Jiekai discovers Eurotrash
Oh, you touch my...
He dances much better when he's not parodying bad dance moves


The Potato Eaters, Vincent van Gogh
Jiekai says that the Dutch look like this. I'm inclined to agree.

The library here uses *yet another* system of filing. Why can't people just standardise on one library cataloguing system?!

The temprature was supposed to be 13 degrees one day, but it felt like 23 to me. Maybe I've become too acclimatised to winter.

I saw a mannikin of a little girl. With nipple buds. I am disturbed by the accuracy (which reminds me, why do mannikins have nipples? I can't remember if I've seen male mannikins with nipples, but I've definitely seen female ones with them).

I had an olieballen - a large deep fried ball of dough with very fine sugar dusted on top. It'd have been better if it'd had some jam inside, like a big John F. Kennedy.

26 seems to be the magic number in Europe - if you're under that age, you get youth discounts. One initiative undertaken to promote youth discounts is the CJP (Cultureel Jongeren Paspoort, or equivalent in other countries) which when flashed allows youths to enjoy discounts at various places all over Europe. Unfortunately, it also costs €12.50 to get, which is curious since the card is nothing fancy and can be created within 3 minutes. Together with the Museum card and Rail discount card, this is a clear example of a two-part tariff.

I'm lucky I brought many photos along. Making the CJP took up yet another photo. Bureacracy is annoying.

Ideally, all of us in Dutch class would go out and practise Dutch by speaking to the Dutch in their mother tongue. However, there're 2 main complications. One is that when most of us try to speak in Dutch, the other party catches on and replies in English. The other is that even in the event that we *are* understood, the other party typically says something we don't understand in Dutch, and we have to switch to English (this happens for a guy who did one module of Dutch in his home University before coming here).

I'm wondering if I should pay €40 to watch Nabucco in Amsterdam (not including transport). There's no point if I fall asleep again, like I did during La Boheme. Maybe I'll check if there're still tickets when I come back from Nuremberg. The Magic Flute will also be on on 1/4 and 2/4, but unfortunately I'll be in Paris.

Everytime someone says that "The Netherlands is a small country", I smile.

Jiekai observes that the Brits get homesick easily, and run home quickly everytime there's a holiday. I suggested that this was to save on food and housing costs. He also observes, from his limited sample, that the only people at Oxford not really affected by homesickness are ex-slaves - even the disruptees are affected.

Biologisch (organic) food is flooding Albert Heijn. They even have biologisch stroopwafels. Wth. I expect to see biologisch dog food soon.

A paper bag like an airline barf bag I found in the first floor male toilet in UCU building U - "BAGS for hygienic Bandages etc. Please deposit into Sanitary bucket or cotaniner. Don't throw in the watercloset, as this might clog the wastepipes." Maybe too many people were flushing condoms down the toilet (the snacks and chocolate dispenser at the dining hall dispenses tampons and condoms as well as snacks and chocolate. How interesting).

A lot of people don't turn up for their exams here. It's no wonder makeup exams seem institutionalised. This is what happens when you both subsidise University education greatly and make it too easy to qualify for a retest.

I couldn't figure out the online train reservation system to book my overnight couchette from Paris to Vienna. In the end I had to book it at a ticket counter in Amsterdam (I could've done it in Utrecht too, but when I tried the system was down and my next opportunity was in Amsterdam) and pay the stupid €3.50 booking fee. It's a conspiracy, I tell you. The best part was that I got lectured by the man at the counter about how by right he could only help me reserve trains travelling from the Netherlands, and that I should go to Paris to reserve trains travelling from Paris, and to tell all my friends that he made an exception for me and they shouldn't do the same (wth).

I hypothesise that pickpocketing will be least common in Winter and most in Summer, since cold weather clothing blocks access to pockets.

One of my groupmates wears a blue ring on the fourth finger of her left hand. The design looked quite special (and unlike a usual ring representing declarations of love/commitment) so I enquired and it turned out that it had her family crest on it - a bow (presumably they used to make bows). I want to get a family crest too.

Sign seen at a lost and found corner: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone".

I saw a person propelling a three-wheeled wheelchair by rotating a handlebar in front of him (or was it her?).


The Cock Files

A sampling of the cock things Jiekai has done (I gave up recording after a while):
- he went to the bar and said he'd be coming up in 1/2 hr. He only came up after 1 hr 20 mins. I was tempted to give away his dinner
- he turned off the stove when I was still using it
- he didn't tie up my cookies after eating
- more entries in the cock files:
- he was supposed to meet his german friend on 15th march. he remembered it as 10th march. so now he has 5 days to fill in Berlin/Prague
- he was supposed to tell me after he finished using the computer since I needed to do a project. Of course he forgot and just went to sleep
more entries in the cock files:
- he didn't turn off the stove after cooking
- he went to the rijksmuseum after I expressly told him not to since I wanted to go with him
- he put so much stuff into a plastic bag that the handle gave way and stuff fell on the floor
- he was fumbling with a packet of string beans in the supermarket and it opened and spilled
- he removed the Eurail pass from the cover and then later gave the cover to the woman at the counter without the pass inside



Pork chops in cream sauce
Pork chops seasoned with salt and pepper, laid on large slices of onions and baked for 1 hr 20 mins at 180 degrees with concentrated chicken stock and cream poured over them. This was good - the pork was extremely tender, and very flavourful considering it wasn't pre-marinated or cooked with anything other than what was specified above. The only problems were that it was too salty (next time I use chicken stock I won't add salt) and that the sauce was a little watery enough (I should stir the stock granules into the cream instead of stirring it into water and adding cream as well. Or maybe I just needed more cream, shock, horror). I should also brown my chops first next time.

I was complaining about the lousy cuts of pork I bought the other time at €4/kg. They were somewhat tough and sometimes hard to cut. Jiekai said they were the best cuts of pork he'd had in a long time. But then he pays almost nothing for his hall food, so you get what you pay for.

Euroshopper dog food is €0.70 for 1.25kg at Albert Heijn. Surely there're people poor/desperate/bored/hungry enough to eat it.

One of my housemates let me try a German Pancake - the batter is the same as a Dutch pancake, but inside you put salad and dressing. I ate it as a wrap and it was most interesting.


Quotes:

[On a sleepover] Do you have your stuff? Toothpaste... Oh, you don't need it. You're a guy.