Lekke Band

Well, found out today that I didn't pass Egyptian II.  4,0.  Not even as good as last time.  Oh well, c'est la vie.  There was confusion about essay questions, so I'll read them, and get over it.  My prof says I might be able to petition to take the exam again in the summer.  We'll see.

Today was gorgeous.  Holland finally got it almost right.  14C (about 65F or so) and sunny.  The only real trouble was the wind, but it was just normal, too cold wind, not WIND.  Beautiful.  I had to walk to class and back since my bike has a lekke band (flaaaat tire) but it was a great stroll.  Spring is here and winter is gone.

Koos and I planned on going to Yoga at the sports center, but we missed it.  Not having a bike can make the timing of things complicated.  

Tomorrow, we're going geocaching.

This week I start two more classes.  Egyptian Art History and Egyptian Archaeology II.  I should also get the score to my other Egyptian test.   Here's hopin'. 

Do your work, then step back; the only way to serenity.

--Tao Te Ching

Whisper of Wings

Another Egyptian test, another possibility of passing. Still no word on either, but I'm proud of my performance whatever the result. It will almost certainly be better than last time. Especially this exam. Classical Egyptian I. First time I took it, I got a 2,3 (out of 10...) yeah... And the test on Wednesday was the EXACT SAME TEST as before. The first time I took it, I froze up. I had no idea of many of the words, and couldn't start with most of the sentences. This time, however, I just ran with it. Understood most of it. Worked through what I didn't know. We shall see.

Afterwards I went over to Koos' and watched Dr. Strangelove (Dr. Merkwuerdigeliebe) hee hee, intense film.

Thursday was a bad day. Geesh. A friend called saying she wanted to buy Roxanna Fiets, my first bike. Roxanna was parked at the public library. This isn't far away, necessarily, by bike, but I couldn't very well take my new bike, Julie Fiets, because it's tough to bike while towing another bike. My fietsen skillz are not that strong. So, I walked. To the public library, and then to my friend's place. This took about an hour and a half. It was really a very pleasant walk to the library. A little rainy, but nice. But Roxanna had a flat tire, so I had to walk back. And the rain got worse, plus wind. And not just wind, WIND. DUTCH WIND! Gach!

So, I got Roxanna to her new home, her new owner. We said our goodbyes. I shall miss her. She served me well (though now that I'm use to Julie, an adult bike, I can't believe I was ever able to ride such a tiiiiiny child's bike!) I then walked home. Again, rain and DUTCH WIND. Found out I had lost my wallet somewhere. Gah. Fortunately, it was at Koos' so no major deal.

Not so bad, I guess, just a lot of stress, and a very windblown sogginess.

I then met with Katrina (US) to plan a swing lesson for Sunday. She's a Virginia dancer, and a pretty cool gal. She and Carlos were practicing a salsa routine, and I helped them a tiiiny little bit. Which was fun! Afterwards, I went to Koos' and we watched The Incredibles. I've somehow managed to not see this movie until now. I really really enjoyed it, too!

Friday. I cleaned my apartment. It's still in major need of some serious scrubbing, but I organized my stuff, and swept, and moved the bed to the window, and took down the curtains. I doubt this place has EVER seen a broom. The dust bunnies were climbing the curtains. They seriously need a washing. Interestingly, I found a knife behind them...ah the joys of living in Dutch student housing....

At 4 I went to Koos' to watch some cricket. Pro20 match. Australia v. South Afrika. Pro20 games only last about 3 hours (as opposed to Test matches which last, oh, a week.) It was a pretty exciting game, and it came down to the very last minutes. But South Afrika won in the end. Woot!

Koos and I then walked to Game Night and played Settlers of Catan with Jan and Pim (Holland/US). Then a stop at De Nijl (sorry about your knee, Koos...) and off to 'T Keizertje with the crowd for some pool. Aiste, Xiaofei, and a New Zealander named Reuban came with. Good times all around, naturally. (Sorry about your nose, Koos....)

Today = market day. Again, Koos and I walked (his bike has a flat) to the Niewe Rijn to market it up. A wild day of buying pillows, sheets and a spatula.... :-) Then a stop at the newly opened Niewe Rijn location of Coffee Star. (Espresso con panna. Cheesecake.) Ran into Emma (US) and her boyfriend (Holland.) Went to de Slegte (bookstore.)

Koos went home. I went home. Koos came over here, and we made some amazing garlic parmesan portobello mushrooms, and courgette fried rice. Hot chocolate and marshmallows. Living the good life.

On the way home, Koos and I stopped to watch some swans playing. When you stop moving and are just silent you realize just how noisy birds can be. There were seagulls laughing, ducks macking, crows cawing, and some little chirpy thing chirping. The swans weren't very talkative, but they were dunking their heads into the water, and flapping their wings, and wagging their little tails.

Everywhere the calling of birds and the whisper of wings.

Freedom is Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose

I think it must have been the Facebook status appeal to Thoth, the Egyptian god of hieroglyphs, to please please help me, but I think I just might have passed my exam this morning!

Then a breath of warm, dry air came to me from Morrocco (by way of Spain) and I realized everything is going the way it needs to go.  I feel better.  I still feel a little bit adrift, but the seas are calm now, and I can finally lie back and just follow where these waters are taking me.

My next adventure starts in July.  I'm applying for the Cambridge English language teaching certificate courses here in the Netherlands.  After that, my next academic undertaking starts in October.  I'm also applying for a masters in Teaching English Language Learners.  I've struggled with this a lot in the past few weeks.  Giving up on a dream to pursue something I'm not sure of.  But, I realized today that this is what I want.  I realized today, as I easily translated texts that had me baffled just a few months ago, that I have learned a lot in the past weeks.  But I also realized that the main reason I was able to translate so easily was that I just didn't care if I passed or not.  The pressure was gone.  

I realized today, or rather, I admitted to myself today that my days of formally studying Egyptology are over.  This is a sorrow and a joy.  Today I feel free.  :-)

I've spent the rest of the day with Koos, reading and watching Pushing Daisies and Avatar, eating fruit and drinking lots of tea (rooibos, of course.)  There was even a storm!  Not a real storm, but pretty impressive for Europe.  We went to the roof to watch, and even managed to catch a glimpse of a fork or two before the rain started in ernest.  Hail and wind.  Life as it's being lived.

The Dutch wind swirls my hair around my shoulders, but I don't feel the cold, the ice. I feel the sunlight and colors of Morocco, of Africa, of Life and Love in the wind.

Sick

Ah, the past few days have been washed in sunlight. I've been around friends as much as possible too, and that has been nice. I've been sick, however, which hasn't been great.

Played pool on Thursday night with Jan, Walter, Cindy, Kia, Alessandra, Fabio, and Koos at Proost. I made 5 balls in on one of my turns, and everyone seemed impressed. Koos and I got caught in a fit of giggles that just wouldn't stop. :-p

Friday night Koos and I had planned on going to Game Night, but we ended up ordering pizza and watching Pushing Daisies instead.

On Saturday, Jan, Alessandra and her friend Migumi (Japan) went to a book festival in Utrecht. Migumi didn't speak English, but she did speak German. So, Jan and I spoke to her in German. Alessandra, however, didn't speak German, so she spoke to Jan and me in English, and Japanese to Migumi. And Jan and I spoke ancient historian to each other. ;-)

The book fair itself was great. Jan and I scoured just about every book in the place! We both came out with tons of books that ended up costing about 3 Euros each. Not bad at all in my opinion. Watch the Nook for some serious reviews in the coming weeks. :-) We were there for about 5 hours, I think, talking about books, and pouring over interesting titles. A little heaven for the two of us. Though fortunately for the both of us, the history section was mostly pop history, and not particularly scholarly. Meant we both got off easy.

Afterwards we sat in the sun and ate our lunch and chatted, and then found a cafe at the station and talked about our books. Not the ones we bought, the ones we're writing. :-) I can't wait to read Jan's work. We want to entwine our novels.

This morning was a long awaited bike ride to the beach. Jan and I have been planning this literally since the day we met. We wanted to ride to the beach on the eqinox to welcome the spring sun and usher in the new year. Unfortunately, I've been sick for the past few days, and it all came crashing down on me last night. I was half way awake, in a delirium all night thanks to a high fever. When I awoke at 5am, I was feeling better, but decided a ride into the cold, wet, windy darkness was not wise. Jan didn't go alone, of course, I think about 20 people accompanied him. Still, I was sad to miss the sunrise over the dunes.

I woke up again around 10 and read until 1. Then I decided an escape from the apartment was in order. Something feline in me wanted to wander. So I went to a cafe at the station, got an apple tart and some coffee and read some more. Had the wind been calmer, I might have wandered more, but sitting in the sunlight was catlike enough for me.

After an hour or so, however, I thnk my fever came back, and I plodded home for some serious napping. Serious. Koos popped in and hung out for a little while. Attempted to fix my poor broken Mac's internet. To no avail so far, but I think he sees a solution.

My Egyptian make up exam is tomorrow. Bleh.

Sunshine Lake

17.March.09: Another GORGEOUS day. Absolutely beautiful. I was on my way home to get some work done when Koos SMSed me. Told me to be at his apartment in 30 min. We went geocaching again! It was a particularly beautiful cache too. There's apparently a lake not a 10 min cycle from where I live! So we wandered around the lake finding clues and searching for buried treasure. Also, watching sheep dancing in the fields nearby. :-) Eventually, I found the buried treasure in a hole under a rock. The hole was filled with water, and the containter holding the treasure jumped out of the ground when I took the rock off. It was very exciting, and I'm just glad my Egyptology degree contains so many Adventure Archaeology courses. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known what to do with treasure exploding from the ground like that. Didn't even have to use my whip.

Afterwards, I went to the sports center to try out a dance class there. It's called Zumba, or something like that, and it's a mixture of Latin American dance and Hip-Hop from what I could tell. It was a really interesting class, very very energetic, and my poor little face turned all different shades of red. :-) But I loved it! It's so nice to dance again in a structured setting, on my own, solo and free. I'll try to go next week too. Dance!

Koos came over for dinner and showed me the COOLEST toy ever. He has a star laser. It's a laser with a really strong beam so it looks like he's pointing directly at the stars! It's like a km long light saber! Argh, so cool! So we played with that outside my apartment for a while, bouncing it off the canal and scaring the ducks. :-P

Sunlight!

Ah, yesterday was the most beautiful day in Holland to date!  That's probably not true, but certainly it was the most amazing day I've seen since winter began!  Sunny and almost warm.  Amazing.  

There's a lot I have to do in the coming days.  My hertentamen (make-up exams) are on Monday, so I'll be looking over those texts.  I have to apply for another masters program in Teaching English to Non-Native Speakers, which is fun but takes some time.

Creep into your Mind

My Mac's internet is broken, so I've been stuck with Calliope, my mini-PC I got for creative writing.  I don't like using it for internet. It's too small and slow.  

Things have seemed pretty slow for me in the past months.  My classes are going so much better it's painful.  I've gone from being without a doubt the worst in the class to being one of the best.  :-)  We're reading the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, and I can read much of it without looking up a single word.  I'm so very pleased with myself.  Coptic has gotten too difficult, but it has more to do with the time it takes me to look up words in the dictionary, and not the grammar itself.  

My social life has gotten much more interesting.  I'm going to try to update more often. I can feel words welling up inside of me again.  Funny, I've felt silent since I got back to the Netherlands. Like the thoughts inside of me, surrounding me, took the sound from my throat; the words from my tongue.  Now, I feel them tickling my lips again.

Friday I went to Game Night.  Played Settlers of Catan with Sam (England), Alessandra (Italy) and Alberto (Italy.)  I won, but only because I cheated.  Afterwards, we went to De Kroeg for a beer, then to 't Keizertje for pool.  I got to see my old buddies again.  Kia, Jan, Annelies etc.  Jan and I stayed at 't Keizertje until 4am.  Saturday Alessandra and I went to the market. She's anew student, onlybeen here a month, and had never been to the best day ever. We had a pretty great time.  Went to Einstein for coffee.  I had dinner with Koos.  He made an amazing Chinese dish, and we danced.  Good tmes.

Today I worked on translating, and read my book. Met up with Koos, Kia, Alessandra, Cindy, Walter and Kia at Eazie for dinner.  Afterwards, the boys, minus Kia, and I went to 't Keizertje and played pool, and made up our own pub games involving coasters and Leffe goblets.

I am constantly amazed with life.  It always keeps me on my toes.

Apparently, I have a Zulu accent when I speak Afrikaans.  This is possibly the best news...ever.

Aah, Spring!

I think Spring is on its way! The days have taken on that indescribable taste of Spring. The air is different. Alive again. Still cold. Nothing has changed, really. Except, it has!

This morning I woke up to the sun shining in my window! And it stayed sunny all day! Really windy, but sunny! Julia is in town for the weekend, so I met up with her and we had lunch at Coffee Star, and chatted. Then we walked around town for a bit, and finally stopped in at Ilaria's for a surprise tea' :-) I'm glad to have my friend back in town for a bit! Later we stopped by Maneer Jansen, a bar in town, (Janos came too) and had a few drinks and talked and laughed.

I've also been reading a Dutch book called Onrust (Unrest) by a man-wife team called Escober. It started off a bit dull, sort of surprisingly. I mean, the book has a bit of everything. There are a ton of threads, different characters, a man, his wife, his almost but not quite lover, her almost but not quite lover, the man next door, the band members, the mysterious lone gunman, the Russian mob. Man. But I was just sort of unimpressed at first. Too many stories that had nothing to do with each other. Until about chapter 9, then the whole damn thing EXPLODES and I found myself literally screaming at the characters, "What?" "Oh, God, NO" Phew. The great thing is, I have NO idea where this book might be going next. I'm half way through, and unlike EVERY OTHER THRILLER EVER, I am still completely in the dark about the motives and the possible outcomes. The great bit is, the narrative is told from the 3rd omniscent perspective, so you actually get to look into the characters heads. You know what everyone feels and thinks, just not all the time. It's wild, and I'm pleasantly surprised. :-)

Tomorrow is market day with Julia! :-D

I Can Be Alone, Yeah, I Can Watch A Sunset On My Own

I've been just on the verge of sickness. Not quite there, just tired and drained. The weather hasn't helped much; rainy and grey. At least it's getting warmer.

Today I woke at 10am, but didn't get out of bed until well past noon. I just didn't feel like it. No need pushing yourself into sickness. I talked to my old high school friend, C-BHR (pronounced C-Bear) about Korea and South Africa. She's dating a South African guy, and we laughed and laughed about how strange a thing fate it. She and I are talking about taking a trip down to SA together in the next year or so. Why not. In high school we used to dream of Africa.

I've been reading a book Koos let me borrow called Your Erroneous Zones. It's very much a book that talks about how what you think becomes what you are. Nothing too earth shattering in its newness. But it made me pause. "What would you do if you weren't afraid?"

I stopped by Janos' for a bit to talk to the movie night crowd. He keeps moving the night around, so I thought I had missed it. But it was tongiht. Oh well, I had other plans. Met with Jennifer at Einstein for a glass of wine and some great conversation. I always leave Jen feeling like she's one of the coolest people I've ever met. I think I describe people in this way a lot, but it just keeps being true. Jen is amazing, and I'm really glad she's in my life.

Now I'm home. It's only 10:15pm. Most of the people who go to Einstein on a Wednesday night are just starting to trickle in now. I like Einstein nights, but frankly, I'm much more interested in actually talking to people, not just yelling at them. If I want to stand around and drink beer and yell at people I can't hear, I might as well stay home alone. Give me a small crowd, a nice bottle of wine, and lots of candles, maybe some quite jazz music. That's a night on the town. :-)

No Bones to Break

Well, I went to bed at 9pm and woke up today at 2pm. Guess I needed sleep. Here I am, it's not quite 10pm and I can barely keep my eyes open. I think I'm on the verge of getting sick. My head pounded quite amazingly every time I stood up today. So I tried to do that as little as possible.

I did translate a little Coptic. Coptic would be more fun if the dictionary was more accessible. As it is, I have to spend ages looking up every word I don't know. I translated a touch of Sinuhe too, but not a lot.

The girl I'm renting my room from is 90% positive that she has found a place in Amsterdam, which means I'm 90% positive I can keep this room as long as I need it! Joy and joys!

I did laundry, I listened to podcasts, I read poetry, I broke my Mac's internet port. Busy day. Now I'm reading my Dutch crime\mystery novel, and loving life.

While teaching his son how to ride a bike, father octopus tells him: Always remember, son, you have no bones to break.
(Thanks to Robert, and Robert's dad for this bit of wisdom.)

Swinging in the Rain

I don't even know how to begin to express my exhaustion.  I suppose I can point out that I've literally gotten less than 24 hours of sleep in the past 7 days.  That might give you a hint.  But there's more.  I'll give you the highlights.

Thursday, to start.  Thursday was a day of firsts for me.  My first first was cricket.  Walter explained the rules of cricket to me a while back.  Cricket has always seemed like a very mystical version of baseball where someone throws a ball at a guy with a bat, who swings the bat, and then everyone runs around for NO apparent reason, and the ball flies off in random directions and the score ends up looking like 235-4, which meant  nothing to me, and seemed rather high.  But Koos and I watched the first game of the test match between South Africa and Australia.  And I realized that cricket is actually a surprisingly entertaining sport.  It's subtle, but I like subtlety in sports.  It takes a WEEK to play ONE MATCH, but I find that kind of interesting too.  I thought I'd probably enjoy it, because I just generally like sports, but I didn't think I'd actually LIKE it.  

Don't even get me started on their adorable little cricket hats!

During tea break (cricket has a lunch break, and a tea time!) Koos and I went geocaching around town.  It was really a rather intense experience.  The site gave us a list of sound clips of people saying a certain phrase in different languages.  We had to find out what language each of the clips (numbered 1-9) was in.  Leiden has a project called Muurgedichten (Wall Poems) where poems are written on buildings all over town in various languages.  So, we had to identify the language, then find the address of the building where the poem was located.  Then, we had to find clues to determine the co-ordinates of the buried treasure.  So, one was "Find the first three digits of the fax number on the fence." or "How many poles are there in the parking lot?"  Crazy fun.  And then we had to put the co-ordinates into Koos' GPS and follow the arrow to find the hidden treasure.  We finally found it, and we wrote in the little book, and saw who else had been there recently.  Then he even let me search out one on my own!  Entirely too much fun!  :-D

The rest of my exhaustion came from this weekend.  On Friday I went to Liege, Belgium with George (US), Praveen (India), Sangbreeta (India), and Kyrian (Holland) for a dance weekend.  Friday night we danced all night.  Saturday we danced all day and played ping pong at the hostel.  We danced all night again.  Sunday was danced and came home.  I had dinner with Koos and we watched Pushing Daisies.

Life is good, hoor.  I'm exhausted beyond imagining, but I'm so amazingly happy.  The winter is slowly sliding out of my life, and this amazing, nameless spring is beginning to bloom.  This is a metaphor, and it isn't.  This is happening inside my head and outside of it too.  

And the soul is up on the roof

In her nightdress, straddling the ridge,

Singing a song about the wildness of the sea

Until the first rip of pink appears in the sky.

--from "The Night House" by Billy Collins