Day 78 - (Mon) Happy Anniversary
Brett and my one-year anniversary today! So of course I was homesick :( But we had "brinner" together which was nice (for the uninitiated, thats BReakfast and dINNER, because of the time difference).
Also joined the Yearbook committee today, mainlu because I want to make sure I have one to take home at the end of my year here!
Finished the day attending a free lecture on Democracy in the Arab World. Was so nice to have the time to just sit and listen to an expert explain these issues that I've always wanted to know more about (in fact, feel I should know more about) and just absorb ... not have to take notes, not be tested later, just listen and learn. Only time I ever attended something like that at home was to pick out the "headline" and bolt back to the office to file!
Day 79 - (Tues) Awkward much?
So my theory that everyone here is so keen to study and enthusiastic in class suffered a blow today. Poetry class was painful. It was like being back in Oz - no one offering up anything, everyone looking at the floor, awkward silence UGH. So of course this has to be the week I get picked to be discussion leader! And on a topic I know sweet FA about. Murphy's hey!?
Day 80 - (Wed) Zuuuuummmmbaaaaaa
After a day of sleeping and studying it was time to get active. I've always seen the ads at home for this Zumba (the apparently cool-as-a-cucumber way to lose weight while becoming a salsa queen in your own living room) and discovered they offer classes at the uni gym. Arrived at the gym (already sweaty from the 25 minute cycle there! intense warm up!) to discover my Zumba-buddy Celine has done hip-hop dancing for years. I begin preparing myself to play the part of "white girl can't dance" but find after a few minutes that it really doesn't matter. Our Zumba instructor is the epitome of a Beyonce back-up dancer, complete with afro and bootay, but the rest of us are like flailing fish on a boat bottom! What's worse, our plan to stand at the back so no one could see us backfired when we realised the windows behind us were lined with macho mean headint upstairs to the weights who stop to peer in at us sticking out our butts and pumping our elbows like chickens a discotheque! But its a hoot ... half the exercise is in the abs from laughing at yourself so much. And who knew, its actually a tough work out. After one successful session Celine and I have decided to keep going, pick up some moves, and bust them out on a Maastricht D-floor sometime soon :P
After working up an appetite I cycled (no, struggled uphill) home for tasty korean beef and rice, cooked by my roomie Tess as a cheer up for my bout of homesickness and to belatedly celebrate the one-year milestone. What a sweetie :)
Day 81 - (Thurs) First (almost) all nighter
Fifth (I think) Dutch class tonight. We're starting to actually use a few words to each other in class now. Was lots of listening and practicing pronunciation this time - its what we all need most help with. And again, for some reason, the Dutch Royal Family came up in conversation (they're a favourite topic of our teacher!). Home by 9pm for an unpleasant stretch of study after letting a poetry assignment crep up on me ... took even longer because I ended up getting distracted by the cool poems in the back of my textbook!
Day 82 - (Fri) Controversy and cabbage
Somehow managed to have a debate about abortion in poetry class today... which is bad enough among native speakers but can get dangerously lost in translation among English-as-a-second-language participants! Then, in a complete change of topic, we were assigned readings on "Why Britney Spears Matters" for the next tutorial ... stay tuned for the answer to that life-altering question!
Highlight of the day: Dutch dinner at night - 3.50 euro (bout $5 AU) for three-courses of hearty Dutch cuisine. Pea soup, cheese chunks straight out of the 70s and THE DENSEST Rye bread Ive ever seen for entree, mashed potato (of course), surprisingly tasty red stewed/pcikled cabbage, meatballs, sausage (which tasted like a giant hot dog weiner) and gravy for main, and bowlfuls of pofferjes (those tiny Dutch pancakes) and licorice ('Drop' to the locals) for dessert. Bargain ... we'll be back. Capped the night off wit beer and some soccer at the international student pub ... Germany v Turkey, commentators speaking German, everyone in the bar (except for maybe two people) German .... lots of "Oh ja, Oh ja" going on in the background ... thankfully Germany won. Arrived back at the guesthouse to find half naked blokes in the room down the hall playing some sort of card/drinking game in their front kitchen ...!
Observations: Traditional Dutch food is not all that different from traditional German food ... or Belgian food for that matter.
Dutch I've learnt: "hoeveel?" = "how many?" as in "hoeveel biers?"!
"De Slegte" = "the Bad Guy" (not really sure why this came up but I thought it was funny, or as the Dutch say "grappig")
"O, Beste" = "So, so..."
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