recently it has come to my attention that there are actually people who read my ramblings...I am flattered. I apologize for being so quiet lately and I appreciate your concerned emails! so what's new? Well, not surprisingly not too much, otherwise, i would have probably blogged before now. Of course, that won't stop me from writing something you can distract yourself from your jobs/homework/spouse for a good 20 minutes. basically a whole lot of nothing: my specialty!
This weekend was pretty bust actually. We had planned to go to Belgium, but the weather was crap and financial committments I thought I had (more on that in a minute) prevented me from actually taking action. It is easy to be lazy when the weather is grey. I don't think I even went out this weekend. not once. ho hum. Sunday was fun though; We had our 'end of winter' bike ride and dinner with my new team. however, there was still snow on the ground, so so much for 'end of winter'. There are pics in an album i put together for the team. some are repeats you may have seen, but most are new. After the ride, we all met up for dinner at Jikkie's place which was fabulous. of course, it was pasta, again, but this time the sauce was distinctly dutch. I could tell from the sausage and excessive use of cream. it was soooo good. Lately, Erin and I have been more adventurous in the kitchen and we are the envy of her corridor at every meal. We have pretty much mastered the stir-fry, which Europeans just don't get, but love to taste, and also anything to do with chicken. Nonetheless, if you have any recipes, please send them along! I am especially looking for a good pancake recipe (Thorsten, I still have yours. sooo goood) because i hear there is maple syrup in the mail. thanks mom! If you have a good recipe, let me know: but keep in mind, i have no freezer and no oven. just a stove top and a microwave. very challenging.
Monday I was supposed to get my official Dutch residency permit (aka visa type thingy) but i half assed it and managed to hold onto my 432EURO for another day. this residency permit is a point of high contention here. some cities are sticklers, and others not so much. 432 is soooo much money for seemingly nothing but a fancy stamp in the passport. In all liklihood, the damn thing won't even be prossessed until after I am already gone. How aggravating is that? the divide is about 70/30 in the guest house for not getting it; boycotting the gov't is not usually the best idea. I am not so brave since I am determined to go home degreed, and preferably not because I was deported. But I am certainly not making it easy on them either. 432 euro. ouch ouch ouch. Even the dean of law in rotterdam tells his students not to get it. But then you hear the horror stories: one girl got a call saying "get out of the country by tomorrow" but managed to talk and pay her way out of it. yikes.
moving on....
Tuesday night was pretty typical. I had a great day that day actually. I completed my first 6K erg test of 2005 and managed a decent score, although a little lower than I had hoped. but honestly, I am just happy to have finished since I am training all alone over here. So I was pretty buzzed from that...then I got some work done, played on the computer for kicks, and by the time I got home, the ladies had ordered pizza for dinner as a treat. I contributed a bottle of southern comfort and we watched american tv while drinking booze from new orleans, and pepperoni pizza. we had tickets to a big economics'faculty party at the Bon barniere or something like that which was this giant old theater. It was the best party yet for sure. there were 2000 kids apparently, it was completely packed, the music was great and as usual, everyone you know is there. We were pretty merry let me tell you. called it a night around 4 then slept until i wanted to on Wednesday.
Wednesday was supposed to be a bike day, but although when i went outside to fiddle with my brakes (finally fixed them...MYSELF!! thanks for the tip Jerome!), clean a little etc, it was sunny, by the time i was ready to hop on, it was pouring. Such is dutch weather. completely unreliable. So, i went shopping with Erin downtown instead. Although Maastricht is known for the shopping, I have to say it isn't all that great. Whenever erin and I go, we usually call it successful when we get to stop at the grocery store; not so much luck in retail. I think we have about 80 failed missions for tops under our belts by now. oh well. penny saved is a penny earned. I don't have school on Wednesdays which is awesome since Tuesday is always so nuts. When we got home, we decided to investigate the tennis courts. We played an entire thirteen minutes before we bagged it due to the night fall and also the slippiness of the courts. BUT, thursday morning, we agreed to meet up for round two. what luck!
THURSDAY WAS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY! We played in shorts and t-shirts and enjoyed the sun which stayed out ALL day. It was amazing. The best day yet. We hit the ball back and forth for an hour but then had to quit for school and such. What a shame to waste such a good day in class, but it can't be helped here. Notably though, the sun puts the dutch in a really good mood. Our prof wasn't nearly as pissy as usual. haha.
Last night was pretty tame for thursdays. Friends of ours had bought some alcool and absinthe and were almost successful with the peer pressure, but we managed to run away. who plays dice with absinthe?? honestly. someone had a good night...or a really bad one. not sure which. We went to bug Fenna who was having tea with owen and Cam played her guitar for us. Cam has the most amazing voice ever. Why is she even in school?! clearly she should be a star somewhere with minions of fans and stuff. I will record her one of these days and put it up with the videos I took on my nonexistant webspace. Any tips on that one??
We shared a pinapple, talked about some trips, and then I went home. Surprisingly, my floor was actually having a party. Until now, my floor has been the most quiet of all because it is filled with grad students. not last night. They stayed up being obnoxious until 7am and so I am literally writing this on about 2 hours of sleep all told. Right after this, I am napping until I feel human again. Those same people just wrote a note about what pigs we are (apparently...honestly, we have the cleanest kitchen in the place) and they left the place in a state of disaster. I stepped on the broken glass of our very few tumblers on my way to school this morning at EIGHT. so now we have no glasses either. oi. I guess that's life in the guesthouse.
Miss you all!! Miss Canada!! Miss Toronto!! but I don't miss the snow. Have fun with that. ;)
This weekend was pretty bust actually. We had planned to go to Belgium, but the weather was crap and financial committments I thought I had (more on that in a minute) prevented me from actually taking action. It is easy to be lazy when the weather is grey. I don't think I even went out this weekend. not once. ho hum. Sunday was fun though; We had our 'end of winter' bike ride and dinner with my new team. however, there was still snow on the ground, so so much for 'end of winter'. There are pics in an album i put together for the team. some are repeats you may have seen, but most are new. After the ride, we all met up for dinner at Jikkie's place which was fabulous. of course, it was pasta, again, but this time the sauce was distinctly dutch. I could tell from the sausage and excessive use of cream. it was soooo good. Lately, Erin and I have been more adventurous in the kitchen and we are the envy of her corridor at every meal. We have pretty much mastered the stir-fry, which Europeans just don't get, but love to taste, and also anything to do with chicken. Nonetheless, if you have any recipes, please send them along! I am especially looking for a good pancake recipe (Thorsten, I still have yours. sooo goood) because i hear there is maple syrup in the mail. thanks mom! If you have a good recipe, let me know: but keep in mind, i have no freezer and no oven. just a stove top and a microwave. very challenging.
Monday I was supposed to get my official Dutch residency permit (aka visa type thingy) but i half assed it and managed to hold onto my 432EURO for another day. this residency permit is a point of high contention here. some cities are sticklers, and others not so much. 432 is soooo much money for seemingly nothing but a fancy stamp in the passport. In all liklihood, the damn thing won't even be prossessed until after I am already gone. How aggravating is that? the divide is about 70/30 in the guest house for not getting it; boycotting the gov't is not usually the best idea. I am not so brave since I am determined to go home degreed, and preferably not because I was deported. But I am certainly not making it easy on them either. 432 euro. ouch ouch ouch. Even the dean of law in rotterdam tells his students not to get it. But then you hear the horror stories: one girl got a call saying "get out of the country by tomorrow" but managed to talk and pay her way out of it. yikes.
moving on....
Tuesday night was pretty typical. I had a great day that day actually. I completed my first 6K erg test of 2005 and managed a decent score, although a little lower than I had hoped. but honestly, I am just happy to have finished since I am training all alone over here. So I was pretty buzzed from that...then I got some work done, played on the computer for kicks, and by the time I got home, the ladies had ordered pizza for dinner as a treat. I contributed a bottle of southern comfort and we watched american tv while drinking booze from new orleans, and pepperoni pizza. we had tickets to a big economics'faculty party at the Bon barniere or something like that which was this giant old theater. It was the best party yet for sure. there were 2000 kids apparently, it was completely packed, the music was great and as usual, everyone you know is there. We were pretty merry let me tell you. called it a night around 4 then slept until i wanted to on Wednesday.
Wednesday was supposed to be a bike day, but although when i went outside to fiddle with my brakes (finally fixed them...MYSELF!! thanks for the tip Jerome!), clean a little etc, it was sunny, by the time i was ready to hop on, it was pouring. Such is dutch weather. completely unreliable. So, i went shopping with Erin downtown instead. Although Maastricht is known for the shopping, I have to say it isn't all that great. Whenever erin and I go, we usually call it successful when we get to stop at the grocery store; not so much luck in retail. I think we have about 80 failed missions for tops under our belts by now. oh well. penny saved is a penny earned. I don't have school on Wednesdays which is awesome since Tuesday is always so nuts. When we got home, we decided to investigate the tennis courts. We played an entire thirteen minutes before we bagged it due to the night fall and also the slippiness of the courts. BUT, thursday morning, we agreed to meet up for round two. what luck!
THURSDAY WAS SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY! We played in shorts and t-shirts and enjoyed the sun which stayed out ALL day. It was amazing. The best day yet. We hit the ball back and forth for an hour but then had to quit for school and such. What a shame to waste such a good day in class, but it can't be helped here. Notably though, the sun puts the dutch in a really good mood. Our prof wasn't nearly as pissy as usual. haha.
Last night was pretty tame for thursdays. Friends of ours had bought some alcool and absinthe and were almost successful with the peer pressure, but we managed to run away. who plays dice with absinthe?? honestly. someone had a good night...or a really bad one. not sure which. We went to bug Fenna who was having tea with owen and Cam played her guitar for us. Cam has the most amazing voice ever. Why is she even in school?! clearly she should be a star somewhere with minions of fans and stuff. I will record her one of these days and put it up with the videos I took on my nonexistant webspace. Any tips on that one??
We shared a pinapple, talked about some trips, and then I went home. Surprisingly, my floor was actually having a party. Until now, my floor has been the most quiet of all because it is filled with grad students. not last night. They stayed up being obnoxious until 7am and so I am literally writing this on about 2 hours of sleep all told. Right after this, I am napping until I feel human again. Those same people just wrote a note about what pigs we are (apparently...honestly, we have the cleanest kitchen in the place) and they left the place in a state of disaster. I stepped on the broken glass of our very few tumblers on my way to school this morning at EIGHT. so now we have no glasses either. oi. I guess that's life in the guesthouse.
Miss you all!! Miss Canada!! Miss Toronto!! but I don't miss the snow. Have fun with that. ;)
posted by Unknown at Friday, March 11, 2005
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home