Sigh...

Clearly I have lost momentum to blog. Understatement. On the one hand that is kinda a good thing, as it means I'm doing other important things, like schoolwork and cultivating a social life. I had a crazy week last week where I was up until at least 2am every night working on papers and presentations and other deadlines, generally simultaneously eating bags of candy (Maoam, FTW!) and relying on makeup to keep me from looking like a coked out zombie... but I survived, as I guess one does in grad school. On the other hand, I'm not fully living out my mission of teaching America about all the wierdness they should be avoiding. Stay in the States, everyone! I'll do the dirty work so you don't have to!

Let us bullet point blow through my life lately, so you know what I've been doing and not blogging about.

*It is getting warmer in Amsterdam. It was about 60 degrees today, and March wasn't nearly as rainy as promised. Tulips are just about out, it is sunny until nearly 8:30pm, and it hasn't hailed in like 4 days. Also, I need to learn to think in Celsius, as Fahrenheit is not serving me lately.

*I spent some time in the UK for spring break. I did well at a dance competition, both in Standard and Latin, and had lots and lots of fun. Plus, new chic latin dress was a big hit.

*I submitted my proposal for my dissertation. Now it is off in the hands of the Joint Academic Board, or the JAB (appropriately onomatopoetic) to read it and assign my supervisors. I don't have a first supervisor yet, no one really suits my question, but the head of theatre studies at UvA agreed that if the JAB approves it she would like to be my secondary supervisor, and she's lending me some books tomorrow, so I'm just excited that someone is excited! Well, someone besides me. I think I have the most awesome thesis question ever. That should be its own post, but I'll give you hints. It is awesome, it is relatively untapped, and it will never be taken seriously in the United States.

*I also gave a presentation for my class last week, which I feel went ok. I worked really really hard, and the class seemed to enjoy it. I don't have my grade yet, but as I am no longer caring about grades (I'm going to get a masters out of this program, two in fact, so I'd rather spend my time worrying if I did a good job and learned something than trying to kill myself pandering for 4 points higher on an assignment) and instead going for the experience of it, I'd say that I am proud of myself and that is enough.

*I now make the best meatballs in the universe.

*My power has only gone out once more, and my shower is now fixed as well, so with water and light it is basically paradise........

Well, you are caught up, more or less. Let's go to a Holland lesson, shall we?

*You are more likely to be hit by a car on the sidewalk than on the road. As there is contruction repairing pipes or something under the main roads in Amsterdam, the sidewalks are choaked. Now add tourists. Now add CARS. You will probably die before you get to school.

*The scream mask guy in Dam Square changed costume, and is now Darth Vader.

*I figured out what the big scaffolding thing is behind Dam Square. It is the Royal Palace. Yeah, think someone would have mentioned that? It has apparently been under construction for like 5 years. The royal family does their thing in the main palace in The Hague (Den Haag), but still, kinda unceremonious that I could walk past a palace every day for two months and have no idea...

*I have a working bank account and bus pass, as well as wall adapters, so helloooooo civilization!

*Food: sauces are TERRIBLE. All of them, barbecue, spaghetti, anything that is a sauce here (and speaking of sauce, Dear UK, what is brown sauce? It scares me that sometimes it is sold as just "sauce" and no one seems to know the ingredients. Whats the deal there?) is just bad. I know I mentioned that before, but I have kept up the search for different brands and really, nothing at all is even ok. But, soup is AMAZING. They destroy the rest of the world in soup technology, just as the British own in chip innovation. You name it, mustard soup, sauerkraut soup, it is amazing like you'd never guess.

*Random fun experience: in one of my class buildings there are coed bathrooms. Yep.

*New words:

Raspberry: framboos

Strawberry: aardbei

Bridge: brug

Goodbye: tot ziens

Look up: zoeken

Next: volgend

Library book: bibliotheek boek

To make a toast: proost

No (as in not an exit): geen (geen uitgang)

As an extension of my Dutch lesson I will now tell you of my new heroes. They are Prince Friso and Princess Mabel of the Netherlands. So Prince Friz (aeronautical engineering degree, masters in econ, an MBA, and for good measure some classes in Dutch law to get him ready for the possible event of kingship) is the second son of the current queen Beatrix (truly a jolly looking woman. I can't wait for Queens Day to wear orange and dance in the streets in her honor. She looks like a friendly grandma who would bake you cookies if she weren't queen and most likely has people to do that sort of thing for her). Well, Fritzie started dating Mabel, who has lots of credits to her name, among them being fluent in 4 language, highly educated, personally involved during the peace struggles in the Balkans area (founding member along with Margaret Thatcher and others of a non-govt organization to promote peace in the Balkans when she was 26!), and generally all around awesome chick. But, when Frizzy wanted to marry her, the application was denied by the parliament, because it was rumored she had had dealings amounting to something like friendship with a drug lord, and had had an affair with some UN ambassador...when she was 25, 9 years before she married Frizzle. !!?? Seriously people. Even if the marriage had been recognized, she was never going to run the country. And even if she was, were her merits as a kickass chick really negated by the fact that when she was 25, before she was queen, before she was married, probably before she had even met Frizzo, she had some dalliance with a married dude? I don't condone it, but come on, proportional retribution, parliament, proportional retribution. Anyway, so the marriage wasn't approved, but good old FrizFriz married her anyway, taking him out of running (he was in 3rd place at the time, would be 5th today) for the throne, and they now live in London with their little cherub countess children. And I love them, for being awesome.

I should mention, if you want to waste time while learning lots of cool things, Wikipedia. Did you know there is a special medal of honor for animals who serve their countries? It often is won by dogs and pigeons, but now and again a horse or cat sneaks in there. Bandit should have a medal for being the most awesome cat ever. Also, I recommend bigthink.com, personal favorites of mine are Stephen Fry and Caroline Weber, but its best to just surf around and see where the links lead you. And if you want a little more low brow but none the less truthful, try stuffwhitepeoplelike.com.

I will be learning lots of Dutch stuff soon. Ian comes to visit next week, and we have a full calendar. We will take a canal tour, maybe catch a museum or two, take a day in Leiden for the windmills and tulips and another day in the Haag (I never know how to type that. Do I do the enlightened Dutch thing because I know better, and do "Den Haag"? Or is that portentous, I'm American and I know it, so should I stick with "The Hague"? I have no idea), maybe check out NEMO the science museum, further antagonize the I AMsterdam sign... should be epic, so I will have much to report back on.

Enjoy!

Shout out to all the fun things I've learned while recovering from my killer hectic week last week.