turns out I kind of suck at blogging

There was a time several years ago when I blogged daily. Things would happen throughout the day or a thought would occur to me and I would think, "I can't wait to blog about this!" That was back in the days of xanga. Then I moved to myspace for my blogs...then I quit blogging. I would go back through old xanga entries and be so disgusted with some of the whiny crap I put up but other entries would have me rolling with laughter. When I deleted my xanga and myspace blogs, I read all my old entries to see if anything was worth saving. Survey says: No! In the name of privacy, I rarely used real names so there were events which were so crucial to my life at that time that were complete memory blanks a year of three later. And those clever nicknames meant NOTHING to me. So what the hell was I writing about?

And now, it's been two months and a day with no entry here. :-)

The Reader's Digest version: I went to Belgium for a field trip in the Ardennes, visited Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Enkhuizen, Volendam, Aalsmeer, and Den Haag in the Netherlands, and have survived two months of lectures. I have tried many different Dutch foods (raw herring, eel, various fried things, and döner) and haven't found one I didn't like. My alcohol tolerance is up to a level more befitting a student and I now wear jeans at least 5 or 6 days before I wash them. I've also learned to type on a keyboard with US International settings. That means I can easily make symbols like € and throw down umlauts like they're going out of style.

ÄËÏÖÜ -- see?

I have an exam on the 1st of November that finishes out a class. I've been studying for that exam for about 5 hours today and only made it through the first two days of lectures. Yeowch, it's going to be an unpleasant few days for me between now and the exam.

I like it in the Netherlands. I have some friends outside of school whose company I greatly enjoy. I also like life here. I like that I get by with less clothing, food, and general possessions here. Television? I've watched it about 5 times since I've been here; ridden in a car about a half-dozen times. I also go entire weeks without my cellphone notifying me of a call or text. Cool.

The seasons are rapidly changing here. Many things are still green but several of the trees have already shed their leaves. Each day gets noticeably shorter, too. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but sunset is now an hour earlier than it was less than a month ago. Yeah, short days but there's an easy explanation: Delft is further north than any part of the contiguous United States. I would hate to be in Europe if the Gulf Stream ever breaks down. Talk about a cold and dreary place (think of Canada...I know, it's horrifying).

A small view of Rotterdam...it's a very American city in appearance (hello, skyscrapers). You can thank the Third Reich for that.

A street-scene in Amsterdam. I was lost when I took this picture so  I have no idea if there's anything special about the buildings other than looking typically Dutch.

Delft is still my favorite city here.

I'm almost halfway through my time in Netherlands. Last week, I submitted my application for a Swiss student visa. It wasn't much fun and the process reminded me that though I feel European, I am not at all. Mostly because I was the only "white" classmate that had to apply for a visa to study there. They also scared me because the Swiss government thinks it takes about 1750 CHF per month to live in Switzerland. The CHF is about equivalent in value to the USD. That's no small amount of money when you consider I will be in the country for at least 6 months. Fortunately, my scholarship was deemed sufficient financial means...or at least I think it will be.

There's a t-shirt in shops in Rotterdam that says "Ich Liebe Rotterdam". It's German for "I love Rotterdam" and if you know your World War 2 history, you'll see the humor. I want one.