and some pictures of SNOW!!!

trying to ride a bike in the snow

bike seat covered in white, powdery snow

our guesthouse and the pristine layer of snow over the path we will have to cycle on to get out tomorrow!

infamous statues near the uni, given a new look with a dusting of icing sugar :P

the bike park at uni



bike tracks don't make quite as much impact as car tyres in the snow - this is the exit to our uni bike park

undisturbed, fallen snow - reminds me of an iced gingerbread house!

... and one of the aforementioned snow angels

Day 134 - SNOW!!!

OK, so again, this is a bit out of time sequence (only by about 4 weeks!) but I just HAD to write about this now.... today was my first day of REAL snowfall. And it was magical... truly.
When I was six and we lived in Canada for a bit I remember snow on the ground but I don't really have memories of it falling (I'm sure I was in it at some point but there's no clear memories) but today... today will stick in my mind forever!

I was sitting in class, having come in from a light icing-sugar dusting of what I was told was snow but really wasn't satisfying enough... looking out the window at the leaf-less trees and then, more suddenly than I'd expected it started snowing HARD! Bigger flakes were falling, like there was a wind pushing them to the ground, and then they started swirling in all directions and I was mesmerised. I paid very little attention to the class for about 10 minutes and instead just stared out the window with a big stupid grin on my face! Eventually, some classmates noticed and started laughing at me, telling me "its only snow" or "you'll get sick of it soon enough" ... and they're probably right, it will be hell to cycle in, its freezing cold and it will turn from this glorious white powder to black sludge before I know it... but for now, all I want to do is marvel.

I couldn't wait to get outside after class and I reckon it took me about 45 minutes to get home (not the usual 15) as I stopped every few seconds to take picture after picture of the same white landscape. I was also cycling at about 2m an hour because I didn't want to slip (there isn't a lot of grip left on the old girl's tyres :s). Although, for the uninitiated, I learned some valuable lessons today ... 1) cycling around with your mouth gaping open while its snowing will get you a gob full of condensation and 2) snow actually hurts when it gets in your eye! like rain, but more solid... so I'll be wearing sunnies or a cap or something from now on.
But this afternoon, nothing could dampen my spirits... not the uphill ride home, not the loss of feeling from cold in my fingers and toes, not the realisation that if the snow is starting this early its going to be a looooong winter. Today was just for enjoying.

So as soon as I got home I ran down the hall to find som friends and we ventured out for a walk. Stop: picture. Stop: snowball fight. Stop: pick snow up and throw in the air like a 5 year old! I was honeslty like a kid in a candy store... a frozen marshmallow candy store! And to top it off, before we came back inside we dare to drop on our backsides in the frozen ice and make snow angels :) like something out of a movie I tell ya! And in fact, that's what its felt like ... unreal, like I've just stepped inside the ice arena at home for a bit, or I'm on some reality TV show and there's a giant snow machine behind our guesthouse... but, if thats the case, I'm happy to play my part for now :)

Dutch I've learned: "Het is sneeuwing" = "It's snowing"
"Het sneeuwd" = "It snowed"
"Ik hou van sneeuw" = "I love snow!"
... you get the point!

mmmmm lekker

Just thought I'd let you all know that I just ate a big spoonful of peanut butter... straight from the jar... well, this IS my year of Peanut Butter!!

Days 100 to 105 - Ich bin ein Berliner (that's right, I'm a donut!)

Day 100 - (Tues) Journey East of the border (via the West)
Not only was today a momentous occasion for being my 100th day away from home, it was also exam day AND the beginning of our journey to Berlin.
After taking the (thankfully, relatively easy) history exam in which I wrote too much (no surprise there for those who know me ... or are reading this blog for that matter) it was home to pack and off to the train station. Our plane for Berlin was to leave the next morning - from Brussels though (such is the way of the hunt for cheap flights - did I mention the flight was only 40 euro return?). So we got the train to Brussels where we had booked a cheap hotel room (same price as a hostel so why not treat ourselves, right?) for the night, near to the airport so we could catch our 7am (or thereabouts) flight to the German capital.
But from the moment we stepped off the airport shuttle bus at the Formula1 hotel the signs were not good. There was a nice looking Ibis hotel, an Accord ... and then our excuse for a hotel. As we were trying to check in the police and an ambulance showed up and stormed into the F1 (presumably called out for a drug overdose!). Once inside, the smell of cigarette smoke invaded our nostrils as we ascended the stairs (no lift in sight) to our "room" which had no toilet or shower (they were down the hall, in separate rooms, similar to aeroplane toilet cubicles, which apparently were self cleaning - red light on door means "cleaning", green light means "clean" ... SO misleading). The places was a DUMP! (worse than the Green Tortoise Mum) There was dirt and who knows what else all up the walls, the sheets were a suspect colour, all the "linen" was pilling and fluffy and the whole place stank. We were knackered from the travel and had an early start the next day so there was only one thing to do... go over to the Ibis hotel bar and have a drink in the hopes of sedating ourselves enough in order to fall asleep!

Day 101 (Wed) - On the road again...
Never have I been so grateful for an early start! We were out of that hell hole of a hotel ASAP. Check-in at the airport was a breeze, no lines at that time of the morning for budget airlines apparently... but what we hadn't counted on was the security check line. They're nuts for it in Europe... making people take of their shoes and belts and things before they even go through the metal detector thingy. And the whole process moves SO SLOWLY. And of course, because we weren't used to the rigorous process, we showed up late and were in a rush... which of course meant that Nakita, my Aussie travel buddy, had to get stopped for a check. After copping as much action as she's had since she left her bf at home (from an overly feely airport security lady) it was back on with the her boots and off to the gate. (Curiously, at the same time Nakita was getting her pat down, there was what looked like an eight-year-old girl getting a security check next to her!! Really? What is an 8-yo going to stuff in her bra?!! hrm...)
But from there it was smooth sailing. Lobbed at the Generator Hostel in Berlin (thanks for the recommendation Matty, and I'd recommend it to anyone else - 100x better than the F1, clean, friendly and all you can eat bfast - yes!) After a much-needed shower (no, we did not avail ourselves of the facilities at the F1) we found ourselves at THE BEST German restaurant for lunch. Cheap and cheerful, the No 1 Kartoffel Haus (actually calls itself the No.1 potato house in Berlin) served up EVERYTHING potato ... potato soup, baked potatoes, fries, rosti, mashed potato, potato salad... even potato pancakes ... as well as the expected array of sausage and sauerkraut :) See my lunch below ... served with the perfect Pilsener.

A post-lunch wander led us to our now-favourite bakery chain in Europe where I promptly ordered "ein Berliner" and stuffed it, custard and all, in about 2 seconds flat. Also discovered this cool soft-gingerbread-type heart-shaped chocolate-covered christmas cake thing, another hit :) On the downside, Berlin streets are quite confusing, the number will be going up one way and then all of a sudden they start going down, but then it might be different on the other side... weird, we never did figure it out while we were there! After some traispsing through the high fashion stores of Berlin (trying on 400 euro fur-Russian hats, just for fun) it was time to call it a night.

Day 102 (Thurs) - Hitler, the Holocaust and the Wall

First stop today was a brand new exhibition about Hitler at the German History Museum. Apparently it was the first time an exhibition had focused on the man, more than the Nazi movement or the war etc - a controversial approach in Berlin, we were told. Worth it though, the exhibition as a whole really brought his rise and fall together, kind of made you understand how it could have happened, where his support came from, how he manipulated and used force and how people went along with it. I can't say I understand why it was all allowed to happen but I suppose I have a better understanding of how, if that makes sense.

After a quick pitstop at our favourite baker chain for a fresh pretzel and a coffee (yes, an actual coffee, apparently European Lauren drinks coffee... sometimes, anywya), the next stop was the Holocaust Memorial. Above ground it looks like the pic below, concret blocks all the same width and lenght but different heights. Our walking tour guide later told us there could be a number of interpretations - coffin boxes, the rise and fall of a graph (as in number of jews killed as Nazis gained and lost power) etc - but, as the next picture shows, it also has the effect of making you feel very cold, lost, confused and alone when walking around the maze it creates.

Under thise maze-like creation is the actual Holocaust Museum. It tells the story of the Holocaust in a time line and then from the perpsective of Jews who wrote letters to family or kept diaries etc. I actually found myself brought to tears at some of the quotes, and that's not meant to sound corny, but I was genuinely surprised at how much of an effect it had on me to read, for example, the panicked letter of a little Jewish girl who expressed in a letter to her father that she didn't want to die, that she was too young. The fact that, at that age, she had to grasp the concept of impending death was profoundly saddening. And you could also sense the panic that she and others would have felt... The exhibition also gave me a much better understanding of how widespread the Holocaust's reach was. A map showed where all the camps and transport points were all over Europe and I was schocked to see some as far down as the Greek Islands, where the Nazis even put Jews on boats to bring them to mainland camps from tiny Islands.

After our time there it was definitely time for some mental relief so we went to check out a German op-shop. It was really cool to see the difference in style - both between Germany and Oz op shops, and in time as there were some really old coats and hats and stuff there. An absolute gold mine for the dedicated op-shopper. I however made the mistake of trying on a pair of skinny leg jeans near one discerning German woman who told me they looked a bit... well she couldn't think of the word so she said something in German to the young German guy next to her who then translated... "tight" Bahahaha embarrassing much?!?!

Last stop for the day was the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Our walking tour guide later told us it wasn't worth visint but I thought it was great. All stories of how people tried to go over, under and through the Berlin Wall to try to get to the Western side. Stories of excape included a woman who hid in two suitcases on the backseat of a car with a gap cut through the two sides of the suitcases that touched, a guy who cannoed his was around a body of water, a father who set up a flying-fox from one building window to another, women who "swapped husbands" with women on the Western side to pretend they lived in the West and a guy who got hit with a self-detonating bundle of schrapnel as he tried to scramble over the wall. Crazy stuff...

That night we were joined by two more girls from the guesthouse - Scottish Katie and Kathleen - and we hit up our No.1 Kartoffel Haus again for dinner. Wanting to try something traditionally 'Berlin' I ordered the currywurst and sauerkraut (a weird kind of skinless spongey sausage that I'm not sure contained actual meat, covered in curry sauce.... but the sauerkraut was good, had bacon in it too). For dessert we ordered an array of things containing apple - the second favourite staple in Berlin, after the potato. Apple strudel was the hero dessert while the potato pancakes with apple pure were like a hash brown covered in baby food :P And in true Eruo style we had an appertif - German schnapps, 50% alcohol when straight from the bottle, but they set it on fire in little cups and it goes down to about 30% alcohol! haha

Before bedtime, we went to check out the Brandenburg Gate all lit up at night, as well as the glass dome on top of the Reichstag (the German Parliament).

Day 103 (Fri) Walk this way
Walking tour in the morning, really informative, took in all the expected landmarks and more and the Aussie female guide told a great story about the press conference that (mistakenly) announced the Berlin Wall would come down. She also pointed out the line of bricks on the ground that showed where the old wall used to run. After a short break for German cheesecake (as one does in Germany) we went to see the longest remaining section of the wall - the East Side Gallery (the bit with all the mural paintings on it). The art and slogans there really made me think about the difference in attitudes between the 60s, when the wall went up, the 80s when it came down, and now.... Also, I was lucky to have done history as a class in first period because everything we'd learned over the past 8 weeks was now right in front of me! Unlike studying these things at home it helped me to realise they actually did happen, and this was where...
Capping off another big day, we lined up to climb to the top of the Reichstag glass dome. In all honesty I'd had it by then and it was a quick trip up and down but the view was pretty cool. Dinner that night was not at the Kartoffel Haus... and therefore nowhere near as good! But I did keep up my daily intake of Berliner donuts by grabbing one on the way home for dessert!

Day 104 (Sat) - Final day in Berlin ... also day before Halloween
After a few days of information, culture and history it was time to focus (even more) on food. We headed to a market this morning where we picked up a bunch of goodies for a picnic lunch - highlights included apple wine (told they worship the apple, although I'm surprised there wasn't potato wine!), apple strudel, houmus!!!! (its been so long...although it wasn't as good as at home), rolls made from the same dough as pretzels and ... get this ... pure melted cheese scraped onto bread. no joke, they just cut a big wheel of cheese in half, put it cut side up under a griller and when the top layer is all melted they just scrape it straight off on to bread, bit of salt and parsley or something similar and voila.... my god was it delicious!
With significant food babies as a result we thought it would be a great idea to go clothes shopping!  Google had thrown up an op-shop in Berlin where they sold clothes by the kilo! again, an array of felt hats (complete with feathers), massive fur coats, russian hats, stoles/stolls (you know, the fur scarfe things) etc etc.
That night we partook in a Halloween pubcrawl - 5 pubs, crazy costumes (including my cow-print apron which will look smashing with my bike and was a big hit with the other pub crawlers - as seen in the pic below), finished up about 3.30am...

Day 105 (Sun) - No rest for the wicked
Pity we had to get our train to the airport at 4.30am. So no sleep for us. After 2 trains to the Berlin airport, a flight to Brussels, 3 trains to Maastricht and a bus back to the guesthouse it was definitely time for a nap!!!

Day 100 - the first 100 days in office!

Day 100 - (tues) the 100 day milestone
Usually more of a political timeframe but I've decided that on my 100th day away from home (or at least when it appears in my blog!) I shall pause to reflect on what has been achieved. So here's a quick wrap:

Countries visited: 8 (including the autonomous states of the Vatican and Monaco! everyone counts right?)

Landmarks seen: highlights include Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Versailles, Notre Dame, Colloseum and Roman ruins, Vatican, Acropolis, Sagrada Familia (Barcelona Church) ... (and very shortly after my 100 day mark: Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, old Berlin Wall/East Side Gallery, Holocaust Memorial and Anne Frank's House)

Languages spoken (or should I say, attempted speaking): English (its not as good as it used to be with all these external influences!!), French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, German, Swedish, Korean - I've got at least a few words in each, that counts for something right?!?!

Courses taken (and, more importantly, passed!): 2

Bouts of homesickness: 2 serious ones

Bouts of actual sickness: 4 bloody colds!!

Most money spent on: toss up between travel and medicine!!!

Postcards sent: 4

Postcards received: 1 (pick up the pace people!! :P) (although there was also that box of Haighs chocolates!)

Pairs of shoes broken: 2

Bikes bought: 1 (Moo Mobile still going strong)

Bikes broken: 0 (YES! this is a special achievement given almost everyone else's bike has had something go wrong with it - touch wood)

Bike stacks: just one...

New favourite foods discovered: BILLIONS - stroopwaffels, speculoos spread (think biscuit taste but in spread-form - makes even the most boring piece of wholegrain bread taste delicious), poffejes mmmm, warm red cabbage and apple (yep, its actually tasty the Dutch way)

Seasons of crappy TV downloaded to my laptop and watched: 4 (there was a lot of bus time on Contiki!!)

Blogs: 42 (including this one)

So there you have it, get the picture?
Until this point I've been recounting pretty much every day because pretty much everyday has been adventure, thrown up something new/funny/terrible/blogworthy. But as I start to settle into this life some days are just.... days, you know? So a change of tact/tack (never sure which one it is!) from now... although everyday is interesting to me, its probably not to you so, so from now on you'll just get the highlights :)
The trips away, the hilarious happenings, the momentous moments... you get it.
For now, as the Dutch say "tot gauw" (if you've been reading you'll know what that means :P)

Days 97 to 99 - Impending dooooom ... and by doom I mean exam!

Day 97 (Sat) - Home invader!
Skyped Bwetty this morning ... in my house! (he was housesitting for mum and dad) ... quite odd for me to be all the way over here and him to be in my house, very weird to see all our furniture in the background of his skype ... and getting into an argument over whether a chair was in that spot when I left home or not! lol
Later I headed to 'Dutch Woolies' for supplies for a weekend of not-leaving-the-house-or-possibly-showering serious study. To my delight I managed to find a touch of home on the supermarket shelves in the form of sausage rolls!!! even had them with heinz tomatoe sauce ...mmmm (sorry dad, but I can smother everything with it over here and not risk turning you off your dinner!)
Once home and at my desk it suddenly dawned on me that the last time I prepared for an exam I was 19, in 'first-year' uni and the subject was the devastatingla hard (ahem) Film Studies! Unfortunately, my attempts at notemaking and preparation just transported me back to Year 12!!

Day 98 (Sun) - Aussie, Aussie, Aussie ... oven, oven, oven
After another long study day I had a bunch of Aussie girls over for dinner - and to marvel at my oven :P
We made the biggest, choc-full-of-goodness veggie lasagne, topped off with chocolate cake for desert ... again, have I mentioned I love my oven?! Was nice to be around Aussies to, each reminiscing about the day we left home, making fools of ourselves bawling in the airport! But also quite revealing to see how we all look back now and wonder why we were so scared. Hindsight eh...? I've come to the realisation that I worried far more than I needed to... but how was I ever going to know that until I got here!

Day 99 (Mon) - Handed in essay today (done early so I could whizz off to Berlin soon after the exam) and realised that in one day, I'll have been away from home for 100 days!

Days 92 to 96 - Beginning of the end.... of study bloc one that is!

Days 92 & 93 (Mon & Tues) - Study, eat, study
No need to really explain these days ... even in Europe, some days are still mundane :P

Day 94 (Wed) - Haaaaallelujah!
Made a momentous discovery today ... chocolate-covered Oreos!!! Closest thing we can get to a Tim Tam over here. Also made risotto in a rice cooker ... seemed almost sacreligious doing so whilst so close to Italy, but with a distinct lack of Le Cruzet cookware in this studenten keuken it was the safest bet!

Day 95 (Thurs) - Making classy friends
Last history class today and I think I can honestly say I now know everything that ever happened in the world after 1945, on every continent and context!!! or at least that's what I feel like the course tried to get us to learn... will see how much info I managed to stop from leaking out my ears when I take the exam next week?!? Having so many Germans in this class I found I've started to pick up German words that I recognise, or English interspersed with the German. Although usually they speak English if I'm in the room, even if I'm not in the conversation. They say its rude not too, which is very considerate of them and simultaneously make me feel like a bit fat uni-lingual loser! Although, am making some progress in Dutch. I can actually answer back (sort of) to the teacher when she picks on me! And after Dutch class I went to an Australian's house for dinner (as one does in this multicultural setting - we were joined for dinner by a German, an Italian, a Frenchy and a Pom!) Was a far classier affair than the guesthouse - there was wine (instead of the commonplace exchange student beer) and even a little jazz music from the iTunes - ooh la la.
Unfortunately, my attempt to be classy and bring Brie cheese ended in a surprisingly stinky, runny lump of goo in my bag (note to self: European cheese is stinkier than in Oz and goes off VERY quickly!!)

Day 96 (Fri) - Movie date for one?
Last day of classes for study bloc one today. Had to endure a rather awkward and halting explanation of Shakespere by one classmate but think we got the gist of it (yes that's right, I'm claiming to have somewhat understood Shakespere - becoming more cultured by the minute here!). That evening, to celebrate surviving the first 7 weeks of study I decided to take myself off to the movies to celebrate. Took my own popcorn and a pick-it-yourself bag of lollies from the friday morning market and indulged in Eat, Pray, Love. Without ruining the movie, she visits Italy, India and Bali and the thought struck me that I've now visited all three of those places! It also occurred to me that you can both be in a place you've always wanted to visit (ie. Europe) and still want to go on a holiday to somewhere else (say, tropical Bali for example!) All in all a nice night ... except perhaps for... ripping a hole in my one and only denim skirt when getting on my bike to ride home! HOW embarrassing. Turns out there's only so long you can live in one set of clothes out of one backpack before they literally wear bare. Sad thing is, I conditioned myself so much to not spend money before I left for this trip that now I don't really feel like shoppin for new clothes! Think I can work the grunge-hole-in-my-denim look for a while...?

Day 90 - Up THAT creek!

Day 90 (sat) - Row, row, row your boat ... not so gently upstream!
Today, while my guesthouse friends swanned around Liege (just over the Belgian border) shopping and 'doing' coffee, I decided it would be a great idea to explore the great outdoors of Maastricht. Earlier in the week I signed up for a kayaking trip on the River Maas (without really thinking about weather conditions, my limited wardrobe at the time or, for that matter, my kayaking skills...) Nonetheless, I cycled down to meet the group of other intrepid UCMers and we headed for the launching point on the river. Literally as soon as we got there it started to rain!
Exhibit A:

Despite wearing every piece of remotely suitable clothing I owned (old sneakers, 2 pairs of leggings, track pants, multitude of tops, mildy waterprood jacket & coopers cap and beanie combo to finish off the look) I got ridiculously wet early on. I teamed up with a French girl who had kayaked before and, while we struggled a bit at first (think round and round in circles or a zig zag effect) we found a rhythm eventually and were at the head or at least middle of the pack of 9 kayaks-for-two for most of the day.

Trudging to our fate!

  Me and my kayak buddy

After about an hour of scenic paddling, passing the odd cow or swan, the novelty began to wear off. The UCM organisers had planned for us to paddle 11km, with the option to stop at 8km, but after travelling about 3m in the first hour that 8km mark became the sole goal!

The 'pleasant' weather from the start of the day continued and we got wet from above and below while out on the water, not to mention the wind pciked up to the point that paddling full-steam meant treading water in one spot. We also ran into some tricky teeny-rapids and bigger-than-we'd-like rocks which all slowed us down. By this stage all 18 pairs of hands were frozen, noses were about to fall off, generally extremities weren't working ... except for one guy who managed to stop on the side bank for a pee! Because of my poor paddling technique, litres of water ran down my arms every time I lifted them to paddle, leaving my gloves wet enough to wring dry over the side! As the next hour dragged on the though crossed our minds that we may never make it and our group would be found as a bunch of floating popsicles by some Belgian farmer as we floated upstream!

Before the going got tough....

Finally, after about 3 hours (it was estimated to take only 2) we spotted a tiny figure on the bank ahead that turned out to be our kayak-hire-guy. Paddles were raised above heads in triumph and a surge of adrenaline propelled us all towards the bank where we flopped ashore. Wet and literally frozen we towelled off and headed for the nearest cafe where hot chocolate and soup brought life back into frozen lips and fingers. But the relief was short lived - while kayak-hire-guy dropped us back to where we started, we all still had to ride home from there!! All I can say to try and describe how cold I was by the time I got home was that it hurt to have a shower in the hot water! Not to mention the bruises on my hands from paddling and the array of stiff/strained muslces that reminded me the next day ... just how much 'fun' I'd had!

We maaaaade it!!

Observations: the River Maas scenery is actually quite picturesque as it winds up from Maastricht into Belgium

Mistakes: Kayaking in the Netherlands in any season other than Summer!

Mini victories: paddling 8km on a foreign river and NOT capsizing! e-Yessss!

Dutch I've learned: "Ik heet dit" = "I hate this"
"Het is heel, erg koud" = "I'ts bloody cold!!!"

To blog or not to blog...? and other academic musings

Saw this image in a lecture slide and me thinks it is hilarious! Totally encompasses the whole liberal arts study over here and also trying to keep up with this thing - this whole sharing your thoughts and experiences with the world is bloody time consuming!

I also wondered the other day, do you think academics get shitty when we (lazy students) reduce their wonderful, long musings to dot points in order to study for for exams? Or when we totally butcher their theories in paraphrasing for an essay? Most of them here have such crazy Dutch or German names I'm probably pronouncing them wrong each class too :S

And speaking of exams, I saw the other day that an Adelaide researcher wants to get rid of "archaic" written exams. Hear, hear, as the Bard would say. Why can’t we just learn interesting things, enjoy the process and not have to be tested at the end! I felt like I'd been teleported back to Year 12 :S and in the end I reckon I might lose points for writing too much because I didn't see the instruction that said only write one page ... and I maintain my handwriting is fat (not to mention comletely ruined by 5 years of shorthand!!)(P.S. Mum, as an academic reader of this rambling, please don't hurt me!) 

On the flip side, one really cool thing about studying here is the textbooks. At home all I get is dowdy media textbooks on media ethics and law and stuff. This bloc here I got one with Pop Art picture of Marilyn Monroe on the front! Am totally sending home a big box of all my books on a boat so when I'm old I can have them in my study library and reminisce about my days as a European intellectual!

For now though, I suppose I've answered old Willie's question (by blogging) and look forward to acquainting myself with him next semester when I delve into the subject "Shakespere on Screen"!

Days 85 to 89 - Officially livin' the Dutch life

Day 85- (Mon) Yes, Adelaide is a proper city!
Had a meeting at Maastricht town hall this morning to officially apply to live here (bit late now right?! but that's how the system goes). I had to register within a couple of weeks of getting here, then they set you up with this meeting. You have to show your passport, rental agreement, uni forms etc, they even wanted my birth certificate but let it slide given the hassle it would be for just 10 months here (but if I ever come back I must bring it, the lady tells me in an ominous tone!). So we fill out the forms and she gets to the bit that says "Adelaide" and queries "Is this a place?" HA! I nearly burst out laughing ... all anyone knows about Australia is Sydney!! Where's Norman from Eindhoven immigration and his recognition of the Adelaide Crows when I need him!!?? Anywho, I'm now (after more than 2 months here) officially allowed to live here (even if I come frm Adelaide :P). To celebrate this status I went and bought Milo ... yes MILO!! found it in, of all places, an Asian supermarket. Has what appears to be a Chinese Olympic swimmer on the can instead of Kieran Perkin's look-a-like like at home but has that same 'just like Nesquik only crunchy' taste :) mmmmm
Also, on my way out of he town hall to buy said Milo, I passed a bridal party and was aghast to seethe bride wearing ... BLACK!!! (And no Jess, just cos a European does it does not mean its acceptable!!!)

Day 86 (tues) - Totally a Dutch student
Went to a Dutch girl's house for dinner tonight after class (although we ate tortellini, not anything particularly dutch). Then I went to my first hippy student open-mic night. The uni holds free-for-all performance nights for arty students in the common room. Cheap vego food on sale, cool kids with guitars, make-shift drums, AMAZING voices and even a girl who did fire twirling (and almost set her stockings on fire in the proces!). Made me annoyed at myself for giving up the piano... :(

Day 87 (wed) - Cashing in on the student life
Scored a multitude of old-school kitchen goods from an op-shop this avo for the miserly sum of 6 euro! then scrounged back 1.50 euro from the supermarket by returning plastic and beer bottles - e-YES! Returned for (i think) the third Zumba class this evening - we're totally pros now, we gots da mooooves LOL

Day 88 (thurs) - Telling times
Tackled the overwhelming topic of financial crises in history class today, presenting me with an opportunity to brag about Australia being the "only country to avoid recession"! Later, in Dutch class we handed in our first written assignment - a whole 50 words! (I later received a grade of 4 and was DEVASTATED ... until I found out the score was out of 5, not 10!) We also learned to tell the time in this class but its so weird in Dutch ... if its for example 8.30, we say half past 8 (as in how many minutes it is past the turning of the current hour) but the Dutch say its half 9... (as in there's half an hour to go until it turns to the next hour) SO confusing!!! although its fun and knowing these little bits of Dutch is helping out day-to-day, I've come to the conclusion that if I ever want to have a proper conversation with a Dutch person I'm going to have to put a lot more effort into studying the language ... like grammar for example, I hardly know how to describe grammar processes in English, let alone Dutch! But after a day of bragging about Oz and all things Dutch, I ended this 24hour period at an international student dinner. Basically everyone brings a plate from their homeland and we share (again with the communism!) I made ANZAC biscuits (but with stroopwaffle syrup bc I couldn't find Golden Syryp, so they were kind of Dutchy ANZAC biscuits!), some other Aussie girls cut up sponge cake and dipped it in choc and coconut to make lamingtons (YUM), but the craziest thing was this blood pudding from Sweden. It was really, really dark red, almost brown, sliced thinly and baked or fried or something (and obviously is made from, among other things, animal blood). Its a bit of a Swedish specialty apparently, tastes really bland and floury but they put this kind of tart jam on it... (I tried a small bite... :S) Unfortunately it totally looked like chocolate cake ... and this meant more than one person was duped to "try some chocolate cake for dessert" and took a BIG mouthful... eep! To round off my multicultural education I learned two swedish words tonight - "tjnixen" (or something like that) means "howdy" and "schkrinkly" (totally not the spelling but roughly how it sounds) means "crinkly" as in a crinkly shirt ... useful hey?!

Day 89 (fri) - Rookie mistakes
So I got ripped off at the market this morning ... found this awesome dip store and asked for a small amount of dip and some stuffed baby capsicums, but there were no price signs and the language barrier prevented verbal clarification so I was left with a 12 euro bill (about 18 aussie dollars!!!). Later on that night, we went to a new little beer bar and (rookie mistake no. 2) asked the bar tender to just bring us some nice beers... we ended up with one that tasted like a mix of rocket fuel and anniseed, two that were 10+ % alcohol and another that was like sweet/sour cherry medicine!!! on the upside the place had the cutest bathroom, with rubber ducky patter on the bright blue toilet seat! In between mistake one and two I managed to pop over to Belgium for dinner - yes that's right, ANOTHER COUNTRY for dinner (really we just cycled up the road to the house of a German girl I met in introduction, who lives just over the border). Had to stop in at my place between cycling from there to the bar to meet other friends bc it had rained while we were in having dinner and I'd sat on a wet bicycle seat... (I may spent 10 or so minutes blowdrying my butt! don't judge!!) And then, I am proud to report, I cycled all the way to town holding an umbrella over my head ... doing about 2km an hour! As the title of this post says, I'm a real Dutchy now!

Observations: Brie cheese is especially smelly in Europe! And supermarket-brand wine for like $4AU is actually drinkable, as chocolate for 50cAU is edible.
Also, I've realised cycling time is like "loo time"... gives you time to think. Unlike catching the bus at home where I can read the paper or do uni work, and unlike the car bc there's no radio, you just have time to think (and watch the road of course) but I come up with some of my best (if I can call it that) blog material on two wheels.

Mistakes: See above!
Mini victories: Cycling with an umbrella ringing a bell...?

Dutch I've learned: "laat maar" = "never mind"
"Ja, ik wil" = literally translated means "yes, I want" but is apparently the Dutch version of "I do"!