Jason's Daily Notes

Kristina drove me to the Hbf to meet my mitfahrer at 11am. The snow was starting to melt. I noticed that she was studying MS and the license plate code for Münster was also MS. We sat in the car for a few minutes while waiting to figure out who the ridesharer was. Eventually we found her: Mia.

Then, after another couple minutes, the driver came: Ute. I said bye to Kristina, thanking her for her wonderful hospitality. Soon, we were off. We picked up a third ridesharer; V___ or something. I soon fell asleep. Before I knew it, we were past Bremen and headed toward Hamburg. I was following the car with my phone (I had pre-loaded the phone with the maps before we went, so that the GPS would show at least). I was speaking German the whole way, and I am getting better at explaining what I'm doing with my life at this stage.

They dropped me off in Altona, just at 2pm as I had planned. I went to the McDonalds, ordered a latte and tried to connect to wifi. It said that I needed to be a member or to buy access. Wtf?! Wifi is so hard to come by in Europe sometimes. Anyway, it didn't matter as Nicki arrived soon thereafter. We were happy to be reunited (after 5 years!).

We got me a 1-week public transit pass and headed to her place to drop off my stuff. She lives nearby, in Altona-Nord, not far from the cool and happening Sternschanze district. She had just moved in to her flat (literally the day before) so things were all over the place and a mess. I dropped off my stuff and we went out together, because she had an appointment at 4pm near the university. I went with her there and for 1 hour, I was free. I withdrew some cash and walked around, stopping by another McDonald's at the Dammtor station. I then walked, eventually making it to the Alster, but I didn't have time to walk around it because I had to be back to meet Nicki at 5pm. So I rushed back. Luckily I was wearning my green pants, making it easy for her to find me.

We then headed straight to her parents' place, taking the bus to Jungfernstieg and the U-Bahn further. I challenged myself to lead the way back to the house, seeing if I still remember it from 5 years ago. I did pretty alright.

Andreas (dad) was chopping wood in the back with some neighbors, while Anna (mom) was downstairs tutoring. Nicki sold her guitar to a guy who arrived just a couple minutes after us. We heated up some goulash and cooked some potato dumplings to go with them. Sat and watched The Simpsons.

Andreas made me some tea with rum in it - good stuff. Then, Anna offered to drive us back (because we were bringing a dust sucker [vacuum cleaner] with us). So she did. And she quickly left to pick up Nicki's sister. Nicki and I then assembled her clothes hanger thingy and got ready for bed. Her couch was spacious and comfy.

Woke up promptly at 9:45am. Kristina had arranged a full day of things to do, which started with brunch in the city at 11. I got ready (Kristina had already showered the night before).

Katrin, her cousin Ennis (?), and the fourth flatmate Vio (sp?) joined us - we walked to a different bus stop (and the bus was slightly delayed) and went into the city. Ennis is working at a hotel (together with Katrin) and studying hotel management. Vio studied cultural stuff and is waiting to hear back from her application to the Goethe Institut in Toronto (we talked about moving to Canada/US). They couldn't get reservations at any restaurant, so we decided to just pop in and hope for a spae. We went to Cafe & Bar Celona, and we managed to arrange a table for 5 in the corner.

The brunch buffet was nice; half was German breakfast stuff (bread, cheese, and sliced meat), ad the other half had fruits, eggs, and omelet bar. I made 3 rounds - the waffle was amazing (I was the only one who used the timer on the waffle machine, winning!). Completely full and food comatose, we left. Vio had to go, so we said tschüss. The remaining four of us walked around the city center.

We visited several churches. I learned that Münster is just on the northern edge of the Catholic part of Germany. Everything was covered in snow. But, with the snow falling, it didn't feel as cold as it did during the previous days.

We walked to the Aasee, a big lake on the edge of the city center. We walked around, and Katrin and Ennis left because they had to go to work. Kristina and I walked around the snowy and part-frozen lake and had some tea/hot cocoa at a cafe on the waterfront.

Then, it was time for the barbecue. We walked to the schloss, and the university buildings were right behind that. There were about 15 people there, all gathered in a room, chatting; most of them were actually from Bielefeld. I went outside with T___, Jojo, and Thomas to set up the grill and start cooking the meat. We spoke exclusively in German.  We cooked up a bunch of sausages and steaks (and veggie patties for Miriam).

There was a lot of leftover food. The group was planning their annual retreat/event and I observed. Everyone left, and then Kristina and I took the bus to the harbor, where we walked around. We didn't feel like having another drink; we were so full. So we returned home and just had a tea there.

I was up around 08:30 and couldn't get back to bed. Of course not, it was a travel day and I had a lot on my mind. I had to say good-bye to Mike's dad and Roeline before they left to visit her niece. I was also kept up by the fact that I would be saying good-bye to Mike.

I said bye to the parents just before 10am. I registered my account for my SIM card online, and suddenl my 3G service was working! Wtf?! I had a banana and made myself a little milkshake. Hung out with Mike for the last couple hours. But unlike our last day together in London, I didn't feel so sad; I felt a bit more content and confident (most likely from the feedback from eBay - they wanted me, and the problem lies with the UK policy, not with me). Still, it's sad to say bye to your best friend.

Mike printed out my train ticket for me and soon we were walking together to the train station. Had another good talk along the way, and we got to know each other a little bit more. I got on a train 5 minutes earlier than scheduled, but it was ok. No extended goodbyes, just a hug and a wave as the train left.

Suddenly, internet on my phone wasn't working anymore. I could only play Flow as I waited at Amersfoort's central station. I got on the train to Enschede, which took 1.5 hours, and I played a bit on my phone, snacked on my bread/cheese/hummus, wrote a bit on my laptop, and fell asleep. Soon I was in Enschede, and I had 10 minutes to change trains. I bought a bottle of water, since I had none, and walked across the street to platform 6, where the German train was waiting for me.

The German train was smaller, as a regional train. All the seats were facing each other. There was a family with their son in a wheelchair. Suddenly, everyone was speaking German, which was another cultural/language change for me. I fell asleep quickly.

Soon I arrived in Münster. My internet wasn't working, so I desperately tried for wifi. Kristina wasn't there. I waited in the main hall, but no sign. After 10 minutes I decided to walk back to the platform, and there was Kristina, waiting for me. She drove me back.

We went to the grocery store (Aldi) to buy some food. There, we asked if they had a SIM card for sale that would be appropriate for me. They only had the Aldi-branded SIM, which we didn't get. Kristina drove me back (just a couple blocks) to her place, which is a shared flat in a house on the southern side of Münster. I met her flatmates - Katrin and Mia (Maria). I had some coffee and we chilled and chatted (auf Deutsch!)

It was weird for me to be speaking German again, after so long. I was actually mixing in a lot of Dutch words too (kept wanting to say gezelig, alsjeblieft, dank u wel, etc.)!

It started snowing.

We cooked dinner in their tiny upstairs kitchen - pasta with chicken bolognese. Mia (the vegetarian who is studying food technology and whose vegan pastry I tried) made a nice salad.

After dinner, we had a digestiv of Cuarento y Tres (43) liquor mixed with milk - yummy! Then, Kristina, Katrin and I went out to show me Münster's nightlife. We walked through the snow to the bus stop, and we took the bus into the city center. With Kristina's student ticket, I could travel together for free.

We went to Das Blaue Haus, a cool cozy pub. There, I tried this drink that was dark beer with fruits in it. They like their beer fruity. It was good but girly :X We just sat and chatted. After our drink, I paid up and we went to the next bar, a crowded rock bar on the other street (Münster has two streets lined with bars/pubs). We had another drink there, observed the crowd for a bit, and then continued onward so that I could witness Destille, the messiest bar of them all. We had to wait for a minute to enter because it was full. Inside was a spectacle, crammed elbow-to-elbow, everyone was singing those embarassingly awesome songs, which spanned from MJ's "Black and White" to "Fliegerlied (So ein schöner Tag)" - awesome. The atmosphere in the small bar was almost like carnaval or what I imagine Oktoberfest to be like.

We returned home, taking the night bus. Our tickets were checked, no problem. Then to bed!

Up around 10am. Coen and Roeline were already gone to work. I had a little breakfast (sandwich).

I had a phone "interview" (which was actually just a casual formality because they had already offered me the job) with one of the managers (Armin) at 12pm. The call went well; he was happy to see me join the company. All that was left was to sort out my visa situation, but he said that he would push for it to get done asap.

Mike had schoolwork to finish, and I wanted to go out and see the city. (My plan was to "get lost" and just find my way around random places.) So I left in the afternoon and explored. I took the bike and followed a path that Mike said would lead straight to the city. I also wanted to explore on my own, so I took several diversions and took plenty of pictures along the way. I don't know the names of the places I went, but it was very nice. The suburbs of Amersfoort are very pleasant and quiet (actually everywhere in the Netherlands is generally quiet). Lots of nice, semi-modern houses tucked away on traffic-less streets, save for the bikes, and plenty of green space. There are lots of parks and canals everywhere. It does not feel crowded here at all (even though the Netherlands is a densely populated country).

I biked into the city center, which was about 4km away. I found a place to park my bike, and I walked around. I wanted to find wifi and check my messages. Again, I naïvely had the idea that I would be able to meet up with someone (perhaps from couchsurfing), but in the end I was all alone. It's difficult to talk to Dutch people. This I learned. I wandered back and forth through the city center and its shopping streets. The old town is ringed by canals, but since it's not as crowded as Amsterdam or Venice, the city center is very quaint and charming. I eventually went to McDonald's for the wifi, where I had a hamburger and a chili chicken sandwich.

It was cold. Maybe just a degree above freezing, if that. I was disappointed that I could not find any coffeeshop - so much for my last dying stereotype of the Netherlands.I went back to my bike and started riding around the edge of the city center. I was stopping every so often to check the maps on my phone and to take some pictures. I aimed to find my way back towards the house without following the maps too closely, and I took sort of the wrong turn. But I found my way back. Instead of going inside the house, I continued biking. I wanted to learn all the streets in the area (just because). I ended up spiraling around and also going back to Lidl, where I bought ice cream and hummus. It was nearly 6pm, and the day was still bright, but I needed to be back for dinner. I got a missed call from Mike, but my phone couldn't call him.

I returned back to the house. Mike wasn't getting my calls, or my WhatsApp messages. I rang the doorbell several times, but no answer. I was outside for like 10 minutes. Surely someone was home; I saw the light on. I eventually walked around to the back of the house and saw the family in the window, where i knocked and got their attention!

Roy was there for dinner. He's doing the Insanity workout program. Our meal was a casserole of brussels sprouts with meatballs. I offered some ice cream for dessert, but they were hesitant to try.

After dinner, Mike and I biked across town to see the korfbal match. We passed through the city center, where he pointed out some sights to me, and described how nice it is to be sitting outside on a warm summer day. I could imagine it would be really nice, in the outdoor plazas or along one of the canals. But not tonight - it was cold. The shops were open "late" though, because it was Thursday.

We got to the korfbal stadium and watched a 30-minute half of a match. Mike knew a few people, and of course his dad was there as the coach. It's an interesting sport, reminding me of ultimate frisbee. We got a drink (2 beers for me, a beer and an ice tea for Mike) at the cafe in the sport hall, and several team members, including Nienke, joined us after they had finished their game. The football match (Ajax vs. someone) was on TV.

Mike and I left, biking back to the city center, where we went to the Break and played pool for some time. My legs were already getting sore from all the biking (and the cold), so I was not very energetic as we played. We then just sat and rested while having more beers (and Mike ordered nachos).

We biked back around 1am, just when the bar was closing (Mike and I were the only ones left in the bar until 2 other guys showed up). It was cold, like -3°. My thighs really felt frozen.

Quietly, so as not to wake Coen and Roeline, we went to bed.

So I'm in Amersfoort. Staying at Mike's dad's place. It's a very nice house, and very clean. And I can tell you why: They are very anal about keeping the house cleaned and organized. For example, you are expected to wipe the shower down after each use! It's effective, and it's definitely a good habit to have, but it's a big shift fromt he casual, "whatever" attitude that I have been living with on this trip.

I wanted to go out, and to buy some things from the grocery store, so Mike lent me their extra bike (which, by the way, has a lock embedded in the bike itself! How convenient.) and we rode the bikes to Lidl. There, I bought some bread, sliced meat and cheese, toothpaste, and tissues. I also considered buying croquettes but Mike took them away because (1) they don't have a fryer, and (2) they had shrimp in them. D'oh! Biked back home (there are a lot of turns on the route back to his house; it's kind of confusing so I just followed Mike. At least there are bike lanes everywhere, as you might expect in the Netherlands.

We dropped off the stuff at home and then walked to Albert Heijn in a nearby shopping center. It's the store where Mike used to work. Along the way, we walked by the house of a famous footballer. The neighborhood is very pleasant and pretty modern. It reminds me partly of Irvine (master-planned suburbia) and of Tampere, Finland (European modern and spacious).

I had a phone interview at 3pm, with Trivago. The call went well; the manager who spoke with me was American. I did my best to impress him (given that I have another job offer), because it's always good to form strong connecting with whomever you meet.

After the interview, Mike and I just chilled at home for the afternoon. I helped him re-write his CV and LinkedIn profile to help him get a summer internship. (I do not feel worried for him at all. He's got good connections and always puts in great work in whatever he does.)

Why do we pronounce the word "nothing" as "nuthing"?

Dinner was at 6pm sharp. Roeline returned home around 5pm, and Coen shortly thereafter. Mike and I went downstairs to see the kitchen already made up and prepared for dinner. The menu: Pork shoarma served on toasted buns with chopped lettuce and sauce. It was tasty and well-prepared. We ate, put away the dinner plates, then brought out the dessert, which was yogurt with grapes. Put those away, and we each had a piece of chocolate (which I had brought from Belgium).

After dinner, we sat around watching TV. There was football on, Schalke vs Galatasaray. We watched; I offered a round of beers but no one else wanted to join me, so I drank alone, and we also distracted ourselves on our phones. Roeline went upstairs and to bed. Soon, Coen joined her.

Mike and I stayed downstairs and watched There's Something about Mary. Then, to bed. We have to be very quiet when going to bed, so as not to wake up the dad and stepmom.

My last day in Utrecht.

I've decided to call this homeless stage of my life my "exile."

I showered, then went to Albert Heijn and bought some breakfast for me and Willem - croissants, juice, toast, jam.

Mike was on the bus back from London.

Wow. I got big, awesome, fantastic news. For my job interview on Thursday, the manager was so impressed that he decided to offer me the internship without even speaking to me! :) THAT'S RIGHT - I HAVE A JOB OFFER IN LONDON.

But guess what - I have a phone interview for another job (in Germany) tomorrow morning.

My throat is finally feeling better. I'm getting by with no medication today.

Willem had work/reading to do. I went out for the afternoon and walked around the city some more. I got a smoothie at Eazie, a healthy café that had wifi :). Then, I also got some fries from one of the Mannekin Pis stalls located in the pedestrian zone of the city center. I walked more, toward the train station and back. My legs and feet were tired, and it was already 17:30.

Returned to Willem's, wrote him a thank-you note (he was upstairs) and got my stuff ready to go. Mike was texting me that he would be a little late. I said bye to Willem (he still had to get his stuff ready so he wouldn't go to the train station with me) and walked to the station. I tried to figure out my ticket, and I bought it at the ticket office, since my card wouldn't work at any of the ticket machines.

I walked over to our meeting point near the Burger King, and there walking toward me, also wearing a backpack and carrying a Sports Direct bag, was Mike! We embraced. Reunited!

Mike got a kebab since he was hungry, and we sat and chatted for a few minutes. He filled me in with the details of his weekend and what he got to see (including going back to his office and finally meeting Kristi, if only briefly).

We got on the next train to Groningen (which passes through Amersfoort). Amersfoort (along with Utrecht) is a train hub for all trains going to the north and east of the country. Apparently I bought the wrong ticket, since his house is one stop further. We took care of it at Amersfoort station.

It was a short train ride (both of them) and we just stood in the area between carriages (so that we could talk).

Arrived at the station; Mike got his bike, and we walked to his house, which was like a 15-20 minute walk. It's a nice and modern area, lots of new buildings. I arrived at his (dad's) house, which is spacious and modern. His stepmom, Roeline, was there. We sat, as he caught up with her, watching Schindler's List with the volume turned low.

Mike and I then retired upstairs, watching some TV and just chilling for a couple hours before going to bed.

Still in Utrecht. Still recovering from my throat infection. Overnight, I was coughing up some blood (because my throat was too dry). I kept drinking water, but my throat kept drying out (because my swallowing reflex was basically gone). So I kept going to the toilet (which is a smelly shared toilet in this house).

Anyway, got up around 11am. Had some breakfast of bread and cheese.

I left Willem on his own for the day (he had a jam session scheduled and some work to do). I walked around the city on my own, taking pictures along the way. I walked north, through the city center, and then I followed the canal that rings the edge of Utrecht's center. I sat down at some benches along the way, letting the day pass me by. The weather wasn't bad, especially for February: light clouds and temperatures around 7°C.

It did feel lonely, as many of my days have felt, walking round by myself in a foreign city. The excitement of being abroad has washed away, and often all I feel is the hollowness of my decision to stay away from home (or, should I say, to have no home).

I thought that I might find someone to meetup with, but obviously I didn't. How naïve of me.

I walked all the way to the south then back along the Oudengracht (sp?) to the center. I got an order of fries and a Fanta from a kebab shop where some teenagers were smoking hookah with the worker. I left and searched for free wifi. Desperate, I went into McDonald's for a milkshake and wifi. The shake was bad and the wifi slow.

I continued wandering as the sun set. I went into the train station and watched all the busy people. I returned to home, but didn't go in (letting Willem work in peace). Instead, I walked back to El Greco and ordered a gyros pita for my dinner. It was salty; so much so that I didn't eat all of the salty gyro meat.

Around 20:30 I returned to the house and caught up with Willem. He was getting ready for his sort-of date with an ex, which was at 9pm.

I was feeling much more healthy than I had been for the last 1.5 weeks, so I said that I might go out. He gave me the key. I sat down, browsing my phone, and before I knew it, I woke up. I had fallen asleep on the couch for 2 hours. D'oh!

Willem returned, we caught up. He went to sleep quickly, but I couldn't. I even considered going out in the middle of the night to drain my energy, but no.

Woke up around 1pm or so. The mattress was jammed diagonally on the floor just below Willem's piano. Saco left to return to Rotterdam. Willem and I had leftover Indonesian food for breakfast.

We then went to the Albert Heijn to buy supplies for the next dinner, which would be pasta carbonara, shared with his housemate Bart.

My laptop continued to be loud and the fan wouldn't turn off. I'm afraid that it might break, or that the hard drive might be permanently damaged.

Lazy evening in. We watched Life of Pi and went to sleep.

Woke up in an empty fold-out couch/bed thingy. Mariah had left.

I was in Amsterdam. My phone was fully charged. It was nearly 13:00. I browsed online on my phone for a bit, then decided to take a shower. I chatted with Annemarije, but she was busy to meet up today. Soon, Anna-Luna and Willem woke up and we decided to make eggs for breakfast. I sauteed some onions and Luna bought some red bell peppers, which I threw together into a 5-egg scramble. Willem spilled salt all over his plate, rendering it inedible.

It was already like 4pm when Willem and I left. I took some pictures as we walked to Amsterdam Centraal station. I was impressed by the buildings, especially when they reflected in the still water of the canals. Across the water was a theater that looked like an eye.

In the end, I didn't see much of Amsterdam on this visit.

We took the train back to Utrecht, standing in the doorway because there were no seats available. We had to prepare dinner, which we decided would be an Indonesian feast, and so we bought a bunch of ingredients from Albert Heijn (the Asian market was already closed from 5pm).

We got home, nearly at 6pm, and soon after Willem's friend Saco arrived, carrying with him a big crate full of beers (24 bottles). The other friend, Floris, arrives soon thereafter with a 12-beer crate. (Saco and Floris had been visiting Willem in LA and were at my New Years Party 2011; they re-told stories of stealing my ice cream and falling down in front of the police. The three of them are travel mates and are planning to go to Japan this year.)

We (mostly Willem) cooked dinner, Indonesian satay with peanut sauce, vegetable fried rice and sambal flavoured green beans. Amazing. Floris's flatmate/friend/ex Sara came over and we all hung out.

Later, around 11pm, we went out. To the Belgian bar, for a drink (we were tasting each others' drinks). We left and met a couple more friends, including the legendary Hans. Two other guys - Mikhailis and Omrah (I could be completely messing it up).

We made our way to EKKO, a small/medium music venue. It was €6 to enter, and €1 for the coat check, but beers were only €2 so I couldn't complain. The music, however, was an odd mix of 80's, simply bad songs, techno music, hard rock, and Dutch pop. It wasn't the best to dance to.

My throat was still bugging me, so I had a hard time talking to people in the loud hall. And we kept buying rounds of beers for each other. Man. I forced myself to take t eime out and grab some water and a coke. The club was open until 4am, when we left and grabbed our coats. Hans was completely wasted, so we couldn't let him get on his bike. Sara's bf Omri arrived. We all went to El Greco, a greek take-away, to get the famous Kapsalon (fries with meat and sauce on it - basically a wrap-less kebab on fries). We took those back to Willem's place, where there was a bit of an after party.

There was a girl crying and hysterically banging on the door of room 1, where her boyfriend was presumably passed out (or not in there). She annoyed us for a while, then we got the idea to help her break the door down. Hans (now much less wasted) wanted to do it with a fire extinguisher. (He had told me the story of how he broke his kneecap.) But the door wouldn't break.

Two guys who used to live there arrived and hung out with us. They were annoying, so we eventually kicked them out and we slept.

It was 7:30am.

My throat was still in bad shape. Mike was on the bus to London for the weekend.

I had a follow-up interview with Lauren at 2pm. I had a random but strong craving for sushi at 12:30pm. I decided to make a spontaneous trek to the city center and to find some sushi. I took the metro (discovering, along the way, reversible escalators! cool but weird.) to Beurs and right when I got out, boom! There was a fast-casual sushi place called IIZO. I ordered 3 rolls, but their special rolls were cheap and weird - avocado, crab, and spicy tuna was what I ended up with.

I rushed back to Merlin's for my interview. Merlin was there with his friend Maarten (?), and they were about to leave to do some shopping. Lauren was late, which gave me a little extra time to prepare. The interview went well; I felt really comfortable speaking with her.

I said bye to Merlin as he left. I then had only 30 minutes to pack my stuff and get my train. Needless to say, I didn't make it. I texted Willem that I would be on the following train (which I still had to rush to catch).

I snagged a seat on the train (barely), having to face backward and put my bag between the seats. The train was less than an hour - quick and easy. I arrived in Utrecht and gave Willem a ring, he met me shortly thereafter and walked me to his place. I dropped off my stuff, and we assessed what to do.

We needed to be in Amsterdam at a bar around 9-10pm, and we weren't hungry just yet, so we decided to get dinner first. I texted Mike for recommendations, and one of the places he suggested was also where Willem suggested, so we went there. La Tasca - Italian place for pizza.

The train to Amsterdam was nearly full, as it was Friday night and people were headed into the city. Willem and I ended up standing in the walkway of the cabin.

We then went to the bar, which was crowded. I met Anna-Luna, Willem's lady friend, who was celebrating her birthday 7 months late, and several of their friends that they met in Rome. There was an Asian-looking girl (Neela?) and her sister. Caroline was Luna's friend who was also celebrating her birthday. Luna's parents were there too, apparently, but they soon left. There was Hans, whose bike I rode on as we changed bars (unsuccessfully). It's really uncomfortable/painful to ride on the back of another's bike!

The next bar (Pacifica) was full and they wouldn't let anyone in. We hung out outside with our bikes. One by one, people began to leave. Soon there were just five of us - me, Willem, Anna-Luna, Maraiah, and Oscar - and we all headed back to Luna's for another drink and to just chill.

Mareia (sp?) was visiting from Italy (but she's Dutch) and ended up also sleeping at Luna's place next to me on the fold-out bed thingy.

It was like 5:30am when I finally went to bed. Apparently I snore.

It's valentines day.

My family is still in the Philippines. The services are this Saturday. I'm having a difficult time staying in contact with them - only whatsapping my cousin works.

President Obama gave his state of the Union address the other night, and it's being recapped on TV. The other big news is that the manhunt in SoCal for the former police officer has ended in a fiery cabin burnout in Big Bear.

I had a phone interview at 11am with Susan. The job is great - research and in the digital industry! The interview went well; I didn't make any mistakes, and she had to leave to catch a meeting. She's open to having to sponsor my visa. YES!

I met Bernadet in the afternoon. At the centraal station. We walked around (in the cold) and found a place to eat. I got a burger (which was pretty disgusting), and I discovered that it really hurt to open my mouth all the way. (Damn you tonsillitis!)

Bern showed me around the city. We walked past the city hall, a restaurant famous for its apple pie (but Bern prefers the chocolate cake there), the best ice cream place, a big square, the cubic houses (an iconic architectural building), and what was at one point the tallest building in Europe. We then walked along the river, past all the flags, knocking off icicles as we went. We crossed the Erasmus bridge and slid across the ice toward the Hotel New York. There, we got a table and had a couple of soft drinks, just to let ourselves dry and warm up.

We took a water taxi back into the city center, which was nice and quick! Bernadet wanted to show me the "walk  of fame" but she couldn't find it (it was either buried under the snow/ice, hidden behind the construction site, or moved away altogether). We walked to the famous statue of the gnome holding a butt plug (?!) and then parted ways at the Beurs metro station.

I returned to Merlin's. He was back from classes. I didn't really have dinner. We watched some of Wie ist de Mol? (The Mole!!!) which is still on TV here, I love it!!! And then we watched The Bourne Legacy and headed to bed.

I woke up, in Rotterdam, not feeling well at all.

It was ash wednesday.

I needed to see a doctor. So I made it my mission to visit a clinic or hospital and finally get my illness checked out. And so I did. I went to the tourist information near the central station. They told me that I could only visit the emergency room and get looked at there. I walked the 10-15 minutes to the hospital, which (like many things in Rotterdam) was surrounded by construction. I followed people in, but it was a long path that led us into the parking garage (wtf?!). I eventually found entrance #2 which is where I should have gone in, and asked at the desk where the emergency room was. One woman was nice enough to walk me there (because her English was weak).

I checked in to the emergency room, filling in my insurance as UK's NHS. I guess that it worked? Anyway, it wasn't too long of a wait (I was playing Flow) before the nurse quickly evaluated me. Then, another nurse led me to the room, and after 10 minutes, I was with a doctor who took a look. The verdict? I had tonsillitis. And there wasn't anything that they could do other than tell me to take more painkillers (I was not taking enough apparently). I needed to take 1000mg of paracetamol 4 times a day, and 50mg of diclofenac 3 times a day.

I left the hospital, WhatsApped Mike. He couldn't make it to visit Rotterdam tonight :( He had school stuff (honors) to attend to. He was going to London this weekend too, so I wouldn't be able to see him until I arrived in Amersfoort.

Back at Merlin's place, I continued chilling out the whole afternoon. Didn't go out at night.

Still feeling sick. My throat really hurt. I stayed in, with Jannes. I sent in a job application. He cooked up a batch of Thai curry and we watched Intouchables. He liked it.

I traveled to Rotterdam in the afternoon/evening. I just walked to the station, instead of risking the bus schedule. The train was quick and easy. I arrived in Rotterdam. It was cold. And I was not feeling healthy. But I walked to Merlin's place. But I walked the wrong way. D'oh!

Made it to Merlin's, dropped off my stuff (I was exhausted), and we took the tram (€3 for me) to the waterfront to meet some of his coursemates for dinner (all-you-can-eat ribs). The ribs were not that great, and the sauce was simply bad (honey, with no barbecue flavour?!).

They all went to one guy's place for drinks, but I didn't join. I returned by myself to Merlin's place and went to sleep. I put my towel on my pillow. I knew I wouldn't sleep well.

I was not feeling well. And neither was Jannes. We both stayed in and tried to recover. Jannes stayed in bed all day. My throat was really in pain. I drank tea and had some of Jannes's mom's lentil soup for breakfast. It soothed me a little.

In the afternoon, I met up with Bernadet. It was cold and I was not feeling good as I walked to the station to meet her.

We walked around, saw some of the carnaval festivities going on but did not participate. Neither of us really knew the city at all. We had a couple cups of tea at a pub. Then, we went to a drugstore where she helped me get more pills for my throat. I took some ibuprofen which was effective. Continued walking around, then started looking for a place to eat (since we just wanted out of the cold). Lots of places were closed on Monday. We ended up buying noodles at a wok cafe. Yum.

Walked Bern back to the station and said bye. Then, walked home, a slightly different way.

Back at Jannes's, I skpyed with Mike for like 2 hours. He was booking his ticket to London this weekend. I started looking at flights back to LA - round-trip from Paris was cheaper than a one-way ticket. But I didn't buy.

The Pope is going to step down at the end of the month.

Just rested and retired to bed again pretty early. It was cold upstairs, so I again bundled up as I slept. Also, apparently I snore :X

Woke up to the sound of Jannes and Wendy chatting. Where was I? Oh yeah, on the floor of Jannes's manager's flat in Breda. The air mattress and my sleeping bag were a pretty comfy combination.

Jannes was feeling way worse than I was, so I let him sleep for a couple more hours which I spent online.

We eventually got up and ready (it took me some time to figure out the light in the shower was a pull string on the wall). We said bye to Wendy and walked into the city. Jannes picked up a couple things from the Walkabout Cafe, and we stopped by Panos to get some food (sandwiches, and a croquette pastry for me). There were the remnants of a carnaval parade going through the city center, and we headed to the train station, where we caught a train after 15 minutes to Tilburg. (Luckily, Jannes's discount card got e a reduced fare too on my ticket.)

We arrived in Tilburg after only ~10 minutes on the train; we stashed our bags into a locker and walked into the city to find his friends. They had not responded to his message but he was confident we would find them anyway. The carnaval parade was still going on, and we walked alongside it. Soon, Jannes ran into a friend - Ellen, who was somewhat peeved that I compared her to Mrs. Degeneres. Whatever, it was Carnaval, people were dancing in the streets between the floats. Very few things made sense, but the costumes were really colorful and the mood was very festive.

We found our way to Bolle (ball, or "fat one"), after asking some people for the way. There were several more friends - Stephan, dressed as a bunny, and his brother Centrol (?!) dressed as a phone in a trenchcoat. Then there were the girls - maybe 7 of them, all teachers, all wearing the same costume: Silent Disco. I could not remember any of their names, I think one was Linke? (and I don't think that they all were introduced to me anyway.) But I was tired anyway and simply didn't have the energy to socialise fully.

The bar/club was playing loud embarrasing schläger-style music, including oompah-remixes of hit songs.

We had a couple drinks there; the beers are smaller than in London and only cost 1 token (€2,20) each.  We then all went to McDonald's and Stephan really wanted to know whether they had the McCroquet at McDonald's in the US.

Jannes and I only stayed for 1 more drink, because we were both exhausted. We said bye and walked back through the cold, having a deep conversation about Jannes's interest in justice and ways to improve social understanding of each other.

We rushed onto the train to Eindhoven, which only took like 10-15 minutes. There, we picked up his bike, and since I was tired, he offered to give me his card so I could take the bus while he would bike home. We met at the bus stop, and came home. He has a nice house, lives with his mom, who is also really nice.

She had made some soup, which was perfect for us. We watched TV in the evening, including a romantic miniseries and show (Oon zook naar God) about celebrities living in a monastery. Then, the BAFTA awards, which was actually pretty cool. I recommended several movies to Jannes. And I need to watch Life of Pi and Amour.

Showered. I couldn't figure out how to unlock the plug from the tub. Went to bed upstairs in his room. It was cold. I wore my sweater.

I woke up at a decent hour, maybe 7:30am (I did sleep very early last night). I had a sore throat but the rest of my body was pretty well-rested. I went into the living room and just surfed around online while waiting for Nike and Guido to wake up. Katrien did not come home last night (and she didn't come home until the afternoon, rendering our plan to make lasagne for lunch useless).

I stayed in most of the day. Nike went to walk the neighbor's dog. I went out to buy some food. I went to the kebab shop Break & Fast, and got a chicken durum with 2 orders of fries. I ate my food as Nike and Katrien were getting ready to go to the clothes swapping event. I looked up the train ticket and it was cheaper than the bus! Win. I packed my bags and soon went off. I couldn't walk very fast because my bags were heavy. And I promised that I would say bye to Nike and Katrien at Kassa, so I walked all the way there and soon only had 30 minutes to walk back and find my train. So no time for a beer, but I did manage to buy a belgian flag for only €3.

The first train, to Roosendaal, was almost full, but I managed to get a seat for myself and my bag. Soon I arrived. I twas cold, and I had to wait 25 minutes for the connecting train. People were already dressed up thoroughly for carnaval, colorful and wacky costumes everywhere. This was awesome.

I took the train to Breda, got off amongst throngs of carnaval revelers, and walked to Jannes's friend Elsa's house, which was a bit of a ways away. It was starting to snow. I made it, and I met Elsa, her friend Pauline, Elsa's boyfriend Jonnes and his brother Zander (born and raised in Costa Rica but now studying in the NL), and Elsa's housemate Rowand (sp?) from Lithuania. We drank and chatted, and then some more people arrived. Jonnes' nephew and his friend Gert. Victoria and Nick. Another couple. We played King's cup, but with totally different rules. It felt weird and somewhat wrong. But nobody really cared.

We then all went out, dressed up (I was fully decked out as Michaelangelo), in the snow, walking to the center. Elsa helped carry my bag by putting it in her bike's basket. Everything was covered in snow. We got to Cafe Walkabout and Elsa located Jannes for me. I said bye to Elsa and co., and Jannes helped me coat check my bags.

The bar was packed, and the diversity of costumes was amazing. Few people had the same costume - everyone was different! (The only overlaps I saw were Mario & Luigis.) From morph suits to sailor outfits to superheroes to guys dressed as girls to disco queens to Marie Antoinette to banana suits, bears, tigers, pigs, Waldo, pirates, cowboys, police, clowns, even redneck Americans! This is what Halloween should be.

To get drinks at the bar, you need to pay with tokens that you buy from the coat check. Ok, so I got 5 tokens, which means 5 drinks. Perfectly reasonable considering that we were anticipating taking the last train to Eindhoven around 2am. But eventually, Jannes's manager offered to let us crash at his place, so that was off. We walked to the other Walkabout (the restaurant location) just around the corner. Jannes and I got some food at an automat (where you buy food from the wall and can order frites), where we chatted with some Belgians from Antwerp. Apparently this day (Saturday) of Carnaval is when people from other cities *Rotterdam* descend upon Breda for the celebration.

We walked to another bar near the water, where Jannes met his good friend Eva. They caught up, I drank more but soon was feeling completely done (and it was only 2am), so I held on a bit longer. We returned to the original Walkabout and kept at it for another hour and a half. I was exhausted and was already starting to feel a headache/hangover coming on (seriously?) so I shifted to drinking water (good move, Jason!). I swayed and danced amongst the drunken crowd. People kept calling me Donatello! D'oh!

Around 3:30 we got my bags from coat check and left. After waiting for Jannes to pick up his stuff from backstage, we walked to his manager's house which was only like 10 minutes away. There was his friend (Michael?) already passed out on the couch, and Wendy, whom I did not recognize without her wig and glasses. Chugged some water, pumped up the air mattress, and passed out finally around 4:30.

Boom. What a day.

I had to catch my bus at 10:30am. But I had an incredible hangover, and I knew it would only get worse as the day went on. I drank lots of water when I woke up at 9, but I could barely fit anything into my stomach.

I drowsily got my stuff ready, wrote a thank-you card for Charly, and said bye to him. Snow had fallen,  so all of the streets were icy, making it difficult to walk with my heavy backpack.

I got to the Eurolines bus stop; there was a woman there checking everyone in. It was like 10:10 and there was a bus. I showed her my ticket and asked if that was my bus. "No," she said. "This is not your bus."

After the bus left, she double-checked my ticket against the roster she had; my name wasn't there (perhaps because I was using the return ticket of my journey. She then realized that I should have been on the bus that just left!

So I could take the next bus to Brussels and change there, or wait until 13:15 to catch that bus. She recommended, and I chose, to take the 13:15 bus.

I returned to Charly's and napped for another hour (though I had a hard time falling back asleep). At 12:30 I walked back to the bus stop. Hardly anyone was there. I needed food (even though I had no appetite); the queue at the pain shop was too long, so I just bought some fig cracker thingies from the convenience shop in the train station. I sat in the sun (the snow had melted), waiting for the bus. There was an Indonesian girl waiting there too. The bus was 10 minutes late (but it had also been just sitting there down the street). Whatever. The bus was mostly full but I was able to take up 2 seats. It hurt my head to look at my phone or read my book, so I just stared out the window or closed my eyes. (With my coat gone, I no longer had my earphones.) I didn't start falling asleep until after Gent.

Made it to Antwerp; Katrien wasn't home yet, so I had an hour to kill. I went to Ekit, a health restaurant, where I got a bowl of soup. It was just what I needed. WhatsApped with Fernanda.

I walked to the apartment. Nike was already back too. She was also completely dead from her first week of working/teaching at the school. She needed wine, and I needed tea, which she made for me (because I felt like I was coming down with something).

I didn't go out. The internet wasn't working at all. I stayed in, watched some Amazing Race and HIMYM and Parks and Rec which I had on my computer. My throat was really sore; it hurt badly just to swallow. It was cold in Jan's room, so I wore a sweater as I slept.

Still in Lille; it was my last full day.

Charly was free in the morning, so he took me around to do some sightseeing. We walked around Vieux-Lille. Had some hot chocolate and croissants at a So Good.

Back to the apartment. Charly went to class in the afternoon. I chatted with Alexis for some time before he went out too. I didn't get much done (again) regarding job applications.

I got serious news in the afternoon. One my uncles in the Philippines died. :( I called home to talk to my mom and uncle there. They were already awake and booking the flight there. We agreed that I should stay here. But it does now make me feel guilty about traveling aimlessly.

Because Charly and Alexis each took the key, I didn't leave the apartment. Charly returned around 6pm and we went to the store to buy some groceries for dinner. I decided to make chili. As it was cooking, Sebastian arrived. Then Thomas came over! It was good to see him again. He's finishing his studies in communication. I kept cooking, an they all started chatting away in French of course. Thibault also arrived.

We had dinner, and drinks. Sebastian went home. We played a drinking game with dice that was reminiscent of King's Cup. (rolling a 1 and 2 made you the pigeon "victim" having to drink when a 3 comes up; 9 = previous person drinks; 10 = you drink; 11 = next person drinks; any doubles = allocate that many drinks; 8 = freeze master; no passing things hand-to-hand; no pointing; 12 = make a rule). This led to lots and lots of drinks being consumed.

Eventually, we wet out, to a bar. Thomas went home, catching the last metro. There was Charly's friend whom he had met in Estonia. They insisted on using the "hi I'm American" line to meet as many people as possible.

We moved on, to another bar/club. It was just me and Charly. It was already like 3am, and I knew I had a bus in the morning, so I didn't want to go, but Charly insisted. They played pop music - I think. I just remember that my coat disappeared. What the fuck? I took another coat and used that. Charly gave me his phone for me to walk home with. What a crazy night. I got home and passed out on the couch. No idea what happened to Alexis.

Charly started classes later today, and he also got a call saying that his morning English class was cancelled, so he didn't have to start until 11 instead of 10.

It's my reverse birthday (if you read today's date written in the American way, or vice versa).

Fernanda had her stay in London extended a day by volunteering to give up her seat on the flight. She spent the day applying for jobs in her hotel room.

Charly and Alexi went to uni around 9am. I helped myself to a couple slices of toast.

I skyped with Mike for nearly an hour. It was good to chat again. He's going to try to go to London right before I visit him. I feel happy for him, but also jealous that I can't go too! (Well I guess I could but it just doesn't make much sense at all.)

Instead of searching for jobs, I cleaned up my Facebook profile a bit, and then I went out to explore. I walked to the post office, hoping to mail my stuff back to California, but it was closed :( I bought a kebab for lunch and ate it in the shop. I returned home, then, fuck it - walked out again. Looking for something fun. I tried enabling 3G and roaming on my phone, but it didn't work. Argh!

I walked a long way back, headed toward Rue Solferino. I got frites for a pre-dinner, since I was hungry again. There was free wifi in the restaurant.

I'm so grateful I still have the password to activate "free wifi" in many places in France. It has been very useful - but not when I was on the street!

Got some supplies for dinner from Lidl (chicken, sauce, and pasta. I got home around 6pm, and Charly arrived shortly thereafter. I had begun preparing dinner and soon we had a full plate of pasta, some veggies, and chicken in bolognese sauce.

The food was a lot. I soon slipped into a food coma. I was literally drowsing off while we were browsing on our laptops. Charly downloaded Zero Dark Thirty, which we then watched. Over the course of the movie, my food coma woke up so that I ended up being much more captivated in the film than I was at the beginning! It was already past midnight when they caught Bin Laden, so after the movie ended we went straight to bed. (or couch)

Having fallen asleep so early the previous night, I was surprised at how difficult it was for me to wake up. Nike had left early (she was starting the first day of her work placement at the school). I finished reading On the Road. It's a very satisfying feeling to finish a book.

I packed my stuff and rushed off to meet Tim in the city center. I had almost forgot that he was around in Antwerp, but I'm glad that we got to meet up. We walked back toward the station and caught up - he's going to move to Paris with his boyfriend soon. We had coffee at the Starbucks in the station. We discussed technology and he seemed genuinely interested in exploring more. Like me, and everyone else in my generation, he's slightly lost about what to do in life. He walked me to the bus stop. I checked in; my bus wasn't there yet. Soon it was, and I got on and said bye to Tim - maybe I'd visit him soon in Paris.

The bus was empty. There were only 3 other people in the whole bus. 2 of them got off in Gent. I just sprawled out and created a personal hotspot on my phone (which, oddly works, but 3G internet doesn't) and looked up some maps of Lille so that I would know where I was going. I put my stuff away and began to doze off. But before I knew it, the bus arrived in Lille. That was fast - less than 2 hours total (including the stop in Gent).

I got off at Gare Lille-Europe and walked toward Gare Lille Flandres, where I was to meet Charly later. Easy. I then walked around the old town center. I was really hungry, but not sure whether I should go to a cafe, restaurant, or just get take-away food. I passed McDonald's and saw that they had free wifi - I couldn't resist. I was tired and wanted to play around online anyway. So I ordered a Royal and sat down, spending an hour at least on my phone, chatting, facebooking, and looking things up.

I continued to walk around, and I really enjoyed the city. It's charming, clean, upscale, but still filled with seemingly lots to do. There was an upside-down house. Cool. Everything was in French, which is always somewhat intimidating to me. But I can manage.

At 18:30 I went to meet Charly. I was really hungry again, so I got an order of frites from a take-away. Charly was there right when I sat down. Haha. We bought some dinner supplies from the store (Carrefour) and walked to his place, which is less than 10 minutes away on foot.

Charlys friend Thibault came over. We had cocktails (I tried out Charly's banana liquor) and cooked dinner - burgers. With no ketchup, we had to improvise a sauce of mushrooms, onions, and cream. It was pretty good. After the first round of burgers, Charly's flatmate Alexi arrived. I was already full, so I offered him my burger. Thibault is studying law and wants to take a civil service exam to work for the police department (I think). Alexi is in his second year of business school (masters). We watched some of the political show Le Grande Journal / Le Petit Journal, which seems most similar to the Daily Show.

I called home. It didn't really go through. But my uncle called back on my UK number and I talked with him for about 20 minutes.

We watched Argo. Good film. Quite American. I slept on the couch, which was too small so I had to stay bent the whole night.

Lazy day. Got up, sometime around 11. I stayed in the house all day. Nike took care of a few things in the library before it closed at 2pm. I cooked an English breakfast for Nike and Katrien. It was already 3pm. I had a big food coma; fell asleep.

Swag set the date for his wedding - December 6th! I hope I can go. Began packing my stuff for my trip to Lille tomorrow. Made sure photos were uploaded, clothes were washed and dried (the radiator was on full blast - it was actually too hot in the flat!).

I helped Nike take the garbage downstairs. They just leave the bags on the street. Simple. Nike then had a meeting to go to.

I vowed to finish reading On The Road, so I pushed through it (also the internet connection wasn't really working so there wasn't much else for me to do). It made me sleepy, so I fell back asleep.

It was also Super Bowl Sunday. Of course I couldn't see any of it. Apparently there was a power outage during the game?! ("Apparently there's some football game at Beyonce's concert"!)

Even though it was nearly 5am when I fell asleep, I was awake around 10:30 as Nike was leaving to get some work done.

It's groundhog day!

I emailed Mobile Vikings to ask about my 3G connectivity problems. I chatted with Charly about my visit to Lille on Monday. I helped myself to some coffe and toasted some bread rolls, eating them with Brugge cheese, cream cheese, speculoos, or mayo.

The sun was out! I opened the windows and let a cool, refreshing breeze fill the living room. I needed to go out and explore the city. I walked out (bringing a couple bottles with me to recycle), and it started raining. No, not raining - EVIL SNOW PELLETS had begun to fall out of the sky. No, not again! I would not be detered - I kept walking north. The weather eventually died down and the skies cleared again, thankfully.

I walked to the MAS (Museum Aan der Strom) to see the highly-recommended view from the top. With my student ID, admission to the museum was only €1. I then found out that I didn't need to pay if I just wanted to see the panorama from the roof (d'oh!); oh well. I ascended 9 escalators and walked up the final set of stairs to the roof. The view was really nice. The sun was out, and the wind was blowing, so the air was clear.

I then explored the museum, from the top down. The museum is arranged thematically, and displays mostly historical objects in its collection. Lots of Native American artifacts and ones from around the world. There was an ipod that allowed me to translate all the descriptions from Dutch into English. Cool.

I made my way downstairs and started walking back into the city centre. I walked past some kebab shops, and suddenly I noticed that there were windows with mostly naked women all around me. And lots of single men just walking around. Yep, that's right: I had inadvertently walked into Antwerp's red light district. The irony that I was also a single man walking around was not lost on me, and I was holding back laughter as I walked around.

It was around 16:30, and I was right by the university, so why not stop by and use some internet. But the library closed at 17:00 so I soon left and walked back home. I was hungry, so I bought a falafel on the way home, with spicy sauce. The sauce didn't taste very spicy but it left a burning aftertaste on the roof of my mouth. I really wanted something sweet to soothe my mouth, so when I walked past the Australian Home-Made ice cream stand, I couldn't resist: I got a scoop of speculaas, which was very creamy/buttery.

Back to the apartment; I buzzed and no answer. Again, no answer. I texted Nike and Katrien - no answer. Was something going on? I waited like 5 minutes and called Nike - she was there. I tried the buzzer 2 more times before it worked and I got in, whew! (Apparently the buzzer doesn't always work effectively.)

I wrote an email to a potential job contact, and I felt really optimistic for once! We had to go to Lieselotte's place for dinner, so Nike and I took the bus while Katrien biked. We were a bit late because the bus was not direct there, but no worries because Lieselotte is also slow to get ready.

Dinner was nice - red cabbage salad and a homemade veggie tart. Of course, a few bottles of wine too. Then, we went out to a birthday party for Nike's friend Marianne (sp?). Nike didn't want to  walk, so we hitchhiked into the city! That's right; she just held out her thumb and within 2 minutes we were picked up by two young guys - Jarn (?) and Jason. Yes, a Belgian guy (with an American father) was named Jason. What are the chances?!

We made it to the bar, which was small but cool. The DJ was really old but played everyone's requests. More drinks. Guido arrived. I met Evelyn, and we chatted. She's getting a certificate in law to practice social work sort of. A Belgian guy said to me, it's a shame that all those girls are in a circle and we couldn't break them up. I said, fuck that and used the super effective line - "I'm from California." Totally worked, haha. I ended up chatting with Joke (who works in market research and offered to help with my job search) and Lieve (aspiring social worker). Mike was texting me pickup advice; haha, what a bro. Apparently now I have the reputation of being a player, lol.

Split a taxi home with Nike and Guido. I owe him for the ride. It was only like 4am. I called home. Really.

Was up and out of the house pretty quickly. It was raining, so I brought my umbrella. I took 3 empty bottles of wine with me to throw out in the recycling down the street. It was across the street from Del Haise, so I bought some pastries there (€0,79 each) and ate them (and my remaining 2 bananas) as I walked to the university.

I searched for jobs, sent in an application to one I didn't really care much for. Mike called me - he asked for help with his report, and I gladly offered. So I spent an hour or two proofreading his placement report (which was a very thorough report!). The afternoon flew by, so I then returned home. Hungry, I bought a bicky burger along the way (the portion sizes for our dinners have been smaller than I'm used to, so I needed to have some pre-dinner). I offered to make dinner, but Katrien was making pizza. To contribute, I stopped by Del Haise and bought a bottle of wine, some candles, cheese, coke, fake chicken, bell peppers and tortillas (I want to make fajitas).

Katrien made the pizza dough by hand. Impressive. Soon, Shauna arrived, and another friend - Maartin. We chatted and shared some vodka as the pizza was cooking. The pizza was good, thin (but wholegrain) and cheesy. We discussed heavy metal music, because that is what brought them together.

Nike had work to do, so she stayed in. Katrien, Maartin, and Shauna rode their bikes (fietsen) to the bar where we were going; I walked, having a 7up along the way. The bar (Rhythm and Blues) was chill (as is everywhere in Antwerp), but pretty quiet. A live band came on at 11pm.

More of Maartin's friends arrived. I talked to a girl (Anastacia):

"What do you think of Antwerp?"
I needed something original to say. "There are a lot of Jewish people."
"AHAHAHAHA." Turns out, her boyfriend (Jonathan) was half Jewish.

We hung out, just chatting. These friends weren't as social as my London friends. It was pretty difficult to find things to talk about (but maybe that's the language barrier). They kept going outside every 20 minutes to have another cigarette. Man, everyone here smoke cigarettes. I'm lucky that it doesn't bother me at all. (Though I'm suspecting I'm getting a lot of second-hand smoke, which is making more relaxed.) I ended up chatting with Ramses, Bjorn's boyfriend, who didn't smoke so didn't disappear every few minutes.

After midnight we went across the street to Bonaparte, a small club (laughably small by London standards; there were only like 30-40 people there). There was supposed to be karaoke there. The place was filled with Dutch people (even I could tell, they had a different style, were trying more hard to dress up as compared to the Belgians). Karaoke did happen, and I eventually signed up to do my song ("Livin' on a Prayer"). We waited for HOURS before it was my turn. I finally went up to sing (with Katrien and Martin) after 3am.

I was tired and walked home. Ramses was headed the same way, so we walked together. I talked about food and made us hungry, so we bought some durum for the walk back! Got home past 4am and slept tight.

Another day in Antwerp. The weather was cloudy/rainy/chilly again (but not as cold as it could be in January in this part of the world).

Nike had a meeting to be at (at her work placement school) at 11am. So after a quick breakfast, she headed off. I soon also left. There were dishes to be washed, but I didn't know where the washing liquid was, so I just put them in the dishwasher. There are also lots of bottles on the ground. The cats keep knocking them over, and it's noisy!

I went to the uni and spent my afternoon in the computer lab (again). I wasted most of my day, actually, playing a sporcle quiz to name as many cities as are in the top 5000 population-wise in the world. Seriously, it took up like 2 hours of my day! :/

I'm still having trouble adjusting to traffic on the right side of the road.

Nike promised to make dinner (cauliflower) in the evening, so I returned in time to see her cooking. I feel bad that I haven't cooked anything yet. I feel like I'm just leeching off them.

I moved my stuff into Jan's room.

We went to watch The Hobbit. We took the tram there. I was impressed that you could buy tram tickets using a text from your phone! Awesome. We were almost late; Katrin's friend Bjorn and his boyfriend Ramses were there. The movie was long, over 2.5 hours. I fell asleep for several portions of it. It was also pretty predictable and childish, especially compared to the LOTR films.

After the movie, Nike, Katrin, and I went to get the best beer in the world, Westflanderen, at a bar (Gollum). But the bar was closed! Nike then just wanted to get home so that she could get some work done. Luckily, Guido was there with a car and he drove us back (though there wasn't really a convenient parking space near the apartment).

I bought some breakfast (bread, cream cheese, soy milk) from the Del Haise supermarket nearby. Nike had a classmate coming over (Katleen?) to get some group work done.

I then walked around Antwerp. I walked through the Stadpark, then over through the city center. I went as far as the waterfront. I bought some frites at Frituur No. 1, and ate it there (birds kept flying in to the seating area).

I returned to the library in the afternoon and sent in a job application to Google - it was a really good job and the one I wanted the most. Oh well, let's see.

In the evening, we had dinner at the house. Katrin cooked. Jan was leaving the next day for a ski trip, so I would be able to sleep in his room :)

I got my SIM card! Mobile Vikings! Whoo! So I set it up. But it took a while.

We went out for drinks, walking to the north east through some Morroccan neighborhoods. We met Katrin and her friend there. There was also Nike's friend Liselotte there (she had hitchhiked to London with Jan last new years). We threw back like 5 beers (but the beers here are smaller, only 30cl) before Nike and I walked home. I convinced her to buy kebabs on the way home :)