continuing?

The other day, I was sitting in our living room/dining room, reading about a documentary I couldn't watch. Our living room is Alex's, Justin's, and for the time being, mine. Alex was in the kitchen, and he remarked that I should blog more about food, because "you know so much about it." I thought that was a poignant remark, because I hadn't told him what I was reading about. So here it goes:
The documentary was made by a nutrition instructor and film maker wife and husband duo about whether or not it was possible to maintain a healthful diet on the approximately $1/person/meal that the food stamp program (SNAP-supplemental nutrition assistance program) allots. I was really intrigued by the concept, but the film has yet to make it to dvd and is currently making the rounds of film festivals and public screenings in Berkeley. So, I still don't know whether it was possible, but from the clips on the website, it seems like they were pretty hungry all the time.

I think that I will try to blog about food and food issues, if I keep this blog up. I find that whenever I have nothing to do, and after I've check and rechecked the emails, facebook, and twitter universe, I inevitably turn to the bookmark folder called "food/blogs." I read a lot about food in different contexts, and I hope to share some of that with all of you. I also cook a lot of food with my friends, and I like to talk about that, so you'll be sure to hear about it here.

So far, the most successful meals at Dinosaur house have been many meals of huevos rancheros, a delicious carne asada barbeque, a nom nom chicken parmigiana that I had little responsibility for, and tyler florence's ultimate lasagna.

I'm also going to start working in the F.E.A.S.T. garden on campus, so I'll hopefully learn lots of cool stuff.

I've been reading the 75th anniversary Joy of Cooking cookbook as if it were a novel, so I should also be getting some good stuff there.

P.S. Barcelona, Larkin's, Spitz, taco truck, kogi truck, coffee table, and frozen yogurt!!! they're all as good as I'd remembered them.

livejournal status

So, I'm sure that it's because my semester abroad is coming to a close, but I'm sitting in the dark, alone, in my bed, feeling nostalgic. Facebook has a way of making you remember all the different parts of your life, when you see the profile of someone you haven't seen, let alone thought about, in years. I wonder what it would be like to put all of my friends, from all the different periods of my life, into one room. Sometimes, when I talk to people I went to middle school with, or other people from back in the day, they are still in Santa Barbara, maybe going to school, but generally hanging out with the same people, doing the same old stuff. I don't know how I feel about that. At first, I think, wow, I just spent four months in an AMAZING city, living on my own, and those people hang out at Muddy Waters still. Some of them have become really successful musicians, other people are doing the same things that I am: finishing school, studying abroad, making new friends, forging new paths. I feel really lame writing about how a chapter in my life is closing or whatever.

I feel like I've always been a pretty cool kid, if I was usually ahead of the curve (aka was not actually cool, but then was vindicated when what I did became cool). I feel like I'm headed back to America with a much better sense of who I am, which I suppose is the point of studying abroad.
I feel like I'm finally old enough to start 'real life.' You know, do all of those things you talk about doing someday, instead of sitting in an office all summer. I still don't know if I have a job waiting for me, but I'm not actually worried, but I might be a little scared.

I'm going to miss Amsterdam, if I haven't said that enough. But I am ready to leave. I haven't finished my last paper, but it will get done. I haven't done a lot of the things I wanted to, but that's okay. Now I'll have an excuse to come back. I've spent the last couple of days working, packing, watching youtube videos. The weather in Amsterdam has been fabulous, but I haven't been taking advantage of it. I hate making plans, because plans become obligations. I'll try to work on that. I'm excited that so many of my friends will be in L.A. this summer. I probably have a very romanticised view of what it will be like, but I hope reality can come at least a little bit close to what I imagine.

I'm starting to think about the whole grad school, culinary school, life after college thing. I really thought that college was the last thing. Literally. You went to school, you got into college. There was no next step. There was that vague thing about growing up, but I never paid enough attention to it. Now I'm scrambling to figure out my next move. I know that I still have time. I just hope the economy makes some jobs so that I might have one someday.

Enough of my 2am rambles. I'll be home in less than 48 hours. GET EXCITED!


I hate when songwriters rhyme a word with itself. It doesn't count, and it makes the rhyming seem really trite and conceived, instead of natural and organic.
Also, youtube has a new play list feature. I'm in love.

Work, Work, Work, PLAY

That is my new version of the popular children's game, duck, duck, goose. It is also what I've been trying to do this past week.

I have been pretty successful. I have a draft done for a mini-conference in class on Tuesday. I have a pretty much finished paper (I might do a bit of editing), that I'll be handing in on Monday. Then I'll be hitting the streets to do some more fieldwork for my shortest paper that I have yet to start. I'm slowly losing steam, but I actually think I'm churning out some decent work.

That was the work work work part of my week.

The PLAY part started when I met Adam Greenhouse for lunch on Wednesday. He was the second in a long string of Oxy people passing through or staying in Amsterdam. We are currently hosting about 10 Oxy kids in the beautiful city. It's been surprisingly nice to have so many people to talk Eagle Rock with.

It has both helped to mitigate my ever increasing home-sickness and gotten me even more excited to get back. However, it has also increased my aprehension to leave Amsterdam. I'm having a lot of fun, even though I'm doing a lot of work.

I'll be leaving in just over a week. It really is coming to an end too fast!

There will be more updates when I'm not typing on the public library's weird metal keyboard....

winding down or winding up? and some food

My days in Amsterdam are slowly ticking by. I'm trying to get everything I need to do out of the way so that I can focus on those things that I still haven't done (enough of, in some cases).
Most of my school work will be done by May 28th, if I'm lucky. Right about now I'm averaging three or four hours of solid work a day. That seems like not enough, but it also seems like SO MUCH.

Yesterday was Sami's graduation. I'm sad that I missed it. I am also sad that I missed the family caravan/wine tasting that happened on the way up north. Today is Oxy's graduation, and I am sad to miss that as well. I also (not so secretly) hate everyone else for being done with school by now!

I'm going to miss Amsterdam. That is without question. I don't know whether I will miss the city or the people more at this point. I know that I'll be back in Europe soon, so I'm not too worried. I just want to get the most out of living in the city, because in all likelihood, if and when I come back, I'll be a tourist again.

I make more lists than this blog would have you believe. So here is a list, about food.
When I get back to America, I want to eat the following food. If anyone wants to come with me, or even take me, I'd be all for it!
In no particular order:

• The Stinking Rose
• La Super Rica
• The Melting Pot
• Auntie Em's
• Larkin's
• Spitz (they now have a happy hour and a location in Little Tokyo!)
  
• BarCelona
• Coffee Table
• Starbucks (I KNOW, but I miss American Coffee)
• I guess Swork, to find retribution for the starbucks)
• Fred 62
• 8 oz burger bar
• ketchup
• Natural Cafe
• Restaurant Komasa (this bomb sushi place next door to the little tokyo spitz and an american apparel)
• Benihana
• Sonia's taco truck

That's all I have for now, because I should get back to that work I mentioned earlier.

you down with OPP*?

*OPP=Other People's Parents.

I meant to write about last weekend, while it was still last weekend. It was Alex's birthday, and as such, his parents both visited. Justin's mom was also in town for the weekend. We suspect that she planned it on purpose, to be here for mother's day.

I had yet another reason to go to museums and eat delicious food. On Friday I went to the book market in Spui, then dinner at vapiano. I actually did a bit of work that day, which did not happen again all weekend. Saturday, we went to the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum, but not before filling up on nom nom pannekoeken upstairs. We had dinner at the Kantjil & de Tijger. My favorite! Then later that night everyone I know and their mothers (literally) went for a drink at a cafe around the corner. It was really nice to have actual discussion with people who have been in America recently. It also helped that they were adults and had anything to actually talk about besides getting really fucked up.

Mother's day was also Alex's birthday. We wanted to go to the Rembrandt house, but it was closed to prepare for some other exhibit. We went to this neat part of town that I'd never been to filled with galleries and antique shops. We looked at lots of old and new dutch art. I found it really interesting to look at art with someone who paints for a living. and by interesting, I mean secretly intimidating.

We met back up with Alex and his parents to see this art exhibit that featured the winners of a photojournalism competition. Some of the photos were heartbreaking, some of them were beautiful. It was really nice. We ended up eating dinner at this tapas place that I pass every time I go to Kantjil. It was yummy, but I still miss Bar Celona.

We were on a mission to get Alex uncomfortably drunk, because even though turning 21 in Europe is highly anti-climatic, you only turn 21 once. We had some drinks at home (specifically white Russians, because Alex likes them.) White Russians taste decidedly like a composed bailey's. You can taste all the different layers. We were going to go to this really cool bar, but as we rode past, it looked super dead. Not much came from the rest of the night.

Then it was Monday again, and I had to return to the realization that I had not fulfilled my quota of work. Oh well.

Last night, after the Dutch final I wrote about, our instructor took us out for drinks. I think it's partly due to the fact that my dinner consisted of [delicious] appetizer things like bruschetta and caramelized onions with blue cheese and pears, and champagne and wine [yesterday was my other friend caroline's birthday]. Anyways, I got really into taking to my professor, and didn't end up moving on with everyone else to another bar for her birthday celebrations. I also didn't have my phone or my keys, which were locked in Giulia's room. Everything worked out fine, and I hung out with some new peeps whilst waiting for urrbody else to come home. It was a weird night.

Tomorrow I'm going on a day-trip with CIEE to some windmills and something else that I can't remember. Hopefully it is another day well spent.


Oh yeah, in a moment of weakness the other night, I got a twitter. If you're into that sort of thing, or if you have a twitter yourself, hit me up.

'final' thoughts.

I have a final in 20 minutes and I just wanted to share a bit before.
I wish that every semester I would remember that everything will get done, that I learn a lot in school, that I retain at least a bit of it. In other words, I wish that I could just take tests and write papers without all of the anxiety that usually just gets in the way of being productive!

Here goes nothing. This test insn't a big deal at all. My average in the class is something like 8.7, which is way above an A average. I would have to get less than 70% on the test to maybe not get an A in the class.
okay.

pep talk done.

who knew that April was over?

So,

I know that I never quite finished my Irish tale, and I haven't told you of all the stuff I've done since then. Here's a quick update:

1. Irish Vacation: Super fun, we went to Howth, ate twin cones, went on a free tour of Dublin, learned lots of historical stuff from a super cute Irish guy named Connor. Flew home after every flight into Amsterdam had been delayed because of all the fog.

Enter Amsterdam,
it was a beautiful morning, and since the fog (which was now no where to be seen) had delayed our travels, I missed class. That turned into a trend, because that entire week, I only went to my two hour dutch class.


I went to a CIEE dinner at Hannah's house. Her chocolate lab, Sadie, is the cutest thing ever, or at least the cutest dog I've seen in this country. We had tacos, which weren't that great because Dutch people hate delicious, spicy, Mexican food.

There was another week of class. I had trash duty for my apartment. I don't remember much of what we did. Although I did start watching 30 Rock, which is a tremendously funny sitcom, and I am currently on a huge Tina Fey kick. I've watched Baby Mama and Mean Girls as well.

The last weekend in April (who knew that April went by so quickly!?!?!) CIEE took us on another outing. This time we spent the weekend in Schiermonnikkoog. It means Grey Monk Island, although I suspect that it isn't really a direct translation from Dutch. Oh well. I went mudflat walking, laid out in the sun, ate more yummy ice cream, hung out at the beach, and in the forest, and generally had an excellent time. I brought tons of fun things to do, and everyone wanted to play frisbee, or cards, or catchphrase. Best weekend ever.

After we returned from the grey monk island, we had three days of classes until a huge long weekend full of holidays. Queen's Day is the biggest national crazy party. I don't know how long it has been going on, but it is a celebration of the Queen's birthday. The current Queen, Beatrix, celebrates her birthday on April 30th, which was her mother's birthday. Beatrix's birthday is sometime in January, which doesn't really translate well to national party time. So on this day, everyone wears orange, drinks a lot, and has garage sales. Queen's day is the only day of the year that Dutch people are allowed to sell stuff on the streets, so everyone busts out blankets and any old stuff they have lying around. We had a little barbecue on Prinsengracht, which is one of the main canals. It was so much fun to hang out and watch the boats go by playing really loud music. Drinking at like 10am and sitting out in the sun all day is actually really tiring, so Justin and I went home to nap at around 4.

Apparently during a parade in Appledoorn, some small town, someone crashed their car, in an attempt to kill the royal family! This was a big deal, but you can find clips of the crash online, and it seems rather pathetic. The Royal Family was riding in some not-classy double-decker bus, and the car didn't even hit the bus. FAIL. Not that I'm condoning it or anything, I just thought it was a crappy way to go.


So, that was Thursday. Alice, an Oxy student who is spending the year in Berlin came for the week. We tried to ride our bikes to see the tulips, but we had really bad directions, and decided instead to go to Vondelpark. I'm glad that I finally went, because it was always really embarrassing to admit that I'd never been. I do like the westerpark much better (that park I blogged about a long time ago). Speaking of which, one day between now and Ireland, Justin and I went and read books in the sun at the westerpark. It was a beautiful day.

We made really spicy sezchuan stir-fry with tofu and yummy vegetables the other night. It turns out that the chinese food was where the dutch have been hiding their spice. It was soooo spicy. We went out to a bar, played some card games and took Alice on a tour of the red light district (duh, you have to do that whole tourist thing when people visit, except maybe parents).

Yesterday was a self-proclaimed lazy day, but let's be real, I'm on a 6 day weekend, so what day isn't? We watched movies and lounged around. I discovered that you can watch episodes of Good Eats on Youtube! so we watched about 5 episodes and decided that we were hungry. Justin and I plan on doing lots of cooking this summer. We both really enjoy cooking and eating good food. Yay. I'm super into having an oven again, because there is so much that you can't do without one. I want to make fresh bread and eat lots of fresh summery foods. Justin wants to invest in a really awesome barbecue setup, and we'll marinade yummy things and find a butcher (if those even exist anymore). The only problem that I can foresee, is that we want to make all this delicious food, but we also talk about all of the restaurants and new places we want to try. I'm sure I am up to the challenge though. So much food.

I didn't get the summer senior interviewer job, which was sad, because it would have been fun. Today was supposed to be a productive day, so instead I finally got around to blogging! The weather here has been fantastic. This weekend, Justin's mom is coming to visit, so it will be another excuse to eat out at fancy Indonesian restaurants and go to the touristy things that I still haven't managed to go see on my own.

This is the last week for those back at Oxy, and I'm super jealous. Other study abroad programs are ending too, so there are people coming and going throughout May.
If you didn't hear, I bought my ticket home. I'll be in LA on June 3rd. I'm still trying to plan my first meal home. I know that la superrica is calling to me, but I think I might stay in LA that weekend because it is Kit's 21st birthday on the 5th. Yay. I do plan to spend a bit more time in Santa Barbara this summer, because SAMI GOT INTO UCSB!! So I'll be visiting every once in a while.

Until next time, which will probably be sooner rather than later, because I hate writing papers!
May 7-Ethnic Diversity and Popular Culture collage
May 14-Dutch final
May 20-Emotion and Mental Health paper
May 26-Moving Manhood paper
May 28-Ethic Diversity and Popular Culture paper

then packing, saying goodbyes, and fun!

Ireland!!!

DAY 1: We arrived at the Dublin airport at around 10 am, after traveling back in time one hour. We got off the plane quickly and joined the queue to go through customs. Somehow, everyone in our line didn't have the right documents, or had to answer lots of questions. After jumping back and for between lines, we were the last three people to get past the customs who weren't being detained for further questions. It was really funny and/or frustrating. Either way, we were in Ireland, and it was sunny! We hopped on an airport shuttle to head for the city center. I feel like Ireland isn't very good at forgetting their English rule, because the double decker buses and driving on the wrong side of the road throws me off. When we took our seats on the upper level, a nice video started to play that gave previews of all the different Dublin bus tours. AND U2 played 'it's a beautiful day.' We were definitely in Ireland.









After checking into our hostel, which was surprisingly nice--I've had very good hostel luck, we ventured out into Dublin. Our first stop,



Trinity College


We sneakily joined a tour group led by attractive Irish tour guide #1. The tour was not free, so we essentially stole a tour. It included lots of interesting information about such a beautiful campus. There are lots of old buildings (duh), lawns that you aren't allowed to walk on (what a horrible idea), and lots of libraries. The college is an official copyright library, which means they get a free copy of every book and journal published in the UK and British Isles since sometime in the 1800's. They've got loads of books.











and the Book of Kells. The book of Kells is an Illuminated Manuscript from the 8th or 9th century. It is a Latin reproduction of the Four Gospels. They used ingredients for the inks from Afghanistan, the Mediterranean, and other far away places [especially considering it was the 8th century and Ireland was just a tiny island in the middle of no where].







They even had solar powered trash compactor trash cans:




wow! I obviously thought it was pretty cool, because I took a picture of it. I love digital cameras for just that reason. It doesn't matter if you take a ton of pictures of stupid stuff.













After Trinity, we wandered through Temple Bar, the arts, culture, and bar area (read: tourist-y trap-y) of Dublin. We had lunch at this weird restaurant where I ate shepherds pie. nom nom nom.

Then we ventured out in search of the Guinness Storehouse for a tour. We eventually found it, and learned all about the brewing process, history, advertising, and effects of Guinness. Then we went to the 7th story, where the gravity bar had a beautiful circular view of all of Dublin. The weather was magnificent, but it turns out that I don't really like Guinness that much. Oh well, it was fake free beer. I did learn about hops, and remarked many times, "bitch, did I ask you about hops!?!?"






<---that's some hops for you. We took the bus back to the area around Trinity to eat a little picnic dinner in St, Steven's Green.

St. Steven's Green is this really huge park in Dublin that Guinness himself donated, if I remember correctly. My first impression of the park was that Amsterdam's parks suck, as do their tulips. Although to be fair, I still haven't made it all the way out to Vondelpark, because I fail. Anyway, it was beautiful. We found a cute little spot next to happy white swans, as opposed to the dirty looking, loud, scary swans in the Amsterdam canals.








Sitting down, we spread out all of our deliciousness:
bread, cheese, meat, fruit, a Dublin map, Giulia's shoe, and some macaroons (not pictured, but important enough to mention anyway). Before we could even open any of it, this man came around ringing a huge bell, which apparently signaled the closing of the park. Boo. We ended up sitting on a bench overlooking the River Liffey and the Docks to eat our snackies.

After an exhausting day, with lots of walking, and slight hills, we returned to our hostel to enjoy the nightly 9:00 movie. I fell asleep near the end of THE HULK, oops.


Dublin was very impressive, even or especially (?) after one day.


That's all I have time to write for now, considering it's nearly 1pm and I've been awake since about 2am Amsterdam time this morning. I'll be sure to add more about days 2 & 3 later this week. Also, look forward to some facebook albums of this and my other adventures!

American Reinforcements

Today, I received the most epic care package from Karen and David. Enclosed, among other things, was a box of Samoas girl scout cookies. You know, the ones covered in coconut and chocolate-y deliciousness? After resisting the urge to eat everything in the box for about 4 hours, I finally gave in. Justin and I had one little Samoa each. It was heavenly lekker. As I was eating it however, I felt like I could taste the hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup re-entering my system. Now that I've consumed the entire cookie, I can feel chemically not-goodness in my mouth.

Regardless, I will consume the entire box soon enough.

If you're interested in what goes on in my life...

The past few days have been fantastic, relatively productive, and thoroughly enjoyable. Friday, I planned to wake up early and work on lots of different things. Instead, about fifteen minutes before my alarm clock was to go off, Justin called. Taking his brother to the airport took longer than anticipated, and he was too late for his 9:00 class to go. YAY. He came over and we spent the morning lounging around and doing not much of anything.

Justin ended up taking a nap, and I got some stuff done. We then went with Giulia to a mother/daughter owned coffee shop where I had the best mocha flavored milkshake of my life. Then we went home and made the most delicious cheeseburgers with Anya and Alex. They had yummy cheese (I don't remember what it was called, but it was dutch and yummy), crisp lettuce, bacon, avocado, grilled onions, barbecue sauce, ketchup, grainy mustard, and fantastic brown buns. We then had this yummy chocolate covered peanuts and this sweet brioche-type bread with some sweet stuff on top. We watched the office and played catchphrase.

On Saturday, we woke up early to venture to Deltaworken, the best little amusement park slash war memorial in the Netherlands. It was a family park dedicated to the delta works project that keeps the country from flooding. We watched a video, looked at cute zeehouden (seals!), climbed into a whale's vagina (where we did NOT find a transporter to San Diego), and toured this crazy bridge-y flood prevention gate. look around for yourself here. It was really interesting to see from the dutch perspective, their fight against the mortal enemy: WATER!!!!! I made a yummy dinner with Justin, then went to a cute student bar that also has a movie theater. We played cards and had gin and ginger ales.

Sunday, we all made delicious brioche french toast for brunch. Then I went to the gym and did some more work. I accidentally fell asleep while I was reading, which meant that I missed the first last sunset as that was the end of daylight savings here in the Netherlands, so I had a really late dinner. It was appropriately, TAPAS! spicy potatoes, broccolini sauteed in butter and garlic, and yummy toast with Mediterranean olive tapenade and manchego cheese. It was fantastic. I really enjoy cooking, and cooking with Justin is fun. I also found out that my Dutch class today was cancelled because my instructor is stuck in Buenos Aires, poor Bonny.

After sleeping in, I did about a week's worth of dishes that had been piling up in my room. I went down the four flights of stairs to fetch my clean laundry, only to find out that the dryers are not working. So I lugged to washer's worth of wet laundry upstairs and concocted a dazzling array of hanging apparatuses. Luckily today was sunny, unlike most of last week, so it is all pretty much dry by now. I went to this cafe/bar down the street from my house to meet up and do some reading. I only read one chapter of "The McDonaldization of Society" but I'm already fascinated.
I finally decided that I've been spending enough time at my own house to warrant real grocery shopping again. Today, I bought some arborio rice, and I've begun the search for online risotto recipes.

I just found out that I did not get the affordable housing and community development internship. Apparently there were 39 applicants for 3 spots. Damn the economy; last year there were more like ten spots. There goes the easy $4,000 summer job. Now I have to find a paid internship on my own, or get a real job. Hopefully something works out with the center for food & justice at UEPI. They usually pay well. I'm also applying for a summer senior interviewer position. That job means I would get to interview the incoming freshman applicants. It would be interesting to see that side of the admissions process.

If anyone knows of anything in L.A. that pays, I'll take it.

planning, procrastination, postcards, and food?

Recently I've been caught up in a storm of planning, procrastinating, and postcard writing. This cycle ends up being really stressful, because I make lists, and get overwhelmed by the amount of responsibility and stuff I have to get done, so then I retreat into my mildly warm room and watch movies. I am simultaneously trying to plan the rest of the semester in terms of readings, final papers and projects, any travel I want to do before I leave, and I'm also trying to figure out summer plans.

I currently have a folder on my computer labeled 'summer.' It has various applications, my resume, and that's about it. I know that my summer starts on June 4, ends on August 16, and that I want to be in L.A. for the majority of the intervening weeks. I got an email last night that had the subject "Update on Affordable Housing Internship Program." That sounded vaguely like a polite heading for a rejection letter, so I didn't want to open it. When I did, it said something like, "we'll get back to you by the end of next week. We thank you for your patience as we know you're trying to figure out your summer (read: life) plans." I guess it was nice that they gave us a time frame, but the suspense is killing me.

I'm also expected to be doing research and work on my final papers/projects. In addition to all of the other regular assignments that I've barely been keeping up on. Oh well, I will just have to start using Fridays to get work done. And actually completing items on my To Do Lists. The rain that has recently returned to Amsterdam is not encouraging me to get any of this work done.

It's funny--when I wish I had more time, I want to be reading up on food, farming, agriculture, all of those things that make me want to grow vegetables. Some sites that I've been snooping around recently are: civil eats and retrovore. I also like to look at epicurious and foodtv. I guess that a lot of stuff has been happening at Oxy while I've been away. F.E.A.S.T. and the Cafe Norris. F.E.A.S.T. seems to be a gardening type thing, and according to the Oxy digest, they got land, which is something I tried to do last semester to start a community garden. I'm glad that someone finally made progress. Cafe Norris is this thing that some kids started on Saturday nights. They cook a three-course meal from farmer's market goodies for like 10 or 15 dollars. It sounds really neat. I'm really excited to get back to school and see what's going on.

I have to get back to that whole school work, class, homework thing.

list time!

So,
When I first left home to come on this fantastic voyage, I made a list of things that I would and would not miss. Reading it now, I find some things really funny, and some things were too true.

My list from January 18th.

Things I’m going to miss
o The Hein Train. Choo Choo!
o The coffee cart with Caroline and urrbody until it closes
o G&T nights
o Not having to carry around a real key because my id card does everything for me.
o American money (maybe, but only because it is worthless abroad?)
o Having a job=having an income
o The sun

Things I’m NOT going to miss
o Boarding the Hein Train for work.
o Going to work everyday

If I were to add things that I miss and don't miss after being here for two months (!?!?!) here is what it would look like:

Things I still miss/or miss now:

• Every food establishment in Los Angeles
• the sun
• English instructions of food packages
• English signs anywhere
• Driving
• having a meal plan and a dining hall instead of cooking everything I eat
• tomatoes (the kind that are juicy and crisp and delicious, not the kind that are pale, mealy, and hard)
• Mexican food (la Superrica, I will see you when I get back to California!)
• did I mention the sun?
• Making money
  

This I still DON'T miss:

• having a job
• being on duty
• being on a different time zone than everyone at home
• the fact that going anywhere in L.A. takes at least 3o minutes and two different freeways
• the Oxy bubble

That is all that I can think of right now, because I have to go to a Dutch cultural event, a room eleven concert. Hopefully I'll find my way there!

belgium, girl talk, school, OR how I spent my last week.

Belgium was a nice short weekend trip. We did not do much in the way of tourist-y things--museums, tours, etc. We mostly walked around, looked at things, and ate food. I didn't have any special Belgian beer that I've never had before, and I don't really like Belgian fries, but the chocolate and the waffles!!?!?!?!

Justin took lots of pictures for me; they are mostly of graffiti.

On Thursday, I went to a Girl Talk concert at the club Paradiso. It was so much fun, but it was a really crazy night. People drank waaay too much. One of my friends spent the night in a dutch drunk tank, another woke up in the hospital, I stayed up all night and watched the sky change colors. I lost my coat check ticket, and I had to wait for everyone else to collect their belongings. Justin and I got home around 5:00am, after the coat check woman made me cry. BUT I talked to Jess Lobl for like an hour when I got home, so that was fantastic!

Since then, I've been doing homework, resting, eating, sleeping, watching movies, and waiting for Justin's brother to get here. He should be here any moment. (I stayed home to clean Justin's room because a)it was a mess, and b)the mess was most likely more than half mine.)

One final note, on Friday, I officially accepted the position as HC of BY/Wylie for next year. Now I just have to figure out my life until then.

Maybe I'll find some good pictures to post.

weather and travel

This weekend we had amazing weather. It was sunny, and if you stood in the sun in a spot protected from the wind, you began to feel this amazing sensation of sun-generated heat. I didn't realize how happy a few hours of sun could make me feel. Then I wake up today and ride my bike through crappy, annoying rainy weather. Boo, Amsterdam. Although I did learn dutch vocabulary about weather yesterday, so I guess that's cool....

I finally have real travel plans.
March 14 & 15 (this weekend)-Brussels and Bruges, Belgium.
I plan to do the following: watch In Bruges before I go, then eat/drink Belgian waffles, Belgian chocolate, Belgian beer, and Belgian fries.

April 11-14 (Easter weekend)-Dublin, Ireland.
I don't know whether going to Ireland for Easter weekend is a good idea, or the greatest idea. I plan on taking lots of pictures of cliffs and rolling green hills, maybe going to some hardcore church on Easter Sunday, touring Irish alcohol factories (Guinness and Jameson, obviously), and seeing some castles.

That is all that I've actually reserved so far, but I'm also looking to go somewhere warm with a beach in May. I'm leaning toward anything that is cheap. Some ideas we threw around last night include: anywhere in Greece, Valencia, Sophia, Bulgaria, Istanbul (we'd call it Constantinople though), Nice, France, Prague, Dubai, Beirut, Turkey...then we started competing for the most obscure destinations.
I'll be sure to keep you updated.

the weekend

This weekend, I was pretty productive.

After out weekly Thursday night LOST-watching party, we looked at lostpedia (the wikipedia for all things LOST related) for almost two hours. After that, Justin and I tried to figure out how to get UPS to deliver his laptop--more than 200 euros and hours waiting later, he finally received the laptop, along with Annie’s macaroni and cheese in combinations of sauce and pasta type that I didn't even know existed. At about 1am, I started to feel another bout of extra-sickiness coming on, so I went home and slept until 3pm.

On Friday, we did not go to the Albert Cuyp market, but Doris (Alex's mom) arrived in town. We went out to delicious Indonesian food at kantjil & de tijger. It was DELICIOUS, and even though it was a Friday night and we didn't have reservations, they sat the 7 of us right away. Score.
We made plans for breakfast the next morning. Doris imported some crumps for us, and we needed coffee to wake up and be on a bus by 8am in order to go on the CIEE day trip to Groningen.
We stopped at this historical museum place for megalithic tombs, aka hunebedden. It was semi-interesting, but mostly I found myself wishing I hadn't left my day-quil on the bus. When we got to the actual city of Groningen, we walked around for a bit, went to this museum with J.W. Waterhouse exhibit, and then climbed a really tall clock tower, called the Martini Tower. It is attached to the St. Martin's church, hence the name.

So we didn't really do much all day, but we had a fantastic buffet dinner, and then took an interesting, long, sleepy bus ride home.

Sunday, I went to the gym and took a kickboxing class. I swear, that no other work out will make you sweat more, or make you as sore the next day. I went on a free pass, and I'll probably join the gym, but I still have to convince myself to pay the bazillion* Euro membership fee.

I am definitely going to Belgium in two weeks, and I'm planning a trip to Paris the weekend of May 14th. Ireland and Spain are next, that and purchasing actual tickets to any of these places.

I need to stop blogging because a)I'm in the computer lab "doing reading," and b)my arms are too tired to keep typing accurately.

*200

PICTURES!!!

In reverse chronological order, because I am too lazy, and only now realized they uploaded backwards:

Sara getting en-bubbled at NEMO, a children's science center that was too cool.

Justin, holding a lightning bolt of fury at the coolest playground (since Kid's World?).

Sara and Giulia climbing in the coolest, and possibly least safe, playground ever.

random skating rink inside an old gas works building. I would shoot a scene in a movie there, if, you know I directed movies....

Sara walking around a partially frozen bird pond at the gas works park (westergasfabriek, it's a culture park!)

A market in den Haag (the hague for all you english speakers)

a random statue in den haag with a scarf on.

the view from the train going from the ferry station to Rotterdam. I now know that snow is not at all like frost.

Same train ride.

Alex is way more sophisticated and learned than Justin and me.

Our pretty epic ferry cabin.

Me, very excited to be in the ferry cafe?

Justin's lunch from "just falafs-good mood food"! Note the pepsi raw, not available in the US


A Banksy piece located down the street from toast of brighton, a yummy sandwich shop in his hometown of Brighton, coolest little sea side town.

Me, sitting on Winston Churchill's lap

Becca, Sami, and me after dinner at the yummy brazilian Churrascaria that I wrote about earlier.

I hope you enjoyed this little sample of photos from my trip so far. I have made Justin the official photographer of the trip, although I promise that I will try to take more photos and send more postcards and all that stuff.
Also, a note on the name of my blog: baby went to amsterdam is a lyric from the song "amsterdam" by Peter, Bjorn, and John. Here is a link to the song on Youtube.

going dutch

So, I have a lot to talk about from before and after my last post. Right now, I am sitting in my room, with the window wide open because it is warm and sunny outside. It’s days like this that make me glad that some of my classes are in the morning, so I can enjoy the few hours of afternoon sun. Although I said it was warm (I’m literally sweating, and I’m only wearing one layer which is super rare), it is only actually 43 degrees. I’m officially used to the weather here.

Last week, I celebrated my 21st birthday. Technically I celebrated the night before my birthday, a little unintentionally. I drank a lot of wine without eating equally a lot of dinner. To make a long story short, I went to my 9:00am class on my birthday, hung over, with a lot of bruises that I still haven’t quite figured out the story on. But, hey, I had fun. For my actual birthday celebration, m some of my new best friends and I went out to all-you-can-eat sushi dinner. We ate SO MUCH FOOD. I was still full the next day. After dinner, we biked the long way home in an attempt to ride off some of the extra sushi rice in order to make room for “gin and titonics.” Earlier, in Brighton, Alex bought this cute little silicone ice cube tray that had icebergs and titanics. Get it? We played catchphrase, because it was my birthday, and I’m glad that other people are almost as enthusiastic about the game as I am. The teams were the Marlee’s and the tough Sara’s. Then everyone headed off to 1-euro beer night, while Justin and I stayed home watching Mad Men (my new favorite addiction?).

I think I might spend too much time watching television shows on the internet when I should be exploring Europe…. I think that my saving grace is the fact that megavideo, the website that hosts much of streaming television, has a 72 minute limit on watching content for free, so I can’t spend all day online.

Although I’m loving Amsterdam, the weather, my bike, wearing so many layers of colorful clothing, I also really miss LA. I eat enough food here, but I constantly find myself fantasizing about eating Eagle Rock food when I’m falling asleep at night. I even have a mental appointment list of all my meals when I get back to LA. When I do leave Amsterdam, I will have a few new friends at various schools in LA or across the country, so hopefully we will all still hang out?

I’m slowly making travel plans, which I should be doing much more quickly. My instructors are already asking questions about our final papers and projects, and I don’t have any travel plans finalized. Right now, I think I am going to Belgium the weekend of March 13th. Easter weekend in the Netherlands is a four day weekend, and I’d like to go somewhere in Spain. Barcelona is the town that most people on my program are going to, but I don’t think I would really enjoy it. I want to go to Valencia, a town on the south-eastern coast of Spain. Unfortunately, my high school Spanish teacher made us memorize the map of Spain with capitals and all the provinces, so I know a lot of places in Spain, but not which ones are fun or nice or weekend travel-friendly. I also want to go to Prague, Italy, Germany, and France. There is a long break in classes at the end of April, so I will hopefully get some of those places then. Germany could also be a weekend trip because it is soooo close. If anyone has suggestions, leave a comment please!? I also don’t know what traveling my Dad and Sami want to do when they visit in June, so hopefully I can plan around that. By the time they visit, I will be an expert on Amsterdam (comparatively at least…)

Speaking of which, this weekend, CIEE is taking us on a day-trip to Groningen, a small university town north of Amsterdam. I am excited to visit another part of the country and do a bit of warm up traveling. We are just going for the day, although there was an overnight option, because Alex’s mom, who so graciously hosted Alex, Justin, and me in London last month, is visiting! It will be good to see her and to be able to show her around a city instead of the other way around.

I really feel like I’ve gained a lot of independence so far on this trip. I’ve officially been in the Netherlands for four weeks. That doesn’t sound like that long, but it feels like forever. I think it’s funny that I feel more independent here, because I rarely do anything on my own. About seven or eight people and I regularly make dinner for each other every night. Last night we joked about how when no one has a plan for when and where dinner will be that night, we feel lost. It’s something that I enjoy because we take turns and it makes every night feel like a dinner party. As a side note, it seems that every night we have a bottle of wine or two with dinner. I don’t know if it’s because we can all legally buy alcohol, or the aforementioned special occasion-ness, but I don’t think this will continue when I get back to the states.

I bought a ten euro coffee grinder about two weeks after getting here, and my friend Anya gave me a French press that had been left to her (she was here last semester as well). It’s been really nice to make myself a fresh batch of coffee on a leisurely weekend morning (read: early afternoon). I feel homey and sophisticated all at the same time.

As a final note for this update, Yesterday, I had a very fruitful trip to the post office. I bought stamps (so if you haven’t received a postcard from me yet, I’ll be able to finally send it out) and a concert ticket to see Girl Talk. Apparently concerts in Europe are way cheaper than in the US. This ticket was only 12 euro instead of like 50 dollars, and I’ve seen festival concerts in the UK for only like 25 Euro instead of more than 100 dollars at home. That concert is on donderdag 19 maart (Thursday, March 18th, for those of you who don’t know Dutch). On the following Monday (23rd), I’m going to a Dutch cultural event put on by CIEE, a concert of the Dutch band Room eleven. Their songs are in English, which is a relief. I’ve searched for them on youtube, and a song hey, hey, hey or something like that sounded cute. They are supposedly popular among Dutch students, but unscientific research has put those claims in doubt.

In addition to all of these exciting happenings, I still have to worry about school. Boo! It takes up more of my time than I was led to believe it would, but it’s pretty interesting. So far, it’s been a lot of reading and then writing about the reading each week. Quite boring, but I’ve actually noticeably improved at the task in the three weeks I’ve been doing it. Oh well, so is life. Also, we had our first Dutch quiz yesterday, and while studying for it, we realized how much we’ve actually learned, but we haven’t really been taught any of it? I’m not sure if that makes sense, but I think I did alright on the quiz.

Happy valentine's day

Today is Saturday, which actually feels like Sunday to me, because I don't have class on Fridays. I woke up, still feeling slightly sick (I've been close to death for a good five days now). Instead of rolling over and sleeping for a few more hours, which is always such a strong temptation, I realized that it was sunny today. I've learned to never take sun for granted; it will most likely be gone by the time you've gotten dressed and walked downstairs. I went around town this morning getting ready for Valentine's day. I think it's funny that I'm actually doing something for Valentine's day because a) I'm usually against really commercially prompted displays of affection, b) I don't usually like attention-y, celebratory occasions, and c) since we've been on the program, Justin and I haven't been totally "OMG we're dating PDA PDA PDA" so I feel like a lot of people don't even know we're dating, and since there are very few people who have someone to celebrate valentine's day with in the city, I think it's funny that I do/am.
I don't know if any of that made sense, but oh well.
I bought some yummy looking chocolates from this store that Renee, our program's resident director and only dutch person, said was amazing. They were kind of expensive, but she said they were worth every euro. I'm just making dinner. I bought steak, because who doesn't love meat and potatoes. On Thursday in Dutch class, we went over food words and grocery shopping, so I know that what I bought was beef, but when I got home, I translated the label on google translator (my best friend because a lot of dutch websites don't have english versions), and I got something called "roasting beef flaps." It's organic, and I made a tasty rub for them, so hopefully they'll taste good? Oh well, it's the thought that counts.

I've come to the realization that a week's worth of reading should not be left for six o'clock the night before your nine am class. All in all, my school schedule is pretty condensed into the middle of the week--which means that I actually have to use the times that I'm not going to class to do all of that work that no one mentioned.
I got a package the other day, which was really exciting, although it was just the books that I ordered online from amazon.co.uk. I saved a ton of money ordering them online, even with shipping and stuff, so that was nice. Instead of paying over 200 euro, I payed about 120 GPB.

Now that I've been productive today (?), I'm going to watch grey's anatomy online.
For everyone at home, if you want to talk to me, but skype is not your thing, or whatever, I have added money to my skype account, so I can call you directly on the phone. Send me an email and hopefully we'll chat, because so far, my dad is the only one who I've seen on skype. Even though it seems like he just leaves it on even when he isn't there, because he was supposedly on at 4 am his time this morning. Anyway, I think I might post some pictures, although they will probably only be from as far back as London. I've taken like three pictures since I've been here...oops.

blogging is such sweet sorrow.

Somehow I wrote this a few days ago, and instead of posting it, I saved it? Anyway this was from last Friday, so it's a week old now....

So I started this blog thinking that I would chronicle all of my adventures. I wanted to believe that I would lead an interesting life in this amazing city, but every time I sit down to post something, I feel at a loss. I've been out of the country for three weeks, and in the Netherlands for two and a half weeks. On the one hand, I've been really busy adjusting and settling down that I feel like I've been here for much longer. On the other hand, I haven't really done much of anything to feel accomplished about. I have developed the habit of cooking dinner with other people, which for me is really relaxing and comforting. I enjoy cooking, so I like that we go from building to building nearly every night and cook for each other.

I think that I spent this afternoon buying books and planning homework time is a shock to my system. It will be good to get into the actual studying part of study abroad. It does seem like everything that I heard about the work being all at the end of the semester does not hold true for my classes. I have pretty short final papers (10-15 pages), but I have a lot of stuff each week like turning in a weekly analysis of the readings and stuff. It shouldn't be too bad, especially because my classes have all been really interesting so far. I'm taking:

Beginning Dutch
Moving Manhood: Me, masculinity and sexual citizenship from cross-cultural perspectives
Emotion and Mental Health across culture
Ethnic Diversity and Popular Culture.

The class that I'm pretty sure I'm dropping is Representing Identity in film and literature in Latin America. I'm only dropping that class because it hasn't met yet and I can't decide which of the classes that have met I would want to drop.

Tiny update

Orientation is officially over, which is both good and bad. Except for the people in my dutch class, I probably won't get to know many other CIEE students, if I don't already know them. I start classes tomorrow actually. Right now I'm in five classes and I have to drop one in the next two weeks. I am intimidated, but also excited to get into the swing of things and find my Amsterdam groove. Hopefully I'll have more to talk about soon!

Oh, and I still don't have internet at my flat.

After the fact: 28 January

SO. My internet isn’t working at the moment, so this entry will be posted after the fact. After a very posh overnight ferry ride, one sprinter commuter train ride, and then another sort of commuter train across the country, Justin, Alex, and I arrive in Amsterdam. We found the hostel after walking nearly twice as far as we needed to. It wasn’t that big of a deal because the hostel was actually about a three-minute walk from central station. It did feel a lot longer when we were carrying all of our god-forsaken luggage. We slept for a couple of hours in our hostel, the FLYING PIG. It happens to be a self-proclaimed “party hostel,” but the only real evidence of this that I found was the smoking room. They didn’t always keep the door closed, so sitting in the loungy bar area where they played really good music was a little unpleasant at first.

For the first hostel I’ve ever been to, it was not disgusting. I didn’t really use the bathroom except to brush my teeth. The experience was probably better because we had a four person room with it’s own bathroom. I think I saw the fourth person awake for a total of five minutes.

We met Ian at central station after he flew in, and wandered around the city center for a bit. Stopping into a brown bar, I was sort of but not quite surprised by the fact that the smoking ban that went into effect this year has done little to eliminate smoking, especially in a bar that is named after the old brown wallpaper (brown as in from tobacco smoke stains). I got a delicious coffee. Then we met up with Giulia, another one of the people from Oxy. We got 6 Euro noodles which were warm and yummy!
Apparently, even though the flying pig is a party hostel, only guests are allowed in, so we couldn’t hang out with Giulia there. We went to the first bar we found. It was a Scottish bar (?). We played scrabble and met a fabulously gay man named Paul. He took us on an adventure of signing and gay bar bingo. It was a fantastic first night in Amsterdam. Then we were tired and out of euros ( I only had 35 on my first day that I exchanged at home), so at like 11:00, we went back to the hostel to go to bed.

We went down to breakfast (included in the room) at 8:30 in order to get a jump on move-in program starting, exciting day, and most of the other people at breakfast that early were going on our program. We had a group to figure out how to get to the housing company, which was nice. Once we got off the bus with seven people and probably at least half a ton of luggage, we were greeted by the nicest people in the world, the employees of De Key housing. They poured you coffee, they carried your luggage, they even had free massages (it was an amazing massage, but in the end it tricked my body into thinking that the carrying and the pulling and the walking and the other things that make my body hurt were over). Alanna, one of the girls from the hostel was assigned the dorm right down the street from me, and our street happened to be sort of around the corner from the housing office, so we walked together. It was a battle, that did not end when I got to my front doorstep. My room assignment is D1. This means that I had to heave all of the luggage that I’ve been cursing for weeks now up a bunch of flights of dangerously narrow stairs. Then I saw my huge room with a sort of canal view. I unpacked, showered, and felt much better.

After the welcome program and the canal boat cruise which featured drink coupons, I got a ride on the back of Emily, a girl who is in Amsterdam for the full academic year,’s bike back to Plantage Muidergracht. Then a huge group of people walked to the Albert Heijn, which is the local grocery chain. I bough a bunch of stuff because I wanted to feel like I would not starve to death, even though I think a lot of meals are provided during orientation.

An interesting thing that I noticed is that my total came to something and 81 cents. The change listed on the receipt was rounded to give me 20 cents. I was pleased with this, because the 1-cent euro coin is useless, but I thought it was interesting that it was institutionalized that way.

Now I’m back at my room, which is so blah feeling, but I found out that other than the two girls from CIEE living on my floor, there is a Spanish architecture student, and some girl that spent time in Australia but that is from California. I have met neither of these girls, but there is still one empty room. It is the room right next to mine. I’m glad for now, because who doesn’t want a silent roommate? Also, when the two other girls are back, the place should be much cleaner because the people staying over the break were sloppy guys. That made me feel better about how dingy the place is.

I’m such a wimp because it’s only 9:30, and I’m already tired. I think I’m going to read something and go to bed.

Just touched down in London Town

CIDER IS THE BEST DRINK EVER.

So far in England, I’ve landed two hours late, driven around in what felt like circles on roads that didn’t seem to have rules, took public transportation into London, went to an old Pub near castles that are only open in the spring, and drove to Brighton (a cute sea side town with neat shops and pretty colored buildings, also the home of Banksy). I’ve developed an affinity for Strongbow Cider, playing cards at sticky pub tables, deaf cats named Winston that come into my room each morning to smell everything, and watching American news one day later recorded on the DVR. This evening, we went to the London Museum of Transport. Justin was uncool because he did not want to participate in the stamp game. Alex and I got all 13 stamps around the museum. The reason we went to this semi-obscure museum was we saw a sign on a bus stop advertising a century of posters exhibition. That was pretty cool—they were the original artist’s submissions for various posters from the last century.

In Brighton, we had a yummy tea, explored the pier, went to the royal gardens, some museum, found the kissing coppers by Banksy, ate at a delicious sandwich place called toast, did some more window shopping, or as I like to say, took some more Shopportunities, and went home. I like Brighton; it is a cute town, with an apparently lively club scene.

We reserved a room at the Flying Pig Downtown in Amsterdam for the night before orientation begins. It is where quite a few other people on the program are staying, and hopefully Ian can meet up with us there. We are taking an overnight ferry from London to Amsterdam in order to maximize our time in Amsterdam and minimize our expenses. Hopefully I’ll be able to carry all of my luggage from train to ferry to train etc. The three of us reserved a four bed, windowless cabin. It actually looks pretty nice from what the website photos show. Plus it’s only one night. I’ll actually be glad to sleep on a regular bed instead of a blowup mattress finally.

Thanks to everyone who is reading. It's actually quite fun to write. Also, My Skype name is sara.fultonkoerbling Let me know if you want to set up a skype date.

Around the world in a day at the happiest place on Earth — or how not to get hit by falling light bulbs

First of all, apparently only Disney Land is the happiest place on earth, not Disney world, contrary to what I told Justin earlier this week. Walt Disney World is where your dreams come true. I am not sure which one is better. I am inclined to believe that neither is great.

I’ve been in Kissimmee for a little less than a week; I’ve spent two days hanging out by the pool, one rainy day at the animal kingdom, one cold day at epcot, and one cold day at the magic kingdom (a transplanted Disney land). The Magic kingdom was disappointing because so much stuff was closed—the tiki room, Splash Mountain, and this noodle place we were going to eat at. The animal kingdom was really fun. We got a late start, and that park closes early so all the animals can sleep and be fed, so we were only there for about four hours. It has a really fun roller coaster that goes backwards and through the dark, called Expedition Everest. The best part about the ride was that there was a special line for single riders, and it was WAY shorter. None of us minded sitting next to someone we didn’t know, so we went on again and again and again, sitting next to someone new each time. It was really nice. Whenever I’m waiting in line and I see an empty seat go by, I get annoyed. I wish everything in life had a single rider line. It was way cooler than a fastpass.

At epcot, the first park we went to, I was going on Mission to Mars, a simulator ride, with Becca. She doesn’t like most roller coasters, so there was a less intense version that she went on before and was ready to try the more intense orange version. We waited in line, went through the safety videos and strapped ourselves into the seats when we realized the compartment simulator next to ours was not loading. Some woman had vomited all over the inside, even though there were barf bags hanging in front of the seats. Apparently they weren’t able to just shut down that one little pod to clean, so we all had to leave. They gave us a free fastpass for five people good until the end of the month. We have five-day passes and there are only four parks, so we may end up going back to epcot. They have yummy food and it is fun to go around the world at the world showcase. I hope we go back to the Animal Kingdom since we were only there for a couple of hours.

The other night we went to this Brazilian Churrascaria, which is a restaurant where these muscular attractive men in gaucho pants come to your table with skewers of delicious meat that they ceremoniously carve onto your plate. The food was delicious, but it was not without sacrifice. We arrived for our seven o’clock reservations about two minutes late. This is practically early for my family, especially on this particular vacation (Today we didn’t arrive at the part until nearly 2PM). The hostess led us to this room that had two of three tables unoccupied. We let my dad choose the table, and we were all filing into the room to sit down. After I put my coat on the back of my chair I began to sit down. I hear glass shatter and I look around, I thought that I had somehow knocked down a glass with my jacket, but something hit my arm from above and glass sprayed everywhere. I looked at the seat next to me and it’s covered in glass. It turns out that a light bulb from the chandelier had basically exploded and fallen right as we were being seated. Leis, who was about to sit down, had been reading something on her iPhone, and was being slow. In the end, it was good that we had been late, and the iPhone saved leis a light bulb falling onto her head. Since it was kind of sketchy that glass exploded onto our table, we got free dessert and free corkage, which was awesome. We ended up switching tables.

So, fast forward and I am sitting at the Orlando International Airport starbucks, using free wireless, which is awesome. I just sent my dad through security at his terminal. I’ll probably wait to go through security for another hour or two because the internet isn't free on that side. Orlando was fun. It was great to see Sami, Becca, and Leis--and those other people I see more often too. I won’t be around to go to Sami’s graduation, so hopefully Leis and Becca can go in my place. Last night was my last night in America, and I had McDonald’s for dinner. It was pretty funny. I didn’t wear my sunglasses on the drive to the airport today, because I realized this was probably the last sun I’ll see for a few months. I was going to post some photos, because we took some really great ones this week, but I just realized that I checked my camera chord. In a few days, there will be pictures.


Also, I WANT an iPhone.

Musings

I'm almost ready to leave... for another week of hanging out with the family. Orlando vacation part five thousand will commence in one week. My dad used to take my sister and I on vacation to Walt Disney World every winter in high school. Once he invited our family friends, Becca and Leis. Shortly thereafter, Sami and I decided that we had simply experienced all the magic that the magical kingdom had to offer. My dad continued to go, either by himself or with Leis for a couple of years. After a long enough hiatus, we seem to be ready to return. This time, Sami is bringing her boyfriend, my dad is bringing his girlfriend, and Leis and Becca are coming. We are also not staying at Walt Disney World. I'm sure we'll be going to the theme parks, but we are staying at some Orlando resort timeshare. It's really all the same to me because I'll surely be sleeping on the foldout couch.

I have already done most of my packing/planning for this trip because when everyone else returns to the west coast, I'll be flying across the Atlantic to meet up with Alex and Justin (FINALLY!). I hadn't been home for nearly a year until this break, and I plan on doing roughly the same this coming year. I am so excited to live on my own and cook food and be a cute ex-pat. I don't think I actually qualify for that description, but so what?

Before I can begin the first steps toward my freedom, I have to finish my Richter proposal. If you don't know, I'm applying to do independent research over the summer in London. It would be amazing for someone else to pay for me to live in London for the summer, but right now that isn't enough motivation for me to work on it. I would much rather stay my room all day, only leaving to go for walks and to get coffee.

I just hope this week goes by at the right speed. I want it to be fast, but there are certain things I need to get done before I can leave in a sane fashion. We'll see how that goes.

I also think I might make a new year's resolution or two:

1. I will not eat high fructose corn syrup knowingly.
   
2. I will do more things that I enjoy--time you enjoy wasting is not time wasted! Bertrand Russell told me so.
3. I won't do things just because they are "good" for me, and I won't not do things just because they are "bad" for me.

At this point, I think I'm just making resolutions that will serve as excuses somewhere down the road. I like the idea of making a resolution that will improve your life, but I don't know how easy that is.

Another day is almost over, which brings me closer to what I've been waiting for.