Okay, I suppose I'll actually write this time instead of copping out and copy-pasting my homework into my blog. :) Anyway, whew. I'm home, and exhausted. Here goes:
So last night Dia and I just weren't sleepy at a normal time - go figure - so we stayed up and watched Mean Girls and played basically my entire iTunes library and ate chocolate and sang songs and talked a lot, etc. It was fun, but we stayed up until 2:30 and then I got up at 6 to go to the station and get the train to Waddinxveen, since I decided I was desperate enough for pool time that it would be worth the workout, even getting there 30 minutes late. Since I didn't have a bike yet, I walked, which was actually kind of nice; it was cool but not cold, dusky but not dark, etc. Anyway, so I got the train out of Utrecht just fine (which was filled with loud, annoying 18-year-olds heading home to Vleuten after a long Saturday night out on the town), but then in Alphen aan den Rijn, the second train ended up being delayed by 20 minutes. That cut my workout down to 45 minutes, and I seriously almost turned right back around and went back to Utrecht - what was the point of going on? - but I had already paid the 7 euro for the trip, so I just went ahead and went to Waddinxveen. And I was glad I did, even though I had to sort of make up my own workout... I did one of Kerry's sets, a mile (1500m) with every tenth lap being IM order, and then 5 x 100 IM. Only 2000m, not a great workout, but it felt good. I just hate the fact that every time I start feeling good, the workout ends. Eight more days till the Krommerijn opens. Until then, I get to keep sitting around getting fat. Bah.
Anyway, so after that I got the train back to Utrecht and ended up being right on time to buy a bicycle ticket, grab two ham-and-cheese croissants, and jump onto the second train, to Raalte. Getting there was kind of neat because on the Deventer-Zwolle connection, I ran into a (tall, broad, blond, very Dutch-looking) Latvian guy plus a family of Spaniards escorting their daughter to the university in Groningen. We, plus a random Dutch woman in the same general area, had fun talking about American politics, LOL.
Once I got to Raalte, Olga found me right away (yeah, not too difficult, considering the station has two platforms and I was wearing my blue FLORIDA SWIMMING T-shirt with the bright orange letters) and we headed back 'home' where she, Pum, and I talked, inspected the bike, talked some more, ate chocolate, talked, played with laptops and digital cameras, and oh yeah, talked. She's working on a sort of committee for this website project, Bo-Rush, a fan site for Boris (the 2004 Idols winner). It's not up and running yet, but will be on Sunday when they have the opening party (which Boris himself might even come to... how cool would that be?!) Anyway, I spent about two hours there and then took a train to Almelo so I could get the direct, fast train to Utrecht... except, because of construction, everyone was being rerouted to our traject, meaning that in Deventer, SO many people got on the train (which was already full) that the conductor came onto the intercom and apologized for it being "over-full", saying that we could use the first-class seats and that the young should give up their seats for the old and/or disabled. "I think they made a planning error," she apologized, making everyone in our 'tussenruimte' (space between compartments, where the doors and a few fold-down seats are) crack up. Never travel anywhere in the Netherlands on a Sunday.
Anyway, but an Irish girl leaned into the train and asked me, "Do you speak English?" (LOL) and we got into a conversation which lasted the whole way to Utrecht, about American politics (yeah, again), sports, traveling, and who knows what else. She was heading to Rotterdam to meet up with a friend before they headed back to Brussel. And it was a good thing she met me, because she didn't speak a word of Dutch and had no idea that the train was going to split in Utrecht, half going to Rotterdam and half to Den Haag, and she was in the wrong half. I translated all the PA announcements for her (translations which I could tell everyone in the car was listening to and pretending not to). Funny. But anyway, I have a bike, and it's pretty and green and will hopefully NOT get stolen, at least not as quickly as the last one. It only has one lock on it at the moment, though, so I hope it sticks around until I can buy a second one tomorrow. I think it's pretty safe on campus, though.
Random closing note: today, for probably the first time, I was thankful to be short. I felt some cobwebs across me as I walked to the Waddinxveen station, and as I brushed them off, I looked up and saw, right over my head, a perfect, circular spider's web with a fat spider in the middle. I stepped away, reflexively running my hands over my head, and realized there were actually THREE webs, all with their own fat spiders. They missed my head by about two inches. Yikes.
Last, but certainly not least: does the UCU cafeteria really think that beef, bananas, and coconut is an acceptable stew combination?
So last night Dia and I just weren't sleepy at a normal time - go figure - so we stayed up and watched Mean Girls and played basically my entire iTunes library and ate chocolate and sang songs and talked a lot, etc. It was fun, but we stayed up until 2:30 and then I got up at 6 to go to the station and get the train to Waddinxveen, since I decided I was desperate enough for pool time that it would be worth the workout, even getting there 30 minutes late. Since I didn't have a bike yet, I walked, which was actually kind of nice; it was cool but not cold, dusky but not dark, etc. Anyway, so I got the train out of Utrecht just fine (which was filled with loud, annoying 18-year-olds heading home to Vleuten after a long Saturday night out on the town), but then in Alphen aan den Rijn, the second train ended up being delayed by 20 minutes. That cut my workout down to 45 minutes, and I seriously almost turned right back around and went back to Utrecht - what was the point of going on? - but I had already paid the 7 euro for the trip, so I just went ahead and went to Waddinxveen. And I was glad I did, even though I had to sort of make up my own workout... I did one of Kerry's sets, a mile (1500m) with every tenth lap being IM order, and then 5 x 100 IM. Only 2000m, not a great workout, but it felt good. I just hate the fact that every time I start feeling good, the workout ends. Eight more days till the Krommerijn opens. Until then, I get to keep sitting around getting fat. Bah.
Anyway, so after that I got the train back to Utrecht and ended up being right on time to buy a bicycle ticket, grab two ham-and-cheese croissants, and jump onto the second train, to Raalte. Getting there was kind of neat because on the Deventer-Zwolle connection, I ran into a (tall, broad, blond, very Dutch-looking) Latvian guy plus a family of Spaniards escorting their daughter to the university in Groningen. We, plus a random Dutch woman in the same general area, had fun talking about American politics, LOL.
Once I got to Raalte, Olga found me right away (yeah, not too difficult, considering the station has two platforms and I was wearing my blue FLORIDA SWIMMING T-shirt with the bright orange letters) and we headed back 'home' where she, Pum, and I talked, inspected the bike, talked some more, ate chocolate, talked, played with laptops and digital cameras, and oh yeah, talked. She's working on a sort of committee for this website project, Bo-Rush, a fan site for Boris (the 2004 Idols winner). It's not up and running yet, but will be on Sunday when they have the opening party (which Boris himself might even come to... how cool would that be?!) Anyway, I spent about two hours there and then took a train to Almelo so I could get the direct, fast train to Utrecht... except, because of construction, everyone was being rerouted to our traject, meaning that in Deventer, SO many people got on the train (which was already full) that the conductor came onto the intercom and apologized for it being "over-full", saying that we could use the first-class seats and that the young should give up their seats for the old and/or disabled. "I think they made a planning error," she apologized, making everyone in our 'tussenruimte' (space between compartments, where the doors and a few fold-down seats are) crack up. Never travel anywhere in the Netherlands on a Sunday.
Anyway, but an Irish girl leaned into the train and asked me, "Do you speak English?" (LOL) and we got into a conversation which lasted the whole way to Utrecht, about American politics (yeah, again), sports, traveling, and who knows what else. She was heading to Rotterdam to meet up with a friend before they headed back to Brussel. And it was a good thing she met me, because she didn't speak a word of Dutch and had no idea that the train was going to split in Utrecht, half going to Rotterdam and half to Den Haag, and she was in the wrong half. I translated all the PA announcements for her (translations which I could tell everyone in the car was listening to and pretending not to). Funny. But anyway, I have a bike, and it's pretty and green and will hopefully NOT get stolen, at least not as quickly as the last one. It only has one lock on it at the moment, though, so I hope it sticks around until I can buy a second one tomorrow. I think it's pretty safe on campus, though.
Random closing note: today, for probably the first time, I was thankful to be short. I felt some cobwebs across me as I walked to the Waddinxveen station, and as I brushed them off, I looked up and saw, right over my head, a perfect, circular spider's web with a fat spider in the middle. I stepped away, reflexively running my hands over my head, and realized there were actually THREE webs, all with their own fat spiders. They missed my head by about two inches. Yikes.
Last, but certainly not least: does the UCU cafeteria really think that beef, bananas, and coconut is an acceptable stew combination?
stormed at 13:39
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