Days 50 to 54 - Back to schoooool, back to schooool

Monday to Friday

Day 50 - First day of school
First class up this morning - Contemporary World History. Some of you may remember how much I thoroughly enjoyed a similar class at Adelaide Uni (NOT!!!) but its a pre-requisite for the eminently cooler Theorising Terrorism course I want to do next semester... I'll just keep reminding myself the section on Israel/Palestine will make the bit on the Cold War worthwhile. For the meantime visualise one Aussie, a tutor called Wolfgang (no joke) and a bunch of Germans discussing WWII and the notion of WA ceceding from the state of Australia by floating out into the middle of the ocean (trust me, it was relevant at the time!).

Day 51- F*ck you (again, I promise its relevant)
Started the day with an 8.30am Contemporary World History lecture (because yes, uni administration, I agree that is the perfect time to absorb the complexities of international state relations!) Comic relief came later though in the form of a Pop Songs and Poerty tutorial. Led by a funky older female tutor with a lisp who spontaneously bursts into song at points during the class, it is literally all about analysing Top 40 music and old and new poetry. I even have to write my own poem at some point (eek! not sure how much creativity is left after 5 years in news journalism?!?! but that's why I'm in 'romantic' Europe right?) Luckily the first assignment was more in my zone - an analysis of Lily Allen's catchy and sardonic critique of George Bush and everything else that's wrong with America! A personal favourite on my MP3 list and a pleasure to listen to for "homework". We finished with an equally "difficult" end to the day - a 2 hour lecture spent watching the movie 'Dead Poet's Society'. After such a strenuous study day(!) it was time for some socialising with a troupe of 4 other Aussie girls I've come to know, including 2 who are also from Adel Uni. Later we partook in a party organised just for exchange students, where I ordered my first beer entirely in Dutch! Unfortunately others did not represent their country quite as primly as I and there were... "meetings of nations" shall we say, all over the dancefloor! Given my current romantic situation there were particular urges to slap/separate people that had to be suppressed! But then there's always a nice 20 minute bike ride home to give one time to calm down :P

Day 52 - Dinner date
A relatively uneventful day - no classes, first proper study sesh at my trusty IKEA desk - but the highlight was my first official dinner invitation to another student's unit. Andra, who lives up the hall invited me and one of the Aussie girls, Nakita (the one you met Mum), over for burritos. (You will come to recognise this among a revolving menu of cheap and easy student friendly meals.)

Day 53 - Naughty student
Unintentionally late for one of my classes today, having written in my diary that it started half an hour later than it actually did. Bugger! There goes one of my 2 free passes in this strict, very 'un-Australian in contrast to our '10 minutes late to a tute is still ok' system. And hate being 'that kid', you know the one, the first to flout the laws! Oh the shame! Made up for it by being super early (mostly out of paranoia!) for my night time Dutch class. Again, a spectacular time (6.30pm to 8.30pm) for efficient learning. After about a 5 minute introduction in English the teacher matter of factly informed us she would be switching to "instruction in Dutch" - the three most terrifying words an exchange student can hear. I felt like I was back in Year 8 French minus the bludge cheese tasting lessons. After two hours taught 80 per cent in Nederlandse it goes without saying mijn brain hurt... :S I'm determined to get it though ... in no time I'll be ordering bus tickets and buying vegetables in the native langue!

Day 54 - Homebody in my new home
First real food shopping trip with the roomie, to the morning markets. We're finally getting into a groove and managed to stock up on all the essentials for about half the price of the supermarket. She even reckons I'm a whiz in the kitchen - and that's without my baked goods as evidence (remember the lack of oven). Seems all it takes to impress are chicken wraps and making pasta sauce by adding onion and garlic to tomato concentrate. After another highly enjoyable Pop Songs and Poetry class this avo I spent the night hanging out at home with Tess, making dinner and, get this (parents pay close attention) ... vaccuuming my room and mopping the kitchen! Yep, study exchange = wild parties, drinking and missing classes .... (well, maybe just the last bit!)

Observations: Eating out here is really expensive unless you plan to live on fries. No cheap chinatown, even Maccas is pricey! Everyone has to ride with lights on their bike at night but mine are especially eye-catching because I can't attach the front one to my bike so it gets clipped to my clothing smack in the middle of my chest! HELLO oncoming traffic :P Unfortunately though, I'm discovering that not EVERYONE in the Netherlands is fully considerate of cyclists...
Mistakes: Riding too close to parked cars and nearly getting cleaned up by a rapidly opened driver's side door! eep
Dutch I've learned: "Ik ben Lauren. Ik woon in Maastricht. Ik studeer Nederlandse." - "I'm Lauren, I live in Maastricht. I study Dutch" ... this was the sum of two hours in Dutch class!
I then asked how to say this "Ik spreek geen Nederlandse"... ironically it means "I don't speak Dutch"!