Bean bag stuffing
Besides charging us a ridiculous price for housing, the housing people don't provide us with a pillow or a duvet, and offer a bedlinen pack (bedsheets, pillowcases, duvet covers, pillow, duvet) for €50. I refused to be fleeced any more by them and brought my own (yes, including the pillow). However, the blue silk blanket I brought was not warm enough so for the first few nights I was throwing my coat and pullover on top of it. However, I was shown some discarded bedlinen in the storeroom and salvaged a duvet and pillow, throwing the former on top of my blanket and using my own pillowcase for the latter. Damn, we should find a way of telling prospective tenants that we have spares, so they don't get fleeced.
Right now we have 6 people in the apartment, and we only have 2 fridges and 1 freezer (which come to just below my waist). I don't know what we'll do when the 7th person comes.
Maybe rebonding just before I came here wasn't such a good idea after all. I'm supposed to let my hair down (lit.), including not tucking it behind my ears, for another 3 weeks, but the wind keeps blowing it in my eyes.
I've put into use an important skill learnt from a certain someone - raid the 'reduced to clear' section. For example, I got a (supposedly) 300g packet of Nasi Goreng for €0.97. Unfortunately such sections aren't everywhere, and they aren't always well stocked.
To reduce micromanagement on the part of the driver, the buses here have buttons on the rear doors which you press if you want to get out at a stop.
My right ankle seems to be getting better. Looks like I won't have to visit the Chinese Massage (probably Tuina) guy after all.
I love my connection here. I've counted a 2000kb/s download and a 666kb/s combined upload speed.
One of my NUS professors was saying that the 2 most hideous-sounding languages she'd heard were Korean and Dutch. I suggested Swedish and she readily agreed. For some reason hearing Dutch makes me think of the Swedish Chef at times, given that occasionally an English or English-like word can be heard. I wonder if real Swedish sounds even more like what he speaks.
Although Root Beer is unknown in Europe, strangely enough Dr Pepper can be found in stores. Fie, fie. At least there's probably Nutella if I look hard enough.
Quotes:
Capital wears out. If I use this beamer too much it'll explode. (projector)
Cobb and Douglas were just 2 guys who had nothing better to do. They thought of this production function and now they're famous.
[On a graphical representation of the Solow Growth Model] This is the simplest version possible. This is not the version that won him the Nobel prize. So if you understand it, don't go thinking you are Nobel Prize material.
[On defining Institutional Economics] We use the definition by Douglas North. Why? Because he won the Nobel prize.
[On a straw man argument about Neo-Classical Economics] They didn't study their literature. They just reflected on a view that was 80 years out of date... They use circumstantial evidence and they work around theories to prove their point.
It is forbidden in Dutch labour law to ask a potential employee whether he has any serious diseases, or if she is going to be pregnant in a year, or 2 years' time.
In our relationship, who's the Principal and who's the Agent?... [Student: You... You have knowledge] You think so.
[On the project] I want real countries. I don't want Lichtenstein and Andorra. Well, those are real countries. I'm sorry if there are people from these countries here.
I only want literature in the languages I can read. Which means English, French, Spanish, German and Dutch.
You're just students. You can't use your own theory... You can write your own story, but most of the time - just business, nothing personal - it's nonsense.
[On logging progress] gIf you choose to only communicate via MSN, it has to be reflected in the log. I don't comment on this; I have a comment on this, [but] well.