Current Music: Nat & Natalie Cole - "The Christmas Song"

Is this what the flu feels like? If it is, then yuck! I'm supposed to be at school right now but I couldn't even stand up long enough to put both contacts in without feeling lightheaded and nauseous. I'm feeling better all the time, especially if I stay sitting or lying down, and I really shouldn't miss today since I already missed Tuesday... but the pauze is in an hour and if I'm going to go in, that's the time to do it. I just don't know... it keeps changing. One minute I feel fine, the next minute I feel sick again. Sigh. Oh well, at least I got my spreekbeurt done yesterday - thank goodness...

Which went extremely well, by the way! I didn't talk too fast and I said everything I wanted to. They're taping us this time, so we can listen to ourselves later, but usually the way it works is, you talk and then the teacher gives you a short critique - what was bad, what was good, if there are any consistent problems, etc. Then you take the tape home and listen and try to find the problems she was talking about. But with me she said she wasn't going to correct me - she wanted me to first listen to the tape myself and see what errors I heard. And she said my pronunciation was 'fantastisch' (and the class agreed). And when I listened to the tape, I was really surprised - I have a lot less of an accent than I thought I did! My voice sounded different on the tape, of course - I wouldn't have recognized myself - so except for a few words (and the mistakes, of course :)), I would almost have thought it was a native speaker. That's a big ego boost. I hate listening to my own voice - everybody does - but that was really cool.

OK, done bragging now. :)

Story: yesterday in class we watched a tape of a TV program - KopSpijkers or something - and there was a parody song on it. "Billy Joel" sang "Remember"... except that it of course wasn't really Billy Joel and the song was a Weird Al-type remake of "Remember" - it was about the low prices in the supermarkets. And there was a "background choir" of men all dressed in supermarket aprons, singing, "En we gaan allemaal ten onder..." Really funny! Anyway, after we watched it, we had to discuss if things like that should be allowed - parodies - and where the 'line' is for what's 'allowed' and what's not - e.g. should you be able to make fun of the royal family. Anyway, so S, that American girl, was in my group, and she was clueless - I had to explain to her a second time, really slowly, what we had to do, and then she said in English, "All I saw was Billy Joel singing a song." I stopped and looked at her and said, "That wasn't Billy Joel!" She looked at me for a second and then said, "Well, I was wondering how he knew Dutch!"

By the way, I finally got my mobile phone connected to MSN, so that means you guys can message me on my phone for free - from MSN Messenger. Step-by-step explanation, for Mom: if I'm online, right-click on my name and then click Send A Message To This Person's Mobile Device. If I'm offline, double-click on my name (there will be a small black phone next to my icon in the list, showing that I'm hooked up via my phone.) Then you'll get a message window just like the normal ones - type and send like usual - and then instead of going to me on the computer, it goes to my phone. Neat hey??? And it's free, too - MSN obviously doesn't cost you guys anything and I'm not charged for incoming SMSes here the way I am at home. Nice. :)

I think I might try to go to school. I forced myself to eat something and I feel better now. The question is, bike or bus? I hear you all yelling at me, "Bus, you idiot!" but if I take the bus then I have a ten-minute walk from the stop and I don't know if I'm up to that. Biking feels easier to me than walking.

Well, I'll try to get dressed and we'll see what happens. Ciao!