Current Music: Acda en de Munnik – “Ik weet het beter”
Grrr. Grrr. GRRR! I’m going to vent for a while here, so brace yourselves. P just asked if someone would please take a gun, show it to his boss, and explain very carefully exactly what was wrong with ‘the system’ - namely, that everyone is being overworked, new shifts on a moment’s notice, etc. - and I think I’m very soon going to be that person. (Joking, of course…) We had… uhh… afgesproken?... ‘planned to get together’ yesterday evening around 21.00, but then he got a call that he had to be somewhere at 4.30 the next morning. So, one strike. Rescheduled for this afternoon at 14.00. Then turned out that the meeting he had that morning was a two-part meeting, thus lasting almost all day, thus he couldn’t do his normally scheduled shift. So they had to change his shift… to a twelve-hour one, from 22.00 to 10.00. Two strikes. And then he has another one at 17.00. Three strikes. I honestly think they’re trying to kill him… he slept 15 minutes last night, got up at 3.00, and is now going to be awake until 10.00 tomorrow morning. And then he only gets 7 hours respite to sleep (at the office, no less) before working again. If I’m lucky, I’ll see him around 1 or 2 in the morning tomorrow night, but at this moment I’m (understandably) sort of doubting that. He’s going to have a talk with his boss tomorrow morning but I don’t really see how that’s going to do any good.
It just sucks… it’s been two weeks since we’ve seen each other for longer than ten minutes (we’ve dropped off things a couple of times – my scarf, the camera charger – but that’s all). We’ve been MSNing and SMSing more than usual to make up for it, but it’s not the same… and it can’t just be me; he has other people in his life too… it’s annoying for him because he feels like all he ever does is work and sleep, and it’s annoying for the rest of us because we rearrange our schedules to make time when he has time, and then everything switches again. Anyway, it’s frustrating for everyone involved, so I hope he hammers his point across tomorrow. I know none of it is his fault and that he hates it even more than I do, but we were on the phone last night and he said ‘This feels like a long-distance call’ and I agreed – because it did feel like he was really far away – and then he said softly, ‘Well, after July it’ll be much further.’ Ouch! Do I really have to think about that now? But anyway, that sort of made me think about the fact that there’s a ‘time limit’… which makes it all even more frustrating.
Okay, well, now that that’s off my chest, on to other things. S should be back… hmm… any minute, actually, or at least that’s my guess. I think he has class tomorrow so he should be back tonight… that was the other reason it sucked to have to reschedule with P, because it’s always much gezelliger to have someone over when the other housemate is not there. When H is here I know they always want me to leave, and to be honest, I feel the same way when P’s here… so… yeah, outta luck. Anyway, S should have lots of stories to tell – he went to Paris for a while, then they went skiing, and then I think he went back to Paris…
Anyway, Belgium was cool – but they talk so funny! LOL! I notice it much more now that I’ve been living in NL than I used to when M would talk in class. Anyway, so T and I went to this little American grocery store – I think I said that – and it was sooo strange to see all the familiar brand names again! Campbell’s soup, Reese’s cups, Hamburger Helper… LOL! The prices were about 3x what they would be in America, but hey… once in a while you gotta splurge. :) So I got mac and cheese, Campbell’s Double Noodle soup, Reese’s (of course), and a couple other small things, like a bag of Combos. (Three bucks! At home it would have been like 99 cents.) Then we decided to make it a ‘truly American day’ and went to Pizza Hut… haha! Anyway, it was nice to spend some time hanging out with T… one of those times when you feel like you’ve known the person for a thousand years.
But the food – my God! I ate the Velveeta mac and cheese and saved some of the cheese to use it on regular macaroni (which I made tonight – comfort food) and wow… it doesn’t ‘feel good’ in my stomach. I feel fat… nasty feeling. The food really is better over here – better tasting and better for you. But once in a while I just gotta have that processed cheese! :)
Clothes! The one bright spot yesterday. I had a rotten day – my back was still hurting from that stupid bed at L’s house, and then my electric scooter decided it didn’t like the damp pavement and died on me, but not before it kicked a lot of mud up onto my jeans. (I hope it was just the moisture… it didn’t give me the 3-LED signal like the manual says it should, but I’m still hoping that’s it because otherwise it means the charger didn’t work and THEN we have a major problem.) Then I got some news that really shouldn’t have bothered me but did anyway – I’m fine with it now after talks with T and P, but at the time I was really upset, plus mad at myself for being upset. (Not going further into that on here, if you don’t mind.) And then, H&M cashiers are stupid – apparently the sale signs over a product are just there for decoration or something. (I bought a shirt which was marked at E9,90, and the sign over the rack said shirts originally 9,90 were now 4,90. But it still rang up as 9,90 and when I called her on it, she said something weird like “That’s not what that means,” and then said to the guy next to her, “We need to take those sale signs down, everyone’s getting confused.” So the signs are just there to look nice?) But what really made me mad was, she somehow figured out I was an English speaker and so immediately switched over. When they do that I feel obligated to respond in English instead of continuing in Dutch as I would like to, but it makes me so mad! Everyone stops and stares and listens to you and it makes me feel, I don’t know, inferior or something… because I know that everyone there thinks I can’t speak a word of their language. Why does this switching-over thing happen to me MORE often now that I’ve gotten more proficient in Dutch??? You got me. Maybe because now I dare to talk more… but anyway, the point is, the bright spot in yesterday was clothes. H&M was having post-Christmas sales, I guess, so I went in and just happened across two items – a red-and-gray striped shirt with a wide neckline, and white cargo pants with lots of zippers and pockets (haha Dad). The shirt was the only large one left – I looked through the whole rack and they had only S, M, and a couple of XS, so I was about to leave, but then I saw the last L lying across the rack below – it had slipped off the hanger. I wanted it, so then I decided that as long as I was buying something, I’d look around some more, and then I found the pants on the sale rack for under E15. The lines in H&M are always massive so I didn’t try them on beyond holding the pants up to see if they were miles too long like most Dutch clothes – I generally have a pretty good eye for what will fit me and what won’t, and figured that if I was getting a whole outfit for E20 that looked as though it would fit perfectly, it wasn’t that important to bother. So I didn’t, and when I got home and tried them on, sure enough, I have a new favorite outfit. :) Catie, it looks like something you’d wear… proud of me?? ;)
Oh, and school. It started again today, but I didn’t go because it was only presentations. Wednesday and Friday I don’t know about. Technically I do have class, but I think it’s only for preparation? Let’s see…
OUCH!!! I just nailed my elbow on the corner of the table by my bed – I was digging for my class schedule in my backpack and yanked my arm back without noticing the table there. Wow… pain! Anyway, it’s like I thought – Mondays are presentations, and Wednesdays and Fridays are just preparation for the presentations. And I’m not doing a presentation, I’m doing a paper, so there’s no reason for me to be there. The final exam is the 21st, but I don’t have to take it because my minitest average is higher than 7 (8.1). So technically I never have to go to class again, except to turn in my paper…
…which I should probably start writing, hey? :)
Grrr. Grrr. GRRR! I’m going to vent for a while here, so brace yourselves. P just asked if someone would please take a gun, show it to his boss, and explain very carefully exactly what was wrong with ‘the system’ - namely, that everyone is being overworked, new shifts on a moment’s notice, etc. - and I think I’m very soon going to be that person. (Joking, of course…) We had… uhh… afgesproken?... ‘planned to get together’ yesterday evening around 21.00, but then he got a call that he had to be somewhere at 4.30 the next morning. So, one strike. Rescheduled for this afternoon at 14.00. Then turned out that the meeting he had that morning was a two-part meeting, thus lasting almost all day, thus he couldn’t do his normally scheduled shift. So they had to change his shift… to a twelve-hour one, from 22.00 to 10.00. Two strikes. And then he has another one at 17.00. Three strikes. I honestly think they’re trying to kill him… he slept 15 minutes last night, got up at 3.00, and is now going to be awake until 10.00 tomorrow morning. And then he only gets 7 hours respite to sleep (at the office, no less) before working again. If I’m lucky, I’ll see him around 1 or 2 in the morning tomorrow night, but at this moment I’m (understandably) sort of doubting that. He’s going to have a talk with his boss tomorrow morning but I don’t really see how that’s going to do any good.
It just sucks… it’s been two weeks since we’ve seen each other for longer than ten minutes (we’ve dropped off things a couple of times – my scarf, the camera charger – but that’s all). We’ve been MSNing and SMSing more than usual to make up for it, but it’s not the same… and it can’t just be me; he has other people in his life too… it’s annoying for him because he feels like all he ever does is work and sleep, and it’s annoying for the rest of us because we rearrange our schedules to make time when he has time, and then everything switches again. Anyway, it’s frustrating for everyone involved, so I hope he hammers his point across tomorrow. I know none of it is his fault and that he hates it even more than I do, but we were on the phone last night and he said ‘This feels like a long-distance call’ and I agreed – because it did feel like he was really far away – and then he said softly, ‘Well, after July it’ll be much further.’ Ouch! Do I really have to think about that now? But anyway, that sort of made me think about the fact that there’s a ‘time limit’… which makes it all even more frustrating.
Okay, well, now that that’s off my chest, on to other things. S should be back… hmm… any minute, actually, or at least that’s my guess. I think he has class tomorrow so he should be back tonight… that was the other reason it sucked to have to reschedule with P, because it’s always much gezelliger to have someone over when the other housemate is not there. When H is here I know they always want me to leave, and to be honest, I feel the same way when P’s here… so… yeah, outta luck. Anyway, S should have lots of stories to tell – he went to Paris for a while, then they went skiing, and then I think he went back to Paris…
Anyway, Belgium was cool – but they talk so funny! LOL! I notice it much more now that I’ve been living in NL than I used to when M would talk in class. Anyway, so T and I went to this little American grocery store – I think I said that – and it was sooo strange to see all the familiar brand names again! Campbell’s soup, Reese’s cups, Hamburger Helper… LOL! The prices were about 3x what they would be in America, but hey… once in a while you gotta splurge. :) So I got mac and cheese, Campbell’s Double Noodle soup, Reese’s (of course), and a couple other small things, like a bag of Combos. (Three bucks! At home it would have been like 99 cents.) Then we decided to make it a ‘truly American day’ and went to Pizza Hut… haha! Anyway, it was nice to spend some time hanging out with T… one of those times when you feel like you’ve known the person for a thousand years.
But the food – my God! I ate the Velveeta mac and cheese and saved some of the cheese to use it on regular macaroni (which I made tonight – comfort food) and wow… it doesn’t ‘feel good’ in my stomach. I feel fat… nasty feeling. The food really is better over here – better tasting and better for you. But once in a while I just gotta have that processed cheese! :)
Clothes! The one bright spot yesterday. I had a rotten day – my back was still hurting from that stupid bed at L’s house, and then my electric scooter decided it didn’t like the damp pavement and died on me, but not before it kicked a lot of mud up onto my jeans. (I hope it was just the moisture… it didn’t give me the 3-LED signal like the manual says it should, but I’m still hoping that’s it because otherwise it means the charger didn’t work and THEN we have a major problem.) Then I got some news that really shouldn’t have bothered me but did anyway – I’m fine with it now after talks with T and P, but at the time I was really upset, plus mad at myself for being upset. (Not going further into that on here, if you don’t mind.) And then, H&M cashiers are stupid – apparently the sale signs over a product are just there for decoration or something. (I bought a shirt which was marked at E9,90, and the sign over the rack said shirts originally 9,90 were now 4,90. But it still rang up as 9,90 and when I called her on it, she said something weird like “That’s not what that means,” and then said to the guy next to her, “We need to take those sale signs down, everyone’s getting confused.” So the signs are just there to look nice?) But what really made me mad was, she somehow figured out I was an English speaker and so immediately switched over. When they do that I feel obligated to respond in English instead of continuing in Dutch as I would like to, but it makes me so mad! Everyone stops and stares and listens to you and it makes me feel, I don’t know, inferior or something… because I know that everyone there thinks I can’t speak a word of their language. Why does this switching-over thing happen to me MORE often now that I’ve gotten more proficient in Dutch??? You got me. Maybe because now I dare to talk more… but anyway, the point is, the bright spot in yesterday was clothes. H&M was having post-Christmas sales, I guess, so I went in and just happened across two items – a red-and-gray striped shirt with a wide neckline, and white cargo pants with lots of zippers and pockets (haha Dad). The shirt was the only large one left – I looked through the whole rack and they had only S, M, and a couple of XS, so I was about to leave, but then I saw the last L lying across the rack below – it had slipped off the hanger. I wanted it, so then I decided that as long as I was buying something, I’d look around some more, and then I found the pants on the sale rack for under E15. The lines in H&M are always massive so I didn’t try them on beyond holding the pants up to see if they were miles too long like most Dutch clothes – I generally have a pretty good eye for what will fit me and what won’t, and figured that if I was getting a whole outfit for E20 that looked as though it would fit perfectly, it wasn’t that important to bother. So I didn’t, and when I got home and tried them on, sure enough, I have a new favorite outfit. :) Catie, it looks like something you’d wear… proud of me?? ;)
Oh, and school. It started again today, but I didn’t go because it was only presentations. Wednesday and Friday I don’t know about. Technically I do have class, but I think it’s only for preparation? Let’s see…
OUCH!!! I just nailed my elbow on the corner of the table by my bed – I was digging for my class schedule in my backpack and yanked my arm back without noticing the table there. Wow… pain! Anyway, it’s like I thought – Mondays are presentations, and Wednesdays and Fridays are just preparation for the presentations. And I’m not doing a presentation, I’m doing a paper, so there’s no reason for me to be there. The final exam is the 21st, but I don’t have to take it because my minitest average is higher than 7 (8.1). So technically I never have to go to class again, except to turn in my paper…
…which I should probably start writing, hey? :)
stormed at 12:53
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