Days remaining living in the containers: 5
Days of summer school in Finland: 7 days there, 5 of classes
Hours we are in classes while in summer school: 9am-8pm
Hours of daylight per day in Finland: 18+
Days until my parents visit London: 37
Days until I return to the UK: 14
Days back in the UK before my first assignment is due: 3
Motivation and patience meter: 26% and falling
Number of ducklings in the stream out front: 2
Well, hey. I've not blogged. I'm just not pleased to be here. Though the weather is nice, and we have a crazy number of hours of daylight, and we do have those adorable ducklings. I'm hoping when I am happier I will be more motivated to write. Right now I think I would just make a lot of complaints so it is better I don't post too much. I have been reading some blogs however, I found a cache of blogs of people who have gone from the US to the UK, its fun to see their observations of the cultural and linguistic differences and compare them to mine. But otherwise it has just been a lot of work and feeling a bit icky. After tomorrow my classes will be over, and I'll just have two assignments to complete before summer school. And my festival (UGH!) will be running on Thursday and Friday, I have Saturday to pack up my apartment (with a special reward at the end of the night, seeing Netherlands Dance Theatre do a collaboration with the Hague Philharmonic and Philip Glass--awesome) and then up at 3am on Sunday to drop off my key, leave my bags at Jasmine's, and WALK to Centraal Station to get a train to the airport, because MAIPR booked us on a flight to Finland SO EARLY in the morning that Amsterdam public transport in the city DOESN'T EVEN RUN! Not awesome. But, at least it will mark the beginning of the end for the semester and my time here, I'll just have about a day and a half of living on Jasmine's floor when I get back from Finland, the overspill booked partly so that I can take Monday morning to return library books, close my bank account, little logistical stuff like that before I can leave, and partly because MAIPR STILL has not told us when our flights back from summer school will be and I didn't want to risk booking too early. All I know is I am ready to go.
Maybe they are inflicting as much seeming-torture as they can now so we look to our dissertation work as a vacation... maybe this is all an elaborate plan... maybe this is all in our best interest........ hahaha, sometimes I say crazy things.
Anyway, I've composed this short list of amusing things to entertain you, at least a little. These are mixed observations of the UK and NL.
*Crutches are a totally different design in Europe. They don't go under your arms, they are things you hold in your hands. They look totally uncomfortable. Not that crutches are a blast.
*Apparently there is something about reading children's palms when they are born to determine if they have Downs Syndrome. I'll look into this one further.
*Arugula is called rocket
*Eggplant is called aubergine
*Zucchini is called courgette
*Rutabaga is called sweed
*There is no other word for cilantro. It does not exist in any form anywhere outside the Americas
*In Holland, people sunbathe as soon as it hits 60 (dudes. yes, you are very pretty, but put yours shirts back on please)
*In UK there are no outlets in bathrooms (reading one of the blogs reminded me of this. there is a special outlet thing that I think is only for shavers, but forget a hair dryer. do that in the hallway or at your desk). They have however corrected this in NL
*There are no bumper stickers anywhere. I don't know whose student is on the honor roll, or who anyone voted for.
*In both countries they say "aircon" instead of "a/c"
*In UK they say "revising" for "studying." It does not mean updating a paper, as we would say. Before one's exams they "revise" instead of "review."
*And they say "hoover" for vacuuming.
*And they frequently call dinner "tea" which is different than when they have actual tea and call it "tea." There is no way to differentiate when someone asks you what you want for "tea," you just have to ask for clarification.
*And they say "drink driving" instead of "drunk driving." Say it out loud. Sounds really silly to me. And they have the word "niggle" which apparently means something that bothers you. Come on people, seriously?
*Don't know if I mentioned this, but the tap water in Amsterdam (or is it Holland? or is it Netherlands?) is the healthiest in the world. Fact.
*My favorite: if you go on the website for the news source The Telegraph and click on world news, the different world areas from which you can choose will come up. These are: South America, Africa, Middle East, Australasia, Europe, China, Asia, Barak Obama, and USA. All the important areas of the world.
Well, it will be my goal to make a list of things I liked about Amsterdam/Holland/Netherlands. I know there are some things I will miss.
I'll start working on that later.
Shout out to occasionally hilarious translation faux pas. The other day Jasmine, Ian, and I got a pizza from the grocery store (we tried to go get take away (carry-out to those of you reading in America) but as it was 10pm in Amsterdam they were already closed, the grocery store itself was closing behind us as we left) and we translated the label, using Google Translate, one of the more superior translation websites. Here is what we got:
Nederlands: "Holy Moly! Wat dacht je van deze dikke bodem oer Amerikaanse verse pizza supreme met plakjes pittige pepperoni en ham bite me!"
English: "Holy Moly! How about this thick primeval American fresh soil pizza with slices of spicy pepperoni and supreme ham bite me!"
Ahh, my favorite. Primeval fresh soil pizza. None of that evolved barren soil stuff for me.
PS- sorry I couldn't spellcheck this. The interwebs knows I'm in Amsterdam and reeeeeeally wants me to be writing in Dutch, so it has highlighted just about every word besides "is" or "we" as being incorrect. Well, except for the words actually written in Dutch. For those I was right on the money.
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