Jason's Daily Notes

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.