What's Up?

I'm glad you asked. Aside from rubbing lotion into my sandpapery chapped lips, I just wanted to tell you something important:
I've been here for over half a year.
Thaaaat's right, today marks the 6 months, 1 day point on my journey! Celebration!

In other news, I rode my bike back home from the station. You know, even though I was only without it for a little while, I was really happy to be back on. But I do have a new rule for biking: always bring gloves. We don't want a repetition of today's little epidemic when I could hardly open the front door because my hands were frozen into bike handle position. And then I had to submerge my handsickles into luke warm water for a few minutes to get some feeling back into them, other than pain. Not fun.
But actually, I'm glad I didn't start riding my bike until now. It's not that windy anymore, and it stopped raining so often a while ago. One of my American friends who has been biking all year told me during the windy season:
"Whenever I bike to school, the wind is ALWAYS blowing against me. So I'm struggling to get somewhere that should only be taking me ten minutes, while old men are passing me on foot." Ouch.
Plus, riding the tram is a totally different experience, which is also part of the culture.
Oh, so today this guy came into our Dutch class and read some poems to us. Then he told us to write our own poems. I chose to write about a childhood experience. Lizzy, you'll remember this from our baby videos.

Lunch van een Twee Jaar Oud Meisje

Ik zit tegenover mijn oudere zus,
spaghetti aan het eten.
Ik ga langzaam, netjes met mijn vork
met een ernstig zekerheid.
Tegelijk lacht mijn zus,
haar gezicht helemaal rood met saus.
Zij lacht.

Stel je voor dat als ik zo groot word,
dat ik het niet zo grappig zal vinden?


The guy (who didn't know I wasn't Dutch, by the way) liked my poem and he read it to the class. The other students told me it was good. Some were even impressed (ehm, I like to gloat sometimes, hehe). But I heard a couple of other kids' poems, and they were actually pretty outstanding, especially considering our time limit.
Sad that so much art/literary talent is discovered/appreciated after the artist has died.
I guess that's all I really had to say. I had a nice day today. Oh yes.... I am planning something, but that is for a later post.
Tot ziens,
Emily

Yarp.

Soooooo I rode my bike to and from school for a whole week! Cool, huh? But I have to take the tram to school tomorrow, because I left my bike at the train station on Saturday. I went to Aalsmeer to visit an Indonesian AFSer for her birthday party. It was really fun to see some of the other girls again, and she made some really delicious traditional Indonesian food for us. But I can't say I like Aalsmeer. I was lost for an hour. It was 5 pm on a Saturday and I was the only one on the street, except for some other lonely wanderers. Luckily my nice host dad went onto Google Maps to tell me how to get to the party. Took a Metro back to the station... first time on a Dutch metro. Anyways, my bike is still there because it was too late at night to bike back home, so I took the tram.
...
My host dad just waved his hands to the music, looked at me and said:
"You're just writing to write. There's no.... inner inspiration."
*Waves hands again. Makes guitar sounds. Whistles.*
...
We just watched this movie called Eight Below, about some sled dogs that were left alone for almost 200 days. Sad. There was also a scary seal living inside an orca carcass. Ew, gross.
You know the movie Spirited Away? Remember "No Face" and how he throws up everything he had eaten? I think Miyazaki got that idea by studying hamsters. Today, Chu filled his little hamster cheeks with seeds and hamster food, then proceeded to push them all back out in a nice safe corner of his cage. It was pretty friggin gross. The wonders of nature.
Oh my gosh, I really do have nothing to write about......
Carla made some yummy waffles today. Thank you for those.
Jotte came over today just to talk. Little did she know I would use her as one of my chow mein puzzle minions! Mwahahahahah! I put together like, 4 more pieces. Yay!
Oh, but you know.... I was talking to the Chinese girl at the party, and it turns out she's only 15 years old! I couldn't believe it.... she's so young and she went on a year abroad, away from her parents, and she speaks English and Dutch. Wow. And, she told me that in her home city, she goes to school from 8 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week, with a one hour lunch break and two hour dinner break. Then it's homework until 11 pm, then bed. She even has school Sunday mornings. WHAT??? So she just looooves school here because it's so much freedom.
Oh, and someone said something... interesting to me. Apparently, in a lot of countries, the kids who want to do AFS have to take a test to qualify, because more people want to do an exchange than there are host families available. When I told someone that Americans don't have to take a test and AFS tries really hard to recruit us, she said, "Yeah, but you're Americans. Everything just gets handed to you." I don't know, it just left me thinking.
Eh. I guess I should sleep now, its 12 am. Why is it that I never want to sleep at night, but I never want to get up in the morning?
Oh. The title. Ever seen Hot Fuzz? No? Go rent it. Right now.
Tot ziens,
Emily

3 Bs

Birthday
I forgot to mention that it was Matthias' birthday on the 9th. We ate at an Indian restaurant. Het was wel gezellig, en het eten was lekker. I gave him two big red candles and a card. The candles were a sort of inside joke.

Bikes
After we ate, we rode bikes home. Except only Matthias and Carla had their bikes with them. That meant that Carla, Anne-Laure, and I sat on one, while Matthias, Elise, and Sebastiaan sat on the other. Zes mensen op twee fietsen? Belachelijk!
As promised, I finally rode my bike to school by myself today. It was .... scary. I don't like biking through the city. Gotta watch out for other bikers, pedestrians, cars, busses, trams.... the trams are the scariest. Especially when you have to cross 6 intersecting tracks at once. And get your wheel gets caught in the tracks. And you have to jump off your bike...
........................
Zo is mijn leven.
Not giving up, though. It should become easier as I continue to work on it.

Bread
I. Cannot. Bring myself. To consume. One. More. Boterham. I just can't. The thought of bread disgusts me. I don't even want the things you put on bread. Ik wil helemaal geen hagelslags, of pindakaas, of appelstroop. Please, no more appelstroop. Been eating a lot of fruit lately. And cereal. Cereal I can handle. But that fluffy stuff used to keep your fingers clean while eating a slice of meat? Uh-uh. I'm sorry John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, but I cannot appreciate or enjoy your bold invention any longer.

Well, that's all I wanted to mention right now. Oh, I finished reading a Dutch novel. It was alright. Some guy died in the end, but he was the bad guy. Actually, it was filled with a lot of drama. I'm going to find something to eat, then turn on some music and try to put together my chow mein puzzle.
Tot ziens,
Emily

ZZZzzzz

I can't believe it's still crummy weather. My lips are really chapped. I bought some lip balm but it didn't help.
I'm going to start (really start) biking to school on Monday. I finally learned the way I have to go.
Some AFS kids are going to hang out in Amsterdam tonight. I seriously considered going, but now I'd just rather stay home and work on my English homework so I can actually graduate American high school. I didn't have a totally fantastic time in Amsterdam last time I went, so I'd just as soon save some money, time, and a night in the cold to do something productive. Sounds pretty antisocial, I guess, but I just don't really feel like going anywhere. Plus, like I mentioned, it's not exactly good walking-around-the-city weather.
I was really happy after a conversation I had with my host dad last night. We had a guest over and she told me to clean up the kitchen, which I thought was kind of weird because, well, she doesn't live with me and I always help clean up after dinner anyways. When I said something to Matthias, he said to me:
M: Just don't listen to her.
E: Yeah.... I'm not going to.
M: Kind of like how you never listen to us, huh?
E: What?! I always listen to you!
M: Uh huh.
E: No really! I listen to you guys all the time, I always do what you tell me to do, I --
M: I know. To be honest, you are a fantastic host daughter.
E: Yayyyy!
I even got a hug from him, which is not a very Matthias thing to do.
M: Stop it with all the hugging! I'm not a natural hugger.
Good thing Carla likes hugs [almost] as much as I do.
Things are going well at my school. We played badminton yesterday, which was really fun. I gave a presentation (in English, upon request) about cities in America. A section of my Geography book was about them, so I gave a summary of that and then talked about my own experience living in LA. A lot of kids talk to me at school, too, which is nice. In two weeks the school is having a dance at some banquet hall. I'm planning on going. Here's hoping the dress I brought with me still fits...
I bought the most amazing puzzle ever. It's a 400 piece, circular one that looks like chow mein. You have NO idea how difficult it is. It all looks like noodles. I had finally picked out all the edge pieces, and even put a couple together, and then the cleaning lady put them all back in the box so she could vacuum. Zo is mijn leven.
I bought 3 new shirts. They are all men's shirts. I like shirts for men because they are so easy and so comfy.
I just watched something on Youtube about African grey parrots. Apparently they are pretty smart.
Yawn. I'm tired.
Well anyways, I guess I'll go work on my English homework now.
Tot ziens,
Emily

Get a Grip, Marshall

Many Dutch people use a very artificial, slightly obnoxious, British accent when they speak English. I usually don't say anything, because I think this is how they have learned to speak English. But I had to laugh today, because a boy was talking to my English teacher today during study time, and someone shouted from the back of the class, "You're not British!" Hahaha.
But I can't laugh too hard, because I get laughed at at school as well. I wore two braids once, and I heard some guys say, "Oh, look, it's a real-life Pippy Long Stockings," which reminded my of 8th grade. Another day, some kids tried to trip me in the hall. And someone put a sandwich on my chair, but luckily I didn't sit on it.
You know what makes me feel awkward? When I'm talking to someone, and another person is blatantly eavesdropping. As in, staring directly at me, silently, and even if I stare back, they don't stop. Also, when someone is eating, and nobody else is eating, so they eat it slow and in little bites so that it's not awkward or messy, 'cause they know everyone is staring at them eating. I say, just scarf it down, you're going to eat it all anyways, why try to pretend to be dainty about it? Society.....
Something else weird... I'm pretty sure central heating doesn't exist here in NL. People are forced to huddle by the radiator when it's cold. Why? Can't the whole room be warm? And why, WHY is the radiator always directly under the window? You can't have a warm and fresh room at the same time, I'm sorry.
Did you know there aren't any bears in the Netherlands? Makes camping a lot easier.
I love the English language. I really do.
Speaking of which, I've been listening to a lot of music recently. Which is weird for me, because I used to think music wasn't very interesting. But... yeah, Youtube makes it pretty easy. Lately Eminem and P!nk.
Oh! So I took a Dutch language test with the rest of the AFSers last weekend, and I just got my grade: 70 out of 83! That means I was excellent. Joepie!! :)
Erghh, can't think, host parents are watching Evita and it's really loud. By 'watching' I mean listening to while looking through television manuals. This is how we bond, you see. We sit on the couch and multitask, not really paying attention to the TV, but if someone talks, my host dad says, "Hey, I can't hear the program!"
Just another modern family, I guess.
"But when you act, you take us away from the squalor of the real world."
Some dude just sung that. What does 'squalor' even mean?
Squalid: adjective. Extremely dirty and unpleasant; showing a contemptible lack of moral standards. (From Ninjawords.com)
Uhm. These people just met and they're already in love. And they won't stop singing about it.
....
Would it be sad if I told you I just realized this was an opera? Probably. So I won't say it.
You know what I would really like? A longggggggggg bike path that doesn't go anywhere in particular, with nobody on it, just me, nothing else. I just want to bike, or run, or even walk, just to get away from this city and be alone. Not that I don't like the people here - I do - but not so many of them and not all the time.
By the way, since someone is going to ask, the title of this post is a line from Eminem's song, "Kim". I feel like I need to get a grip sometimes. But my name is Emily. Not Marshall.
Just clarifying.
Tot ziens,
....Oh. I just told you my name. That's awkward.