le lorax

Listen Guys,

2010-10-24T19:39:00.002-06:00

I know the Lorax and I have been gone for a while, but this kind of action really wasn't necessary.

Hey.

2010-09-16T19:55:00.000-06:00

Don't worry guys.

Sometimes the most is said by what is not there. So, while I transition to a new city/school and try to stop being a hot mess, fill in my absence with fantasies of your own rendering about my adventures.

My Shoes Took Me So Many Miles And They Never Wore Out

2010-08-27T10:43:00.001-06:00

Following the previous entry's pit stop at Cadillac Ranch, I eventually made my way down to Austin, Texas to spend time with one of my best friends. Our schedules are so jam packed that the only opportunity we were going to have to see each other this summer was if I drove fourteen hours to help her move in to her new apartment.

So I did. And it was awesome.

I previously went to school just outside of Austin and have therefore come to love it there. The art, the music, the weather. Oh wait, not the weather. Definitely not the weather. It was 108 when I started my journey back from Austin. Not okay.

While I was there, we hit up all of the classic Austin spots including Barton Springs, Alamo Drafthouse, Torchy's Tacos and, of course, the Lorax wanted to see Daniel Johnston's Hi, How Are You? mural at the corner of 21st and Guadalupe.

Cadillac Ranch

2010-08-18T21:34:00.003-06:00

I spent today driving nearly ten hours from Santa Fe to Dallas. Ok, three hours. My mom did most of the driving.

I spent today ~~driving~~ in a car for nearly ten hours.

How's that?

Definitely didn't notice the message on the second car from the front when I was actually there. Haha, how nice.

Along the trip from New Mexico to Texas is Cadillac Ranch, the art installation from the 70s in Amarillo, Texas that features different models of Cadillacs stuck into the ground.

I remember driving past this on family trips a million times when I was younger. Except, I never really knew where we were on family trips so I didn't think we were passing the same place every time. I thought it was just something some farmers did across the nation. Place up-ended cars into the dirt of their fields and paint them funny colors. Seemed normal enough to me.

Having never actually stopped to look at the cars up close, Lorax and I decided to finally check it out today. Unfortunately, it was a rather spontaneous decision so we didn't have any spray paint with which to leave our mark (anyone can spray paint anything onto the ten Cadillacs, but the place is so popular that messages don't stay visible for very long... and that may be another reason I can be excused for not recognizing the site when I was younger since the exteriors of the cars are always changing... nah, there's no excuse for me). We tried searching a nearby shop (aka the only shop in this middle of nowhere site) for some spray paint, but to no avail. Hopefully, we'll be better prepared the next time we pass by, which should be in only a few days time.

You Holla, We Follow Our Favorite Jock

2010-08-14T15:00:00.002-06:00

Anyone been keeping up with the MTV Twitter Jockey thing? Yeah, me neither.

So, anyone who is friends with me on twitter knows that I follow about four times as many people as I am followed by. This is something I actively tried to avoid when I first got a twitter. No, seriously, I did. I felt it would be strange to be following so many more people than I am followed by. I felt like people would judge me for it. I mostly thought this because I judge people for it.

Why the judgement? I honestly have no idea.

Maybe it's something about appearing to want to have lots of friends, but really only managing to have a few. Or appearing overeager. Or desperate. Or something... Really, I can't pinpoint the reason, but it definitely bothers me.

However, something has occurred to me lately. Couldn't it be seen as better to follow more people than you are followed by? Wouldn't that show that you care more what other people are saying than who is reading what you say? Sort of like being primarily a listener rather than a talker.

Don't get me wrong, I am pretty vocal on twitter and have more than my fair share of completely pointless tweets. Yet, I think my unbalanced follower-following ratio indicates that, despite frequent tweets like the ones linked to above, my predominant use of twitter is to see what other people are saying.

Assuming the paradigm that the only people I'm directing my tweets to are the people I actually know, the following chart implies that I am doing much more reading than tweeting and that my main use of twitter is to keep up with the world, not to broadcast my life to it.

Who I Follow On Twitter

I keep my twitter page open whenever I'm online and check it on my iPhone compulsively, but I don't actually post a message every time I check it. I look at the trends to see if there's a huge news story I'm missing (remember last summer when there was a new deceased celebrity in the trend everyday? I still freak out anytime I see the name of a celebrity I admire in the trends in case it means they died) and scroll through my feed for announcements of events happening around town, concert ticket giveaways, contests and typically some brooding quotes from Yoko Ono or Shakespeare.

A few months ago, I blogged about Such Tweet Sorrow, which put Romeo and Juliet into a modern day context and tweeted the play as if in real life with actors tweeting each of the characters. Aciman and Rensin have also live tweeted books in a more modern day context and now there's a man taking three years to tweet the entire Bible by summarizing a passage each day.

There's so much to do on twitter besides tweeting about my salt and vinegar addiction that, at this point, I don't even know how I could be expected to garner as many followers as accounts I follow. All of the people who I follow that I actually know (i.e. not internet celebrities or companies) follow me in return. I mean, I'm not famous or anything so why should anyone who doesn't know me have any clue that my twitter account even exists?

At any rate, this is just something I've been thinking about lately as I try to justify breaking 200 in my following list and barely scraping a deck of cards worth of followers. What can I say? As much as I don't like that new "who to follow" feature, it kind of sucked me in.

Rosewell, NM

2010-08-07T00:25:00.000-06:00

Last week, my friend, Josh, the Lorax and I took a day trip to Roswell. The town was the site of the 1947 alien autopsy. In 1995, Ray Santilli made a fake version of the alleged footage and sold it to broadcasting networks around the world. How do I know about Santilli when I was only five at the time the footage aired? Because Ant and Dec were in a movie about him. How else do I learn anything these days?

Roswell itself was pretty disappointing. I mean, I didn't expect much from it, but I at least expected some cool and amusing things at the UFO Museum. I was envisioning something like a children's science museum, but with "alien artifacts" and crazy people wearing antennae à la Muppets from Space.

Here's the Lorax outside of the UFO Museum. Notice the cryptic alien scrawls on the underside of the flying saucer above his head.

The museum, it turned out, was kind of like a pre-school with no budget. And I'm not just talking about the fact that I'm pretty sure no one in there was actually literate. It was simply a big open room with various newspaper clippings, photographs and artwork pinned onto those cork board room divider things. And they charged us $5 for that.

To be fair, they charge because they're saving for a real state of the art museum. If that ever happens, I'll return, but not until then.

The museum included highly informative documents like the one above

As for the rest of the town... well, it reminded me a lot of Forks, Washington. Forks is the town where the Twilight series takes place. The actual town part consists of a three block strip of stores, restaurants and hotels. That's it. Seriously. There aren't even any other roads. Just the one. And every single establishment on that road is plastered with Edward Cullen photos, using Twilight as a means to boost visitors. Sadly, but truly, Twilight is the only thing Forks has going for it.

I spent all of ten minutes in Forks so I didn't take very many good photos

Roswell, though significantly larger than Forks, was the same story. Aliens were painted on every corner and the street lamps were even made into alien heads like the Kiss street lamps in Hershey, PA.

click on the collage to see the images up close

Even though I knew I couldn't like go to the exact location where they found the alien, I had still been hoping something equally awesome would exist in Roswell. Maybe a tour of all the important locations during the autopsy. Or a museum that doesn't look like a storage unit. Or something.

At the very least, I can now say I've been to Roswell, which is something, right?

Also, because it is amazing, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kokm6ACqvB8

Young Me/Now Me

2010-08-04T20:56:00.000-06:00

Ze Frank has started a new project called Young Me/Now Me, where he asks people to email him photos of themselves as kids and then another photo re-enacting the situation, or in the same position or place.

I posted my favorite coincidentally similar photo set of myself last winter, but here's another one from Summer 2003 and this past spring. It's not the one I'm going to submit to Young Me/Now Me because I have better plans for that, but it's still fun for now.

So glad I got rid of those bangs.

Unlike MIA, I Like Ginger(s)

2010-07-26T21:33:00.002-06:00

Today I decided to try a recipe for homemade ginger ale I had bookmarked from Green Is Sexy. For refusing to experiment with more than one batch, I think it turned out pretty well.

Ingredients:
2 tsp. Sliced or powdered ginger
24 oz. Carbonated water
1 Lemon
Optional sugar
(all measurements estimates)

The first thing to do is make ginger tea using your sliced or powdered ginger. I opted for the powdered ginger because I've seen my brother slicing and chopping fresh ginger before and it seems like more effort than I am willing to exert. I did, however, take the time to snap a photo of the fresh ginger at Whole Foods because it looks so cool. It reminds me of food hobgoblins might eat or, as my mom said, it looks like mandrakes.

So, boil some water like you're making tea, but instead of adding bags or leaves, throw in the ginger. I don't know if this is exactly what's supposed to be done because the "recipe" I used didn't really say. I put in two teaspoons of ginger into 24 ounces of water and stirred it up as best I could.

NOTE: Ginger apparently congeals in water super fast and is pretty hard to get off of stuff once it dries.

I let the ginger "tea" steep for fifteen minutes. Less time would probably be alright. I've been steeping things longer because I'm at such a high altitude.

After steeping, you need to strain the ginger. This is one reason why I should have opted for slices of ginger, rather than powder. Unless you have a very fine strainer, it's going to be hard to get all of the powder out. This means all of it is going to settle at the bottom of the pitcher. If you don't mind giving it a shake each time before you drink it, the powdered stuff is fine, but if you're not down with that sort of thing, I'd recommend going for sliced ginger.

After letting it cool a bit more, it's time to add the fun stuff. I used Perrier because I really enjoy it and it gave me an excuse to drink whatever was leftover from my ginger ale. Again, I came up with my own measurements. I ended up doing half and half. So that's 24 ounces of carbonated water. Following that, I squeezed in half a lemon and topped it off with four teaspoons of sugar. This is really the phase where you should just add and taste until it turns out how you like it.

Overall, mine turned out quite strong and little too lemony, but I kinda like it like that. It also has that whole ginger powder sinking to the bottom problem. But for not really knowing what I was doing, I'd say it turned out quite well. Let me know if you guys try it and if you come up with any tricks for preparing it more properly!

What Happens In Downing Stays In Downing

2010-07-24T13:24:00.000-06:00

That's what my friends and I used to say to each other (and carved into a lecture hall desk) when we studied at Cambridge University in 2005. We were all having ridiculous boy problems and agreed that when we left Cambridge, it would be all over. Our problems would stay at Downing, the college where we lived.

When I went to England this past April, I had planned to keep a video log of my travels. After recording a video at the first place I visited, I promptly forgot about my plans. In fact, I completely forgot I had even recorded that one video until I dug out my camcorder last night for some good ol' YouTube filming. I guess you could say that the video refused to break the rule of disallowing anything that happens in Downing to leave Downing.

For your mild and punitive entertainment, I have broken that rule. Just like I did in 2005.

Now Taking Suggestions For 21 New Things

2010-07-20T13:56:00.000-06:00

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I'm at a standstill in making my list of 21 new things to try before my 21st birthday in May. I have about twelve right now, which include running a 5K, making candy sushi and doing some left overs I didn't get around to last time.

So, please leave your suggestions here or on twitter or IRL! I think I'm mostly going towards crafty things this year and maybe picking up new skills. I'd also be up for places I should go to/things I should do in the New York area. But any and all suggestions are welcome. Hopefully I can get started before the end of the summer. Until then... Moustache Party!

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"You draw on your mustache while I powder my nose... Rose Robert, together we make quite a remarkable pair."

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I think this is what happened to the Merry Pranksters' bus when the seventies hit.

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10 points for a mug I desperately want. 20 points for awesome British YouTubers.

property of Charlie McDonnell

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baby hipster

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THE MUSTACHE CLUB MUSIC!

(featuring several of my brother's high school best friends who I totally crushed on as a twelve year-old)

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Well, That's One Way To Wake Up Early

2010-07-18T23:28:00.005-06:00

Early this morning, around six, I was half awake, half dreaming about the run I was going to go for in a few hours time. As I enjoyed the morning breeze sweeping through my open window and the squashiness of my pillows, I heard screaming, tires screeching, swerving and a crash.

The house I live in is along a fairly major road. It's a two lane road, hardly wide enough for two small cars, with a river on one side and a line of houses on the other, but it is a very busy road. Our house is set back about twenty feet from the road by a gravel area where we and our neighbors park our cars. The speed limit is twenty-five miles an hour, but from the late night until the early morning I hear cars driving past at way faster than twenty-five.

That's what first pulled me out of my half awake state. The rush of a car going entirely too fast. I had thought two cars crashed into each other, or into our parked cars, or into our neighbor's house.

Maybe there were two cars at some point, but there was actually no crash and, at first, no car.

I ran into my mom's room first, fearing for one stupid moment that a car had crashed through her front-facing bedroom (not thinking about the fact the house would have shook or anything). She was at the window pulling on a bathrobe with haste, watching a neighbor sprint to the scene. We ran out of the house, but saw no cars. Then we saw other neighbors across the river, leaning over their fence, yelling down to someone.

A girl had swerved off the road and into the river.

Lucky for her, the river had dried up so much that it was only two feet or so deep. The first neighbor was already down in the river, pulling the girl out of the car. She was terrified, but otherwise unharmed. And, miraculously, so was the car. She had definitely driven through a line of slim trees, but her car somehow managed to stay perfectly upright. It looked like she had been hovering above the water and then gently dropped into it.

For the next three hours, medics, fire men, police and tow trucks crowded in front of our house. The girl says there was a dog in the road and that's why she swerved. Maybe that's true, but if she had been following the speed limit she wouldn't have had to brake or turn so drastically.

I'm not a saint when it comes to following the speed limit or anything, but this road is tiny, consists almost entirely of sharp turns and is just feet away from houses (not to mention the river). There's even an oversized yellow sign that the girl passed soon before she crashed that says "SLOW DOWN: BLIND DRIVE."

Even though I often go below twenty-five just to make sure I don't run into an oncoming car around the many blind turns, I can understand not heeding the signs or feeling invincible. Everyone feels that way some or most of the time. You're late for an appointment, you're familiar with the bends in the road, you have to return that call, you're feeling daring, someone's tailgating you or you missed the last reduced speed sign.

But at what cost?

If she had decided to swerve the other direction, my next door neighbor and his two young children could be dead now. My neighbor must have thought of the same thing because, after the road was reopened and the car pulled out of the river, a suburban zoomed past and I heard my neighbor stop the driver and shout at him for exceeding the speed limit.

I am beyond relieved that absolutely no one was harmed, but I've only been here a month. Who knows how often this happens? Who knows how many people have died on this road or how frequently accidents take place? I'd wager quite often. And who knows how it will end next time?

Plugs and Outlets

2010-07-16T21:39:00.004-06:00

I haven't posted since, uhm, basically since I moved to New Mexico. But I don't like spending posts apologizing (to who?) for not posting. So I let Saturday Jane do it instead:

"I’ve been avoiding Saturday Jane a bit. Don’t worry, I’m not mad at you. I’m not avoiding you at all, and that thing you did? It’s cool now. I get it, and I don’t blame you, but you may want to see a doctor. That’s all I’m saying.

Basically, I didn’t have any good ideas for a couple of days, and then when I started having little eensy ideas, my brain went, 'NO, IT’S BEEN LONG ENOUGH THAT THIS HAS TO BE THE BEST POST IN THE HISTORY OF POSTING. HAVE YOU SURPASSED THE WORKS OF SOPHOCLES? NO? KEEP TRYING.' I would re-examine my piffling little paragraph about that time the milk went sour and go, oh, well, I guess this has very little to do with Life and the Universe, and I would start over."

Thanks Jane!

Plugs and Outlets:

Amazon is now offering free Prime memberships to all students with a .edu email address. Prime is their premium service that costs about $80/year and, among other things, gets you free shipping on just about everything (the cheapest Marketplace selections tend not to be eligible). Go HERE to sign up.

Improv Everywhere's latest video put Princess Leia, Darth Vader and a handful of Stormtroopers on the New York subway. How can I join this troupe when I get to NY? No seriously. This has to happen.

Lately, I've been partial to Calibri pt. 11 font, but this font video quiz told me I'm New Alphabet. Which one are you?

If you bought an iPhone 4 (like I did), you can now get a bumper (the cases made by Apple) for free. Or if you already bought a bumper (like I did), you can get a full refund. Apple will be posting instructions for how to do this on their site sometime in the next few days.

Have you ever wanted to put gummi bears, Nerds and Cinnamon Toast Crunch on a dark chocolate candy bar? I totally have. Uhm, not. Chocomize lets you put anything from vegetarian bacon to potato chips on a dark, white or milk chocolate candy bar and they ship it to you with an ice pack so the candy won't melt. And not all of the toppings are gross.

And now a picture of a giant horse head in Santa Fe

Exploring The City Different

2010-06-28T20:08:00.001-06:00

I've been in Santa Fe for just over a week now. It's interesting to be in a place that's so sunny, but not anywhere near as hot as Texas. Every morning starts out in the sixties and then it will heat up to the seventies. Sometime in the afternoon there will be a bit of rain and then it cools down again for the night.

Am I really talking about the weather? It's such a characteristically dull thing to talk about. In fact, when I'm speaking with people who I find dull or who I have nothing to say to, I deliberately talk about the weather. Does this mean I'm becoming dull? Efffff.

While I find some way to become interesting again (Kermit the Frog jacket? Carry around a vuvuzela?), enjoy these photos from around Santa Fe.

Front of part of the house

The river that runs through the backyard. Only, it's all dried up right now.

This is where they filmed the opening of Timeline. Except not.

We invaded St. John's. I almost applied here. Kinda surreal to be on the campus.

Ghost Ranch, where Georgia O'Keefe used to spend her summers. She spent the rest of every year in New York. She was born in the Midwest, but lived in Texas for a while. Clearly, these geographic similarities make me the new Georgia O'Keefe.

This sign was near Abiquiu Lake. I don't get it.

Looking a bit froggy at Abiquiu Lake. It was cloudy most of the day, but I still managed a sunburn. That's talent there. Pure talent.

If you haven't seen the new Deathly Hallows trailer yet, WATCH. IT. NOW. It's giving me slight hope that they've finally got it right and made the film as interesting and awesome as the book. I guess I'll find out in 143 days.

20 New Things: Over(view)!

2010-06-26T12:12:00.009-06:00

FINALLY I am finishing 20 New Things. Only two months late, which is about typical for me.

1. Try Indonesian cuisine - I wish I had tried it more than once to get a better grasp of the cuisine, but I did it once so it made the list!

2. Buy and learn to use a dip pen - Well, the "learn to use" part didn't pan out because I couldn't find any ink... but at least I now have a dip pen without a fake feather attached to it so I can learn calligraphy without looking like a nerd. Did I just put "calligraphy" and "not... a nerd" in the same sentence? This altitude must be getting to me.

3. Attend a concert in Glasgow, Scotland - No go. As it was going to take so much time, money and effort to nip up to Scotland during my six day trip to England, I told myself I would only go if a really awesome band had a show on the exact night I could be there. It turned out that the Dropkick Murphys would be playing! I was beyond stoked. Then, a few weeks later, they changed the date of the Glasgow show. In keeping with the rule I set for myself, I scrapped the trip to Scotland and replaced it with a trip to Stonehenge, which worked out rather well for the header, no?

4. Spend time at a café in Montmartre, France - Admittedly, this wasn't as cool as I thought it would be. Most of my trip to France was kind of a bust (lack of time, company of strangers, etc. etc.). However, now I at least have a mental map of the location of various arrondisements in Paris, which makes visualizing the city easier when I read stories set in Paris.

5. Go to Electric Ladyland - AGH! I am SO upset I did not do this. About four different times, I invited people to go with me and they bailed. I meant to go during my last week in Amsterdam, but completing my final papers took longer than expected and, before I knew it, I was back in Texas. So not ok. I was really looking forward to it.

6. Create a model of an Amsterdam neighborhood using food - So, after buying my first loaf of bread in Amsterdam, I realized that the loaves were more narrow than typical American loaves and it reminded me of the narrow houses that line the canals. I had this elaborate plan laid out that included making bridges out of stroopwafels and canals out of beer. Then I realized my grocery budget hardly allowed me to eat three meals a day, let alone construct edible versions of the city.

7. Climb to the top of Dom Tower in Utrecht - Why are all of the things I didn't do lumped together in this list? It's making me feel like such a fetusfailcake. Even though this would have been completely plausible to accomplish, I axed it after climbing the Belfry Tower, Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. That was more than enough climbing for me, thank you very much.

8. Eat at the Sea Palace Floating Restaurant - I kind of didn't foresee how expensive this place would be. Until I'm earning an income, I refuse to eat anywhere with fixed meals.

9. See the cages at St. Lambert’s Church in Münster, Germany - this is tied with Electric Ladyland for how upset I am I didn't do this. I didn't even make it out to Germany! Further reason I need to go back to Europe and soon.

Too many words.... Here's me with a pirate ship!

10. Ride my bike through the Dutch countryside - technically this isn't my fault. The program I was studying with had planned an excursion of epic proportions in which we were going to ride our bikes all day, stopping off for a traditional Dutch lunch and some swimming in the ocean. I was looking forward to it all semester and then it was cancelled due to weather. I tried to rally support for a reschedule, but no one else was as enthused as me.

11. Go to a football (soccer) game - FINALLY! Something I actually did! I went to the US v. Netherlands game and have been a soccer fan ever since. I completely have World Cup fever and spend my time in between matches playing FIFA10 on my iPhone.

12. Eat only gluten-free foods for a day - I ended up giving up gluten for a full forty eight hours and miraculously lost weight during that short period of time! Prior to that weekend, I was a total breadhead. I averaged four pieces of toast for breakfast, one or two sandwiches a day and maybe some more toast with dinner. Since taking the Gluten-Free Challenge, I haven't had a single sandwich or piece of toast. I even cut back on crackers. I don't recommend a gluten-free diet for everyone, but it makes my body much happier.

13. Have an extended conversation with a local - Alright, technically I did do this. Plenty of times, in fact. The only problem is that when I wrote this goal, I intended for those conversations to be in Dutch and they totally weren't. I had countless conversations in English with locals, but my Dutch exchanges were limited to alstublieft and dankuwel.

14. Read the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series - I didn't feel this one really needed a full blog entry devoted to it. I also thought it was actually going to be a difficult task to accomplish. Little did I know that I would spend my first two weeks in Amsterdam powering through the entire five-book series. Ok, yeah, it's a kid's book, but I didn't expect it to be so intriguing!

15. Send a postcard to no one in particular - Logistically, I wasn't sure how to do this. I thought about generating a random address number and random zip code, but I couldn't figure out how to not make it creepy. So, yeah, I didn't do this.

16. Attend a film festival - I inadvertently accomplished this one. See the link for the full story.

17. Spend a day only speaking Dutch (or else not speaking) - HAHAHA! Yeah right. Maybe if any of the Dutch had let me actually speak in Dutch this could've happened. Otherwise that whole day would've been spent asking for coffees and refusing plastic bags.

18. Eat a true croissant in France - Success! I never liked croissants until this past semester, but being in Europe totally turned me into a croissant maniac. I didn't experience TOO much of a difference between Dutch and French croissants (the French will murder me for that statement), but I had a croissant in a cafe here in Santa Fe the other day and immediately remembered why I've never liked them. I guess Americans just haven't figured out the mystery of the croissant yet.

19. Have a no-tech day (with the exception of keeping my required emergency phone on) - Totally disappointed in myself for not doing this one. It's being rolled over to my 21 New Things list. Ideally, I'd like to go tech-free once a month, but I'll see if I can even manage it once a year first.

20. Leave behind some sort of time capsule for the future inhabitants of my apartment - Ah, I'm so glad I get to end this list with an accomplishment. Almost makes me feel successful.

STATS: 8.5/20

Not so hot. But, if you think about it, I began the project eight months late. So, taking into account I only had a third of the time to achieve all of the goals, I actually did pretty well.

That's what I'm telling myself anyways.

I think the moral of my failures is to not put things off until the end of the semester, especially if you're studying abroad. My friends and I kept saying "when the weather is better, when the weather is better." But the weather wasn't better until mid-May when we were frantically writing research papers, our bikes had broken down and no one had any money left to travel or do anything besides scope out free food.

Despite how this may look like a failed project, some of the things I accomplished ended up being mildly life-changing. I never would've had the motivation to go a whole weekend without gluten if it hadn't been for the Gluten-Free Challenge and then I never would've realized how amazing I feel when my body is cleared of gluten. I also highly doubt I would've gone to that soccer game and now I can't believe I've lived without soccer since 2000 (I spent ages three to ten as left defender for the Sharks and the Scorpions, total baller).

I'm determined to beat my 8.5 in the coming year! I've almost finished my list for 21 New Things and it's my hope that with an entire year to complete them, I'll be a bit more successful.

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20 New Things: Leave behind a time capsule for the future inhabitants of my apartment

2010-06-23T22:49:00.000-06:00

This is probably the last 20 New Thing I did that I will actually blog about. I just never got around to writing about some of the other ones I did and now, frankly, I don't feel like it. I will post an overview of what I ended up accomplishing (not much), but this will be the last full post (and too right it should be since I've been 20 for almost two months now).

The apartment building I stayed at in Amsterdam was specifically made for international university students. It was really much more like a dorm. We had one giant room that included beds and a kitchen plus a bathroom and walk-in closet.

The tenants each semester leave behind whatever dish ware they bought so that they next tenants have a few things to start off with (being international students, most don't pack a full set of utensils in their suitcase). Given that, I decided the best place to leave a little note for the next tenant would be inside a piece of dish ware. I'm not sure how well the places get cleaned before new students move in (if the state of our place when we arrived is any indication, not much). So, hiding the note inside the dishes seemed like the best way to avoid the note getting thrown away.

I scribbled (actually scribbled. Look at the state of my handwriting. My first grade teacher would be so ashamed.) a note on the back of a photo of clouds that had previously hung above my bed and stuffed it into an old jar of olives.

I really don't know why we had a jar of olives. When my roommate and I moved in, it soon became apparent that we had significantly less kitchen supplies than anyone else in the building. We had one butter knife, one bread knife, three spoons, two sporks (yes, sporks) and a peeling cast-iron pan. Other rooms had coffee-makers, full sets of utensils, microwaves, multiple pots and even sushi mats. One thing we had that they didn't, however, was an entire shelf of empty jars.

Why? I'll never know. I can only assume our room was previously occupied by Maureen Johnson.

At any rate, I hope someone finds this note eventually. I never took the time to look inside the random collection of jars, but if someone does, I hope it brightens their day. Especially if they are beginning their time abroad in the winter because, honestly, Holland just sucks in the winter.

Freakin it, Sweatin it, Bustin the mic

2010-06-17T15:47:00.002-06:00

I've been in Texas for the past eight days trying to stuff in a summer's worth of hanging out with friends and a month's worth of packing. Said packing consists of going through practically everything I have owned since age nine. It's quite the task. On the bright side, I've found plenty of cash stuffed away in strange places (including an entire jar of Euros and Pounds, why did I not find those before I left for Europe??) and some hilarious journal entries/school assignments. I'll include some of the gems in this post.

I wouldn't have it any other way. Stars, noodles and chillaxing on the roof remain some of my favorite things.

On Saturday morning, I move to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Apparently, I went camping in New Mexico a lot as a child. I vaguely remember seeing a woman making pottery. That's about it. So, this move is very much my "Great Perhaps." I anticipate a rejuvenating summer of hiking, reading and finally having an excuse to wear sun hats and bandanas (that desert/mountain sun is no joke!).

Hopefully that rejuvenation will pan out, but in my typical fashion, I've already over booked myself with too many goals. I'm applying for an internship at the public radio station, I've just taken on a few responsibilities with the Harry Potter Alliance (see the bottom of the post!), I'm going to start training for a 5K, I hope to spend 20 hours/week applying for scholarships and another 20 hours/week reading. Not to mention yoga/pilates three times a week, having to do dishes and laundry by hand, getting started on 21 New Things, keeping up with this blog and getting ready to move to New York.

...Yeah. Rejuvenating, isn't it?

Blogs will probably continue to be scarce for the next two weeks as I move and get settled in. Expect a ton of photos of the new place and then some left over blogs from Amsterdam. Wish me luck!

A Note on the Harry Potter Alliance:
The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) is a nonprofit charity organization. Inspired by Dumbledore's Army in the Harry Potter books, HPA works to alert the public about global warming, poverty and genocide as well as fighting for equal rights regardless of sexuality, ethnicity or gender. Its projects range from large scale successes in raising funding to aid civilians in Darfur and Haiti to small scale book drives within local chapters across the world. Right now, HPA is in second place to win $250,000 in the Chase Community Giving contest. This money would make a huge difference in HPA's ability to mobilize support and continue its fight against real evils in the Muggle World.

To vote and help push HPA into first place, go here and click on the green "Get started to vote" button. After following the instructions, click on the green "Vote now" button. Even your one vote will help, but if you'd really like to help out HPA, share the link with friends via Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Thanks so much for your help!

One Day Left!

2010-06-06T18:24:00.003-06:00

Since my last post, I've been working tirelessly on completing two research papers. Then, as soon as I finished, it was time to do every single thing I had been putting off doing all semester. Fun things, mind you. Like going to the science museum and buying souvenirs. Still, it takes up a lot of time. So, as I try to get everything done before leaving Tuesday morning, I haven't had much time for blogging.

There is so incredibly much that needs to be said about my time here. I still have several half-written blogs about Amsterdam that won't get posted until I leave Amsterdam... oops. Most likely I'll be feeling more eloquent and nostalgic once I get back to the underwhelming dead grass and superhighways of Texas. I'll write something nice then.

For now, I'm going to make some lists.

WEIRD THINGS/THINGS THAT BUG ME ABOUT AMSTERDAM
5. Wind. It is a very windy city and it makes biking extra strenuous.
4. Conversion rate. I've been fortunate that the conversion rate has gone down since I got here, but it's still frustrating that everything is priced with the same numbers as it would be in the US, except it's really 1.25 as expensive. For example, a top at H&M might be $12 in the US and 12 Euros here, but that that really means it costs $15. Trickery!
3. Streets. The streets are organized in a semi-circle, at best, and change names in completely random patterns. I still get lost anytime I go to a new place. Also, biking on cobblestone bricks = no bueno.
2. Espresso. They only drink espresso. Even if you ask for filter coffee, they will inevitably give you espresso.*
1. Water. Most places in Europe charge you for ordering water at a restaurant, but Holland takes it one step further. There are no water fountains anywhere here.

THINGS I'LL MISS ABOUT AMSTERDAM
5. Being so close to water all the time. Biking along canals is wonderful.
4. Biking. And the fact that so many forms of transportation other than cars exist.
3. Pannenkoeken and stroopwafels.
2. Drinking in parks. Actually, being legal to drink in general. One more year before I'm allowed to order a glass of wine with dinner. A WHOLE YEAR.
1. Climate. Fifty degrees in May. Amazing.

THINGS I CAN'T WAIT TO DO IN THE US
5. Have access to my Netflix account.
4. Return to my full wardrobe.
3. Listen to 104.9 Salaam Namaste.
2. Eat Chick-Fil-A and Bedford Snoballs.
1. Have epic adventures with my friends.

My friends Rose, Rosemary and I on the roof of the NEMO science center overlooking Amsterdam.

* If anyone reading happens to be in Amsterdam or going in the next few months, check out the Stumptown Coffee in Albert Cuyp Markt. They're my favorite Portland-based coffee roaster (on my trip to the Pacific Northwest last summer I tasted and compared as many different coffees as possible) and they've sent a crew of baristas to Amsterdam for three months to show Europeans that coffee is still cool and often better than espresso. Check out the baristas' tumblrs here and here.

A Mad Tea Party

2010-05-26T05:28:00.000-06:00

After our exam, my Art History professor invited the class over to her place for some tea. We ate apple tart and she told us about the time she jumped into a lake to try to impress a male student. She also told us about her "horny" cat (quote from her, which included sound effects), who had two kittens each from a different father. She knew they were from two fathers because one of the kittens turned out to be a Persian. To which the witty Australian in the group replied, "but she's a cat. How can she birth a Persian?"

The endings are beginning. I'm gonna miss this place.

20 New Things: Eat only gluten-free foods for one day

2010-05-23T13:47:00.010-06:00

I actually refrained from gluten for a whole weekend! This month is Gluten-Free Month and, in honor of the celebration, the Gluten Intolerance Group along with Pamela's Products ran the Gluten-Free Challenge. For one weekend, May 22-23, people pledged to eat only gluten-free foods.

Gluten doesn't just mean bread and pasta. It pops up in all manner of processed foods that you wouldn't expect because it's used in several food additives. Fortunately, the Dutch are much better at putting allergy information on food products than the US is.

Lots of websites and blogs were posting delicious gluten-free recipes for people to try this weekend. Unfortunately, almost all of them required an oven or other various kitchen appliances I currently lack.

Being also dairy intolerant and reluctant to eat meat, my gluten-free weekend consisted mostly of fruits and vegetables.

Participating in this challenge was important to me because, for almost a year now, I have been fairly positive that I am gluten intolerant. I hope to finally get tested this summer upon my return to the States. Right now you guys are probably thinking, "girl! what's the matter with you? why are you still eating gluten when you know it hurts you?!"

Here's the thing, cutting gluten out of your diet pre-diagnosis is not recommended. If you stop eating gluten, your symptoms (eventually) stop and it may be more difficult to recognize in the tests. As bread is my favorite food group, I have had no problem whatsoever following the advice to keep eating gluten (my stomach kind of hates me, but whatevs, we've never been bffs). However, I do love experimenting with gluten and dairy free recipes and experiencing the utter joy of being full and not simultaneously having a stomach cramp.

As I mentioned before, my only major kitchen appliance here is a stovetop (i.e. no microwave or oven) and I don't eat meat or dairy products. In addition to those challenges, I have to go grocery shopping in Dutch. Given the language barrier and my rather small food budget (selfishly, I'm glad the Euro has decreased in value so much recently -- down twenty cents to the dollar since I arrived!), I wasn't able to visit an organic food store and purchase fancy gluten-free crackers or bread like I would back home.

Keeping all of those challenges in mind, I'd say that the weekend went by fairly easily. My meals and snacks were VERY basic, but I think they are a good indication that poor, kitchen-challenged college students have the ability to eat gluten-free if they want or need to.

Here's a breakdown of my meals:

Breakfast
Applesauce with cinnamon
Banana with peanut butter
(I've been waking up pretty late recently. So breakfast is pretty much a small snack before eating a full lunch an hour later.)

Lunch
Mixed green salad with broccoli and oranges

Dinner
Grilled vegetables and tofu in tomato sauce
including green beans, broccoli, corn, onions, carrots and zucchini

It was definitely a challenge mentally, but not so much logistically, which is good to know if my future does include a 24/7 gluten-free diet. For now, however, all I'm thinking about is those shortbread cookies and pretzel sticks in my pantry that I get to eat tomorrow.

Mrs. Baird's Fruit Pies

2010-05-20T14:06:00.002-06:00

The alternate title of today's blog entry is "Me Not Working on my European Minority Languages Presentation."

So, I want to write about something that I was adamant would never happen to me and, if it did, I was never going to tell anyone that it had.

People tell me that when you're away from something, you're supposed to appreciate it more and see it in a way you never have before. I definitely experienced this my first year at college. Every time my friends and I got back together on holidays, it was like this incredible high. It didn't matter if our activities were lackluster in comparison to our high school adventures because we were ecstatic to simply see each other IRL.

Before coming to Amsterdam, everyone told me I would finally learn to appreciate Texas and America. The truth is, no matter what people may think, I do appreciate both Texas and America. I always have. I just don't particularly like everything about them and most things that I don't like about them tend to be things that I find to be very important in my life. So, I've never really liked Texas, especially.

While being in Amsterdam, I started missing a lot of things about Texas. However, most of the things I missed (Chick-fil-A, Dr Pepper*, my car) are things that I don't really view as positive. Public transportation is better for the earth and junk food should really become a thing of the past. So, I shook the feelings off as needing to adjust to a less inflated, less consumer society.

Yet, when I get away from the concept of "missing things" and think more about the feel of Texas, the undefinable aroma of a home place, I have to thrust off years of antagonism and confess that I like Texas.

The culture of cosmopolitan North Texas suburbia, so different from the stereotypically small-minded rural towns, is a large part of who I am. This Texas is not beefy homophobic men in cowboy hats, the textbook debate or Rick Perry's christening of Glenn Beck as an official Texan.

It's sunny afternoons, driving down freeways for less than five minutes to get a Route 44 Cherry Coke at Sonic. Eating barbecue sandwiches and baby back ribs. Beige living rooms and bright blue swimming pools. Buildings growing wide instead of tall. Musty bookstores. Musty everything. Live music in Mexican restaurants. White T-shirts. Faded jeans. Sweaty faces. Thunderstorms and tornadoes on days so hot the cement begins to steam. Sunsets backdropping the airport. Star gazing by the creek. Being born with larger than life dreams and an enigmatic drive for independence. That's my Texas and I've finally learned to love it.

Here is what I will be listening to for the next 14 days until my return flight. Ignore the Ohio/hopeless girlfriend plot line and this is my favorite anthem to North Texas:

*I just learned that Dr Pepper doesn't actually have a period after the "Dr."

20 New Things: Spend time at a café in Montmartre, France

2010-05-18T16:01:00.002-06:00

This blog should be titled, "Me Not Writing My Intro to Sexual Studies Report." The report is only one page on the topic of basically anything I want. Yet...my procrastination has reached a disgusting level and rendered me incapable of working.

Speaking of procrastination, I meant to post this about a month ago when it actually happened.

Oops.

I was attracted to the Montmartre neighborhood of Paris for the same reason that every cliché trying to be cultured teenager is --- lots of cool artists once lived there and it was the setting of La Vie En Rose, Amelié and Moulin Rouge.

The hostel I was staying at happened to be only a few blocks away from Montmartre. So, my traveling buddy and I strolled over there as soon as we checked in. On the way, we saw Moulin Rouge.

Moulin Rouge is at the base of a hill, which basically marks the beginning of Montmartre. I honestly didn't spend enough time in Paris to be able to remark on how different Montmartre is from the rest of Paris, but I do remember thoroughly enjoying my few hours spent there. Like most of Paris, the buildings are either painted in very light colors or made of light brick. This is a stark contrast to Amsterdam, where all of the buildings are dark. The Dutch like things to be dark and cozy. They call it gezellig.

After walking around the main streets three times to peruse the various cafés, I finally chose a café that I deemed Montmartre-ish enough to use for my 20 New Things list. What did I think was Montmartre-ish? I have no idea.

My traveling buddy and I drank our espressos alfresco, watching the locals pass by with tiny dogs, bouquets of flowers and sleeping toddlers. The weather was a perfect mix of warm and cold that my Texas upbringing has almost never known.

Ahh, just thinking about it makes me want to go back. I can even remember the smell (cleaner and more flower-y than the dank air here, especially in light of the waste collector's strike). A return to Paris (for a much longer stay) is requisite in my near future.

UPDATE: I have now finished my report.

20 New Things: Buy and Learn to Use a Dip Pen

2010-05-16T11:23:00.001-06:00

I said that some of the things on my list I've already done and some of them just won't happen. This is a combination of both factors.

I bought a set of dip pens while I was in Stratford-Upon-Avon. I went into one of the hundreds of Shakespeare gift shops in Stratford while waiting for the matinee of Romeo and Juliet to begin. I can't tell you how embarrassing it was to look around the shop and realize that I already owned about 80% of the store's contents. The stuffed Shakespeares, the action figures, the Much Ado About Nothing Post-It Notes, the Shakespearean Insult Gum, it was all there.

So I bought the one thing I did not yet own: Shakespeare themed dip pens.

The only problem is that I cannot find a bottle of ink anywhere in Amsterdam. The only art supply store in the whole city is like effing Diagon Alley. I cannot find it not matter how carefully I follow my map and directions.

So the whole "learning to write with a dip pen" part of this goal is going to be rolled over to next year's list as ink is a fairly crucial component to writing.

Coolest toothpaste EVER!

2010-05-11T10:37:00.000-06:00

So I bought Shrek toothpaste at Albert Heijn because it was way cheaper than adult toothpaste.

It turns out that there are STARS IN THE TOOTHPASTE! WTF? SO AWESOME!

WHY WASN'T KID'S TOOTHPASTE THIS AWESOME WHEN I WAS A KID?

The 20 New Things Mistake

2010-05-09T14:45:00.000-06:00

This was supposed to be posted on my birthday, but the whole Dam Square thing was heavily on my mind that night. So, it's taken me until now to get this posted.

As of five days ago, I am officially twenty years-old. By now, I should have completed all twenty things on the list.

While this project is usually a year long, I started it in January, intending it to correspond with the semester I would be abroad. Therefore, I decided to make most of the new things deal with goals I had for my time abroad.

The mistake?

I'm actually in Amsterdam for another month and four days (from the date of my birthday). During that month and four days, most of my classes end and my homework stops. I have way more free time in May than I have at any other point during the semester.

Having made that realization a few weeks ago, I stopped attempting to complete my 20 New Things list before my birthday and decided that for this, the first time, given the nature of the situation, I will extend my 20 New Things until I leave Amsterdam on June 8th. Then, I'll start my 21 New Things after I move in to Santa Fe.

Oh, have I mentioned that here yet? I'm moving to Santa Fe. Or, rather, my mom is and I'm going to live there with her when I'm not at school (what school that will be, I still don't know).

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There are a handful of things that I have known for sometime just cannot happen, but there are also a handful of things I completed months ago and just haven't written about. So, in my remaining month, I'll be posting those things I never wrote about and completing the other (doable) things.

Yeah, it was a kind of a fail, but the whole experiment still did what it was meant to do. There were several times I wanted to be my usual lazy self and not take the opportunity to do something unique, but having the list (and the accountability of friends who knew about the list) pushed me to not spend another night cooped up in my apartment or to take the extra effort to travel even though I had essays and projects to do. I look forward to getting older when my lists will get longer and I'll have even more things to get out there and try.

As I finish the list (and my time in Amsterdam), I'm already working on my list for next year and, as always, welcome suggestions. Some ideas I have so far is to learn guitar basics and cook a three course meal for my friends all by myself.

Here's to an exciting month and even more exciting year!

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Panic In Dam Square: Or, How I Thought For A Moment That This Birthday Might Be My Last

2010-05-04T16:37:00.009-06:00

Today is Bevrijdingsdag, or Remembrance Day, in The Netherlands. It is a day to commemorate all who were lost in World War II. Tomorrow will be Liberation Day in which the Dutch celebrate their freedom from the Germans.

The Queen came to speak in Dam Square in honor of the event, which is a pretty big deal since she lives in The Hague and it seems like she'd rather visit any city except Amsterdam on holidays.

I went to Dam Square about fifteen minutes before the ceremony was supposed to begin. There were WAY more people there than I expected. Dam Square isn't all that huge so I thought there'd be a few hundred tops. From stats I heard later, there were tens of thousands of people.

I couldn't even make it all the way to Dam Square. I made it a few meters from the corner of the buildings that open into the square before the mass of people became too dense to let me through any further. I was pretty upset about this because I couldn't even see the huge tv screens projecting the speakers, let alone the actual podium, because the Dutch are so freaking tall.

As I waited for the ceremony to begin, as at every high profile large event I attend, I started thinking about terrorist attacks. I know, I'm weird. I guess when you never even know what a terrorist is until 9/11 you just grow up paranoid.

I thought that if someone were to attack this event, it wouldn't be anything too major because, I mean c'mon, it's just Amsterdam. I had heard something about an assassination attempt on Queen Beatrix at Queen's Day last year... my morbid thoughts kept spiraling as they are prone to do and I was soon contemplating an attack during the moment of silence that I had been told would occur at eight o'clock sharp. I quickly shook that thought out of my head. Even terrorists wouldn't be so cruel as to disrupt a moment of silence, even if they are cruel enough to kill hundreds of people. The only person I could think of who would be so disgustingly disrespectful was Hitler, the man whose cruelty we owed this very ceremony to.

The ceremony began with some music playing and (as far as I could tell from the tiny corner of tv screen I could see) soldiers laying flowers around the national monument. A few people I didn't recognize said a few words that I didn't understand because it was all in Dutch. Then, one of the churches in the town began ringing for eight o'clock.

I remember counting in my head with each bell. Practicing my Dutch numbers. Een. Twee. Drie. Vier. Vijf. Zes. Zeven. Acht. I used the moment to think of all of the people in my own life that I've lost and then thought of the greater losses of the world. I remember staring at the backpocket of the man in front of me as I thought.

My thoughts were broken by a scream from far away, immediately followed by another higher pitched one. At first, I thought it was kids playing a few streets away, unaware of the time or the ceremony. I barely had time to think that, however, as more screams joined in. Just as I registered that all of the actual square that was beyond my view was screaming, the entire crowd to my right (on the Dam Square side) began running.

It was more like pushing and shoving. You couldn't run with how tightly everyone had been standing. It was like falling out of a canoe into fierce, uncontrollable rapids. I saw the men around me ducking down with their hands over their heads as they pushed their way against the wall of buildings a few meters behind us. Seeing their actions, I assumed they must have been able to see what I could not because I was too short to see above the heads of the Amazonian-like Dutch. I followed their actions, fearing bullets, debris from an explosion or an approaching army of enemies. I saw the wide-eyed, slack jawed looks of terror on the faces of people sparing half a second to glance behind us. Whatever it was, it was coming our way. And fast.

Soon, people had abandoned the ducking and were just running. I began running too. I fell down. I tried to get up, but the density of the crowd made every action take ten times more effort than it would have otherwise. As I summoned the strength to push myself back up amongst the kicking limbs, I thought I am NOT going to die here. I am not going to die being trampled. I will survive this.

I pulled myself up and began to push my way through the crowd. I immediately encountered a woman who had fallen on her back. Legs bent, pale face distorted in utmost horror. There were a few people around her trying to barricade the crowd to save her from being trampled. I briefly considered staying to help, but as the crowd continued to pass me at a quickening rate, I made the selfish decision to keep going.

I noticed the open doors of a building and dashed inside, quickly calculating the risks in my head. If "it" was some sort of debris from an explosion or a toxic gas filling the air, I would be dead if I stayed in this building with its open doors. But if it was bullets outside, I would be safer in here.

I didn't need to think much longer on my decision, however, because as soon as I was in, it seemed like things were slowing down outside. People were saying it was okay. I furtively hovered in the entryway of the building for a few moments. I saw journalists standing on top of their trucks, snapping photos and recording footage, and I wondered if they had been there the whole time. I would never have the guts to do that.

I finally stepped outside the building, back into the dissipating crowd. It was apparently safe to be outside and in Dam Square, but what exactly had happened, no one knew.

Dam Square post-panic

As I made my way out of the building, I over heard various people say it was an old woman who screamed at some horses, a huge piece of glass that had been dropped and a few people still insisting there had been a small explosion.

I leaned against a sign post and tried to digest everything that had just happened. I was far enough away from the main crowd now that I could actually see the tv screens. I resolved to stick around to hear what had actually happened. It wasn't until a few minutes later that I noticed a sting in my right knee. Looking down, I saw I was bleeding steadily through the hole in my jeans.

When the tv screens finally turned back on, I was too far away to hear anything. So, if they told us what happened, I had no idea. I stayed for a bit longer, but, without being able to hear, it wasn't too intriguing.

I rode back home in a bit of a haze. I couldn't believe the reaction to nothing. For the first time in my life, I had genuinely thought I might die. Yet, nothing even happened. News broke in the hours after I returned home. The current information says one man was on a cell phone during the moment of silence and, when people tried to shush him, another man dropped a suitcase into the crowd while the first man started shouting. While the situation no doubt looked a little suspicious, I don't know that it merited such a response.

Regardless of the legitmacy of the reaction, it was a terrifying situation to be in. The crowd was so huge and so dense that no one could have known what was happening. It was the people, it turned out, everyone was running from. There may have been no other danger and many people may have been aware of that the whole time, but when a stampede is coming, you don't just stand there.

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On a lighter note, I returned home to find that my roommate had decorated my side of the room as a surprise for my birthday!

A birthday banner Dwight Schrute would be proud of (inside joke for devoted Office fans)

Lots of balloons! (and my very messy desk/bed area)

She even took a Lorax photo of the Lorax in the birthday display!

Queen's Day

2010-05-02T14:52:00.012-06:00

Koninginnedag, or Queen's Day, is a Dutch national holiday in celebration of, well, the queen. Only, it's not actually on the incumbent Queen Beatrix's birthday. The holiday started in the nineteenth century in honor of Princess Wilhelmina. Back then it was in August. Then, Juliana became queen and the holiday was moved to her birthday, April 30th. When Beatrix became queen, she knew no one would want to celebrate her January birthday because January is too damn cold. So, she kept the April 30th date in honor of her mother, Juliana.

Phew. Ok. Get it?

So, what happens on Queen's Day is that the entire country turns into a freemarket. Streets are closed down and everyone who wants to sell their junk, food or talents is allowed to. It's like a nationwide garage sale. In some cases, it's actually quite adorable. My friends and I walked through Oosterpark and Sarphatipark, which were filled with children singing, dancing, playing instruments, painting nails, selling lemonade and doing any other ingenious activity they could think of in hopes of earning a few euros.

Here's a few clips of some of the sites my friends and I passed by throughout the day.

Of course, it's not all cute kids selling stuff. In a complete reflection of Gen X and Y behavior, the most recent generations have decided they don't want to spend the national holiday peddling their parent's cast-off belongings for a few guilders and instead would rather get pissed drunk and listen to DJs. So, for the past decade or so Queen's Day has come to be associated with oranjegekte (or, orange craze) and huge parties in the streets. Now, instead of just the freemarkets, Amsterdam celebrants dress in as much orange as they can and drink as much as they can while attending free, open air concerts or cruising the canals in party boats.

Those same revelers also started Koninginnenacht, or Queen's Night, which is kind of like Mischief Night before Halloween. It's basically just an extra night of partying before the holiday begins.

All of us international students have known about Queen's Day since our arrival in January and had been warned to have something orange to wear. It was implied we'd be glared at or punched in the face if we didn't wear orange. While there were plenty of people in full orange costume and most had at least some sort of orange accessory, I have to admit that I wasn't too impressed. I've walked the streets of Austin, Texas on enough game days to be engulfed in some serious seas of orange. In terms of wearing orange, sorry Amsterdam, but UT does it better.

In Bruges

2010-04-28T14:05:00.007-06:00

#1 Why have I still not seen this movie? I am going to waste so much time on Netflix when I get back to the States.

#2 Watch from :33 to :46 of the trailer. I climbed that tower, Belfry Tower. As I was climbing round and round and round I started realizing how narrow the stairwells were. I've done a lot of tower and cathedral climbing in the past month and these stairs were much more narrow than all of the rest. What do the workers at Belfry Tower do when people who actually can't fit in the stairwells want to climb the tower? Do they have to tell them that they're too fat to climb? That seems like it wouldn't go over well. Probably most people know their limits so this isn't a problem, but what about guys like the one in the trailer who just don't know how narrow the stairs are? It's bound to happen!

The view from the Belfry

I only spent the day in Bruges, but it's a fairly small city and student museum cards for any museum in the city were only five euros. So I think I actually ended up seeing quite a bit. At any rate, I ate a Belgian waffle, bought some Belgian chocolate and had a Belgian beer I can't remember the name of. Those were my only real priorities.

My camera died after I climbed Belfry Tower (it just couldn't take it!). I only made the effort to pull out my iPhone for photos that amused me, rather than taking artistic photos of the architecture or flowers. So, these are all I have to mark my day spent in Bruges.

Belgians have creepy advertising

Is there anyone who still watches Flashforward? Because this unexplained "No Crows" warning is hilarious if you do.

Grafitti at the top of Belfry Tower. Apostrophes are so difficult! In Bruges, there's a basilica that claims to have a vial of Jesus' blood that was brought to Bruges during the Second Crusade. It has some critics.

There are four windmills on the boundaries of Bruges, which used to be a part of the boundary fortification.

Beside the windmill is this hill, on which we took a nap.

Shakespeare's Birthday and *+Lovers on Twitter

2010-04-23T13:07:00.003-06:00

Today is Shakespeare's 446th Birthday and, in honor of that, I'm ~~including as many Shakespeare images as I can in this entry~~ being as much of an Anglophile as possible. It also happens to be St. George's Day, the long since abandoned national holiday of England. So, the whole Anglophile thing fits. (sidebar: my roommate is actually in England right now and I am beyond jealous of her)

I failed at eating fish and chips because the only fish and chips place in Amsterdam shut down. I bought falafel and chips instead. That counts, right? Now if only I could find some malt vinegar....

Failing the fish and chips, I'm drinking tea and about to settle down to watch Shakespeare In Love.

I know I know. I can hear you groaning. However! It's the only Shakespeare-related film I brought with me abroad and, without access to Netflix, I can't watch any of his plays online.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I'm watching Romeo and Juliet live on twitter right now. The Royal Shakespeare Company has started a new project called Such Tweet Sorrow. They've taken some of their actors, cast them in modern renditions of the Romeo and Juliet characters and let them loose on the internet (namely twitter, but several characters also have YouTubes, tumblrs and last.fm accounts).

The current buzz right now is that @JulietCap16 is about to have her sweet sixteen masked ball party (which just happens to be occurring on the Bard's b-day. Nice touch, RSC) and I'm betting @mercuteio and @romeo_mo are going to crash it. Just a guess.

I meant to plug this when it first started so that anyone interested wouldn't have to play catch up. Fortunately, the official site has a great running synopsis of the online action that, frankly, is a lot like No Fear Shakespeare. No, the actors don't tweet in iambic pentameter, but they do tweet A LOT. Sometimes I'll read the synopsis and have that familiar feeling I have when I read the actual No Fear Shakespeare of, "wait, really? How did you get that from that?"

Even if you didn't know it was Shakespeare's birthday (because I mean, really, who else is as big of a geek as I am?), I would recommend checking out Such Tweet Sorrow tonight because SHIT IS ABOUT TO GO DOWN Act I Scene V style.

20 New Things: Eat a True Croissant in France

2010-04-15T12:42:00.002-06:00

via

Ok, I gotta cop. I actually did not take photos of any of the croissants I ate while in Paris. But I did eat them! I picked up a croissant with coffee every morning and they were all delicious. The outsides were a bit tougher than the ones I've been (over)indulging in here in Amsterdam, but it didn't make a difference taste wise.

The thing I've learned about living in Europe is that all food is good food. Back in the States, you have to pay a bit more money for food to not taste like a shoe. In Europe, you could go to a run-down looking cafe or a university cafeteria and all of the food will be high quality. This is especially true for Paris.

Save a few meals at cafes, I mostly lived off street crèpes during my weekend in Paris. Believe it or not, I had completely forgotten that crèpes were a part of the French cuisine until I passed a street vendor a few minutes after arriving.

I would estimate that there are two crèpe vendors per block in Paris. Seriously. It was crèpe mania. And I fully took advantage of it. I was on a lemon and sugar (ou citronne et sucre) kick for most of the trip, but splurged on nutella once.

A crèpe in the process of being made. I would kill for some equipment like this. So hard to make them in a pan.

Besides eating my weight in crèpes and croissants, Lorax and I hit up all the typical tourist spots.

Eiffel Tower

Louvre

Arc de Triomphe

Pantheon

Notre Dame

There were a few slightly more off the radar places I had hoped to check out, but I ended up not having access to internet at the hotel and had saved all the info about said places on Google Docs. #FAIL

Still, it's nice to be able to say I've been to all of the usual spots and to have experienced them. I definitely need to go back to Paris to get to know it on a more local level.

One thing I repeated every time I passed a statue or obelisk or engraving on a building was that I wished I had studied it prior to seeing it or that I had the time to in that moment. I feel like there is classical intellect seeped into every structure and decoration of Paris and I am yearning to discover it.

Perhaps next time I visit Paris I will be better prepared. This go around, I was happy enough just getting to see lots of gargoyles.

Notre Dame gargoyle. Didn't Disney name them after Victor Hugo?

20 New Things: Attend a Film Festival

2010-04-08T13:15:00.000-06:00

When I was perusing travel guide books before coming to Amsterdam, I found a lot of sweet annual film festivals that would be happening in the spring. Somehow, they all kind of flew over my head. Seriously, how is it April already? My calendar still says March.

Anyways, I figured my goal to attend a film festival was going to go they way of several other 20 New Things things that are unfeasible at this point.

Fortunately, today a friend invited me to go see a showing of Casablanca at the Filmmuseum. After arriving and buying our tickets, we realized it was actually being shown as apart of the Film Biënnale film festival! I still haven't completely figured out the theme or purpose of the festival (I think they're just showing classic films?), but their flyers are designed to fold up into cootie catcher. Bonus!

It's only running through this weekend (during which time I'll be in Paris), but I really want to try to catch a showing of Andy Warhol's archives and properly attend the festival (aka be cognizant of the fact I am at a festival).

I've never actually been to a film festival before (hence why this was included as a new thing) and, since I didn't even know this was a festival, it clearly wasn't overly exciting. However, getting to see the Filmmuseum (where I assume a lot of the festivals take place) and how spectacular it is (huge old building with a red curtain and proscenium arch around the silver screen) motivated me to actually pay attention to any more festivals that might be happening while I'm here. There was some talk of a horror film fest...

And now the Lorax. With a classic red phone booth:

Cool Britannia

2010-04-07T14:17:00.006-06:00

Before I say anything else, let me first address the title of this entry. The term "cool Britannia," a play on the traditional song "Rule, Britannia!" was thrown around a lot when Tony Blair first came into power. Right now, Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, has called for parliament to be dissolved and the future of the Labour Party is totally up in the air. Despite my Liberal Democrat leanings, I have a soft spot for Gordon Brown. Dunno why, really. I do, however, know perfectly why I do NOT want David Cameron and the Conservatives to be put into power. Even a coalition party would be better than that.

Is any other American as excited about this as I am? Seriously. Let me know if you are so we can be best friends.

So, while the announcement about elections and everything was happening in London, I was actually there to see it all first hand.

Ok, not really. I walked by the Houses of Parliament once to gawk at the hundreds of media camps set up to report on the unfolding events...but other than that, I was just bumming around London while it was all going around.

I took side trips to a few other towns in England and will probably be devoting a blog entry to each of them in the near future (though possibly not so near because I'm off to Paris in two days). As yet, I'm not sure how I want to chronicle my time in London on this blog. I mean, pretty much, I stalked ministers of parliament, ate a ton of fish and chips, hung out with some girls from Turkey and accidentally washed my hair with hand lotion.

If I think of some interesting way to present my wayward adventures in London, I'll let you know.

Until then, enjoy the first of many photos of the Lorax in the UK.

20 New Things: Try Indonesian Cuisine

2010-04-03T13:11:00.000-06:00

FINALLY an official 20 New Things post. I've half done a few other things on the list or am about to do them so more of these entries are forthcoming.

The Dutch colonized most (all of?) Indonesia back in the Imperial age and, because they captured a bunch of them and brought them back here, Holland is known for its Indonesian food.

Originally, I was going to get another "new thing" out of the way today by eating at the Sea Palace Floating Restaurant, but it turns out they have exorbitant prices. So, that's probably not going to happen, but Indonesian did!

My roommate and I pretty much just picked the cheapest Indonesian sit-down restaurant on google and hoped it would be alright. Turns out it's a local favorite.

As I'm headed to England in the morning (slash a few hours), I had my camera at home charging for the trip and completely forgot I would want to take photos at the restaurant. So, I had to use my iPhone in a place with really bad lighting.

I got a simple vegetarian rice dish. It said it came with soy sauce, but the sauce was actually much sweeter and thicker than soy sauce. No complaints though, it was delicious. The menu also said it would come with eggs. Fried eggs are my favorite part of any stir-fry so I was a bit disappointed when my meal didn't seem to have any eggs. After a few bites, however, I discovered that instead of fried egg yolks, there were slices of hardboiled egg whites.

Another thing that stuck out, what made it Indonesian I guess, was the addition of airy cracker sort of things.

The cracker things are at the back of the plate. The way they were served on my plate, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to mix them in with the rest of the food or eat them as a side. I ended up ignoring most of them because they didn't taste too great on their own. I think they would've been really good in soup. I mostly say this because after a few had soaked in some stray sauce for a while, they were much more tasty.

Obligatory photo proving I ate Indonesian food.

All in all, I didn't find Indonesian much different than generic Asian food. I was expecting it to be really spicy (like Thai) or have some other distinguishing characteristic. Perhaps after eating more of it and exploring more dishes, I'll be able to find what makes it stand out from other cuisines. However, if the Dutch's treatment of Chinese and Indonesian as synynoms in terms of food is any indication, Indonesian food might not be unique after all.

American Food

2010-03-25T07:30:00.001-06:00

Recently, Fed Up: The School Lunch Project asked readers what they thought represents the American food culture. The point of the question was that American food is often portrayed as junk food and that we should be fighting against that stereotype. I wholeheartedly agree. I am quite concerned about the state of the American food industry/culture and the effect it is having on ourselves, the environment and future generations.

The Fed Up blog is a day to day look at one elementary school in the USA and the horrible "food" it is serving students. One point being brought up endlessly in the comments from current and ex-students is that if the bad junk food options are there, they'll eat them.

I am a product of the American public school lunch system and its unhealthy choices.

Today, I discovered a US Food Store just a few blocks from the university library. It's filled with every over processed, preservative filled, high fructose corn syrup snack food you could imagine. The food is there. So I bought it. And I will continue to buy it. Because Pop Tarts are delicious and I'm a hypocrite. Mmmm.

That's all I got for today and a good thing too because there weren't prices displayed next to anything and I ended up paying WAY more than I would have for this food in the US.

I'm being played by dirty sales tricks in order to pay for food that is ridiculously unhealthy for me....and I can't find it in me to care because I have root beer!

Those who have been following my twitter are aware of the withdrawals I have been having from lack of root beer. There is no root beer in the Netherlands (except in US food stores, apparently). When I asked my program advisor to verify this for me, she said, "Hmm, I don't think I've ever had root beer. I guess in Holland you just drink regular beer as a kid."

To be honest, I don't really drink a ton of root beer back home. In fact, I don't really eat any of the stuff in the US Food Store too often. I suppose you never miss it until you can't have it.

Have I Mentioned How Much I Love Steampunk Anything?

2010-03-23T14:54:00.002-06:00

Last winter, I wrote about a steampunk/fifties looking PC. Now, a guy is doing it for Macs. Only his are completely steampunk. No trying to dim it down to look more normal.

Amazing, right? Ok, well, it's amazing to those of us who like to pretend the Victorian era is still alive and well.

I'm pretty sure he custom makes desktops and keyboards for mac or pc hardware, but he certainly makes it clear on his site which team he is on.

Typewriter keys! Ah, I LOVE typewriter keys!

I can't quite decide if I would be more likely to buy this full steampunk model or the sleek, steampunk/fifties model. I think I would wait to buy this one until I'm rich and eccentric (cause, y'know, that's my undisputed future).

Assuming you could afford it, which would you choose?

Sabbath Manifesto

2010-03-22T13:07:00.002-06:00

Sabbath Manifesto is a group (well meaning, but admittedly, with a bit of cult-y feel) put together for the purpose of discouraging technology, particularly for the tech-addicted. This year, they started the National Day of Unplugging, which occurred on March 20th. Naturally, I heard about it on March 21st.

I am kicking myself for not hearing about this project until after it happened. It would have been perfect to do my tech-free day (part of my 20 New Things experiment) on the National Day of Unplugging. Alas, I'll have to go at it alone.

In reading through Sabbath Manifesto's website, I decided I should try to go tech-free one day out of every month. On a personal note, I am VERY tied to all of my electronics. On a broader scale, I am in full support of national/international hours/days of shutting down electricity in order to conserve both energy and sanity in our tech-reliant world.

Clearly addicted face right there.

Having days where I don't use technology has actually been something I've considered since I was eight. I had quite a few friends growing up whose families abstained from technology on Saturdays. Some were Orthodox Jews and others were of the vegan environmentalist homeschooled genre. Either way, I thought they were crazy at the time. How could you go a whole day without television??

While I have long since passed the days of daily (or even weekly) television watching, I would now ask my friends, "how could you go a whole day without the internet?" I guess addictions change.

The Lorax is also addicted to his technology.

If I really want to try going tech-free once a month, it will require lots of planning. Most of my homework tends to rely on my computer and I will definitely admit to being paranoid about keeping my phone on me incase of sudden apocalypse/car crash/attempted murder. I'd also have to set my own boundaries. For example, will driving my car be allowed? What about an electric stove or microwave? Strictly speaking, I should abstain from all of the aforementioned, but most likely I'll allow them.

With the exception of my one no-tech day before my birthday, I think I'll wait until I'm back home in the States to intiate monthly no-tech days.

Anyone else ever tried or thought about trying a no-tech day? What would be hardest to give up?

Springtime

2010-03-16T12:01:00.002-06:00

Today is absolutely gorgeous. It is the warmest, brightest and least windy day of the year so far in Amsterdam.

As the weather is so nice, I was thrilled when my Art History professor announced we would not stay cooped up in the classroom for three hours; rather, we were going to bike over to the Jewish Historical Museum to look at a few pieces by Marc Chagall and other artists.

Professor and student leading the group

It was utterly sublime to bike in a group of about twenty merry students in the sunny, cool air. We followed our spunky old woman of a professor as she alternately pointed out historic gems of the city and made fun of students in the group.

The museum is actually a refurbished amalgam of three old synagogues. We did not spend time in the actual historic exhibits at the museum. Instead, we viewed the art work which had been originally commissioned by Willem Wolff Beffie. Two pieces stood out to me. The first was Marc Chagall's "The Violinist."

When I saw it, I was immediately inspired to direct a production of Fiddler on the Roof in which the set would be entirely inspired by this painting. Not just inspired, but duplicated. Each set piece would be a whimsical 3-dimensional rendering of the painting and the fiddler himself, that enigmatic character, would be costumed exactly like the violinist in the painting, right down to the green skin and blue hair.

The second painting that caught my attention was a work of Mondrian. In his early career, Piet Mondrian painted spiritual works that, in my opinion, are very beautiful. He soon, however, turned to the abstract with his famous geometric paintings.

While I've learned to appreciate the technique involved, I still don't really enjoy these paintings. None the less, I was very excited to finally see an abstract Mondrian in real life for the sole purpose of re-living this episode of Arthur:

The painting makes its appearance at 2:31

I knew the blue skies could turn to gray any minute. So, I took a few photos of the radiant city while biking home. The forecast does not look good for St. Patrick's Day, but at least I have these photos to remember the good weather by.

Homesick?

2010-03-15T16:06:00.003-06:00

Who fails as a blogger? That would be me.

I wish I could say that I've been terribly busy going to concerts and traveling across Europe. The sad truth is that I have been doing absolutely nothing. Really. I haven't even had homework for the past four days. How do I take advantage of my free time? Laying in bed and listening to Harry Potter audiobooks for almost a week straight.

No worries though. Life is on the verge of becoming very hectic. I have plans to go to Maastricht, London, Cambridge, Oxford, Stratford and Paris in the coming month. In addition to that, classes will be picking up the pace with more assignments and presentations. Oh and that list of 20 New Things to try before I turn 20? I haven't forgotten about it. I've got my work cut out for me for the next month and a half (Wait...only a month and a half until I'm no longer a teenager? NO!!! I must pack in as much reckless and ridiculous behavior as possible in the coming weeks!).

As I plan all of these trips and outings, I can't help feeling a twinge of homesickness. Not like pining for my family and the comfort of my own bed. I'm just kind of missing aspects of American life, particularly aspects I never thought I would miss.

Like driving my car. I hate traffic. I hate the necessity of driving a car. And I hate my faulty alarm system. Nonetheless, I completely miss putting the windows down, accelerating as fast as I can and blasting my latest music discoveries. I've found substantially less new artists since being here because I do so much of my music listening while driving...which I don't do here.

Look at that 2002 Corolla. So sexy. How can you not miss that?

There are also somethings that I don't think I even liked while in the States, but which I find myself suddenly craving. Namely, Dr. Pepper. This is something a few people told me to indulge in before leaving Texas, but, not being a huge soda drinker myself (except for rootbeer and ohemgee there is NO ROOTBEER ANYWHERE IN HOLLAND!!), I didn't bother having a last glass of Dr. Pepper or anything. Now, I'm totally craving it simply because there isn't any.

Another thing there isn't any of? Nature. I realized today that I can't remember the last time I saw a tree. Those tiny ones planted in the middle of sidewalks don't count. I'm talking about a real tree. Surrounded by grass. So old that you can't reach your arms around it. Where are those? I want one.

Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. Tree. They don't count!!

Lucky for Amsterdam that he's such an awesome city or else I might have to punch him in the face for his epic lack of nature and Dr. Pepper.

Oh, and I haven't forgotten about him either.

Once I actually visit some exciting places, the Lorax will be back with a vigor. Until then, I'll try to keep writing about life in Amsterdam even when my personal life is exceedingly boring.

Netherlands versus GRYFFINDOR!

2010-03-04T14:11:00.005-07:00

Wow, it's been a long time. Almost a week longer than I initially promised? I'm having blog-writing withdrawals.

After finishing my epic amounts of work, I got sick. This happens to me so often. As soon as I'm no longer super busy, my body peaces out.

Despite having tiny chicken disease, I went with the rest of my students in my program yesterday to see the Netherlands versus USA football game.

I'm not a big fan of sports events, typically speaking, but I was WAY excited for this game. I bought a Netherlands jersey and made sure all of my accessories were team colors (blue leggings, orange socks, etc.). I definitely thought that the number on the jersey I bought at the souvenir shop was going to be either an outdated player or a really sucky one because I always think people are trying to trick tourists. However, #19 Klass Jan Huntelaar definitely ended up being the star of the game.

A lot of people on facebook have been criticizing me for rooting for Netherlands instead of my home country. Here are my arguments
1. I didn't want to get beat up. The USA fans consisted of about ten people.
2. I've never followed sports before so I have zero allegiance to the USA team.
3. I don't have much allegiance to the USA, period.
4. I will take any excuse to wear orange.
5. As a classmate so aptly put it, "I want to root for the winning team."

The US scored that one point in the last four minutes of the game. It was insane! There was totally a chance the game was going to end in a tie during overtime.

Said critics may be proud of me, however, because I think I might actually start following football now. I really got into the game and I actually understand most of it, having played for most of my childhood.

Oh, to explain the title. Before the game started, my friend asked me what I thought the final score would be and I replied, "I bet Netherlands wins, but the US gets the snitch." (Those of you who do not get that reference, shame on you. Go read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Now. RIGHT NOW!) Later in the game, I got this text from my roommate, who was sitting in a different part of the stadium,

Best roommate ever?

A Fail Whale of a Day

2010-02-23T15:39:00.004-07:00

This woeful tale has no accompanying pictures. Therefore, enjoy these pictures from my iPhone library (and a lego Fail Whale) while I recount the events of yesterday in the lives of my roommate, our friend and myself.

FAIL #1
I had woken up early to spend a few hours studying at the public library before meeting my Dutch class there for a walking tour of the city. Just minutes after leaving my study space, I realized I left my phone there. When I went back for it, it was gone. I asked two employees and a security guard if someone had turned in a phone. They all looked at me like I was stupid. Awesome.

FAIL #2
Phoneless, I met my class for the walking tour. We then spent the next two hours on what would have been a highly interesting historical tour of Amsterdam if it hadn't been freezing and pouring rain the entire time. I really shouldn't complain about this. I insisted on not wearing boots when I got dressed that morning. My toes have since regained feeling, but they have not forgiven me.

FAIL #3
Arriving back in my warm apartment, I was surprised to see my roommate home when she was supposed to have been out with a friend. She told me that she made it about three blocks on her bike in the rain and decided it was not going to happen.

FAIL #4
Figuring she would at least make something out of her trek into the thrashing wind and rain, she decided to pick up a few (much needed) groceries at the nearby Albert Heijn. When she got in the grocery store, she realized she only had 5 euro. What does one buy when equipped with a mere five euros and a long list of necessities like paper towels? Pudding mix, duh.

WHALE
Yeah, then the day got better and we ate lots of food and watched Sherlock Holmes with our building. Particularly considering the food consumed, this part of the day was really more "whale" than "fail."

FAIL #5
As we were getting ready for bed, we heard the familiar rhythmic knock of one of our hallmates. He had been locked out of his room and needed to stay the night. (NOTE: our doors lock automatically behind us and we are not allowed to call on the RAs past 9 pm) It turns out, he had had a girl over to his place for a dinner date and, just seconds after a perfect goodbye, he noticed she had left her mittens. He ran down the hall and caught her just in time to hand her the mittens...and to hear his door shut, locked, behind him. Shoeless. Phoneless. He ended the date on an awkward note and spent the night on our cushions.

Honestly, despite the FMyLife.com theme of the day, it was truly an enjoyable day. I mean, really, who can complain when your roommate specially makes you soy milk pudding?

Pictures from top to bottom:
1. K & L (Kate and Lauren) eat T-Giving (Thanksgiving). A documentary drawing by Kate Bristol.
2. When he's drunk, the Lorax thinks he can speak to the trees. Pfft, weirdo.
3. I really got dealt the letters "OMGITIS," in that order, during a game of Words with Friends.
4. My carry-on bag to Amsterdam consisted almost entirely of cheetos.
5. A worm (or, perhaps, a noodle) at Mr. Chopsticks in Denton.

One more fail:
I'm going to be continuing my streak of being M.I.A. on this blog until about Saturday as I'm working on a project that is wholly consuming my life. I'm talking the not eating, sleeping or changing clothes level of devotion. To those who read my blog to be assured that I'm alive and well, know that the alive part still stands while I'm not blogging this week.

The Tale of My Lost Glove

2010-02-17T13:26:00.002-07:00

I decided this story worked better as a video.

Pancakes and Wilhem II - Doorn, The Netherlands

2010-02-14T08:01:00.012-07:00

This weekend, I visited Doorn, a town in the Utrecht province of the Netherlands where Wilhelm II of Prussia lived (and died) after being exiled in 1918. He lived in Huis Doorn, a manor dating back to the 15th century.

Being exiled, Wilhelm took all of his hundreds of thousands of possessions with him and stuffed them into the tiny manor. 90% of the possessions remain, which makes touring the manor look like a combination of the tv shows Cribs and Hoarders.

Though photography wasn't allowed inside the manor, I did learn that Wilhelm II was an incredibly strange man. For example, someone once told him that one can think of the greatest ideas while on the back of a horse. So, Wilhelm had special stools made out of saddles for all of his offices, that way he could have great ideas while sitting at his desk.

Wilhelm also enjoyed playing hide and seek on his steamboat with his crew and gave his second wife a photo of his first wife as an engagement present.

Before exploring the inner workings of Wilhelm II's mind, we stopped for traditional Dutch pannekoeken at this restaurant:

BEFORE

AFTER

Yes, they were huge and delicious and kind of looked like pizza. A pannenkoek is a (much) larger, flatter version of a normal pancake or a larger, thicker version of a crepe. I thought they were more like crepes than pancakes, but no one else seemed to agree with me. They are typically made with fruits, cheese, eggs or meats baked into them or put on top and can also be eaten with sugar and syrup.

I had a simple apple pannenkoek, but as you can see, it was still epically huge. I would like to note that I was the second person of about twenty to finish eating mine.

We also had a plate full of miniature pannenkoeken, which were just pieces of cooked pancake batter dipped in butter and powdered sugar. Like all baking scraps turned delicacies, they were freaking delicious.

Vlog-ish

2010-02-09T11:57:00.001-07:00

My school has decided to implement video blogs into our written student blogs. I don't particularly like the first one I made, but I thought I'd share it here anyways since I haven't had anything to write about for a while.

Oh, also, my heat is out. That also means my hot water is not working. At least it gives me a legitimate excuse not to shower. "why does that girl smell so bad? ga-awd." "her hot water isn't working." "oh ok, chill."

20 New Things

2010-02-05T13:52:00.003-07:00

On New Years, I mentioned that I was planning on joining the "new things" phenomenon that has been hitting bloggers, most notably Sarah Von (she also may have started it, I'm not sure). The idea is that you try one new thing for every year old you will be turning in the coming year. I'm getting started quite late, but I wanted to wait until I got to Amsterdam to finalize and begin my list.

My list is pretty European/tourist specific this year. Next year, when I'm not living out of a suitcase, it will be easier to do crafts or projects as opposed to "go here" and "see this." Nonetheless, I am very excited to get started on trying all of these new things before my 20th birthday on May 4th.

1.    Try Indonesian cuisine
2.    Buy and learn to use a fountain pen
3.    Attend a concert in Glasgow, Scotland
4.    Spend time at a café in Montmarte, France
5.    Go to Electric Ladyland
6.    Create a model of an Amsterdam neighborhood using food
7.    Climb to the top of Dom Tower in Utrecht
8.    Eat at the Sea Palace Floating Restaurant
9.    See the cages at St. Lambert’s Church in Münster, Germany
10.    Ride my bike through the Dutch countryside
11.    Go to a football (soccer) game
12.    Eat only gluten-free foods for a day
13.    Have an extended conversation with a local
14.    Read the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
15.    Send a postcard to no one in particular
16.    Attend a film festival
17.    Spend a day only speaking Dutch (or else not speaking)
18.    Eat a true croissant in France
19.    Have a no-tech day (with the exception of keeping my required emergency phone on)
20.    Open for suggestions : )

I've been asking people on twitter and my friends here in Amsterdam for suggestions for my final new thing and extend the request to readers here.

photo via

Picasso

2010-02-03T15:59:00.002-07:00

The other night, a group of about half a dozen of us American girls were walking back from a borrel at the international building (as far as I can tell, a borrel is a sort of welcome party). There was fresh slush covering the icy ground though nothing was falling from the sky. As we paused at an intersection, an old man rounded the turn on his bicycle, not seeing the black ice, and fell down with a crash directly in front of us.

We disentangled him from his bike and tried to communicate to him, but he either didn't speak English or was too shocked to get any words out. It was only his leg that was hurt, but as he put his legs out in front of him, his right foot had turned an entire ninety degrees towards his left leg. With his leg at such a gruesome angle, he could hardly move, let alone walk. All we could do to keep him from being run over was to crowd as many of us around him as possible to make sure the cars or bikes would see us.

Several Dutch people showed up just as we had gotten the emergency number on the line, which was incredibly fortuitous as we realized too late that none of us yet speak Dutch and we couldn't relay the cross road information.

The ambulance came very quickly and it looked like the old man would be fine except for a slow recovery from his leg injury.

The look of terrorized confusion, but seeming lack of pain in the old man's eyes while he sat crouched on the slick ice mesmerized me. His face stuck with me for the rest of that night and through the next day until I was sitting in the first meeting of my Art of the 20th Century course. The lecture was on Picasso and my professor ended with his final self-portrait painted only months before his death.

This was the old man. I had found him again on a screen in a darkly lit classroom just a block from where I had last seen him.

It is Picasso and it is the old man. It is every person knowingly approaching the end of their rope. The haggard terror concentrated in the eyes waning into a straight mouth, numb from exhaustion...or an emotion I can't yet know. Whatever the case may be, it is a testament to Picasso's ability to perceive and represent that his works are able to penetrate precise sensations behind the figures he saw in reality and evoke those same sensations in figures we have seen in our lives.

In other news, I bought a bike today.

A Day in Utrecht

2010-01-31T13:40:00.009-07:00

Utrecht is about an hour south of Amsterdam, but still located in the North Holland province. From literature I read about it, Utrecht really prides itself on being better than Amsterdam in every way. After visiting there, I saw that they kind of have a point.

We started the morning at Kasteel de Haar, which is actually a fake castle. It's not a fake castle in the way that Disney World or Medieval Times in the States are fake castles. As far as I can figure out, it's a fake castle because the restoration of it in the nineteenth century was not accurate enough. It was a real castle two thousand years ago, but had since fallen and was then rebuilt in the late 1800s. The architect, Pierre Cuypers, combined both neo-gothic and neo-renaissance styles to perfect the look that its nineteenth century owners were looking for. Apparently, this de-legitimized it as a genuine castle. I'm a little hazy on the details.

The restoration also included a re-modeling of the exterior grounds and gardens. The weather restricted us from getting a feel for the horticultural artistry, but the snow made it look like Narnia. That's something, right?

uhm, I like gargoyles?

Utrecht itself is like a smaller version of Amsterdam, canals and all. It seemed a bit cleaner and nicer, but also much busier. There were TONS of people shopping in the flea market and department store. In fact, there were just a lot more people EVERYWHERE.

Here is a photo of Dom Tower, the tallest church tower in the Netherlands, taken from the base of the tower. Before I leave, I'm going to climb all the way to the top and not let my semi-fear of heights discourage me.

I honestly have no idea what this photo is of, but it was the view from under the arch of the Dom Tower and it is gorgeous.

We saw this poor guy while passing over one of the canals. The idea of making something that is ordinarily so perfect and innocent into something morbid, in such a beautiful location, really stuck with me. I feel like it requires no back story even if there is one.

LES ADVENTURES DU LORAX

I mentioned in the previous blog that I would soon be beginning a new project. I have decided to photograph the Lorax in all of the places that I go to, particularly recognizable sites. Twitter friends have already seen a few sneak peeks at the Lorax in boring places, but I'll begin with where I begin on this trip, at Het Funen in Amsterdam.

The Lorax overlooking Amsterdam from the rooftop terrace of Funen.

Everything Starts At the Seam

2010-01-29T14:28:00.006-07:00

I have finally made my way to Amsterdam and am working on getting adjusted to life here. Unpacking might help.

So far, I've done a lot of orientation-ing, which is completely unfun. I love all the informative stuff (particularly a brief history of Amsterdam lecture this afternoon) and the practical instructions, but I could do without people expecting me to talk to them. I'm not completely misanthropic, but I don't like meeting people when they're in cheery-show-off-the-best-part-of-my-personality mode. I prefer making friends by sharing a conversation about Harry and the Potters at a coffee house.

One of the fun parts of orientation was a canal ride through the city. Here's a few photos from the canals as well as some from my first morning of wandering around. You can tell which were taken on the canal because those have a dirty glass filter (I definitely did not expect it to be an enclosed canal).

The view from just about every single block in Amsterdam.

A lot of the houses are crooked with the front faces looking like they're about to fall off. They're all so narrow because, when most of them were being built in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, they were taxed based on width.

Centraal Station (to write in Dutch, add extra vowels to everything) is one of my favorite buildings in the city and I get to go to it multiple times a day so I look forward to taking many more photos of it.

Anchored outside of the science museum, Nemo, is a pirate ship!

Being a pirate ship is already cool, but having Hermes on it makes it officially the coolest ship in the entire world. Poseidon is also on the ship, but I can only bring myself to care about him thanks to Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series (which, by the way, is completely awesome and everyone should read it so I have someone besides ten year-old boys to talk to about it).

This is a Chinese floating restaurant. How effing awesome is that? It's modeled after the original one in China (I think). The original seats 5,000 patrons, but this one is much smaller. I most definitely intend on going here at some point.

Another photo of an Amsterdam street. You can see the falling fronts of the houses a bit better from this angle. These ones aren't too precarious as compared to others I've seen. At the top of the gables are hooks that Amsterdammers use for moving. Since all of the front doors/hallways are so narrow, all of the furniture goes out through the windows when they move.

Earlier today, we turned down an alley and I saw a Christian hostel. I was not expecting to see anything overtly Christian (besides churches) in Amsterdam. It came as a bit of a shock. A few meters on, there was a mannequin in a red lit display case. Then the mannequin moved! It was a real woman and we were in the Red Light District! And there's a Christian hostel in the Red Light District?

Fortunately, it was still daylight out and there were about seven of us so we didn't feel in any danger. We just rushed through without doing anything and went on our way. I couldn't take any photos because I have been advised not to do so. My first meeting of Intro to Sexual Studies is supposed to include a trip to the Red Light District. I doubt I'll be able to take photos then either, but I'll be able to include a more descriptive blog about it.

I have two projects planned for the blog while I'm in Amsterdam (one of which I've mentioned before). They should surface sometime within in the week. For now, look out for some photos/commentary of Utrecht on Sunday.

Providence, RI

2010-01-25T09:59:00.005-07:00

When I was in Boston, my friend and I took a day trip over to Providence to visit my top-choice (and slightly out of grasp) university for transfer.

This is the student center (I think?) for Rhode Island School of Design. It was also the inspiration for the opening scene of Beauty and the Beast.

From the Brown green. I should have had one of us stand beside it as a scale because it was freaking huge.

More from Brown. Even in the snowy, glum weather it's pretty.

My requirement for schools? Must have ivy.

Don't look at the marquee. That's not what is important here. What is important is the words on top of and below the marquee. This is the FIRST Baptist church in America. Like, actually the first. Founded by Roger Williams. Completely beyond awesome. Roger Williams was such a badass.

When my friend and I first entered the atrium of the Amtrak station looking for a map, we saw a huge photo of this building and I joked, "let's go there!" I was so excited to actually stumble upon it later! I could have taken a million more pictures of the intricate architecture, but we were hurrying to get back to our train.

Providence is an arts center so you know everything there is going to be weirdly gorgeous and awesome. The neighborhood up near Brown and RISD had lots of fantastic looking buildings like the two shown. They really highlight the rustic, European style I always imagine New England buildings having. If you ever get a chance to go to Providence, follow Washington St. to where it splits into Waterman and Thomas. Then walk up both of them. You will not be disappointed.

Boston, MA

2010-01-20T08:51:00.004-07:00

I jetted over to Boston to visit a friend of mine earlier this week. I think I stayed a grand total of 39 hours and forgot to bring my camera charger. Ergo, I did not take very many photos.

Despite the lack of photographic evidence, I did get to see a lot of cool things. We spent one evening in Harvard Square. Drinking hot boba tea for the first time (which takes a few sips to get used to, but is just as delicious as cold boba), we perused the bargain basement of the largest Urban Outfitters I've ever seen and split a noodle dish at my beloved Wagamama.

Being in Harvard Square, we obviously couldn't leave without seeing Harvard itself. So, we turned through one of its gated entrances along the bustling sidewalk and all was immediately silent. I was amazed at how calm and almost somber the campus was. Just behind the brick walls was a noisy, clambering city square, but here the monumental buildings preserved sacred academia.

The fresh snow on the greens was still untrod and the stillness of the whole place was getting to me. So, after a failed attempt at a snow ball fight, I decided to disrupt the perfect, glistening blankets of snow by leaving my mark (at least until the next snowfall came in a few hours).

What I enjoyed most about Boston was simply that it is a city. My permanent residence as well as my old school are in suburban towns, which can be very asphyxiating. Besides that, growing up in suburbia means I'm always a little rusty at normal city life. Using public transportation without looking like an idiot, for example.

It was also great to be in the snow. This time next week I will be in The Netherlands and it will be very very very cold. So, I was glad for the opportunity to test drive my snow gear in the four inches that blanketed the sidewalks my first night in Boston.

To indicate how different that is from my normal life: it's January (as you all know). I am sitting on my mom's apartment patio barefoot wearing a tank top and looking down at people swimming in the unheated pool. I actually can hear a train in the background, but it is not any form of public transportation. It is a tourist train that people drive in their cars to get to and sit for an hour while cowboys entertain them.

Yes, this Texan will be experiencing quite the culture shock (and, perhaps, frost bite) come next week.

Thankfully, I got a little taste of it (in a rustic, New England type of way) with one of my good friends to show me the ropes. Now, perhaps, I won't fall flat on my face in the snow as I struggle to get out my bus pass.

Fort Worth Stock Show

2010-01-16T10:07:00.005-07:00

Yesterday, I dug out my cowboy boots from the back of my closet to have one last truly Texan hurrah before leaving the country.

The Fort Worth Stock Show happens every year, but despite having lived here for seventeen years, I don't think I've ever actually been to it until now.

Basically, it's your typical carnival + lots of animals + lots of cowboys + the rodeo. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go to the rodeo because it was sold out, but we did get to play with lots of cows and horses and goats and llamas and alpacas and ducks and chickens and rabbits.

Yeah, we were the only adults in the Petting Zoo.

It turns out that baby goats look and act just like puppies. Adorable.

I really liked this alpaca. His teeth gave him such personality. We named him Nigel.

This was the first time I've ever seen an automated milker. I stared a little longer than was natural.

I think I was more fascinated with watching the people at the Stock Show than the animals. Even though I live in Texas, it's not in a very Texan area. All of the people at the Stock Show came from smaller Texas towns and are legitimate cowboys whose rugged farm clothes put my friend and I's dress cowboy boots and skinny jeans to shame. It was such a different world to me that I felt like I was sight-seeing on vacation as opposed to spending the afternoon a half hour from home.

As my friend said to me at one point, this is what everyone in Amsterdam will think of when I tell them I'm from Texas. Rodeos, cowboy boots, deep southern accents and the sharp aroma of manure.

Well, I don't know if they would think of that last one. The smell of farmer's fuel is something so often left out of picturesque notions of the West. One thing I do know, however, is that I will not be seeing anything like the Stock Show in The Netherlands. So, I was glad to get in a bit of hometown culture before departing to a completely foreign society.

Only in Texas.

How to Turn a Book into an eReader Case

2010-01-12T20:32:00.017-07:00

So far the selection for eReader cases is pretty slim. Except for some great cases on etsy, I haven't found any that I'm completely in love with yet. And for the price most of these covers run, I'd really have to be in love with one to buy it.

So, if you're short on money (like me), picky (also like me) or opposed to leather (of which most brand name eReader cases are made), here's one cool way to make a cheap, awesome case using a book and materials from around the house.

MATERIALS:
Book
Old sweatshirt
Sewing machine
Cardboard cutter
Hot glue gun
Optional scrap material, ribbons or buttons for decoration

STEP ONE: FIND A COOL BOOK
It also has to be a book you won't mind ripping the pages out of. For this search, my friend and I went to Recycled Books to find a cheap one.

My friend trying to find books that were large (and slim) enough to fit a Kindle.

Our favorite choice was Story Town in the upper right corner. Isn't it the perfect name for an eReader? In the end, it didn't make the cut.

I ended up choosing The Scandalous Adventures of Reynard the Fox, which is the exact perfect size to hold my Kindle.

I just couldn't resist the emblem of that sly fox on the cover.

STEP TWO: TAKE OUT THE PAGES

Use a cardboard cutter to detach the binding.

I took extra care with the title page because I wanted to use it for decoration.

After that, I just ripped out the rest as one. It takes a bit of maneuvering and slicing of the threads.

Voilà!

Here's a picture of the title page I attached to the inside cover. Rubber cement worked like a charm.

STEP THREE: CREATE THE CUSHY POUCH

I used an old sweatshirt I didn't mind cutting up to create a comfy pouch to protect my Kindle.

Sadly, the only sweatshirt I was willing to part with was a jarring shade of red that clashes awfully with the book, but when it's all closed up, you can't see the bright red TOO much.

Sew the material into a 6x9 inch pouch (other dimensions may apply for Kindle DX and other eReaders).

STEP FOUR: HOT GLUE THE POUCH TO THE BOOK

First, I wanted to cover up the stringy, remnants of the spine with some ribbon I found in my mom's scrap sewing box.

Close up of the ribbon

Hot glue the pouch with the open side facing in so the eReader won't fall out.

Here's where you can see how AWFUL that red sweatshirt looks next to the aged book, but hey, I didn't want to pay for material.

STEP FIVE: ADD YOUR eREADER!

Normal book....

eReader!

I'm thinking about adding a faux latch attached with velcro for extra security. The latch could also help pull in the color of the pouch (which I fully intend to change once I get some better scrap material) and give it some much needed embellishment --- I like the aged look, but this particular book could use some color.

Total Cost: $15 for the used book

For the finished product, you get both a soft and a hard case that is completely personalized and way cheaper than the cases on the market now. Plus, I haven't seen any made out of books yet.

Art-O-Mat

2010-01-11T12:41:00.005-07:00

Scattered across the US are refurbished cigarette machines called Art-O-Mats. If you put in five dollars, you get a piece of original artwork. Like those little machines at pizza parlors, you don't know exactly what you're going to get.

My friend and I found an Art-O-Mat near us and put in a few tokens each.

I ended up with a necklace and a little block with a monster painted on it.

I wanted a model robot, but they were sold out. That's always my luck with vending machines.

The Art-O-Mat is a pretty awesome idea and it led us to find another art gallery nearby. It's always nice to know that there's a bit of culture in our humdrum suburban neighborhood.

Grad School Will Make You Crazy

2010-01-06T23:49:00.010-07:00

I just read The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe. It's the second book I've read recently that switches between historical fiction and modern day, where a grad student is attempting to write their thesis. Eventually, the events of the historical fiction chapters end up becoming the subject of said thesis.

The other book I read of similar construct was My Name Is Will: A Novel of Sex, Drugs and Shakespeare by Jess Winfield, which is about a lazy Shakespeare grad student at the University of California at Santa Cruz whose professor parents stupidly named him Will Shakespeare Greenberg and who spends most of his time smoking shrooms. The climax occurs when present-day Will eats an effing huge shroom and trips that he's gone back in time to the Elizabethan age at the exact same time that sixteenth century Will eats something mysterious from an apothecary and also goes into a psychedelic stupor.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane was much more low-key. It featured an overachieving heroine and didn't try to claim the existence of drug-induced time travel. It did, however, claim that at least one of the witches of the Salem witch trials practiced magic and that magic exists to this day.

The novel was written by a current grad student and its insane plot, as well as that of the similarly structured My Name Is Will, led me to the question:

Is grad school really so horrific that students go crazy and start thinking the subjects they're researching actually exist?

Then, they realize that the thesis they've written is actually a work of fiction so they end up publishing a novel instead of a dissertation and have to remain in grad school forever?!

Because if that's the case, I kind of don't want to go to grad school anymore. Well, maybe I do because I'd love to publish a novel...but seriously, more and more fictional novels are being published by grad students. And, based on the general absurdity of these two novels, grad students are really losing their grip with reality.

Besides that though, I thoroughly enjoyed both books. Especially My Name Is Will. Who doesn't love mistaken poaching and hallucinogenic jaunts amid pastures of manure?

20 New Things Update
Here's a few ideas I've come up with for my list of 20 new things before I turn 20:

Eat Indonesian food
Buy (and use) a fountain pen
See a concert in Glasgow
Read a nonfiction book all the way through

Just a few ideas. Suggestions more than welcome.

Kindle: A (Very Long and Comprehensive) Review

2010-01-04T11:08:00.022-07:00

I am in love.

With my Kindle.

Even the box made me happy.

Y'know, not to sound materialistic or anything.

Seriously though, what a fine creation. Before I get anyone claiming that I'm a traitor to real books, that I'm encouraging the death of books, let me share my reasoning behind my purchase of (and love for) an eBook reader.

If you are strictly a bibliophile, a collector a books, someone who is aspiring for a Beauty and the Beast library and who gets off from the smell of books, but who doesn't actually read that much, then, no, eBook readers are not for you. However, I have rarely found such a bibliophile who isn't also addicted to reading. People who love collecting books, typically love reading them too. And reading a lot. eBook readers are perfect for people who always have a book with them and can't put them down.

eBook readers allow you to keep reading while you eat or knit or lay in that perfectly comfortable position, which, as we all know, is usually impossible because the pages won't stay open. If you're as addicted to me, you have probably rigged up meticulous book holders across your house. When I was little, I used to prop the Harry Potter books behind the faucets of my bathroom sink while I brushed my teeth.

The Kindle, in particular, has a text to speech feature on (almost) all books from Amazon and all of your personal documents. So, if you're in the middle of a climactic moment, but it's time to go to work, you can turn on text to speech and have your kindle read to you while you get dressed or drive.

There are about a gajillion more reasons why the Kindle is an amazing tool for readers, but know that you can reconcile your bibliophile-ness with owning an eBook reader. I'm definitely not going to stop buying real life books (I bought one just this evening, Breaking the Spell by Daniel Dennett), but the Kindle is amazingly convenient and sublime.

If you're still not convinced (or if you are looking for more information about this particular eBook reader), I have elucidated on about half of those gajillion reasons why I love the Kindle in the following (terrifyingly long) review.

Travel

If you're a person who reads a lot of books, you probably take a handful of books with you when you travel. I definitely know from experience how awfully this can weigh down your carry-on bag on the plane. When I went to San Francisco last month, I had to strategically plan how many books I could fit in my carry-on along with all of my 3 oz. toiletries. The Kindle is only 10.2 oz in weight and a third of an inch thick. I won't even need to allocate room for it in my carry-on when I fly to Boston next week!

My brother has the Kindle for iPhone app so he doesn't get why I need to buy a Kindle when I can get the books for free on my phone. He just doesn't understand.

My horribly ancient 2G iPhone battery rarely lasts an entire day and would probably not last an entire flight with the Kindle for iPhone app open. The Kindle, however, can last for a week straight and two weeks if you turn off wireless (which you would on a plane, unless you fly on awesome airlines like Virgin...not that you'd be on a plane for two weeks straight anyway).

eInk

When I first got my Kindle (five days ago), my best friend asked me how I could possibly stand to stare at a screen for so long. This is an aspect of Kindle that you really have to see in person before you understand. The Kindle uses eInk, which is a new technology that looks EXACTLY like ink. The screen of the Kindle looks just like the pages of a book. Even though I had played with a Kindle prior to receiving mine and knew how genuine the eInk looked, when I first took mine out of the box, I mistook the welcome screen for writing on the temporary protective cover. It's that real looking.

Oh yeah, and my best friend, totally ordered a Kindle just hours after seeing mine for the first time.

Awesome Factor

My favorite part of the Kindle (and here's where the bibliophile in me really comes out) is the screensavers. When you put it on sleep mode, the screen displays random images of authors or other literary images. Not only are these beyond awesome (probably only to Comp Lit majors), but so far my Kindle has shown way more female authors than male ones. My Kindle is totally a feminist.

The second most awesome thing about the Kindle is its dictionary feature. You can move your cursor to any word in what you're reading and it will display the definition at the bottom of the screen. You can also choose to look up said word on Wikipedia for no charge (oh yeah, there are no monthly rates for wireless access on the Kindle --- so long as you go to approved sites).

Price of eBooks

Once my best friend ordered her Kindle, she told me how she's going to go broke buying books on it.

Not necessarily.

Hardly any Kindle books are more than $9.99 (the only ones I've encountered so far are cookbooks) and most are much less. Brand new books and bestsellers start at $9.99. Children's books and older editions come cheaper. Just about every single classic is free. I have six pages worth of classic titles on my Kindle and I didn't pay a penny for any of them.

If you're typically paying full price for books (around $20), you will save a ton of money in the long run.

If you are like me and buy most of your books from Half-Price or cheap sellers online, the $9.99 price tags might be a little high. However, keep in mind that you don't have to buy all of your books from Amazon.

The Kindle allows you to upload .pdf and .doc files. If you can find a free downloadable eBook online, you can put it on your Kindle. I recommend Project Gutenburg and Wowio. Project Guternburg doesn't always offer .pdfs. Most of them come as Plain Text or HTML, but they are always free. Wowio, in addition to being all .pdf, also has more contemporary titles.

What It Needs

Ok, I gotta cop, the Kindle is not perfect. But what new technology is in the first couple of editions? Just ask owners of original iPhones, who can only use apple headphones and don't have a GPS (oh right, that's me. hmph).

There is no brightness adjusting, which, I believe, is because of the eInk. I get that adjusting brightness might mess that up, but surely a backlight could be added? Until then, there are lights specifically made for the Kindle available.

The lack of a touch screen also feels a bit outdated, especially when competitors like the nook have made a touch screen available at the same price. Fortunately, Amazon doesn't seem to be suffering from the Kindle's passé navigation abilities. It is still the best eBook reader on the market for international travelers (though not necessarily for non U.S. permanent residents).

More books are being added everyday, but there are still a substantial number of books I would like to purchase that aren't yet available. Childrens titles are more difficult to come by (Inkheart, grr) and if you have a more academic reading appetite, you should probably hold off buying any eBook readers until more of those titles are available.

The book series I most wish were available on Kindle? Harry Potter. But it never will be. JK Rowling is staunchly against eBooks.

In Conclusion?

It's awesome for travelers and people who can never seem to put down a book. It will save you money on books in the long run. As the months and years go on, more books will be available and software updates will fix some of the current complaints. I really hope that it is not the future of books. For now, physical albums are still produced and bought despite the popularity of mp3s. I can only hope the same for books.

Maybe we can reconcile innovative technology and classic aesthetics?

Photo via

A New Year With New Adventures

2010-01-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

I was having some trouble thinking of resolutions this year. To be honest, I actually hadn't even thought about making resolutions until my mom announced her's over our sweet potato and pecan pancake breakfast this morning (learn French and find a tango partner). After some twitter spamming/soul searching, I decided that I will try to floss everyday, drink more herbal tea and read more.

Photo via Yhaket

The problem with resolutions for me this year is that in a few weeks time I will be leaving for Amsterdam, where I'll be studying for half of the year. After that, I'll be transferring universities and, at the moment, have no idea where I will be attending. With absolutely no idea what my world will be like this year, it's a bit difficult to make concrete goals.

Luckily, my blog idols were there to save the day. My favorite new concepts came from Sarah Von of Yes and Yes, who had some great ideas to organize and refresh your life at the start of the new year. Instead of distinct resolutions to try to stick to the whole year, she suggests doing things like cleaning out cupboards and closets and your car to start the year off clean and bright.

It got me thinking about how the new year is a much better time for a sort of spring cleaning than actual spring. I feel like cleaning and reorganizing at this time of the year is probably much more refreshing since it can break up and add some light to the dank, dreary winter.

Another unique thing that Sarah Von is working on is a list of 31 things to do before she turns 31. I love this idea! I think it's a great alternative to new year's resolutions and an awesome way to motivate yourself to try weird and exciting things. I am definitely going to start this. I especially want to begin this year because I'll be 20, which is a nice round number and, I suppose, the beginning of true adulthood? What better time to start new traditions and adventures than at the very beginning of being an adult?

My birthday is at the beginning of May, which means I'll still be abroad when I turn 20. So, a lot of my new things will probably be based on things I can explore in Europe. For that reason, I won't finalize my list until I get to The Netherlands and know more of what my options are. I mean, what if I put trying a new type of food on my list and then they don't have that food in The Netherlands?

I'll post my list at the end of January and have just three months to complete it all! That's the same mistake Sarah Von made her on first go. Hopefully, I'll be able to do it or else some of my list might have to roll over to my list of 21 new things. Until I finalize my list, I'll post some of my ideas and would really like to hear suggestions from anyone viewing my blog!

Anyone else make New Year's Resolutions?
Let's pwn them!

Photo via Beauty in Everything

Haight-Ashbury

2009-12-29T20:55:00.008-07:00

The week before Christmas I went to a family reunion in the Bay Area of California. As we were staying in the middle of nowhere, I wasn't really expecting to be getting out of the house and away from my relatives to do any sight seeing.

Luckily, a friend of mine from Berkley was happy to show my brother and I around San Francisco for a day to escape the insanity of thirty people under one roof.

I was expecting nothing more exciting than a few hours at a coffee shop and maybe some shopping. Because of that and also the fact that I am anti-purse, but pro-girl jeans, I chose not to bring my camera. What a mistake that was (see poorly exposed iPhone photo below).

My friend immediately suggested we visit The Haight. As my friend and brother are both much cooler than I am, I had to control my massive counterculture fangirling and pretend to be all chill like, "oh yeah, I guess that would be tight." Meanwhile, on the inside, my heart was doing back flips because the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood has been on my list of places to someday visit ever since I first started researching the Beats and reading accounts by Tom Wolfe at way too premature of an age (seriously, reading about LSD trips is really scarring to a twelve year old).

We didn't do too much at The Haight (though if I had brought my camera I totally would have made my friend and brother put up with my fanatic photographing of every small detail) except for browse Amoeba Music and sip some coffee at People's Cafe, but the feeling of laid-back revolution was still there --- despite the American Apparrel and Ben & Jerry's stores.

There was so much to look at and think about (and take pictures of! hmph) that I could definitely take a whole week to really experience it all. I want to find all of the historical locations like the sites of some of The Diggers' free stores, some venues where the Grateful Dead played their first shows and, of course, I'd venture to the nextdoor neighborhood to see the site of Harvey Milk's Castro Camera.

Having only been to Los Angeles and San Diego in my memory, I haven't had a very favorable opinion of California in the past. Sorry Andy Warhol, the plasticity of LA does nothing for me. San Francisco, however, I can dig. It completely changed my opinion of the state. For once, I saw more than California stereotypes. I saw real people and real history --- even if it is a history that became bloated by youth runaways and irresponsible drug use.

Free Soy Milk? Zomg!

2009-12-25T16:03:00.005-07:00

Those of us with ecclectic and often difficult to understand interests tend to be difficult to buy for. So, Starbucks gift cards tend to be our most-received gift. It's sort of like the ultimate back up gift. When people can't think of anything else, they get you a Starbucks gift card. I really wish there was some sort of generic independent coffeehouse gift card -- valid for all non-corporate and inherently delicious coffeehouses.

Well, until that glorious innovation, I've discovered something that makes the onus of twelve Starbucks gift cards a little better. It's nothing new to most people, but new to me and wholly awesome.

I won a Starbucks gift card a few weeks back and, when I went to use it, the cashier told me I needed to register it. I kind of freaked at first because I thought that meant I couldn't use it to pay for my latte until I had registered it. Thankfully, that wasn't the case and my grande soy latte was safe in my frantic finals week hands.

I did, however, take a moment to ask the cashier what registering your gift card meant and today, stocked up with five Starbucks gift cards, I sat down to do just that.

Probably the most efficient reason to register your gift card is because it gives you the ability to combine all of your unnecessary gift cards onto one. This must not be something a lot of people know about because I have at least two people a day at work ask me to combine their gift cards (I work at a place that looks very much like a Starbucks, but is indeed not a Starbucks. Hence, why I didn't know about this promotion before now).

Starbucks advertises registering your gift card as security. I guess if you register it, you can't lose the money that's on it even if you lose the physical card. But honestly, who cares THAT much about a gift card?

What I think is the coolest is that, when you use your registered card, you can get FREE SOY MILK. Any milk or syrup flavorings that usually cost extra are free. So for you vegan and/or lactose intolerant espresso-lovers, extra charges are now a thing of the past.

Since becoming unable to drink milk, I've stuck with the simple latte at Starbucks. The soy milk charge makes any other drink too expensive. I cannot wait to drink my first iced grande caramel machiatto since developing lactose intolerance.

Another cool thing about registering your card is that it gives you two hours of free wifi per day. If your university or house, like mine, often suffers from server outages, this is golden. When I'm in unfamiliar territory, Starbucks is the only place that I'm POSITIVE has wifi, even though I know I have to pay for it. No more!

With the card, you can also get free brewed coffee refills. Meh.

Personally, I don't like to spend enough time at a Starbucks for a refill. I prefer a softer, slower paced ambiance for working or chillaxing. But if you do like to spend hours at Starbucks, it's a pretty awesome deal. Do keep in mind though, brewed coffee means like House Blend or Pike Place. Not lattes or cappucinos or Frappucinos. It's astounding how many people don't know the difference between coffee and espresso drinks. I think that's how Starbucks can trick people a lot. They offer a free brewed coffee with some purchase and people buy it thinking they'll get a free vanilla bean Frappucino. Sorry guys.

Bottom line: if you're an independent coffehouse loving person (y'know, the kinds of places where soy milk is free) burdened with presents of Starbucks gift cards, register one of your cards and make them worth it.

Images via .Delight, GreenLightOffice

The Little Steampunker In Me Is Bursting With Excitement

2009-12-15T09:29:00.004-07:00

So, PC knows that it is losing to Mac. It also knows that its desktops are losing to its laptops. Solution? Make the PC desktop look like a combination 1950s television set and typewriter so that all of those fashion-crazed Apple hipsters will jump on the PC bandwagon (for at least one of their computers, that is).

The computer doesn't exist yet, but it should. It has hipster and artist written all over it.

Gorgeous, no? So sleek and nonpareil. The keyboard even kind of looks like the older iMac keyboards from a distance, but up close, it is even better.

It's so hot. A keyboard that looks like a typewriter? Yes please! I would shell out a good deal of money for this alone.

The remaining details mesh 1950s kitsch with steampunk class.

(via Yanko)

Seriously, if this concept comes to fruition, I will be buying one. No clue about the specs or its comparable performance, but I can't bring myself to care. It is the hottest technology I've seen since the Magic Mouse.

Some Things Never Change

2009-12-12T22:08:00.002-07:00

1999

2009

Rules for Surviving Finals

2009-12-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

I was going to make a Jabberwocky and Finch video about this, but don't have the time or resources. So now it's a blog.

The reason I have no time? Finals.

This is my first semester to truly feel the brunt of finals. In the past, I've had a handful of final papers and some brief language exams that mostly fell during Hell Week (the week before exams has a very telling name, doesn't it?). This semester, I had a research paper due during finals as well as three exams each at 8:30 in the morning.

My roommate (who this semester has been dying a long, drawn out death called Organic Chemistry) and I began studying Friday evening. Since then we have stayed up until at least three every night studying, woken up at 8 to begin studying again and quite honestly done nothing else.

We've been studying so much that I even strained my eye. I thought it was pink eye, but the nurse assured me it is just a reaction to the nonstop reading I've been doing. My eye itches and hurts so badly that I can't wear eye make up. So those purple circles under my eyes? Way more noticeable. The only way my eye doesn't hate me is if I wear my reading glasses. I hadn't been wearing them all week (probably why I strained my eye in the first place) and when I put them on this morning, it was like I was seeing the world clearly for the first time ever.

It was during one of those droning hours of studying, squinting my eyes to see the dull print, that it occurred to me that finals are a lot like zombies.

They haunt your mind all semester as a vague impending specter. While you're trying to fight them (sometimes referred to as studying), the act of survival consumes you. Nothing else in the world matters except to survive finals. You stay up all day and night trying to stave them off. When they finally catch you, they eat your brains. You're left with a vacant skull and maybe a few pieces of mush about verb conjugation and linear regression.

At this point, you have become a zombie. The whites of your glazed eyeballs are circled in purple, your brain is gone, your limbs are stiff and you crave nothing more than human blood.

Oh wait, maybe not that last part. I think my metaphor got carried away. Maybe some people crave human blood when they're done with finals. I don't. Just to be clear.

I am not yet a zombie. As you may have noticed from my sentience. Being one of the few non-infected students left on campus, I thought it may be beneficial to share how I came to survive for this long. My survival is thanks to Columbus' list of rules in Zombieland.

1. Cardio
Combative studying requires staying up at all hours of the night and day. Being active is a part of being intelligent. Coffee, sodas and adderall will only last you so long. In order to retain optimum levels of energy, you have to work out, which brings me to my second rule:

2. Limber Up
Good stretching can give you hours of extra energy, but it is also important to do before sitting down in order to avoid stiffness or cramping while in the midst of a brawl with a zombie, by which I mean a study session.

3. No Attachments
You'll lose friends during finals. Better to not make them at all.

4. The Buddy System
In punitive contrast to Rule #4, you need a buddy. A partner in your guerrilla studying has got your back if you get overwhelmed or distracted. This rule only works if you keep in line with Rule #4 (otherwise, you may end up making a friend). To avoid wanting to have fun, don't even learn each others names. Refer to each other by major.

5. Double Tap
Just like zombies might not be dead on the first shot, you probably have not studied enough for an exam on the first go. One more shot will go a long way to ensuring your survival.

6. Don't Kill Bill Murray
This wasn't on Columbus' list, but definitely should have been. It Columbus' fatal flaw. Had he remembered this rule, things may have been easier for him. Don't kill Bill Murray and you should be able to survival finals.

The Tell Tale Heart

2009-12-06T11:53:00.002-07:00

Yesterday, I went to the Edgar Allan Poe exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center at UT (which will continue through the end of year and is completely free). This year would have been the author's 200th birthday and cities all over the nation have been holding festivals, exhibitions and parties throughout this year to celebrate.

While this exhibit was nothing compared to some of the macabre graveyard parties I had hear rumors about in Baltimore, it was still cool to say that I did something to participate in what I consider an iconic year for literary hipsters.

I found out that Poe wrote a lot more than I realized. Certainly the giant tome of his complete works I saw one of my friends toting around in eighth grade led me to believe he wrote quite a bit, but I was unaware that he wrote a novel or so many poems (and even a few sonnets). It also became obvious by the many paintings, sketches, letters and reviews created by Frenchmen, that the French must have been crazier about Poe than modern-day hipsters.

Eventually, I figured out that after Poe's demeaning death (brought on by Rufus Griswold's slanderous obituary), Charles Baudelaire essentially fell in love with Poe's works. And, like you do when you're in love with something, fought tirelessly to give Poe the reputation he deserved. Cue the explosion of Poe translations, artwork and man love in mid-nineteenth century France.

For one, I found this exciting for the opportunity to read Baudelaire and Poe at the same time. However, the cooler thing about this connection is what it means for those of us who are on a passionate, albeit halfhearted, adventure to uncover the hidden meaning to Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Most older readers (or those who grew old while the series progressed) can easily identify the man in charge of the Baudelaire childrens' affairs, Mr. Poe, as named after Edgar Allan Poe and Mr. Poe's eternal coughing as a throwback to one of the many ailments that led to Poe's death. Until now, I've always thought his namesake was simply due to Lemony Snicket's own gothic interests and style. However, I have finally made the connection!....and desperately wish there was someone I could tell other than my partner in literary pursuits who would care. Alas, no one at the exhibit yesterday was particularly intrigued by my discovery.

As I slowly glided through the display boxes and many portraits of Poe, it was difficult to remember that this was the man who had once written such genial poems as "Annabel Lee" and "The Bells." Reading on through the disturbing artifacts of his life, I could only recall his terrifying stories such as "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Cask of Amontillado."

I was in a dark room set aside from the main exhibit viewing the more grotesque images that have been created of his stories when I noticed you could hear the loud bass of music coming from next door. This is something I've been wondering about Austin recently. A lot of the venues where full-blown concerts happen are directly adjacent to other buildings and apartments. Surely there's got to a pretty expensive noise license to get for that. But what venue was next to the Ransom center? Weren't we in the middle of campus? And no red light lasts that long. It couldn't simply be coming from a car.

I mentioned the sound to my friend who was viewing the paintings with me. He paused to listen. I continued studying Arthur Rackham's watercolor of "The Pit and the Pendulum."

I was staring into the empty eyes of the demons in the background when my friend commented that the bass was too inconsistent to be coming from music. I listened, not taking my eyes off the watercolor painting. The sound was a bit odd. Not something you would hear in music and, come to think of it, I couldn't hear any background noise that would be the music to go with the bass. It was a very clean beating sound, almost like a...

Seriously?

Had the museum done that on purpose? In the creepiest, most poorly lit portion of the exhibit did they have a recording of a heartbeat playing all day?

Or were we going crazy? Usually if two people can hear something, you can be assurred you're not going mad....but wasn't the sound of the heart beating supposed to be a sign of a guilty conscience? If that was the case, than anyone who had done something wrong could hear the heart. Or perhaps Poe is a distressed spirit, upset with the way the nation is putting his most personal items, failures and humiliations out on display, and anywhere people go to see celebrations of his birthday this year, you will hear his own heart beating. A sad, unfinished heart beating.

Amsterdam, Here I Come

2009-10-27T19:46:00.000-06:00

I can finally say, with complete confidence, that I will be spending this coming semester studying at the Universiteit van Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

This means that I will finally have a use for this blog!

As a blogger for my university, there will undoubtedly be many things I should not or cannot write about on that blog. Therefore, I'm going to use this blog as a sort of rough draft version of my real blog. I'll write my real experiences and thoughts here (with pictures, of course!) and then edit it to go on the real blog.

I'll also post contact information here. Stay posted for more exciting Amsterdam updates!

You Have To Be Cool To Be A Blogger

2009-09-25T23:27:00.000-06:00

...which is why I am not a blogger.

Well, technically I am. For my school, I mean. This is not a blog. Not really. I don't consider it one. I mean, not a real one. This is a play blog. Do you get it? If not, then I justify my point of why I don't deserve to call this a real blog.

Anyways, I came to the conclusion that you must be cool to be a blogger in attempting to write my student blog this evening. Usually, I write my blogs about once a week and there's no problem. This time, however, I got a reminder email from my boss telling me I had one due. The first thing I thought: but I have nothing to write about. I have literally done nothing blog-worthy in the past week. The most exciting part of my week was making waffles and watching Muppets From Space. But I've already talked about waffles in another blog and I'm pretty sure everyone would assume I was high if I was watching a muppet movie while eating excessive amounts of food.

That's another thing. I can't imply anything about drugs or alcohol usage in my student blogs. Now, I'm not a huge frequenter of either of those, but a lot of my stories are so ridiculous and lame that most people would assume I was on something and therefore I can't write about it on my student blog.

But I digress.

You must be cool to be a blogger. The other student bloggers are really involved on campus or doing internships. Me? I eat waffles and make couch forts. Seriously, that's all my blog says about me so far.

I hope that one day I'll be interesting enough to be a real blogger, but until then I'll stick to these pointless, self-absorbed blogs for my close friends.

Contact Info While in Amsterdam

2009-01-24T09:03:00.004-07:00

Mail or care packages can be sent to:
Lauren Bird
Prins Hendrikkade 189b
1011 TD Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Keep track of my adventures:

Check out my photos on flickr

Watch occasional vlogs or creative videos at my YouTube channel.

Please do not call or text me on my regular number
(this number has actually been canceled. so, if you sent me a text, I'll never see it. sorry!)

If you want to spend a ton of money, you can call me at +31 06 3131 1098

Skype me:
I can IM or webchat with Skype. I can also use it for free international phone calls via my iPhone if you are logged on. Just search my name or my username, birdacious, if we're not already friends.

Remember that Amsterdam is seven hours ahead of Texas.

The Earth Looks Better From a Star

2008-12-30T12:06:00.054-07:00

I'm a 20 year-old university student at NYU, where Iconsider studying many things and end up with nothing to tell the relatives.After spending eighteen of my developmental years in Texas (including threesemesters of my undergraduate education), I jetted off to Europe for a semesterat the University of Amsterdam andthen settled down in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I spend my time off fromuniversity.

This blog is where I chronicle my life as a universitystudent in New York as well as my travels (rare as they may be), my thoughts(also rare), ways to decrease world suck and anything else that I deem worthy enoughto be put into blog-form.

The Lorax is my travel buddy, whois extremely pretentious and only likes his picture taken in front of famouslandmarks (except for the odd occasion that he has too much dizzy water andbecomes a total camera whore).My friend, Kelly, bought him for me at Kohl’s and, forsome reason, I decided to bring him with me while I studied in Amsterdam(despite the fact that he wouldn't fit in my luggage and I had to carry himaround the airport like a three year-old). I took a few twitpics ofthe Lorax at the airport to pass the time and, with the input of my followers,I decided to take photos of him at every place I visited. Thus, The Adventures of the Lorax began.

Another recurring segment here is 21 New Things, which, tomy knowledge, is the brainchild of the awesome Sarah Von of Yes and Yes. Theconcept is that you try one new thing for every year old that you will be on yournext birthday. Check out the list on the sidebar to see my progress so far andgo to Sarah's site for a list of bloggers doing theproject.

The last thing to look out for are Easter Eggs that I leavearound the site. If ever the title of an entry does not seem to fit (like this one), search for the hiddenlink within the text. It will lead you to a clue as to the meaning behind thetitle. More than likely it will be some awful British pop culture reference or asong by the Elephant 6 Recording Company.

If you feel so inclined, you can subscribe to my blog, follow my blog withbloglovin, follow me on twitter or friendme on last.fm.

"Honest, yes; objective, no. Let mytruth be my prejudice." W. Eugene Smith