Top 10 things I've done with my sunny days

1. Went shopping for skirts.
2. Wore my new skirts.
3. Sat outside drinking orange juice.
4. Painted Jeanine's nails outside while drinking orange juice.
5. Wore a sleeveless shirt all day.
6. Went for a bike ride.
7. Wore flip flops.
8. Did homework outside.
9. Made a sunny day music mix.
10. Blasted the sunny day music mix inside, with the door open so I could hear it outside.

Terror on the streets.

It was raining this morning when I left the house, so I put on my rain jacket. I had to bike into the wind the whole way to school, the rain being blown into my face, so I put my hood up. Then a few minutes after I left school the rain turned to ice, still being blown into my face, which was unpleasant to say the least. I held my hood down in front of my face. This meant I could not see more than two feet in front of me, but this did not appear to be a problem since the nearest person to me was a a woman a ways ahead of me yet and there were no streets/paths crossing mine for a while so I was good to go, right? But suddenly there was a woman right in front of my bike! The woman who was a ways ahead of me had stopped to put on her rain jacket... Hit the break - not quick enough - ran into the woman! Luckily the wind kept me from going fast, so I really just bumped into her... really. I felt like such a terd, or more like a stupid tourist! After several apologies in broken dutch and making sure she was fine and all was okay I continued on my way to school.

Glass half full

Rained off an on today. I left school at on off, so I wore no rain jacket. About halfway home pellets of snow started coming from the sky. My initial reaction was self-pity and whispered curses. But after a few minutes I realized life could be worse. Instead of snow pellets that bounce off my coat, it could have been rain drops coming form the sky, soaking into my clothes. I smiled the rest of the way home.

url change

I've decided keeping my full name off my blog is pointless when it is written right in the link. So I'm changing my link. To anyone who wants to keep reading my blog, I'm gonna use my dordt user name crmlvndr dot blogspot dot com or whatever for my link as of next week sometime. I know this is not the most anonymous, but I'm not exactly paranoid, just trying to get a little bit more anonymous than my whole name....
okay...
bye.

<--multiply:no_crosspost-->

nothings gonna drag me down

I've just rediscovered Elliot Smith's XO album. I love it.
Sometimes I worry too much about what I have to do instead of just doing it.
Sometimes I worry too much about why I feel so down and end up making it worse when I could just not worry about it and enjoy the day. Seriously, I've been thinking lately about those times when I get "depressed" and I'm starting to believe that if I just don't worry about it and I stop focusing on it, I feel a lot better and it actually goes away. I hope this isn't a form of stuffing that will later come back to haunt me...
I called someone in the US for the first time since I've been here. It was great. And then I decided I should probably call my mother too. When I'm in Iowa she calls almost every week, so two months is a long time to go without more than emails. (oops) Plus, I think she really misses us. and by us I mean the three of us older kids who aren't at home anymore. There's a weird thought... I remember when I was still at home thinking that some time far in the future us kids would leave the house and mom and dad would get old... Now half of us have left and it just seems so quick.

This whole week has been sunny. Apparently unusually sunny. A full week with no rain, hardly any clouds, mostly sun! I have loved every minute of it. I even bought an ice cream cone or two. I love how the sun seems to cause everything to come to life here. Kids go outside to play and laugh, more people bike, more bikers look happy, more couples are affectionate, more dogs are out playing. It's wonderful!

lekker warm

Exciting news - I'm going to Italy!!!! I booked my flight today, so it is final. I leave the 1st of may so I'm still here for Queens day.
Exciting as well was waking up this morning to a bright sunny day!! First thing I did was open my window. Then I went downstairs, fixed up a cup of koffie and sat outside in the sun watching the cats play around. Gezellig!! I was so warm I didn't even wear a jacket!
Later I went roller-blading with my host sister to pick up the cheese we made. Haven't tasted it yet. I hope it is good. I miss roller-blading.
That's all for now.

Estoy llorando en mi habitacion

A few more pictures for your viewing pleasure. Or displeasure. Whichever.






These are some weird rectangular pillars of different heights that make up some kind of monument type thing for the Jews who died during WWII.











This is me in front of the Reichstag after we toured the inside.







And this is a few girls and I straddling a brick line that marks where the Berlin wall used to be.




Again I have no class tomorrow or Friday. What can I possibly do with all this free time? Watch CSI, do homework, watch Boondock Saints, and possibly go to Groningen again this weekend. Twas the future-brother-in-law's birthday yesterday and this weekend is his birthday party. Can't miss out on that.
Sometimes I get bored here and actually miss Dordt life. At least there I don't feel like I'm always trapped in my room. If I get bored there, I can wander until I find something to do and someone to do it with. Maybe I just need to branch out more; meet more locals to hang out with when the nspicers are gone on their many trips.
I'm going to go plan a trip of my own now though. I WILL make it to Italy if it's the last thing I do! Even if I have to use up the last of my money to do so!!!

no comprendo

Most of the time language barriers do not bother me. In fact, they can make for some good times and fun stories. Take our trip to Prague, for instance. If we had known what the photo-nazis in the museums had been screaming at us we might have been less amused and more afraid. But as it was, we had no idea what “XAIHFDN FXVNEKJD YAAKAKYAKA!!!” meant in English, so we could just stare blankly at the women screaming at us shaking their fingers at our cameras and feign ignorance. “What was that? I’m too close and the picture will be blurry? Okay, I’ll try again…” “SKXLHE WOIDHG DSHFF SHNIW!!!” “I’m sorry. I’m not sure I understand? Did you say you wanted to be in the picture? I’ll get you in the next one…”

Then there was Berlin. If any of my nine companions had understood German we may have had an easier time figuring out the transportation system, but would we have an awesome story about our great reunion? No. But since none of us did speak German, when we tried to get to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, we first all started at the subway map for about ten minutes trying to figure out which line to take. When a sub arrived, we spent another two minutes debating whether or not this was the sub we wanted to take. After being told by a German man standing near us that the train would get to our destination, we immediately tried to jump on the sub, whose doors at this point were closing. About half our group (myself included) made it in, fighting the closing doors, but then it was too difficult for the rest, so we shouted through the doors that we would meet them there. At the next stop one of my companions asked if we should maybe get out and wait for the rest. We decided we should just stay on the sub and stick to our plan of meeting them “there”. At the next stop (still two stops away from our destination) we were a bit bewildered when everyone but us got off the sub and a bunch of different people got on. However, we just gave each other weird glances, shrugged and stayed on the sub. Then we started moving again… but in the wrong direction! More weird glances and shrugs… ‘maybe the sub just needed to get out in that direction but was taking a different track later?’ But what do you know! – a couple minutes and two stops later we were right back where we came from and our friends we had just left behind were still there, equally bewildered at what had just happened.

Had we understood German we would have heard the announcement on the loud speaker saying that the line we were on was under construction and thus the sub would only go halfway and then turn around and go back. Had we not had this language barrier, we would have known to get off where everyone else did and switch lines… But would we have had the fun of being completely confused and beffudled? Would our group have gotten back together after our little separation? More importantly, would those of us who left the others behind have been able to pretend we were just so nice that we came back for them?

Language barriers make boring days more fun. Like today in the library of the GH where I study. I was bullshitting around on a computer when a woman sat next to me for five minutes before saying something in Dutch which I did not understand.
"In Engels?" said I.
"How long?" said she, pointing to the computer.
"not long" said I.
Then "blah blah blah" in dutch to another woman, said she.
"Wie spreek Engels?" said other woman.
I understood that, and pointed to myself - I speak English. So other woman explained that the computer I had been using to browse the internet for the past half hour was only supposed to be used as a library catalog to search for books in the library.
"OH! Sorry!" said I, "I didn't know."
"The librarian announced it and asked those not using the catalog to go to the computers downstairs" said other woman, "but of course you didn't understand her." Then we all had a good laugh at the convenience to me of my oblivion.

P.S. My favorite thing about language barriers is watching people try to overcome them with charade-like facial expressions, hand signs, and even full body motions.

humpty dumpty sat on a wall. watch the wall fall. humpty and all.. ... . ?

I just got back this morning at 7.30 from our class trip to Prague, Terezin, and Berlin. I could tell all about it, but that will just get so long no one will read it. So instead, I'll just name some high and lowlights.

lowlights:

• Staying at what Peter called a five star hotel that just lost four of its stars.
• the rain we had almost all week
• our monotonous over-informational Prague tour guide who did have an umbrella and thus didn't shorten her speeches for the sake of those who didn't, making us stand in the rain looking at buildings and bridges while she explained things in her thick accent we could hardly understand.
• this clock tower our tour guide hyped up saying it did something special at 3... then after waiting in anticipation, finding out nobody comes out of the clock with a hammer smashing something coming from the other side. Instead some little figures of the apostles or saints or something spin slowly past two little windows at the top of the clock. They don't even come out!
• The photo-nazi women who wouldn't let us take pictures in the castle we visited.
• The castle itself, which was pretty unimpressive.
• someone taking a shit in the bus bathroom and stinking the whole bus up!
  

highlights:

• our awesome bus driver named Peter.
• the hotel rooms with balconies (which we could only get onto through the window because they sealed the doors) that were close to the balcony of the room next door so you could climb from balcony to balcony if you dared.
• The "love room".
  
• the palace guards in Prague who stood absolutely still. We took our pictures next to them and when two of our girls posed like they were going to kiss one of them, the guard slammed his long gun on the ground, scaring the crap out of them!

• 
  
• The wine tasting at 10am in the castle basement.
• The Theatre Image in Prague - I don't care if no one else liked it. It was trippy in a fun way.
• visiting a former concentration camp in Terezin... or perhaps this is a gutter?
• BERLIN!! I loved it!
• Seeing the difference between East and West Berlin.
  
• Seeing the small remaining portion of the Berlin wall with all the colors and paintings - now called the East Side Gallery.

• eating a crepe with nuttella and baileys in front of the TV Tower.
• getting on a train at the last minute while half our group didn't make it. Then being accidentally reunited because the train line was under construction so the train only went halfway to our destination and then went back where it came from - all the while we had no idea what was going on.
• Seeing Marcus eat it in front of the Reichstag building and later hear him try to explain his muddy clothes with some crazy story about saving a baby...

• The long 'lekker' nap I took when I got home!
  

THE END