Gouda

Does anyone like that cheese? I do. I also remember that Canadian commercial where the mother gives money to the little boy to run and get her Gouda. That was a good one.

So guess who decided to drop in on Leuven? That's right...Gouda boys! They were tall, blonde, Dutch and well..from Gouda. That's a claim to fame if I ever heard one. I get such a kick out of tall, blonde people. Maybe because it is such a contrast to my short, dark haired tribe. Okay, that's pretty much it, we all just d&d'd all night (Drank and danced).

And Joanna-Gallagher-Look-Alike is actually a kleptomaniac. Not only does she try and steal every unlocked biked, and LITTER like crazy, but she steals random stuff from bars, like tablecloths and wigs and boas and coasters and glasses and basically anything that isn't nailed to the table.

Other then that, since she decided to go back to Ireland for a week for Halloween (I hate her now) I have decided to stay in a study and work on my presentation for Environmental Philosophy instead. But tmrw is Halloween and I am super excited! Even though no one here celebrates Halloween.....I can celebrate it. Dammit.

Anddddd I had another slut vs. nonslut conversation today with a Belgian, who was born in American.


He totally agrees with me. And I have a thesis for my argument now...

" North Americans value instant gratification, which leads to casual sexual behaviour, while Belgians value long-term gratification, which leads to serial monogomy over the short-lived amusement of a 'hook-up'.

OH...and can also be used to explain a lot of other cultural differences! Like the prevalence of Mcdonalds...

Language

I am learning so much about languages.

Not only Flemish, but all sorts of languages.

I grew up in Toronto, where people speak a million languages and broken English. This helps a lot in a forigen country where people have varying skills in English. But really...English really IS the lingua franca.

Actually...if I were to ask a Belgian a question in English on the street, they would probably respond with better English then if i had asked someone on the streets of Toronto.

It's also really clear which people speak English the best.

People from countries who dub television (France, Spain, Italy Germnay) have a harder time speaking English, especially with pronouciation and ease of speaking.

And its funny becuase the mistakes people made are obviously b/c of their own language.

Belgians always say "I teach from you" becuase they don't have a world for 'learn' as opposed to teach.

Italians always saw 'This night' instead of 'to night' or use the definite article (the) at inappropriate times.

it really makes me appreciate being a native english speak (as they call me).

But I still want to learn French, Spanish and Hebrew and Arabic.

Everyone already thinks I can speak french just because i am Canadian. They don't really get the whole "only the french are bilingual' thing.



I make it my business to know how to say ' i don't know this language'...in the language.

It has come in extreme usefulness.

Especially when people assume I am spanish or italian. (which happens like 7 times a day, even when I start speaking english)

Or when they are drunk and forget their english langauge skills.

here is what i can say so far (phonetic spelling) :

"Ik sprake hein nederlands, ik sprake alain engels' ( I dont speak dutch, i only speak english)

"no hablo espanol" ( i don't speak spanish)

"io noso parlele italiano" ( i dont speak italian)

"je ne parle pas francais" ( I dont speak french)

" ani lo medaberet ivrit" ( I dont speak hebrew)

"maquimo Daniella" ( ITA My name is Daniella -- not danielle, euro's can't pronounce danielle

"O dizanovi ani" (I am 19 years old )

"Studio philosophia" ( I study philosophy)

Salaam alokom "hello, arabic)


I know...I know..I'm a genuis..just come out and say it!


lately though I have been trying to put out a real effort to speak french. I have only been listing to French radio, French podcasts, learn french podcasts and sometimes even trying to translate the newspaper!

I enrolled in a class, but, ahem, keep skipping it. But its really boring since I am only in level one. I will start attending when it gets past "Je suis etudiante"


I understood my first Dutch sentence the other day! "Where is my bike?". I was so proud, esp. since I'm not studying Dutch. I would love to if it was more widely spoken and they didn't already all speak English perfectly!

But for Europeans it is so natural for everyone to AT LEAST be bilingual, but it is also common for people to speak 4 languages.

In N.A if you speak one and a half languages it is impressive.


But if I learn French..(somehow...it is so difficult!) at least I will be able to use it in Canada, since bilingual positions pay so much higher!

Oh and Biblical Hebrew, which I am also taking, will also come in handy.

sluuuuut

Whoops, I think I just gave a really bad impression of North America to Boy Next Door.

I was in the kitchen innocently eating apples and honey and for the first time in Belgium, I had a conversation about sexual activities. I think it was a breakthrough. Maybe I am finally beginning to be accepted!


I have no idea how it started, but generally Boy Next Door seems to be a little bit more.....loose then my other Belgian neighbours.

I told him about rainbow parties. Which he now thinks I have actually attended. Which, obviously I have not.


Then I tried to explain to him the 'culture of hooking up'. See, because everyone in Belgium is a serial monogomist, while everyone in North America is a serial slut.

I kinda think he wants to move to American now.

And I explained how in clubs in N.A ppl actually grind to rap music and shake their ass. Apparantly here, a Belgian girl would slap them.

This is such an unslutty country!!!


The girls here are tres buttoned up and the guys keep you at an arms length. Like omg, if I give you a hug it doesn't mean I want to blow you!
Even though blow jobs here are probably like the biggest deal ever. (They are for me, as well :))

So now they think everything they see in American movies is true. Which, speaking for Canada, it isn't. But...Americans friends, and two-a-days tell me they are pretty accurate for their country.

I was just trying to explain how the atmosphere is really differnet here. Even people from Ireland, Britian and Italy agree. There is no 'going on the pull' here (as Joanna-Gallagher-Look-Alike puts it)


And I think the best demonstration of how Belgian is more sexually reserved then Canada (minus the condom machines on the street) is that this was the first in depth conversation I've had about w/ Belgians!!!

So now he thinks I'm a huge slut. I tried to tell him that..um..I wasn't...but he actually doesn't believe me. But maybe in this country I am a slut. And that would be REALLY REALLLY SAD. Because I am giant NON slut. Fo real yo.


Now excuse me as I drink a bottle of Vino Rosso Biologico and be the slutty 'uncultured north american' that I am.



Quote of the day

"Maybe because they have none of their own culture they have to replace it with sex"

Random Belgian in my kitchen refering to Americans

" Girls either have breasts or brains"

Boy next door saying that there ARE slutty girls in Belgium, they just don't go to university. I took this one personally. You too can have extra large breasts and still have an A- GPA. Fucking North American Dream.


AND just to prove that I am not making this shit up....




The Slippery Slope of Promiscuity

Once premarital sex and adultery are tolerated, women must become increasingly promiscuous in order to attract men. When a man chooses between two women, if all else is equal, he will take the woman who is more sexually available. Because of this, women competing for attractive men are caught in a downward spiral where they must compete amongst each other with increasing promiscuity. Since the invention of the pill and the advent of the sexual revolution, women have had to become consistently more sexual in their clothing and behavior. Women who attempt to dress modestly and practice restraint have difficulty attracting men from their more sexually available competition.


The Hook-Up Myth
While there are many different ways in which the College’s rural environment makes the Dartmouth experience unique, the hook-up culture is simply not one of them. Regardless of geography and academic calendar, hook-up culture dominates collegiate social scenes across the entire nation.




Hooking up, losing out? The new culture of teen sex ... and how to talk to your campers about it: healthy teens--third in a series of three articles.

Sure, sexual behavior among adolescents is nothing new. But what is new is the startling casualness and regularity with which the "hooking up" takes place. The metamorphosis from relationship-based (relational) sex to recreational sex has many experts wondering if some young people are jeopardizing their future ability to form significant emotional attachments and construct healthy adult relationships.


Told You. Fuck man i could write a best seller on this subject. Probably so could everyone else who went to Jewcamp. It could be called "Do you know where the fuck your sending your kids? Oh wait..you do ..because you want us all to have Jew babies."

K sorry Ive had 2 glasses of wine already, ill stop while im ahead.

2-4 Hour Run

I haven't blogged for almost a week! Weekends here are kind of boring, all the Belgians go home to be boy scouts leaders (I kid you not). I was supposed to go to Paris but the trains were all on strike! And the chain on my bike keeps breaking, I have just given up.

Last year and this year, I just have too much time on my hands. Even though I am taking like 8 classes I only have 3, (but really 2 since I never go to class on Wed anyways) days of class and there is not really too much work (although the readings mysteriously keep Simon and Tiffany busy) so I have nothing to do!

I have been trying to fill my time with hobbies. I, for instance, made my own pasta sauce from scratch. Then I made my own salad dressing from scratch. is great for that sort of thing.

And I joined the school's international Newspaper, The Voice.

Maybe I should start going to the gym?? Or not...

I even considered taking up rock climbing until I remembered that I was scared of heights.

Maybe I will take up painting.


Anyways, so yesterday the ppl in my rez told me about this '24 hour run' thing. Ummm..okay another Belgian oddity. Apparently all the faculties compete in a relay run and it lasts for 24 hours. Sounds exciting I though sarcastically.

So I felt like shit, because I am sick AGAIN. But I went anyways.

Holy Shit.

It was a fuking giant carnival!

Literally thousands and thousands of students were mushed together in a forest with ppl running around a track.

There were food stands and a red bull tent etc.,

I even participated in on of those things where you dress up in a cushy suit and try to knock the other person off of a bar. I will show you pics later to clarify.

I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but I felt so sick that I went home early (also with the intent to wake up for Environmental Philosophy)

Which obviously never happened.

I think I will just stay in bed alll day today.

There is a 'girls night' on my floor today which should be tres interesting.


Quote of the day

"In Belgium, We are the sluts. So You can imagine how the Belgian girls must be"

Spoken by a Dutch girl in reference to how reserved Belgian boys are

Petrikov, my new bff

I had planned to spend my evening cleaning up my room yesterday so I didn't have to sleep on the floor again.

But then I got depressed, ( there will be a large upcoming post about whyyy) and conviently got a text msg from Christina.

So I went to her flat armed with Petrikov.

No, Petrikov isn't a hot Eastern European boy with limited language skills, Petrikov is a delicious vodka drink.

It's 14% and tastes like koolaid.

Basically, it is BETTER then a hot Eastern European boy with limited language skills.

I started swigging on the way there and by the time I left I was halfway on the floor.

I'd like to remind everyone that this was lastnight, aka tuesday night, aka I have 9 am class wed. morning.

And then I started dancing ON the oak stump. Whenever I'm drunk, I just get the urge to dance dance dance on high heights. Ever feel the same? It's like instinctual.

Then I went home at 1:00 (a very reasnoable hour thank you very much) and started reading some of the rules posted on the door outside. Except they were in Dutch, but I think I got the gist. I'm sure one of them was 'Don't piss on the street" and a Dutch guy, before asking if I was British (which I happily nodded to) Translated one as "Be cozy" or something. Who knows


I crawled into my sleeping bag which I had squished onto my bed.

Then I awoke at 8:00. Puked. Got dressed. Puked again. Ate and Oat bar. Fixed my bike chain. Drank a Sprite Zero. Went to Enviromental Ethics.


and now I am finally about to do my first real load of laundry!

Wish me luck!

Dustmites

Today I switched rooms.

It took like 5 hours! And it was just down the hall. But the guy I was switching rooms with, Uber Christian, and me kept haveing like really long talks about the Bible. I made it four hours before he found out that I was Jewish. Common....that's pretty good! He was like 'Don't tell the Iranian girls!" ...yea lol NOT planning too.

And then Helpful Belgian, naturally, being incredibly helpful, installed a mirror on my wall that he bought for me at Ikea and carried home on his motorcycle. I think I might buy him some chocolates....

He has like a collection of power tools, its pretty hot actually. I haven't met too many people who know how to use them, remember that I'm the girl who tried to hammer in a screw....


Actually I'm not a fan of Helpful Belgian anymore, he called me both fat AND stupid. Oh and Uber Christian, after seeing my shoe rack, said "I thought you were a normal girl, but now I see that you are not".

I feel so loved today.

So now my room is a crazy crazy crazy mess and I'm going to camp out on my floor in a sleeping bag. After I do my presentation that's due at 9:00 tmrw of course....

Bubblegum never tasted so good

So I just came back from Amsterdam.

I think.

I could have been in Liverpool.


Amsterdam is apparently populated entirely of British men. I would think people were speaking Dutch, but actually, their British accent is just so thick it took 2 minuites to sink in.

So I'll start from the beginning.

I woke up on Friday, eager to being the Journey. I got ready and walked out the door to get my bike. And then I realized that my bike wasn't pedaling. I had to take a 12:00 bus from Brussels, and it took half and hour to get there, and it was 10:50.

So being mechanically inclined I tried to hook the chain back on myself. Black grease was coating my hands as a random guy came up to me, flipped my bike over and put the chain on in under a minuite.

'Whats your name'? I asked him "Rrrrrroberto" he answered. Spanish? Dutch? Who knows who my Mystery Hero is.

So I got to the train station late and looked at my phone when I realized I had 6 missed calls from Joanna-Gallagher-Look-Alike.

We had missed the first train, but it was okay, the next train would come at 11:24 which would give us about 7 min. to get our tix and haul ass to the busses.

The guy at the bus counter was super rude and kept being like 'twenty-four past two"
in a really monotone voice that only people who have to deal with ques all day long can affect. But he meant that it was 24 past the hour on platform 2. Which we eventually figured out.

Then I went to go get a pastry for breakfast and Joanna-Gallagher-Look-Alike went to go get a magazine. (British Cosmo! So much better then American).

And then we missed the train!!

But it was okay we figured. We had only missed 2 trains so far...and the next one would get us there 5 min. past 12. oooopps.

So I texted Christian Singapore and Pretty Polish girl who happened to be on the same bus to HOLD UP the bus no matter what it took.

But luck for us the bus was an hour late anyways!

Close call.

So eventually we get on the bus (which was an hour late and took an hour longer then it was supposed to). Naturally we just listened to conversations around us to amuse ourselves.

"Don't lots of Canadians want to be American though?"
"Um no. No one does."

[Overhead btwn blonde american and blonde Canadian sitting behind us]

"I don't want to date a rugby player. They have really good asses though"

OH, and did I mention we had NO IDEA WHERE WE WHERE GOING TO STAY!?


So we got off the train and thanks to my trusty guidebook made our way over to a hostel. Booked solid. Then we went to Bobs Youth Hostel. There was a big sign on the door saying 'FULLY BOOKED'. We went in anyways. Plan B was train station. The guy at the desk happened to be from Toronto as well. Wow...now isn't that amazing? And JGLA told him how much our friend had loved it there.

He said he only had one bed. We offered to sleep in to together.

No deal.

After 10 min of nail biting, a miracle occured..a girl had come down and said she didn't want to stay there anymore. Lucky Lucky Lucky day!

We tossed our shit up there and went to go explore.

The whole city smelt like weed. Esp. the lobby of our hostel where ppl where just chillin w/ there bongs.

We walked around, not really sure what to do. It was really late by now and we half attempted to go to the Van Gough museam since it was open late on Fri. nights.

We decided to just start smoking.

Except I was sick and being the responsible good girl that I am, I refused to further damage my throat.

But thats okay, Amsterdam has other options.

A.K.A Space cakes!

It tasted like a regular cake, except and hour and a half later I found myself giggling at nothing in particular.

We just walked and walked and walked around.

I really have to say that w/o sex and drugs, the only reason to visit Amsterdam would be for the canals, which aren't even AMAZING. Oh, and plus the museams.


There was a square with clubs in it, and a fair going on in the middle of town. We went to a bunch of coffee shops until we decided on one. What happens is that there is a menu detailing the various options. We asked a lot of questions and finally decided on 'Bubblegum' Actually, the guy reccomended it to us. Did he think we looked like girls who would smoke a weed named 'bubblegum'? Apparantly so.

I know I said I wasn't going to smoke...but.......just a little. Sooo strong.

We smoked half the joint, maybe half a gram combined, and were totally baked.

We walked around the city again, got lost, ate massive amounts of falafel, fries and fine...Mcdonalds, and ended up at our hostel where we promptly fell asleep.

I expected to be half dead the next morning, but I awoke with surprising ease. And my throat was better, so forget Riccola, go for Bubblegum.

I woke up early with the intent to go to Shul. Yes...Shul. There was this cool, old Shul that was open sat. for service, so I though, why not? But I got there to late and was not appropriately dressed so I gave it up and instead went to the Jewish museam next door.

And that was an experience. It was like a showcase of dinasours. They had Torahs and all these ritual Jewish items. And video's of Jews and their customs.

I was like..umm....hello...I'm still HERE.

I felt like I was walking through an exhibit of an ancient, extinct civilization.

I also bought a museam card which entitled me to free museams for a year.

Which would have been awsome. Except that I LOST IT. How you ask? I have no idea. I ddidn't lose any of my other cards. Just that one. It remains a mystery.

I was super pissed off, this meant I had to pay entrance fees everywhere plus the cost of the pass.

So we ended up walking around the city somemore, trying -sort of- to find the free Cannabis College, but it never ended up happening.

That is the most confusing city I have ever been in. It's ridiculous and so easy to get lost. It is organized by Canal Rings and all the streets curve and blend...

That night we decided to get drunk.. And high. I was considering getting Shrooms...but...I don't know...I wasn't sure about it so I refrained.

We got this big bottle of some sort of red flavoured vodka.

Then I remembered that I had to do my philosophy work, since I have a presentation next week. Philosophy and pot goes beautifully together.

We met a bunch of Brits (Shocker!) and chilled with them for a while.

I read Descartes 4th mediations, a bit of the 5th ones, too some notes (while toking of course), felt like I had accomplished something and then set out to the Red light district.

NOTE TO SELF: When on a budget, do not smoke. You will just end up spending all your money on food. Specifically Wok to Walk. The number one take-out chinese place that I wanted to go to. Dontcha love the name? The last day I creeped on this guy who was eating from it. I think their chain should expand, it's a genuis idea.


Anyyyywas...Red Light district took a while to find, but when we did, there were the requisite Brits, gross ppl asking us for 'Sucks and Fucks" and prostitues. In all their half-naked glory. A lot of them, in fact, almost all, were foriegn and either black or asian-brownish.

They weren't hot or anything, they were just normal women. It really makes you wonder why they are in that position. I heard they can make up to 700 euro a day and they pay about 130 euro an hour for the window, so that can be pretty good money. But still....like...to have sex with gross tourists 10 times a day?

A lot of curtains were closed...and ya know what that means!

We got out of there and walked around SOME MORE.

P;S my legs KILLLLLLL right now and are super sore.

We went back to the hostel I saw a group of guys on the stoop.

Hmmm... what are they doing there? French frogs smoking a joint outside the hostel?

They reason they were there was because the hostel was locked.

shiiiite.


oh...and JGLA had lost our room keys.

Super..really...this was exactly what I wanted at half past four in the morning...to be locked out of my hostel, keyless, high and tired.


We walked around trying to look for the key, to no avail obviously.

When we got back, I noticed there was a little bell saying 'night'. So I kept buzzing it and someone came and yelled at me for buzzing it!

Our room was open for some reason, but we had to sleep in our clothes since we had no key to our locker.

The key was like a 20 euro depostit :(

We kept losing shit, we really have to be more responsible.

I will write about day 3 tmrw.

Trading Spaces

Helpful Belgian has struck again!

He came up to me as I was walking in from Pangea, the international bar/meeting place and told me that since I had commented several times how quiet my hallway was that if I would like to switch room with this other guy who had commented how noisy his hallway was.

Hellllls yea I would.


When I'm not around ppl, I get bored. And I HATE being bored.

So after Amsterdam, I get to switch rooms. I think his might be smaller though, or it is just the way his furniture is arranged. But he has the GREATEST view. It is of the canal, I'll take a picture of it soon.

On other news, AMSTERDAM TMRW!! And I'm glad I booked the bus tix when I did, b/c now they are like 6 euro higher.

So I'm not even going to bother to clean my room, b/c I will just move everything after anyways.

The Busker Mystery

The weirdest thing happened today and yesterday. They are like random Jewish-related things.

Yesterday infront of the ancient courthouse in the town square were women protesting the 'occupatin of palestian'.

You know those women in Toronto at the UJA rally? Who wear all black and look sombre? Yea, well those were them. No one was paying them the slightest bit of attention except for the only Jews in the square : me and my uncle.

I haven't heard anything about Israel since I've been here, so that was really weird.

And fucking annoying self hating Jews.

And then today I went to this new grocery store which is AWESOME, and I heard this song.

It was a familiar song.

I turned around and there was a busker with an accordian.

and he was playing......



HAVE NEGILAH

Is that not soo weird?

Is he a Jew?

Should I have invited him over for dinner?


Was he homeless?

How did he learn that Song?

Will I see him again?

Visit from Igloo-Land

Today my Uncle came to visit me! He was doing a trip of Romania and Bulgaria and decided to stop off.

We toured the town and ate. I actually ate at a good restaruant! Yay! He printed out a list from the internet called "10 things to do in Leuven" and it was funny cuz he actually crossed out things on the list like 'Party in the Oude Markt' and 'Beer Taste'. So instead we went to the recommended restaruant and had rare Filet Mingon (I break my self imposed veggitarianism for special cases). It was literally bleeding on my plate. Aweesome.


Plusss...I made him bring a suit case for me. Which my mother overstuffed with food even though I explicitly told her that I wasn't starving and it was a waste of space that could be much better spend with more hoodies.

But at least now I am not starving when I go to bed because I was too lazy/cheap to buy food.


I didn't go to class today..again. Someday I will....like tmrw. I basically have 2 days of class from 9-8, and one day of a 2 hour class and the rest of my time I have...nothing...to do.

I was thinking of joining the rock climbing team. But I am scared of heights. And the 'initiation' nights are the next 2 sundays in a row, the wknds I am going to Amsterdam and Paris. Probably a good thing, I would just end up crying on top of a rock in Northern France and being eaten by a giant spider.

Speaking of which, the spiders are BACK in my showers. And there is also a bee now. They're kind of my friends now, I like to talk to them. And threaten to squirt them with shampoo if they misbehave and come down.

I'm sick again. AGAIN. This has been happening for a few years. Like I will be sick for 3 days at a time every week or so. It will disappear and come back. I need to let myself fully recover from my illness.

But there is so much beer calling to me...

Today for instance I had 2 delicious Krieks (yummy cherry beer) and a tasty Leffe Blonde which comes in a giant glass. It is very light and refreshing, but Kreek is still great if you want more of a fruit-juice tasting drink w.o being sweet.

And my tolerance is def. rising. I wasn't even tipsy!

K i have to go to sleep becaue I am determined not to miss my 9am philosophy of technology class! (fascinating eh?)

Second Encounter with the Po Pos

My goal is NOT to get deported.

I had a pleasant day. The sunshine was streaming through my window as I awoke at 1:00 pm. I went grocery shopping. Ate some food. Bought a disgusting Thai sauce. Did some handwashing.

Then I cycled like a madwomen to catch the grocery store before it closed. I swear, I was thinking, "I wish they would make a house brand vodka" when I stumbled across one for 11.50 euro. I bought a pink bottle of some sort of juice ( which ended up tasting exaactly the same as amoxicilin. k fuck. im drunk as im wriring this. and i cant liek manage to spell properly. an di dont ffiucing care.

so i got fucking drunj tongiht. which was awesome. i danced. had somefries. ran into spanish ppl. ran into blackppl. then ran into the poooooliiiice. it was great. I had Joanna-Gallagher-Look-Alike on the back of my bike when the police were behind us. but they were in a normal car so i didnt know that they were bein==d us. then they stopped us and asked us for ur passports. bt weplayed the dumb forigener carr. and flirted with them. they were hot actually. and then this random bystander said to the police "what are you , the CIA?" which was werid because we were in belgium not america and he was cleary belgian and said it in english. weliked that he was sticking up for us, but then like 2 police got out of there car. and then a back upcar came. wer weregoing to run rom the scene. but we didn.t and then this black guy was folling us. but then we waslked/cycled home and then this random guy who i doingt know but she konws gave her al ift home. and then i cycled home. and now im hom. wrting this retarded post.


basircall......tonight was fun. i got drunk for the first time. like REA;LLY drunk for the first time. sooo prou of mself.

i was doing bloody back walkovers. i havent done that since i was 10. and i was doing cartwhees in the sreet.


i a m going to be so fucking sore tmrw. dammit. i didnt even stretch.

and for some reason a bloody smurf picked me up.

k i will regret this tmrw. ohhhh well. have agoooooood night.

Thrifty

I am trying to stay on a budget and it requires me to be frugal. I am becoming a frugal MASTER.

For instance, instead of paying 4.50 euro to launder one load of clothes, I decided to hand wash clothes.

Although I actually have been doing my laundry for quite a while, I have always been wary about handwashing. I mean...does it REALLY get clean?

So I decided to enlist some professional help: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-hand-wash-your-laundry

I had half a bottle of washing powder I got for free at a lingerie store in Toronto. (Tip#2 Load up on freebies wherever and whenever they appear). Since I don't have hot water in my room, I boiled some water in my brand new (11 euro) kettle, dumped in some powder and washed the shit out of my underwear and wife beaters.

I pulled out a string from the curtains I got at a second hand store (2 euro) and tacked them in my wall (free from the guy next door)

They are now hanging to dry.

I'm pretty proud of myself. I can just imagine my great-great grandmother doing the same a century and a half ago in a shetiel in Ukraine.

When beer starts to taste like shit

I have reached a milestone!!! I can tell the difference between shit beer and good beer! Mazel Tov to me!

I was sick of not drinking (for a whole 4 nights!) so picked up a 6 pack at the local Nacht Winkle. It was pretty expensive, 5 euro for 6 cans. Me and Christina went to Joanna-Gallagher-Look-Alike's residence where Macho Portugese also lives.

He told me all about his bullfighting. Actually. Bull. Fighting. Apparantly, it is 'better then sex'. Various other Gems that came from his mouth this week are:

"Irish Girls are the Ugliest Girls" Told to an Irish girl

"She needs to gain some Kilos on top" He claims he was not refering to her breasts.

"I don't like big breast either though" He's basically Goldilocks.

"Girls are not satisfied when we lie or when we tell the truth. They are impossible to please!". Um..no they're not, your just kinda an ass.

Then we drank. Tall Netherlands was there for a while as well.

We went to a so-called philosophy party. I managed to sneak in my shitty beer, (thank you Christina's purse) but one got taken away by the "bouncer" aka, a 5'7 guy in a striped polo. It was fun. Lots of dancing. My glands still hurt, so I couldn't crazy rock out.

Don't even get me started on the music they have in clubs. It is RARE to hear a hip-hop English song. They play the weirdest English music, like songs from the 70s or something that I have never even heard of. It is usually not grind-your-ass beats.

Cotton-Eye-Joe was a song they played. AND NO ONE KNEW THE DANCE. Was I the only one there who went to bar mitzvahs circa '98?

Instead, they had these weird German/French songs where everyone in the club would like dance in a circle or put their arms on each other. I think it must have been there 'Summer of 69" songs.

Then we went for fries and went home.

Joanna-Gallagher-Look-Alike wanted to steal a bike. She's turning Belgian. So she tried out all the bikes to see if they were locked. She found one that wasn't, but the wheel was fucked up. The place where they rent bikes actually ran out of bikes, so what's a girl to do?

Mystery Flu

K so I haven't posted in a while (aka 3 days, but it feels like forever) This is mainly because I have come down with a mystery pseudo flu that has developed from my sniffle.

All of a sudden I woke up and couldn't get out of bed because my neck and back muscles wouldn't co-operate. It felt like I had been doing heavy lifting or pushups. Which was obviously, not the case.

It got better over the next few days, but my glands are still really swollen. But I feel totally fiiiine. It's just these damn swollen glands. And I can't go to a doctor cuz I don't have health insurance. Now I know how Americans feel!

I keep running into Jew-Boy everywhere. Christian girls keep have discussions on circumsized penises. Almost not Europeans have seen one! Isn't that weird? And they all want to , purely for observational purposes, of course. So every time I run into Jew-boy, thats all they talk about after. Because, unlike me, he doesn't try to hide his identity.



Before a Spanish party a few days ago (b/c of the Mystery Flu, I was sober) so Joanna-Gallagher-Look-Alike picked me up with Macho Portugese and we went to Tall Netherlands girl's (the girl who let me ride on the back of her bike) residence. There I saw Jew-boy, who decided to join us at the Spanish party.

We got lost looking for it, but it was okay because we passed Billy's, this great ice cream stand, where I got my FOURTH scoop of the day. But I don't feel guilty, I was sick. This country doesn't have proper ice cubes. I need something to soothe my inflamed throat! Okay , fine, it's an addiction. But such a gooooood addiction.

So anyways, we got to the party and it was soo cute. Behind their house is an abandoned house, where they held the party. Naturally, like happens so many times in this country, I had horror-movie fantasies. I'll put up a pic when I can, but you could almost feel the guy with the chain saw entering to slaughter young and innocent international students, vulnerable in a foriegn country.

I have a sick mind..I know.

I told this Spanish guy that I was Irish, along with Joanna-Gallagher-Look-Alike. So he goes to her "I can't really understand what she is saying". By she, refering to me, the NATIVE English speaker. My accent must have been realllly bad. So then Joanna-Gallagher-Look-Alike just said that I spoke Gaellic because I was from the north. Then the guy turns out to be in my French class. Awesome.

Then, ss I sipped on my lemon Fanta, I met Snotty Economist. She, is also, a Jew. I knew she was a Jew from the first time I saw her at the first international party I went too. It wasn't hard. She had dark, curly hair, a black coach wrislet and walked with true JAP attitude.

At first I pretended that I was Irish, ya know, for kicks. But as the conversation progressed, I felt bad and told her the truth.
I learned all about Wharton's school of economics from her,(the best)
what the starting salaries would be when she graduated,(150 k)
what her parent's profession was,(mother has her own orthodontist practice, works 25 hours a week)
how she had already been everywhere in Europe, (but wanted to travel with me still) o

oh and yea..in case you couldn't have infered already, that she was a Jew. I didn't bother letting her know that I was too. I'm not really into that these days.

We all decided to leave the party and go to a bar. After Jew-Boy tried to haggle with the bouncer over cover charge, and after Snotty Economist fell off my bicycle in the middle of the square, do you really have to ask why I'm not into that these days?

Concussion

This is SO embarrasing. I should not be posting this on the internet. But whatever. Everyone should know that I"m a huge klutz.


I woke up this morning so out of it. I think it was because I was sick and only had a few hours of sleep. I was really disoriented.
So I put on my slippers and walked the mile to the bathroom. On the way back I saw a chinese guy and asked him if I could use his kettle. After a minuite of trying to translate "Kettle...boiling water..tea..water..hot...steam" it worked out. So as I was about to open my door...

My feet flew out from underneath me and I SLAMMED my head against the hard, hard floor.


And just like that, the cobwebs cleared from my brain.

So..if you ever need to wake up for class, forget espresso, try the Kubes Cure and smack your head.

I hope I didn't actually get a concussion. I don't think I've fallen like that in 10 years though.

I was late for class but at least I WENT.

I learned all about Darwinism as I sipped my chamomile tea. And loudly blew my nose.

Does anyone else get really awkward about blowing their nose? But its like...you just have to do it. There is just no other choice. I can't leave class every time I get stuffed up...

Then I went to the bookstore, but the one book I needed they didn't have, so I think I will just photocopy everything. Even though I hate reading from photocopies, it is way cheaper and I won't have to lug books in my already overstuffed suitcase.

K ...off to the advanced Philosphical Anthropology class where we will be discussing idolatry..as Jesus glares at us on the wall.

Sniffle

It rained again today. Hard. And I binged on dark rasberry chocolate and addictive ginger cookies.

I woke up this morning really sore as well.

But on the bright side, I caught the first episode of Gossip Girls on Tv Links.

I went to my bank to ask them about transfering money, but being lazy and because of the 40$ fee, I think I will just keep taking money out of the ATM in 600 euro amounts for 5$ a time.

Although I didn't have class, I decided to do some work. I went to the philosophy library (looking very collegiate in my American Apparel unisex grey oversize cardigan) to take notes on Environmental Philosophy articles.

The article was actually really interesting and basically said that philosophers are now deriving ethics from nature, to create ethical laws on how we should treat nature.



I watched 28 days later with ppl in my pseudo residence. It's so weird cuz everyone has different accents when speaking English. It's interesting to see how we all communicate. So we watched the movie..and ppl kept leaving and I didn't even notice. ANd like almost at the end everyone decides to leave! And ..like...why would you leave a movie when it's almost done?

Just because its midnight on a school night? These ppl are serious about their studies.

So I went to Tv Links in my own room and watched it myself.

I know...it is always the smartest thing to watch a European horror movie by yourself in an ancient building in Europe