A day in the life

Last night was pretty cool. Hung out with some of the locals again, made dinner. We had beer while I was cooking, wine with the dinner, went over to Pedro's for coffee with whiskey in it afterward, then retired to the dormitory bar (I still can't get over the fact that we have a bar in our dorm) for the De Konick beer which was on special. The bar, incidentally, is run by volunteer students, which means it is open whenever one of them feels like opening it, and also that the music you will hear changes drastically depending on who is the bartender. It's a nice, cozy little pub type of outfit, and the drinks are reasonably priced. We actually closed them down, but that's okay because today is Monday. On Monday, class doesn't start until 1 PM.

So, today. I got up around eight, packed up all my stuff, and rode my bike over to Professor Merkel's place. Incidentally, the university has hooked the professors up with some very, very nice digs. I fixed some software issues on his computer for him, which took me maybe an hour. I was paid twenty euros and he is going to buy me dinner at some future point. There was a park across the canal from his apartment, so I sat there and studied for an hour and a half or so. Then, went to the bike shop and found some lube for Trixie, since she's been complaining a little lately. Followed that up with lunch at the Turkish place. They love french fries in this country, although they call them something else. You cannot walk very far without passing a walk-up french fry stand. However, they are generally served with mayonnaise. This is not acceptable to me, but the turkish place offers them with curry sauce instead.

[Note: Being unable to read the local tongue puts a serious cramp in my style when I'm trying to eat out. I have no idea what the hell most of the words on the menu mean, but I'm learning. So, when I am not feeling up to ordering something random and finding out what I get, I have learned to go to ethnic restaurants; chinese, turkish, indonesian, greek, etc. The native dutch speakers don't necessarily know what all that weird-ass foreign food is, either. So, just like ethnic restaurants in the states, there are pictures. I can generally pick something that looks appetizing, point and grunt, then hold up a single finger for "one." This technique has served me well so far.]

The roads are all twisty here, and I was a little worried I'd get lost on the way to class since I had gone in a different direction, but the Domkirk provides me with a handy landmark if I can get even vaguely close to where I'm supposed to be.

Ha ha! There you are, giant church-tower! You guide me home, like a big lighthouse that radiates religion instead of photons.

After this adventure, I met one of my other new European friends, RoboToilet.
You drop in some eurocents, and the door automatically opens. Its motorized. The lights come on automatically, it's spacious inside, there's a computerized lock to keep people from following in after you, and some fairly complicated interface with an LCD screen. I hope to someday understand all of RoboToilet's arcane functions. I do know that it has internal sprayers and stuff that automatically sterilize it all after each patron. This thing is like pissing on Star Trek, and it is amazing.

Also: There are cafes and tour boats and stuff down in the Canals. I need to try one of those.



Also, I spotted a comic shop today, although I didn't have time to stop in. This will demand further exploration.