Wednesday

Today was supposed to be my major filled with classes day, but my seminar about mastaba tombs got moved to Thursday.  So now, my Wednesday goes from 9-11 and then I have a break until my 3:15 class.  Phew.  

I had my Classical Egyptian II class today.  Turns out the teacher is an American, and he was thrilled to have another American in the class.  He kept asking me questions about where I was from, and where I've studied, and under whom and this and that.  And he's super strange.  I don't think the Dutch kids have ANY idea how to take this guy.  First of all, he talks with and NPR voice, only he says really common things.  So, in his soft, NPR way he'll be like "Oh, look over here!  This is Djoser's pyramid.  And what's this?  Pepy's funerary temple."  Very very strange.  He also has an extremely odd sense of humor.  Very American in some ways (ie. mucho sarcasm) but still very very odd.  Most of the time the Dutch kids just sort of looked at him like he was sort of insane.  

During my huge long break I ate an AMAZING lunch of corn soup and a veggie Bami block (curried rice, veggies and chilis in a little breaded and baked square.)  SO GOOD.  I also studied Coptic.  In the actual Coptic class we mostly just attempted to read some words out loud, but we also learned some cool stuff.  Like, in Coptic the tense marker is often on the subject and not on the verb!  So, to say:  A boy biked  in Coptic you'd say:  edaboy bike!  Weird!  And that's just the second day!  Can't wait til we get past the alphabet!

After class I had a bit of free time, so I studied some more Coptic.  Then we had our first ISN-R board meeting.  It lasted almost 3 hours, but we got a lot of good stuff organized.  Afterwards we all went to International night at Café Einstein.  I met up with Joanjo (pronounced like Juan) and met a Venezuelan guy named Carlos who said he'd like to speak Spanish with me once I learn some verbs.  Haha.  I wish I could have stayed a bit longer, but I have class (Egyptian I) in the morning. 

The ISN-R girls and I are going shopping at 11:30 for some sort of accessory that will distinguish us as ISN-R at parties.  There's apparently this very complex social network among student organizations.  Each group organizes what's called a constitutieborrel (constitutional drink they call it in English) which is a very strange and complex party to celebrate (as I understand it) the formation of the new groups.  Each student organization comes, stands in line for hours to sign up to give the host organization gifts, and then waits for their name to be called to give the gift.  Apparently there's also a guy with a huge stick who bangs on the ground and calls out the names of the organization.  Every body dresses up and schmoozes while they're waiting to be called to present the gift.  We were all given written instructions on how to act!  Intense!  But totally something I'm going to be good at!  ;-)

Lolpod:  I was headed to the Plexus building to get lunch and study, and I pulled around to the bike parking area where I always park my bike.  I got there and stopped and was really confused for a moment and didn't know why.  Then I realized:  I was on foot.  No bike.  Sigh.

Strange Moment of Universal Alignment:  I was listening to an old NPR podcast about the first day of the Olympics.  They were talking about a special area where blind Chinese people could gather and "watch" the games.  They had special sound equipment, and even a commentator who gave blow by blow coverage of each event.  I thought it was an interesting story, so I stopped what I was doing for a moment to glance out my window and listen.  Just as the story ended, a blind Asian man walked down the street outside!  I can't say for certain that he was Chinese, but what are the odds of a blind Asian man walking by just as you're listening to a story about blind Asian people?!  I mean, really!  

Thank you Universe, I'm paying attention!  :-)