I bought some tea, and couldn't be bothered to get milk since I don't drink it. Thus, as creamer I used Vla, lending the tea a nice vanilla aroma and a richness that milk alone cannot lend it. Pity it wasn't enough to sweeten it though.

The Plus supermarket along Voorstraat was recommended to me as being very cheap, but I wasn't very impressed when I browsed its wares, not least because of a free coffee machine in the shop.

It's so hard to find a cheap restaurant here. Knowing of the high prices, I usually don't bother looking but those I've checked out the menus of all have main courses for >=€10 (even one cheap-looking Chinese restaurant I saw had each dish going for €11.50 minimum). Even the Indonesian "fast food" place sells sate for €6+ a portion. So far one cheap restaurant I have come across is Mr Jack's Grieks-Italiaans restaurant along Voorstraat, which has most pizzas and pastas for €5, which is like cafe prices.

I finally activated my bank account, but the way it works is really silly. I have 2 bank accounts, not one, a savings account and a normal account. Money in the former accrues interest but can only be withdrawn from ABN AMRO ATMs. Money in the latter can be used to topup the Chipknip (smart card) capacity of the bank card, make payments and withdraw money from other ATMs (I also got this funny chequebook but I haven't figured it out yet) - it accumulates no interest, of course.

I can't find my favourite periodical in any bookshops or newstands. It must be a symbol of the Western European defiance of iniquitous Anglo-Saxon liberalism!

I found what must be the cheapest place to have a full lunch in Utrecht. For €2.80, at the University College Utrecht dining hall, you get as much food as you can eat (or fit onto one oversized tray, at any rate). If you think this is a good deal, recall that the Dutch usually eat cold lunches, so bread, cheese and ham are the mainstays at Dining Hall lunches (or at least for the day I dined there, assuming it is representative). There was a salad bar, but the only hot items were soup, a snack (some banana puff) and pancakes. You get one piece of fruit too, but that doesn't improve the menu much. No wonder the Dutch eat so much junk food - if I had to eat that for lunch everyday I'd be eating lots of krokets and frites too. (I dropped in to look at dinner, but didn't feel like paying ~€5.75 for Veal sausage or Paella, mashed potatoes and vegetarian tau gey soup).

Snowball fights outside the classroom are very distracting.

One of my classmates spent 3 1/2 months travelling from Utrecht to Bangkok, but only spent €100-150 a month. Ah, the joys of Third World travel.

I had to go to Amsterdam Centraal to buy my Eurail pass. Given that Utrecht is the centre of the Dutch rail network, I am very pissed off.

It seems international fund transfers are cheaper and faster than buying bank drafts. Damn.

Bamiblok is truly bizarre - as the name suggests it's made of bami (noodles) pressed into a block, crumbed and deep fried.


I went to a student Baroque concert. It wasn't all that good, but then I only paid €7, and it's so hard to find Baroque music being played at concerts - at the most you usually only find Classical pieces, and the rest is Romantic, 20th century or worse (as someone observes, it's because "classical does better in orchestra halls mahhhhhhhhh").

Perhaps as a sign of low costs, the conductor was also the principal violinist. As such, it was very interesitng to see how he conducted while playing - by moving his body not only left, right and about but also up and down.

I think I prefer chamber music - there are less people, so it's harder for them to hide, there's a warmer sound (from the smaller room if nothing else) and you can see the players. But as someone points out: "less profits so fewer concerts". Ah well.

It's really been too long since I first (and I think, last) heard a harpsichord - 5 long years! And of course, it's always nice to catch the look of practised surprise that conductors affect when they receive their bouquets.

Kunstorkest: 'Internationale betrekkingen'
Pieces performed:
- Vier muziekstukken voor de Roentgen-Kinzing Chronosklok (1785) uit het Nationaal Museum van Speelklok tot Pierement (playing of a musical clock in the venue, it being a musical clock museum)
- Suite in g-klein van Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello
- Symfonie op. 3 nr. 3 in g-klein van Franz Ignaz Beck
- Concert voor twee fluiten, strijkers en b.c. in C-groot RV 533 van Antonio Vivaldi
- Symfonie op. 18 nr. 6 in D-groot van Johann Christian Bach


Someone commented that the food I cook is all red in colour. I fried some spaghetti with soy sauce, vinegar, onions, cashew nuts and sliced rookwurst (Dutch smoked sausage) and looked at it. Apart from being a fine example of fusion food (read: I just threw together whatever shit I had - not bad, but I should've put more vinegar) it also was vaguely black in colour. I'm not sure that this is an improvement, especially give 42SAR's black meal.

More than half the 'butter' I see here is actually margarine packaged like butter. I looked at the labels, but they all claim they contain plant oil and fats. I bet it's palm oil following me here from Malaysia to clog my arteries!

Raw meat doesn't keep as long in, or lemons out of, the fridge as I thought. Gah.

Someone: i practically never cook any vegetables other than peppers and onions because they keep for a long time, heh


Quotes:

[On a case study with a text] All the answers you came up with just now are from your own imagination right?... Please use the text, unless we tell you to use your fantasy. (imagination)

For the students who read Dutch, if you read quality newspapers like the Volksrant, there's a nice article about privatising universities. For the foreign students among us - learn Dutch. No, of course not.

[On Joe Average in the Netherlands] He's white... He's meal (male)

'Find examples for each case from public life in your community.' I don't understand this question. Let's move on.

I didn't ask you to prepare this question. [But] Next week's the exam. You have all the knowledge now, right?

There were farmers who decided to grow fish (rear)

They have to readopt to time (readapt)

You want to know how many prisoners were let out during the weekend in Chile? 411. [Me: Prisoners let out during the weekend? Sounds like me during conscription.]

Why is education conductive to economic growth? (conducive)

[On raw labour vs human capital] We have the input of raw labour - maybe I'm just sitting here and not talking.

Do you know about Queen's Day?... It's even more stupid than Carnival.