Eureka!!! REVELATION... something that has been nagging at me ever since I got here just made itself plain. I'm sitting here eating hagelslag, those sprinkles that the Dutch put on bread, and those of you who've been with me a while on this site will recall that waaaay back when, I asked what vruchtenhagel tasted like. I said that I knew it tasted like some candy I used to eat as a child, something like SweeTarts but that it wasn't those. Well, with the first bite, I remembered: PEZ!!! Those tablet-like candies that you eat out of the dispensers with the heads on them? THAT's what it tastes like. I'm glad I finally remembered that - it's crossed my mind every single time I buy the stuff and I never resolved it.

Well, I had that translating class again this morning at 9 and man, am I scared. I have TWO assignments to do for next time - Friday - both English to Dutch, and both considerably longer than the first one. One of them is from last time; I have to do it now because I don't have the Norton Anthology that all the English majors have, so I couldn't do the assignment for last time. Anyway, so there's that, PLUS three pages of Anne in Green Gables. Now, that's nice on one hand - it's a book I've read, like, a hundred times - but for those of you who have read it: remember how Anne talks? All those big words and dreamy eyes and all? Wish me luck at packing all THAT into my mediocre Dutch... oh well, but I did start talking to this girl after class who had the same problem with the anthology - what was her name - Birgitte? Anyway, she asked me something 'practical' about the class, where to get the handouts or something, and I answered that I didn't know how everything worked yet... and then I went on to say that I was getting scared because I was the only one with English as a first language. Her eyes went wide and she said (still in Dutch) "I hadn't even noticed - couldn't even hear it!" That was reassuring. :) (Tristan: it means that that one horrible night in the car when I had a sore throat really ISN'T how I normally talk... phew... *wipes sweat off brow*) Anyway, so she and I 'kidnapped' the teacher's book and photocopied some of the texts we need, so I'm set for the next week or two.

Anyway, so then I swung by Broese and picked up my book for Dutch Present-Day Society, which finally came in, and then dropped by the Albert Heijn for the essentials and then came home. But somewhere in between those two I got accosted by a member of an animal rights group. "Mag ik iets vragen?" Sigh... I never stop for those people, I just smile and shake my head or pretend my music is too loud and I can't hear them, but for some reason I did stop for her, and she launched off into a monologue, complete with pictures, about all the things they were trying to stop from happening. Anyway, she was asking for money, of course, so when she finally got to the 'important' part I first tried laughing her off, "No, sorry, I'm just a poor student, no extra money..." but she kept on going so finally I just said "You're very convincing, but not now." She left me alone then. Sigh.

So here I am again... home. And my bedroom is sunny for a change and there are purple and white and yellow flowers coming up outside (no, wait, it's not spring yet, stop growing!) and although I'm tired, I'm actually in a very good mood. Which will, sadly, soon evaporate, because I have to start on those translations. We don't really get 'graded' on those in the sense of a grade out of 10, but we have to turn them all in and they have to be reasonably good.

Better start now, dus.