Another Day

I stayed out most of the night last night.  Proost with Koos, and some new faces.  Pool.  Rock.

Today I laid in bed and read and just watched the outline of the branches of the trees against the cloudy sky.  

I'm feeling better than I have since arriving in this country.  I found out today I can keep my apartment for at least another month.  I'm going to Belgium this weekend.  More classes start next week.  Life is just good.

The Straight Story

Another day of translating.  The sun shone for a few minutes, and that was good.  Koos and I went to Janos' for a movie night.  It was a small group, only 6 of us.  We watched The Straight Story, which is a David Lynch movie, but not exactly typical.  It's really heartwarming, really funny, really good.  Robert, I thnk you would especially enjoy this film.

I'm backing up my iTunes.  So far I'm at 50 CDs.  I have a lot of music.  I'm going to buy an external hard drive soon, but I haven't had a chance to get one.

I suppose you've noticed I don't update the way I once did.  Not every day.  I just haven't felt much like writing.  Things are going really great.  I feel really good.  Life is going in good directions.  I just don't have any words recently.  They'll come back, I reckon.

Catching Up

Well, I haven't had too much opportunity to update in the past few days.  Life has been a little crazy, but in a great way.  Let's recap, shortly.  Tuesday night I went to Proost with Koos (South Africa) and we played pool with Carlos, and some other folks half the night.  The other half was spent drinking tea and listening to music at Hugo de Groot Straat.  

Since I didn't actually sleep Tuesday night, Wednesday was pretty much dedicated to doing that.  I feel like I probably got out of bed at some point, but I don't really remember what I might have done. :-)

Thursday I translated.  Friday was awesome.

Koos and Sangbreeta and I went to Amsterdam for dancing Friday night.  The dance was awesome, and afterwards everyone went over to George's (America) apartment for a late night blues party.  George's apartment is a dream.  It's in one of the tallest buildings in Amsterdam, and it's huge.  Hardwood floors.  Big windows that overlook the city, and the island.  Just gorgeous.  So everyone drank wine and danced and danced.  We were all exhausted, and my feet were killing me, but I just couldn't say no!  :-)  Around 5am, George drove Koos, Sangbreeta and me to the station and we came back to Leiden.  Which means I didn't hit a bed until 6:30 or so.  So, another night of no sleeping.

We were all supposed to go to Breda to celebrate the Carnival, but none of us made it.  The group met at 12:45, but since none of us got to sleep before 6:30, 12:45 seemed a bit early.  However, Koos and I went to the market around noon, and met up with Silvia who was in town visiting, and Janos.  So, we did the market.  Koos, who has lived here since September or October had NEVER been.  I ate kibbeling, which is little bits of fried fish.  At 4am I started craving kibbeling, and it was the first thing I wanted to eat when I woke up.  So, we got kibbeling and stroopwaffels, and went to the top of the V&D department store and watched the market.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the sun even had some warmth to it!

I had dinner with Koos, and took a 2 hour nap.  Then I met up with Silvia, Janos and Jason at an English pub in town, for drinks and conversation.  Then, back to bed.

My flat mate came in around 2am with some friends.  They weren't horribly loud, but it did wake me up, and then I got horribly confused because they were speaking a mixture of Arabic and Dutch, and it took me entirely too long to realize.  :-)

Today we had brunch over at Janos' (Silvia and Ilaria) and now I'm home, finally sort of rested, and trying to get some work done.  I'm also backing up all of my computer files, because my machine keeps making disturbing noises.  I don't want another computer to crash!

Next weekend I'm going to Belgium!

Day Trip to Heaven

Went to a stress management workshop this evening.   They hooked us up to some electronic dealio to measure our heart rates and suchlike.  They got us to close our eyes and breathe for 5-10 min. and they measured stuff.  The guy was telling us that a good average on one scale was 20%.  That was what most people feel when they breathe.  

They hooked me up to the machine, and I closed my eyes and breathed.  I was feeling pretty dang stressed, knowing that everyone in the room was watching me breathe.  But, I followed the guy's instructions to find a happy place.  The guy finally told me to open my eyes.  Everyone was looking at me funny.  I had gotten to 79% and was still rising when the guy stopped me.

"You were probably just in Heaven" he told me. 

I'm Huge in Holland

Today I had an adventure.  My friend, Sangbreeta (India) and I decided to go to a swing dancing happing in a small village just north of Amsterdam.  We met at the central station at 12:30 and began quite an epic journey.  A train to Amsterdam, a bus to the Middle of Nowhere (Middel of Nooweer) Holland that took an hour.  And the driver just dropped us off.  Middel of Nooweer, mind you.  Raining.  I had some basic directions: follow Julianaweg until it turns into Zuiddijk.  Easy.  Nope, we went the wrong way immediately.  Sangbreeta was convinced we were in the middle of a horror movie.

This was not helped much when we found the place and discovered it's some sort of ancient hotel that collects vintage toys, and other stuff.  A row of tin cars in the shape of pigs greeted us at the door.

But the dance went amazingly.  We arrived in time for the lessons, and the teacher immediately spotted me as an experienced lindy hopper.  I'm still not sure how.  When she found out I was American, she dragged me into the middle and proudly announced to the class that here was a real American Lindy Hopster all the way from America and she was going to help.  So I ended up being the teaching assistant for the rest of the class.  When the dancing finally started, the teacher came over to me and George (America) and said the band leader (live jazz!!!) wanted to see some good dancers and could we please do a little showcase for everyone.  So we danced for the whole place.  They filmed it.  It was horribly embarrassing, but of course I loved it!  And then we danced and danced.

Every time George and I danced after that, a little photographer was there taking pictures.  He finally came over and asked our names for the paper!  So, George and I are appearing in Monday's edition of whatever the paper is called in the village of Beemster!  :-D

After the dance, Sangbreeta, George, Carrie (US), Frank (Amsterdam), and Praveen (India) and I headed back to Amsterdam (Sangbreeta and I rode with Praveen, not the bus) for dinner.  Frank knew a nice spot, so we settled in to thick leather couches, and ate awesome almost Indian type food with lots of rice and wonderful orange sauces.  And just as we were all lying back to lounge, live, amazingly danceable jazz started up, so we all perked up.  The new or non-American dancers were a little freaked out by the idea of dancing in a restaurant, but Frank and I got out there, and everyone loved it.  The band freaked out, the people in the restaurant were pleased, and the restaurant staff didn't make us stop.  So, we spent the rest of the night switching partners and jamming out to the great live jazz.  The singer thanked us 4 or 5 times for dancing.  It doesn't happen much in Holland.

After the band left, we lounged on the couches, and just let life spill over us.  Orange walls, low lights, comfy couches, comfy couch mates, pillows and tea and that deep satisfied exhaustion in your bones.  :-)

Swing

I'm feeling good.  You know how love feels in those early days?  The first flush, where everything is new and fascinating and the best thing ever?  And you know how sometimes that fades, but things are still good?  And how sometimes it fades completely and the love is suddenly just gone?  This happened to me with swing dance.  I started doing swing 7 years ago, and it consumed every ounce of me.  All I wanted to do was dance.  I couldn't wait for Friday nights at Fairbanks, the first jazz club I ever danced in.  Meeting new people, sharing the moments and the music.  It set me on fire.  Then I settled into it, and calmed down, and worked and got good at it.  And then, slowly, that love faded and swing became a burden to me.  I got too good to dance with the fun dancers anymore, and instead danced with the super amazing dancers, who were all too interested in being super amazing dancers.  I felt judged.  I got bored.  Haven't danced in almost 2 years.

Until last night!  Went to Amsterdam to a swing dance even there, and it was like Fairbanks all over again (actually, it even sort of looked like Fairbanks...)  New people who were good, but didn't yet realize how good they could be, so they were just there to dance and have fun.  I didn't sit out a single song!  Can't remember the last time I went to a dance and danced every song!  So many interesting people, so many amazing dances, so many promising leads.  :-)  What a great night!

I'm going back for more tomorrow, too!  :-D

I love hearing trains passing by at night.  Makes me feel connected to the entire world.