I somehow managed to sleep until 10:30 this morning. It may have something to do with staying up until 1:30 last night. I don't feel jetlagged, but my body is probably thinking to itself "I thought we were friends?!" Between that, the seemingly-endless walking, and the emotional toll of leaving my friends and family, I understand more than ever how exhausting dislocation from your home can be. Some people have commented that I'm brave or bold to go live in a country for four months amongst people whose language I cannot speak; I think of it more as I'm willing to be exhausted to pursue my passion. My passion happens to be European Union and international law, but the message applies equally to everyone: sometimes you have to put your comfort zone to the side to find yourself. Or as my friend Andal put it (originally in French): "One does not discover new land without agreeing to lose sight of all shores, at first and for a while."
I started the day by retracing my now-usual Oosterdijk to Hoogstraat route, which takes me into a shopping district, to go to the phone store. My iPhone was claiming that I used nearly all of my 1 GB data within 2 days. So I held the Siri button and said "Quit being a snarky bitch and tell me the real deal." To which she replied "You didn't actually say that, but going along with this pretend situation, I still won't tell you." Considering my internet connectivity in general has been poor, I was very perturbed. Ultimately, the guy at the phone place told me not to worry, that T-Mobile's records show I used only a few MB so far, and he told me how to check the real numbers. Unfortunately it's all in Dutch, so dankjewel for nothing, jackass! (Google Translate to the rescue.)
I decided at that point to wander beyond where I've been thus far, towards the city center. I stumbled upon an H&M, which was an affordable place to shop in Brussels; here, it's as overpriced as in the States. Shame. However, it seems like H&M style permeates young Dutch professionals: solid colored button-down shirts without an undershirt, tight jeans or khaki-type pants with a belt, loafer-looking shoes probably without socks, and a stupid haircut. In fact, the 'stupid haircut' is the accessory of choice for most Dutch (and most likely European) men. Apparently the hip new thing post-David Beckham fauxhawking is "tribal haircuts" like this (http://66.img.v4.skyrock.net/7366/78667366/pics/3050879253_1_7_0Zcqtx9v.jpg).
On my way back from wandering the city streets, I noticed a sign for Magnum McFlurry. It sounded too good to be true...because it was. Though it was true, it was not necessarily good. Here's a nondescript picture of it:
It tasted like plain vanilla ice cream with some semblance of caramel swirl and candy buttons of white chocolate. I don't understand how this relates to a chocolate-coated ice cream bar, but nothing about it made sense. I imagine the meeting at McDonald's HQ went something like this:
- Bigwig A: "Ok we have a contract with Magnum ice cream. What can we do with it?"
- Idiot B: "Welp, I imagine we can sell Magnum as a McFlurry ice cream cup at McDonald's."
- Obvious commenter person C: "Isn't that just ice cream with more ice cream??"
- Idiot B: "Yes! But we can add pieces of white chocolate that look like clothing buttons, and have their taste and texture too!"
- Bigwig A: "I approve."
Afterwards, I went to CoolBlue, the Best Buy equivalent, to get a long ethernet cord. The wireless internet here is pretty sporadic, and I'm tired of Skype kicking me off. I originally got a 10 meter cord thinking that over 30 feet of cord would be enough (1 meter = 3.28 feet!) to connect my laptop to the downstairs router; however, I had to go back later to get a 15 meter one. Handling a return in a foreign language is complicated. Even though the guy spoke English, he didn't really understand what "exchange" meant. So I tried to walk him through what I was attempting to do, and about 5 minutes later he figured it out. Between the internet in the apartment and T-Mobile's service on my iPhone, I'm starting to miss AT&T. That's when you know things are bad tech-wise.
Aside from a little (I mean a lot) more walking, the rest of my afternoon was spent at Erasmus. The campus has all the aesthetic charm of a pleasant concentration camp in the midst of a massive construction project. I was able to pick up my student ID card and check out the classrooms at the School of Law. One thing I noticed is, after finding the syllabi to my classes, it looks like I won't get the majestic 5 day weekend after all. It appears that two of my classes have "seminars," though I don't know what distinguishes that from a lecture. In my EU Internal Market Law class, it means a moot court, so...looks like I'm going to be practicing EU law more firsthand than I imagined....
Most importantly, Dutch minions!:
Today's Dutch lesson: Obvious words, yay!!!
- Pardon! (Excuse me!)
- Hallo. (Hello.)
- Vaarwel. (Goodbye.)
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