exams week

28  October - 4 November

exams - can anything positive be said about them besides "at least i passed"?

after such a wonderful time in italy and visiting in london i really had to buckle down and get through a few days of serious school work.
i had a paper and an exam on monday so the rest of the weekend after traveling back from London was dedicated to those two. for the paper i had a stellar group that i've been working with all term and so that came together well. the exam was for dutch and it was oral. i was extremely nervous. even after visiting family i struggle with pronunciation and forming whole sentences on my own. for part of the exam there is a prepared 2 minute dialogue with another person. my partner was from Austria so he had a better grasp as Dutch is close to German in grammar. we had practiced our dialogue and had it down to  a few seconds so that was reassuring. for the second part of the exam the professor would ask us about 5 questions based on the chapters we had covered. i thought this would be more of a rapid fire question time but i have the best prof in the school. when we got in and sat down he asked about my visit to family and made a conversation about it. i hardly realized it was part of the exam! he did his best to put us at ease and while testing us not make it seem like he was against us. over all the test went well which was a huge relief!
however, there was no time to take it easy as i still had an accounting final the next day. so it was straight home to begin studying for that. in the evening i took a study break to enjoy a pancake dinner with my good girl friends then back to the grindstone!
the next day my test went well and to treat myself, i enjoyed a coffee date with my friend from the concert. that evening, with all my finals finished, i thought i might bring a study snack to my friends who still weren't finished. so i made my way over to their places and made sure they were happily fed.
the next day was quiet. our group received feedback on our paper and i had coffee with friends B, F, and W. (sounds like i'm on sesame street and have letters for friends.) but other than that i had borrowed The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy from a friend and if you know me, you'll know that once i have a book in my hand not much else will get done.
so thursday was also spent largely with my head burrowed in the book until the evening. by now all my friends had finished their exams as well so we got together at a friends to celebrate. after some time in her tiny room, we made our way to this great place named Fiddlers where we could chat longer. it was fun to see everyone after their trips and to catch up on what adventures they had been on. after hearing from everyone it was time to head home. but in the case of B and i it was time to head back to her place to make some late night food and watch star wars.
the next day was also a good time. in the afternoon i set off with F, W, and A to walk to the market. my bike brakes had broken at this point and i needed to get them repaired so walking it was for me. we picked up groceries for the week and then proceeded to make a yummy dinner out of what we had gotten. there was a large gathering of friends that evening as well so we joined in for the evening.
it was a fine time and a great ending to the week. the rest of the weekend was quiet and spent catching up on emails, sermons from home, and of course reading. 

a month already?!

24-27 september

back to the grind again on monday. luckily my class starts late in the day so i can take care of errands and take my time in the morning. i got to skype with ej because he happened to wake up really early and i was online so i got to talk to him for a bit which was lovely. i also had to meet with my group for one of my classes but other than that it was a rather chill day.

tuesday morning i had to make my way to the immigration office to pick up my residence permit. apparently americans are burgers. you are what you eat?

my residence permit card to study here. there is no way i'm showing the front of this card. my photo looks terrifying. 

speaking of americans. it is rather interesting to be one surrounded by so many people from so many places. my dear friend wrote a fantastic post about it and i don't think i could have said it better myself. so please do go read it.

the rest of the day was filled with classes and learning. but the evening was the big gathering for international students that happens every tuesday night. i met up with some friends before going and we all hung out at our friends apartment near my house before heading out. we got there by about 11.30 and had a total blast before going to bed *way* too late.

8.45 classes come way too early i'm telling ya. after 4 hours of listening to student presentations i was ready to be done! after a quick lunch i met up with two friends to go on a cultural activity and view the Panorama Mesdag!
wow.

it was stunning. basically it is a large dome shaped room that is painted to look like the beach and town back in 1880. there was even sand added to make one feel like you were actually there. out of the corner of my eye i was waiting for the flags on the ships to start moving in the wind that i could almost feel on my face. if you ever have the chance to go it would be well worth a visit.
the rest of the evening was spent doing homework and planning my trip to italy!! i am so excited for autumn break as the first couple of days will be spent in italy with good friends and then i will leave them to go to london to visit my dear Chandler who is studying there!
{side note it was also little bro's bday but i missed getting to skype him to sing him a terrible rendition of happy birthday}
thursday was a delightful day with only two classes. one seminar for accounting and then a lecture on water management in holland. after the lecture a few of us headed back to my place to make a light dinner and relax. a few more friends joined up and then we headed to the centre to a friends apartment to make pancakes! yum i'm so glad this is becoming more of a weekly tradition. we tried something new this time and added a cinnamon swirl to the center of the pancakes to make them like big cinnamon rolls. it was a good call! they were scrumptious to compliment the fun evening with good friends.
there was a big gathering of people in the same building as thursday nights tend to be student nights on the town. so we all headed down to chill with more people before heading out to Miller's, a higher class bar. even here good conversations abounded and it reminds me how lucky i am to come here to meet so many new people with such different backgrounds and views on life.
i can't believe i have been here for a month already!
{sorry for the lack of photos! look up the panorama - it was beautiful and they wouldn't let me take any photos inside}

celebrate good times

14-16 september

this last weekend was largely an effort to celebrate our dear friend's birthday. 

i don't have class on friday so i spent the day going to get groceries and pick up a cute new dress to celebrate! {someone else's birthday is a good enough reason for me to get new clothes right?} 

at about 7 in the evening we all met up at the birthday girls apartment to enjoy the last of the no bake cake truffles and each others company.

i seriously enjoy spending time with these people. they all have their own fun personality and it makes for a great time!

all those fears about making friends - totally put at ease!

we all hung out until about 11:30 when we made our way to the international pub to keep rockin.
it was a rather interesting time there. losing people and finding them again in the large crowd that was there. it was certainly a packed building and we had a fun time. by about 1 or 2 we were feeling all danced out and we walked one of our friends home. my walking buddy and i thought we would check out one of the other places that was busy that night. turned out it was a dj contest and it was all guys that were there. it wasn't really our type of music so we headed home for the night. overall the night was a ton of fun and i look forward to more evenings with all these crazy people!
*happy birthday* my dear! i hope you had a fun time and i am so glad that i have had the chance to meet you!

the next day was a pretty relaxed day. in one of my classes we had to write a group paper and give a presentation so i met with my group to polish off the paper and to start the presentation.
that evening a few of us met in Grote Markt to figure out a plan for what to do that evening. we had a guide book to Den Haag with us and after flipping through some of the pages we thought pancakes sounded really good. the pancake place wasn't open anymore but on a whim i had gotten pancake mix the week before. talk about convient. so we snagged some syrup and chocolate milk mix and headed back to my place.
there were tunes playing while we mixed up some warm chocolate milk {college student version of hot cocoa} and a batch of the yummiest pancakes i have ever tasted! we didn't have enough plates so we simply ate with our hands dipping the pancakes into the caramel syrup we had. *so delicious*
if only i could have pancakes every night :)