So, the yesterday was a much better day after a deliciously greasy dinner of patates (french fries) and a kaas souffle (something cheesy and bready and artery clogging for sure). =) Anouk and I went to the Aldi supermarket to get some wine, beer and snacks before everybody arrived. The people at the party: me, and my housemates: anouk, chiel, arjan, and janne Janne's boyfriend Jasper, Nina and her friend Kim, Wiebke, Anouk's friend Bergit and Lea (Israeli student I met here) and her boyfriend Steven. So there was quite the crowd. The MTV Europe awards show was also on that evening so we watched some performances and entertained eachother with stories, goofing off, eating a delicious hazelnut cookie coffee cream cake, etc etc. My housemates got me a really nice gift which I wasn't expecting ... read more

I've conquered my cold thanks to plenty of sleep, echinacea, and good thoughts. This is perfect timing since I'll be going out on Thursday to celebrate my birthday! I can't believe it's already here! =) I've been studying as usual and making good progress - only 10 more articles to go! The articles have interesting topics, but there are a few annoying ones that discuss an amazing issue but then at the end you find out that there is not enough research to prove that factor x works at all. what a bummer! Along with reading articles, I started another book alongside the Tortilla Curtain since that one gives me weird dreams. The new book is horrible yet addicting. I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I think it's a romance/chick novel. I always made fun of ... read more

There's nothing much to report other than exams are next week. Fortunately I only have one, but I'm still kind of nervous because I don't know what the teacher is expecting. It's on the readings (about 30 articles - some long, some longer) so I'm going back and rereading every article and taking notes about it. It's a big pain, but it's worth it. The weather is up and down here. Some days have been cold and the wind is crazy here. With no hills to block the wind, it just hits everything in it's path. I definitely have to give more time to ride to the university now. I think yesterday's ride back from my last Dutch class did me in. This morning I woke up with some pressure in my head and the sniffles. ... read more

So, Germany is the second country that I've ever visited in Europe. This post will be extremely short because I'm typing on a German keyboard and the z and y buttons are switched which is driving me crazy (especially when I have to write the word 'crazy') Anyway, I'm alive and so far Germany is nice - very different from Holland - the only cars on the road are BMWs, VWs, Audis, and MBenz. Everything is clean, manicured, polished and looks brand new. Nina told me Hannover is one of the cities that was rebuilt really fast after the war ended. This explains why it's pretty gray and the buildings are not as pretty and historical and the ones in Holland. Yesterday we went shopping in Hannover (Nina actually lives in a town called Hildesheim which ... read more

Hello again, Amsterdam! It's sure nice to have a change of pace from what I'm used to. Amsterdam is full of tourists, people, cars, buses, dogs, boats, you name it. I took the train from Enschede yesterday afternoon. I caught the train right on time with 2 minutes to spare, after buying a discount train pass that gives me 40% discount on any train ticket I buy in the Nederlands. It's good for a whole year, which is cool because I plan on coming back here in June after graduation. Anyway, on the train, the ticket guy came around and I showed him my ticket - he told me that I'm actually on the part of the train that goes to Schipol Airport. He told me to get off the train in Deventer (about half way ... read more