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.