Day 64 - (Mon) I got a boo-boo :(
My first cycling injury! It was bound to happen sooner or latet - frankly I'm surprised I survived this long. It was horrific .... ly embarrassing, that is. The actual injury is pathetic to say the least (thing a scab on my shin and a bruise on my knee) but the damage to my ego is deep and lasting! I was preparing to cross the road at this awkwad crossing where I'm never quite sure who has right of way (nt a roundabout or lights so no help there). I looked both ways (vital to not getting squished) and was abou to head out when I saw a car comin so I stopped - could have made it on foot or in a car but my start up speed on a bike is slower than a Commodore 64. But then the car stopped anyway ... and this old man ho had been ridng behind me was overtaking me, crossing the road, so then I HAD to go. Went to push off on the front pedal and i was raining (of course) so my foot slipped! Luckily it landed on the ground before I fell over completely but I still managed to crash my right leg into everything remotely spike on my bike. Grunting, dripping wet and feeling a bruise forming, I got my sh*t together and got the hell off the road, with tail between my back wheel spokes. To make it worse, the old guy tried to console me ... in Dutch! or at least I assume it was consoling.... wonder what "idiot foreigner" sounds like in Dutch?
In contrast, I had some nice Dutch girls round for dinner - my first turn to cook. I felt a bit self-conscious of our petty student digs (one of the girls has a nice place filled with all her stuff from home cos its so close) but they were polite! I practiced a bit of Dutch and was informed my "accent is getting.... better". I'll take that! For dessert, we ate Dutch licorice, but the highlight of the night was serving Vegemite on toast for entree! The girls had asked to try it ... and actually liked it!!! Must be something to do with their love of salty licorice...
Day 65 - (Tues) Join the club
Handed in my first assignment today ... here goes! Also back to the gym for the first time in 2 months (Editor's note: DEAR LORD did I feel it the next day). Also joined the uni magazine committee - VERY different from a real newspaper office (think lots of optimism but far less decisiveness) and its agreed by all that it needs a facelift to gain more readers... but helping to build it up into something cool that students want to read, and having the freedom to write on whatever strikes us, will be satisfying I think.
Day 66 - (Wed) "Please let me live here"
Train to Eindhoven, an hour north, this morning to visit the immigration office. "Norman", my immigration dude, was very helpful and, get this, a AFL fan! He recognised the name Adelaide not from the hordes of students who study here from there but because it was a football team! Needless to say his eyes lit up when I told him the Grand Final was on in a few days - he even knew the teams ("St Kilda? I thought they were bad?" he exclaimed. "They got better," I explained!)
Day 67 - (Thurs) Park life
Returned to the gym today, against my own will! To make matters worse, it was FULL of beefcakes and I managed to wear a new black t-shirt which preceded to spread black fluff all over me as I sweated profusely! I worked the "blue skin" look but note to self for next time... All that exertion led to a deserved rest in the park until my Dutch class (might have taken a quick nap over a history book or two). Third Dutch class at 6.30pm and its finally starting to be a bit of fun. Everyone still looks at the teacher lik a rabbit in the headlights when she turns on you in a questioning tone, but now we catch the odd word or two first! Covered basics like learning to count and "how are yu" etc. That night it was raining and I had a stomach ache, hence I was "slecht"!
Observations: Am learning so many new words after instigating a "google it" policy - any word I don't understand in my textbook (and there are plenty ... damn fancy academics) gets the google treatment. The bugs here are weird - our Dutch teacher says none of the spiders are poisonous, but the Australian in me dosen't believe her. Also there are these things that look like flying daddy-long-legs with bums like mozzies that regularly invade our units if we leave the windows open (bc the Dutch have clearly not heard of fly screens!). And there is a herd of stray cats roaming around our guesthouse. They won't be getting my left overs I can tell you that!
Dutch I've learned:
"Slecht" = "Feeling crap"
"Harstikke goede" = "Really good"
"O, beste" = "So, so"
"Niet so goede" = "Not so good" (but you guessed that right?)
And for those still trying to figure out the title of this post: "geen" is pronounced "hgain" and means "none"!
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