Current Music: Marco Borsato & Trijntje Oosterhuis – “Wereld Zonder Jou”

Dismal day, this. Rain and wind and gray skies. Glad I don’t have to go anywhere. Anyway, it fits my mood. M, the girl whose room I was going to take, finally talked to her huisbaas yesterday and he said he wanted someone in the room that he already knew. So now some guy is moving in. I think I’ve exhausted every Dutch and English curse word I know, LOL… I don’t want to stay here. S and I go through stages – times when we get along really well, and times when we barely speak. This is a ‘barely-speak’ stage.

Next complaint: my internet is working intermittently. It’ll work for a few seconds/minutes, then die for an hour. Even if I’m plugged into the wall. And this is a serious problem because I have to choose an article from the list we were given, find it on the Net, and see if I want to use it for my linguistics paper. And I have to have it chosen by Monday. And I don’t even know if any of these are available online, I’m just hoping. So the Net better get its act together. Plus I have to post this. :) And, worse, I’ve got a total of six emails waiting to be sent. One to a friend, two to authors of those articles to see if they know where I can find electronic copies, one to the UF International Office confirming my credits for spring semester, one to my professor asking about the paper, and one to the coordinator of the First Responder program at UF. I do everything via e-mail, especially now that I’m so far from home. Stupid connection, I depend on you… doe eventjes normaal, zeg!

But I did get my coat yesterday. It’s pretty – quilted nylon, long and gray, with deep pockets. I also did laundry yesterday, and grocery shopping – aren’t I productive? :)

Phooey, there goes the Net again. What’s with this?! And why does it always happen on the weekends when there’s no one to complain to? Just like the toilet. God, I want out of this place! Or I want S to get out. We’re going to kill each other. He keeps talking about trying to find someplace in the city, about how he might want to stay here permanently, but he hasn’t done anything about it. My gut feeling is that he hasn’t really made up his mind yet.

Personally, I think he likes the idea of living here more than actually doing it. I kinda doubt it’ll pan out. Certainly there are a lot of reasons for him to do it – soccer, H, the fact that he’d like to go to school here – but I just have a nagging feeling that he won’t go through with it. I don’t think I would. I mean, I could live here, definitely. If there’s one thing I’ve learned so far, it’s that. And who knows what the future will bring, maybe I will. But I wouldn’t do it now, after you’ve just spent a year on an exchange program. Go home for at least a few months or so, and see what you feel upon going home. Be sure. Otherwise you might get a couple years down the road, when you’re in so deep (school, etc.) that you can’t get out, and get a major homesickness attack. Especially since all his friends here will be going home too. As far as I know, he only has one Dutch friend, A. The rest are exchange students like us. He doesn’t have a lot of ‘ties’ over here and I think that might cause a loneliness problem in the future. Plus he never speaks Dutch unless he has to, in a store or something. And he only barely passed B1, with ‘voldoende’, and now he hasn’t had any language classes for weeks. He wouldn’t be comfortable using that language to, for example, make friends. Not that I’m completely at ease either (yet), but I get closer every day. Oh well, who am I to decide what’s best for him?

And, just to continue the stream of complaints, I downloaded Jill and Agent, as I said, but Agent crashes the computer every time I use it. It never did that before. Also, I don’t like this annoying Windows button stuck next to my Alt key on the left side. Most games are Ctrl = jump and Alt = fire weapon, and with that extra button in between there, I always hit it instead of Alt, thus reverting back to Windows and then crashing the computer if I try to resuscitate the program. Sigh. At least Jill works, even though there’s no music. Now I just have to get used to using my ring and pointer fingers instead of middle and pointer. That’s the only way to not hit that button.

I’m going to stop for a while, because I’m not going to be able to post this anyway. Two closing thoughts: french fries with mayonnaise are lekkerrrrr (so are frites speciaal), and – eleven days till the Weather family’s first international vacation. Should be interesting. :) I get to be interpreter, map, guidebook, and agenda all in one… hope I’m up for it… LOL!