Got back this evening from a weekend in Amsterdam with Steve. Most of you should know he's the fella I met in Ireland over xmas, from Australia. So this makes three countries we have now had "dates" in, and five separate occasions so far we have spent time together;) Fantastic weekend, and a great city with a wonderful atmosphere. Tired, so more laterz...10 hours of sleep later, let's hope I can speak more coherently:) Amsterdam really is a wonderful city. The people are vibrant and friendly, many riding around on bicycles (they actually have bike parking lots that hold up to 2,000 cycles!). On our first night in, while trying to locate our hostel, we got directions from a nice older man and his grandaughter (?). He even took out his newly bought reading glasses and ripped off the tag so he could read the address I had and walked us over a bridge saying "follow me and then i'll tell you more." Everyone seems to speak English there, even if it is not fluently.The weather was the most chilly I've encountered since being away from home, but that didn't stop us from enjoying some Haagen Daaz ice cream on Sunday. They had a fantastic posh shop (Aunt Liz, you would have loved it...will attach a pic soon!). Got some excellent food every day, really, from Mexican (finally...been missing that), Greek (seriously orgasmically good lamb in tangy yogurt sauce), to Irish pub grub, and even a great sandwich on the flight home. KLM is the bomb. Hmmm, I think the only Dutch food we tried, if I am remembering correctly, was baked goods:) Well, actually, we went to a local-ish pub the first night and had some nice meat and potato dishes.As far as sightseeing goes, we did a lovely canal cruise and saw the Anne Frank house, and just generally did a lot of walking around. Good stuff and highly recommended...Edited to add:Ladies, the things we whine about but often take for granted... Fully enjoyed the fact that I could rely on someone else to figure out directions for how to get around the city while in Amsterdam. And had loads of help in planning the trip. Again, good stuff :)And a funny...to point out more linguistic differences. Here, and in Australia I guess lol, jelly means jello. Imagine what some peeps must think when imagining a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That was a great laugh!!
It's funny how you don't think too much on the literal meanings of commonly used phrases, when you understand the metaphor. Take 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket', for example. Our tutor was trying to explain this phrase to the non-native English speaking students by describing how eggs are fragile and if you put them all in one basket, then drop the basket, they will all break, whereas if you separate them into multiple baskets and drop one basket, you only lose a few. Never crossed my mind...as I just know what it means automatically.
I'm wondering---have they not heard of hold over here? I shouldn't say that, as I have been put on hold by the post office and such, but calling the GP is a whole other story. There is no hold, and you have to call back about a dozen times before you get through...line is always busy. Drives me nuts.Small positive...called to make an appt. to have my fringe (bangs) trimmed and they said to just pop in, as that's free. Yippee:)My computer is all healthy, thanks to Steveg, and my first essay is almost complete, so most of the annoyances of the past week are behind me. I love having my task list empty. Now I can look forward to the upcoming weekend trip to Amsterdam although at the risk of sounding cheesy, I'm more looking forward to the company than the location;) (which doesn't mean i'm not looking forward to the location, btw)
Hmmm, do you think maybe this pilot was/is scheduled to fly me home in April? Let's hope he is suspended until after that, or better yet, sacked!http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060211/ap_on_re_eu/britain_pilot_arrested
Re-moaning about something. Have been kept up til at least 1am the past few nights by my noisy roommate and his friends, so I've been exhausted. Last night, 'wanker' and the new roommate were in the kitchen yackin it up at 3:30am, so I threw on my robe, shoved upon the kitchen door, yelled "Hey!" a couple of times before they actually heard me, and told them to keep it down. I got a muffled "yeah ok" as a response, but they were almost silent after that. It was Friday night, so I half expected a rebuff, but now that I know it works, I will not hesitate on any day of the week.
It is so much fun to have classes with peeps who come from other countries, where English is not their native language. Just got out of a class in which one of my classmates was laughing about the fact that in the article she was assigned to read (part of some group work) it was stated that plants were psychologically damaged by tourists and transport. I thought it was amusing and odd, to say the least, until I looked at her article and read....physiologically damaged...at which point it became utterly hysterical;)Another classmate did not understand the term "I hit the jackpot" when I mentioned it to him earlier. He said: "I don't understand. A jackpot is in the casino." Ah, the things we take for granted...
Well, I just got two more marks back. As you might remember, I got a 55 on my Sustainable Tourism essay (got that grade back in December). That is equivilant to a C in the states, and I thought that was quite fair, as I didn't really feel that I got into things as in-depth as I should/could have, but honestly, I wasn't too interested in putting much more effort into it. Today, I got informed that I got a 48 on my Politics and Policy (fair enough). What really surprised me was that I got a 53 in International Tourism and Globalization. I expected at least something in the 60s; felt I did B level work on that for sure. I even went and interviewed someone for the organization I did my presentation on. I'm tempted to just be really hacked off about it, but that grade is unmoderated (which means it could change) and I haven't seen the feedback on it. Well, I'm ticked anyway to be honest.On top of that, my laptop is seriously acting up and I can do no work at home. Hopefully that will be rectified soon, as I'm not a fan of working in the library. Then again, if I am going to get crap grades, why worry!Ok, enough ranting. Have plenty of very good stuff going on as well. Had a fantastic weekend in London and an upcoming trip to Amsterdam to look forward to:)Back to essay writing...modified to add: random useless info, but i think it's interesting. One of my classmates asked if Chapter 11 was named so because of 9/11, during a discussion we were having about why so many US airlines have gone into bankruptcy.Oh, and I found out the 53 in ITG was due to the fact that although I had one of the best reports in the class, I had one of the worst presentations. Honestly, I know my presentation skills can be kind of shaky, but I thought the info was good and had a lot of fun working on it. Oh well, forget them! Where's the smiley with his pants down when I need it;)
I feel like a lucky gal. I love getting mail:) My bestest friend sent me a box of goodies from home...some licorice, gum, mints, chocolate, tea...and my soap which I can't get here! Gotta love the emergency chocolate..."For immediate relief of: chocolate cravings, lovesickness, exam pressure, mild anxiety and extreme hunger. Tear open wrapper, break off desired dosage, and consume. Alternatively massage into affected area." That won't last long;)
Woke up to this horrible noise outside my window at 7am. Turns out there was some kind of dredging of the canal going on. Not sure exactly why.
Got a package from my aunt today with some tea and a cute little string of hearts for Valentine's Day. Very cute...hung them up on my wall.
http://www.gofox.com/tools/gazette.php?article=493I am soooo incredibly happy to see this, for two reasons: 1) I don't think workers should be forced to be exposed to second-hand smoke and 2) as a former smoker, I prefer not to have the temptation.
