okay so just fyi literary theory is hella complicated.

I'm reading the same thing over and over and hardly anything is sticking/ even making sense...and we haven't even had class yet.  Oy vey.

Hit my first pedestrian today!

He stepped into the bike path and wasn't facing me, so I ran into his shoulder but was able to keep my bike steady.  We were both fine and shouted, "Sorry!" at each other as I rode further and further away.  It was inevitable, I guess.

But seriously, if you're not on a bike, stay out of the freaking bike lane.  Thank you.

Decisions, decisions

I dropped a class.  The semester hasn't even started and I was grinding my teeth while awake because the syllabi were stressing me out so much.  I hadn't even received the syllabus for this particular class I decided to nix, but I think I made a good decision.  Now I can focus on the classes I do have and do really well in them, and participate in extra curricular activities/ cultural experiences.  I feel a lot better and am now going to figure out how to take 18 credits next semester at VCU so I can keep my scholarship.  Wish me luck!

Grading System

I've heard over and over how tough the Dutch grading system is.  Here's a chart for anyone interested in the conversion:

http://www.studyinholland.nl/files/documents/education-system/dutch-grading-system/gradingsystemsinthenetherlandstheusandtheuk.pdf


Also here's something funny these are the books for just TWO of my classes minus one that's coming later but yep I've got three more classes just like these so good god bring on the reading.

Sara is in one of my classes!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiii :)  I'll see her every Thursday all semester!

Off to a good start

"What time do you usually go to bed during the school year?"
"Around midnight,"
"Oh good, me too!  And when do you usually get up?"
"Seven,"
"Ah, so do I!"

Feels like this season of Arrested Development.

A Lazy Outdoor Day

TL/DR: Hung out in Oosterpark; went to Dappermarkt; hung out in Vondelpark

This morning was gorgeous, so I decided to check out the park nearest to my dorm, Oosterpark.  I rode around a bit and scoped it out.  It's a little more intimate than Vondelpark because it's smaller and has more areas separated by trees, but it also felt a little more sketchy because I'm associating mumbling older men on benches with the homeless in Richmond, so who knows if it's even sketchy and I'm just paranoid.  I sat in few places and wrote in my journal and read my Kindle, and of course took pictures.  It feels weird not leaving with my camera now.

Tai chi?

Tennis court and skateboarding area.

Aaaaall the way to the right: slack lining!  And futuristic trash can.

An accidental picture that turned out kind of cool.

Jill called and said Kamila couldn't get into the room, so I went home and figured out that Kamila wasn't given a room key, just a key to get in the building.  Oy vey.  Luckily there was an extra set of keys here when I arrived, so that worked out perfectly.  Kamila had to go to an activity with her introduction week, so Jill and I went to Dappermarkt.

Jill and a kebab.

I got this loaf for EUR 1.30.  It is half gone in this picture.  So. TASTY.  (And cheap!!!!)

I will definitely be back to get bread from that stand.  I also want to start getting fruit and veggies from there because they are cheap and apparently okay to eat.  I'm accumulating peanut butter jars to store leftovers in, so I think I'll be able to make chili soon!  It's starting to feel like soup season because it's been getting cooler and breezier.  I can't wait to start cooking again :)

After Dapper, I did some bank stuff (and got another letter from my mom), then met my ISN group at Vondelpark.  We ate dinner outside and they passed around two very large joints.  Nobody seems to use bowls/ bongs/ hookah here, just joints.  I guess since everyone's smoking cigarettes all the time anyway it's a natural transition?  Cultural musings aside, I don't think smoking weed in public is technically allowed because they prefer you to smoke in the special coffee shops, but these crazy Europeans don't care.  My friend from Spain could not keep hers lit for some reason and kept saying, "It is off, can you turn it on?" The cutest.  I'll try to get pictures of her soon...you just can't even comprehend her adorableness. 

I leave you with a proper photo of the IJ brewery Silvia and I went to yesterday.  

Mwah!

Gratitude: Funenpark 50

1. Our room has internet, a working fridge, power, and no bed bugs
2. We live 5 minutes away from the cheapest market in Amsterdam
3. There aren't junkies wandering around the neighborhood that will sell us a bike for EUR 10 (looking at you, Irish girl)
4. Rooftop terrace
5. We live far enough from the city that there's not a lot of crime, but not so far that it's a nuisance to get to class

I keep hearing stories about people's stuff getting stolen and things going wrong with their rooms...I'm just feeling really thankful right now.

Considering Becoming a Coffe Drinker

TL/DR: working out studying schedule; actually, nobody needs to read this post, I'm just thinking out loud.

I'm getting my syllabi in for my courses, and oh my goodness, I'm going to be BUSY.  One class recommends that I spend 20 hr/ week outside of class on assignments and such.  The rest are about 10 hr/ week, so that's 50 hours a week of reading and writing and analyzing literature, something I haven't done very much at VCU.  I'm very excited to get to read and write and learn how to analyze, but we'll see if I can keep up!  

Unfortunately, I'm an early riser and most of the school library locations do not open until 10.  In order for me to get 50 hours per week in, I'll need to get going earlier than that.  There is one that opens at 8:30, but even that seems too late.  I'm scouring the web looking for coffee places that open around 7/ 7:30 so I can start studying there then move into a library.  

And that's my very boring post in which I work out how I'm going to survive this semester.  

Have a picture of Jill eating a doner kebab from Dappermarkt as compensation.

Oh, Salinger

This just kills me.

Beer with Silvia

TL/DR: Hung out with Silvia.

Silvia is my friend from Italy that I met in my ISN group.  Here is a list of things I love about Silvia:

• She is a philosophy major.  I can't wait to have conversations about her classes with her!
• "I think a lot of people come here to party and have a funny year, and I am the opposite."  (It's nice to have a friend who is awake and not hungover the day after the group goes out partying and who shares my love of structure and schedules.)
• "I die if I ride this bike."  (So she knows how to use the trams really well, an excellent skill)
• Her boyfriend is named Alessandro.  What a coincidence :)
• We've pretty much established that we're more into exploring parks and such during the day rather than getting wasted at night and that we can count on the other person for company if we need to be out at night.  That being said, we're not hermits and are up for partaking in the parties, but not to the extent that our peers do...no canal jumping for us :)
• We're in the same department (Humanities) so we're both going through similar stuff with class schedules and whatnot.
• She's just straight up nice.

Today, Silvia took the tram to my dorm so we could get a bike for her.  She realized after about 15 minutes that she is not a bike person and is much more comfortable with the tram, so we walked around Dappermarkt for a bit and then went to Brouwerij 't IJ, a local brewery next to the tallest wooden windmill in the Netherlands.  We ordered the cheapest beer on tap, Plzen, and even though it was only 5% alcohol, I still got a little loosey-goosey.  But Silvia offers to take photos of me, so let's focus on that instead:

I have wanted to sit on this thing since I got here.  It's next to the bridge across from the brewery.  

Look Mom, light beer!

Glamorous creeper pic I have of Silvia from our trip to the zoo.  

More adventures to come :)

xoxox

Drinking Advice: George and Terry

Mom

• Never drink a whole bottle of wine, you will be flat on your butt.
• Never mix your liquors, you will be flat on your butt.
• Make sure you drink lots of water, that prevents hangovers.
• You'll want to stick to light beers right now.

Dad:

• It's okay to mix your liquors, as long as they're the same color.
• Heineken tastes like skunk piss.
• Long Island Iced Teas are tasty.

ROOMMATE

She's here!  Her name is Kamila and she is from Russia (ANNA OMG) and looks like Shanti so I've got a little bit of friend and cousin mixed in there, so like two of the nicest people I know have fused into one roommate for me.  Also, she went to school in Norfolk, VA for a year!  What the heck!  She and her mom and aunt kept calling me "Caroline" even after I corrected them a couple of times...maybe it's a Russian pronunciation thing (Anna, please advise).   She'll be all moved in the day after tomorrow because she has her introduction week this week, but she asked if I knew how to make brownies AND SHE SAID SHE NEEDS TO GET A KETTLE FOR HOT TEA so I think things are off to a good start.

I'm freaking out a little because I got my class schedule but I want to find my classes but I have to get my student card to get into the buildings but I have lots of errands to run this week so here come the nerves again.  Mostly excited nerves, but get ready for some posts about tummy troubles and tiny panic attacks.  It's times like these when I just want to Skype with my mommy :(  Grammy and I agree, she always knows the right thing to say to make you feel better about anything.  Maybe tonight?

xoxo

Brief Summary of Last Night

• Had dinner on the roof with Jill from across the hall
• Hopped on the back of a bike steered by a guy from Slovenia to get me to the rest of the way to the pub
• Learned the rule that you can't make fun of a tragedy until 22 years after it happened (but that 9/11 jokes do exist in spite of this)
• Heard "Irish Rory" exclaim indignantly, "Noo they fookin don't!" when the quiz-giver said that Anglo-Saxon countries traditionally eat corn beef on St. Patrick's day
• FINALLY got to eat some decently salty fries

Maandag Errands

****TL/DR**** I will now be including a Too Long/ Didn't Read summary on my posts for those of you who prefer a briefer explanation of my day.  I'll put it at the beginning so you know what pictures you'll be scrolling through.

TL/DR: Went to flower market, Dixons, vegan store, cheap market; met a friend across the hall; no student card; got mail; have social plans for tonight.

Another gorgeous day in Amsterdam!  What the heck!  

To kill some time before the electronics store opened, I hunted and found the flower market, Bloemenmarkt!  It's the largest floating market (in the Netherlands?  In Amsterdam?  Somewhere).  Tourists buy their tulip bulbs here and bring them back to grow in their own countries.

This is the back of the market, along one of the canals:

The sun has had a bad habit of washing out signs I try to take pictures of, but here's an attempt anyway:

Chillin' on a clog.

I neglected to photograph the many marijuana starter kits that were available, but I did find a Christmas store.

And a hammock store.

I can't be sure, but at least one of these buildings may have been the church our ISN introduction was held in.

After getting my cord at Dixons (AND IT WORKS GUYS, I CAN PRINT STUFF NOW), I headed to the vegan shop to get some vitamins and goodies.  I found it, but it is closed on Mondays.  They did have some pamphlets on the side of the building with recipes and such, so I took a couple of those and went back home for lunch. 

 The guy at Dixons said, "Even your shirt says 'print,' you're very prepared today!"

While I was eating lunch, the girl across the hall came over to introduce herself.  Her name is Jill, and she is extremely friendly.  Like, come in, sit down, tells me her life story friendly.  She showed me her room, how to light the stove, and how to get to Dappermarkt, the cheapest market in Amsterdam. 

Jill had an assignment due for her "very liberal college in Arkansas" (yes, those exist), so I went and got a new ISN card because mine didn't work when I tried to register online.  Then I went to Dappermarkt.  It was basically an outdoor Wal-Mart selling fruit, adapters, sunglasses, shoes, bags, smoothies, samosas, vegetables, bread, the tools the hygienist uses to poke around your mouth, belts, fabric, yarn, lace, suitcases, like literally anything you could think of was there.  I don't know if I trust the food...4 avocados for 1 EUR seems too good to be true, so I'm going to see how Jill fares after eating the stuff first since she cooks a lot.  If she survives, I'll partake as well.

Here's a picture of the beginning of the market.  It was HUGE, so many people and stalls, I didn't want to take my camera out because of potential pick pockets.

I went back to school to get my student card, but that hasn't been printed yet.  I have to go back tomorrow again to check.  The woman was very apologetic and said she didn't like how "messy" this was, but I've got the time and I like the practice getting to and from important buildings, so that's okay with me!

I didn't get my student card but I did get these cards!  Thank you all for sending me mail, I'm going to decorate around my bed with your notes and pictures.  Love hearing from you guys.

Jill and I are having dinner on the roof tonight in 20 minutes, and after that I'm hopefully going to a trivia night at a pub with her ISN group.  I'm really excited!  Everything here is looking up, and PS Dad and Mom I need to talk to you about how I found an apartment for when I come back but I might need to borrow some money at first okay love you byeeeeeee!

xoxoxoxoxo

c

This song is absolutely everywhere right now

clubs, bars, outdoor markets, shopping malls, grocery stores...

Party w/ the fam!

"Cancer doesn't squeeze out of your ear, Mom!"

"I'm going to eat two packs of Nutter Butters in your honor."

"An alpaca is a kind of llama."

"Okay, duck face everyone!"

"What's a duck face?"

"This."