Current Music: Verve Pipe – “Freshmen”

Hey, A + A… een keer raden waar ik vandaag geweest ben… Den Bosch, haha!! Zoals ik gisteren zei, zijn P en A en ik niet naar de Efteling gegaan… en A had zin in winkelen dus we zijn naar… wacht ff… I mean wait a minute… I can’t write on Dutch on this site, LOL! Sorry – I’ve just been surrounded by it all day, and I’m watching GTST now, so… yeah. And it’s a lot easier to write it than speak it.

Anyways… yeah… so P and A and I went to Den Bosch and went shopping. We all bought new shoes (yeah, we’re girls, LOL!) and then A needed some stuff for work so we went to a bunch of stores until we hit the jackpot in one – forgot the name – and she bought three different colored sweaters… but not until she had tried them all on six times… LOL! (She tried to convince me that a bright pink one was ‘my color’… and some purple shoes, too… LOL!) And we had Bossche bollen too – soooo lekker!!! For the Americans: they’re like pastries, cream-filled with chocolate on the outside, but it isn’t that nasty cold thick heavy cream like we have – it’s light and fluffy cream, almost like whipped cream – really really good! And we also went to McDonalds (yeah, yeah, I know, how American can I get?), which was really funny. First of all, the place was *enormous* - two stories and tons of tables. And the food was way smaller – a McFlurry was half the size of what we get in the USA, no joke! Even the fish filet was smaller. But the fries were the same, and the sauce for them was *awesome*! No clue what it’s called – they call it ‘McDonald’s mayonnaise’, but it isn’t mayonnaise… hard to explain, but good! Anyway, so I sort of had the sensation of being ‘caught between two worlds’ while eating there.

My new ‘beef’ – paying for the bathroom. How did that ever get started in the first place? If they tried that in America, there’d be a riot. It’s not like we can help having to pee – why should we have to pay for it? Sigh.

But, something cool – know what some cars do if there’s a traffic jam? Well, know how we have those signs that say ‘turn to such-and-such radio station for traffic updates’? Well, if you drive past one of those signs and there’s a traffic jam – a file - where you’re going, the CD or radio station that’s playing automatically switches to the traffic report, to tell you what’s going on so you can avoid it. Cool, hey? And they have all kinds of electronic signs and stuff above the road which are always on - lowering the speed limit if there's a traffic jam, saying filevrij (traffic jam-free) if there isn't, displaying Xs for closed lanes and green arrows for open ones, etc. Really cool system! And if you're approaching a traffic jam, the people in front of you will briefly turn on their flashers, to warn you, which I think is nice.

Oh - and I got a lot of stuff from P today - mostly books, like one with Dutch expressions and a couple of booklets that they use in the university summer courses. And also... a copy of the book I'll be using in my Boswell class! That was exciting. It's the 3rd one in the Help! series, Zal ik u even helpen?, but it's different from the other two in that I actually have to pay attention to this one, LOL! But that's good for me - I'd rather be in the C-class and be challenged than be in the B-class and keep sliding along. Oh, and even though she's not my teacher anymore, she's still giving me assignments (LOL! Kidding...) - she lent me a book by Renate Dorrestein which I'm supposed to read - Het hemelse gerecht. I really liked A Heart of Stone, by the same author, so I'll probably like this one too. I've only read a few pages so far. It's difficult, but if I concentrate, I can do it. The dialogue is fairly easy to follow; it's the big paragraphs of 'setting', etc. that can get difficult. But you know me - I like a challenge. ;) Oh oh oh - and the coolest thing - she also gave me a Marco Borsato CD! I've never even heard about half of the tracks on it. It's burned, but I think it's Zonder Jou, which I don't have. So... COOL! :-)

Anyway, I’m planning to go to bed fairly early tonight because I have a lot to do tomorrow – have to go to Edah again (seems like I have to go there every two or three days – I keep running out of things like milk and orange juice), have to go to the bank and activate my cards, and I’m also planning to go to HEMA and go on a shopping spree! School stuff, agenda, wallet, hairbrush (mine is almost dead), low socks to wear with my new shoes… the list goes on. So you know where to find me tomorrow. :-)

Anyway… even though all you Americans are still at school and work… goodnight! :-)