Another Marketday come and gone.  Quite a good one at that.  I woke up at 10 am, which was much much earlier than expected.  I didn't get to bed until 2am the night before (and I didn't sleep at all the night before that.)  My mom set my brother, Troy, up with Skype last night, so I got to chat with the whole fam-damn-ily.  :-)  It was actually really nice.  Aunt Jeannie even Skyped me from Indiana at one point!  

I bummed around here for a little while, and then went to the market to play.  I just can't stay away.  I bought some awesome olives and some tampenade (I'm almost certain that's not how you spell that...) and some candy shoe strings.  I also bought (fake) flowers for Roxanna!  She's so beautiful now with her blue achtertassen (saddle bags) and blue bloemen (flowers)!  I still have to put my liefesheerbeestje (ladybug) bell on, but there will be pictures of a thoroughly souped up Roxanna soon enough.  :-)

I then went to see Kung-Fu Panda with Susanne.  In Dutch!  I actually ended up understanding quite a bit more than I thought I would (Toeval bestaat niet....)  Though I have to admit that the lack of Jack Black was unfortunack.  But the Dutchiness of the whole thing sort of made up for it.  The kicker was Kung-Fu Fighting (the song) in Dutch.  Yes, I have a link.  

The movie was the least of the experience though.  First of all there were children EVERYWHERE.  I saw this movie twice in America, and there were barely any children.  This place was PACKED with them.  And they were rowdy!  Not necessarily misbehaving, but right there on the cusp.  I liked it though.  Having children around is just fun.  The girl next to me actually laid her head on my knee for a while during the movie!  I also had a girl (5 or 6 years old) in the bathroom ask me (in Dutch of course) if I could give her more paper.  Another girl got stuck in the stall, and had to be freed.  Chaos, man, as only 6 year olds can provide!

There was also a break right in the middle of the movie, which I found rather strange.  No one really got anything to eat or drink until the break either, then they all streamed into the concessions area to get chips and cokes and stuff.  It was cool, but definitely strange.  There were tables and chairs, and everyone sat down and chilled and talked.  This lasted about 15 min.  I think this happens in every movie here, not just the children's movies.  The worst part though: they don't serve popcorn.  None.  In Germany sometimes you can't get salty popcorn, only kettle corn, but at least you can get you some popped corn!  Not here.  Nothing.  Just Pringles, and Mars bars and colas.   Sad sad country!  :-)

After de film, I came home and piddled for a bit, and then went on a bike tour of Leiden.  Actually, I just went back to the gorgeous fields where Robert and I went walking the other day.  It had such a positive effect on me then, and I wanted to clear my mind again today.  This time the sun was shining, and it was warm, and the wind was blowing, and life was amazing.  I biked all around, and only turned back when I realized that there was a nasty black cloud brewing off to the west.  Too bad too, I could have ridden to the next town.  Or farther.  Who knows.  I got lost on the way back, which was awesome in and of itself.  I love nothing more than to get lost in a city.  I got back to my apartment 5 minutes before torrential downpours.  Lucky me.

I then spent an hour watching Dr. Horrible (www.drhorrible.com/  though be aware that it goes offline tomorrow, helas) which is the newest project by Joss Whedon (genius that he is.)  Then I met up with Susanne and we went to a hip-hop festival.  Haha.  It was actually just about over by the time we got there.  We were just in time for the dance competition, which was actually not as good as I had hoped.  The winner was a 13 year old girl.  And she deserved it.  Though, 13 year olds winning hip-hop dance competitions still sort of make me sad.  I told Susanne that most Americans only know how to dance to hip-hop, and she laughed.  She said next time I should compete!

We then found a restaurant and tried bitterballen.  Bitterballen are another national specialty, and one that has nothing to do with raw fish or onions.  They're basically smaller, rounder croquets.  Meat and butter and veggies and stuff, I guess.  It's really rather hard to tell.  It sort of reminds me of deep fried gravy.  Only, tasty, and not the greasiest deadliest thing ever.  They look like hush puppies on the outside, but inside was gooey and warm and frankly pretty tasty.  Definitely not the healthiest snack around, but certainly a tasty treat.  

We then sat around and chatted for a few hours.  Once again, we bonded by talking about old boyfriends.  Though this was mostly the good stories, not the horror stories.  :-)  Funny how girls are sometimes.  Either way, we had a good time talking, and then went off to find something else to do.  We went to Mas y Mas, the dance club I went to last Friday, but it was EMPTY.  I mean, there were people there, but literally only ONE person on the dance floor.  So we wandered off, and never really found anything else.  So we decided to call it a night.  Which is fine by me, really.  I could use the sleep.

In other news, I bought two cartons of currants at the market today for €1.  I fully intend to eat them for breakfast.  With cream.  :-)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak2qfKkuDyE