Really quickly..

I have to share. Today is, of course, my 21st birthday. I think the other people in Leiden with me realize how much of American tradition I've given up by being in the netherlands. After class ended at 5:30- I told everybody that they were welcome to join me for supper. I was told that we couldn't talk about it yet, and that I had to stay where I was... of course I knew what was happening- cake. At the last moment- before I hear "turn off the lights" I look into the computer lab and see Haley with a cake and candles lit. At the exact moment the lights get turned off the cake slides off of its base and the chocolate mousse cake (along with 21 lit candles) goes onto the floor. After we make sure the place isn't on fire I gave Haley a big hug. I knew she felt horrible that she had let the cake drop onto the floor. We picked it up- at around the side that had hit ... and oh- it was so good. It was so lovely for them to buy a cake and cupcakes. We then went out to supper, I paid, and tonight they can all get me back with the bar.

In the Netherlands, when a person has a birthday, the birthday person buys the drinks. Not tonight- I will do supper and you can do the drinks. So that will begin at 10:00. I will call my parents before then. Well, have a wonderful Halloween- I'll have a safe 21st!

Texel

I went to Texel this past weekend. Texel is an island in the Netherlands. It was lovely. The weather was great- and it was nice to relax in a cabin away from people. There were a lot of sheep. We went onto a shrimp boat and saw shrimp fishermen (Garnall Vissers), we then ate the fresh shrimp. We saw a nature reserve while there, as well as the sand dunes on the west coast of the island.It was another lovely weekend in the Netherlands. It was so warm and sunny. We watched seals get fed at the reserve, which was nice. We got to see wild seals on the shrimp boat, too. There were a lot of beautiful things to see about nature in Texel. This is one of the coasts we rode to. Our first night in Texel we all bought wine. After a few bottles we decided to ride our bikes at night to one of the beaches. It was dark and horrible to see, but we found the beach. We opened a bottle of wine, sat on the beach, played in the water, and saw bioluminecent bacteria in the tidal pools. At this coast, we obviously went there during the day. We all took off our shoes and waded into the water. There were dogs, children, shells, all those things you find at a beach.

I got an email today from a friend in London who wants me to visit her this weekend. I think I'll go. I don't have a whole lot to do this weekend. Oh, and hi everybody. I'm 21 now. I'm happy. I haven't celebrated yet, but soon enough.

Ik hou mijn fiets!

A few things to pass:

In your face, Iowa! It was 71 degrees Fahrenheit today in Leiden. What a magnificent day. I had class until 12:30 when I ran around in the sunshine. No idea what it will be in Pella today, it is only about 11 am. But we rock.

Happy Birthday Ron.

Anyway- to the post... Ik hou mijn fiets. I was thinking today about the round-a-bout outside of my dorm. When I first got my bike, I was freaked out by going fast, I rode in third gear, and turns scared me. Tonight I rode around the bout like a demon. I take corners better than a maserati, and I ride my bike in fifth gear up hills. (Ik hou mijn fiets is Dutch [obviously] for I love my bike.

I saw some great books at the book store today- I wanted to pick them up, but I didn't. I was thinking about getting some rain gear because we're going to the island of Texel in Noord-Holland. I hear it rains there all the time- so I don't want to get wet!

So basically- the next time any of you hear from me it will be on MY 21ST BIRTHDAY!

Spooky

Another spooky, rainy fall day today in Leiden. It's been pouring rain all day. It's a perfect day for apple cider or hot chocolate. I turn 21 in less than a week. I'm very excited. I'm a Halloween baby, so it's always so nice to get Halloween birthday cards. When I was little, I loved having my birthday on Halloween because I could always get candy from strangers. I'm planning my day carefully. I want to have as much fun as I can on my birthday- especially with all the people I know here in Leiden. I'm sad that I can't get wasted at Woody's with all my Pella friends, but I can deal with Leiden- and I'll probably throw myself a party in Pella when I get back. I'm making out formal invitations for everybody in the Central program. I want to begin the night with supper at 6:30. That will give me an hour to get ready, class gets out at 5:30 on Monday's. After supper, I feel a trip to the North End pub for a pint of one of my favorite beers, Magner's Irish Cider, should be in order. Some time for rest will probably be needed before Happy Hour at 10:30. Basically, I want a fun filled night of an old-fashioned pub crawl.

What do people usually do for their 21st birthday? What did each of you do for your 21st? A girl I worked with this summer went out with the girls from work. They made her a puke-pail and took her out to supper before hitting the bars in Pella. She had a fun time. I am modeling my night after theirs because she was in a similar situation as me... celebrating a birthday that is so important in life's scheme of things-- when nobody you love is around to pull your hair back.

One week

In one week from today I will turn 21. I'm very happy. Excitement is starting to kick in. I had three birthday cards waiting for me in my mailbox. If you would like, my mailing address is:

My Name
Central College in Leiden
Rapenburg 8 - 10 Unit 4
2311 EV Leiden, the Netherlands

I even got two checks and some cash. Rock it!

Our classes begin back up today after a week and a half hiatus. I'm excited to get back into the swing of things. I'm rather excited that I didn't go anywhere. Everybody else seems so tired, they were walking all week seeing new things. I had a good and relaxing break.

I've got money secured, which is a giant relief. I will have to pay Central College 205 euro, but after that... I can eat again. Horrah! Leave me happy thoughts- for every happy thought from a different person means an exciting picture of my birthday party.

I've lost something

I've lost the week. It's been our fall break- and it's already Saturday. I was worried that I would bore myself to bits, but that hasn't been the case. Before I know it, everybody will be returning from their vacations and I will be pissed that we haven't explored color in our graphic design class yet- over halfway through the course.

Some interesting things of late-

I bought deodorant the other day because I have run out of the stuff I brought from home. I've been using the same brand of deodorant for years now, and my body has not gotten used to this new stuff. It's a liquid roll-on because that's all I could find. I'm used to white powder- I must be honest, I love my white lines.

Yesterday was a rainy day. There's a giant low pressure system settled over Great Britain, and so we're getting all of Europe's moisture right now due to the cyclonic action. It's the market day. I'm going to go back to my dorm room and get all of my things, and then wander around the market. I enjoy people watching in that situation. It's full and nasty, smells like fish, but that's alright. Sorry I haven't got anything interesting to comment about.

Billie Holiday was right on!

Oh, what a little moonlight can do!

The moon was beautiful (again) last night here in Leiden, there were a full three days of the moon in a 95 per cent full stage or more. I took my digital camera out with me after Desperate Housewives and got this photo. If I were at school I would have played with it on photoshop so we could see the drawbridge a little better, but this will do. I learned last night, as I sat in the cold grass, that my time in Leiden is not about how a change as a person. I've been freaking out that I haven't noticed significant changes in the person that I am. I think I decided that the most important part about being in Leiden is saying I've done it. In 20 years it won't matter how I changed over a five month period in a foreign country because I'll have been changing my whole life. I won't remember the day I became more aware of the world... I'll remember a sunset overlooking a house- or other equally random things.

I've had some questions asked to me by a friend who has become fed up with the "101 Ways Michael can get Drunk" trend of my blog. I can't please everybody, but I can at least please her. So, here are her questions, followed by my answer.

1) How many colors of bricks are there? Hell, I don't know. If I had to give an answer, however, I would have to say that there is only one color of brick. That color is brick. Some would say that there are more than one color of brick, but that would be wrong. If it's a lighter than brick color, say beige, it's probably stone. So yes, there is only one color of brick.

2) Do they sport dorky windmills in their yards? I've yet to see one, so no.

3) Are there even front yards? In most cases, yes.

4) What's the music scene like? Most venues are significantly smaller than stadium shows that we're used to in the states. I tried getting tickets for the White Stripes, but the show in Amsterdam only had about a thousand tickets. There's a bar (way #73 for Michael to get drunk) that has live music every single night. The first Friday in Leiden, I was recorded dancing with a beer in my hand (way #8) to salsa music that was playing by a live band on a barge on a canal. I saw an advertisement for a drummer on the bulletin board in my building last night, and it would have been fun to do, but I can't play the drums.

In other news, I recently made the 100 Hottest Men of Central list on Facebook.com. It took a little bit of begging and a whole lot of whoring, but this is an achievement I can be proud of the rest of my life. See my profile!

WTF America?

Congratulations America!

You're officially crazy. 11 months ago 62,040,610 of you choose that George W. Bush should continue his role as the President of the United States of America. That's 50.7 per cent.

Suddenly, 11 per cent of you have changed your mind. What's going on?

New Gallup polls suggest that 39 per cent of Americans approve of the job that President Bush has been doing. A whopping 58 per cent disagree with the belief that G.W. is doing a quality job. CBS posted this data two weeks ago, with little interest from American and world media. Today, Gallup posted some of the lowest approval ratings in four years and I'm just saddened by my fellow country-mates.

(For graphic minded individuals, the CBS link has nice bar graphs.)

Even Fox News, known for it's conservative twist, admits that only 40 per cent of American's think that Bush is doing a quality job.

If Californian's can fire their governor, LET'S FIRE THE PRESIDENT!

Monday slips away

As Monday turns into Tuesday, I want all of you in Iowa to know that the moon is even more beautiful tonight than it was last night. Here in Leiden the sky is black and clear- with a giant full moon illuminating the ground on which I stand. It's about 9 degrees centegrade outside- I've got a sweater over a hoodie to keep myself warm. It's the perfect night to sit under the sky and listen to Karate (a band).

Back from Belgium

I got back from my trip to Belgium last night after hours of riding the train hungover and exhausted. Belgium... where do I begin? We arrived to Belgium and walked around. We ate supper and then went to a bar called delirium Tremens. They sell 2,004 different types of beer. I drank five kinds and tried a variety of others. My favorite beer I drank at the bar was an African free-trade organic beer brand called Mongozo. I had the Palm and the Coconut. The coconut was amazing. It even came in a coconut shell, and more amazingly tasted like coconut. Not fake taste like their banana beer. Basically we were left at this bar with no idea how to return to our hostel. We tried with all our might to remember how we got there, but for some reason it was really hard. I think it was because we were all trashed. I mean, the coconut beer was only 3.5 per cent, but say, the Villams Bruin was 11 per cent. So it's tough to gauge how drunk I was... oh, I may have only had six or seven beers to myself- but that means nothing when the percentage average is 8 per cent. Oh well. Here's what my walk home looked like. How did we ever find the hostel? Haley speaks French and isn't afraid to ask people stupid questions. Since Brussels is a bilingual town, most people speak either French or Flanders, the latter being similar to Dutch. We were in the French part of the city-the language I don't speak. So we're asking everybody we see if they know where this place is. We ask a boy and then show him the address. Instead of pointing, he takes us out of his way at 1 in the morning and walks us to the hostel. Thank God. Speaking of God- I saw his blood yesterday in Brugge. What? Yes!

I SAW THE BLOOD OF CHRIST!

Brugge has a church which claims to have blood on a piece of linen. That blood is Jesus's-so they say, but whatever. I've never told a Christian to their face that their religion is a lie-so I won't start now.

I ate a piece of chocolate in Belgium because Haley gave me a piece of chocolate. Here's a picture. So now I can say that I've eaten Belgium chocolate. I didn't have a waffle, though. I was offered a bite-but I was still feeling a little sick from the 2,004 beers. I mean, I only had 5 beers! I still have 1,999 to go!I got an email from one of the financial advisors at Central, and she told me that my loan was currently being looked over. We will probably know near the end of the month if my second attempt to secure a loan for this semester will be approved. The 31st of the month is my 21st birthday. It would be so nice to know that I may have money to celebrate my birthday with food other than bread and peanut butter! However, there's still processing time through Central that I would have to wait- at most 15 days. So, maybe I'll have $4,000 (originally to last me from Aug. 24 to January 18) by Nov. 16. I still don't have plane tickets to return home in December-and I haven't had money to call my mother since Sept. 2. If anybody knows her number, or sees her in a shop... tell her I'm alive and that, somehow, I'll be home for Christmas. Or whatever little pithy sayings there are for atheists. I'll be home by winter solstice!

low country TRAVEL

I'm going tomorrow to Belgium with Central College. This will probably be my only international travel while in Europe, so I better make the best of it and not be salty. We return Friday night, and then it's fall break for the next week. Basically I'm now off from class until Monday the 24th. What I will do during that time, I really have no idea. I just hope I can manage myself without going insane.

I had my first good cry today. I was absolutely emo about a lot of things: money mostly. It could have just been vertigo, but I think the crying was deserved. I was beginning to grasp that my time in Europe is absolutely useless if I don't have the financial capabilities to travel and see the continent. People say that's when they grow the most. I don't have that pleasure-in fact, I have few pleasures. I've been eating bread with olive oil lately because that's all I have. I also was emo because we all had a rough night. After going through 6 pitchers of beer between four people- and a night which started with a bottle of wine and three beers per person, everybody got quite the little drama modes on.

I'm also not quite sure on how to look at the arrival of bird flu to Europe. I think I'm going to stop eating chicken, a good idea, I think. This will officially put me on the vegetarian list since I don't eat red meat. It'll be weird to consciously eat vegetarian again. Then again, it doesn't really matter if all I can afford is bread and, hopefully, peanut butter.

Oh, my little brother, David, asked me what cigarettes here were like. That seemed like an interesting thing to describe. So here I go: Cigarettes in the Netherlands all taste the same. I am unable to describe the taste, but it is unlike the taste of cigarettes in the U.S. Food easily picks up this taste-especially since the Dutch are known for rather bland cooking of potatoes and cheese. So anyway, bring a carton with you if you're going to travel through the Netherlands.

And finally, for fun, read this article from Drug Rehabs dot org. It's a rather funny outlook they make of Pella. Rave popularity in eastern Pella... totally worth your time.

Photo Journal

This post is a photo journal of my past weekend. Well, one day, actually. The day is Friday, October 7, 2005. My night begins with a text message from Haley, "Come over... bring a corkscrew." So I went to Haley's. I brought my iPod. She had speakers. This first picture (below) is (obviously) the table that sat in front of us. Everything we needed was there. We had a bottle of wine, music, cigarettes, a corkscrew and half an ashtray (it's broken).

I mean, I even took a shower and put on clean clothes. I knew this would need to be a night that I should remember.

The sun has obviously gone down on Leiden. At this point my thought was, "SHIT! We had two bottles of wine, where did they get to?! I surely didn't didn't drink a whole bottle of wine to myself!? ... did I?"

At this stage of the night, I was just surprised that we had a bottle of wine each. I was so happy. I think at this point we were playing Ani DiFranco on the iPod. It was lovely. We had gotten to watch the sunset, smoke our cigarettes, and generally enjoy our drunkenness.

"Woah! Mark's here!"

My thought, "He doesn't want wine, does he? Because we don't have any wine. If he wants to consume anything, he better have brought it his damn self."

Towards the end of the night, Haley and I were each in great moods. All-in-all, it was a good night. I had just enough wine and went to bed in bliss for the first time in quite a while. Before I went to bed, I wrote about reminiscing. It has seemed to be a popular topic lately among people I know. I realized that we should all appreciate what we have at this moment so we can remember it, and all the good times, later in life.

Lemming Day!

Well, today, in Pella, is the 29th Annual Great Lemming Race Across Central (AGLRAC). Ha. I have a giant request to my readers: Take pictures for me! I would love to see the race, and if you're not running, or you know somebody who isn't running-give them a digi-cam. Please email these photos to me from the EMAIL ME link on the right side of this page. Thanks in advance for whoever takes some lovely time to send me a photo of the Lemming Race.

Also: Jordan Mayland is playing in the Scholte Parking Lot tonight. To listen to some of his new demos visit his MySpace page.

I've got a three day weekend now. Today, Saturday, and Sunday. Monday and Tuesday I have classes, then Wednesday I leave for Belguim. When I return on Sunday, Fall Break begins. Basically, I'll have a week and a half to do nothing. Sounds fun, eh? So send me pictures of the Lemming Race.

Kermis Fotos

Note: None of these photos were taken by me. They are on my camera, however. Below is from Monday, after the parade. It is obviously a fair shot. It was so busy in Leiden, thousands of people everywhere. As this photo below shows, people crowded the streets of Leiden. It was really impossible to move anywhere faster than a snail-pace. This is one of the shots from the parade. There was a woman on a stripper pole. I find this photo interesting just because here's a happy family parade with a stripper pole. Apparently how the Dutch fly... And finally, a ubiquitous windmill shot. The sun is setting, it's the last night that the flags will be attached to the blades of the mill for a while, and the town is just starting to get ready to party. Fireworks, beer, and food all needed to be used. I have no idea how many kegs were all around the city of Leiden, but one bar on the corner had over 70 kegs. Could you imagine? It's hard for me, certainly.
Well, with Leidse Onzet over, and classes resumed, things in this little Dutch town are returning to normality. This morning, I rode my bike in the fog. Last night after class it started to sprinkle... if it didn't rain here, something would be wrong. I'm excited for this weekend. I have nothing to do. I can wake up at 11:30, eat my peanut butter toast, drink my coffee and watch Roseanne by noon. It's really an amazing television show. I identify with it too much, I find. Ah well. I have around 10 euro left to buy bread tonight, and cigarettes will have to be bummed for a while again.

I look tired

I must look like absolute shit, because I've had so many people today ask me if I'm alright, and tell me I look tired. I think these notices have merit. I'm absolutely stressing myself out for no apparent reason. I've been hiding in my room a lot, and I've been sad and depressed. I need time, more than anything, to make be feel better.

I saw yesterday that Tony Blair is pushing for an economic pact in the EU with Russia. I was thinking last night that the EU and its economic pacts are a handy little way to globalize Europe... just like America's NAFTA and CAFTA. I haven't thought about this theory much, so I don't have many points to settle out on yet, but I'll get there.

I dread Wednesday. I have class from 10am until 9 pm with two one-hour breaks. It always turns out to be a horribly long day.

After the weekend...

So what day is it today? Tuesday, right. Well, this morning I made the 9:01 train to Amsterdam to travel up to Groningen to see a photography exhibit and contemporary museum. Basically, I'm beat. It's now 9 pm and I've had a busy day.

About the pictures. Quit bitching-you'll get them. I lent out my digi-cam to one of my fellow Leideners, it was his first time with a camera, and he went nuts. I got freaked out by the large amount of drunk people by 4 pm, went home, and haven't seen my camera in over 24 hours. After Wednesday is over, I have classes from 10 am to 9 pm, I'll get some photos posted, so we'll push for Thursday. I'm sorry for any inconveniences this may cause.

I'm so tired, and beat down right now. I need to take photos tonight for class tomorrow, and I really don't want to do anything. So, in the meantime, take a look at the links to the exhibits, they're fabulous.