4.34 pm

I should be doing my research paper. Instead, I am blogging. This is getting to be a theme. As is not blogging during the week (perhaps it would be best if I resigned myself to the fact that this will continue to happen).

I braved the Dutch stores on a Sunday for the first time today. This probably doesn't seem like a big deal. But combine stores that close early every other day of the week with gigantic sales with people speaking a language I don't understand and you get a ton of Dutch people, pushing and shoving and crowding, and all of it incomprehensible. Thus far, I have gone into the drugstore, the grocery store, and the kind of like Ikea but not store, and that only on a need-to-go basis.

Despite everything in the above paragraph, it was pretty much like being in a crowded mall in America on a weekend. The brands were the same - Tommy Hillfiger, Ralph Lauren, that crocodile shirt brand - and the styles really weren't any different. I picked up a long sleeve T for Adam and a sweater for me. I hadn't planned on buying any clothes here, but I'm getting tired of wearing the same things to work every day. Plus, I figure that since there's an APO at work, I can ship home my sweaters and flannel sheets. Which leaves me lots of space in my bags, which means I can buy things.

5.09 pm

In taking the things I bought today out of shopping bags, I discovered that my Turkish pizza (which tastes rather like a quesadilla) had leaked all over the outside of my shopping bag and onto my blanket. Easy fix - there's laundry in the building and it's free. Except that one of the machines appears to not be working, and the other was full of clothing. Very wet clothing that apparently hadn't gone through a spin cycle. I was about to start the machine to spin, when the owner of the clothing appeared, taking it out and putting it straight into the dryer, creating large puddles of water on the floor. And I thought to myself, so this is why this floor is always soaked.

I cannot wait to get out of student housing.

1.31 pm

So much for updates every day. My only excuse is that it seems like my free time is all but non-existent.

I should be concentrating on researching for my writing requirement, especially since it's going to come due very, very quickly. Even though I tell everyone that it's on the most boring topic ever (the differences between the two major systems of investment arbitration), I actually find it pretty interesting. Even so, I've been hard at work all week, and the sun is trying to break through the clouds, and I'd much rather be walking around the city than in front of my computer. Adam sent me a kite, and I'm dying to find a field where I can fly it. It's a little stunt kite, and it says that it can handle pretty strong winds. Which is good, because it gets very windy here.

1.42 pm

The Dutch have rules about almost everything, but I constantly find myself questioning the point.

Take bicycle rules, for example. It's illegal to ride a bike with a dim headlight or no headlight at all. A policeman will stop you and give you a ticket on the spot if you don't comply. Same for riding the wrong way on a bike lane, or riding on the sidewalk. But there's no law requiring helmets. And I constantly see people sitting on the rear bike rack, precariously hanging onto the rider, while the police look on. It seems to me, ignorant American that I am, that making helmets mandatory and not allowing "passengers" would do a better job of promoting safety than headlights.

Then there's the trash. You have to separate your glass out. If you don't, the garbage collectors will open your trash, go through until they find a reciept with your name and/or address, and send you a steep fine. But there's no recycling for plastic, and paper recycling seems to be sporadic. Quite frankly, this one simply baffles me. Why not just send the fine to the house that the garbage is in front of and leave it at that? For that matter, why not provide people with recycling bins and public places to recycle to make it easier?

Then again, the American bureaucracy is just as bad.