Photos!

Rowing Club

Bata Race

Ik ben klaar met mijn cursus nederlands!!

[I am finished my Dutch course!]
No more class on Tuesday and Thursday nights. phew. Best of all, I think I actually passed. I get a certificate and my deposit back. woowee! hopefully I am not speaking too soon...I am pretty sure I passed though...hrm...

to: male mtbers

got this from a friend concerned for his ´package´. http://radiology.rsnajnls.org/cgi/content/full/219/2/427

AT LAST!!!!

today has been quite the dilly-yo. i woke up to a text from Mo saying lets ride. how could i refuse. so off we went to do the margraten route on the trusty mtbs. totally off topic, i saw my first dutch crazy today on the way to his place. she stopped me at full tilt whilst on my bike to ask me if i had a lighter for her cigarette. she gave me ´the eye´...you know: all crazy like. as if i looked like the kind of person that has a lighter as i speed by in my tights...anyway....
Mo and I were a little worried about the weather as it had been switchy all week and at the moment we left, it looked like it might storm. rather i was worried and mo was fine. our ride got cut a little short however because of some mechanical diffculties on Mo´s bike that caused us a 3km walk. how nice. that´s all i´ll say about that....except: always carry a spare. (he couldn´t use my spare because it was too big in the valve and wouldn´t fit.)
I got home from our bike ride and had some lunch, a little nap, got a text message from my crazy italian ex-fling who is really crazy (did i already say he was crazy?) which woke me up early (grrrr) and then i went to meet my friend Wouter from Duth Mountains and we...drumroll please....went for my first ever Road Ride. it went alright! i didn´t fall off at least. i wasn´t very fast though either. oh yeah, and my hands were too small to operate the brakes properly which was lots of fun on a 10% gradient full of curves and switchbacks. the only feather in my cap was that climbing was way cool. it hardly felt like work at all, and i could keep up to wouter so i felt somewhat fast too. however, my ride is a little rickety in the gearing, so on the flat stuff, i didn´t have much option other than to go really slow, or spin my brains out. we got some interesting weather...i don´t know why, but everytime i make an effort to row or road bike, the heavens split and the thunder starts and today, we even had hail. luckily, the bad weather only lasted for about 5 minutes this afternoon. unfortunately we were far from home. oh well.
we got back to his place in time to switch my pedals, arrange to watch Team America later in the week (has anyone got anything to say about team america?) and then I was off to ROWING.
Oh heaven. I was on the water today for the first time in ages. I rowed with four other nice ladies in a quad, and it was actually not so bad a row. they kept telling me they were awful but they don´t give themselves enough credit. the club is very rec, which is fine, so i will be rowing twice a week most likely, and socializing quite a bit it would seem as well. just let me say: rowing in dutch is a bit tricky. but i was pleasantly surprised at how much i did understand. i did miss the meaning of one exercise, but luckily, my cox was (yes, coxed quads...wtf!) sensitive and explained it to me: i won´t go into details, but the title of it was ¨ten little niggers¨. you know, like the black people she tells me, with a straight face and seemingly no concept of how off the wall that is. i guess i am too canadian. i was aghast.
anyway, after the row, we hung out in the bar, i had some dinner made by Jack´s wife marian who is spanish and who´s cooking is also spanish, and a tea with some of the ladies. one of them, Ingrid, is also a cyclist and when she heard about my afternoon adventure, she invited me to show me a couple other things as well. hopefully i can line up some more appropriate wheels.
anyway, my hands are blistered, my ass is sore, and my legs are lead. i couldn´t be in a better mood to end my long day of NOT studying for my dutch exam...directly...so that means tomorrow, i have almost an entire language to learn. at least the parts that don´t pertain to biking or rowing.
goodnight!

mountains out of molehills

the title of this post encapsulates two recent goings-on in my life. first, you may recall i was worried about failing my globalization course. well, i scared myself so bad about it, i ended up with a little overkill scoring an A on my final. now i guess i am ¨one of those people¨. you know the kind I am talking about. so no worries now in the marks department.
the second incident this applies to was my bike ride yesterday. i think yesterday was the first time i didn´t really enjoy myself on the bike. first of all, i didn´t give myself enough time, so i felt rushed through the whole ride and that`s annoying. second of all, i forgot to eat so i bonked pretty hard by surprise, so that sucked. also, i kept having little equipment problems such as losing my water bottle at the bata race, thus having to resort to my leaky backpack again. ugh. also, it being spring, all the pollen was out and floating around. i have never experienced cotton mouth so literally in all my life. the pollen of whatever dutch flora is in the area takes the form of flying cotton balls, which i ingested far too many of. lastly, and here is my mountain part...i had a ´molehill´of a fall...just a little slip of the wheel on a muddy descent/turn in some singletrack. it became a ´mountain´of a fall when I realized i had landed in a patch of nettles. all over my legs and arms and even down my back these invisible little stingy things were attacking me and the bike was between my legs in such a way so as to prevent me from making a getaway without furthering my predicament. i was on fire for like 6 hours.
other than the nettles, things are good. i was thinking about going to croatia, but it looks now like i won´t make it because there weren´t enough people signed up to run the tour i wanted. so that´s ok....it was starting to look very expensive. plus, that frees me up now for a rowing race i was invited to participate in (8+) and also the dutch national student championship for mtb. pretty cool. it will be nice to get back into racing i understand...running races is so 10 years ago. I felt so naked at the start line without any equipment to worry about except whether or not my shoelaces are tied. those who have been privy to my pre-race state of mind know i need something to occupy it. ie, are my screws all tight? are my brakes adjusted properly? oarlocks done up? etc etc....

Bataveirenrace 2005

This weekend was an interesting one! I joined up with the 25-man relay team that headed to Nijmegen for the Bataveirenrace, 2005. Bataveiren was the guy that led the Dutch against the Romans way back in the day, and every year, there is this huge race of 185km over 25 stages to honour him. it was really cool! I wrote an article about it for the Dutch Mountains magazine, so you can get most of the info there, and then I'll follow up with my own more personal additions. You can also google bataveirenrace if you want more details...and pictures are there too.
Bataveirenrace 2005
It is just after 4pm on Sunday, my legs are sore, I have a bit of a sunburn and some catching up to do in the sleep department (although not as much as some people). I know 24 other people who are in the same position! This weekend, Dutch Mountains teamed up with the atheltes from UROS (the track team...) and ran the Bataveirenrace from Nijmegen to Enschede. The course is a whopping 185km making it the longest relay race in the world! This year over 300 teams of 25 runners each competed for the prized Swedish Dalarna horse (the race trophy), or just to have a well-earned good time at the closing party on the Twente University campus: the biggest student party in the Netherlands.
Who is “UROS/Dutch Mountains”?
Dutch Mountains was well represented by myself, Michael, Simon, Elton, Jolanda, Dionne, Remy, Wouter, Anton and Eric. Thanks to Hanneke, Ared, Charlotte, Jemke, Suzanne, Anne, Madelen, Rozanne, Thys, Anjenie, Tamara, Siem, Tim, Titia and Els of UROS for being the other half of our illustrious line-up for 2005.
The Race
The race is run in three shifts through 25 stages of varying length. The 3 shifts are Night, Morning, and Afternoon, beginning with the 3.6km first stage at midnight on Friday. Each shift runs a support van with the rest of the team, a driver and also a biker keeps pace with each runner to make sure everyone goes the right way on the candle lit route. I took the inaugural steps on our 185km journey to the obnoxious cheering of seemingly thousands of students each cheering on their teammates. The start line was definitely something to remember! So many smiling, cheering people set the right tone for the rest of the weekend. As we ran further from Nijmegen, and deeper into the night, the temperature got colder and colder and the support crew ever the more fatigued, but still we were ready with the layers, snacks and water bottles (and of course gummi smurfs!) to keep our guys going strong all night. The night shift included Micheal, Simon, Elton, Jolanda and myself. Jolanda closed off early in the morning and we then went off in search of a warm place to lie down.
Suzanne from UROS started off the morning crew at Dinzperlo. Featured Dutch Mountain-ers were Dionne and Remy who were done in time to meet myself and Jolanda (once we regained consciousness) for some ice cream and a sit in the sun at Twente Campus before the final shift finished their stages.
The afternoon crew included such esteeemed Dutch Mountains members as Wouter (the new), Anton and Eric. Eric was our stadium runner and proudly sported the red and white jersey we all know and love to a triumphant 149th place finish. The crowds roared! There were all sorts of costumes to look at including a distinct lack of costume in the case of one streaker we were all blessed to witness. We also saw a banana for what it is worth. We did what we set out to do: finsih in the top half, and so now its time to celebrate!
The Party
Our trusty white bus tranposrted all the UROS/Dutch Mountains gang to a gezellig restaurant downtown Enshede where we feasted on spare ribs, salad and of course fries with mayonnaise, all washed down with some well-deserved beer. When we’d had our fill, we made our way back to campus where the biggest party of the year was waiting for us. There were flashing ligths, live music, a ton of different rooms and tents to satisfy every taste and more familiar faces than I would have thought possible. I think almost all of UM was in attendance and the merriment was contagious! We partied as long as our legs would hold us and I only had to listen to the Anouk song twice. (For the record, I used to like that song, but now I think it is the most overplayed song in history). We poured ourselves into our sleeping bags and were rudely awakened too short a while later by the bright lights of the gym and morning radio shows. The weekend was over and it was time to go home to Maastricht.

The trip home was thankfully uneventful...all persons and bags made it from point A to point B and we even had time to stop for a Whopper at Burger King. Certainly the day’s highlight.
Thanks to all who came out! It was a great weekend and for those who are thinking about doing it, don’t hesitate! You should take my place for Bataveirenrace 34...unless I come back for it. Cheers!
So that's my pathetic attempt at journalism. i am almost embarrassed. I should also mention that I won my stage from my start group and finished 18th overall for that section out of 310. wow. was i ever surprised.
Anyway, here are some more interesting things to entertain you. first of all, there seems to be some dispute as to which town is the oldest in the Netherlands. Nijmegen is making the same claim as our very own Maastricht! They just celebrated their 2000th birthday and say they are the oldest, but I am sure that this is also a feather in Maastricht's cap, so I am a little confused. somebody google it and get back to me. they can't both be the oldest.
Enschede (established as the 11th largest town--no dispute i am aware of) is a difficult Dutch word to pronounce and unfortunately, sounds like the Dutch word for Vagina when the emphasis is put on the wrong syllable. yes, I found this out the hard way. how embarrassing. My Dutch certainly didn't suffer this weekend though. I was able to pick up a few of the things my friends were saying, and tried really hard the whole weekend. good practice for my dutch exam on thursday which i fully expect to fail nonetheless. it is a really hard language; even the dutch think so. I learned some new things though...for example, wisselpunt is a change point in the relay race. also, the dutch call the "funny bone" a "telephone bone" because it rings as such. (i also found this out the hard way...ouch.)
At the dinner, I was very happy to find some HP sauce on the table, which is not common in my experience of dutch restaurants. I showed my teammates how it is done and i think have provided a decent alternative to the white creamy sauce they even put on their ribs. although this kind had garlic and was actually pretty good. it is a good thing they ride bikes, because so much creamy white sauce could get to a person.
dinner conversation was great...I got to talk about home almost the entire time and i even found myself using my degree to some point to explain a little history. i guess i did learn something at u of t afterall!
the party was really fun, and for those who know what i am talking about, it really reminded me of Henley party crossed with Head of the Trent. good times!!
I'll leave you with that, as it is about time i did some studying after the weekend, and my tummy is growling.

Some visual...

Since the demise of my prized hard drive, I am trying to stay on top of photos since I have new ideas about the worth of a couple of megabytes. So here are some photos taken of a few noteworthy events, and a few of nothing in particular. May they be safely stored on the world wide web.
The first album is from the Rugby match. that was Saturday, and I already blogged about it a little bit.
The second album is from the day we went to the Maze in Vaals. The Third is from the famous Amstel Gold Road Race that happened on Sunday, and Lastly, there are a few shots from our cocktail night, Mike and Miranda's visit, and even a couple MTB I think.
Today has been pretty uneventful. Went to school, twice, came to the library, still sitting here, will go back to school soon, then to the gym (gym? what's a gym?? -HJS) and then apparently there is a big party tonight at the converted theatre we went to awhile back. It is called the Bonboniere. It was fun last time, so hopefully more of the same!
Stay tuned because tomorrow, I think I am trying to ride a road bike for the first time. Will have to be sure to blog about it. My tutor called me a mud-eater, and welcomes me to the "sacred sport". Wtf?

La Weekend...version 2

#%$&*!@#~ I just wrote a nice long post recapping what has gone on in my world. then it got lost.
So here it is again in the summary version. Blast.
-Thursday night: Ladies and I got all gussied up just for fun and went out for cocktails. then a party on Erin's floor, then Fenna and I wound up at Highlander
-Friday....can't remember much more than having dinner and watching sex in the city. had an early appointment saturday morning....
-Saturday: Met the rowing club who have accepted me! Very nice people. nice club: even has a bar and fireplace lounge. brand new boats (vespolis i think...only looked briefly) and also a girl to row a 2x with. best part: can take out a 1x whenever I want.
-Saturday afternoon: Rugby match. We had a large guesthouse contingent join a bus rented by the local pub (Shamrock) and their rubgy team who were interested in seeing Holland vs Belgium in the World Cup 2007 qualifier match. We mostly just cheered, drank beer, and wore as much orange as possible. on the way home, we were serenaded by the Rugby team from Shamrock in some of the most vile drinking songs I have ever heard. for a limited time only (it takes up too much of my webspace to leave up) see the song that starts: if you come to live in maastricht, do you know what you want to be?

A GOLFER!

Sunday: Early rise to see the start of the 40th annual Amstel Gold Race here in Maastricht. Met Mo and another fellow Jaap for a bikeride and on the way found the racers again as they passed Valkenburg. I took a great video of the peleton and the rainbow of jerseys and whoosh of wheels, but it is in line behind the drinking song for webspace, so look for it soon. also, stills from recent days to be albumized in near future.
And that brings us to today. I still have to finish reading Frankenstein so I must be off!
Cheers!

Pungents

i would like to draw your attention to one of the links on my sidebar...the Pungents need your help. Here is the direct link: http://www.pungents.com/donatehenry.htm
I think it is a good cause! check the site out because it has been totally reno'd and even includes Martina Sorbara (my favourite singer/songwriter!!) as a recent Punshine girl!!

YAY!

Rowing gets started tomorrow!! I am so excited I can barely contain myself.

Bowie's Revenge

Hello hello hello.
My days follow a pattern lately, so no doubt you are not surprised to be hearing first about a bike ride. I thought I was going with Mo, but I guess we got our lines crossed and I left without him feeling much snubbed that he never called as promised. (i know you are reading this Mo!) I started off on my own with some music to keep me company. Half way through the "Maastricht Route" I came across a cyclist with a flat. i started thinking about what tools I had with me etc in case I could lend a hand. When I got closer, i found that it was in fact MO, my prodigal training buddy. talk about bad karma, eh ditch? jk. what are the odds though? we left around the same time, chose the same route, and everything. other interesting things I saw on my ride included another freaked out horse (what is wrong with those things?!) a RED fox, a raptor of some sort flying low right in front of my for a good 25 metres and 2 fighter jets, also flying low...and it would also appear drunk because formation seemed to be a bit of an issue for one pilot. i guess that's why you practice.
When I got home, I met up with the gang from C4.20, my adopted corridor, since mine is soooo stimulating, an we piled into three cars and drove to an outdoor hedge maze. How ironic that we got lost on the way to get lost. Marco let loose a continuous strain of italian obsenities (one of these days someone is going to be an italian speaker and throw it back in his face...) and we fumbled our way through dutch/german directions, lost one of the cars in our convoy, found them again, and made it inside the maze with 20 minutes to spare before closing.
I admit, we thought it was going to be just a laugh. an easy peasy maze to occupy some time and give us something to do (and blog about...) however, we stand corrected. That maze was friggin hard. We wandered around for almost 2 hours bumping into each other, getting separated, getting lost lost lost. Finally, we succeeded and found the middle. The reward? Well, supposedly, the maze's centre is at the point in europe where germany, netherlands and belgium all converge. So yesterday I accomplished the impossible feat of being in three places at once. not just two. oh yeah, three. Pictures to follow.
Today, not so much has happened. I rode for an hour, had a little something to eat, but the cupboards are a litte bare, so ended up at the sandwich shop. i think i have to bring it home with me, because i don't know how i'll live without deli belgique. now i am at the library messing around, (i believe the technical term is "procrastinating") before dutch class tonight.
I lead my discussion group tomorrow so I had better get on with it now.

PS MARC! thanks for the CDs! they came today and I can't wait to listen. will write soon.

Just one of those days...

So you know I didn't have the best day yesterday. I went on a ride with Mo, but we missed a turn and wound up on the boringest of boring mtb routes in holland. that says a lot. all farmers roads and the smell of manure for 55km. I got chased by a tractor at one point up a hill, which was a little unnerving. he wanted to pass, but there was no way i was getting off the bike in the middle of a climb, so we remained at a stalemate until i was good and ready to get off. he waved when he went by, so i guess he wasn't as stressed about it as i was. then again, he was the tractor, and i was the lowly moutainbike.
Secondly, my tire blew on a roofing nail. This is the second time this has happened to me in my long biking career, and probably not the last. so we stopped and i did my thing (back tire again...argh) while it threatened to rain, and the temperature caught up to us.
When I got home, I was met with a pounding headache which quickly escalated to a full-out migraine, the effects of which are still persisting, although manageably. That pretty much wrote-off the rest of the day.
The silver lining:
I changed that tire like it was my JOB and reduced the time by a third.
I passed one of those f$%&%^#&@ scooters at 30km/h on my bike and left him in the dirt even when he tried to pass us again. then he turned off, so i am sure it was because he was terrified of getting his ass kicked again by a girl on bike under her own steam while he whines away on his dinky little insult to cycling.
Due to my headache, i was awarded the benefits of a 15 hour migraine induced coma. true, the headache lingered today, but i certainly feel rested.
since my caloric intake was drastically altered due to being asleep, i am consequently starving at the moment, and a little late to meet Erin for 0.55€ soup. so I am off.
send me an email so i have something to read this afternoon between classes ;)

oh yeah...

i was going to mention an incident on my ride today. first of all, i got lost again. i thought those days were over, but today it cost me an extra 20km. oh well, it was nice weather and its good for me. i found a great route that actually has some pretty decent single track on it and stuff, so i'll have to go back. the big joke is that it isn't well marked so you have to be very careful about seeing the trail guide markers. i missed two, doubled back and found myself again. of course, there was the matter of the 20km i just mentioned, so it wasn't all success.
but my scare of the day was on the way home. i saw two people walking with their horse on a lead. i thought nothing of it except to stay out of the way of its hind hooves....but when i passed, the horse freaked out!! he started rearing and whinnying and stuff and i felt so bad. i stopped to see if they needed help getting him calmed down again...and the horse looked at me with his one eye, as if i had insulted him deeply. so tempermental. what a dick. so i ditched. but it was really scary. just another day on the trail i guess. i also saw some wild cows and a pigeon with a bite out of it. that's it for wild life.

What's new?? (and old...for shame...)

So i have fallen into bad habit on the blogging front. so sorry. Baiscally, with the end of the last block taking up all my time through associated papers and exams, then my holiday, i just didn't have play-time on the internet. As I mentioned, I am finished with block 4 at UCM. thank goodness, because globalisation was really getting me down. unfortunately, i might not be done with it afterall. for shame, i might have failed. it is as funny as it is sad. i am attributing it to the fact that the teacher pretty much hates me. rightly so. sometimes i have been known to have a bit of a mouth on me, and i might have let run a little much. anyway, i didn't find out about my academic predicament until it was too late, so such is life. luckily, at UCM you get more than enough chances to make the credit. I think you can resit exams until you do pass and there isn't even a fee for that! u of t made up some "admin" fee for their rewrites costing students with legitmate reasons for missing exams an additional $70...as if those types of students didn't have enough stress. anyway, hopefully it doesn't come to that.
The advertising class Erin and i took ended on a good note. we have the highest marks in the class (final mark still pending...shouldn't speak too soon i guess) and love our tutor. he knows pretty much everything there is to know about the world of business. or at least it would seem so to my untrained self. he does have a doctorate though. I put the finishing touches on our project which i thought was pretty good, and handed it in thus ending block 4.
Block five is so far so good. much more challenging this block which is actually nice. i think it is nice because i actually like the material so far. I am taking a course called "bloody diversity" which is basically European history with a focus on state formation and evolution from the middle ages until the 2nd world war. it is really intense with lots of reading but also loaded with touristy things to do!! i used to be a history geek back in the day and it is all coming back to me now. "wow...I am standing where Charlemagne stood...that's something". The other course is a beautiful accident in scheduling and bureacratic idiocy. Apparently it was cancelled, but no one told Erin and I (who are once again in the same class...). So we raised a stink and got it reinstated on an independent study basis. It is gothic fiction by the way. so in the end, we only have to meet with our tutor once per week for an hour instead of the 6 + lectures of normal courses. Then we write a crazy long paper but to me it is a good trade. less time in class is more time on the bike, or travelling.
Speaking of the bike, things are going well. I had a minor scare last week which had me losing sleep both due to pain and anxiety. My knee wouldn't bend all the way nor straighten so i decided to see a doctor just to be safe. She told me I had a cyst!! and that it would probably have to be removed!!!! so she sent me off to an orthopedic surgeon for tests etc. but a half week after our meeting. In those three days i convinced myself of all kinds of crazy ailments. I saw the surgeon man who seemed more interested in getting home to his family than my tumour laden knee (which was probably leading to amputation or at least major surgery). He told me to take some pills and go to physio. In my experience, that's doctor talk for "don't worry about it". so i am not. it doesn't hurt anymore and if it does, i'll think about the pills. in the words of rowing coach Rob, "Physio is for fags".
Speaking of rowing, YAY. see previous post. more updates as they become available.
So what else....
if i sift through the cobwebs of my memory, i think i recall a trip to the beach i didn't tell you about yet. Erin me and Marco all hopped into his car when the first of the good weather came and went to Den Haag for the day to hang out on the seaside. It was a great day all in all...we played frisbee, kicked the soccer ball, watched the people on their horses galloping up and down the beach and wished it was us, read and snoozed on our blanket. We also saw a foot race that was making it difficult for us to have lunch at the mexican place we'd selected as we had to cut through this river of athletes. stalling, i took pictures of erin pretending to be a participant, and she grabbed some of me highfiving the willing. the one thing i haven't mentioned is that although we were promised mid 22 and sunny, it was more like 12 and grey. the fog was so thick the foghorn didn't get a break for the entire day. but the mexican place we eventually got to was great.
I would show you the photos of me and erin at the beach, however they are lost. my portable hard drive is the news this week: it crapped out. are we surprised? no. i am cursed. anyway, i have lost a lot of photos including the ones you haven't seen of monaco and a lot of school work, recipes, mp3s, movies, my "homesick" albums...so sad. luckily, most of my photos have been backed up on Cam and Fenna's computers, so don't worry. not all is lost. the do-dad is under warranty so hopefully when i get home all will be remedied.
I am not sure what else I have to say that isn't too humdrum to keep you interested, so I will sign off here. But wait...I can't end on that sad note, so here is some more good news: Cyclepath on Bloor is giving me a jersey to wear to races and stuff thus adopting me as one of their own. The other benefits of this arrangement will manifest themselves in a sweet discount on a new fiets when i get home, so i am supremely excited about that. hopefully I am fast enough to deserve said team and jersey...time will tell!! thanks sweet pete's!

i WIN

The following is a quote from my inbox:

Dear Kristen, We would like to wellcome you in our club. Plaese contact Davy who coordinates the rowing instruction and comtitive rowers in our club. He will ask you to row in one of our boats to look after your qualifications. He also will introduce you to our teams and perhaps you can qualify yourselves on one of these teams. Last week we baptised our new 8 and two 2X. and are very proud on our rowingmaterial. Our club (Maastrichtsche Watersportclub MWC) is located on Hogekanaaldijk 100 in Maastricht. You can contact Davy by E-mail Politsch@FEV.de our by phone +31434073773 Best regards Mart. Nafzger

Ahhhhhhh. That is a sigh of relief and contentment. I rule. In the war on rowing, I think I have finally made some gains.

Been busy...but technically not.

Greetings from Holland. I have been meaning to write down the goings on of the past few weeks (because I feel there is a real hole developing in my play by play...) but have been really busy being leisurely--sociallizing, riding my bike, shopping.... The girls and I just had lunch at the one place in town where there is exceptional coffee....aptly named "Coffeelovers". And now, I will attempt to get some thoughts down about Monaco before it gets too far out of memory to create a good ramble.
My journey started with a trip to the immigration offices where I was rudely gouged of approximately 700 CDN to reimburse the government of the Netherlands for whatever costs they think I incur while here for a measly 6 months. anyway, in the end, I got a really pretty stamp for my passport, so it definitely softened the blow. Then I was off to Brussels to catch my plane.
I met a nice boy on the train named Steven. He wanted to chat. *groan*. Everyone always wants to chat and snotty insensitive me just wanted to listen to music and watch the cows go by. Anyway, i was nice, and we had a nice talk...all the way to Brussels.
Since I had some time, I did a little walk around in Brussels, took some photos and such then went off to find the airport. I had Pizza Hut for lunch. HA. everything else was too expensive...a trend that continues for the following 6 days.
My flight was thankfully uneventful and I sat with a nice older couple who were off to their "other" house in Nice. Also, they have a boat. They sail around the world for fun. The lady was very chatty, and I was well practised by this point, so I was chatty too. Plus I hate flying so I was happy for the distraction. She was happy for my experiences and promised I would never forget Monaco for the rest of my life. By this time. I was so excited I could puke.

I made it through baggage claim with my bag. That deserves a whole line to itself.

When I walked out of the airport, the first thing I saw was a palm tree. I just about threw up. PARADISE.
The bus ride was scary. I wasn't sure I was going to survive to see Monaco. When I first got on, I noted there were seat belts which I thought was off. But then we started driving and it all made sense. I still have rope burn around my waist because I think our driver fancied himself a formula one driver and those mountain roads can really get to you. Then he let me off at the wrong stop, but a nice french girl directed me to the right place. I was thrilled to find that my understanding of french is almost completely intact!! Speaking is another thing, but how nice to be in a country where nothing gets by you again. I could understand things you take for granted like the headlines on the newspapers, streetsigns, menus...It was really refreshing and even more so since it wasn't english. I liked the exercise!
I met up with Mark and we walked up, up and up to the "ghetto" he lives in. Those are his words. Really his place is not a ghetto and I thought it was really nice. The location was fabulous...a five minute walk from the Casino Monte Carlo. granted, all uphill, but you get used to that.
Mark and I went out to dinner our first night to get reacquainted and such. We shared a gorgeous bottle of wine and then went for a walk to the port, and then stopped off at the hotel de paris, the most expensive hotel in europe. we had another glass of wine there while a jazz combo entertained us and some rich business man snuggled up to his very expensive prostitute. It is a strange place where the hookers are better dressed than myself. Was that snooty?
We went home again to call it a night and found Ivan (a friend of Mark and Roy's...Roy is Mark's roomate and is from Montreal) and Roy passed out from too much Absinthe. a sure sign of bedtime. The next morning, the weather was not so good, so I wrote my paper for globalization. It went surprisingly well. i think it was the palm trees...very inspirational.
That night, being Friday, the boys planned a party at Karément, a club by the water. We had our table reserved and the bottles laid out. There were 8 or so in our party and I got to wear all my best threads, which is always a treat. We drank and watched the people, danced and flirted...all in all a perfect night. Except for the flirting...an Italian boy asked to buy me a drink, so I said ok. My interest was about as fleeting as the drink, so once I had stayed a polite amount of time, I went back to find my friends. Turns out, they thought that I had left, so they took off too!! that's what you get for hanging out with boys. I was then left in a very awkward situation...my Italian friend decided to play hero and make sure I got home ok. Somehow I found it, and thankfully, they were home before me, so someone answered the door. What a pickle. I wasn't too worried though...apparently Monaco is one of the safest places on the planet. Mark says you can leave your purse in the park overnight and come back for it the next day. Certainly my purse would be untouched...i don't know what anyone in Monaco would have to gain from stealing my junk.
Saturday, Mark and I went on a tour de Monaco. The weather was superb and we walked really far. He showed me all the boats I will never be able to afford and we even saw some rowers!! I thought about asking if I could take out a boat but am still gunshy from the snooty dutchies and their "no-rowing" rules. So I just watched. Plus, they were some crazy ocean boats I had never seen before and they were using spoons instead of hatchets. It would be really cool to row on the mediterranean i would think!!
Then we got crepes and beer. We looked at all the landmarks of Monaco: the autoclub, the formula one circuit, the Lady Moura (one GIANT yacht which features its own helicopted pad and an enormous price tag.) then we walked up the rock to see the prince's house. It is actually fairly low key for a palace. very nice on the rock though. you can see both ports (there is one on either side: Monaco to the west and Monte-Carlo to the east). Unfortunately, the prince has been very ill, and dangerously close to death while I was there, but I think he is doing better now. The pope was kind enough to pray for him last week...
I tired Mark out from all the walking in the Prince's gardens and such, so we took the bus home and started getting ready for our big saturday night. for me this meant having a long nap because so much sun can get to a girl.
that day, Mark told me about the nightclub Jimmy*z. He said it was world famous, and that every celebrity and every possible car you can think of had passed by its doors. The menu is extremely expensive and in my Monaco by night guide, where the price of places is ranked out of 5 $ signs, Jimmy*z got a 6. He said "The day I pay 400€ for a bottle of vodka is the day hell freezes over." I wholeheartedly agreed! Imagine my surprise when we got home and Ivan had already convinced Jeremy, Robert, Roy to go to that very place. Jeremy and Robert are Roy's friends visitng from Montreal by the way. In Mark's defence (since hell has not frozen over), we actually had scotch. What a night. We sat in the VIP section of the most VIP place I have ever seen or imagined. Johnnie Walker was in attendance, and I was made "one of the boys" because I happen to enjoy a nice glass of scotch. It was a great night, and they even waited for me before going home this time. haha. The rest of the trip is getting blurry. I would have to consult photos, but we went to the aquarium, and that was a highlight. I saw nemo fish and was surprised at how small they actually are!! maybe only the size of a toenail! Also, there were sharks. I had italian ice cream, which was fabulous. We went to the beach and I put my feet in. It was cold, but there were people swimming so I regretted not throwing on my swimming suit that day. It was so inviting I would have loved to jump in. Lunch on a terrace for way too much money (a common theme in Monaco)...and I also went off on my own a couple of times to take pictures like the dorky tourist I am.
I forgot to mention two very Monagesque things: the cars and the casinos. My casino story is good. I took my 20€ in and exchanged it for 0.50€ tokens and played video roullette and some slots, just to test my luck. I was down to my second last token and won 50!! So i decided to put my 20€ back in the bucket and just gambl the last 5€ to see where it got me. I played a lot longer than I would have thought possible with the 5€ and seriously considered playing the original 20 again. But then I saw a girl in tears, sobbing over all she's lost and thought....nah. So I walked out even. That's more than I have ever "won" at a casino. what a success.
Lastly, the cars. Oh the cars. I have never seen so many Ferraris in my life. I was averaging 20 a day and before that I think I had seen 20 EVER. They came in all different models and colours and by the end, it wasn't exciting anymore. I could never live in a place where a Ferrari is more common than a Honda Civic. It is just too unreal. Besides Ferraris, there were also a million porsches, aston martins, mercedes, Jaguars...the place made BMWs look like a shitbox. I still only saw two lambourghinis though which I thought was great. even in this auto-wonderland, the fabled Lambourghini is still tough to come across. ah, my unicorn. I saw a Murcielago (Bat) and Gallardo (brave, elegant, gallant in one) and that's it. The best part about the 24/7 auto show in Monaco though is that you get to see the cars actually being cars instead of just furniture as they are at auto-shows and stuff. You can see them, hear them, touch them, maybe flirt shamelessly with the driver to get a ride...(I wasn't that bold this time. too bad.) Plus there is something oddly satisfying about seeing a Ferrari with some dust on the hood.
Anyway, as it comes back to me, I'll add more posts about Monaco, but in sum, it was a really really really nice time away, I had an excellent holiday. I was so refreshed when I got back and the sun really does wonders for a girl's spirits.
and now what you may have been waiting for....here are the pictures